The Problem with Dungeons

Hat-2230241 · October 6, 2026, 2:38pm

Let me start off by saying I understand a lot of people think more players should be out in the open world. I get the general idea. The idea is flawed to some degree in my opinion (and I’ll explain why later), but I understand it. That out of the way, I’ll get straight to the point: Something has to change about dungeon XP.

To give those who haven’t been keeping up some context, XP from dungeon mobs was significantly nerfed when the beta launched. This was supposed to be made up for by the fact that dungeon quests were buffed to give more XP, to make up for the heavy nerfs to dungeon mob XP. There were some issues with that too, but it was still at least an attempt at balancing out the nerfs.

Then the beta got its update that raised the cap to 30, and Blizzard heavily slashed the amount of XP from dungeon quests too. This isn’t where the problem begins but it’s where the problem got out of hand. I’ll go ahead and voice my thoughts on the result of all these issues, after running some dungeons on various characters and feeling out the XP changes: Dungeons are simply not worth doing anymore, at least to level.

The Handicap to Dungeons

The reason why dungeons are not worth doing anymore to level in Forever, in my opinion, is threefold, in my view. The first problem is that mob XP is still in its nerfed state from the beta’s launch. The second is dungeon quest XP being slashed. The third, is that they’ve also decided to nerf some of the item rewards from dungeons too, to where now, some of the items you got in the first “phase” of the beta that were on par with dungeon blues, are now just basic greens with basic green stats.

This means that, outside of the chance of receiving an item from a boss in a dungeon, there is little reason to do dungeons while leveling, versus just questing. The problem with that is that this effectively leaves only one avenue of leveling in the game: Questing.

The Problem with the Open World

Now, back to that initial bit I started out with. I understand a lot of people want people out of dungeons and in the open world. This change certainly accomplishes that to a large degree, but like I also said, the idea of having everyone in the open world is flawed, and there’s a few reasons for that in my opinion.

To put the first reason bluntly, the open world is not made for all specs and roles. Some of you may say, “That’s fine, it shouldn’t be” but the issue is that the alternate avenue where those specs that weren’t built for the open world could potentially shine - dungeons - are now so heavily handicapped that they are no longer a viable method of leveling. Most tanks and healers, especially, are significantly affected by the culmination of changes to dungeon XP and rewards that’ve happened.

The second reason is that there will likely never be a good balance of players VS layers that both satisfies those that want to see lots of people out in the world, and that actually makes questing not a significant slog because of the sheer amount of competition with other players for quest mobs/items/etc. One of the main issues I’ve seen brought up over the years since Classic released, was Blizzard’s mishandling of layering - I don’t think anyone should expect these issues to suddenly resolve with the launch of Forever, they should expect them to get worse.

The third reason is that mindlessly/semi-mindlessly questing to level, from level 1 to level 60, especially if it’s a slog, will now have no reasonable way to “refresh” yourself after a long period questing. Used to be, you could focus on questing for a while, but if you got bored or tired of it, you could shake things up a little by running a dungeon, it wouldn’t be the exact same speed of XP, but you could get still-decent XP while also having a chance at some new gear. Now, dungeons are so heavily disincentivized, that doing a dungeon to shake up leveling will only slow you down further, with little chances for significant gear upgrades along the way.

Final Thoughts

I won’t claim to know the exact answer to this problem, but I know what two potential general answers to this issue are: Either dungeon mob XP needs to be re-adjusted, or dungeon quest XP needs to be re-buffed, to make dungeons a viable leveling method again.

Without that kind of change, you remove one of the core avenues of leveling in this game that’ve existed since 2004, and with it you disadvantage several specs while simultaneously making the open world experience for everyone worse. Something needs to change. It’s just a matter of how.

Galbsadi-1567813 · October 6, 2026, 2:42pm

You’re spot on, and within that, I’d specifically note the best solution is to adjust the XP on the mobs. The quests were a bit overboard, largely b/c they were one-time rewards. So you could revert the nerfs to the mobs to make it viable and even nerf the quests back down to Cliassic levels.

This also encourages more dungeon exploration, rather than just rushing to the quest objectives.

Anivar-374770 · October 6, 2026, 3:20pm

I think the reason they are tinkering with dungeon xp is simply because its less expensive than tinkering with thousands of quests to make questing more attractive.

I also dont think they care about people being in the world, its just cover for a heavy handed way to address boosting.

C1vrock-3480843 · October 6, 2026, 4:24pm

I completely agree.

Adding on to your first point: Not only is the open world not made for specs such as healers (and to a certain extent tanks) but dungeons provide a key area to actually learn how to play those classes. The entire endgame is either more difficult dungeons, raids, or pvp if that is your thing, and stepping away from quests to heal or tank dungeons is a really good way to start preparing yourself for the more difficult content. If dungeons provide measly XP outside of their initial quest rewards there is little incentive to come back since useful item drops cannot be guaranteed.

Can you imagine trying to do Scarlet Monastery - Cathederal, Zul’Farrak, or Blackrock Depths with a healer or tank (or both) where the extent of their experience is a single run through Hall of Thanes and Stockades? Then they just skipped other skill-building dungeons like SFK or Gnomer because it did not feel rewarding enough from an XP perspective.

In reality, WoW: Forever is probably going to be filled with mostly people who have some experience either from past iterations of WoW or other MMORPGs, but we really need to enable new players to explore their class choices and reward them for their time filling a key role in groups. I really don’t care if some people want to get a boost or solely level via healing dungeons. Let people chose their journey.

My suggestion:

Restore baseline mob XP in dungeons to bring it in-line with questing. Honestly, I don’t care how people play the game as long as it is not negatively affecting others (exploits ruining the market, or breaking gameplay) so if you just want to stop here then by all means go for it.
Reward 100% of that mob XP only in level appropriate groups. For example, if everyone in the group is within the level range listed on the Dungeon Finder, then full XP is granted per kill.
If you have a member outside of the level range of the dungeon, reduce XP in a linear fashion (15% per level?) until 0% of XP is granted to prevent boosting. This goes in both directions, so using Deadmines as an example: A level 10 cannot be boosted by 4 other players in the listed 17-26 range. This also allows you to bring along a friend that may be a few levels above or below the range without harshly penalizing the entire group.

Yes, it’s not perfect; no system is exploit-proof, and the most determined players will find an angle no matter what Blizzard ships. But designing around that small group shouldn’t cost everyone else a real reason to group up, learn their role, and level the way they enjoy. It’s about the journey, afterall.