Implement More Variety in Dungeons and Raids

[SappedByALock]

I think they should implement more variety in dungeons and raids. Maybe use the exploration formula they used with the Timeless Isle into a dungeon? Provide multiple ways to achieve the goal of the dungeon. Something like Dire Maul with the loot being better at the end if you did not kill anything along the way. Use creative ways to accomplish goals instead of: mouse over this, click it, press buttons, loot, leave, requeue. Replay value on everything would rise substantially.

[Fayth]

Would love to see harder/special dungeons I could do with my friends. Challenge modes are all about speed which does not please an old dungeon crawler like myself.

[Mirri]

Take off half your gear and voila the dungeon becomes slightly harder. Try experimenting how far you can go.

[Belloc]

I'm not going to flat-out say that this is a bad idea, but I am going to present a potential issue:

In dungeons like BRD and Dire Maul, pretty much every player wanted to kill different bosses. Imagine if you queue for a heroic and find yourself in a dungeon with several different ways/paths of completion... now you have 5 people who probably all want to do it a different way. That's a potential problem.

Personally, I loved Zul'Aman's bonus where the faster you got through the raid, the more/better loot you got. Indeed, that simple timer encouraged players to try different boss orders, ignore certain trash pulls, and just approach the raid completely differently than if they were doing a regular clear. It was great!

Also, achievements, while not rewarding gear, often involve doing special/weird things or things out of order, so we already this is one form or another.

[Fayth]

I'm not going to flat-out say that this is a bad idea, but I am going to present a potential issue:

In dungeons like BRD and Dire Maul, pretty much every player wanted to kill different bosses. Imagine if you queue for a heroic and find yourself in a dungeon with several different ways/paths of completion... now you have 5 people who probably all want to do it a different way. That's a potential problem.

Yeah it probably does not work out as I would hope. It requires you to do the dungeon with individuals with same goals, and that is something you cannot guarantee with randoms. Should probably be non-queueable. But then again, it would reduce the amount of users.

[Belloc]

Exactly. And, to be fair, I honestly do think it would be a good idea in a situation where you're playing with like-minded players. It only becomes a problem with you have a bunch of randoms with different goals.

[blackblade]

I think they should implement more variety in dungeons and raids. Maybe use the exploration formula they used with the Timeless Isle into a dungeon? Provide multiple ways to achieve the goal of the dungeon. Something like Dire Maul with the loot being better at the end if you did not kill anything along the way. Use creative ways to accomplish goals instead of: mouse over this, click it, press buttons, loot, leave, requeue. Replay value on everything would rise substantially.

I'd love to see more 'Tribute Run' style hardmodes in dungeons.

For those who didn't play vanilla: http://www.wowwiki.com/Dire_Maul_tribute_run

The sysnopsis, is that you sneak past all the bosses in Dire Maul North (pre-cata, I think it was changed pretty significantly) and each boss you skip gives extra loot in a tribute chest at the end of the encounter.

You needed a lockpicking rogue, a tailor to make an ogre disguise, and an alchemist to fix the frost trap. We used to run these nightly for giggles and loot.

I'd love a really hard, like 'Ultra Heroic' mode, that's non LFD puggable, and basically would have a weekly lockout but drops LFR ilvl loot. Each Tier they'd just bump the difficulty and the ilvl of the gear to match the new ilvl requirement.

[SappedByALock]

Maybe a way to do this is make specific dungeons that you cannot simply queue for, but rather you have to unlock. Would give a sense of accomplishment after fighting all these monsters for hours and uncovering a hidden dungeon. Also if one person in your group has the dungeon unlocked, then everyone else in the group can to support bringing your friends who may be a bit behind.

*edit* It would also bring the explore + plunder = epic feeling back into the game. I seriously hate sitting in Org waiting for my queue to pop because it would "at any moment."

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ESO (Elder Scrolls Online) is doing exactly this with their dungeons. I feel like the queueing system takes way too much out of the game. Why not add an option for players who would rather go out and find something other than waiting for a queue to pop.

[Mammoon]

Nothing like this is compatible with LFD and LFR. A group of random players won't do this together. Therefore, it will never happen.

[Jerseyjay]

Ya thats the thing,having players work together. Even now people run off and ignore their team but I really like the idea

[Nobleshield]

Not a bad idea but I loathe the idea of it being related to how fast you clear it. That's why I can't get into Challenge Modes; it doesn't reward real skill it rewards blowing through it as fast as possible and cheesing things, skipping everything you can, etc. I didn't care for ZA for that reason either. Timers don't make things challenging, they encourage cheesing things.

What I would like is if they took the idea of Challenge Modes, took away the timer and applied it to things like Dire Maul or BRD. A big-ass dungeon with loads of bosses, scaled appropriately (either mobs scale up, or you scale down), with cool rewards for doing it all. So imagine BRD Challenge Mode (minus timer) with everything scaled to level 95 or whatever our new level cap is. That's what, 12 bosses or more, scaled to be very challenging. That's worth a transmog set or similar reward (hell include CM-only achievements as well, so not only is everything harder but you need to do weird things in the fight). Transmog set for clearing it on challenge mode, badass mount for getting the achieves.

[SappedByALock]

Exactly. All the pieces are already there, they just need to be fine-tuned. The scaling preview in 5.4 is very similar to the idea. Maybe we can see this in future expansions. Features like this will definitely improve the quality of life in World of Warcraft.

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These features are not suited to the LFD and LFR design. These features would work very well on their own and have little influence from the LFD/LFR design.

[hackbornyu]

It only becomes a problem with you have a bunch of randoms with different goals.