What was the appeal of Vanilla dungeons?

[mistahwilshire]

The appeal of dungeons was that 99% of players have nothing else to do at lvl60.


End of story.

The appeal was that 99% of the players had never played a game with instanced dungeons before. It's easy to see why they would have mass appeal to an audience that's almost entirely never done that sort of thing before. It's a good formula for content.

[Mongoose19]

BRD is awesome but imagine running your daily heroics and getting a 4 hour crawl through BRD instead.

It'd be great if they made a massive dungeon like that outside of the traditional heroic VP grind though, just for fun.

Imagine not having daily heroics because there is content that lasts...

[Teebone]

Sorry... I just had to. ULDAMAN!

Ahh, yes. My bad

[NewportsDentarg]

I like the idea of playing Vanilla WoW than probably actually doing them. Getting keys for UBRS. Getting keys for Onyxia, Getting keyed for MC. etc etc. In retrospect it was good times since it was new. Nowadays it just sounds tedious and awful. Most of us probably would have quit if the progression wasn't changed.

The dungeons did take a bit more coordination. Not a lot. It did mean mages were almost mandatory for CC.

Maraudon was probabaly my favorite Vanilla instance though. As a poster said before. It did require hours to go through some. BRD was so bad.

[Biske]

The only old dungeons I have fond memory of are UBRS, Scholo, and Maraudon. UBRS ans Scholo only because of the PEOPLE I ran them with, not the place itself. I'd still play if I played with those people. Maraudon, because it was just weird in a way that I liked it, and I felt like the only person who didn't get lost there and knew where everything was.

[sargior]

I think the difference is the amount of times you actually completed each instance. It use to take about an hour to find a group and take flight paths and use ground mounts to get to there. Summoning stones use to be called meeting stones...

Also blue gear was very valuable so you didn't just go there for points to buy epics and raids only dropped a couple epics split across 20 or 40 people..

Dungeons where hard and you had to know how to sap, trap, kite or wipe and retry. Druids never had a res so everyone had to run back to the instance after a wipe and sometimes the run itself was a few minutes long.

And.. Was never cross realm, you knew that the people in the group would be seen again so you had to make sure you didn't screw around so you didn't get a bad rep.

[Grimbold21]

I can tell you right now that i hated BRD to the point of not actually doing it completly.

I did all the runs or parts except LBRS, with UBRS being my favorite....ahh the countless runs trying to get my lightforge shoulders.

[Teence]

They were aesthetically pleasing, and the majority of them didn't feel as if they were contrived or hamfisted into a particular area. As the cliche goes, they felt like places that existed organically in a world instead of areas that were fit into a zone just because the game needed dungeons, which was an issue with many BC and Wrath instances. In terms of aesthetics, Maraudon, Wailing Caverns, Dire Maul, Blackrock Depths, and Blackfathom Deeps were instances that really stood out as having stunning visual design relative to when they were released. Maraudon in particular arguably remains of the most beautiful areas in the entire game almost a decade later. More generally, many of the dungeons felt as if they hadn't simply been artificially introduced or designed, but rather that they existed as an almost seamless part of the exterior world in terms of functionality and purpose.

Regarding dungeon feel and atmosphere, the entire Blackrock Mountain complex, Scholomance, and Stratholme all evoked, at least for me, a sense of danger when you zoned in. They had this pseudo 'high fantasy meets Warcraft' vibe going on that made you feel that you were in for a traditional dungeon-crawling experience, which was awesome at the time. Visually, many contemporary dungeons definitely hit the mark and the art and design teams continue to hit home runs. Some instances have come close to replicating that vibe that some of us crave, but I think it was the themes and art style of Vanilla, which just scream 'Classic Warcraft,' that fostered my appreciation for them.

Of course, after doing them almost daily for a period of years, they lose their appeal, but I still have a soft spot for certain leveling dungeons that evoke just the right amount of nostalgia.

[Rykin]

It was hard to tank multiple mobs at once and hold threat on them, if you accidently pulled more than one group of mobs you risked wiping, not every class had face roll aoe damage and mana was actually a thing.

[Biske]

Oh yeah, totally forgot about DM tribute runs. Those were also fun, but quirky and required preparation.

[melodramocracy]

Nowadays it just sounds tedious and awful. Most of us probably would have quit if the progression wasn't changed.

Weird. I'd probably still be playing if BRD-size dungeons were brought back.

[Akka]

Imagine not having daily heroics because there is content that lasts...

They were aesthetically pleasing, and the majority of them didn't feel as if they were contrived or hamfisted into a particular area. As the cliche goes, they felt like places that existed organically in a world instead of areas that were fit into a zone just because the game needed dungeons, which was an issue with many BC and Wrath instances.

It was hard to tank multiple mobs at once and hold threat on them, if you accidently pulled more than one group of mobs you risked wiping, not every class had face roll aoe damage and mana was actually a thing.

This.
Don't expect the fanboys to even understand this, though, they will simply use the all-purpose retarded "nostalgia" excuse and ignore everything.

[LazarusLong]

Edwin Van Cleef.
Eranikus.
Emperor Dagran Thaurissan. (And his at-the-time mind controlled wife Moira Bronzebeard.)

That's three. Need more?

None of them are lvl60 dungeons. Some BRD loot was upgraded to be on par with lvl60 at the end of the vanilla.

[Deldavala]

Most of the vanilla dungeons where a clusterfk to get around. If your group where a bunch of newbies you could be stuck in them for hours. But when you learned the best way to progress through them and what bosses you HAD to kill it became a cakewalk. Most of the bosses in there where Tank&Spank with a few alterations and the trash was easy(but it was a lot of trash) as long as you had a competent tank and a healer. CC made it easier, but wasn't really needed if you had a good group.

[Caliph]

Well the mystery i think stems from dungeons being the first time we encountered such things. We never faced mobs as tough as the ones you met when you entered deadmines and so you knew what to expect thereafter and it was like "oh shit, how tough are these guys going to be".

after 10 years what could they possibly add to make them mysterious?

Also, the loot was way worth it so you went in expectantly, yearningly to see what might drop for me? how much more powerful will i be? Now it's all just trash.

what could they do?

[NuLogic]

Most of the vanilla dungeons where a clusterfk to get around. If your group where a bunch of newbies you could be stuck in them for hours. But when you learned the best way to progress through them and what bosses you HAD to kill it became a cakewalk. Most of the bosses in there where Tank&Spank with a few alterations and the trash was easy(but it was a lot of trash) as long as you had a competent tank and a healer. CC made it easier, but wasn't really needed if you had a good group.

Pretty much this. They where interesting at first then they just became annoying and boring.

[Deleted]

Speaking from BC experience, I think it's because it was all brand new. You had no idea what was coming and it was hard. Simple as that.

[Deleted]

Loved it when there were no instant teleportation-menus in this game, and you had to walk to the dungeon or get summoned by warlock or stone to get there.

During TBC, things like these became even more interesting.

[Zeddicious]

People were more tolerant of each other
There was teamwork
Dungeons were long and rewarding
People actually cared about their reputation, so friendships were made

[Deleted]

The challenge wasn't really in the bosses back then, but in the trash. Properly managing trash pulls and kill orders was the key to a successful dungeon run. I prefer how bosses work nowadays but I wouldn't mind the trash being harder, like in classic or tbc (maybe even the start of Cata). Now it's just a race to get your points for the day.

And oh my god, I just remembered what it was like trying to do a run in Scarlet Monastary as Alliance in classic... getting there and getting the whole group ready took longer than clearing the whole place.