Rank the Dragonflight Dungeons (beyond knee-jerk reactions)

[DechCJC]

This season makes me sincerely question why I main a healer. I’m losing hair from the amount of pure stress bitch healing I need to do on some of these bosses, even on relatively lower keys.

Aesthetically sure, some are better than others but in the context of doing M+ it’s not super important to me, every dungeon starts looking dull af by the time I’ve done them hundreds of times each. I will say that any dungeon that’s just the open world loses big points for me though.

[Polgara]

The worst set of dungeons ever really.

Acadamy is fine, DotI grew on me, but mostly because it has great music


Those two 7/10


Rest 4 or less. Its a reason why I wont do m+ in this season. And I absolutely love doing m+. Shame they took the two part DotI off the list too.

Agree with this, although I'm doing M+ and the dungeons aren't totally excruciating, but they aren't fun to me. AA the standout by a country mile, with DotI a "good" megadungeon. Dishonourable mentions to nokhud for shoehorning in dragonflying, azure vault for just being tedious, and uldaman for being a slog.

[Depakote]

they're all mediocre though i did like the uldaman one the best probably cause of nostalgia

[BeerEelemental]

They are all modern corridor dungeons with only MDI in mind (even the megadungeon was corridored out with MDI in mind, while hardly anyone even cares about MDI, they need to stop doing this), so none of them rate particularly high for me, but well:

Decent: Ruby life pools, Brackenhide Hollow, Uldaman rework, Neltharus, Academy
Meh: Azure vault, HoI
Abysmal: Nokhud offensive (it's literally just an instanced version of the zone).


I hope in the future Blizzard will drop the whole MDI-bullshit and make some actual dungeons again, instead of instanced shopping malls.

[AudibleEscalation]

Allright I guess:
Algerthar, Brackenhide

Barely tolerable:
Netharus, Vaults, Dawn

Absolute and complete swamp ass:
Nokhud, RLP, Halls, Uldaman

Honorable mention to whoever though Neltharus chains were a good idea. Please stop.
Worst set of dungeons in a long time. Seasons were mostly saved by old dungeon rotation.

[Khaza-R]

The only ones I liked were Uldaman and Academy. The rest were a step down from Legion/BfA dungeons.

Nokhud Offensive was just horrid. Its concerning they're doing it again in TWW.

[Accendor]

Academy was great, but I wish we actually had gone there for questing to get more story and involvement.
I also liked Halls of Infusion aesthetics a lot, but besides that all dungeons were only "ok". Much better then SL though.

[Tech614]

With S4 changes such as frog checkpoint in HoI the only DF dungeon that is actually terrible still is Uldaman.

I can't even make sense around people that hate NO, the only part even remotely offensive about that dungeon is not being able to easily double pull packs in the totem area. People that hate it must be the type that hate anything they can't W through or healers with PTSD of season 1 pre nerf 2nd boss.

[potis]

All the dungeons are fine, but i view them realistically that once more they had to make them an "adventure" for the average sub that will see them once or twice and disappear, and corridors so its not a braindead M+.

As example Neltharus Chains are a smart little thing to discover as a newbie and use them, but obviously not very smart when it scales and leaves everything at 10% etc , 1 shotting half the instance.

Nokhud flying/mini-events etc.

If i have to "hate" a dungeon, it would be Uldaman.

There is no love/hate relationship, its just viewing things realistically.

[Relapses]

With S4 changes such as frog checkpoint in HoI the only DF dungeon that is actually terrible still is Uldaman.

I can't even make sense around people that hate NO, the only part even remotely offensive about that dungeon is not being able to easily double pull packs in the totem area. People that hate it must be the type that hate anything they can't W through or healers with PTSD of season 1 pre nerf 2nd boss.

I just hate the dungeon. The bosses suck. The trash somehow sucks even more than the bosses. There are multiple pass/fail checks once you get high enough and if you're somebody who PuGs a lot, the entire dungeon can feel like a slot machine on whether your team is able to handle certain scenarios. And that's before you bring in the gimmick of Dragonflight which is more of a curse than a blessing imo. Just... not a dungeon I've ever enjoyed doing and having it back in the rotation has only solidified my contempt for it.

I hope the Blizzard dev who made this dungeon is cursed to wake up every morning, roll out of bed and step on a Lego.

[Tech614]

I just hate the dungeon. The bosses suck. The trash somehow sucks even more than the bosses. There are multiple pass/fail checks once you get high enough and if you're somebody who PuGs a lot, the entire dungeon can feel like a slot machine on whether your team is able to handle certain scenarios. And that's before you bring in the gimmick of Dragonflight which is more of a curse than a blessing imo. Just... not a dungeon I've ever enjoyed doing and having it back in the rotation has only solidified my contempt for it.

I hope the Blizzard dev who made this dungeon is cursed to wake up every morning, roll out of bed and step on a Lego.

The bosses in there are actually good, so answers the question for me. Mechanics = bad dungeon.

As as far as checks go's on higher keys NO is not even remotely up there as being one of the worst, and I don't even decide on liking a dungeon or not based on high keys because I don't care if keys above a 20(or 10 now) are balanced or not, in fact it's more fun if they aren't and trying to figure out how to do them. Totems in last boss BH, strict burst dps check you instantly wipe on high tyr if you fail, Chain boss in nelth you wipe if you have some squish spec out of defensives that dies when their chain hits etc. There is nothing like that in NO, you can even play around people failing the mechanics which is imo the definition of good boss mechanics if skill can recover you from mistakes instead of insta wipes.

The trash in there is just an aoe fest with some stops for the most part. Totem area is slower but first area optimally is 2 double pulls and a single, and 3rd area you can do double and triple pulls to get the rest of the count you need. I have no idea what there is to hate about this unless it's people that can't hit stops or kick the dread bolt volley in the 3rd area. Outside of bracken, or the flower area of AA it's the dungeon you can pull the biggest in and pulling big is pretty fun unless you play an aoe cap spec then you should yell at blizzard to stop trying to police fun and uncap all aoe.

[jeezusisacasual]

The bosses in there are actually good, so answers the question for me. Mechanics = bad dungeon.

As as far as checks go's on higher keys NO is not even remotely up there as being one of the worst, and I don't even decide on liking a dungeon or not based on high keys because I don't care if keys above a 20(or 10 now) are balanced or not, in fact it's more fun if they aren't and trying to figure out how to do them. Totems in last boss BH, strict burst dps check you instantly wipe on high tyr if you fail, Chain boss in nelth you wipe if you have some squish spec out of defensives that dies when their chain hits etc. There is nothing like that in NO, you can even play around people failing the mechanics which is imo the definition of good boss mechanics if skill can recover you from mistakes instead of insta wipes.

The trash in there is just an aoe fest with some stops for the most part. Totem area is slower but first area optimally is 2 double pulls and a single, and 3rd area you can do double and triple pulls to get the rest of the count you need. I have no idea what there is to hate about this unless it's people that can't hit stops or kick the dread bolt volley in the 3rd area. Outside of bracken, or the flower area of AA it's the dungeon you can pull the biggest in and pulling big is pretty fun unless you play an aoe cap spec then you should yell at blizzard to stop trying to police fun and uncap all aoe.

The overly punishing nature of some of the mechanics makes it feel out of place compared to other dungeons. The DF dungeons are all trash excluding AA and perhaps Brakenhide due to them being made with aoe stops in mind and in a pug oriented game that is either hit or miss with miss being more and more likely. The aoe stops should be considered a bonus not something you should seek out along with having 2-3 casters who hit for over 300k each spell on a mid ranged fort key ( 6 for RLP ), '

When a game expects you to do research and the like outside of it to perform better something is wrong and these dungeons all seem to have aspects of that in mind which being something of a Diablo seasonal game is kinda stupid. Its better to make players feel powerful then force them to feel powerful if you catch my drift or that sorta thing should be only needed on the 13+ key so the content creators can have something to feel good about. I say this as a 2191 brewmaster easy and repeatable > stressful and planned.

[Relapses]

The bosses in there are actually good, so answers the question for me. Mechanics = bad dungeon.

Brother, you didn't ask a question and your assessment of my opinion is an incredibly disingenuous read since I mentioned many things which aren't mechanics that I dislike about the dungeon. Dunno why you're running interference for a dogshit dungeon but you do you I guess.

[Zardas]

I can't even make sense around people that hate NO, the only part even remotely offensive about that dungeon is not being able to easily double pull packs in the totem area. People that hate it must be the type that hate anything they can't W through or healers with PTSD of season 1 pre nerf 2nd boss.

It doesn't have any content that you don't already see in the outer world. All the places you visit in the dungeon, you already know them. So I'm sure you can see how someone who doesn't care about the mechanics, the flow, or the difficulty or the dungeon can hate it. And, of course, it's even worst if you don't like flying.

[Ashana Darkmoon]

The main thing with DF dungeons was the obvious choice to make healers actually need to heal. In pug content (what the vast majority of players experience) the healer has way more influence on whether you beat these than they did in SL or BFA. Especially true with boss pulse damage on Tyr weeks.

[LordVargK]

The main thing with DF dungeons was the obvious choice to make healers actually need to heal. In pug content (what the vast majority of players experience) the healer has way more influence on whether you beat these than they did in SL or BFA. Especially true with boss pulse damage on Tyr weeks.

Which is a good design decision imo. Healer in SL felt very underwhelming, basically a DPS with less output. Now healing and proper defensive usage by the DPS is actually needed on medium to high keys.
A good DPS always was a huge boost in M+, a tank always has to plan the route and now healers have a task again. Previously a bad healer could be carried by a good group on high keys. In DF that's not possible.

[Tziva]

RLP is the only one I dislike but that's probably because I find all the bosses irritating. It's also probably the most challenging one for me personally to heal. Normally, I'm pretty good at separating design from tuning in my likes/dislikes (for example, I loved Underrot and King's Rest in BFA even though they were some of the hardest, and I've never liked Freehold much), but the reality is I try to avoid RLP when I can.

Most of the rest from this expac are "fine." I don't hate any of the others, although there are sections of some I dislike. Ulduar, for example, has some interesting bosses, but most of the trash feels like way too much time spent doing the same thing over and over. AV I think is a great dungeon but the time gap between the second and third boss feels way too long. I like the second half of Dawn, but the first half not so much. One of the dungeons (now I can't think of which one) has really weird lust timings which is unideal.

AA is probably my favourite. The voice acting is irritating and bad though (something I will seldom say for WoW) but the fights are fine and the pacing is good.

All of this is from a design/aesthetics/pacing perspective. I don't follow lore, so I don't know shit about that.

[Ashana Darkmoon]

RLP is the only one I dislike but that's probably because I find all the bosses irritating. It's also probably the most challenging one for me personally to heal.

Definitely true, it's hard to heal in both weeks (and impossible if people don't use stops).

Just ballistic dmg from bosses and trash

[DeltrusDisc]

The worst set of dungeons ever really.

Agreed. DoTI was the stand-out but not nearly as good as the likes of the Karazhan mega-dungeon or Mechagon. I thought we were actually going to go to another time and version of Azeroth to fight the Alliance or Horde groups, not the platform thing we got. The ending was the closest we got and it's just a dark ice cave and then a random little hole in the ground. And Galakrond remains dead. Booooo. I don't know, something was missing from DoTI, but it was still a good time.

Uldaman and Neltharus are probably my favorites, they have the least stupid voice-acting, are the most "WoW" to me, similar to my favorite dungeons of all time: Maraudon, BRD, Dire Maul, and BFD.

RLP has a horribly voice-acted and racist "the PRIMALISTSSS" dragon dude. Annoying.
NO is full of annoying trash and annoying bosses LET FLY
AA is okay, it has some of the cutest most goofy voice acting, step-br I MEAN Ickystrasz what are you doing? There is too much life magic! No what are YOU doing?! but then you get the disgusting voice of the dracthyr what are all these BIRRRDS doing here? Ugh.
AV is pretty okay, a little boring, reminds me very much of Nexus, perhaps too much. But I guess you could say they're both blue dragonflight strongholds, so it makes sense.
HOI is a letdown compared to its similar namesakes and design styles: HoS and HoL fromWotLK. Those two had so much going for them and made so much sense. HOI has... frogs? And titan constructs. And cultists. What.
BRH is... fine? Random? Given that nothing happened with the boss (to my knowledge he gets away and we never have a follow-up quest) so it just feels goofy. It's not a bad dungeon per se, it's dark, but whatever. I'd rather run it than RLP and RLP is the prettier one.

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AA is probably my favourite. The voice acting is irritating and bad though (something I will seldom say for WoW)

Sad, isn't it? We've never really had such bad voice acting before. On one hand in the dungeon you have what sounds like the start to a p*rn scene, on the other, it's just... what? The Dracthyr voice actors almost unanimously drive me up the wall.

[LordVargK]

]
Sad, isn't it? We've never really had such bad voice acting before. On one hand in the dungeon you have what sounds like the start to a p*rn scene, on the other, it's just... what? The Dracthyr voice actors almost unanimously drive me up the wall.

That applies to all DF voice acting, really. I don't know what went wrong, but every dragon character sounds ridiculous.