WoW Forever is asking players to spend more time out in Azeroth rather than in dungeons, but being surrounded by other players does not automatically make grouping worthwhile. Recent discussions question whether the leveling experience gives players any real motivation to group with others, rather than simply leveling up solo the entire way to Level 60.
Blizzard Wants Players Back in the Open World
In Classic WoW, elite dungeon mobs had a 2.5 experience multiplier, making them one of the best sources of experience while leveling. This created a meta where players would spam dungeons constantly to level up, as the experience, gear, and safety provided by an instanced zone all outweighed what open-world questing could provide.
In WoW Forever, Blizzard has actively destroyed this dungeon-farming meta by almost entirely removing experience from dungeon mobs, and instead transferring it to the dungeon quests themselves. This means that dungeons are only rewarding while completing quests, as you gain less experience from killing monsters inside the dungeon than you do while questing solo in the open world.
Crowded Zones Turn Questing Into Competition
Moving more players into the open world also means more competition for quest objectives. Having other players around can quickly become frustrating when everyone is competing for the same mobs and quest items.
Layers are now zone-specific, meaning you will always be on a layer with other players in your current zone; previously, you could get on a layer with very few people in your current zone, allowing you to quest uninterrupted. This has created several bottlenecks around questing, with every layer being packed full of players.
Quest items on the ground feel like they have too few spawn points, while also taking far too long to respawn. Regular and named quest mobs suffer from the same thing, with several players sitting on every respawn location for any mobs they need for a quest. Perhaps the worst of all is escort quests, which often only spawn once every 5-15 minutes, with the timer only starting after the current escort has finished. While Blizzard has increased creature and object respawn rates in several zones, this feels only like a drop in the bucket.
Why Grouping Does Not Work
Grouping with other players can feel like a punishment more than a benefit when quest drops and objects are not shared. Instead of working together, you end up competing with your own party members for the same items, knowing that everyone you invite means more drops to collect before the group can move on. That gives players a reason to decline invites and keep questing alone, even when grouping with a stranger could be the start of a new friendship.
Blizzard has already tried to improve this with a system that distributes quest drops more evenly between party members; this helps prevent one player from finishing their quest while someone else is still missing most of their items. However, each player still needs their own drops, so the group needs more items overall before everyone can move on. Realistically, this change only evens out the RNG between a group and does not increase quest item drop rates.
Blizzard has also stated that it does not want to add modern WoW’s shared mob tagging, where players outside of a group can receive credit for killing the same enemy, because it does not fit the nature of WoW Forever. But if forming a party is supposed to be the answer to competing over quest objectives, joining that party needs to feel worth it. Players should have a reason to invite the person questing beside them, without immediately wondering how much longer their own quests will take.
Dungeon Quests Now Give Less Bonus Experience
With the October 1st beta patch, Blizzard has reduced the bonus experience from dungeon quests by 50%. This only affects the additional experience introduced in WoW Forever, while the base quest experience remains unchanged.
The increased experience from dungeon quests was supposed to compensate for the reduced experience from dungeon mobs. Cutting those rewards without restoring some mob XP means players now earn even less experience from the same dungeon run. Dungeon quests still offer some increased experience over their Classic version, but the incentive to gather a group and make the long trip to the instance is now smaller.
In Classic, you would work through a zone to unlock its dungeon quests, typically at the end of a major quest chain, then run the dungeon two or three times to complete those quests. While running the dungeon multiple times, you would often gain another level or two along the way. The increased experience from elite mobs kept those repeat runs worthwhile, even when you only had one or two quests left to complete.
Take Wailing Caverns as an example: the Deviate Hides quest can take multiple runs to complete, while the dungeon itself is extremely long and flooded with trash that you can’t skip. Spending an hour or more inside and leaving with only two or three quests completed can already feel underwhelming. Do you then run the entire dungeon again for the remaining one or two quests? You will spend more time fighting the same enemies, but with fewer quest rewards waiting at the end, making that second run even harder to justify.
Fully relying on a one-time quest reward for the majority of a dungeon’s experience also creates a problem for people who want to play with others; once you have your dungeon quests completed, returning to that dungeon again offers next to no rewards for you.
Dungeon Gear Has Also Been Weakened
WoW Forever Senior Game Designer Aidan ‘Zirene’ Moon has also confirmed that quest rewards and dungeon drops were nerfed, reducing their stats overall. This change went live with the October 1st patch.
Several players have already confirmed this to be true, with players reporting that some of their rare quest rewards changed into a weaker uncommon version of the previous item.
The combination of dungeon mob experience being nearly non-existent, dungeon quest experience getting a moderate reduction, and dungeon items being heavily nerfed has players questioning whether or not dungeons are even worth running anymore.
Lower Mob XP Encourages Dungeon Skips
The reduced experience from dungeon mobs also affects how groups approach each run. Players are quickly finding out that the best way to run these dungeons is to skip as many mobs as possible. Since the monsters inside the dungeon grant next to no experience, skipping anything that does not drop gear and isn’t related to a quest has become more common. While this is great for experienced players who simply want the rewards, it can be daunting for newer players, or those who wish to explore.
This has turned early-game leveling dungeons, which are typically used to teach new players how group-based content works, into a similar style as end-game dungeons. In end-game content, players are typically expected to know how to avoid pulling extra trash or perform tricky jumps to get over walls, skipping numerous pulls in the process. This won’t always be the case in leveling dungeons, as newer players may not know the routes or how to perform skips, and it can lead to frustration for everyone involved if things go wrong.
Dungeon Nerfs Hit Tanks and Healers Hardest
Perhaps an unintended side effect of these nerfs is that players who wish to level as either healing or tank specializations are hit harder than others. While these specs are all able to level solo, they are typically slower than the DPS-oriented specs available to the class, with a couple of exceptions.
At level 40, players can unlock dual-specialization, allowing them to have a second spec. Dual-spec costs 50 gold, however, making it unlikely that new players will be able to purchase it for a while. Perhaps Blizzard should consider reducing dual-spec’s cost and level requirements, allowing players to grab it much earlier in the leveling experience.
Is It Really About the Journey If You’re Better Off Alone?
While getting players out into Azeroth makes sense, a crowded world does not automatically make the game more social. When inviting someone means needing more quest drops, or returning to a dungeon offers significantly less experience, it becomes obvious why players choose to level alone. Leveling should be a time when players should always be able to group up, but as it is, it feels punishing more often than not, especially when it comes to grouping up with random players nearby.
Would sharing quest drops within a party really take away from the Classic experience? Should dungeons reward so little experience without the quests? There should be room for players to enjoy both, rather than being forced into a single-minded gameplay style. If WoW Forever is supposed to be about the journey, playing alongside someone else should feel like a welcome part of it, without constantly wondering whether you would be better off on your own.