Follower dungeons in World of Warcraft had many limitations. Two of them have now been removed – making them a real alternative.
The follower dungeons were quite controversial at their introduction, and Blizzard even implemented strict limitations to monitor their impact on the entire World of Warcraft. Now these restrictions have been significantly relaxed – as the feature apparently is well received and concerns have vanished.
The current WoW patch: Seeds of Renewal:
What are follower dungeons? Normally, visiting dungeons in World of Warcraft requires 4 players and therefore social interaction, which often comes with performance pressure. To eliminate this, the “follower dungeons” have been introduced since the last patch. Here you can easily complete a dungeon with NPCs – only on the lowest difficulty (“normal”), but without any pressure. You can try out every role, take the lead, or leave it to the NPCs.
This is optimal for getting to know the dungeon or completing story quests.
What has changed? With a hotfix, Blizzard changed the rules for follower dungeons last Wednesday (February 28, 2024). From now on, the following details apply:
- The maximum number of follower dungeons a player can enter per day has been increased to 50 (previously 10).
- The presence of followers in the dungeon no longer reduces the XP gained by human players.
The limitation of 50 dungeons per day should be more than sufficient for average players. Most probably hardly filled 10 dungeons per day. Only those who wish to level solely through follower dungeons might have ever reached this limit.
The increase in XP should also be noticeable. Previously, defeating enemies yielded less XP when the group consisted of NPCs. This was meant to offset the fact that the NPCs do a large part of the work, and one could basically stand by “afk”. However, a little interaction is necessary, as followers alone can struggle very slowly through the dungeon.
What are the disadvantages of follower dungeons? Even with these adjustments, follower dungeons still have some disadvantages. Those who sign up for a “random dungeon” receive a hefty XP bonus upon completing the dungeon – which is not the case with follower dungeons.
Thus, follower dungeons will likely never be the most efficient way of leveling – but they are a new way for all who want to visit instances without other players and level up this way.
Do you use follower dungeons for leveling or questing? Or can you not relate to this game mode at all?
Elsewhere, Blizzard explains why it is a good thing that you are currently seeing many bots in WoW.
