WoW Forever has a problem: Dungeons are played like in Retail

Dungeons in World of Warcraft Forever are becoming a major point of discussion. They give little XP – therefore many want to skip the mobs.

That World of Warcraft Forever in beta is not the promised land of nostalgia is something many testers are noticing as they venture into dungeons. More and more players are reporting that their encounters have only one goal, reminding them of modern WoW or other MMORPGs: efficiency.

The catch is: It’s a problem that the developers themselves have created.

Enemies in Forever Dungeons are being skipped because they aren’t worth it

What has changed? In one of the last updates of the WoW Forever beta, the developers drastically reduced the experience points gained from defeating enemies in dungeons. The thought behind it was fundamentally good, as it allows one to visit a dungeon multiple times and collect great sets, such as the set for the new Druid form, without being overly high in level.

However, the drastically reduced XP of the enemies creates a new problem: Fighting against the opponents feels pointless for many, leading to as many enemies being skipped as possible.

Here’s how behavior is changing: Due to the changes in experience points, it is often more sensible to leave most enemies alone and consider optimized routes. This, however, reminds many who are not interested of the “Mythic+” or the “fast-fast” mentality with which dungeons are approached in WoW Midnight, for example. Some voices from the community in the WoW Forever subreddit:

• “Between questing, I just want to spam dungeons and get enough XP that it’s worth it. I’ve made friends and guilds through these dungeons. It’s a legitimate way to play the game and shouldn’t be nerfed.” – r2steel
• “Skipping enemies is lame. If you really believe that in a year, you won’t have to know the skips for dungeons to be taken along, then you don’t know WoW players.” – nacholibre711

Currently, most seem to be dissatisfied with the dungeons because it makes their way of playing the game feel less rewarding. However, that’s exactly why the developers are collecting feedback to possibly implement changes.

Cortyn says: The change in XP in the dungeons is well-intentioned by the developers, but it promotes exactly the mentality from modern WoW that some are trying to escape. If a dungeon enemy gives less experience than an enemy in the open world, it leads to a problem where many players only know one solution: efficiency.

It remains to be seen whether a large part of the community can shake off this thought or whether primarily two camps will form:

Those who play WoW Forever more laid-back and don’t want to dance around every mob group, and those who don’t want to waste their time on content that has no tangible benefit for their character.

How would you solve the problem? Do you have a method in mind that reconciles the developers’ goals and the efficiency thinking of parts of the community? Or do you believe it’s a problem that can only be addressed with “separate communities?”
WoW Forever has a few issues that need to be resolved, such as the terrible phasing.