Instances play a significant role in World of Warcraft: Legion, which is why a lot of effort has gone into the design of the dungeons.
Short Dungeons to Keep Everyone Engaged
Over nearly 12 years, dungeon design in World of Warcraft has changed quite a bit. In an interview with Slootbag, Ion Hazzikostas (also known as “Watcher”) discussed many aspects of the game. One of those was the design of instances, which now function differently and aim to appeal to a different group.
Most instances have between 3 and 5 bosses and take about 15 to 20 minutes to complete on the lower end. For the more challenging instances, it can take 30 to 40 minutes. However, it’s preferable not to exceed these times, as this increases the likelihood that players will leave the group in LFG groups.
In instances, trash mobs are considered to have high importance. Out of roughly 30 minutes in an instance, only 7-8 minutes are boss fights, which is why the developers make a considerable effort to design trash mobs engagingly, bringing some challenges and issues for the groups.
Connected to this is the quest design of the new areas. In the past, there were often instance visits as a final quest, which for many players was a point of contention: Why can I only experience the end of a solo player quest line in a group?
By now, this is no longer a major problem, as you can easily join a dungeon group – that’s what the LFG tool is for. Those who do not prioritize communication can still complete their quests this way. Therefore, in Legion, the system has been reverted to – almost all zones culminate in a dungeon.
Karazhan (in Patch 7.1) will be an exception to this rule. The dungeon will only exist at the mythic difficulty level and will be long enough with 9 bosses that some players may not want to tackle it in one evening. However, since Karazhan has a weekly ID, it is easy to continue the next evening.
If you want to prepare extensively for the upcoming expansion, make sure to check out our Legion overview page.
