Soon, the new expansion Wrath of the Lich King will be released for WoW Classic. Originally, WotLK introduced the Dungeon Finder in its first form, as you now know it from modern WoW. And even though the feature is often seen as the “beginning of the end” for WoW, some people are now complaining that it is missing.
What is this feature? The Dungeon Finder allows you to find a group for a dungeon at the press of a button and teleport to its entrance. Just as you probably barely know it any other way today.
Before the Dungeon Finder, there was its predecessor, the LFG tool. Here, you had to search for groups on a kind of bulletin board or alternatively through addons or chat, and then travel to the entrance of the instance yourself. This often took just as long or longer than the dungeon itself.
The Dungeon Finder was introduced with the last WotLK patch, with which the classic version is also released. For a while now, we have known that WotLK Classic will come without the Dungeon Finder and actually, this should please Classic players. But now they are complaining.
WotLK Classic will be released on September 27 as a new expansion. You can watch the trailer here:
The Dungeon Finder is actually hated, and yet people are complaining now
This is the criticism of the Dungeon Finder: The idea behind the tool is actually to make MMORPGs like WoW more convenient. And indeed, WoW became more convenient, but also less social, as players have been criticizing for many years.
Especially veterans from Vanilla WoW and Burning Crusade valued the groups back then because people came together to really achieve something – even if the run lasted several hours. As long as the dungeon is completed.
The assembling of the group and traveling created small talk and social bonding or cohesion in the guild, when one could quickly ask for help. This aspect of social bonding is the reason Blizzard cites against the implementation of the Dungeon Finder (via WoW forums).
Since many of these factors are absent due to the Dungeon Finder, veterans feel the game is less personal. Additionally, early versions of the tool imposed heavy penalties on players who left prematurely. Especially rarer roles like tanks have occasionally used this to hold entire groups hostage, as users explain on reddit.
Why are the fans complaining now? Blizzard confirmed in a forum post once again that the Dungeon Finder will not appear in WotLK Classic, neither at release nor probably later. This met with a lot of criticism.
Defenders of the Dungeon Finder appreciate the convenience and see no loss of social interaction. Especially compared to the Classic version of the LFG tool, the Dungeon Finder is much more enjoyable. On reddit, user Ranec writes:
Look, if we are not going to get the Dungeon Finder, at least make the LFG tool like it is in retail. The current one is SO poor. I am really surprised that they simply made a new [tool] but worse than what they already have.
Criticism of the decision is also present in the forum, especially in regard to the LFG tool. Here, players wish for the Dungeon Finder as a new feature or at least a better version of group searching than the one that currently exists.
MeinMMO editor Alexander Leitsch is, by the way, a big advocate of Dungeon Finders in all MMORPGs:
Further changes in WotLK Classic
With the release on September 27, WotLK Classic will be different in some respects than you remember. In the latest post, Blizzard explains some of the changes:
- Raids share an ID in normal and heroic mode, but not in the 10 and 25-player variants.
- Faction and race changes will be possible at a later point in the expansion.
- Titles and achievements will also be obtainable in the 2v2 arena.
- Mounts and achievements are character-bound, not account-bound.
Additionally, there was an earlier decision to remove the “Quest Helper” from WotLK Classic. The feature marked quests directly on the map. However, this decision was reversed, and the function remains in the game.
Since Blizzard has already backtracked on this, fans are now hoping that a Dungeon Finder might still make it into the game. However, whether this will happen remains to be seen – currently, it does not look like it.
If you’re also looking forward to the Battle for Wintergrasp, you might be a bit disappointed:
WoW WotLK Classic changes legendary PvP battle: “We are disappointed in ourselves”
