WoD dungeons are garbage.

I totally have Stockholm syndrome from running Iron Docks so many times. I still giggle at the voice acting.
"That's what I do, I think good." lol gold

Shadowmoon Burial Grounds is so much better than say Underbog and it's not even close. Auchindoun is tedious. Slags too but luckily you can avoid either or by swapping loot specs or slot you're farming. TBC needs to offer all those sockets cuz the dungeon layouts, footprints and floorplans were absolute garbage when compared to a more modern xpac. Escape from Durnholde, yikes.

This could be a good argument topic, but I don't want to scare anyone away. I'm a TBC baby and hold the xpac close to my heart but WoD dungeons > TBC all day for me. You?
 
I totally have Stockholm syndrome from running Iron Docks so many times. I still giggle at the voice acting.
"That's what I do, I think good." lol gold

Shadowmoon Burial Grounds is so much better than say Underbog and it's not even close. Auchindoun is tedious. Slags too but luckily you can avoid either or by swapping loot specs or slot you're farming. TBC needs to offer all those sockets cuz the dungeon layouts, footprints and floorplans were absolute garbage when compared to a more modern xpac. Escape from Durnholde, yikes.

This could be a good argument topic, but I don't want to scare anyone away. I'm a TBC baby and hold the xpac close to my heart but WoD dungeons > TBC all day for me. You?
I have a sweet spot for TBC dungeons too. There's a 'feel' to them that's just delicious to me.
My lone grip with the superior WoD dungeons is that we only get 3, Auch being a walk-in only.
If we got Grimrail & Everbloom at least I'd be much happier. The Drops are pretty bad tho, particularly after you've scored upgrades & are just facerolling for that piece to re-drop with a socket & desirable tert.
Additionally, if the World-drop gear were normalized with dungeons again, I'd be over the moon.
 
I totally have Stockholm syndrome from running Iron Docks so many times. I still giggle at the voice acting.
"That's what I do, I think good." lol gold
The voice acting was the only thing that kept me sane. Or maybe not, because now I just live-quote the dialogue with the NPCs

"Put a muzzle on it..."
"Good idea, sir!"
"I didn't mean the cat."

https://www.wowhead.com/sound=43909/vo-60-id-koramar-dialogue25
https://www.wowhead.com/sound=44056/vo-60-id-zoggosh-dialogue26
https://www.wowhead.com/sound=43910/vo-60-id-koramar-dialogue27


Edit: Dang, I was hoping these would link as play buttons
 
From my perspective, whether you enjoy farming WoD dungeons depends on two things: whether you like grinding in the first place, and whether you have fond memories of WoD or something else to listen/watch whilst you run said dungeons.
I've been taking the opportunity to catch up on my backlog of movies to watch while also taking "forced" 1h breaks to work on other things like my online classes.
-Solo kill first boss in dungeon 10 times
-Use the hour to complete another chapter
-Solo kill the boss another 10 times
-Use the hour to watch a movie / show
-Repeat

Yes, as you get more and more gear the more "the grind" sets in. I currently only need a WF helm and shoulders, and of course it's taking the longest because RNG is so fickle. When I first started out I got like 4 pieces of WF gear right away, and now it's taking me hours and hours. Having something happening on the side is a way I've found to balance burnout.

Oh, and run with guildees and be on voice comms helps immensely.
 
I totally have Stockholm syndrome from running Iron Docks so many times. I still giggle at the voice acting.
"That's what I do, I think good." lol gold

Shadowmoon Burial Grounds is so much better than say Underbog and it's not even close. Auchindoun is tedious. Slags too but luckily you can avoid either or by swapping loot specs or slot you're farming. TBC needs to offer all those sockets cuz the dungeon layouts, footprints and floorplans were absolute garbage when compared to a more modern xpac. Escape from Durnholde, yikes.

This could be a good argument topic, but I don't want to scare anyone away. I'm a TBC baby and hold the xpac close to my heart but WoD dungeons > TBC all day for me. You?
EFD would be fine if Thralls mount speed wasnt 1 percent. And if they fixed it to where 1 person couldnt screw up the quest line for everyone by talking to Thrall too soon.
 
I totally have Stockholm syndrome from running Iron Docks so many times. I still giggle at the voice acting.
"That's what I do, I think good." lol gold

Shadowmoon Burial Grounds is so much better than say Underbog and it's not even close. Auchindoun is tedious. Slags too but luckily you can avoid either or by swapping loot specs or slot you're farming. TBC needs to offer all those sockets cuz the dungeon layouts, footprints and floorplans were absolute garbage when compared to a more modern xpac. Escape from Durnholde, yikes.

This could be a good argument topic, but I don't want to scare anyone away. I'm a TBC baby and hold the xpac close to my heart but WoD dungeons > TBC all day for me. You?
I will now write an essay.

I started playing during the Mid/End of TBC, therefore I'm extremely biased and rose-tinted when it comes to trying to scrutinize them. Having that many dungeons and the heroic difficulty with gems, daily quests, new enchants, etc were absolutely fantastic for me. That being said, having gone back through them a few hundred times I do see a lot of the cracks and crumbles when it comes to their design.

Mobs required either some form of CC like Frost Trap OR they required interrupts / focusing. A good example are the mobs in Sethekk Halls which drop the MC totems. Another example are the abyssal mobs in Mana Tombs which don't even have a fear cast, they just do the lifted-arm animation and do an AOE fear off it. In retrospect, all we'd have to do was pull these mobs back to a safe area but this was back in the late 2000's and we were all hurpy durpy kids. Escape from Durnholde was fun for the first few runs of it, but the RP became so ungodly tedious. Other dungeons, like Blood Furnace and Shattered Halls were just straight line corridors with right angle turns to help break up player's LOS. These don't hold up by today's standards and the difficulty was just based around numbers and not tactics due to it being the Wild West of encounter designs.

THAT BEING SAID, things (IMO) didn't really improve until BFA in terms of philosophy (but not design, that happened in DF) where they started to pump out asymmetrical designs. I think Freehold is garbage and any form of backtracking shouldn't exist in a dungeon, and De Other Side is a perfect example of why backtracking is silly, retracing your steps feels like a cheap M+ trick. Players being required to play around a boss's mechanics I think is a good way to raise the overall skill floor since the only way to teach people things is to make them face unavoidable consequences (insta-death, 99% damage reduction, slows, etc. Do the dance or be punished.) I still think dungeons lack a lot of these things, I think the Collector fight in De Other Side does a good job of making sure players know they MUST do something, and the Manastorm fight as well.

With all that, I think that certain TBC dungeons far outshine WoD dungeons, particularly Ramparts (which feels "perfect" for dungeon length and easy way to exit) but something like Auchindoun far outshines Escape From Durnholde. Overall, I think TBC dungeons eek out slightly ahead but only by a .01 factor.
 
I totally have Stockholm syndrome from running Iron Docks so many times. I still giggle at the voice acting.
"That's what I do, I think good." lol gold

Shadowmoon Burial Grounds is so much better than say Underbog and it's not even close. Auchindoun is tedious. Slags too but luckily you can avoid either or by swapping loot specs or slot you're farming. TBC needs to offer all those sockets cuz the dungeon layouts, footprints and floorplans were absolute garbage when compared to a more modern xpac. Escape from Durnholde, yikes.

This could be a good argument topic, but I don't want to scare anyone away. I'm a TBC baby and hold the xpac close to my heart but WoD dungeons > TBC all day for me. You?
I'm indifferent to WoD dungeon grinding, but I dislike it for the sole purpose that it is the only thing that has pushed me out of my comfort zone.
Using another class that is not a Warlock due to the trinkets being limited only to certain classes. Never thought I'd be playing with another class after ages of using a Warlock. A Shammy...
 
Honestly, I have no preference between grinding tbc or wod dungeons.
We've had worse times in the past, when BiS were just random items with high ilevel like these https://www.wowhead.com/item=74918/problem-solving-pendant https://www.wowhead.com/item=7337/the-rock that scale your stats inside bg.
At least now it's more satisfying gearing a char, the only thing I hate about the current system is the epic upgrade chances of quest rewards, not everyone likes rerolling a new one after all the time and effort spent over the years.
 
That being said, having gone back through them a few hundred times I do see a lot of the cracks and crumbles when it comes to their design.

Mobs required either some form of CC like Frost Trap OR they required interrupts / focusing. A good example are the mobs in Sethekk Halls which drop the MC totems. Another example are the abyssal mobs in Mana Tombs which don't even have a fear cast, they just do the lifted-arm animation and do an AOE fear off it...

I think TBC dungeons are more fun and more dynamic, and I love the janky charm. When you're soloing you've got some fun options for exploration or speedrunning. Meanwhile WoD dungeons are sterile, linear, boring (imo), but easier to farm. I just wish more dungeons had shortcuts back to the entrance... one of the cannons at the end of Iron Docks should shoot you back to the beginning.

At least now it's more satisfying gearing a char, the only thing I hate about the current system is the epic upgrade chances of quest rewards, not everyone likes rerolling a new one after all the time and effort spent over the years.

I love that dungeon drops can have tertiaries now. Not necessary, but a cool goal to go for if you're bored. But the upgradeable quest rewards... These are terrible, gotta agree. I used to feel really compelled to reroll for BIS gear but I think I outgrew it now that I'm attached to my toons more.
 
But the upgradeable quest rewards... These are terrible, gotta agree. I used to feel really compelled to reroll for BIS gear but I think I outgrew it now that I'm attached to my toons more.
I am suffering through this now... out of 60+ rerolls I have 3 toons with an epic reward from https://www.wowhead.com/quest=29596/the-end-of-the-exarch
& I have 7 toons stuck with mail in their box that I can't delete.
Driving me nuts, but... it is the absolute core piece of gear for a twink & it truly is a re-roll if I don't get it;
as there really is no combination of items that can compensate for it's absence.
Deeply unsatisfying, but... imminently worth.
 

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