World of Warcraft: Forever players are avoiding dungeons due to severe experience point nerfs that make group content unrewarding compared to open-world questing.
The game launched with nine new dungeons, but changes to how dungeon XP is awarded have made the content inefficient. Dungeon mob experience was lowered, and dungeon quest experience was reduced again in October after an initial overtuning. Players report they gain twice the XP killing open-world mobs five levels below them than dungeon mobs one level below them.
The result is widespread player frustration. Forming groups, traveling to dungeons, and completing them takes significant time but yields minimal experience gains and occasional gear drops. Some players must run the same dungeon multiple times to complete all quests for their group, multiplying the time investment with no additional reward. This has shifted player behavior toward rushing through quests when dungeons are run at all, rather than enjoying the content.
Blizzard intended the nerfs to push players into the open world and away from dungeon spam leveling. However, players note that dungeon grouping is inherently part of that world experience, and the current rewards make the coordination effort unjustifiable. Some players also report that a new layering system reduces visible players in the world, undercutting the intended social experience.
Dozens of threads across forums and in-game chat reflect the backlash. The author expects Blizzard will adjust dungeons in response, though the specific direction of any change remains unclear.