Shadowland Dungeons, ranked

Having already done the Shadowlands dungeons too many times, it's about time to do the whole internet thing and rank them.

8. Necrotic Wake

The first in the series of "the bosses are fine but the trash aren't" dungeons that is going to be a theme here. The bosses in this dungeon baseline and on fortified are fine, but on tyrannical they are very dull. First boss goo everywhere, second annoying adds, third annoying intermissions and adds bug out sometimes and the last one you barely notice is there. Then there's jumpy trash packs. Trash packs with both channeled stuns and shielding themselves. Groups with annoying to gather up mobs. The whole necropolis is also just super annoying with having little play around but also aggrevating. And to make the deal worse, Wake has a bunch of gimmick items that literally everyone has a different opinion on how to best make use of, leading to bickering most of the time. And it takes away some of the importance of just playing your character, when you just use some things to delete some trash or a mob - the whole place is "use items right" not "play character right". I labeled it as the new worst WoW dungeon for me somewhere, finally taking Oculus off the throne. But it might even be my least favorite map made by blizzard in any of their games...

7. Spires of Ascension

Spires is more... The bosses are "just" fine instead of good, the trash is "just" annoying but not horrible. It's pretty, it's open and don't really have any weird mechanics; it's only a couple of spears for kyrians you can use to make some pulls easier. What makes it so dull though is the whole open thing. You literally just go down a path, choose two branches that is straight forward, then a choice on the last trash platform what you wanna do. Meanwhile having to get transported platform to platform by the angels... Which breaks up the action a fair amount. So the amount of walking between somewhat dull trash pulls just makes me zone out, and then there's two packs or so where you need to have 10 people on kick rotations to get the job done. I'd never do this dungeon because I want to do it, but neither is it bad to get as a keystone for example. Just.. really boring?

6. Plaguefall

Plaguefall kinda feels like a Necrotic Wake redux. Bosses require a lot of space and a lot of dodging and the trash does the same - yet besides the big mobs that leaves slime they are somewhat forgettable. Not a fan of the atmosphere/theme. Not a horrible place, but kinda lukewarm to doing it in general and if a key gets suggested. The fact that trash count is a bit awkward too, especially on 10 or higher, needing some kind of skipping and backtracking for good placements until the last two or so is just boring too. And pugging this on tyrannical feels like a big gamble.

5. De Other Side

This place I actually enjoy all the bosses and trashmobs; they do basic WoW-stuff with a spin - no gimmicks except the night fae urns, which you fire and forget so it's okay (and for some urns just having aoe stuns works just aswell). What brings this place down is the same as Spires; a lot of pointless running breaking up the action a LOT. And the timer for m+ is fairly short even with the 2 added minutes recently doesn't help. And the only place you get to choose anything of relevance is in the ardenweald area with what sort of birds you want you want to mop up the trash count. And if you want to manipulate prideful spawns, run a bit back and forth making the place even more of a chore. And another don't bother with dungeon for tyrannical as the mechanics are kinda like Underrot from BFA; the moment the dps dont bother and just get uptime they either give the healer a breakdown or just outright die.

4. Theater of Pain

This dungeon contrary to the previous ones tries to at least give you an illusion of choice of ways to go through, and with less walking around since it has actual shortcuts back after killing a boss. The trash is on par with necrotic wake, lots of jumpy annoying stuff, limited areas with area of effect crap so no way to move. Like knockback spells to knock you off platforms combined with high area of effect damage in the same pulls before the liche boss for example. The bosses are pretty fun, except the liche one which is just annoying for dps, looks healing intensive and the tank might fall asleep. Don't really mind it for either tyrannical or fortified, but some of the other affixes are horrible - spiteful was annoying enough, quacking, sanguine and some others for some of the trash just seems horrible.

3. Mists of Tirna Scithe

This dungeon is the first one in the ranking that I would say is fairly good; it has some choice of what to do at the start without needing rogue or stealth potions and a diverging path at the end for making it possible to vary route. The bosses are perhaps the weakest in the expansion when it comes to fun (the first one is on part with the second Motherlode boss for sheer tediousness), but at the same time the trash is kinda okay so it evens out a bit more. The only real negative is that you need a night fae to activate checkpoints. But since the majority of dps character at the moment seems to want to be night fae this makes it a complete non-issue at the moment. I quite enjoy the maze and the second boss since it's one of those puzzle types I get, while I also get why people would just use a weakaura to not have to think about it, especially in m+. Bonus for being a real easy key to time in m+ it would seem no matter the affix.

2. Sanguine Depths

While Necrotic Wake has been one divisive dungeon, this one is the other it seems people are very split on. But I am on the other end of the divisive line here than I was for Necrotic Wake. While the paths through the dungeon is fairly straightforward, the pack composition are fairly interesting and having none of those either/or comps Spires for example has. I can remember the names of several mob types in here, and what they do, more than just remembering some spells I need to kick, stun or purge. The bosses are kinda mean and busy, but they use fairly standard WoW mechanics with a twist. Stack up for this, spread out for that, avoid crap on ground and stuff like that. Works well thematically for me. And the covenant special of gathering mobs near an urn for a buff works well enough without being intrusive or a smack on the fingers if you don't have a venthyr character in the group. Fortified has been fairly easy, tyrannical not so much so far in here.

1. Halls of Atonement

At the start of the expansion I was thinking of Halls of Atonement as the one dungeon that felt like it could match BFA dungeons for lasting fun. But I changed my mind fast and "merely" consider it as pretty good. Open area at the start with some choice of what you want to pull and in what order, but there's less actual choice than it would seem at first. After the first boss there is very little choice left, pretty much a straight path. Bosses are kinda interesting mechanically, but perhaps a bit undertuned making them fairly easy. The trash packs just like in sanguine depths are easy to remember the concept of and their names, and it feels like they have a strong identity that matches the place but avoiding the pitfall of just having little interaction or all the interaction stacked up in just a couple of packs. Bosses again use regular WoW mechanics in new ways avoiding gimmicks. And the venthyr members getting gargoyle pets as a short buff is both pretty good but don't feel like you NEED it. The fact the dungeon can be played every m+ week just like mists doesn't hurt the impression either. But if they had kept the entire dungeon in the outside area to make it more player choice about route instead of slamming people through a set way a third of the way through it would have been nicer.

When Shadowlands is over, and if RIO makes another of those in review summaries, I am fairly certain this ranking will be pretty close to what dungeons I actually have done in various amounts. Except perhaps Spires and Depths changing places, since most people don't mind Spires but do mind Depths. And I'm not going to pug Depths on tyrannical...