WoW Dragonflight Dungeons: What are they?

Available since: 70 lvl

Zone: Azure Span

The Vault has several aesthetics combined. It looks like something coming from the Cataclysm's Deepholm: lots of glowing crystals and stone elementals all around. But at the same time it also has WotLK's Nexus vibes. Even some mobs are very similar to the ones we had there. And both those references make sense: Nexus was a place where lots of dragons chilled since it was a blue dragonflight's stronghold. Malygos was the boss there, remember? We met him in the Eye of the Eternity. And Deepholm was one of the most important places for the Cataclysm story that also involved lots of dragons including Deathwing and elemental lords including Therazane. Other than those interesting connections, there's not much going on in the instance that we'd call fun. Perhaps, it's one of the most "normal" dungeons in DF. However, gameplay-wise, mob packs are rather challenging and you'll have to find effective ways to deal with them. It's safe to say that bosses are less exciting than mob groups here.

Loot of interest: There are lots of shiny things that you can get here which is very fitting to the dungeon's theme. There you can find a neck piece (Custodian's Medallion of Delusion, versatility and mastery), a ring (Unstable Arcane Loop, critical chance and haste), and a couple of trinkets. For example, Tome of Unstable Power which is really true to its name: it summons a rune that increases primary stat but lowers crit chance. It works as an AOE so you can just walk out of its effect if you need more crit. Another trinket is Umbrelskul's Fractured Heart that has a chance to crystallize your enemy and deal lots of Arcane damage to it. If a crystallized target dies an Arcane bomb goes off dealing AOE damage to enemies nearby.

Available since: 66 lvl

Zone: Azure Span

Loot of interest: The Hollow has as many as 2 two-handed maces in its table. We don't see things like that too often so it drew our attention. One of the maces is Bough of Deterioration that focuses on strength, crit, and mastery. The other is Ancestral Stoneshaper which has intellect, haste, and mastery bonuses to offer. Hence, they are meant for different kinds of players: melee DPS (warriors, DKs, retri pallies) and casters (druids, shams, holy pallies).

There are also several trinkets to enjoy. For example, Treemouth's Festering Splinter is something tracks might consider. It has an active use ability: you deal some nature damage to yourself but get a sort of a slime shield to absorb incoming damage. Idol of Pure Decay has a chance to shoot an AOE volley towards your enemies after you cast some ranged ability. Not only does it damage, but also it shows down the targets. And finally, there's Frenzying Signoll Flare that gets you a chance to summon a little gnoll helper with your abilities. The gnoll in question can do lots of useful things: deal damage, place DOTs, snare, stun, or buff your second highest stat. The only problem with that is that you can't control it so it all happens randomly.

Available since: 70 lvl

Zone: Thaldraszus

This is yet another titan-built sanctum that we'll have to get into. It has huge similarities with Halls of Stone, Halls of Lightning (both from WotLK), and Halls of Origination (Cataclysm). As you can see, even their names have the same pattern which is already telling. So aesthetics-wise, there's hardly anything new here but it's definitely a welcome throwback to the old expansions for those who has nostalgia for them. And yes, it will have some more titan-related story, mainly focusing on Tyr and what he'd been up to in Thaldraszus as well as other parts of the Dragon Isles.

Loot of interest: This loot table has a Titan-Forged Blaster which would already be enough for it to be amazing! However, that gun doesn't seem to be too overpowered or something, just has a great name and great looks. As for other loot, there are a couple of interesting trinkets here: Globe of Jagged Ice, Water's Beating Heart, and Iredius Fragment. The Globe has both a passive and active effect. The passive one gives you a chance to inflict a shard of jagged ice on your target with your damaging spells. Those shards stack up to 4. The active one activates the shards dealing AOE damage and slowing down all the affected enemies. The second trinket we've mentioned, Beating Heart, looks like a great healer CD ability. It increases your ally's armor and restores their health for 8 seconds running. The amount of bonuses they get depends on their current health and the less health they have, the more effective it becomes. Finally, the third trinket, Irideus Fragment, gets you a mastery increase passively and gives you the ability to greatly increase your primary stat. That increase will lower with each ability you use until it is no more.

Available since: 70 lvl

Zone: Waking Shores

Neltharus is a citadel of the Black Dragonflight. Deathwing himself chilled there. But things changed at some point when the clan lost the leader and other horrible things happened. So the local race of djaradin got into the fortress and called themselves the owners of it. Black dragons weren't fans of that but couldn't do much because of the pitiful state their clan was in. Now that the heroes of Azeroth come to the Dragon Isles and Wrathion and Sabellian are ready to help the dragonflight return to its former might, there's a good chance that things will get back to how they used to be. The dungeon's environment is full of lava, steel, chains, and stuff like that. It's reminiscent of Black Rock instances. The huge head of Deathwing installed in one of the halls of Neltharus reminds us of the days of Cataclysm. Actually, the dungeon's name itself is close to the real name of Deathwing – Neltharion.

Loot of interest: Most items found in this place are lava-related and will bring much joy to people who are fond of the Black Rock aesthetics. There are also 3 trinkets that are worth mentioning: Erupting Spear Fragment, Spoils of Neltharus, and Mutated Magmammoth Scale. The Spear Fragment gives you the ability that throws a fire AOE at your enemies and then returns "flaming fragments" to you increasing your crit strike depending on how many targets you have struck. Spoils of Neltharus allows you to open it and get a bonus from one of its treasures. The bonus goes to one of your secondary stats. And lastly, the Magmammoth Scale gives your ability a chance to grow flaming tentacles on your body. They do damage in a cone AOE and the damage increases with each target hit (up to 5 targets).

Available since: 63 lvl

Zone: Ohn'ahran Plains

This dungeon is quite unusual. It employs the entire territory of the Ohn'ahran Plains and places its bosses all across them. Navigating it would be a real nightmare if it hadn't been for dragonriding. Yes, you got it right: it's the only dungeon that lets you fly on your dragon inside. Thus you cross the map fast and deal with enemies in opposite ends of it. The idea is that you help the Maruuk clan defeat the clan Nokhud which did some serious sacrilege. They captured Ohn'ahran, a huge ancient eagle whom other centaurs worshipped as a god. Naturally, everyone in the Maruuk clan was mad with the Nokhudians and a war broke out. For some reason, Blizzard call it a civil war in their official preview of the dungeon, but it's hard to call a conflict between separate clans "civil" in any way. 

Loot of interest: You'll find 3 trinkets of interest here: Furious Ragefeather, Miniature Singing Stone, and Idol of Trampling Hooves. The Ragefeather is perfect for DPS casters as it adds intellect and offers an additional shadow-damage spell that procs whenever you cast your own abilities. The Singing Stone is great for healers: it also increases intellect and also gives you an ability to shield your allies. The shield works in an unusual way: after its duration on one target ends it goes to four nearby targets. Needless to say, any healer will be happy with such thing. Finally, the Idol of Trampling Hooves increases your strength and gives you a chance to summon a centaur that will deal damage to your targets. The centaur will also increase your party's speed for 5 sec..

Available since: 61 lvl

Zone: Waking Shores

You will find the entrance to the pools in an unusually cold part of the Waking Shores zone. But you won't find much snow inside: in fact, this dungeon has a very different vibe. Although it's one of the shortest instances in years (just 3 bosses and not too many mob packs), it has lots of various parts all of which have their own aesthetics. It starts as a plain cave and doesn't look exactly promising. But as you move on a little further you'll discover an ancient dragon temple that actually has those very life pools inside. True to their name, they have lots of living things chilling around. Some of them are aggressive and we'll have to fight them. As you carry on with the dungeon you see more verdant vegetation and beautiful dragons' architecture. At some point you get up to the surface part of the temple and see lots of reddish trees there under an indigo sky. It looks like a perfect early autumn. There you'll face the last boss of the dungeon and after defeating it, you'll have a lucky chance to enjoy the sunset. You don't always have such a beautiful instance to play through!

Loot of interest: All difficulties of the Ruby Pools have the same drops – they only differ in item level. You'll find 3 peculiar trinkets here: Kyrakka's Searing Embers, Ruby Whelp Shell, and Blazebinder's Hoof.  The first one increases your crit and applies a DOT on your targets from time to time. The Ruby Whelp Shell adds Agility, Strength, or Intellect (depends on your spec) and summons a (somewhat) helpful ruby dragon cub. You might have some fun with it since it has a couple of peculiar abilities. And finally, the third trinket improves haste and also has a chance to increase your strength. That buff stacks and at some point you can unleash that stacked energy as a damaging spell.

Available since: 60 lvl

Zone: Badlands (Eastern Kingdoms)

It is the longest available Dragonflight dungeon: you could access it as early as in the second phase of the pre-patch (that was the middle of November). As you could guess, this instance continues the story set in the original Uldaman which is an OG Classic dungeon. You can still enter it in the modern version of WoW, although it has seen some changes in Cataclysm. Anyway, what's going on in the Legacy of Tyr? In fact, you just walk in a slightly different direction to a different tunnel – that's where the differences with the original dungeon start. You'll have to fight the easter-egg boss the Lost Vikings first. Most other bosses also have some connection to the past of both WoW and other Blizzard games. It all ends with a time-dragon fight that is how this dungeon is related to the dragon theme of the entire new expansion.

Loot of interest: Although not exactly very powerful, the loot dropping from the first boss is pretty peculiar. The first boss is, as we've already mentioned, the Lost Vikings and all the stuff they have for you after the fight is viking-themed. They have themed names like: Lost Hero's Waist Wrap (belt), Treads of the Swift (feet, "the Swift" is one of the Viking's nickname), Old Seafarer's Headpiece (head), Fierce Boreal Armguards (wrists), and so on. One of such items is Homeland Raid Horn which is a trinket that adds agility or strength to your stats and has an on-demand AOE damaging ability. But be careful with it: it deals damage not just to your enemies but to you too!