Assessing WoW Classic Dungeon and Boss Levels

The members of Crag Boar Rebellion have been discussing which dungeon to tackle next. Our challenge is that while we don’t want to skip content, we also have a goal of being optimally leveled for each instance. I think we’d like to be challenged a bit and able to make use of any drops, but not wipe when we walk in the door.

Usually we check familiar sources to see what party level range they recommend for a given instance (Viniki and Skronk do most of this work). However, the recommendations sometimes seem off.

Out of curiosity I decided to compare the recommendations of two popular resources, Wowhead and Icy Veins – and then compare those against recommendations from the old print publication Brady Games’ World of Warcraft Dungeon Companion.

The following table shows the results of my casual, non-scientific data gathering. (Please post corrections/updates in the comments). Note that level ranges assume a full group of 5, and that these figures are for WoW release 1.12.

Key:

WH = Wowhead

I-V = Icy Veins

DC = Dungeon Companion

Dungeon	WH	I-V	DC
Ragefire Chasm	13-18	13-16	13-18
Deadmines	18-23	17-21	18-23
Wailing Caverns	15-25	17-23	18-25
Shadowfang Keep	22-30	18-23	20-26
Blackfathom Deeps	24-32*	20-27	23-28
The Stockade(s)	24-30*	23-30	24-29
Razorfen Kraul	30-40	25-32	25-30
Gnomeregan	29-38*	28-35	30-36
Scarlet Monastery	26-45	29-42	33-40
Razorfen Downs	37-47*	37-43	35-40
Uldaman	40-45*	41-47	40-45
Zul’Farrak	44-54	44-49	43-48
Blackrock Depths	56-59**	n/a	52-57
Maraudon	45-52	47-49	45-52
Temple of Atal’Hakkar	50-55*	n/a	50-55
Dire Maul	55-60	55-60	55-60
Blackrock Spire	55-60	n/a	57-60

* Taken from the Wowhead dungeon guide page, not its table of contents (see below).

** This is the usual level range for “most players.”

Clearly there’s disagreement over precisely what minimum and maximum level party members should be for most dungeons (not looking at you, Dire Maul). You can see this especially with Wailing Caverns, Shadowfang Keep, Razorfen Downs, and Zul’Farrak.

Another thing I discovered is that the sources don’t always agree with themselves. Wowhead level recommendations can differ between its dungeon table of contents and the actual dungeon guide page. This is probably because content is edited by multiple authors. Here are examples.

dUNGEON	tABLE OF CONTENTS	DUNGEON PAGE
Blackfathom Deeps	20-30	24-32
The Stockade(s)	22-30	24-30
Gnomeregan	24-34	29-38
Razorfen Downs	40-50	37-47
Temple of Atal’Hakkar	55-60	50-55

Another factor that we consider when deciding on dungeon level is the main boss level. Here are my findings on the maximum boss level in each instance, using multiple sources. (Getting accurate info here is trickier than you might think. Please submit corrections in the comments, and I will also correct inaccuracies as we complete each instance.) As above, these numbers are for WoW release 1.12. Don’t forget that all bosses are elites.

Dungeon	boss	boss level
Ragefire Chasm	(All 4 bosses same level)	16
Deadmines	VanCleef	21
Wailing Caverns	Mutanus the Devourer	22
Shadowfang Keep	Archmage Arugal	26
Blackfathom Deeps	Aku’Mai	28
The Stockade(s)	Bazil Thredd	29
Razorfen Kraul	Charlga Razorflank	33
Gnomeregan	Mexgineer Thermaplugg	34
Scarlet Monastery (SM)
— SM Graveyard	Bloodmage Thalnos	34
— SM Library	Arcanist Doan	37
— SM Armory	Herod	40
— SM Cathedral	(Shared)
	Scarlet Cmdr. Mograine	42
	High Inq. Whitemane	42
Razorfen Downs	(Shared)
	Glutton	40
	Plaguemaw the Rotting	40
Uldaman	Grimlok	45
Zul’Farrak	(Shared)	48
	Antu’Sul	48
	Chief Ukorz Sandscalp	48
Blackrock Depths	(Various)	60+
Maraudon	Princess Theradras	51
Temple of Atal’Hakkar	Shade of Eranikus	55
Dire Maul	(Various)	61+
Blackrock Spire	(Various)	60+

As for our Wow Classic group, we found ourselves to be somewhat above-level for Ragefire Chasm, Wailing Caverns, Deadmines, Shadowfang Keep, the Stockade, and much of Gnomeregan. The group skipped Blackfathom Deeps because we felt we’d outleveled it by too much by the time we got there (although I hope we take a different group in the future).

With everyone in the 28-30 range now, we may end up missing Razorfen Kraul as well and jump into the first part of Scarlet Monastery, although I don’t think that’s been decided just yet.

As usual, TAGN has been documenting each dungeon run, and our levels at the start of each, on his blog. He did the same back in the 2000s, so you can look for those posts as well if you think they might be helpful. Just enter the dungeon name into the search on his blog, and comment here if there’s anything you aren’t finding.

To see us on our WoW Classic instance runs, browse the Instance Run videos.