To get some of the best loot that World of Warcraft Classic has to offer, you need to run WoW Classic dungeons. These 5-10 player instances offer both terrific equipment from boss kills and also from the quests that lead you inside. The weapons and armor you find in dungeons will not only help you quest successfully in the open world, but will also prepare you for endgame large-group raid instances, should you decide to give those a try.
Most WoW Classic dungeons require five players, though all but Blackrock Depths, Scholomance, and Stratholme allow you to take up to 10; you just can’t complete any quests. Typically, you’ll take one tank, one healer and three damage classes. It’s often helpful if one of those damage-dealers has a couple of healing spells. There is no in-game tool to find a group, so generally you’ll locate one by asking in zone chat for the zone where the dungeon is located, or even more commonly, in trade chat in capitol cities. We’ve listed the abbreviations that people commonly use below.
While Classic dungeon bosses tend to be simpler to handle than their modern counterparts. A fight like Chopper Redhook from Battle for Azeroth’s Siege of Boralus would have been a raid battle, not a dungeon, in Classic, with its adds, bombs, fixates, and other mechanics. Getting to the dungeons, getting the quests for them and figuring out what to do inside can be much tougher in Classic.
Unlike BfA, where quests are all at the dungeon entrance (and have to be, because the vast majority of players will see the instance by using the Looking for Group tool), Classic has quests for different dungeons spread all over the map in many cases, with some requiring extensive quest chains before the final dungeon quest becomes available. The dungeons themselves aren’t always easy to find, with entrances buried inside mountains – such as Wailing Caverns and Blackrock Depths – or behind areas full of hostile mobs.
The time required to complete a dungeon in WoW Classic depends on how high your group’s level is compared to the dungeon; whether everyone sticks it out, or if you have to send someone back to town to recruit; and how many bosses are stuffed inside. Some are comparatively short (Scarlet Monastery’s Graveyard, for example); for others, you’d best pack a lunch, because it’s going to be hours (Blackrock Depths, we’re looking at you).
In each of the cases below, we’ve listed the minimum level required to zone into the dungeon. Typically, quests require you to be a few levels higher, and the recommended levels for higher dungeons may be as much as 10-15 levels north of the minimum. For dungeons with separate wings, some tend to be harder than others; Scarlet Monastery Graveyard is easier than Cathedral, for example, and Dire Maul West is easier than Dire Maul North. Some dungeons require attunements to enter; typically, only one member of your party needs this attunement, and the others can follow them inside once the door or gate is opened.
Here’s the list of all WoW Classic dungeons:
RAGEFIRE CHASM
- Minimum level: 10
- What people call it in chat: RFC
- Where it’s located: Right in the middle of Orgrimmar
- Attunement required: No
- Bosses and wings: One wing, four bosses
WAILING CAVERNS
- Minimum: 10
- What people call it in chat: WC
- Where it’s located: Buried inside a hill in The Barrens, just southwest of Crossroads
- Attunement required: No
- Bosses and wings: One wing, eight bosses (sometimes an additional rare mob will spawn)
THE DEADMINES
- Minimum: 10
- What people call it in chat: Deadmines or VC or DM, and expect to see lots of arguments about that
- Where it’s located: Buried inside a shack that leads to a mine in the Westfall town of Moonbrook
- Attunement required: No
- Bosses and wings: One wing, seven bosses (one additional rare mob)
SHADOWFANG KEEP
- Minimum: 14
- What people call it in chat: SFK
- Where it’s located: In a castle at the top of a hill in Silverpine Forest, west of Ambermill, south of the Ruins of Lordaeron
- Attunement required: No
- Bosses and wings: One wing, seven bosses (plus one rare mob)
BLACKFATHOM DEEPS
- Minimum: 15
- What people call it in chat: BFD
- Where it’s located: Underwater in a ruin on a beach at the western end of Ashenvale
- Attunement required: No
- Bosses and wings: One wing, eight bosses
THE STOCKADE
- Minimum: 15
- What people call it in chat: Stocks
- Where it’s located: Right in the middle of Stormwind City
- Attunement required: No
- Bosses and wings: One wing, five bosses, one rare
GNOMEREGAN
- Minimum: 19
- What people call it in chat: Gnomer
- Where it’s located: Inside a gnomish building in northwestern Dun Morogh, west of Ironforge
- Attunement required: No, but obtaining the Workshop Key allows you to enter via the back door, which is much faster; Horde players can complete a quest to get a teleporter in Booty Bay to jump near Gnomeregan
- Bosses and wings: One wing, five bosses, and a rare
SCARLET MONASTERY
- Minimum: 21
- What people call it in chat: SM, typically followed by an abbreviation for the wing
- Where it’s located: In a large church northeast of Undercity and Brill, up in the hills
- Attunement required: Yes – the Scarlet Key from the Library wing is required to open the Armory or Cathedral wings
- Bosses and wings: Four wings. Graveyard: Two bosses, three rares. Library: two bosses. Armory: one boss. Cathedral: three bosses.
RAZORFEN KRAUL
- Minimum: 25
- What people call it in chat: RFK
- Where it’s located: Just west off the Gold Road at the far southern end of The Barrens
- Attunement required: No
- Bosses and wings: One wing, six bosses, and two rares
MAURADON
- Minimum: 30
- What people call it in chat: Maura, Mauradon
- Where it’s located: Buried in a hill near the southwestern coast of Desolace
- Attunement required: No, but building the Scepter of Celebras allows you to skip to the final boss
- Bosses and wings: Four wings. Purple side: two bosses. Orange side: two bosses. Poison Falls: one boss and a rare. Earth Song Falls: three bosses.
ULDAMAN
- Minimum: 30
- What people call it in chat: Ulda, Uldaman
- Where it’s located: Buried underneath the north central area of the Badlands
- Attunement required: No
- Bosses and wings: One wing, seven bosses, plus one that only Horde can attack
RAZORFEN DOWNS
- Minimum: 35
- What people call it in chat: RFD
- Where it’s located: Across the Gold Road from RFK, buried behind approximately eleventy billion quillboar and twisty little passages that all look alike in southern Barrens, inside an enormous quillboar skull
- Attunement required: No
- Bosses and wings: One wing, five bosses, and a rare
ZUL’FARRAK
- Minimum: 39
- What people call it in chat: ZF
- Where it’s located: Ruins in northwestern Tanaris
- Attunement required: No, but someone in the party must have the Mallet of Zul’Farrak if you plan to kill Gahz’rilla
- Bosses and wings: One wing, 11 (!) bosses, and three rares.
TEMPLE OF ATAL’HAKKAR
- Minimum: 45
- What people call it in chat: ST (for Sunken Temple)
- Where it’s located: Underwater in the middle of a lake in the middle of Swamp of Sorrows
- Attunement required: No, but you must have Yeh’kinya’s Scroll to summon the Avatar of Hakkar
- Bosses and wings: Not wings, but the two floors of ST are typically handled separately. The basement has seven bosses, while the main instance has eight.
BLACKROCK DEPTHS
- Minimum: 48
- What people call it in chat: BRD
- Where it’s located: Buried inside Blackrock Mountain (run down the chairs to the very bottom, then through the mine, to find the entrance)
- Attunement required: No, but the Shadowforge Key (which you get from a quest obtained while you’re dead) unlocks all the interior doors in the dungeon, making subsequent visits faster
- Bosses and wings: While the dungeon is carved into sections, it’s still one extraordinarily long run; 22 bosses and one rare.
DIRE MAUL
- Minimum: 48
- What people call it in chat: DME, DMN, DMW (for the various wings)
- Where it’s located: Large ogre complex north of the main road in the middle of Feralas
- Attunement required: Yes, the Crescent Key is required to open doors in the North and West wings
- Bosses and wings: Three wings. East: five bosses. West: five bosses and a rare. North: seven bosses
LOWER BLACKROCK SPIRE
- Minimum: 48
- What people call it in chat: LBRS
- Where it’s located: In the same mountain as Blackrock Depths, but go up instead of down
- Attunement required: No
- Bosses and wings: One wing, nine bosses, seven rare mobs
UPPER BLACKROCK SPIRE
- Minimum: 48
- What people call it in chat: UBRS
- Where it’s located: In the LBRS area, but a separate attunement is required to open the door
- Attunement required: Yes – one member of the party must have the Seal of Ascension to open the door
- Bosses and wings: One wing, seven bosses, one rare
SCHOLOMANCE
- Minimum: 48
- What people call it in chat: Scholo
- Where it’s located: Western Plaguelands inside the ruins of Caer Darrow
- Attunement required: Yes – one member of the party (or someone in the area) must have the Skeleton Key to open the door
- Bosses and wings: One wing, 15 bosses, two of which are summoned
STRATHOLME
- Minimum: 48
- What people call it in chat: Strath Live Side, Strath Dead Side
- Where it’s located: Eastern Plaguelands on the continent of Eastern Kingdoms
- Attunement required: No, but killing one of the bosses on Dead Side will award one member of the party the Key to the City for direct access to the Dead Side
- Bosses and wings: Two wings: Live side – eight bosses, one of which is summoned, and two rares. Dead side – six bosses and a rare
And that’s the full list of WoW Classic dungeons available right now. These are serious undertakings for your group, so choose wisely, especially if you plan on grinding them as part of your WoW Classic leveling process. Best of luck with your loot drops.