WoW Forever dungeons: the nine new instances Blizzard has named, what it said about each, and the boss lists nobody has yet

Four of the nine are long-known Classic locations that were never instanced: Alcaz Island's prison off Dustwallow, the Ruins of Lordaeron above Undercity, Dalaran under its dome in Alterac, and the excavation in the Wetlands. Two use names from Warcraft lore that Classic hinted at — the Hall of Thanes 'beneath Ironforge', the Shaper's Terrace in Un'Goro. Three are new names: Blackmaw Hold, the Drowned City, Krol'dok Stronghold. The table pairs each with the only descriptive text Blizzard gave.

The Deep Dive's combat section is the design brief for every one of these instances: 'Dungeon gameplay is also meant to stay tactical, where crowd control can be the right answer when there are too many enemies for a tank to safely control at once. Polymorph, Banish, Fear, Root, and similar tools continue to have a place, and damage dealers still need to respect Threat, focus targets carefully, and use area damage only when it is safe.' The What's Next recap adds that the dungeons 'bring new reasons to revisit familiar corners of the world' and that 'dungeon quests' are part of the ongoing plan.

Two systems also route through dungeons. Camping's advanced objects — the Alchemy Lab, the Tanning Rack, the five- and ten-object Campfires — 'come from Blueprint recipes that drop from specific dungeon bosses'. And professions gain 'advanced Blueprint recipes from dungeon bosses'. Which bosses in which dungeons is not published.

This is the one dungeon-wide change with specifics. From the Deep Dive: 'These itemization updates reach across the entire game. Every dungeon drop has been re-examined, memorable items remain memorable, less exciting items have been adjusted, and hundreds of new drops have been added. Unique dungeon boss items are now blue quality and set bonuses have been improved to feel more useful and exciting.' That applies to the original dungeons as well as the nine new ones.

The stat changes underneath — merged hit and crit, bonus healing carrying a third as much bonus damage, caster weapons with spell damage 'so spellcasters can look forward to level-up weapons in the same way Warriors, Rogues, and Hunters do', new environment- and creature-type-linked effects — are what 're-examined' means in practice. The itemization page lists them all.

Alcaz Island has stood off Theramore with a prison and elite naga since 2004; Alcaz Prison instances it. The Ruins of Lordaeron are the surface courtyard of the Undercity, the site of Arthas's murder of Terenas; Blizzard's theme — 'helping the Forsaken reclaim' them — ties directly to the Forsaken Kingdom campaign that Forever's story follows. Dalaran in Year 1 is still a city under a purple dome in the hills between Alterac and Hillsbrad, which is why Blizzard's phrase is 'the City of Dalaran' rather than the floating city of later expansions, and why the trouble is 'strange magical'. Whelgar's Excavation is a dwarven dig in the Wetlands; the dungeon is 'a mysterious excavation site above' it.

Those four are Blizzard's 'Anticipated' category in the Found Photos taxonomy — 'places players have long known about or wanted to explore'. The point of naming them is that the stories are already half-told on the Classic map; Blizzard's job is the other half.

The Hall of Thanes 'beneath Ironforge' is the dwarven royal crypt, a name from Warcraft lore rather than a Classic location; Blizzard gives it no theme. The Shaper's Terrace is 'titan mysteries in Un'Goro' — the crater's titan history was the subject of Classic quests that never reached an instance. Blackmaw Hold ('unsettling corruption stirring in the depths'), the Drowned City ('naga and pirates') and Krol'dok Stronghold (nothing) are new names. Krol'dok is orcish in form; the Drowned City with naga suggests a coast; Blackmaw's corruption suggests Old God or Twilight's Hammer involvement, which the Riverglades' inhabitant list supports — but each of those is inference, and Blizzard has said none of it.

Where the three sit on the map is unpublished. Given that Blizzard placed a new zone in the Eastern Kingdoms and two in Kalimdor, and that six of the nine dungeons have stated or implied Eastern Kingdoms locations, a Kalimdor lean for the unplaced three would balance the map — again inference, not fact.

The Found Photos recap gives a lens that sorts the list neatly. 'Anticipated: Places players have long known about or wanted to explore' — Alcaz Prison, the Ruins of Lordaeron, the City of Dalaran and the Whelgar's site are exactly that: locations on the 2004 map that players walked past for two decades. 'New but familiar: Fresh stories grounded in Warcraft history and existing locations' — the Hall of Thanes under Ironforge and the Shaper's Terrace in Un'Goro, both rooted in lore the original game referenced without instancing. 'Unexpected: Surprises used more sparingly' — Blackmaw Hold, the Drowned City and Krol'dok Stronghold, names with no prior footprint.

That split also predicts the kind of story each will tell. Blizzard's philosophy favours 'local mysteries, grounded conflicts, and underused characters', which fits a prison, a ruin and an excavation far better than a new villain. Whether the three unexpected dungeons introduce new antagonists or extend existing ones — the Twilight's Hammer named in the Riverglades, the naga named for the Drowned City — is the open question.

No dungeon has a published level range. No group size is stated for dungeons (raids are stated: 10 and 20). No boss names, no loot, no attunements, no keys, no heroic modes, no dungeon finder — Blizzard has said nothing on any of these, and Forever's 'no convenience without thought' stance ('we're also being thoughtful about convenience') argues against assuming modern features. The realmless design does state that players 'can group, run dungeons, and raid with others who have chosen the same ruleset', so a Normal-ruleset character cannot run a dungeon with a PvP-ruleset friend.

The beta from 17 September will expose some of these through play; Blizzard's own class and content articles will expose others. This page adds facts with dates as they arrive and keeps the unknowns visible.

The dungeons are available at launch on 4 November; the two raids — Hyjal Summit (20-player) and the Barrow Deeps (10-player, maximum level) — unlock on 9 December; the Darkspear Islands battleground (15 v 15) is launch content. Blizzard's roadmap promises 'more raids, dungeons, PvP updates' after that without dates. The raids page and the PvP page keep to their own published lines.

When Blizzard publishes a dungeon preview — it has done so for Classic content in the past — the relevant row gains a linked section with the date. Nothing datamined from the beta client appears here as fact; if a fact is verified in the live game, it is labelled as observed, with the date, and not attributed to Blizzard.