World of Warcraft: The War Within still hasn't figured out Delves, its mini dungeons desperate for an identity

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(Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment)

A World of Warcraft dwarf and human character standing in front of the entrance to a delve dungeon

We are more than two months into World of Warcraft’s latest expansion, and one of its signature features still feels like an ugly duckling waiting to become a swan.

Delves, The War Within’s new mini-dungeons, were supposed to be an exciting way for solo players to achieve the highest levels of gear and content in WoW. Don’t want to raid? Don’t have 35 minutes for a dungeon or a group of friends who want to join you? Delves were supposed to be an alternative track with scaling difficulty like the Legion expansion’s Mage Tower challenges. They were supposed to give terrific rewards for a short investment of time and skill, but Blizzard can’t seem to figure out how to balance them in a way that makes everyone happy.

A promising start

“Delves are catered towards players who want to play either solo or in a flexible size group,” Blizzard associate art director Tina Wang said in an interview with me before the expansion launched. “They’ll be able to earn better rewards than those types of players have ever been able to. We want to make sure we’re allowing them an avenue to be able to have that end game progression system but not say, ‘Hey everyone, you have to do Delves.'”

But many players did feel like they had to do Delves at TWW’s launch, in part because large-group raids and Mythic dungeons weren’t yet available to play. That predictably led to issues as players min-maxed their Delves, loading up on experience for their companion Brann Bronzebeard until he was a mini god, and rapidly figuring out the quickest ways to max out gear and their weekly vault slots.

How to train your Bronzebeard

(Image credit: Heather N. / Blizzard)

A towering arachnid-like boss named Zekvir standign in a crimson room bedecked with cobwebs

Subsequent hotfixes buffed him, then nerfed him, then buffed him, then nerfed him, trying to find an impossible balance: making him useful enough for less-obsessive players (or new alt characters) while still avoiding making him overpowered for highly-geared players that just wanted to spam Delves for vault slots, reputation, or specific pieces of gear.

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When solo content is easier with a party

(Image credit: Heather N. / Blizzard)

The War Within screenshot with Brann and Vulpera character fighting the spiney Zekvir with a purple aura

At the same time, a new conflict was developing: solo vs group content. Delves had always been advertised as a solo endeavor, butyou could bring up to a full group with youas part of Warcraft’s commitment to supporting group play.

Effectively balancing Delves for solo players and groups has proved elusive.

The core community, that idea that you are better together is vital to who and what we are," Holly Longdale, Blizzard vice president and executive producer for Warcraft, told me in an interview this spring. “It is a foundational pillar.”

But effectively balancing Delves for solo players and groups has proved elusive.

After launch, players quickly discovered that these “solo mini dungeons” were much, much easier to do as a group—in some cases, actuallyscalingdownmonster health and power as you added more players. Hotfixes attempted to correct that, but that felt like a nerf to groups, making people who wanted to bring friends feel punished for doing so.

Got a priest? Pray for an interrupt

(Image credit: Blizzard)

World of Warcraft The War Within screenshots

As if balancing Brann and group vs solo play wasn’t bad enough, Blizzard also had a battle trying to balance the core mechanics of Delves with the abilities of various classes and their talent trees. WoW has 13 classes with a total of 39 different talent specifications, each with dozens of ability choices, making perfect balance for a solo experience nearly impossible.

In Delves, however, anyone who plays a class that lacks certain abilities and high damage has struggled.

In Delves, however, anyone who plays a class that lacks certain abilities and high damage has struggled. Characters that have tanking specifications sometimes have an easier time with the encounters. Some Delves favor melee classes, or those with frequent interrupt abilities. The final megaboss Zekvir in particular requires spell interrupts to survive, which is a particular challenge for some priests and druids, whose interrupts come with a 45-second and one-minute cooldown, respectively.

Pet classes have a hard time with high level delves too. Their pets can be one-shot even when the player is in Mythic raiding gear. That’s a problem when the vast majority of the damage done from one of WoW’s most popular classes, Beast Mastery hunters, comes from their pets.

BM hunters not only have to ensure their pets don’t taunt enemies so that the player can handle them instead—a role their class abilities are not designed to support—but also have to manage pet aggro carefully, since their supersized chunk of damage means that even without taunting, pets can swiftly take over tanking duty.

Brann was originally supposed to help resolve all this. His talent tree and relics include abilities that might shore up where players are lacking. But with his many nerfs and his non-existent tanking role (which isfinally comingin patch 11.1), his support is frankly lacking even for players of high gear level and skill.

Getting into gear with Delves

(Image credit: Blizzard)

Anduin Wrynn smiles, almost nostalgically, at something off-screen in World of Warcraft: The War Within.

Then there’s the gear from Delves. Players can earn Restored Coffer Keys doing other open world activities, and can use up to four of them a week to increase Delve loot rewards in a rotating set of special ‘bountiful’ Delves. Doing the highest tiers of difficulty in these with a Coffer Key awards up to Normal raid level loot, with the weekly vault reward at Heroic level.

An uncertain purpose

(Image credit: Blizzard)

World of Warcraft The War Within screenshots

The end result of all the balancing issues and endless hotfixes is an uncertain mess. Who are Delves really for? Are they for solo players looking to have their own gearing path, despite the hard cap on the item levels you can earn? Are they a source for alternate items of power for players even at the highest levels, or are they for casual players with less practice, less gear and perhaps less skill? Are they for individuals, or for groups? Only certain classes, or for everyone? For alternate characters to gear up in, or for mains looking to improve?Game director Ion Hazzikostas told us thatDelves are going well. And if I were him, I’d also be looking at the dwindling bugs-that-need-killing list, and the player counts, and think this is good. (Blizzard has donea metric ton of fixesalongside the Brann rollercoaster, and some were super helpful.) I believe there are plenty of people trying Delves; and I think they’re convenient, and in a much better place now from a balance and bugs perspective.

Delves need a vision

(Image credit: Blizzard)

WoW Delves

For a new instance type that was specifically sold as the new solo progression experience in WoW, the vision feels diluted.

But I don’t agree that they’re goingwell, and it’s not because they’re inherently bad—it’s because they’re not targeted at any type of player. They’re generic. They’re not fabulous for all soloers. They’re not amazing for all groups. They’re not perfect for casuals, and they’re not wonderful for sweaties. For every group, Blizzard is making significant compromises to allow gameplay for some other group. For a new instance type that was specifically sold asthenew solo progression experience in WoW, the vision feels diluted.

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A promising start#

How to train your Bronzebeard#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

When solo content is easier with a party#

Got a priest? Pray for an interrupt#

Getting into gear with Delves#

An uncertain purpose#

Delves need a vision#

A promising start

How to train your Bronzebeard

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

When solo content is easier with a party

Got a priest? Pray for an interrupt

Getting into gear with Delves

An uncertain purpose

Delves need a vision