Are dungeons worth it in WoW Forever?

Short answer: run each dungeon once while its quests still give you XP, then go back to questing. In Forever, most dungeon XP comes from the quests you hand in, not from the mobs you kill. That makes a first run with a full quest log worth doing. Running the same dungeon again just for XP is usually not, unless you want the loot, a Legacy challenge or time with friends.

Blizzard changed dungeon XP twice during the beta: once down (quest XP) and once up (kill XP and party maths). The beta was capped at level 30, so nobody outside Blizzard has tested how this plays out from 30 to 60. Treat the 30–60 advice below as our reading of the rules, not tested numbers.

What Blizzard changed during the beta

Beta build	Change	Source
Pre-beta design	Quests give much more XP and mob kills give much less than in Classic	Wowhead
1 Oct	"Dungeon quests now reward 50% less extra experience beyond normal quest values." Some quest rewards were recalibrated	Blizzard dev notes
8 Oct	XP from dungeon creature kills raised by about 20%	Wowhead
8 Oct	Party XP penalty bug fixed: each player's XP is now worked out individually, as in Classic Era	Wowhead
8 Oct	If one party member is far above the enemy's level, nobody in the group gets XP from it	Wowhead
8 Oct	Some dungeon quest rewards dropped from Rare (blue) to Uncommon (green)	Wowhead

Official WoW Forever image: road through hills screenshot — Image © Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. Source: Blizzard News

Blizzard's note on the 8 October changes says it believes the kill-XP buff and the party fix together "will dramatically increase experience earned in dungeons for most players" (Wowhead). It has not published exact XP values per kill or per quest, so we don't give any here.

[Unconfirmed] Blizzard hasn't said how far above the enemy a player has to be before the group's XP is cut. Wowhead commenters asked for the limit to be set at a 15-level gap, but that is a request, not the rule.

First run vs repeat run

	First run (quests in your log)	Repeat run (no quests left)
Where the XP comes from	Quest hand-ins plus kills	Kills only
Kill XP	Lower than Classic by design, raised about 20% on 8 Oct	Same
Loot	Every boss drop is new to you; unique boss items are now blue	Farming a specific drop or set piece
Legacy	Counts toward the Dungeons category if you kill the final boss	Already counted
Worth it for XP?	Yes, if the quests are green or yellow for you	Usually not. Quest out in the world instead

Official WoW Forever image: dungeon interior corridor screenshot — Image © Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. Source: Blizzard News

Blue boss items and reworked dungeon loot come from the Deep Dive panel recap. The Legacy row comes from Blizzard's Legacy article. Our Legacy points guide has the full list.

Krol'dok Stronghold: huts and towers in a rocky camp — Krol'dok Stronghold, a new level 40–45 ogre fortress in the Riverglades. Image © Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. Source: Explore the New Dungeons of World of Warcraft: Forever.

When a dungeon is worth it from 30 to 60

You're carrying its quests. Pick up every quest for the dungeon in the world first, then queue. Most of the XP is in the hand-ins.
The group is close to your level. XP is worked out per player again, but one player far above the enemies stops XP for everyone. A big carry costs the whole group its kill XP.
You want the loot. Boss uniques are blue, and dungeon quest rewards can still be blues, though some were cut to greens on 8 October.
You're chasing Legacy points. The Dungeons category is 3 points: kill the final boss of every dungeon in the 15–25, 26–45 and 46–60 groups (Blizzard).
You're playing with friends. If the run is the fun part, the XP is a bonus.

Skip it, or come back later, when the quests have gone grey or when you'd be the one far above the enemies.

Quest vs dungeon route, levels 30–60

The levels are our site's Group Finder bands from Dungeons by level. For the new dungeons we also give Blizzard's own range. Zone levels come from our zones hub. Each dungeon links to its own guide, and the quest lists are on the linked quest pages. Scarlet Monastery wing order follows the wing levels on our Scarlet Monastery guide Classic Era baseline.

Your level	Quest in	Dungeon to run once (with quests)
30–35	Arathi Highlands, Desolace, Alterac Mountains, Thousand Needles, start Stranglethorn Vale	Scarlet Monastery (30–46): Graveyard and Library first (quests); City of Dalaran (Blizzard 28–33) if you haven't done it yet
35–40	Stranglethorn Vale, Riverglades	The Drowned City (Blizzard 35–40); Scarlet Monastery Armory and Cathedral, which need The Scarlet Key from the Library Classic Era baseline; Razorfen Downs (37–46, quests)
40–45	Badlands, Dustwallow Marsh, Swamp of Sorrows, Riverglades	Krol'dok Stronghold (Blizzard 40–45); Uldaman (41–51, quests)
45–50	Tanaris, Feralas, The Hinterlands	Zul'Farrak (44–54, quests); Maraudon (46–55, quests); Alcaz Prison (Blizzard 48–53)
50–55	Searing Gorge, Un'Goro Crater, Felwood, Azshara, Blasted Lands, Western Plaguelands	Sunken Temple (50–60, quests); Blackrock Depths (52–60, quests); Dire Maul (54–60, quests)
55–60	Burning Steppes, Eastern Plaguelands, Silithus, Winterspring	Blackmaw Hold (Blizzard 55–60); Blackrock Spire (55–60, quests); Scholomance, Stratholme and Shaper's Terrace (58–60)

How to use the route

Quest in the zones for your level until a dungeon's quest chain sends you inside.
Gather every quest for that dungeon before you queue. The dungeon's quest page lists where each one starts.
Find a group close to your level and clear it once, up to the final boss.
Hand in, then go straight back to questing in the next zone.
Run it again only for a specific drop, a friend's quest or a Legacy boss you missed.

[Unconfirmed] We can't yet say whether a full dungeon clear with quests beats an hour of world questing at a given level. The beta stopped at 30, and Blizzard hasn't published XP values. We'll update this page once players have real numbers from live servers.

Alcaz Prison: two green figures in a dark hall — Alcaz Prison, a new level 48–53 dungeon on Alcaz Island in Dustwallow Marsh. Image © Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. Source: Explore the New Dungeons of World of Warcraft: Forever.

What players are saying

Players are split. These are opinions from beta testers, not Blizzard statements.

Against the current dungeon XP	For it, or "it's fine"
There's no reason to run a dungeon more than once, and groups skip trash and speedrun (US forum)	Big quest rewards feel good, especially at the end of a long chain (US forum)
Tanks and healers have less reason to level by running dungeons, so groups are harder to fill (US forum)	You don't need a full tank build before 40, and running with friends is worth it anyway (US forum)
Cutting quest XP without raising kill XP removed the reason to queue (comments on Wowhead, before the 8 Oct buff)	Lower dungeon XP keeps people questing out in the world (EU forum)
Farming dungeon sets, such as the Fang set, feels bad when reruns give little XP (EU forum)	The 8 Oct buff "still sounds a bit low but at least it's an improvement" (comment on Wowhead)

Most of the angry feedback came before the 8 October kill-XP buff and party fix. Blizzard hasn't announced any dungeon XP change since then in the dev notes we checked (last updated 26 October).

Dungeons by level: every dungeon, level band and location
Dungeon loot changes
How fast is levelling in Forever?
Legacy points
Is WoW Forever too easy?

Sources

Blizzard — WoW Forever Beta Development Notes (Updated October 26)
Wowhead — Dungeon Experience Buff and 16 Legacy Points Testing in WoW Forever Beta
Wowhead — Dungeon Quest XP Nerfed in Latest WoW: Forever Beta Build
Blizzard — Explore the New Dungeons of World of Warcraft: Forever
Blizzard — Get to Know the Legacy System
Blizzard — Deep Dive panel recap (WoW Forever)
Blizzard forums (US) — Dungeon XP
Blizzard forums (EU) — Beta feedback: dungeon XP, blue rewards, cross-faction dungeon access