Explainer
Are WoW Forever dungeons harder than Classic? The client says enemies hit 20% harder in 22 of them
Are WoW Forever dungeons harder than Classic? In 22 dungeons the game's files make enemies deal 20% more melee and spell damage, with the same health. Blizzard's notes don't mention it. The list, and what it means for your group.
Oct 18, 2026Checked against build 1.60.1.704503 min read
Yes: WoW Forever dungeons are harder than Classic’s, and the game’s own files say by how much. In 22 dungeons, enemies deal 20% more damage with weapons and with spells than they did in Classic. Their health and armor don’t change, so fights take as long as you remember and hurt more. Blizzard’s notes don’t mention it. This is what the client says, in build 1.60.1.70450 of the beta.
How WoW Forever makes dungeon enemies hit harder
Forever’s client has a table that Classic Era’s doesn’t: ExpectedStatMod, the multipliers retail WoW uses to tune whole pieces of content at once. Forever uses one of its rows, number 489, and ties it to dungeons through their level tuning. Row 489 says:
| What it changes | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| Enemy melee damage | 1.2 |
| Enemy spell damage | 1.2 |
| Enemy health | 1.0 |
| Enemy armor | 1.0 |
| Your health, mana and stats | 1.0 |
So nothing about you changes, and nothing about how long an enemy takes to kill. What changes is how much each of their hits takes off you. A pack that was safe for a tank in Classic now takes a fifth more healing.
The 22 WoW Forever dungeons with the 20% damage tuning
Every one of these has the tuning on its normal difficulty:
- Classic’s dungeons: Ragefire Chasm, Wailing Caverns, Deadmines, Shadowfang Keep, Blackfathom Deeps, Stormwind Stockade, Gnomeregan, Razorfen Kraul, Scarlet Monastery, Razorfen Downs, Uldaman, Zul’Farrak, Maraudon, Sunken Temple, Blackrock Depths, Dire Maul, Blackrock Spire, Scholomance and Stratholme.
- Forever’s new ones: The Hall of Thanes, Ruins of Lordaeron and City of Dalaran.
The tuning has been in every beta build since the first one we archived, 1.60.1.69876, with the same numbers.
The dungeons without it
- Excavation Site: Wetlands and Manor Mistmantle: the client gives them no damage tuning. That doesn’t make them easy. On the third Forever podcast, Blizzard’s developers talked about players calling Excavation Site over-tuned. One of them said they’d “rather overshoot a little and then dial it back”, so its difficulty is built into its own enemies. More from that episode is in our notes on podcast 3.
- Drowned City, Krol’dok Stronghold, Alcaz Prison, Blackmaw Hold and Shaper’s Terrace: their data is encrypted in the client, so we can’t read their tuning yet. We’ll check them once their data reaches the client.
- Raids carry no tuning row either.
What it means for your group
- Tanks: the same pulls hurt 20% more. Pull one pack at a time where you used to pull two.
- Healers: expect to spend about a fifth more mana on the same damage, and drink more often.
- Damage dealers: kills take as long as in Classic, so the extra danger comes from standing in front of enemies and pulling aggro, not from longer fights.
- Levels: Forever also moved some dungeons’ levels. Ours against Blizzard’s table are in dungeon levels: the Group Finder vs Blizzard.
For Hardcore, where one wipe ends a character, this is the number to plan around. More on safe leveling is in the WoW Forever Hardcore leveling addon guide.
Where you’ll see it in game
The free BoF Guide, our WoW Forever in-game leveling guide, reads this tuning from the game’s files. On the way into each of these 22 dungeons, it tells you that enemies hit 20% harder than in Classic. Each dungeon’s page on the dungeons list has its levels, bosses and quests.
We haven’t measured the extra damage in combat logs yet. When we do, this page gets an update.
Questions
Are WoW Forever dungeons harder than Classic?
Yes, in 22 of them. The WoW Forever client gives the normal difficulty of every Classic dungeon, plus City of Dalaran, Ruins of Lordaeron and The Hall of Thanes, a tuning that raises enemy melee and spell damage by 20%. Their health and armor stay the same. Build 1.60.1.70450, beta.
Do WoW Forever dungeon enemies have more health than in Classic?
No. The tuning in the WoW Forever client changes only the damage enemies deal, by 20% for melee and for spells. Health and armor stay at Classic's values, so fights take as long as before but hit harder. Build 1.60.1.70450, beta.
Is Excavation Site harder because of the 20% damage tuning?
No. Excavation Site: Wetlands isn't one of the 22 dungeons with the 20% damage tuning in the WoW Forever client. Its difficulty is its own design: Blizzard's developers talked about its tuning on the Forever podcast's third episode.
Did Blizzard announce the 20% damage increase in WoW Forever dungeons?
No. None of Blizzard's posts, patch notes or development notes mention it. It's in the client's own tuning tables, and it has been in every beta build since the first one we archived, 1.60.1.69876.