Originally posted by Vynt

It is not really relevant these days, but for a mixture of a good dungeon and pvp together, my favorite was Darkness Falls from Daoc. Loved being able to kill some mobs, farm seals, crawl down, and kill any stragglers from the opposing 2 factions, or even hide out to ambush them when my side no longer had control of the place.

Everquest the old one and DDO. I still never found a dungeon as scary and immersive as  Guk. Or Charasis aka Howling stones what a great place

I would say DDO and Vanguard as well.
Although I loved the underwater dungeon of Kedge Keep in EQ1. I wish someone would create another 100% underwater dungeon in one of the newer games.

Originally posted by Cherise

My favorite dungeons to crawl is EQ1.  No matter which mmo I've played since then, I just haven't enjoyed the dungeons as much.  Non-instanced and don't need a full group in stellar gear to get through.

     I agree 110%.. EQ1 had the best raid / dungeon mechanics for a social game, in my opinion..  When you don't restrict raid size like what WoW does, it gives the game the ability to have a wide variety of classes, that fills multiple roles.. The more roles available to play the better..  I love when raids and groups had pullers, crowd control, buffers, debuffers, hybrid mixes, single tanking, aoe tanking, group healing, single healing, range dps, melee dps,  nukers, aoe dps.. Did I leave any roles out?  You never had to worry about min/max because you were restricted by cap limit or gear..  Raiding was truely social and fun.. 

Everquest 1 hands down and its not even close. No game has surprised me with so much incredible deep and tremendous dungeons. I

If you want non-instanced dungeons and casual PvP, DAoC is by far the best fit. You have three just for level 50 that you can go and PvP in. They're non-instanced. They're pretty spartan though if you like looking at cool stuff, having lots of interesting mobs, etc. There is a decent enough population the last time I played, which was only a couple months ago.

If not, then try out some of the older games like AO, EQ, or even EQ2. Vanguard is good too for non-instanced dungeons. I don't know whether people casually PvP in EQ or Vanguard though. I didn't come across any PvPers in Vanguard when I was there but then I wasn't actively looking for any. EQ2 has a PvP server and AO has casual PvP in general. The dungeons were quite cool though the graphics will appear dated by now.

WoW does not have non-instanced dungeons, nor does DDO. If you want to have more flexibility in dungeon-crawling, I recommend DDO since you can go in on your own, with henchmen, or in a group. WoW, you basically have to go in a group unless you go into a dungeon that is lower level than you or you have uber gear.

The vanilla WoW dungeons are great. I wish that Blizzard would have put some more like the old ones in their expacs. LotRO's are pretty good too and the different books are good.

lol @ WoW having the best dungeons.

Great replies all, much appreciated!  Looks like I'll give DAoC a spin and maybe return to EQ1 and Vanguard for some dungeon crawls :).  I can look past any population problems if the dungeon content is there.

Thanks again.

Everquest by a long shot. The dungeons in EQ were very dangerous. You can actually explore and get lost in dungeons in EQ. The difference is, that WoW's dungeons may have looked aesthetically inclined but they all had a linear path. However, when the LDoN expansion came out, EQ revealed instances for the first time. WoW' simply just improved the LDoN dungeons to mold it into thier own design.

I am not saying all WoWs dungeons are bad. I am merely stating that the quality and intention of EQ's dungeons before LDoN expansion is what makes a dungeon, a dungeon. There are some good dungeons in WoW, but I personally perfer the EQ design over WoWs.

My top ten dungeons in EQ are.

Mines of Nurga

High Keep

Kurns Tower

Miragul's Menagerie

Castle Mistmore

Mistmore Catacombs

Najena

Riftseekers Sanctum

Tower of Frozen Shadow

Crystal Caverns

My top 5 WoW dungeons

Shadowfang Keep

Maruadon

Dire Maul

The Sunken Temple

Scarlet Monastary

RuneScape. What other game has a skill dedicated to dungeons?

Nah, I liked Darkness Falls in DAoC. The best in my opinion.

eq1

DDO and LOTRO. as both are much more higly interactive than just about anything elese.

Classic EQ had amazing dungeons.  After Kunark, though, meh.  Maybe check out EQ on a emulator type of server?  Or they have a few 'progression' servers that are official where you can experience the fear and horror of trying to survive an EQ dungeon back in the day... or worse, trying to survive a raid-zone entry.

Vanguard feels like the true successor to EQclassic, and in kind has amazing dungeons (and amazing overland areas too, that often lead deeper into dungeons).  The population is actually not bad now, reportedly, due to server mergers.  In fact, people are saying it's down right bustling and the game feels as intended with tons of PUGs crawling dungeon's left and right.  Best of all, there are a few dedicated individuals that run organized dungeon crawls (tours) at various levels.  I knew people who paid the sub just for that, as they could log in once or twice a week and get an amazing (and planned) dungeon experience.

Vanguard doesn't have any PvP anymore I don't think, as the PvP server was down to like 100 people in prime time.  Since it's an open world, though, if you come across another group I suppose you could antagonize them into dueling! :P

Biased opinion? Everquest.

Its funny cause I made a favorite wow dungeons thread just a day ago.  I have played just about every p2p mmo there has ever been released aside from Ultima online/Daoc and a few others from that time of the mmo industry.  I guess not having given all the games as much attension as I did with wow, I cant compleatly awnser. but I did like every instance in wow I ever played, not one time was I ever let down.  They all were fun and exciting.  I had some good times with SWG and places like there imperial/rebel theme parks, and places like nightsister hideout and tusken fort, and geosonian caves and a few other places, I played SWG alot alot but there just wasnt enough of them to keep the game going, but fun none the less.    

Originally posted by cmorris975

I am not going to pollute your mind by saying what I already play/have liked.  I am really wanting a great dungeon crawl, preferably with some non-instanced dungeons and random PvP.  Any ideas?

 

Thanks :)

Non instanced? Vanguard.

DDO has some great dungeons in that they are more than just making your way through and killing monsters. There are traps, secret doors, levers to be pulled, puzzles, etc. But they are instanced.

Neither game has random pvp.

LOTRO. They have the the mother of dungeons: Kazhad-dhum/Moria.

DDO. They have tons of secret areas. Sadly, the most fun dungeons are lower level. The dev team has really lost their creativity since launch.

for the first time in many years i actually side with the majority on this issue.

Vanguard & D&DO.   i wish i had the time to resub Vanguard now that the servers have merged and brought population way up.

also i'd have to say i had the most fun in EQ1 dungeons, altho thats probably mostly because of it being the MMORPG i spent the most time in, the newness of that experience, and the fact they were well populated back in those days.

rather than because of the dungeon designs themselves.  they had a nice variety of them too.

DDO and WoW both have great dungens but its not all about dungens but its your choice