My picks (text wall incoming...)

The BEST

<b>The Temple of Baa</b>

Mostly gets the pick because of how much it has to offer. Four pockets full of monsters for easy XP, some rather interesting puzzles, including the infamous NEWS riddle, some great aesthetics, clever traps and secret passages, the MEGA SKELETON ARMY BOSS FIGHT that is EPIC and ofc the room full of nice treasure.

<b>Tomb of Ethric the Mad</b>

The vibes in this place are just top notch. Full of crannies and scary undead, it manages to give the impression of a HoMM Neropolis town. Also, the Liches are a tough fight for so relatively early in this game and the caskets give great loot. Really gives a new MM6 party a taste of what typical MM6 endgame has to offer.

<b>Dragon's Lair</b>

Below the mountains of an eerie swamp full of undead, to earn the prestigious rank of HERO. I mean c'mon, slaying your first dragon, and to top it all off it's NAMED.

<b>Castle Kriegspire</b>

IMO this is my favorite of the castles. A more compact and neat layout, good distribution of enemies, Lurch, secrets and easter eggs and also the aesthetics: basically the Dungeon town from HoMM.

<b>Tomb of VARN</b>

Ancient Egyptian themes never disappoint, especially in a fairy medieval setting like Enroth, but the lore and the vibes really bring out the science fantasy potential this series has that has unfortunatley been lost over time. The place is HUUUGE, lots of tough enemies, cool rooms, cool layout, Star Trek references and the final Sci-Fi room that bring up the killer robots.

<b>Agar's Lab</b>

<i> In Agar's laboratory
Lives the smartest lich you've ever seen
The party blows his experiments to smithereeeens
There is gloom and doom
And eyes go boom
in Agar's Laaaaaaaab</i>

<b>Temple of the Snake</b>

Resides in the middle of a lake, has scary Medusae that turn you into stone, statues of innocent men everywhere, TRAPS, the Gold Dragon, the secret room with Q, overall just an interesting place.

<b>The Hive</b>

Saving the best for last, it may look like a cliche, but it is what it is. The Hive is an epic dungeon. The whole aesthetics is scary AF, but the good kind of scary, like being into a gaming creepypasta that doesn't actually suck. The whole vibe that make s you feel like you are crawling into the intestine or womb of a rouge planet, the sci-fi elements that remind you IT'S a spaceship, the eerie music with banshee growls and slow tick-tick-tick, the wasteland that is Sweet Water and the boss. The Hive Queen is SCARY AF. Now the negatives is that blasters practically make this dungeon the easiest one in the game, with the Queen being a pushover as MM6 bosses are seriously lacing, which makes me feel that this dungeon has a lot of wasted potential. I got MAW nightmare mod on my MM6 that makes monsters and esp bosses MUCH stronger and scarier, oh my, this dungeon better give me nightmares for months.

Now for the worst

Abandoned Temple & Goblinwatch

I put them in the same category mostly because they both rather boring early-game dungeons. Enemies are also rather bad, most of them are vermin who look ugly, cause nasty status effects that a level 1 party has trouble curing and also have bad loot. While Goblinwatch redeems itsef with some cool puzzles and traps, the Abandoned Temple has no such luck. There being so many quests for the temple is also a minus meaning that you cannot easily skip it, especially when you play challenge runs or difficulty mods where every point of XP matters. The only redeeming quality of the temple are the beginning and end rooms that look interesting and intriguing, but 90% of the place being caverns makes said potential lost.

Also, both but especially the temple are wayyy to big for early dungeons. IMO this skews up the perception of how "big" future dungeons should be.

Temple of the Sun

Not even 5 seconds after you enter this place you have like 20 spells blowing up straight in your face. Monks are in general really annoying enemies, but this place takes it a step further. Also, let's not forget the Minotaur King that is placed here for no explicable lore reason whatsoever and to add insult to injury also doesn't guard the chalice making him optional? IDK, just weird design.

Free Haven Sewers

By the time you reach Free Haven chances are you already outgear this dungeon, so most chests will be filled with trash anyway. This place is too big, room density too small, looks UGLY AF and also confusing to boot. To top it all off, you also need to do this for a council quest, meaning that you cannot skip it. On the bright side, it has a lot of potions and empty bottles, so if you like alchemy, its good.

Corlagon's Estate

A dungeon with ghosts and skellies for a secondary class promotion is absurd. For paladins you have to slay a dragon, for knight you have to go through the Warlord's Fortress, but here, a measle Power Lich? This is like a longer and worse version of Ethric, except with worse gear. And since you need archmage for master air most parties will have to go trough this place sooner or later, thus making the Estate look like a chore.

Silver Helm Outpost

I always had the feeling that this place is a bit too overtuned for a level 7-8 party. While swordsmen are not terribly bad, the captain and master monk will be the bane of your existence. First time i zoned in the captain one shot my cleric. Fun times. Also, grace god the stairs.

Gharik's Forge

This place is a complete circus, fireballs bouncing left and right, fire elementals in your face when you last expect, Cure Insanity, Cure Insanity, Cure Insanity and just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, here comes the lava canal. Oh yeah, also more Insanity. This place is the Silver Helm outpost on steroids.

And now for the last and without a doubt also the least...no other than...i mean you all saw it coming from a mile away

Castle Darkmoor

Every Might and Magic 6 gamester's worst nightmare. What is weird is that it starts rather decent enough: some corridors with some ogres. OK. But then you get into the big ass football stadiums full of liches that dispel all of your powerful buffs before you even have the chance to cast them again. You can kiss your wizard eye goodbye. Also the eyes. OH MY GOD the eyes. Worst think about them, other than the fact that they cause annoying status effects, is their magic resistances. Each is immune to a different type of element, so other than a 100 SP costing Dragon Breath and an Acid Burst, there is no school of magic that has good AoE to bring every type down. Oh, and you think their resistances are intuitive, like, say, "Oh the terrible eye is blue it must be immune to cold!" WRONG! Its immune to FIRE. IF THEY ARE IMMUNE TO FIRE, WHY ARE THEY BLUE?! Besides this the whole place is super big and confusing to navigate, at one point there is an entire castle buried underneath a cave. And OFC it has to have that ugly muddy brown brick color that makes everything hard to discern, doubly so as Torch Light will immediately be dispelled.