The new raid Castle Nathria in WoW: Shadowlands has been significantly buffed. The pros will likely have their work cut out for them.
The “World First” race in World of Warcraft is about to begin, as Castle Nathria opens in Mythic mode in America. In Europe, it will take a few more hours before “our” guilds can dive into the race.
However, Blizzard seemed to be concerned that the raid might be too easy. At the last minute, a lot of hotfixes were implemented, making the Mythic mode of Castle Nathria significantly harder. But a few encounters were also toned down.
What has changed in Mythic Castle Nathria?
Overall, there are changes to 7 of the 10 bosses in Mythic Castle Nathria. We have a summary of what the changes mean for each boss.
Hunter Altimor: The damage of the DOT effect from Sinseeker has been reduced by nearly 20%. The fight is thus a bit easier.
Constructor Xy’Mox: The damage of the Glyph of Destruction has been reduced by about 5%, while the damage from Aura of Terror and Soul Siphon has been increased by 5% – 10%. Therefore, the damage for the whole group increases while the damage on the tank decreases slightly.
Rescue of the Sun King: The two flame cloaks are now significantly stronger. They protect Kael’thas and must be destroyed by either damage or healing to interrupt the spell Unfettered Pyroclasm, which would instantly kill all players. Instead of 237,333 damage, DPS now need to deal 531,460 damage within 6 seconds.
Healers, on the other hand, now need to provide a total of 35,160 healing in 6 seconds instead of 14,521 healing. The exact numbers may vary, but the shields seem to have nearly doubled.
This means it is no longer possible to bring many healers into the raid to make the fight particularly easy.
Hungering Destroyer: The damage from Devour has been doubled. This means not only more damage to the raid but also more healing for the Hungering Destroyer. Both DPS and healers need to bring significantly more performance in the raid.
The Council of Blood: The dance boss becomes a bit deadlier. The Dance Fever now causes nearly 10% more damage, so affected players need to be careful about when to remove their stacks by jumping to avoid wiping the raid. Dark Recital will be enhanced by nearly 60%, as the effect is already not very impressive on Heroic.
Generals of the Stone Legion: For this boss, Blizzard simply applied a “complete package” and increased the damage values of pretty much all abilities by 25%. The additional adds have also become stronger. They now start their explosive stone shell at 30% health instead of 20%. As a result, DPS players have to deal damage much faster.
Lord Denathrius: Here there is only one change. The debuff that Remornia inflicts with each attack now deals double damage. Therefore, it is even more important to switch the tank early and accumulate as few stacks of the bleeding effect as possible.
Why did Blizzard do this? Presumably, Blizzard analyzed the data from the normal and heroic raids last week and observed how well players were handling the bosses. Apparently, Blizzard found that it might have been a bit too quick or too easy for some encounters, which is why the Mythic difficulty was adjusted.
If you want to follow the race in Mythic Castle Nathria, we have links to the biggest guilds participating in the race here.
