A raid in Wrath of the Lich King Classic will not be as easy as it used to be. Blizzard is making changes to the raids in WoW Classic.
In WoW Classic, the beta for Wrath of the Lich King has just started, but the developers have already announced that they want to make several changes. WotLK will not be exactly as you remember it. Some features, like the dungeon finder, will not be present at all. But there will also be adjustments to the raids. The first raid from WotLK will be harder than it was back then: Naxxramas.
What has been said? In the developer update for Wrath of the Lich King Classic, plans were discussed. There were some thoughts on what could be changed in WotLK Classic, such as a higher difficulty for heroic dungeons or the same loot in 10-man and 25-man raids. However, neither of these will happen. Instead, there will be an adjustment to Naxxramas. The raid will be harder.
What do the changes look like? Specific changes have not yet been mentioned, but at least the general direction has been indicated. Both the health points of the monsters in the raid are to be increased, as well as the damage they deal. In other words: fights will last a little longer and it will happen more often that a few players will meet their demise.
Why is Blizzard doing this? The answer is simple: Naxxramas was too easy back then and even significantly easier than Blizzard intended. Therefore, the difficulty is being raised. This not only makes the raid more interesting, but also stretches the time a little until the next raid tier launches with Ulduar. Literally, it is stated:
Our design intent for [Naxxramas in] 2008 was to make it a little easier than the original from 2006. But we overshot our mark and made it much easier than we planned. The slight increase in difficulty will provide for more exciting and interesting challenges […]
In fact, Naxxramas in Wrath of the Lich King was present mainly for two reasons. First, Blizzard didn’t have to create a completely new raid and could just “copy-paste” it, and second, only a fraction of players experienced Naxxramas in the original WoW before the expansion The Burning Crusade was launched.
What about “No Changes”? No matter what changes are made to WoW Classic, there are always a few players who hope for a purist experience and view any change negatively.
However, Blizzard has long since deviated from this and seems to compromise from time to time, if it benefits the gameplay experience for the larger audience. The adjustments to Naxxramas appear to be one of those changes.
What do you think about Naxxramas becoming harder? A good thing? Or should Blizzard just leave balancing alone?
