- Author: Pride
- Date: October 26, 2021
- Updated: October 26, 2021
- Expansion: WoW Classic
Blizzard is ramping up its focus on Season of Mastery content, adding a third test realm intended to test infrastructure. But raids still appear to be the biggest focus in SoM, with the first wave of raid tests having just concluded and Blizzard showing they’re paying close to attention to how they pan out, e.g. by disabling Flask of Petrification, which is commonly used to bypass raid mechanics.
Following the test’s conclusion, Kaivax gave us insight into the data that Blizzard gathered from buffed bosses on the current build. It would appear that Blizzard is not entirely happy with the changes, specifically with the blanket 100% HP buff, saying it did not hit the mark, and is instead considering additional changes to the boss fights.
One such proposed change is bringing back removed mechanics, such as Onyxia’s Phase 2 Fireball ability having a Conflagrate / disorient component and Golemagg having an Earthquake ability, or players having a weekly limit on their number of attempts on Ragnaros.
Kaivax mentions however that it is unlikely that these changes will be meaningful by 2021 standards, as players are too experienced are clearing these raids, so Blizzard is instead planning to make entirely new changes to raid bosses.
These changes are intended to be subtle yet fresh, not completely change the boss fights to the point where they are unrecognizable, but Kaivax did say that they would be “significant” and affect almost every encounter in Molten Core and Onyxia’s Lair.
The plan is for them to be included in the next upcoming beta build, presumably along with a new raid test. It will be very interesting to see what these changes are, and if players will have a more difficult time clearing the raids as a result.
Greetings!
First, thank you to everyone who hopped on the Season of Mastery Beta last week and helped us test out our first adjustments to Molten Core and Onyxia.
Going into Season of Mastery, our philosophy was to take a light touch when it came to changes to raid bosses and mechanics, and focus instead on restoring versions of raid bosses that existed in the game at one point or another during the course of original World of Warcraft. As we were peeling back the layers of data from early versions of the game, it became obvious quickly that the list of actual changes to most content in Molten Core and Onyxia was extremely short. Onyxia had a conflagrate/disorient effect on her Fireball attack during the air phase, Golemagg had an Earthquake ability, and Ragnaros did a fire splash more frequently, with a weekly timer to limit the number of attempts a group could make.
Some of these mechanics are more impactful than others, but overall, we suspected that the total impact of the changes would likely not be meaningfully felt by players in 2021 who have an enormous amount of experience in these raids.
Regardless, we were determined to start small and see how it felt first. So for that first round of Beta raid testing, we went with a blanket 100% health buff and that handful of restored mechanics. As we watched Beta testers in-game and listened to the reactions to our changes and restorations, it confirmed what we already thought going into this test – merely raising mob health and restoring a few removed mechanics was not hitting the mark we wanted for a season focused on faster progression and “more challenging” content.
As a result, with the next upcoming Beta build, we’re making some significant adjustments to almost every encounter in Molten Core and Onyxia’s Lair.
To be clear, we don’t intend these or any future changes we make to Season of Mastery raid encounters to increase the difficulty of the content to a point where experienced, prepared raid groups will have to wipe for days or weeks to progress on it. We also don’t intend to change the fights so much that they become completely unrecognizable or fundamentally different from their Classic versions. Our intent is to provide something subtle and fresh to go along with the Season of Mastery that feels very much in keeping with the spirit of the original encounters.
We’ll let you know when we’re ready to update the Season of Mastery Beta, and we’re going to open raid testing again on Thursday at 2:00 p.m. PDT, and we’d love it if you could join us to check out what we’ve been working on.
As always, don’t hesitate to let us know what you think, and please use the in-game bug reporter (default hotkey: F6) to report any bugs you encounter.
Thank you!
-The WoW Classic Team
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