ForeverDB

Blizzard podcast: Molten Core gets new mechanics, and how the team thinks about raid difficulty

The Tanaris map from the WoW Forever client

· ForeverDB

On the WoW: Forever Podcast's End of Beta Special, Senior Game Designer Josh Greenfield said older raids like Molten Core will have mechanics players have not seen before, and Lead Encounter Designer Michael Nuthals explained the team's approach to raid difficulty. These are developers talking on a podcast, transcribed by Wowhead, not a written Blizzard post or anything in the beta client.

Blizzard put out the fifth episode of the WoW: Forever Podcast, the End of Beta Special. Among other things (data mining, the items held back, the updated look and the 30 to 60 journey), the episode covered raids: whether old raids will change, and how the team decides how hard an encounter should be. We quote the developers as Wowhead transcribed them in Wowhead's write-up of the episode.

These are developers describing their plans on a podcast, transcribed by Wowhead, not a written Blizzard change note. Raids are level 60 content and are not in the current beta, so none of this can be checked in the beta client files yet.

Molten Core gets new mechanics

Molten Core was the first raid in the original World of Warcraft, and it returned largely unchanged in Classic in 2019. On the podcast, Senior Game Designer Josh "Aggrend" Greenfield said older raids like Molten Core will have new mechanics for players to find. Wowhead reports he was answering whether Molten Core would feel out of place next to new encounters, or be, in the host's words, pedestrian mode Molten Core again.

In Wowhead's transcription (source), Greenfield said: "I think it's probably safe to say you're not just going to stand there and tank and spank Golemagg, for example; there may be a little"

The Wowhead excerpt cuts off there, so we do not have the full sentence. The point is clear enough: Golemagg, the boss near the end of Molten Core, is not meant to be a plain tank-and-spank fight this time. Wowhead does not list which other bosses change or what the new mechanics are.

How the team thinks about raid difficulty

Lead Encounter Designer Michael Nuthals joined the episode to talk through how the team designs a raid encounter, as reported by Wowhead. Players have been asking what difficulty to expect from both new and familiar raids, and Nuthals answered (source): "We think a lot about difficulty in raids; we want folks to feel comfortable bringing their friends, we talk about beer and pretzels a lot. If we've prepared, we can execute a challenge and have some success and find some new epics."

"Beer and pretzels" is a common way to describe content that a group can clear with friends after a bit of preparation, without weeks of hard practice. Nuthals frames it as a challenge you can beat if you turn up ready, with new epic gear as the reward.

Beyond the two quotes above, nothing in Blizzard's own posts or the Wowhead reports we have says which bosses change, what the mechanics are or how many difficulty tiers there will be, and nothing is in the beta client. Until then these are the developers' stated plans, not a confirmed change. We will update this when Blizzard posts details or the raids reach the beta.

Sources

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