Or is this just one of those rumors making the rounds?  Has Blizzard really nerfed the hardcore raiding philosophy into the ground, or is there significantly more challenging content coming down the pipe?

Before I try to answer that, here is a quick update on my in game progress.  I have officially started leveling my Druid again for use as a healer at 80.  Though I toyed with a Warrior for a bit, and got him to 77, in my heart I always knew I’d find a reason to buckle down and level the Druid.  As it turns out, my guild is hurting a bit for level 80 healers, and I’m glad to help out.  I hastily respecced my Druid out of Moonkin (you may now consider me "anti-Moonkin") into a feral leveling build, and I’ve been having a blast.  I’m taking the same "completionist" path as I was with the Warrior.  He has cleared (meaning finished all the necessary quests for the achievement) Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord and Dragonblight, in that order.  He is roughly halfway through Grizzly Hills as we speak.  Berserk is nearly as much fun as Bladestorm, though not QUITE.  My grand scheme is to get both the Druid and Warrior to 80, and once dual specs arrive the Druid will be Feral/Resto and the Warrior Prot/Fury.  I’ll cover a lot of bases there!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

I’ve heard on a couple of different podcasts and read on a couple of different blogs that some people consider raiding in Wrath to be too easy.  I’ve heard claims of many guilds clearing Naxx 10 within a couple of tries, and then moving on to Naxx 25 and having similar levels of success.  That most vocal of the WoW population, the hardcore raiders, are crying foul.

In particular, Syncaine over at Hardcore Casual said something that I had to comment on in his post on Wrath raiding.  (In defense of Syncaine, he is plainly "anti-WoW" right now, and is more interested in Warhammer Online.  Props to him for not being afraid to give an opinion.)

I’m guessing very little of that happens now, with how much more ‘accessible’ raiding is in WotLK. When you down a boss the first night, with fresh 80s, I can’t help but wonder if that’s even considered a raid.

Yes, we all know about 25th of whatever, the uber guild that cleared Naxx before I was even out of Borean Tundra.  I’m also sure there are other strong guilds that have done almost as well, and I’m also sure there has been early success in Naxx thus far overall. 

Guess what, Naxx doesn’t count.  It’s a bad example.  Naxx has been around a LONG, LONG time.  It’s been retooled a bit, but there are strats out there that have been out there before even BC.  A lot of those Uber guilds also spent the beta time practicing that raid over and over, just so they could say how cool they were when they cleared it.

Beyond that, though, my guild hasn’t cleared Naxx yet.  Not even the 10 man version.  Yes, we’ve cleared our share of bosses in there, but other bosses are right now kicking our teeth in and showing us that we are not ready.  It’s not like every guild out there is already "done" with Wrath, right?  Hell, I personally NEVER cleared anything beyond Magtheridon in BC.  I saw Lady V, and I saw a lot of the Black Temple and Mount Hyjal, but I never was a part of a "clear" of any of that T5 or T6 content.

I also want to point out the fact that there are more raids coming, and that Blizzard recently gave the hardcore a raid to their liking in Sunwell Plateau.  Do the hardcore really think they will be abandoned forever?  Maybe there isn’t a BT or a Sunwell in Wrath as of right now, but I’m sure that Blizzard has some more difficult content to come.  We already know that Ulduar is on the way, and I’m sure it will be much more difficult just because it’s completely new content.  Not old, rehashed content.  A NEW raid that nobody has ever seen.

In the end, though, I can’t say I’ll care all that much if the ultimate "bleeding edge" players decide that WoW isn’t the game for them.  I’m a little tired of the 1-5% of players, the hardcore, dictating too much about how WoW should shape up for the masses.  I don’t know about you, but I’m having a fricking blast with this expansion, and I can’t wait to see what else Blizzard has in store for us. 

No, Burning Crusade was not an abject failure.  It certainly kept a lot of people enjoying the game for a long time, yours truly included.  In hindsight, though, I can see why I’m positively giddy with what I’m seeing in Wrath, and how it is light years beyond what BC ever hoped to be.  BC had some great instances, and added a lot to World of Warcraft overall, but it came up short in so many ways.  In terms of zone design and quest design, Wrath absolutely blows BC out of the water.

Before we get started, let me put on my fanboi suit. I know it’s around here somewhere…lessee…

Ahh, yes, here it is:

I couldn’t in good faith do a new blog post without including the 7 Levels of Awesomeness Murloc Suit. Whoever came up with that quest should get a raise. Or maybe a yacht. 

Zone Design

I’m talking about this first not because it’s the most important, but rather because it’s the first thing I really noticed.  Do you remember the first time you took the boat to the Howling Fjord?  I sure as heckfire do.  Boat rides normally meant go make a sandwich time, but the entry into the Fjord was absolutely jaw-dropping for me.  It’s the first zone I hit in the beta, and it’s the first taste I really got of the expansion.  I remember vividly thinking as the boat went along "That’s awesome."  "Wow, that’s awesome, too."  "How cool is that."  And it continued.  Just look at the waterfalls, the sky, the keep in the distance.  Beautiful.

So, do you remember when you first entered the Dark Portal in BC?  Sure, there was a cool battle going on right at the entrance, but what about the zone in general?  Rust colored, busted up mountain terrain.  Not all that exciting.  As I thought about this post, I tried to think about something memorable to say about the first zone in BC.  Well, I couldn’t really think of anything.  Hellfire Peninsula was essentially the same theme repeated ad nauseam – floating, red rocks and mountains.  Bleh. 

Now, let’s think about Borean Tundra, for comparison’s sake.  The zone is both beautiful and, more importantly, varied.  It’s almost like it has a half-dozen mini zones within the larger zone.  Coastlines, snowy mountains, lakes, plains, ruins, you name it.  It’s all there.  Hell, you might argue that there is more variety in the Borean Tundra than all of the Outlands combined.  And that’s just ONE ZONE!  I have now seen nearly ALL of Borean, the Fjord, Dragonblight and the Grizzly Hills.  Every one of them is beautiful and interesting.

Looking back, I’m having a hard time remembering an Outland zone I REALLY liked.  SMV, Netherstorm, Blade’s Edge, Terokkar and Hellfire all kind of sucked, to be honest.  I turn my back on them without hesitation.  Sure, each one had one redeeming quality or two, but overall they were just flat out boring.  Nagrand and Zangarmarsh were OK.  That’s the best I can do.

Quest Design

My first thoughts on quests in Northrend? "Holy crapload of quests, Batman!"  It starts off slow, but before long there is a flood of quests.  There are many, many quest hubs, and most have their own individual flavors.  I remember that at first I was intimidated by the 1.5 million EXP I’d need to level, but then before I knew it I was halfway home.  The reason I hardly realized my quick progress was because the quests were just so damn interesting.

Sure, there are plenty of vanilla "kill 10 of this, gather 12 of that" quests, but there are just as many different and interesting quests to keep things rolling.  Vehicle quests, long, interesting chains, plenty of lore that’s worth reading.

Looking back at BC, I can only think of a handful of memorable quest lines.  The Sons of Oronok chain in SMV, the Gorefiend line in SMV, the Ogri’la attunement series.  These quests were all interesting because they had visceral payoffs in terms of story and rewards. 

In Northrend, I can think of at least that many memorable quest lines in Borean Tundra alone. 

The Mechazod quest line:

The Dragon quest line outside the Nexus:

Last Rites:

All of these quest lines I just mentioned have one thing in common:  big time payoffs.  The quests in Northrend make you feel like you’re actually DOING something, not just looking for big EXP.  And how cool is it that you see Arthas so early and often?  The funny thing is, I haven’t even mentioned the Wrathgate series.  If you know what I mean by that, you know what I mean.  Wow Wrathgate, just wow. 

Even crazier is the fact that the three great quest lines I mention above are all in the introductory zone, Borean Tundra.  The memorable BC quests I noted are from much later in that game’s progression.

Final Thoughts

It’s really pretty simple, when you think about it.  Blizzard gets a little better at what they do all the time.  It’s really just like anything, you might do ok when you start out, but the more experience you get, the better the results usually are.  Think about McDonald’s, they didn’t have the Big Mac right at the start, they just really had regular old hamburgers and cheeseburgers.  It took some practice for them to churn out the genius that is the Big Mac.  I believe the same can be said for WoW.  Classic WoW was a good start, BC expanded on the game and experimented with some things, and now Wrath has taken the knowledge gained from BC and run with it.  Instances are faster.  Off specs can tank or heal normal 5 mans.  Rep grinds are streamlined.  Quests and lore are actually engaging.  So thus far, bravo Blizzard.  I’ve only seen 4 zones thus far (though every inch of said zones) but I have a lot of optimism for the future.  I guess my only question is whether Blizz will be able to keep this streak going!