Naxx: Easymode

Karazhan was once a towering spire of challenges, a raid that we took seriously, and most of all, a symbol that you were above the foolish and weak masses – you were a raider. Now, that was a long time ago, and it wasn’t even true at the end of The Burning Crusade. But Karazhan used to mean something, back before the new level cap at 80, before reputation for heroics was lowered, before gear was easy to get, before PvP gear was adequate for PvE.

Pictured:  Maexxna just hangin’ out

Naxx just doesn’t seem to have the same feeling, even though it’s currently the only real raid. And maybe it isn’t a real raid – Ensidia has cleared it already, pick up groups can finish it on normal or even heroic, and a lot of people treat it like a joke. I personally cleared it only two weeks after release on normal mode (my guild is too small for heroic raids, but we’re working on it.)

So why is Naxx so lax?

Read more after the beep.

For me, there’s one glaring difference. I’m not new to the game anymore. I’m sure pre-BC raiders had the same feeling about Karazhan that a lot of us are having about Naxxramas, but were never forced to raid it (because Karazhan wasn’t the only raid around on release.) Karazhan used to be a balancing act of learning my class, learning the encounters, and gearing up. Naxx is simply learning the fights.

The other major thing to consider is the environment. Because heroics are so much easier to get into, a lot of people have much better gear than they stepped into Kara with. Tier 5 and 6 gear is also good enough to keep on using. The general quality of level 80 players is higher because this soon after the release, most players who are casual or unskilled have not reached level 80 yet.

My guild clears Naxx pretty easily with our first group, but our second ten-man team struggles a lot. That’s probably because our first team is made of ten players who all went through Black Temple together, but our second group is mostly newer players we’ve recruited recently and they don’t have the raiding background or the rapport that we’ve developed with over a year of raiding.

Lastly, as the WoW dev team keeps trying to remind us, Naxx is meant for casuals as well as hardcore raiders. The next content patch will introduce more difficult raids with challenges for the serious players.

So if you think Naxx is too easy, take a good look at yourself. Maybe you’re the one who’s too tough.