Several interesting new features are heading to World of Warcraft Classic, including the Ulduar raid, Titan Rune dungeon mode, and the start of PvP season 6.
Classic fans couldn't be more thrilled about Ulduar coming back, as it was one of the most beloved raids to ever hit the MMO. Though, this time, Ulduar will come with a few hidden surprises beyond the titan's gates. As we probably remember, the boss fights were not only mechanically challenging and took several attempts to down, but they were just fun. Now, we can take that difficulty level up a notch, as Hard Mode will be added to the raid. Hard Mode is not chosen prior to entering the instance as they are with Heroic, 10-man, or 25-man. The raid will need to complete a challenge or even press a button to start the mode up. An example of this is XT-002 Deconstructor; players will need to destroy the heart within 30 seconds to trigger the boss's health to reset and start his fight on Hard Mode.
Ulduar will come out with its pre-nerf difficulty, meaning it will be as blood-boiling and sweat-inducing as we can remember from the original raid. Not only that, but the loot table has been given a slight facelift. All normal mode loot has been increased by six item levels to accommodate for the extreme difficulty of this raid. Hard mode loot will increase by 13 item levels, and this change was not made to make the raid easier, it was made to give people a reason to keep coming back. Originally, Ulduar ended up being left in the dirt rather quickly, as the Trial of the Crusader raid came out just a few months after the Ulduar raid was released. The Trial raid was much better in terms of loot and was much easier for groups and guilds to conquer, and that made Ulduar irrelevant.
Alongside this raid release, we have the Titan Rune dungeon mode coming to Classic. Inside each Heroic dungeon, players will notice a strange floating disc. This device can be activated by all five players clicking on the Rune, and channeling power into it to create a new dungeon difficulty. Think of it as a Mythic from retail, but not as obnoxious in terms of the +1s and +16s. Yes, the mobs will now have more health and take longer to beat to a pulp, as well as provide players with debuffs just as they would in Mythics. Take Utgarde Keep for example; enemies have a chance to apply a debuff that will apply a rapid ticking DoT to the player that can only be removed by movement. That means you will need to keep that footwork on point to ensure a win and not wipe the entire group.
All of these fun new additions will be available during the Phase 2 launch on January 19, 2023. To see the video that gives all the nitty gritty details about what to expect from Phase 2, head over to the WoW Youtube channel here.
