Tier 6 / Phase 3 Content is Nerfed in TBC – Blizzard Clarifies

tier 6 phase 3 content is nerfed in tbc blizzard clarifies featured image
  • Author: Pride
  • Date: December 18, 2021
  • Updated: December 18, 2021
  • Expansion: TBC Classic

Players testing the new phase 3 raids — Black Temple & Mount Hyjal — discovered something interesting: some of the bosses were in their “post-nerf” states and certain aspects of the raids reflected their state after changes had been made to them in patch 2.2, a full patch cycle after their release.

So naturally they took to the forums to inquire about it, and Kaivax responded that since there weren’t many changes made to those raids during the original Burning Crusade, they will be launched in their post-changes state right away — they will not be getting changed down road, like it has been the case with phase 1 and phase 2 raids so far.

He also said that they do like the concept of pre-nerf versions being available for players to try before having the raids changed to their post-nerf state, so that will be coming back with the Sunwell Plateau raid in phase 5, which did receive some very major nerfs near the end of the expansion’s life to allow players to clear it.

tier 6 phase 3 content is nerfed in tbc blizzard clarifies reliquary of souls
The Reliquary of Souls encounter has also seen a fairly substantial nerf, though not as bad as Shahraz’s.

But phase 3 will be getting no such treatment, which disappointed players eager to try bosses in their pre-nerf states. Specifically, these are the changes that have been discovered by players so far:

  • Trash in Mount Hyjal can drop Heart of Darkness. This was a change made in patch 2.2, intended to make shadow resistance easier to get. Prior to that, only Black Temple mobs could drop them.
  • Mother Shahraz is using her nerfed Prismatic Aura spell, which randomly chooses 1 school of magic to be 25% resistant to, while she becomes 25% vulnerable to the “opposite” school to that (f.e. Prismatic Aura: Frost) — making her encounter somewhat similar to the Chromaggus fight in Blackwing Lair. Prior to that, it gave her increasing resistance to a school when struck by spells of that school, which forced casters to keep switching up which schools they used, making the fight particularly difficult for them.
  • Mother Shahraz is also using her nerfed Fatal Attraction spell, which causes the first 2 ticks to only deal 1k Shadow damage, while subsequent ticks deal 3k. The pre-nerf version always dealt 3k, which meant players had to be very fast with moving away from each other, so it was nerfed to give players some more time to move away from each other without dying due to a lack of Shadow resistance.
tier 6 phase 3 content is nerfed in tbc blizzard clarifies archimonde
Archimonde, the big bad boss of Mount Hyjal, has also seen his fair share of nerfs.

On top of these nerfs, it is assumed that the following nerfs are also in place, as they came with the same patch as the ones already mentioned:

  • Archimonde: Fear has a 1.5 second cast time and is cast significantly less frequently.
  • Archimonde: The Grip of the Legion DoT will now never target players who were just knocked into the air by Air Burst, and it has a reduced range.
  • Archimonde: The Red Soul Charge debuff silences players for 4 seconds, down from 6.
  • Mother Shahraz: Players hit by Saber Lash gain immunity to Sinister Beam and Fatal Attraction to prevent sudden tank deaths.
  • Mother Shahraz: Shahraz will now change her beam every 3 casts, instead of every 5, which will prevent players from getting overwhelmed by 5 back-to-back Sinister Beam.
  • Mother Shahraz: Several objects in her room had their collision boxes disabled so players cannot get stuck on them and accidentally die while moving away after Fatal Attraction.
  • Mother Shahraz: Shahraz can no longer benefit from the parry haste mechanic, which causes monsters (and players) to attack 40% faster after parrying an attack. She already deals heavy damage, so this change was made to make life easier for healers.
  • Reliquary of Souls: Essence of Desire cannot use Spirit Shock within ~3 seconds of using Rune Shield, which gives her immunity to interrupt effects until she has taken 50k damage, basically making it easier for people to interrupt her.

There is also speculation that Mark of the Illidari, which are redeemed for free flasks in Shattrath, will drop from monsters in Mount Hyjal, Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep as well, a change made in a subsequent patch — though this has not been confirmed yet.


What are your thoughts on this topic? Are you glad that phase 3 bosses are releasing in their nerfed state, making it easier for players to clear these raids, or were you looking forward to trying them out in their most difficult states? Let us know in the comments below!

Kaivax – (Source)

To clarify–

There weren’t many adjustments made after these raids released in Original Burning Crusade, other than a few very minor tweaks and bug fixes.

Therefore, the versions of the raid encounters we’re testing on the PTR are the only versions we intend to release. We do not intend to make adjustments later.

It’s probably worth acknowledging here–

We are working on providing pre-nerf and post-nerf versions of the Sunwell Plateau raid. We like the concept and intend to return to it after Tier 6.

About the Author

Pride

Classic WoW is my jam, with a passion for PvP. Most know me as Baranor, the ret paladin guy, but I'm secretly a druid main, don't tell anyone. In my free time I play Switch games, particularly JRPGs. Some day I'll be making my own games and I humbly hope you play those too!

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Michael Crowley
Michael Crowley
2 years ago

Given the state of tbc classic player pop per server I think this will make the raids the most accessible to the players at large who are more casual

Bobby
Bobby
2 years ago

Mistake

vorvolakas
vorvolakas
2 years ago

I play this expansion a long time before and now and always play with full and original state and hard one. I think we need to experience the real black temple and hyjal, not this one. how the player must know what happened to the old player in tbc?! why 2 hard bosses like mother and archimonde make this lot of nerfed?! blizzard wants to make it fun or something. i think he underestimates the player. this kind of nerf does not happen in vanilla and now they just nerf all things. I remember vanilla some guild didn’t even finish tier 2 and now?! :((

Gugu
Gugu
Reply to  vorvolakas
2 years ago

Who gives a shit a bout what payer experienced 10 years ago? Stop living in the past for god damn

gooju
gooju
Reply to  Gugu
2 years ago

Mod Note: Removed comment

Last edited 2 years ago by Furious
Tyfighter15
Tyfighter15
2 years ago

Hate seeing anything go to a nerfed state. It’s not fun to have zero struggle. I get the change in P2 for ppl to complete content, but I enjoyed its difficulty. Hearing this about P3 makes me nearly not want to play it. Guess we’ll see when it’s out

shaun_h
shaun_h
Reply to  Tyfighter15
2 years ago

Too many dad guilds complained about not being able to clear SSC and TK within 1-2 months of P2 release. Be thankful that ZA mount runs will still be somewhat gatekept. Sunwell should be challenging at first as well. P3 content will be a joke.

Jmakin
Jmakin
Reply to  shaun_h
2 years ago

95% of the player base are in dad guilds. The game does not have to cater to a very vocal minority’s enjoyment of the game to the detriment of the vast majority of the player base. This is psychotic to expect otherwise. Go play on a private server.

Hugs
Hugs
Reply to  Jmakin
2 years ago

I agree with you, but I do think nerfing the content before its even out its kind of lame. Mabey let it be pre nerf for a month or two then nerf it? I personally don’t mind and I am definitely in a dad guild LOL

Last edited 2 years ago by Hugs
gooju
gooju
Reply to  Hugs
2 years ago

Mod Note: Removed comment

Last edited 2 years ago by Furious
gooju
gooju
Reply to  Hugs
2 years ago

oh yeah and i agree with you, this just smacks of laziness from microsoft

gooju
gooju
Reply to  Jmakin
2 years ago

Mod Note: Removed comment

Last edited 2 years ago by Furious
archone
archone
Reply to  Tyfighter15
2 years ago

its about the desire, we have wiped 2 weeks to KT also, then another 2-3 weeks to Vashj, but we still ripped the content with ease, after our first down in 1 week the content looked like a joke the only difficulties were to fill the 25 raid with ppl.

mrbojangles
mrbojangles
Reply to  Tyfighter15
2 years ago

feel like if they implimented a normal mode-nerf raid, heroic mode-pre-nerf state everyone would be happy

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