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[Naxx] Naxxramas How hard was Naxx in vanilla?

When I just think about stuff from Vanilla, I laugh :D I am pretty sure that potions wore off after death. I mean, I can imagine how frustrating it was to die not only because of wipe but just because of trash or even because of DC :D I am not sure about buffs either, there were no mass buffs right? You had to use your stamina, mark of the wild or intelect one by one right? Players would sue Blizzard nowadays :D :D
 
No, you could find books as a world drop and that would learn the "buff everyone in party" spell.
Potions would wear off when dying except flasks would lasts through death.
 
In the early days there was no mass buffs.. they added the Gift of Wild etc later on as books.

Potions wore off at death but Flasks remained.. but you could have Flasks and potions at the same time. No limit of Battle and Guardian potions, so there was many different buff pots.

Naxx was hard to complete partly cause of all the requirements and how hard it was. Also the time frame before expansion was quite short. Many guilds were still farming BWL and AQ and switching to more demanding Naxx didn't happen easily.

Most guilds farmed the first bosses of each wing and clearing Spider wing first which was the easiest.

While doing that they also cleared AQ also and still maybe BWL.

I personally was in a guild that got quite far but they migrated away from the realm because of stability issues and some other stuff.

The other guild I joined after didn't get so far and 2 months before Expansion release they just gave up.

So the upcoming expansion did affect a lot imo.
 
Actually during the beginning of WoW flasks did disappear after death, but that's a bit OT...

Naxxramas was hard for a variety of reasons, and not just because of how it was tuned. You have to factor in that the resources we have today simply did not exist back then.

When a raid comes out today on retail, it has already been cleared by numerous guilds on the PTR in all modes. In addition, the boss tactics and strategies are made available as guides and youtube videos, so you can watch how it's done before you even enter the raid. Every part of that raid has been datamined for months by Wowhead and mmo-champion, there's no secrets or surprises to it. The entire thing is exposed and all the information is available to everyone on demand before it even hits live servers. But this wasn't something that existed back during Vanilla. No one cleared Naxx on the PTR. Youtube was still brand new and people weren't uploading how-tos. Many guilds kept their strats secret, wanting to be coveted and worshiped. The info just wasn't there, and many people went in blind.

Another difficult aspect was computers. Most people didn't have high end computers in 2006. Internet speeds were much slower as well, and realms were known for being quite unstable. 40 man raiding wasn't particularly friendly, and lag and disconnects were quite common.

Then there was the fact that Naxx was balanced around full consumables, which was far too expensive for most to do. The private server community may not have an issue farming and running with max consumes for progression on every single boss attempt, but this was not an option for many guilds on retail. Watch old naxx vids - You'll see a Flask and Wizard Oil/Stones definitely, but potions? Probably not, at least not on the easier fights.

Finally, the biggest aspect of difficulty to Naxx was the lack of knowledge people had about the game and their class. Once again, watch old Naxx videos. How many people do you see in crappy gear setups? Bad specs? Improper use of downranking or mana regen spells/consumes? It's all there. Even top guilds like Curse had issues. The mage PoV ran as Frost in full Tier 2 with a spec that included Ice Barrier on Patchwerk. As you can imagine, there were a lot of resists and a lack of damage. I have even seen a vid of a Lock in T2.5 using a rotation of Immolate, Untalented Corruption (2 second cast) and Drain Life on Grand Widow. I'd be surprised if he even cracked 50dps. The other lock that was visible in the vid was doing the same thing. It's a fact that most people didn't know how to play with maximum efficiency, theorycrafting was pretty new and very niche to only a few elitist guilds. Class guides weren't readily available or poorly done. BiS gear lists did not exist. These players were clearly dragging their guild down, but how many really knew that?

So let's recap what made Naxx truly difficult:
- Lack of knowledge for bis gear/spec setups
- Steep difficulty curve
- Limited info of boss mechanics
- Balanced around max consumables

If players had the info we have today back then, Naxx would not nearly have been as hard. But I suppose that's what makes Vanilla so appealing to many.
 
I didn't raid at all in retail, I started about 1-2 months prior to TBC launch. From what I can tell you from people I knew/got to know, it was by far the hardest thing wow ever had to offer. The gear wall was immense, the need for pots, flasks, and bonus buffs were absolute, and the mechanics weren't too much of a cakewalk either. I still bet when thaddius comes along people will still constantly eff up the charges haha.

But in a nutshell, it was by far the most difficult thing blizzard had ever released in this game. I wish that they would do something like this again in current retail, but with the causalizing of the game, that will never be the same. Hence what drew me to this server in the first place; the emphasis was in the right place with the correct type of progression path and how gear is obtained via time played.
 
As someone who completed Naxx in vanilla i can easily agree with Kanariya's statement. It wasn't as hard as some made it out to be but it took a very large time commitment

The constant need for farming alone whether it was for frost resist or consumables was insane. I would spend my entire weekend farming mats just to have the stuff needed for the next week.

Also a lot of the trouble was overcoming the bosses that required people doing things they never normally did and needed to get used to. Razuvious' need for MC from shadow priests for example. Most of our priests hadn't ran shadow in months and getting that MC timing and rotation down took a lot of time. I won't even get into some of the harder bosses that we spent a week or more on working out mechanics.

If the information was available like it is today I think a lot of it would have been easier but still not as easy as it is today. The fights were very tightly tuned and you needed to know what you were doing. Those that actually completed Naxx were the guilds that had immense theorycrafting and researching on their sites (this would be how EJ got started as well). People invested 2-3 times more time in raiding then they do now. Now I can raid log 12 hours a week and full clear mythic. Back then it was more like 40-50 hours spent on raid prep and strats.
 
In the early days there was no mass buffs.. they added the Gift of Wild etc later on as books.

Potions wore off at death but Flasks remained.. but you could have Flasks and potions at the same time. No limit of Battle and Guardian potions, so there was many different buff pots.
The mass buffs came with Dire Maul, which was pretty fast after EU release. (I am EU)
Flasks lasting through death came like half a year after EU release.
 
The problem was not how hard the instance was, but the requirements to get there. Gear check and so on.
You had to clear the previous content before to even consider setting a foot in there. Since vanilla didn't last forever most guilds just had too less time.

If you leave a server open for 5 years eventually everyone can access and even clear the instance.
 
The problem was not how hard the instance was, but the requirements to get there. Gear check and so on.
You had to clear the previous content before to even consider setting a foot in there. Since vanilla didn't last forever most guilds just had too less time.

If you leave a server open for 5 years eventually everyone can access and even clear the instance.


well, this goes against what 99.99% of -people who DID nax at 60- say
 
Insert arbitrary amount of wipes per raid then multiply by 5. Then you get vanilla naxx
 
Heres some videos i made back in the day of level 60 nax:
https://vimeo.com/user697914/videos

We didnt get much further than the first few bosses, but I remember we were pleased to even get that far :D
Also has me killing cthun while it was current.
Sorry for the music.
 
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If anyone can direct me to a site where I can upload a 46 minute video (other than YouTube) my Naxx video needs a new home.
 
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