Why the Return of Naxxramas is a Good Thing

When the great floating citadel of Naxxramas retreated to Northrend, there was a general outcry among experienced raiders used to seeing it in the Plaguelands. “We’ve already been to Naxx,” they cried, “and now you’re going to make us do it again?” Old-school raid purists were even more miffed when they discovered that unlike its previous 40-man raid incarnation, Naxxramas was now tweaked to allow 25- and even 10-man raids to plumb its darkest corners and discover its best-kept secrets. “Stop! You’re running it!” they screamed, “Give us back old Naxx! Send it back to the Plaguelands, where it belongs!”

But amidst these screams of frustration and howls of rage was another sound, from a different demographic of the Blizzard community. It was the sound of satisfaction, and it was a sound being emanated from every single person who had never had a chance to set foot in Naxxramas before. I was one of those satisfied denizens of WoW, and I’m here to tell you why the return of Naxxramas is a very good thing indeed.

Casuals never saw it. People who didn’t want to invest the time required to get the necessary gear, make the masses upon masses of friends, and spend hours coordinating strategies and developing theories and setting their noses to the grindstone for hours on end to get attuned with Argent Dawn to even enter the instance have never seen Naxxramas. Now, they can.

People who joined post-BC never saw it. After Burning Crusade launched it was nearly impossible to get a 40-man raid together to run old-world instances, people were so busy exploring the wonders of Outland. As a post-BC WoW convert, to me, Naxxramas was something which always sounded cool, but which was unattainable. Now, my guild, which is composed mainly of people who started playing post-BC have a chance to see this legendary content.

Encounters have been rebalanced. Naxxramas has been rebalanced to consider the plethora of new level 80 abilities, and the new game class of Death Knight. This means that the Naxxramas we’re seeing at level 80 has been modernized. While some would call this a bad thing, I can only call attention to other old-world dungeons and raid encounters, like Dire Maul, Maraudon, Molten Core or Ahn'Qiraj. On my server, these instances are ghost-towns, because the mobs, bosses and loot therein have not been updated to keep pace with all the new character abilities. But Naxxramas has been saved a long, slow demise from lack of use by its new retune.

Is it a bad thing that what has been called one of the greatest instances in the game should see a new coat of paint and a location change? Is it bad that Blizzard is “reusing” content? In my book, not at all. See you soon, Patchwerk!