Was Naxx really that hard?

[Crono]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBPHRlgczmk

Thought you guys would like this. I find it very interesting, also makes me very interested in playing Naxx (I have never gotten to end game in vanilla).

[Stormreaver]

We still have a long way to go untill Naxx. The server will use a timeline of releases. But yeah, it was harder and more fun.

[kovenant]

before even watching the video.
YES it was.

we only cleared i think 3 or 4 bosses when it came out and for our server that was good!!

when you have a fully tier two equipped tank with consumables and the boss takes a single swing and kills the main tank before a single heal landed then it means its pretty tough..
for us there it wasnt a matter of being ferociously tough, but also a matter of luck and extreme overhealing to the point you are out of mana.
even the first few packs at the spider wing i believe it was were enough to wipe time after time.

[Cornholi]

I, like most people, didn't actually get to see Naxxramas (I didn't even raid at that time), but it would seem logical that at the time it was the hardest content ever created and also it didn't help that TBC released only 6 months later, so it added a level of mystique to it since almost nobody got to see it.

Of course right now, probably every raid that has been released for the last 3 expansions easily blows it out of the water, but even in the context of when it was released it almost seemed like it was too hard, like, I always remember people saying that AQ40 and Naxx were on another level compared to every raid at that time.

[kovenant]

what you are saying is correct,
also you had to pay your way to get in or have a high reputation lvl. so it was costly to get in there.
and once you were there it was alot costlier
a large amount of guilds broke apart due to the raids, and if you compare naxx to aq40 naxx was twice as hard.
and aq40 was twice as hard as BWL and alot of guilds never got to see nefarian.

[Netherfrost]

The attunement cost wasn't really anything, ppl are just hyping it (most because of the oblivious naxx video), its 60g at honored(not to ignore the fact that you reach revered by just questing and doing dungeons near/at 60) - Most of the hardcore raiders had already farmed exalted to get the 5 to all resistance on the shoulders. Besides the gold, the quest consists of some arcane crystals and two nexus crystals which a naxx raiding guild would be swimming in.
60g was, give or take some depending on server, the cost of a flask, so each dedicated raider would more or less spend the same amount every raid as what you had to pay to get attuned. What truly stopped most from progressing was the fact you need 8-10 dedicated and geared tanks to get past 4hm(most guilds relied on RNG rather than the ZG trinket, which ofcourse didnt help them a whole lot). Additionally, the video doesnt take account for the fact that most players didnt bother going hard on raiding, once ppl reached 60 they ran a few dungeons, but it wasn't like they had a certain set of goals like the common wow gamer has today. A lot vanilla players played the game as a RPG, without striving for server firsts and personal progress..

Of course the determination of the general raid wasn't as cookie-cut and organized as the ones you see today, put 10-20% dmg and hp on each encounter and a proper hardcore raiding guild will still be able to clear the content within 6 months post release.

[alucard001]

Naxx just requires a high content gear. You can't go there if you are not full AQ40 (talking about 40 man). Even with that it was hard.

[ThatsthePuzzle]

In context, yes it was.

Comparing it to the raiders and raids of today isn't really relevant as we've all evolved with the game and what is required, flasks and potions etc are just assumed but nobody had really even taken a flask before AQ40 let alone DPS and healers. In 2006 it was hard to gather even 20 people that were good enough to drag the window lickers through but now guilds are all on the same standard of players.

[Drooppi]

Man. If you find 39 people that have half a brain, you'll crush it.
If you find 38 people and a moron, it'll crush you

There's a reason why Nihilum & co worked so well, and it's not because they spent days playing, it's because they would read and execute the strat. (And develop, for the ones that made them)

That being said, I think if you expect real challenge you'll be disappointed. I'm still waiting for this server to restart to maybe join in again (however being 10 hours forward will make it hard to raid, as raids from 8 to 12 will translate in 6 to 10 am for me). But what it was before it went down (and I was there until the very end) was nowhere close to what MC or ZG felt like when I did them on official. Like the guy above, I reckon it's because when we did them almost 10 years ago we had no clue about the game. Now everything is known, and only an idiot wouldn't consider hit rating, while it was fairly rare before to have people work on their hit rating.

[Netherfrost]

Just because vanilla had a proper progression line doesnt mean its truely difficult - however compared to todays encounters, sure, it was, you couldn't reach endgame content in a few weeks or skip entire dungeons, as the general consensus of Blizzard became that all content had to be available to even the worst players, which is a natural action as a business plan which doesn't support that idea isnt as efficient and profitable, theres a reason Naxxramas was copy pasted into WotLK, and the above mentioned consensus started shining through Blizzards content more and more. One instance was made, it could both be played by 10, 25, normal, heroic and additional achievements - 4 modes, 1 dungeon, - more content, less scripting.