Raid affixes must persist beyond Shadowlands

With Season 4 of WoW: Shadowlands are for the Fateful Raids the raid affixes called Fateful Powers came into play. There are four different mechanics (one for each boss fight) that your raid group will have to contend with. And while the feature hasn’t been tested on the PTR, judging by the first Destiny Raid Castle Nathria, it works pretty well.

Raiders who are already familiar with well-known boss fights will have to adjust their tactics again depending on the raid affix. That makes the already mastered fights exciting again. Admittedly, they could be a bit more imaginative or decisive, but I would definitely advocate that raid affixes also have to be a feature for future WoW raids!

This is how raid affixes should be built into future WoW raids

Raid affixes make WoW bosses that have already been dealt with several times much more exciting. And the system is not new. Already in WotLK, the developers introduced the so-called hard mode in the Ulduar raid.

Don’t push the button – if you press the big red button on Mimiron, you activate the hardmode of the fight.

Source: buffed



We remember the red button on Mimiron, which overly curious players accidentally pressed, making the fight considerably more difficult. Sometimes, however, the hard mode was simply activated by defeating the NPCs in a certain order in the boss trio Gathering of Iron, for example. In addition to prestige in the form of achievements, equipment with a higher item level also beckoned.

For future WoW raids, one could pursue one of three options for raid affixes:

1. The Shadowlands example
Once a raid is exhausted – maybe after eight weeks or a little more – raid affixes will be implemented automatically. You don’t have to wait until the end of the expansion for raid affixes to be unlocked in a raid rotation, and Blizzard could refresh content, which would certainly be nice for the developers’ fragile time management. However, with this option you would have to find the perfect time when most progress raids have defeated the final boss.

2. Back to Ulduar Hardmodes
Alternatively, the hard mode could be unlocked for bosses from the first ID by activating certain mechanics in the boss fight or by dealing with Council bosses in a certain order. Players would still have the option of playing bosses in normal or hard mode. The disadvantage of this option would be that players eat this content too quickly.

3. Completely optional affix unlocking
Similar to Example 1, the developers could implement raid affixes after X weeks (minimum five weeks, optional by community vote). Instead of forcing the raid affixes on them or, as in example 2, having to make sure that players don’t activate hardmode or argue with each boss about which boss should be played in hardmode and which not, an NPC at the start of the raid could use the Assume task. With the NPC you could directly determine whether raid affixes should be activated for all bosses or not. I would like this option best.

Optional raid affixes would fit perfectly with the new game philosophy

WoW column: Raid affixes must be preserved beyond Shadowlands (2)

Source: Blizzard



According to the developers, Dragonflight should again be a more relaxed extension. After cosmic threats and endless grind features, things should be a little quieter on Azeroth and for the players. The last raid of Shadowlands (Mausoleum of the First) not only demanded a lot from hardcore raiders, but was also a challenge for casual groups, as they are in WoW (buy now ) rarely seen. The raid was so hard that Bosses had to be nerfed literally dozens of times and the World First Race lasted longer than ever. For weeks after the opening of the mausoleum, if you could defeat Anduin, you were among the global elite compared to the raid progress of previous raids. And Anduin was only the first of three following hurdles in the mausoleum