Difficulty

Difficulty is a generically used term for how hard something is to complete (like a quest), fight (mob and their level colors), gather (resource), or learn (recipe). This info is usually indicated by color (hard, medium, easy, and no difficulty).

Instance modes

Main articles: Dungeon difficulty, Raid difficulty

This section concerns content that is out-of-date. Reason: Needs sections for modes added in expansions.

Difficulty for instances affects boss fight difficulty, loot drops, and achievements.

Here's an overview (includes raids):

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• Scenarios (which only appear starting with Mists of Pandaria content) are the easiest to do and often designed for a single character of the appropriate level.
• Normal mode dungeons are the introductory difficulty for the appropriate level. They are tuned for players who have entry item level gear for the instance.
• Timewalking dungeons are older dungeon (5-man) content scaled in difficulty to challenge level cap players with scaled item level drops similar to the originals from the original content at appropriate level. This difficulty is only available for Cataclysm or later dungeons.^[cn] It was introduced in Warlords of Draenor, so it may change for Legion.
• Heroic mode dungeons are the harder difficulty for the appropriate level. They are tuned for players who gotten most of the best item level gear from normal mode or other sources.
• Challenge mode dungeons are not really harder difficulty than Heroic mode, but they are tuned for players who gotten most of the best item level gear from normal mode or other sources. They are intended to be difficult to complete quickly and better times can yield better rewards.^[cn]
• Raid Finder mode is the easiest of the raid modes. Since it is the most flexible and often more than 10 players (up to 25) are working on essentially 10-player difficulty content. This difficulty is only available for Cataclysm or later raids.^[cn]
• Normal mode raids are the introductory difficulty for the appropriate level. They are tuned for players who have entry item level gear for raiding.
• Heroic mode raids are the harder difficulty for the appropriate level and designed for 25 players. They are tuned for players who gotten most of the best item level gear from normal mode raiding or other sources.
• Mythic mode raids are the most difficult and the only instances tuned for 20 players at max or near max item level gear from Heroic raids.

In Wrath of the Lich King

This section concerns content exclusive to Wrath of the Lich King.

Hard mode for some raids introduced.

In Burning Crusade

This section concerns content exclusive to The Burning Crusade.

Dungeon difficulty (Normal mode and Heroic mode) is a specific type, introduced in the Burning Crusade expansion.

See also

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Scenario difficulty: Heroic mode Normal mode Dungeon difficulty: 5-player Mythic mode 5-player Mythic plus mode 5-player Challenge mode ( and later) 5-player Heroic mode 5-player Timewalking mode 5-player Normal mode

Raid difficulty for - raids:[cn] 20-player Mythic mode Heroic mode raid Normal mode raid Raid Finder mode Raid difficulty for - raids:[cn] 25-player Heroic mode 10-player Heroic mode 25-player Normal mode 10-player Normal mode Flexible Raid mode only for specific raids Raid Finder mode

Raid difficulty for raids:[cn] 25-player Normal mode 10-player Normal mode Raid difficulty only for some pre-Cataclysm raids: Hard mode only for specific raids Heroic mode Normal mode

External links

Commentary

WoW Insider Does World of Warcraft need to be more difficult? by Anne Stickney Jul 11th 2012 at 12:00PM