Dungeon difficulty

Burning Crusade has brought a new dungeon system which incorporates a dungeon difficulty setting. The simple concept of the dungeon difficulty spans across two levels. Firstly there is the Normal setting, in which players will experience average loot as would be expected in any World of Warcraft 5-man dungeon. Heroic, however, is a little different.

Although the raid difficulty system is similar, it only applies to raids and may have slightly different options.

Difficulty modes for all instances

Difficulty for instances affects boss fight difficulty and loot drops.

In decreasing level of difficulty:^{[citation needed]}

• 5-player Challenge mode 5-man only
• 5-player Heroic mode 5-man only
• 5-player Timewalking mode 5-man only
• 5-player Normal mode 5-man only

Official info

From Frank Pearce's Interview for the Official EU (en) site:

Q: Dungeon difficulty setting?

A: The dungeon difficulty settings will allow you to replay dungeons at an increased level of challenge, meaning you'll also gain access to greater rewards. For example, you'll be able to replay that same level-63 wing you just mastered later on at level 70, with level-70 monsters and level-70 drops. If it's a level-70 wing and you play it at the harder difficulty level, the content will still be level 70, but the loot tables will reflect the higher challenge that comes as a result of the monsters having more hit points and dealing more damage. Or you might get more monsters per pull...that sort of thing. We are definitely trying to provide a great deal of content for players, regardless of the amount of time they have to devote to it or how many other people they like to play with.

The differences between Heroic and Normal

It should first be noted that, before Cataclysm, heroic mode dungeons were not available for Classic dungeons. Upon the release of Cataclysm, however, Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep have heroic settings. Initially, the only dungeons available with a heroic setting were those in Outland, the Caverns of Time, Magisters' Terrace and Northrend.

In heroic dungeons, the enemies that you encounter will not just be of increased level, but also an increased difficulty far greater than their level would indicate. All enemies in heroic dungeons will be in the range of levels from the level cap to three levels above. However, heroic dungeons are substantially more difficult than the normal dungeons like the Steamvault or Utgarde Keep. Expect the trash mobs to hit well-geared plate tanks pretty hard for some particularly strong mobs. Also, expect bosses to hit harder, use their abilities more frequently, and often have new abilities.

In Burning Crusade

This section concerns content exclusive to The Burning Crusade.

Gaining access to Burning Crusade heroic dungeons

To be able to access an heroic dungeon as a party, each member of the group must have unlocked the heroic difficulty. This is typically done by obtaining a key from the appropriate faction but the heroic difficulty for the Magisters' Terrace is simply unlocked by completing the quest that involves killing the final boss on normal difficulty. If all party member have unlocked the heroic difficulty, the party leader can set the dungeon's difficulty to normal or heroic via menu options available by right clicking his or her own portrait.

Flamewrought Key Binds when picked up Unique Requires Thrallmar - Honored "Unlocks Heroic Difficulty for Hellfire Citadel dungeons." Sell Price: 2 50 Flamewrought Key Binds when picked up Unique Requires Honor Hold - Honored "Unlocks Heroic Difficulty for Hellfire Citadel dungeons." Sell Price: 2 50 Reservoir Key Binds when picked up Unique Requires Cenarion Expedition - Honored "Unlocks Heroic Difficulty for Coilfang Reservoir dungeons." Sell Price: 2 50 Auchenai Key Binds when picked up Unique Requires Lower City - Honored "Unlocks access to Heroic mode for Auchindoun dungeons." Sell Price: 2 50 Key of Time Binds when picked up Unique Requires Keepers of Time - Honored "Unlocks Heroic Difficulty for Caverns of Time dungeons." Sell Price: 2 50 Warpforged Key Binds when picked up Unique Requires The Sha'tar - Honored "Unlocks Heroic Difficulty for Tempest Keep dungeons." Sell Price: 2 50

Rewards

Each boss drops a rare loot on par with or better than loot from normal level 70 dungeons.

End bosses are guaranteed to drop one epic item from their loot table in addition to a second, rare, item.. They also usually drop a [Primal Nether].

Badge of Justice

This section concerns content that is out-of-date.

As well as increased loot quality, and the guaranteed epic, there is also a  [Badge of Justice] which drops from each boss in heroic dungeons — for each member of the party. They are used in exchange for epic quality items in Shattrath City.

In Wrath of the Lich King

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

Gaining access to Wrath of the Lich King heroic dungeons

In order to access Northrend's dungeons in heroic mode, each member of the group must reach the level 80.

Rewards

Each boss drops a rare loot on par with or better than loot from normal level 80 dungeons.

End bosses are guaranteed to drop one epic item from their loot table in addition to a second, rare, item. They also drop a [Frozen Orb].

Emblem of Heroism

This section concerns content that is out-of-date.

Each boss drops an  [Emblem of Heroism], which can be used in exchange for epic quality items in Dalaran.

In Patch 3.2

Patch 3.2.0 brought the use of normal/heroic difficulty for 10 and 25-man raids in the Crusaders' Coliseum. Players will find new options when right clicking on their own portrait.

Dungeons	Old	New
	Dungeon Difficulty setting	Dungeon Difficulty setting
5 Player normal Dungeon	Normal	5 Player
5 Player heroic Dungeon	Heroic	5 Player (Heroic)
Raids	Old	New
	Dungeon Difficulty setting	Raid Difficulty setting
10 Player normal Raid	Normal	10 Player
25 Player normal Raid	Heroic	25 Player
10 Player heroic Raid	-	10 Player (Heroic)
25 Player heroic Raid	-	25 Player (Heroic)

Note: If an heroic raid mode is selected, the previous raids which did not use this new feature will be launched in the selected mode (10 or 25-man).

In Patch 3.3

Patch 3.3.0 will bring new changes to dungeon difficulty settings.

In the upcoming patch we are adding a new feature to the Icecrown raid instance that allows the raid leader to change the instance's difficulty setting on a boss per boss basis. The way the raid leader chooses to switch is the same as now, by right-clicking on the character portrait. The difficulty settings can be changed from inside Icecrown Citadel, with some restrictions. For example, you cannot change the difficulty in combat or during certain events specified by our design team. To enable the ability to change the raid difficulty to heroic, you must first defeat the Lich King on normal mode, as doing so unlocks the heroic version of this raid instance. There is no heroic version of trash; meaning changing the difficulty will only affect boss difficulty.

We chose this particular functionality because we didn't want to use the Trial of the Crusader method, and have four versions on a raid of this size. We felt the Ulduar method of having to know a certain trick to do on the boss was difficult to communicate and tied too heavily to achievements. We might eventually convert Trial of the Crusader over to this new system but Ulduar and Naxxramas will likely never change.

In Legion

This section concerns content exclusive to Legion.

For dungeons new scaling difficulty modes were added:

• 5-player Mythic mode 5-man only
• 5-player Mythic plus mode 5-man only

See also

To edit this section, click here.

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

• Difficulty