World of Warcraft Classic Season of Discovery is all about experimentation, rediscovering, and testing. Blackfathom Deeps has been converted into a raid with fresh loot, but this might become a problem in future updates.
Blackfathom Deeps is the first Season of Discovery raid and as such, it has different loot than it used to have as a dungeon. In the SoD raid, you can get your hands on Epic gear like Deadly Strike of the Hydra, Rod of the Ancient Sleepwalker, and Azshari Arbalest that make wiping at Twilight Lord Kelris worth it. And while this looks like amazing gear, it could give rise to huge problems in future updates. This gear is really strong, and it could even be compared to pre-BiS gear you get from end-game dungeons, as first noted by WoW content creator WillE. For example, Rod of the Ancient Sleepwalker, a staff that drops from Twilight Lord Kelris, gives 15 Intellect, 14 Spirit, five Shadow Resistance, and 26 increased damage and healing done. Rod of the Ogre Magi, which drops in Dire Maul Tribute, has similar stats—11 Stamina, 14 Intellect, seven Spirit, one percent critical strike chance, and increased healing and damage done by 23. Essentially, this gear is quite similar, even though the first staff is obtained at level 25, and the other one at level 58.
If Blizzard continues down this path with future updates, it’s quite possible that the open-world and dungeon gear could be rendered useless. I know that right now we’re talking about only a couple of items, but the Gnomeregan raid will surely have similar Epic-quality gear, as well as the level 50 raid that is supposed to be Scarlet Monastery. So, right now, you might be a proud owner of only one of those weapons, but in the future, you might have three to four Epic pieces of gear. This means content will become even easier, especially when paired with Runes.
What should Blizzard do?
To avoid trivializing the existing content, I believe Blizzard should rebalance the current items, adding a bit more damage to them, and buff the dungeons, quests, and raids. This should give you a new level of power, and still keep the core aspects of Classic gameplay where you can’t blast enemies with a press of a single button. Hopefully, Blizzard is aware of this issue, and it already has a solution up its sleeve.
