Tier 6 / Phase 3 Content is Nerfed in TBC – Blizzard Clarifies

• Author: Pride
• Date: December 18, 2021
• Updated: December 18, 2021
• Expansion: TBC Classic

Players testing the new phase 3 raids — Black Temple & Mount Hyjal — discovered something interesting: some of the bosses were in their “post-nerf” states and certain aspects of the raids reflected their state after changes had been made to them in patch 2.2, a full patch cycle after their release.

So naturally they took to the forums to inquire about it, and Kaivax responded that since there weren’t many changes made to those raids during the original Burning Crusade, they will be launched in their post-changes state right away — they will not be getting changed down road, like it has been the case with phase 1 and phase 2 raids so far.

He also said that they do like the concept of pre-nerf versions being available for players to try before having the raids changed to their post-nerf state, so that will be coming back with the Sunwell Plateau raid in phase 5, which did receive some very major nerfs near the end of the expansion’s life to allow players to clear it.

But phase 3 will be getting no such treatment, which disappointed players eager to try bosses in their pre-nerf states. Specifically, these are the changes that have been discovered by players so far:

• Trash in Mount Hyjal can drop Heart of Darkness. This was a change made in patch 2.2, intended to make shadow resistance easier to get. Prior to that, only Black Temple mobs could drop them.
• Mother Shahraz is using her nerfed Prismatic Aura spell, which randomly chooses 1 school of magic to be 25% resistant to, while she becomes 25% vulnerable to the “opposite” school to that (f.e. Prismatic Aura: Frost) — making her encounter somewhat similar to the Chromaggus fight in Blackwing Lair. Prior to that, it gave her increasing resistance to a school when struck by spells of that school, which forced casters to keep switching up which schools they used, making the fight particularly difficult for them.
• Mother Shahraz is also using her nerfed Fatal Attraction spell, which causes the first 2 ticks to only deal 1k Shadow damage, while subsequent ticks deal 3k. The pre-nerf version always dealt 3k, which meant players had to be very fast with moving away from each other, so it was nerfed to give players some more time to move away from each other without dying due to a lack of Shadow resistance.

On top of these nerfs, it is assumed that the following nerfs are also in place, as they came with the same patch as the ones already mentioned:

• Archimonde: Fear has a 1.5 second cast time and is cast significantly less frequently.
• Archimonde: The Grip of the Legion DoT will now never target players who were just knocked into the air by Air Burst, and it has a reduced range.
• Archimonde: The Red Soul Charge debuff silences players for 4 seconds, down from 6.
• Mother Shahraz: Players hit by Saber Lash gain immunity to Sinister Beam and Fatal Attraction to prevent sudden tank deaths.
• Mother Shahraz: Shahraz will now change her beam every 3 casts, instead of every 5, which will prevent players from getting overwhelmed by 5 back-to-back Sinister Beam.
• Mother Shahraz: Several objects in her room had their collision boxes disabled so players cannot get stuck on them and accidentally die while moving away after Fatal Attraction.
• Mother Shahraz: Shahraz can no longer benefit from the parry haste mechanic, which causes monsters (and players) to attack 40% faster after parrying an attack. She already deals heavy damage, so this change was made to make life easier for healers.
• Reliquary of Souls: Essence of Desire cannot use Spirit Shock within ~3 seconds of using Rune Shield, which gives her immunity to interrupt effects until she has taken 50k damage, basically making it easier for people to interrupt her.

There is also speculation that Mark of the Illidari, which are redeemed for free flasks in Shattrath, will drop from monsters in Mount Hyjal, Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep as well, a change made in a subsequent patch — though this has not been confirmed yet.

What are your thoughts on this topic? Are you glad that phase 3 bosses are releasing in their nerfed state, making it easier for players to clear these raids, or were you looking forward to trying them out in their most difficult states? Let us know in the comments below!