World of Warcraft Classic Season of Discovery Raids Are Changing

World of Warcraft Classic just revealed that both the unnamed Season of Discovery Phase 3 raid and Molten Core will require 20 players to complete. Fans will need to recruit more World of Warcraft players for their raid teams come Phase 3, but once they reach the endgame, they will be able to challenge Molten Core with half as many people as they have historically.

Among the many changes World of Warcraft Classic has implemented in Season of Discovery, the new 10-man progression raids are some of the biggest. Each phase of Season of Discovery has had a different level cap and endgame raid, with Blackfathom Deeps in WoW Classic SoD Phase 1 and Gnomeregan in Phase 2. The popularity of these small-team raids eventually led players to wonder if the 40-man endgame raids would be shrunk down, to which WoW Classic senior game producer Josh “Aggrend” Greenfield confirmed not all of them would.

Now, Aggrend has revealed that at least one Classic 40-man raid is being downscaled. According to a recent announcement he made on the WoW forums, the iconic 40-man Molten Core raid will become a 20-man instance once it arrives at level 60. Additionally, the unannounced level 50 raid in Phase 3 of Season of Discovery will be a 20-man raid, up from the 10 players required for the ones from Phase 1 and 2.

In a recent interview, Aggrend stated that most of the 40-man raids from Classic WoW would remain 40-man in Season of Discovery, though now, it seems like at least Molten Core is shrinking. However, the forum post goes into further detail, saying it would likely be mechanically unfeasible to shrink all of these instances in the same way. Aggrend also said Season of Discovery may try to make these 20-man raids, including existing ones like Zul’Gurub, more difficult, while transforming the 40-man experience into a more approachable and casual form of raiding.

Many fans are understandably trepidatious about these changes. Massive 40-man raids are a cornerstone of Classic WoW, and some think