I thought the idea for a remade Blackrock Depths for the anniversary was a fun one but unfortunately at least for me and my group of friends it’s been quite the flop. A meme, even, a suggestion to do BRD is met with scoffing and bemusement.
I checked the group finder today and I saw zero groups listed for Normal and only one group listed for Heroic difficulty. Meanwhile Nerub-ar Palace (and Black Temple TW for that matter) has plenty of groups up and looking for players. I think that pretty much highlights the popularity of this piece of content. If it was worth doing, people would be participating.
The biggest problems with Blackrock Depths that I see are:
- Despite some nerfs it’s considered to be more challenging than Nerub-ar Palace.
- The loot table is also pretty scuffed, with barely any of the gear pieces containing any mastery whatsoever making many of the items less desirable than other alternatives for lots of different specs/classes.
- The cantrip items aren’t fantastic and there is no reason to go after them other than mere novelty. They’re just not good pieces and from what I understand aren’t really worth chasing after in the same way that Ansurek Ring is.
- The way you enter the raid is using the Flexible Raids queue entry rather than just walking in. Could there not have been a new instance portal added to the Caverns of Time or something? It makes refilling PuGs way more finnicky and annoying and I’m failing to see the benefit.
How to fix?
I see two potential ways, really:
- Nerf the difficulty, making it more into a Loot Pinata raid like exists with the other Timewalking Raids.
- Keep the difficulty the same but add in some genuine reason to do it, enhanced reward, Myth track from the last boss. Buff the cantrip items so they’re actually worth chasing for rather than being a mere novelty.
If you want these items to be a novelty, then I’d say go toward a Loot Pinata difficulty level.
and…
Generally add in some Mastery items so that items aren’t just kinda dead for certain specs. Ideally also change the entrance to be walk-in so it’s less finnicky to refill pugs.
Thanks, BRD has some cool potential and I was excited for it, I’m sad to see how it’s been taken :(.