Raid difficulty
How hard raids and dungeons are on HoneyWoW, and what decides it.
In short
Autobalance: bosses scale to your group
Dungeons and raids scale to the number of characters inside: fewer people means bosses with less health and softer hits. Bots count as players, so a raid filled with your bots plays at its normal difficulty, and a small group faces a lighter version.
Creature levels are never changed, so old raids keep the stats of their era. Beyond group size, difficulty still depends on the era, the 10, 25 or 40-player size, heroic mode and how well your bots are geared.
Instances
What you face in each kind of instance
| Content | Size | Boss tuning |
|---|---|---|
| DungeonsClassic, Outland and Northrend, normal and heroic | 5 players | Original values for their era |
| Vanilla raidsMolten Core, Onyxia, Blackwing Lair, Zul'Gurub, Ahn'Qiraj, Naxxramas | 20 or 40 players | Level 60 versions, including 40-player Onyxia and Naxxramas |
| Burning Crusade raidsKarazhan to Sunwell Plateau | 10 or 25 players | Health restored to patch 2.4.3, before Wrath cut it |
| Wrath raidsNaxxramas, Obsidian Sanctum, Eye of Eternity, Vault of Archavon, Ulduar, Trial of the Crusader, Icecrown Citadel, Ruby Sanctum | 10 or 25 players, normal or heroic | Original values |
Realm multipliers
Creature rates
| Creature | Health | Melee | Spells |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | ×1 | ×1 | ×1 |
| Elite | ×1 | ×1 | ×1 |
| Rare | ×1 | ×1 | ×1 |
| Rare elite | ×1 | ×1 | ×1 |
| World boss | ×1 | ×1 | ×1 |
Every creature multiplier is left at ×1: nothing is buffed or nerfed across the board.
Player side
Era damage tuning
The progression module can lower player damage and healing in the Vanilla and Burning Crusade eras, to bring Wrath-era numbers closer to the old ones. On HoneyWoW this is turned off.
| Era | Your damage | Your healing |
|---|---|---|
| Vanilla | ×1.0 | ×1.0 |
| The Burning Crusade | ×1.0 | ×1.0 |
| Wrath of the Lich King | ×1.0 | ×1.0 |
×1.0 means you deal and heal exactly what your gear and talents say, in every era.
Built-in tuning
Where the old raids differ from stock Wrath
Progression stages
What unlocks, and when
Each stage means a tier is done. Completing it moves your character on and opens the next content.
| # | Done | Opens | Level cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | New character | Molten Core, Onyxia, dungeons | 60 |
| 1 | Molten Core | Blackwing Lair | 60 |
| 2 | Onyxia | — | 60 |
| 3 | Blackwing Lair | Zul'Gurub, the Ahn'Qiraj war effort and quest line | 60 |
| 4 | Before Ahn'Qiraj | Gates of Ahn'Qiraj, the outdoor war | 60 |
| 5 | Ahn'Qiraj war | Ahn'Qiraj raids, Cenarion Hold field duty | 60 |
| 6 | Ahn'Qiraj | Naxxramas 40, the Scourge Invasion | 60 |
| 7 | Naxxramas 40 | The way into Outland | 60 |
| 8 | Into Outland | Karazhan, Gruul's Lair, Magtheridon's Lair | 70 |
| 9 | Burning Crusade tier 1 | Serpentshrine Cavern, Tempest Keep | 70 |
| 10 | Burning Crusade tier 2 | Hyjal Summit, Black Temple | 70 |
| 12 | Burning Crusade tier 4 | Sunwell Plateau | 70 |
| 13 | Into Northrend | Naxxramas, Eye of Eternity, Obsidian Sanctum | 80 |
| 14 | Wrath tier 1 | Ulduar | 80 |
| 15 | Wrath tier 2 | Trial of the Crusader | 80 |
| 16 | Wrath tier 3 | Icecrown Citadel | 80 |
| 17 | Wrath tier 4 | Ruby Sanctum | 80 |
The two highlighted steps, into Outland and into Northrend, never happen on their own: you confirm them with your faction leader, because changing era also resets your talents. Zul'Aman opens at Burning Crusade tier 4.
Bots in raids
Filling a raid with bots
You can add up to 40 of your own bots, which is enough for any raid in the game. Bots have fight tactics written for most raids; for the rest they play their class normally.
Suggested group make-up
| Raid size | Tanks | Healers | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 + you |
| 10 | 2 | 2 | 5 + you |
| 25 | 2 | 6 | 16 + you |
| 40 | 4 | 8 | 27 + you |
These are the make-ups our raid roster tool uses. The tool itself is switched off for now, but they are a good starting point when you invite bots by hand.
Raids with bot tactics
- Molten Core
- Onyxia's Lair
- Blackwing Lair
- Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj
- Temple of Ahn'Qiraj
- Karazhan
- Gruul's Lair
- Magtheridon's Lair
- Serpentshrine Cavern
- Tempest Keep
- Hyjal Summit
- Black Temple
- Zul'Aman
- Sunwell Plateau
- Naxxramas
- Obsidian Sanctum
- Eye of Eternity
- Vault of Archavon
- Ulduar
- Icecrown Citadel
- Ruby Sanctum
Trial of the Crusader and Zul'Gurub have no dedicated bot tactics yet: bring players or call the mechanics yourself.
Instance rules
- Raids need a raid group, and level requirements apply.
- Every member of a raid group must be level 10 or higher.
- Icecrown Citadel and Ruby Sanctum share one lockout across normal and heroic; Trial of the Crusader keeps them apart.
- You can enter at most 5 new instances per hour per account.
- Raid IDs last a week, except Zul'Gurub, Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj and Zul'Aman (3 days).
- Leaving a Dungeon Finder group early gives no Deserter debuff.