Dungeon difficulty

Burning Crusade has brought a new dungeon system which incorporates a dungeon difficulty setting. The simple concept of the dungeon difficulty spans across two levels. Firstly there is the normal setting, in which players will experience average loot as would be expected in any World of Warcraft 5-man dungeon. Heroic, however, is a little different.

Official Info
From Frank Pearce's Interview for the Official EU (en) site

Q: Dungeon difficulty setting?


 * A: The dungeon difficulty settings will allow you to replay dungeons at an increased level of challenge, meaning you'll also gain access to greater rewards. For example, you'll be able to replay that same level-63 wing you just mastered later on at level 70, with level-70 monsters and level-70 drops. If it's a level-70 wing and you play it at the harder difficulty level, the content will still be level 70, but the loot tables will reflect the higher challenge that comes as a result of the monsters having more hit points and dealing more damage. Or you might get more monsters per pull...that sort of thing. We are definitely trying to provide a great deal of content for players, regardless of the amount of time they have to devote to it or how many other people they like to play with.

The differences between Heroic and Normal
It should first be noted that, at present, heroic mode dungeons are not available for WoW Classic dungeons. Upon the release of Cataclysm, however, Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep will have heroic settings. Currently, the only dungeons available with a heroic setting are those in Outland, the Caverns of Time, Magisters' Terrace and Northrend.

In heroic dungeons, the enemies that you encounter will not just be of increased level, but also an increased difficulty far greater than their level would indicate. All enemies in heroic dungeons will be in the range of levels from the level cap to three levels above. However, heroic dungeons are substantially more difficult than the normal dungeons like the Steamvault or Utgarde Keep. Expect the trash mobs to hit well-geared plate tanks pretty hard for some particularly strong mobs. Also, expect bosses to hit harder, use their abilities more frequently, and often have new abilities.

Gaining access to heroic dungeons
To be able to access an heroic dungeon as a party, each member of the group must have unlocked the heroic difficulty. This is typically done by obtaining a key from the appropriate faction but the heroic difficulty for the Magisters' Terrace is simply unlocked by completing the quest that involves killing the final boss on normal difficulty. If all party member have unlocked the heroic difficulty, the party leader can set the dungeon's difficulty to normal or heroic via menu options available by right clicking his or her own portrait.

Rewards
Each boss drops a loot on par with or better than loot from normal level 70 dungeons.

End bosses are guaranteed to drop one item from their loot table in addition to a second,, item. . They also usually drop a.

Badge of Justice
As well as increased loot quality, and the guaranteed epic, there is also a Badge of Justice which drops from each boss in heroic dungeons — for each member of the party. They are used in exchange for epic quality items in Shattrath City.

Gaining access to heroic dungeons
In order to acces Northrend's dungeons in heroic mode, each member of the group must reach the level 80.

Rewards
Each boss drops a loot on par with or better than loot from normal level 80 dungeons.

End bosses are guaranteed to drop one item from their loot table in addition to a second,, item. They also drop a.

Emblem of Heroism
Each boss drops an Emblem of Heroism, which can be used in exchange for epic quality items in Dalaran.

Patch 3.2
Patch 3.2.0 brought the use of normal/heroic difficulty for 10 and 25-man raids in the Crusaders' Coliseum. Players will find new options when right clicking on their own portrait.

Note: If an heroic raid mode is selected, the previous raids which did not use this new feature will be launched in the selected mode (10 or 25-man).

Patch 3.3
Patch 3.3.0 will bring new changes to dungeon difficulty settings.


 * Blizz


 * Blizz