A Short History of Raiding in World of Warcraft

What is a raid? Well it is difficult to say, is it an instance that has more then 5 players? Well no because some dungeons like the upper blackrock spire were dungeons, but had more then 5 players… are they instances with a week long cooldown? Well no, because mythic dungeons have a weeklong cooldown, and some raids of the past have had cooldowns of only 3 and a half days… Well what we would call a raid would be a place that has 10+ people, and a lockout of multiple days. So onto the raids!
Video script and research by Felplague
Fels channel - / greenyoshi100
Video edited by hiru
-The List-
Intro: (0:00)
Vanilla: (0:07)
TBC: (3:00)
Wrath: (6:01)
Cata: (12:00)
MoP: (15:55)
WoD: (20:06)
Legion: (21:27)
BfA: (25:33)
SL: (31:02)
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Browse my gaming, editing, and office gear along with some pretty cool book recommendations, and more, here: www.amazon.com/shop/hirumaredx

[@Marqrk]

I would just like to call attention to the fact that Hiru called Yogg-Saron, an ancient old god with unimaginable power who’s blood is so potent that it is simultaneously a super powerful metal and also can drive even mindless ghouls insane, the “Mouthy Clam”

[@eier5472]

Who doesn't know the Old Gods of Azeroth: Big Ass Eye Stomach, Mouthy Clam, Seven Goat Head and Googly Squid

[@nexusobserve]

I bet you used to have a tumblr

[@nexusobserve]

@vargen1414 tl;dr but thanks

[@zenbozic6184]

frogg saron

[@downndirty4233]

@@eier5472 you reyx V

[@benson6158]

Fun fact: terrace only took 5 days to clear because that is actually how long the sha of fear encounter lasts.

[@Valaran1]

"Blizzard nerfed this in future expansions, not wanting players to feel like they NEEDED to run LFR." Huh, and here we are in Shadowlands where I have 1pc Domination after clearing Normal, Heroic, and LFR each week...

[@Alpha121198]

Quick aside, a raid leader basically coaching the raid from the sidelines is so freaking cool.

[@Alijamaru]

This was amazing going over all the expansions, great job one of the best vids from you ever

[@HavocHounds1988]

Another reason Mythic Xavius was defeated so fast was because you could choose who went into the dream state realm that Ysera cast, whereas in the other difficulties it was cast on random players. So in mythic you could send in your big hitting burst players like Shadowpriests using Surrender to Madness to absolutely nuke him until they came out of that dream state, then when Ysera cast it again you could do it again with other heavy hitters.

[@AnimatronicBadgerlord]

I actually forgot about the race change part in BFA Dazar. I was the only one in my raid group to not get a race change since I was Pandaren.

[@phantom0456]

ToT is still my favorite raid that I actually raided when it was current content. I loved the aesthetic and the boss fights. I only started raiding casually in late Wrath so I did run Ulduar a few times for the weekly quests, but that wasn’t the same as raiding it when it was actually current, even though I still loved the looks and creativity of the fights.

[@brandoncastellano1858]

Such a good thing to listen to as I do my daily heroics. Thanks! :)

[@tyrgannusgaming6657]

I love this channel. I have spent a notable portion of my life. I don't count it as wasted, but it's hard to explain to everyone. It has opened me up to many friends and experiences. No more has to be said.

[@premiumfruits3528]

Would have been interesting to have a small section about some of the Vanilla instances that used to be small raids before they were turned into dungeons.

[@garycabezas]

well done sir! lots of nostalgia and good info too! Keep it up Hiru!

[@ballsofsalsa01]

When will we have a "The History of Hirumaredx" showing your storyline since first downloading wow, to Yugioh, DnD and so on,

[@genertec]

THIS!

[@ProfPuffOfficial]

Ayooo get it

[@ProfPuffOfficial]

Up

[@dirtylevel]

Probably during an April fool's, I imagime

[@alihorda]

there was a podcast with marclianonline about hiru btw

[@duncmanxxx]

Always coming through with the solid content

[@jjcoola998]

Our guilds algalon attempts were so intense back in retail with that limited time. I still remember the joy of getting star caller and flexing the ironbound proto drake with the guild , good times man.

[@skateboarding118]

1337!

[@anthyl5364]

So many good memories, thank you!

[@thenerdbeast7375]

"Purchasable from the guild vendor for 3,000 gold" ah back when that much gold was a lot of money.

[@HowToMolly]

"They didn't bother with raiding thinking that the gear wouldn't matter in the next expansion." Oh how wrong they were.

[@Marschmall0ow]

I dont understand?

[@Spectacular66]

@@Marschmall0ow Naxxramas gear was still pretty viable to begin Karazhan with. Way back when, item levels weren't visible to the player, all they could do was compare stats. Burning Crusade brought a few changes to how gear was itemized in terms of stats which made them look better. Players who had cleared most or all of Naxx found that they did not have to replace much of their gear by the time they reached level 70. Back in the original server that I used to play on, it wasn't uncommon to see players from higher-end guilds sporting Tier 3 gear going into Karazhan early on.

[@Dukenukem]

Too bad Blizzard made this mindset oficial with Cata. "You have full mythic raid gear? thats cute, here is some green trash two times as strong."

[@HamsterWheelGaming]

This is so true, the gear in Karazhan initially was pretty terrible so having naxx gear at that time was still super strong compared to Kara's old items.

[@thekyleprojekt7996]

@@Dukenukem ...there was no mythic gear in cata what are you on about

[@kingsasquatch]

*sees the word “short” *sees the 35 min time stamp* “Pfft I thought they said short” *watches anyway*

[@googoofeesmithersmits4536]

"and jaina finally died" I wish lol, she just teleported away as if nothing happened

[@ich3730]

tbf it was cool seing a boss who is a frost mage use iceblock to cuck their PvP opponent

[@TheOneWhoReportsForDuty]

I remember seeing Xavius going down on Zul’jin. I was surprised to see him go down so fast. As a new player it was “oh ok” but looking back it was quite fast

[@Vaith]

i remember going down on ur mom!

[@easycake3251]

Sunwell had locked parts early on that were unlocking each week (As far as I remember). Wotlk raids had server first kills that rewarded unique title to everyone in the raid that participated in the kill. Oh and as well, Ulduar had one limited attempt fight, Algalon.

[@MrMattBRaw]

I just want to say your history lessons got me back into playing WOW. So thank you and kisses

[@angrythomas6954]

Love the vids hiru

[@Popmycherryyo]

I'd love it if legendary weapons would be shown just like you show mounts. Great video

[@Volkain10]

Also on the vanilla/tbc bossss being cleared so quickly. Keep in mind the reason bosses like cthun, gruul, Vashj took so long is due to bugs making these encounters near impossible. CThun tentacles during p2 would spawn outside the map instantly wiping the raid and also inside his stomach. Gruuls shattered was initially massively overtuned killing clothies instantly if even a single person was within 15 yard range. Vashj mind control ability would randomly target tank leading to instant wipe amongst other bugs. On the first kill she instantly respawned and wiped the raid who killed her. Kael thas would build aggro towards your healers during his initial phases meaning when the boss became attackable he would beeline straight for the healers with the tank unable to do anything about it. While players today are much better with the benefit of past knowledge by tbc top end raiders weren’t as bad as they’re made out to be.

[@chriskay1449]

Ironically the guy from Elitist Jerks who would demonstrate that C'Thun was mathematically impossible to defea is now WoW's game director. Yep, Ion Hozzikostas. That video is still on KZbin.

[@NeutronJimmy42]

@@chriskay1449 How can I find that video? Help me out I tried searching with different terms you mention but couldnt find

[@luckiness9500]

@@chriskay1449 yeah the thing is, Ion Hozzikostas was such a moron as well as most players at the time. C'thun would indeed had some bugs that made it difficult to kill, but it was never mathematically impossible, you could easily compare how much of a difference can do a good comp of stacking warrior class rather than any random raid group. people in classic could easily make 700-800 dps with rogues, warriors and such.

[@chriskay1449]

@@luckiness9500 It was mathematically impossible. Elitist Jerks proved it. Go watch the video where they proved it.

[@luckiness9500]

@@chriskay1449 first they "proved" it based on a post, not on a video. second, ofc they will say it was mathematically impossible when players back then were fking awful at the game, like, people back then didn't even knew warriors dps could pull off big numbers (because you know, warriors were mainly and exclusively tanks hence you could never go dps) and that includes ion's guild as a whole. i'll give you that C'thun was really hard due to bugs and unintentional bad programming scripting, but never because of numbers

[@DannyRidsdaleProds]

Does anyone notice what a god of editing you are? With this much output over the past 2 months I'd expect to hear a jittery voice. It's good to see an artist so productive when I can't get anything done.

[@WikiHL]

hiru always mentions the work of his editors

[@RazanaArcclaw]

@matt alan he actually did do the editing for this video! me and hiru swapped jobs for this video basically. He does do editing, but sometimes its editors, but that is its whole own long story so...

[@RazanaArcclaw]

@matt alan Check the video description.

[@smalldam]

dude ny'alotha lfr was genuinely hilarious. "what cloak are you guys talking about?"

[@ryananderson4143]

Love the vids Idk if you have made this but when you mentioned Magtheridon was one of or the longest raid fights in the history of WoW I was wondering if you have or could make a video on the top 10 longest raid fights.

[@Sazandora123]

I love my Uncorrupted Voidwing. I'm not a hardcore player nor do I belong in a proper guild (it's a private guild for my brother and friend), so I had no real way to obtain the Voidwing and I went into a mild bout of despair over it, since I absolutely adore the way it looks. But then some kind souls pointed me towards a giveaway for heroic N'Zoth clears, and after like two weeks of participating in each and every raffle, I won and got my Voidwing that way.

[@zirconiumzealot6613]

Yeah. I joined the perky pugs server and got mine that way lol

[@masonkidd9272]

I love your videos been watching them for years 🥺

[@MizLK]

Great video, as always. To make it even better, turn on the subtitles. "shadow Martin" is now my favourite Martin.

[@miscellania4263]

Man the Temple Gates of Ahn'Qiraj being opened is one of my craziest memories of old-school wow. Our old family PC would get bogged down so hard from large crowds in those world events. I did so poorly in school my 7th and 8th grade years when literally all I wanted to do was play wow with my best friends.

[@TomZufps]

i think the history of all the strongest raid classes would be really interesting

[@narmale]

easy, it was DK tanks in wrath

[@SadBirbHours]

I remember shield stacking with disc to skip entire raid mechanics back in the day. Part of the reason they got reworked into what they are today is because they would either never be chosen over Holy or they’d be so busted you’d class stack them.

[@davidgomes8861]

Do a History of the Druid forms!

[@Bearvas]

Gotta say goodbye now. Can't watch WoW anymore. Love you and see you over at TDL (the Duel logs for everyone who didn't know about the second channel; The DnD Logs is also a thing btw)

[@TF-iz4my]

music is beautiful man

[@Geokey86]

A nice raidcollection top!

[@lizardman1303]

The only thing I remember was that it took longer to get. Tank and healer to do a instance spamming in major cities then having to run all the way back from the graveyard when your team wiped good times lol

[@dylanrussell4158]

Craziest thing about ToT happened to me. First time I'd been in there since MoP...got both mounts on the same run. Was insane lol

[@Phyx1u5]

"there were only 2 raids in vanilla" upper brs: am i joke to you?

[@inexes7687]

Love your videos bro

[@Harmony242]

I first thought the title was History of 'Raining' and thought the video was gonna talk about the constant rain in STV that people always bitch about any time I level thru that zone.

[@VideoClam]

I want to return to WoW so bad bros, but....I just....need more convincing. lol.

[@average_youtube_commenter]

Well 9.1 is coming on the 29th

[@WikiHL]

I coule convice you not to

[@LurkerEternal]

Don't do it! D:

[@projectlifedog1459]

WoW has a farting toy nowdays.

[@capitaldcolon1795]

Come back man! I came back in 8.2, i stopped end of wotlk. Been hooked ever since, like i was back then. Raiding is so nice nowadays. Its actually challenging and you have a high skill ceiling for each class. Way more rewarding than classic, because getting those high performance numbers is much harder to achieve. Also its more rare to see people who cleared mythic than for example people who cleared naxx in classic. :) Try it. Give it a shot man :)

[@Kevin-if6vp]

There were also a few guild "meta" glory achievements that allowed guild members to purchasa mounts in the guild vendors. Also, glory of the tomb raider originally gave out a set of transmog weapons that I think were added to a vendor in bfa.

[@Playingwith3D]

Started playing hardcore in oct 2006 until a month into BfA. Vids like this make me nostalgic. But it is not the same, I know better.

[@cherrybomber4864]

29:48 "This rat poison killed all the rats! I'm disappointed, that was far too easy!"

[@eduardolopes243]

Wait! did he say [Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker]?

[@choma90yo]

I believe he did mention [Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker]

[@PaoloDanielAngeloni]

Small correction: Trial of the Crusader mounts on 25 man were a feat of strenght that required you to clear the raid with zero player deaths during all the encounters, simply clearing it without wipes awarded you an extra chest at the end with better item level cloaks and heroic token for tier 9

[@xDamage69]

immortal run

[@slanderous.j]

Some of the most fun I've ever had was spending long nights raiding. I miss the old days. :(

[@nightsage217]

God. thankful for 10-men & 20-men raids exist. raid calling is a pain of its own category.

[@frederickbaker5819]

Could you put something together on the history of the mastery stat? Like different examples of ones that worked vs ones that didn't or how the stat has changed over time? Some of them seem fun and engaging like the frost mage's icicles, fire mages ignite, and windwalker's combo strikes, while others are just simple boosts to other stats and abilities

[@BouserWoW]

nice vid man!

[@classicsmajor9699]

Can you do a history of "History of" videos?

[@justinwillett134]

Anyone else feel blessed by these long videos?

[@tristansevertson5014]

you should do a video about the history of dungeon mounts

[@mudshrooze]

I dont know how you have so many ideas or how you get them done so often and so well but I could listen to you talk literally 6 hours a day

[@DJ_Treu]

SSC's attune was actually pretty easy it just took alot to down gruul AND Nightbane to get in there due to the nightbane attune being a sub-part of the SSC attune; but a person who had joined a group with an urn had an easy attune to SSC.

[@intuit13]

The mounts that you got from 25man heroic ToGC (wotlk) were not from tribute to insanity (killing all bosses with all 50 attempts remaining). That got you the ilv 272 cape. The mount was from a feat of strength (was always a feat of strength) called "Tribute to Immortality" which VERY few guilds accomplished. It was basically doing tribute to insanity but without anyone in the raid dying as well. Huge difference.

[@ilikepiedontu]

That’s exactly what I was thinking, this guy doesn’t do his research too well.

[@Y2yuri]

Props for using the new Hearthstone Mercenaries for the thumbnail!

[@luketfer]

I'm so sad I never got to do original Naxx because there was one weapon I always wanted which was Corrupted Ashbringer but, at the time, I wasn't in a big raiding guild and NOBODY was interested in going back to do old raids for equipment...

[@joetooseekret5150]

Amazing video! Any chance you could list the music you used in it?

[@JuanRamirez-fx3tf]

Of course, it took you an hour to complete all the raids in classic.

[@no_hemo5397]

So many feels during the first 15 minutes.

[@hernanruiz756]

loved the background piano

[@karehaqt]

TBC was the pinnacle of raiding.

[@thegentleduck4277]

Ulduar

[@milannovotny7299]

Sunwell

[@SevenTheMisgiven]

@@thegentleduck4277 With a lot of Ulduar I am going to have to point that TBC trash packs alone are harder than much what Ulduar has to offer. Ulduar just has a 2 bosses that on hard mode are really up there but then they still don't beat Muru. And Wrath has much stronger classes than in TBC.

[@DamienAlexander]

7:00 omg i remember doing this, but we used a special tactic, instead of the normal tactic we just killed the boss with 1 tank and 1 healer and maxed out on DPS to get the +3 achievement.

[@VancoreLP]

You mentioned the 15th Anniversary Event with short looks on iconic Raids, but you forgot the 10th Anniversary Remake of Molten Core. An original 40 Player remake which rewarded the Players with the Core Hound Mount, for killing Ragnaros again.

[@jurfo9650]

Yes new video

[@ArnaudCastaner]

As a former Tier 2 guild member (from Vanilla throughout WotLK) recently coming back to WoW in a very casual manner, I really appreciated this video.

[@dapred00]

"As a former Tier 2 guild member, I enjoy so much to brag about it decades later". Could have just said you appreciated that video, no need to give away copies of your "wow resume"...

[@jordanroth3369]

All I wanted to do is go back to wow to see this raids. I could never play instead I just watch this thank you

[@SHITSWEEEK]

start playing tbc classic its great!

[@ShawnWing]

Alagon in Ulduar was the first heroic only boss

[@kp395]

Actually back in the original vanilla days, LBRS, UBRS, Scholomance, Strat. were the original "Raids". There was a time when internet information on class and game mechanics were not as widely understood and shared as modern WOW, and people literally had to gather 10 other players for Scholo, Strat., LBRS (and 15 for UBRS). And a full set of T0 was the most prestigious gears sought by the players (anyone remember the original set bonus of T0 before homogenization?)

[@HoneylandUSA]

What are you correcting?

[@elbee2324]

As someone who has only really played WoW in what are now called the Vanilla and TBC eras, trying retail seems like a confusing mess, with mythics and LFRs and so on. This video helped me to see some of the context and development of those difficulties, and how it got from the old stuff to the new stuff. Much appreciated. :-D

[@Neologare]

more like "A Short History of Riding in World of Warcraft"

[@Queen-dl5ju]

can you do one for dungeons? i'd like to hear the history how they came up with the mythic+ system

[@scwor326]

Would have been nice to see outdoor raid encounters covered

[@Demon1z]

Fun Fact about Helya WF, Method got both 1st and 2nd kill as their strat was perfect whilst everyone else struggled with their own strat, it took other guilds until the 2nd week to finally kill Helya.

[@stone7th142]

Hey Hiru! I really enjoy your content from your top 10 videos and Lore to your obscure wow topics! You have taught me how to pet battle and introduced me to Hazel and the flying buttress!! Thank you! I wonder if you could give me a bit of advice. I am a new content creator (with about 7 videos lol) and am wondering how to get my videos out in front of you guys? I'm so new I didn't realize posting links in the comments would get them immediately zapped by mods lol. My stuff is new and raw but I know it has potential!!!! Any advice would help! Thanks!

[@yomama3099]

now im just sad seeing all the mounts I can't get anymore

[@eier5472]

Same, it's a big turnoff for retail for me

[@UBG001]

"As expansions went on, we got more and more expansions." 🤣🤣🤣

[@thedeadnotsleeping]

I really wish you could do a video exactly like this, except for dungeons. I know it would be a lot more intensive since there is obviously more of them but I think it would be a good idea.

[@alexanderaumueller2339]

Very good video. Only thing I miss is that UBRS and LBRS were also raids. LBRS rarely done so but possible. And I think all lvl 60 dungeons were doable in a raid either in the beta and/or for the first couple of weeks/months after launch of the original classic.

[@scienceacademynotcangivena696]

short raiding warcriminalcraft racist game is lie propaganda to force players to kill nations. What is nation? Humans born without nationality, born without fascism, nationalization in childhood make them. False value, false enemy, false nation definition make false enemy, destroy value of life. Nationalist kleptocracy created fa, refuse value of life and human rights. Reward for worsening is kleptocracy support, steal reward system. Support nationalist kleptocracy, participate in war crime. Wikipedia false nation definition changed always. They kill for nation, they not know what nation is. Not can distinguish between race and nation. Many program errors. Golden toilet marauder hilterugend science academy economy, kill and loot. Big cost in money and time. Booze narcologist barmen alcohol chemical addiction for children. Sacred satan religion war godless church. Killing for religion of peace, priest ten commandments. False race definition, false nations definition, make players to kill nations, made fa. Overpopulation family values.

[@Radamanthys4616]

dont have anything interesting to say or to add right now, kinda tired after a long ass day of work, just wanted to say than you for this insanely good video, gonna have a relax time while watching it

[@alexandershirko]

Thanks!

[@GothicaWendigo]

Could have included/mentioned the limited-edition heirlooms from Garrosh.

[@mateope10]

can we have links to your other channels in the description? they are hard to find as they don't have a similar name to this one i think.

[@chriskay1449]

We can now add Sanctum of Domination as Lady Sylvanas was downed in 6 days on Mythic by Echo.

[@Volkain10]

You could really tell blizzard took inspiration from classic wow with fights like queen azshara requiring LoS calling back to vanilla wow bosses like firemaw/chromag. They even followed this trend into castle nathria with shriekwing. The new 9.1 raid even features kel thuzzad with many callbacks to the original fight. It’s interesting to see modern blizzard boss designers rediscovering old tricks that the OG blizz team was aware of 20 years ago and I’m excited to see what else they take inspiration from. Would love to see the return of such things like the legendary weapons Kael Thas would drop during his encounter or a wide variety of forgotten ideas.

[@Feyrbrand86]

what about the shadowphenix wasn´t it also bound to guild raiding?

[@SardaTheSage]

Xavius didn't just go down fast because of M+ gear. He was one of the easiest, if not *the* easiest mythic end boss ever. It's the only cutting edge I have that wasn't around for a super long time at the end of an expansion or able to be cheesed with the next raid's gear (Mar'gok). It just wasn't actually much harder than Heroic, mechanically.

[@baky8856]

This is good

[@joshcascio42]

Hiru what is the song you have playing in the background?

[@TheDracarys]

In WOTLK you forgot to mention that Naxx 2.0 was completely declawed of lethal and challenging mechanics when compared to its original version-

[@Peleski]

After Lich King all raids just look like unicorns farting on acid

[@sirriffsalot4158]

This cracked me up more than I feel it should have in retrospect... **claps**

[@Peleski]

@@sirriffsalot4158 It is funny to note, but it also makes watching raid guide videos difficult, like sensory overload.

[@justinbirkelo6806]

What is the music playing in the background at 6:50?

[@vranthis]

Started as a short history of raiding and ended as the long story of mounts in raiding. I tought the goal of raiding was to get gears...

[@Demagogue88]

It wasn't surprising. Ony was a main chain that stopped you from entering. MC required a rep grind to summon Rag you didn't know about.

[@alvarotavares1966]

I have the wolf from siege of orgrimmar. The only cool achievement I had in this game before jumping out

[@stormrunner4081]

I honestly think that 40 mans should come back as mega raids like the ten hour war outside aq just these huge end of expansion type things to give it a big send off