WoW Exploration: Naxxramas Behind the Scenes | World of Warcraft Classic

[@snacks404]

Northrend. The snowy area is implied to be Northrend, with the Lich King sending scourge through portals into Naxxramas to aid Kel'thuzad. Obviously Northrend as we know it hadn't been created yet, so using Winterspring was a quick and easy way to convey what we knew it to be from Warcraft 3. I implore anyone to go watch the original Naxxramas trailer from 2005, the one with Kel'thuzad narrating. They actually use the snowy part of the map in that video to show Kel'thuzad's "journey" so to speak. It's all very interesting, especially with the mystique around old Naxxramas as a whole. None the less, fantastic video.

[@720zone]

Really appreciate you pointing this out. Lore side of stuff was never my strong suit but I should have called that out 100%. Thanks so much for the added context here man; thank you! The OG trailer you mention: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ioPPp2tqgc9gmqs

[@mike9347]

@@snacks404 yeah, tons of fun in the old days. No-one had any idea at all wtf we were doing. I mean, my guild must have wiped every Friday night for 3 months before we got it together. 🤣😆

[@brandoncastellano1858]

I think, in addition of using Winterspring as northrend, they also used Winterspring as a way to simulate the character models using a cold breath blizzard wanted everyone to have it while fighting sapphion and KT.

[@zachr93]

This series of yours is one of my favorites! I love learning about the history and how things could've been.

[@720zone]

Thanks a lot!

[@UnitaryDesignation]

This was great. I always wondered when doing this in classic where the snow area around KT room was supposed to be. My guild called me crazy and weird for even thinking to ask that. Glad to see I'm not alone! Great video thanks for going so in-depth

[@720zone]

You were NOT crazy!!! I can't believe I didn't put it together that it was of course supposed to be Northrend. I should have researched better and mentioned it. At any rate, really appreciate the comment. Thank you!

[@Spectacular66]

Naxxramas was one of those raids that was such a huge mystery back in late 2006 because so little of the playerbase had actually been in it or gotten very far through it. I was only beginning my journey in WoW by the time Burning Crusade was on the verge of release so I did not get to enjoy any of the vanilla raids as they existed. I remember looking up the boss guides online and wondering how people even survived these boss encounters with the insane damage numbers their abilities did. Then again, I didn't know the extent to how much gear impacted your stats overall because I was still a newbie in white/green/blue gear. Still, those were fun times.

[@720zone]

Exactly! I was initially not in favor of moving Nax into Northrend in WOTLK, but I definitely understand it. The dungeon and bosses, the entire thing, was just amazingly designed, and it was initially so difficult that barely anyone saw it.

[@GTAjedi]

I reckon the Naxx 40 and Naxx 10 boss/mob damage numbers are kinda similar. Which would show how tough Naxx 40 was.

[@ozmcsween]

Naxx 40 required you to force people into specific specs and talents to even attempt the bosses. Honestly overall after playing naxx classic it’s not a very good raid. Doing the wrath classic version was a lot more enjoyable and way less clunky. It just was too ambitious or unfinished in original naxx for it to feel rewarding to even beat the raid.

[@GTAjedi]

@@ozmcsween I have to disagree about it being unrewarding to complete. I was in a progression guild on Kronos and when we beat Naxx it felt amazing. The fact that it's so deadly and dangerous only added to that. The Wrath version was so easy it was pointless and made a mockery of the original

[@ozmcsween]

@ I was in a speedrunning guild so it felt like months of prep for a couple hours of basically no difficulty when compared with bwl or even zg. The fights are just too easy and the loot is pretty pointless as there’s nothing that comes after naxx. The atiesh fight was more interesting than the entirety of naxx.

[@mauricevdlogt]

Brilliant showcase and very good explaining how things happen and linked to each other! Keep up the good work!

[@williamday9628]

Great video, loved the exploration, very nostalgic! Two things I'd mention: 1) I never really understood why the outer ring quarters were connected via the slime tunnels, since each quarter had to be cleared chronologically, so you couldn't for example, progress through the Arachnid Quarter and then swim around to go directly to Thaddius. Maexxna had a web door which didn't unlock until Faerlina was slain, Loatheb was on a raised bridge you could only reach from a bridge from Heigen, and Thaddius and Four Horsemen both had doors that didn't unlock until Gluth/Gothik had been slain. Not to mention that doing this would involve lots of extra trash. The only scenario I ever remember even clearing that outer ring was when the Naxxramas removal was announced at the end of TBC and people were panicking to get their scraps for the Tier 3 items. 2) I always considered Naxxramas to be a bit of a Doctor Who Tardis, in Vanilla I loved how it hovered menacingly over Plaguewood whilst slowly rotating and dripping slime, but despite it looking huge from the ground, part of me always felt like the interior was considerably bigger than the exterior. This was proven in WoTLK when they moved it to Wintergarde Keep, where unfortunately they very lazily didn't have it move around slowly and rotate anymore, as well as having off with the slime, given how flying close to it would expose just how small the exterior was, they really should have inflated the size a bit to compensate (if anything, it felt smaller in Dragonblight than it did in Eastern Plaguelands!). In early WoTLK when the servers were buggy when Wintergrasp battles was on, it was possible to walk through the instance portal, not get zoned in, and walk into the first, central room, in the uninstanced version, and the camera would glitch around, sometimes inside, sometimes outside, and you could basically see that the exterior model size covered that central room with the ziggurat, and pretty much nothing else. This convinced me that the exterior model probably needed to be around x8 bigger to properly match the interior!

[@720zone]

Can't thank you enough for such a thoughtful comment here man; appreciate it. One of the things I always enjoyed about the dungeon models, or facades, that you can see from the 'real' world, was exactly the size difference that you describe. The floating ziggurat, or keep, or whatever you're entering usually looks (and is) much smaller than the instanced version that you experience once you zone in, which leads to that 'down the rabbit-hole' feeling so many of these dungeons have. In the case of Nax, I just always interpreted the zigurate size as a scale and altitude thing, like it was actually supposed to be farther away than the actual models floating above the world, and hence bigger. They didn't make the model as large as the actual dungeon, so they moved it closer to compensate. But you're spot on; I think the actual dungeon model is at least 8x bigger! Thanks again.

[@zebra123]

I rarely comment on KZbin but wanted to say I subscribed! These videos are awesome and you’re clearly knowledgeable and passionate about the game. Thank you and looking forward to more content if possible!

[@720zone]

Really appreciate you taking the time to comment, and the sub. Thank you! Definitely planning to do more of these.

[@QTAsc]

I was so happy seeing this in my recommendations! I love the old Nax map and remember spending hours trying to escape KTs room to explore 'northend' when I was young I never even noticed it was winterspring back then lol. Thanks for the video

[@720zone]

YES! I did the same! I was a constant "What's out there?" or "What's over those mountains?" type player.

[@Fuj526]

Love this series!

[@720zone]

Thank you so much!

[@Digital-Scriptorium]

Good stuff and keep it up! I learn something new everyday with this game even after being one of the early beta testers.

[@nickykasan]

Another amazing video. I am really enjoying these. Maybe next you could do AQ 20/40? I’m sure there’s plenty to look at considering how large they both are! Thanks for taking the time to make these :)

[@720zone]

Totally! I was looking at the AQ model the other day; planning on it.

[@BumlinsDrinkWater]

Some of my favourite wow content ever, I love seeing behind the scenes and your videos are the most comprehensive that I’ve seen. Would love to see an AQ20/AQ40 deep dive. I know there’s some really interesting terrain behind the instance. There’s some story there about them planning to make a city there or something like that

[@720zone]

Comments like this legit make my day. Appreciate it so much. Definitely will be looking at AQ soon.

[@smasha444]

This is really cool to see, I appreciate the breakdown. Would love to see more like this

[@720zone]

Really appreciate the feedback man; thank you.

[@The_TimeConsumer]

Awesome vid once again my friend. Really hitting the nosalgia feels hehe

[@720zone]

Thanks so much man! I love the old stuff too.

[@nickedgar1345]

really enjoying this series :) keep doing what you do the way you do it!

[@720zone]

Really appreciate this comment man; thank you so much.

[@red_bull1540]

Really enjoyed your video! Recently did similar on retail. They have the Korakk's revenge evenet now and it is my favourite thing in the game. I play it every year and this time I get to enjoy it till January. So I decided to do some exploring and this time I joined in with my Demon Hunter. I climbed on the top of everything and went outside of the map etc. It was really cool, and I found some small tents and places that was looking like a aerodrome.

[@Ben-cg8qk]

Amazing how they made this 20 years ago. Great stuff!

[@Kreeftleeft]

Awesome, my nostalgia is surging from these vids!

[@720zone]

I have the wow nostalgia bug bad. Big reason why I make these vids. Appreciate the comment.

[@Smokie1523]

Ill never forget being taught the heigan the unclean fight by the great Darsham... to the sounds of safety dance blaring in the background.. ya know, to get us into the mood! God i miss those good times, man...

[@720zone]

I still think of that song when I see this boss. Almost thought of playing it when I showed that part.

[@OmegaFlec]

Fantastic video! Love the exploration :)

[@720zone]

Thanks so much!

[@ilikepiedontu]

I remember wall hopping back in the day to get past those barriers and found all the exploration fascinating. I kinda miss doing it.

[@Blackadder75]

I remember when wall jumping was still possible, if I knew they would change it so much I would have done it much more in the old days

[@Randiezorzorzor]

20 years of wow and had absolutely no idea that the wings connected with those poison tunnels :D

[@freedonx]

Excelent video /map... And considering it has great ambient music.

[@jonathonphillips4056]

I know Season of Discovery is a mess and its not the true 'Naxx Experience' when this gets released, but I am honestly looking forward to it. Hell I was listening to the ambience of this place while I walked with my kids as they Trick-o-Treat'd last night for Halloween. Ever since I was a kid I enjoyed exploring outside the map in games, even if it ruins the illusion. If anything it actually makes me appreciate the art direction more and how the environment with limited resources can really immerse you so well. This was great to watch, thank you so much!

[@720zone]

I'm the same. I got tired of SoD and stopped playing, but I'm curious to see what they're doing with it.

[@Artictoc]

These are very interesting, because I myself used to explore these maps either on my own private servers or on real servers to the extent I could explore. One of the craziest dungeons for sure is Scholomance since under certain circumstances you could jump out the balcony at Kirtonos.

[@720zone]

Yes! I need to add Scholo to the list for sure. I'm making these videos now because I was exactly like you; always tried to jump out of instances or otherwise see what was behind them. Sometimes that was more interesting than playing the game. Cheers man; appreciate the comment.

[@Ryder385]

Super interesting! Love the exploration and info on how the game is designed 😊

[@720zone]

Awesome! Really appreciate this comment; thank you.

[@EricEyetooth]

Awesome video. Do more of these.

[@720zone]

Appreciate that, more are in the works! :)

[@Zeldarulah]

I remember being shocked to realize you can swim between the outer ring parts. I assume that'll come up in this video

[@720zone]

Correct! I was surprised also.

[@ClauneckGames]

Back for 2nd time. This is awesome! Watching BWL next! You got my SUB.

[@720zone]

Appreciate it very much; thank you!

[@James_Laz_Knives]

Grate work as always bubba!

[@720zone]

Go on.

[@chadghar]

16:40 - "We don't need ground. Surely, no one is e v e r gonna clip through and dc loop till the instance soft resets... right?" ~ An OG WoW dev, probably That is a big hole. Thanks for doing this. :D

[@720zone]

Right!?! Then every so often we end up falling through the world. Appreciate the comment!

[@Malikor]

Great video! And you've gotten better at approximating z coordinates when teleporting 😅

[@720zone]

Hah yes! I actually bricked an entire character tp'ing under the world. Always appreciate your comments. Thanks!

[@brandoncastellano1858]

3 minutes in and I already know I’m in for a good time. Im new here.

[@General12th]

So good! I wonder how the game engine handles those enormous object files. I know part of the reason why game uses terrain is because it takes less memory and processing than objects, so having a place like Naxxramas which is basically an object _the size of an entire zone_ seems like it would take way up too much data and lag like crazy, but it doesn't.

[@720zone]

As is clear by my layman's explanations, I'm not a programmer and don't really know, but I believe it is the reason why you never see the entire model in the game. You can see how it pops into existence only when you're very close or inside of it. The only exception are models that are meant to be seen from farther away, like the front of Stratholme model, while the inside buildings all only become visible inside. Appreciate the comment!

[@elnurmammadov515]

very very interesting, thank you for the video love exploration videos

[@720zone]

Thanks so much! Appreciate the comment.

[@hardisk]

I love these

[@720zone]

Simple comments like this legit make my day. Appreciate it.

[@KaiForce]

My favorite dungeon after Ulduar

[@720zone]

Ulduar is a great choice for #1. EPIC in every way. Appreciate the comment!

[@misaemusic9243]

My most favorite video’s right now. Do you know why the the other side of the models never render when you’re “outside” of them. If you’re looking in the model viewer 7:14, you can see that they do have textures on the other side, sometimes it even looks like they have a roof. But when you’re outside of the model, you’re looking through those to the inside textures of the model. (17:56)This is really strange to me.

[@720zone]

Thanks so much for this comment; so glad you're enjoying the videos! I also find it so interesting that both sides of the models are textured and visible in some cases, but not in others.

[@mitchconner2021]

I've always heard that snowy area was supposed to be a peak into Northrend.

[@720zone]

Dude I'm actually bummed that I missed calling that out. You're 100% right.

[@SupahFraai]

I would argue that the "unfinished" stuff outside are actually finished. Nobody's ever supposed to see those areas in their entirety by playing the game normally, you'd have to glitch the game to see it. And as we all know, if you couldn't see it in classic WoW - they didn't make it (and we later got a whole expansion as an excuse to remake this world and make it flyable).

[@720zone]

Very good point.

[@tytygreenrich9407]

Wow! Thank you!

[@720zone]

Appreciate you watching!

[@BauniRedBull]

Your content is unique. Very nice! Me likey

[@720zone]

Really appreciate this comment man. Thank you.

[@Drazicist]

The only reason they use the EPL map is because you can look out tiny windows at the very entrance to Naxx

[@mike9347]

Really Cool. Thanks. But as an Aff Lock, I never had to think about where I was. I pretty much just tagged along 😆

[@720zone]

LOL! Mage here, I just followed along and blasted. I was always amazed by tanks or RLs that had to know where to go. Maybe why I make these videos now, just trying to understand how it all fits together. Appreciate the comment!

[@Blackadder75]

I was also a warlock, but sometimes I got summon duty and I needed to go forwards with a few rogues or backwards to summon some reinforcements or latecomers or to skip stuff, so I had to learn the insides of Aq40 and Naxx. we never made it further than a handful of bosses in naxx though

[@TheFrankfarter]

Hi Jeff, hope to see you in Naxx soon in HC

[@720zone]

Hey thanks a lot Frank! Maybe someday.

[@Lamm-si6pe]

amazing video! what program did you use to be able to walkthrough the naxx raid?

[@720zone]

Its the regular wow.exe 1.12 client on a single player private server.

[@YuriDSC]

Back when raids were truly epic.

[@Bop_Craft]

cool 👍

[@720zone]

Thanks!

[@benoitgirard3978]

Please try to find Alpha Ironforge !

[@nikolaikalashnikov4253]

i always lamented that hardly anyone else wanted to go into these raids "blindly", meaning, without looking up a guide first, and instead, just going in "blindly" and trying to figure shyt out. I would love if you made a game like that: No gear, no leveling nonsense: Just 10 classes and you queue up for a Random Raid and your 10-man just has to "figure it out".

[@720zone]

Yea I agree completely. Technically the very first guilds that tried these did exactly that; trial and error, but pretty quickly there was sharing of strats and data mining and we ended up with all the knowledge.

[@Spectacular66]

@@nikolaikalashnikov4253 that was how WoW worked in it's early years. There weren't boss guides really available because the more capable guilds back then would keep their strategies to themselves as they completed for spots such as world first kills. KZbin wasn't the juggernaut it is now and websites like WoW Wiki or WOWpedia were the only ways to get any indication on how to approach a boss since they had information on boss abilities. You just had to figure out how to handle it. It was part of the charm the game had, but it eventually changed as the game evolved around shorter and quicker sessions due to the changing economic times and those who had the time to play long hours did not have that kind of leisure anymore.

[@capatej]

Would be amazing if they put a real scale naxx citadel flying over the zone instead of that little zigurat we have.

[@Zack_Wester]

oh "fun" thing most raid internal maps dont match up whit the live map (map 0 eastern kingdom and map 1 kalimdor). I saw another person take a look I think it was Shadow Fank keep and you could see part of eastern kingdom (silverpine forest) and the silverpin inside shadow fang is diffrent from the eastern kingdom silverpin.

[@General12th]

I wonder if SFK was developed early, before the rest of Silverpine Forest was finished. Maybe looking at the SFK map could reveal secrets about the original Silverpine zone?

[@720zone]

Really interesting comment. I was looking at the SFK model in game just the other day. Its a good one because they used a portion of the actual dungeon model for the actual dungeon, and its identical to the piece you see from the actual world (outside the instance), then there is a larger portion of the inside of the keep, that extends beyond the size of the actual building. I might make a video on this soon.

[@cujoedaman]

I think it's funny that Naxx takes place in Eastern Kingdoms, but KT's room is in Northrend. I never understood that. Then it gets moved to Northrend and we do it all over again as if it never existed in Eastern Kingdoms. Blizz logic.

[@720zone]

Agreed; its very odd.

[@AresSon0fZeus]

They didn't have time to finish so many vanilla locations like Karazhan, Grim Batol, Hyjal, Uldum, Gilneas and Azshara Crater. Naxxramas was just on a next level, like more TBC than vanilla.

[@720zone]

True; well said.

[@D2ezbmu]

ok but are you actually Brian Kibler from 2017?

[@720zone]

my name jeff

[@MrShadowmario666]

OOOOO NAXXXXX

[@FNigslol]

Say what you want, WoW is the greatest game ever made there is no question

[@720zone]

1000%

[@kralkralovsky8416]

omg its gordon ramsay

[@peterkent6250]

You can survive the slime connecting sides, the issue is the mobs on the otherside!

[@720zone]

Honestly never thought about that, but yes, those outer ring mobs are brutal.