Blizzard updated their Phase 6 preview with a lot more details on the new raid system.
Season of Discovery Phase 6 starts on November 12th, with several stages until the unlocking of the two Ahn’Qiraj raids. Once the raids are opened, there will be a new difficulty system to try out called Descent into Madness.
The descent works a little like a roguelike push your luck mode. At the start of either Temple or Ruins the raid can activate the mode and have limited attempts to kill bosses. If they succeed they get a chest with extra loot. They can also choose to not take the rewards but instead continue to the next boss. The next chest will contain even more rewards and so on, with checkpoints along the way in case players fail. The rewards in the chests aren’t better than the normal raid drops, but they offer more of them instead. There will also be special cosmetic rewards from these chests.
At the end of the update we also found out there will be a PTR for this new system on November 8th.
New Raid Difficulty System
Inside the Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj and Temple of Ahn’Qiraj players will need to decide how far they want to push their skill to earn additional rewards with an optional new system we’re calling “Descent into Madness.” These additional rewards can be earned on top of the guaranteed loot dropped by the bosses within these two raid dungeons. To opt in, players will need to choose to take part before the encounter with the first boss in each raid.
Players who choose to test their abilities against the increased difficulty of each boss are provided with a limited number of attempts to succeed in earning these bonus rewards. If the raid group succeeds, they’ll be rewarded with a bonus chest which provides additional items for the raid. Players can choose to loot the bonus chest for the additional rewards or can opt to continue to the next boss. Opting in to the next boss will destroy the previous chest and allow the raid to try for a new chest with additional items in it after the next boss. There are check points in place as you progress through the raid dungeon so that should you fail at some point, you will still be awarded a minimum amount of bonus loot if you’ve reached one of those checkpoints.
The choice between more rewards to hand out to your team and facing increasing difficulty will be entirely up to the raid group to decide. It’s important to note that rewards are in addition to those that can be earned from the regular boss loot but aren’t more powerful. Compared to previous phases of Season of Discovery, the amount of loot per boss is being migrated from requiring the harder difficulty, to most of it being awarded baseline. The base number of drops per boss will be higher, the bonus loot will be very limited, and many of these additional rewards will also be cosmetic in nature.
Will you press your luck or will you loot your rewards early and lay claim to any bonus rewards you’ve earned? Players will be able to test this system when it goes up on the PTR (Public Test Realm) on Friday, November 8.