As with Wrath of the Lich King Classic’s Titan Rune Dungeons, we aimed to create a way for players both returning or new to Cataclysm, as well as those creating alts, to gear up a bit quicker this far into the expansion.
It’s well known that the original Cataclysm’s Heroic dungeon difficulty was reduced substantially over the life of the expansion, to the point where most players continue to feel that the mechanics became trivial. Our goal with Protocol Inferno, our first Elemental Rune Dungeon difficulty, is to raise the challenge level to a point where, particularly for characters close to iLvl 346 gear, the mechanics need to be considered once again.
Also, in comparison to Wrath Classic’s Titan Rune Dungeons, Cataclysm’s dungeons are, from the outset, mechanically more complex than dungeons in Wrath. Looking back on Titan Rune Dungeons’ initial Alpha Protocol difficulty, and how that difficulty progressed to Beta and then Gamma, we believe the reception to the dungeons, their accessibility, and their difficulty progression would have been smoother had we not introduced new mechanics in Alpha. With Elemental Rune Dungeons: Protocol Inferno, we hope the original Cataclysm Heroic dungeon mechanics shine through.