Which Warcraft raid would you like to give a makeover?

While I wait for the arrival of Dragonflight later this year I’ve started farming mounts from older expansions that I hadn’t gotten around to before. While I’ve been lucky with some of them, others are giving me a headache — the Blazing Drake that drops from the Madness of Deathwing is the current target of my frustration (while the Life-Binder’s Handmaiden is also desired, the Blazing Drake is needed to complete the achievement Awake the Drakes with its Emerald Drake reward). But having run Dragon Soul dozens of times this month, I really feel like it could use a makeover, and not just speeding up the NPC conversations.

The layout and pacing of Dragon Soul is just off, and I’d love a chance to reinvent it. I’d put the Warmaster Blackhorn encounter at the start of the raid, rather than the sixth fight, and I wouldn’t have both Warlord Zon’ozz and Yor’sahj the Unsleeping in a “maw” environment but instead would require the heroes to overcome them to reach Wyrmrest Temple, where they finally break the siege by defeating Morchok. Hagara could still be defeated in the Eye of Eternity in order to acquire the Focusing Iris, but it’s the Ultraxion fight that really needs a revamp.

Ultraxion himself should be jettisoned, as his entire existence is revealed and then ended over the course of the fight, which is way too little time for a being that’s going to end all existence. Instead, it should be Deathwing himself who’s trying to end us. We don’t kill him, we just have to stop him using most of the same mechanics in the fight — but with the DPS aimed instead at the Twilight drakes who are attacking us (their pre-fight sequence is moved into the fight) and Goriona, who flew off after Blackhorn just like in the original fight. Once we defeat Goriona and the other drakes, Thrall fires the Dragon Soul at Deathwing to stop him, Deathwing flies off, and we quickly get our loot before taking off after him.

Since we’ve already done the Blackhorn fight at the start, Alexstrasza and the other Dragon Aspects give us a ride and drop us off for the Spine and Madness fights. I feel like reordering the fights in this manner and turning Deathwing into a three-boss fight (while jettisoning Ultraxion) would do wonders for the narrative and fight progression, while also making it feel like we’re really saving Wyrmrest Temple and Azeroth.

Anyway, that’s my dream makeover for Dragon Soul. How would you spruce it up? And what other raids would you like to redesign? Would you want Trial of the Crusader to be given actual trash to fight between? Or maybe you think Hellfire Citadel would’ve been better if killed Grom instead of rescuing him? Throw out your ideas in the comments!