Back in the day (pre-Burning Crusade, that is), Naxxramas was the toughest 40-man raid instance that your party could endure in the World of Warcraft. With its reappearance in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion however, Naxx will experience a role-reversal as Northrend's entry level 25-man raid.

As expected, some players will find the move to be a bit of a downer, given how much trouble they had to go through clearing the raid, let alone earning its attunements (planned to be toned down by WotLK). Were the devs really downplaying Naxx as one of the game's older premier raid instances? As Bornakk explained in a nutshell: No.

Blizzard's blue-poster explained at the discussion thread that Naxx was being revived as an entry-level raid exactly due to its positive reception. The devs felt that it allowed more players to enjoy the run if it was introduced as a starting, rather than an end-game, instance. As Bornakk elaborated on the shift of difficulty for Naxx:

Right, but in a new expansion we would rather make brand new dungeons that are the most challenging. For the players who did push the content in the past, this will be an easier dungeon for them to get through and move on to the new content. If it was a high-end dungeon again it would feel weird to have new content then a dip into difficult but old content before moving on.

Bornakk further reiterated in the thread that while there wasn't anything exact yet, they were planning to re-use the Tier 3 armor models for the requisite gear for running Naxx. That's the latest update we've got regarding this instance's expected arrival in the frozen wastelands up in the north. Those interested in joining the discussion can access the WoW forums via the source link below.

Buy: [World of Warcraft Battlechest]