While the appeal in World of Warcraft Classic has always been the chance to experience a faithful recreation of an old era, this has also been an opportunity for the developers at Blizzard to do a fair few things better with the help of hindsight – and the introduction of Heroic Plus is exactly that for Wrath of the Lich King. World of Warcraf t players have become accustomed to Mythic Plus dungeons in the modern era of the game as a valid and worthy alternative to raiding in World of Warcraft's endgame.
One of the biggest shortcomings in Wrath of the Lich King has been the difficulty of its Heroic dungeons, arguably the deciding factor behind Blizzard's decision to introduce significantly harder Heroics in Cataclysm. With Wrath of the Lich King Classic approaching the release of Ulduar, the developers found a way to introduce a new difficulty in the dungeons of Northrend while thematically tying the mechanic to the new raid at the same time.
Among the new patch notes for Wrath of the Lich King Classic, Wowhead has datamined a set of achievements related to Heroic Plus. They bear the name Defense Protocol Alpha, and cover all 12 dungeons from the expansion pack's launch. The omissions are the four dungeons introduced with Patch 3.2 and Patch 3.3, but there's very little reason players won't see Heroic Plus versions for the Pit of Saron or the Halls of Reflection in the future.
Much like inserting a Mythic keystone, World of Warcraft players can enter Heroic Plus mode for their Heroic dungeons in Wrath of the Lich King Classic by interacting with a Ritual Object found at the entrance of the dungeon. If all five players channel it at the same time, it will significantly buff the damage and hit points of the monsters within the instance, as well as introduce new boss mechanics.
Unlike a Mythic keystone, Heroic Plus will have no depletion timer, and will instead function as a traditional dungeon challenge for World of Warcraft players to overcome. The loot that drops from this new dungeon difficulty will be equivalent to Naxxramas gear from its 10-player mode, effectively offering players a new way to bridge the gap between gear score, and prepare themselves for raiding in the titanic city of Ulduar.
Though some might argue that including Heroic Plus into the game will cheapen its authenticity, there's a stronger argument to be made against it. World of Warcraft Classic has always been at its best when it respectfully rode the fine line between faithfully preserving the experience of playing an old expansion without slavishly being beholden to its flaws.
World of Warcraft and Wrath of the Lich King Classic are available on PC.
Source: Wowhead