Midnight Raids HubFull Season 1 Interview
Starting in Patch 11.1 with Liberation of Undermine and continuing into Patch 11.2 with the Manaforge Omega, raid renowns were added and gave players bonuses for clearing the raids week over week. Players would get cosmetic rewards, access to skips, quality of life improvements, and a damage and healing buff around every 3 to 4 weeks.
Raid renown tracks seemed to be received positively, though catch-up was a concern as you could only gain up to 2 renown levels a week. This was a problem if you were starting late in the season as you would just be behind in damage increases with no way to catch up faster. In addition, some players weren't a fan of the damage increases as it would make a tough boss, suddenly trivial the next week. It seems that Blizzard is moving away from this, as Paul Kubit confirms that there is no Raid Renown track in Midnight Season 1.
Paul KubitWe don't have a renown this time. You should be able to approach raids however often you like and whenever you want to.
Dylan Barker follows up talking about the scheduled damage buffs that were on the Raid Renown Track in War Within, noting that he believes that they're just going to be keeping track of completion rates and are hoping that gear helps enough to defeat the encounters.
Dylan Barker: I think we're basically just going to be keeping tabs on completion rates and what not over time. I think we're hoping for gear to grow people into it organically as much as is possible
Squishei: So there's no more "this is the week where we're getting 3% more damage and healing"?
Dylan Barker: Not to my knowledge. If I'm wrong I'll have someone correct me.
While raid renown tracks were only present for 2 seasons of the War Within, the scheduled damage buffs were actually present in all 3 seasons, with Nerub'ar Palace having the weekly turn in of Nerub-ar Finery. This will be the first raid in the last 3 raid tiers without a ramping damage buff other than gear.
