Was Normal mode buffed?

[Season2mask]

Hey. Just wondering your opinions on normal mode raiding. I'm taking things a lot more casually this expansion and I'm pleasantly surprised by the difficulty of Normal. Not to say it's incredibly hard or anything, but it seems different this expansion. Kind of seems like you actually have to do mechanics or you'll wipe. It's nice to feel like I'm getting a more of a sense of the fight outside of harder modes.

Is it just me?

[ShaanuJaanu]

its just the gear drought. Once you get decent gear, you can stand in shit once again and not wipe the raid.

[MrLachyG]

Hey. Just wondering your opinions on normal mode raiding. I'm taking things a lot more casually this expansion and I'm pleasantly surprised by the difficulty of Normal. Not to say it's incredibly hard or anything, but it seems different this expansion. Kind of seems like you actually have to do mechanics or you'll wipe. It's nice to feel like I'm getting a more of a sense of the fight outside of harder modes.

Is it just me?

In terms of comparative difficulty to past raids yes it is harder because gear was more readily available. Now gear is more rare it’s harder. There were nerfs first couple of weeks to normal and maybe heroic too

[DazManianDevil]

This tier, even on Normal seems to have more 1-shot style mechanics than all of BFA/Legion, unless I'm totally forgetting some example.

The completion rate of AotC seems lower and I've seen no AotC PuGs, despite it being 2 weeks into the tier.
Combination of gear drought and more stupid checks than usual?
I'm enjoying it!