"The problem is that Deathwing's immense power, apparently, hasn't been shown clearly enough. Random roasting of zones was a good idea, but it's too remote and unattached. Though it's too late, here's my idea. After killing Ultraxion, before Thrall can use the Dragon Soul, Deathwing should have attacked us. He could have been all pissed that we killed Ultraxion and flown up to take his place. While he's chattering about how mad he is, he would be an attackable mob, though he wouldn't attack back. He'd have a buff called "Elementium Plating" which reduces all damage he takes to 1. It might even prevent debuffs like Hunter's Mark or Sunder Armor from being applied.

So here the raid would be wailing on Deathwing and doing nothing. He'd finish his speech, laugh and swipe at the tank. BOOM, dead tank. That swipe would not only one-shot the tank, but it would cleave and kill anyone in melee range, maybe even the ranged. If not, he breathes fire and wipes out anyone left alive, except the Aspects in their bubble. This is the point Thrall uses the Dragon Soul and the cinematic shows up. Deathwing tries to dodge, takes a hit, blows up a gunship and flees, just like now. Except we're all dead. We faced down the Destroyer and were killed like the gnats we are. Alexstrasza rezzes us (similar to Terenas in the LK fight), thanks us for the help and apologizes that they must ask more of us.

Here's where we show the heroes we are. Even though we just got rocked by the Destroyer, even though no one would blame us if we backed out after that, we hop on the Gunship and go anyway. I think this would have offered a better context to the whole Spine/Madness fight. It helps the players directly understand how powerful Deathwing is: We tried and couldn't even dent him and then he wiped us out. The only reason we have a shot later is because the Dragon Soul did the damage and gave us the opening. Even then we still need power from the Aspects. Yet they couldn't do it without us. Despite just being crushed, we get back up and won't give in. That's what makes it Heroic, that we refuse to back down in the face of true despair."

This, this, a million times this.

One of the reasons the Lich King seemed so powerful is that, despite your best efforts, the Lich King could always have destroyed you with a single blow, and he actually does so. The only reason he fails at the last second was due to his overconfidence in his moment of triumph, where Tirion actually earns his 'kill steal' by saving the souls of the party.

Deathwing has never shown us his true power firsthand. We've seen the Cataclysm trailer and got burninated in the countryside, but when push came to shove and we brought the fight to his very spine, he's still all, "Meh, I don't feel like fighting you. You're not worthy of fighting me." Instead of being enraged at being destroyed in a humiliating fashion (for the book fans: remember how he reacted when Khadgar started using magic to attack the weaknesses in between his platelike scales?) he gives you a bit of dialogue about how he'd forgotten you were even there. We came for an epic battle against a maddened Aspect, and instead we're getting Nefarian-esque taunts thrown at us while we fight an IMMUNE SYSTEM.