World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Marks The End of 25 Man Raiding?
Blizzard issued an update today addressing some changes that will effect raiding in the upcoming Cataclysm expansion, and it didn’t take long for some of the hard-core 25 man raiding faithful to question the logic.
If you play Blizzard’s popular MMO, World of Warcraft, chances are you will come across a long time player who preaches openly to anyone who will listen about the days of “vanilla wow.” A time when the level of gear one possessed “stood for something” and end-game bosses couldn’t care less about being more accessible to the masses.
Those of us who never experienced the game in it’s original form at inception may be shocked to hear that raids once consisted of 40 individuals working together to slay virtual beasts and claim virtual loot.
The game as it is today consists of 25 man and 10 man raiding options for pretty much every piece of new content the developers release. This was done primarily to allow those unable to form 25 man raid groups the ability to see the game’s content.
When word of this change hit prior to the release of Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard’s current expansion, many raiders like myself at the time, were all for it. The gear differences put into place by Blizzard made it so that items dropping from boss kills in 25 man version dungeons were of higher quality and quantity, thereby rewarding the effort it took to assemble a larger group of individuals. Raids comprised on the 10 man level, were still able to experience the content, however their loot was of slightly lower quality and quantity.
The problem that occurred with this system stemmed in part from the number crunching “min-maxers“, those who analyze loot in games like Warcraft and determine the best in slot gear for their respective classes. As it turned out, some of the 10 man lootable items ended up being coveted by 25 man raiders causing many 25 man raiding guilds to double dip into 10 man raiding as well.
As you can imagine, a group of people assembled to perform a task on a larger scale requires a certain make up. A football team, for example, keeps a certain amount of each skill position to accommodate for 11 on 11 play. If that team then split off to do several groups of 5 on 5 they might find themselves short on quarterbacks, linemen, receivers, etc. Those left out would become upset creating the foundation for unneeded ”drama.”
Quite simply put, in a 25 man Wrath of the Lich King guild, 10 man raiding was the Terrell Owens of the group. Constantly causing a rift between players.
Enter Cataclysm. The upcoming expansion for World of Warcraft. In a developer post made today on the gaming site, MMO-Champion, the following information was released:
“The first of the refinements being made is that we’re combining all raid sizes and difficulties into a single lockout. Unlike today, 10- and 25-player modes of a single raid will share the same lockout.”
10 and 25-player (Normal difficulty) — Very similar to one another in difficulty; drop the exact same items as each other.
10 and 25-player (Heroic difficulty) — Very similar to one another in difficulty; drop more powerful versions of the normal-difficulty items.“We of course recognize the logistical realities of organizing larger groups of people, so while the loot quality will not change, 25-player versions will drop a higher quantity of loot per player (items, but also badges, and even gold), making it a more efficient route if you’re able to gather the people.”
So those who raid in World of Warcraft are looking at two major changes. First, the combination of raid lock out IDs for 10 and 25 man raiding content, and second, the end of varying gear quality based on dungeon size.
On one hand, the combination of 10 and 25 player raid lock outs means that those in 25 man raiding guilds will no longer have to deal with feeling left in the cold when their guild segments into 10 man groupings. On the other hand, many may feel that 25 man raiding guilds no longer have a reason to exist.
Blizzard plans to have 25 man raids drop a higher quantity of loot when compared to their 10 man counterparts, however considering the fact that the quality will now be the same, a greater quantity may not be enough to warrant the amount of trouble those who run 25 man raiding guilds are asked to endure.
In addition to managing 25 plus various personalities, they are often spending large portions of their time recruiting positions of need vacated by those who leave their guild or the game all together. I recently asked one of these individuals what they thought of the proposed changed.
As the guild master and raid leader of a top US 100 25 man raiding guild, it is my opinion that these changes are going to make things vastly more difficult for us to continue operating a 25 man raid in Cataclysm.
Mainly I believe that these changes are going to greatly diminish the incentive for gamers to run 25 man raids, making it harder to recruit new members, and thereby making it less likely that current members will want to continue pressing forward in a 25 man capacity.
In closing I believe that 25 man raiding will suffer a tremendous blow in Cataclysm if the rewards dished out in 25 man raids are of the same quality as those found in 10.
As a former World of Warcraft guild master, I couldn’t have said it better myself. I’m curious to hear what you think of the changes in the comments section below. Do you think this is much to do about nothing? Will this be the end of 25 man raiding? Sound off below.
