Breakfast Topic: Dialing back your game
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Sep 28th 2008 at 8:00AM
The reminder of the debate actually sort of got me thinking in a less controversial vein. I myself scaled back my game a bit from original WoW to the Burning Crusade expansion. In the original game, I was a relatively dedicated raider. Not the most uber, and probably still more casual than most, but I did regularly participate in 40-mans and tried to bring my consumables and my resist gear and be on time most nights.
However, with Burning Crusade, I decided to retire from the raid game. I felt I was just spending too much time farming stuff to raid, I had more real world obligations to deal with, and I felt that spending 2-3 hours in Ahn'Qiraj or Blackwing Lair 2-3 days a week just wasn't how I wanted to spend my playtime. So, come BC, I decided to stick to 10-mans. Not that there were many, but I figured Karazhan would be about the pinnacle of my game for BC, and that was just fine.
So, anyway, here's my question: Are you or your guild planning to scale back your game for Wrath? Are you dropping 25-mans for 10-mans? Retiring from Arena play? Dropping out of raiding altogether? What reasons have made you decide to try a new slower paced playstyle in Northrend?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics, Instances, Raiding, The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Jhestor Sep 28th 2008 12:28PM
My close friends and I actually started a small sub-20 man guild specifically to see the entire expansion from the 10-man perspective, all the way to Arthas.
Though the 40, and even 25 mans have a grand over-arching epic feel to them, I'm excited to raid only with very close associates with whom I am extremely familiar. Should be good times!
Schtix Sep 28th 2008 8:17AM
My guild began raiding Kara about 4-5 months ago, and about 3-4 months ago, began raiding ZA. After a few weeks of doing full ZA clears and getting 1-2 chests each run, we began to get a bit angsty, and it was clear that people wanted to try something new. A few of my fellow officers had previously been in 25 man raiding guilds, so we thought we could bring the guild to that point.
And for a while it worked. We did Gruul's, Magtheridon's, and even a few bosses out of Hyjal, SSC, and TK. However, once the release date for WotLK was announced, we found a lot of our normal raiders dropping back their play time as well as their raiding attendence.
So, at this point in time, it seems like we'll be doing 10 mans in WotLK simply because there isn't enough interest to do 25s. However, I'm sure once WotLK hits the shelves, we'll be back up and going in the 25 mans. Sometimes people forget we -are- experiencing pre-expansion blues. :P
vhdblood Sep 28th 2008 1:28PM
Wasn't the whole point of that post that your group was getting tired of the same content?
In WoTLK, that won't be an issue, as all raids will have a 10-man version, so it seems to me it's a great fix for your old problems.
Cari Sep 29th 2008 1:33PM
That's exactly what happened to our guild.
z3rb Sep 28th 2008 8:26AM
I'm actually looking forward to doing more 25 mans. I only really do Kara and ZA now, and the ocasional Gruul, but I want to stick to 25 mans.
Immacolata Sep 28th 2008 8:27AM
In EQ you could have hundreds of people to a raid. When WoW developers decided the max would be 40 in their game *that* was the death of large scale raids.
Scaling raids back to 25 man was a move for casuals but apparently they felt that was still too much.
BitterCupOJoe Sep 28th 2008 9:08AM
Nothing says "epic heroism" like having hundreds of players mugging a single mob.
Nick S Sep 28th 2008 10:34AM
Allowing hundreds of players to assault a boss turns every boss fight into a numbers game - the largest groups is usually the best group.
That's not fun.
Arcaria Sep 28th 2008 8:45PM
This post is and isn't entirely accurate. The content in the first few expansions didn't have limits on the size of a raid but when Planes of Power came out all the raid sizes were limited. There were a few in Luclin and even Vellious that had the same limitations.
Of course, outdoor bosses can always be attacked by as many people are around to attack it. The same holds true in WoW.
Skorn Sep 28th 2008 8:38AM
I raided a decent bit in BC and also pre-BC but in the expansion I will likely stick to 10 mans only. I like the bosses and everything in large groups of raiding but there is one little thing that bothers me... trash mobs. Clearing trash with a 25 man group to me is easily one of the most boring things in the game. I have in fact fallen asleep in the middle of many pulls. The trash just takes to long to clear to get to an actual boss.
RetPallyJil Sep 28th 2008 8:39AM
I actually plan to be raiding more.
No way I'm missing out on the Arthas raids.
Veras Gunn Sep 28th 2008 8:48AM
My guild's slowly been getting into 25 mans again, but because another guild on our server has shadily been pulling our members away(they even tried to take one of our officers who founded the guild) we're having trouble making a full guild run for the 25 mans. That being said, we hope WotLK will bring back some of our members who haven't been on as much. 10 mans will probably be the more run raids, but if we can get enough on we'll be hitting up the heroic raids as well.
joggoms Sep 28th 2008 8:53AM
That would cause these mounts to be too common, but I'm sure it will also be a good money maker early on in Wrath.
We might some day see a fancier version that is engineering only too, so no need to cry yet.
tamas Sep 28th 2008 8:54AM
Hi! I'm a big fan of pvp, but sometimes i really would like to go raiding or just to go to an instance. But i think it's a way easier to join for battlegrounds than insta-raid. Why? The LFG/LFM system is implemented, but almost nobody uses it on my server. It would be nice to change the whole system. For example: there are plenty of free place in all of the big capitals. If blizzard could just add some npcs, where you could join for an instace-raid. Like we do whenever we are playing bg. It's not that hard. My opinion is that the LFG/LFM system is simply not working. I think most of the casuals, -or even the ones who can't understand english- haven't ever used it.
Sorry for this little-off-side comment. But i think it was worth it :-)
Apoc Sep 28th 2008 12:44PM
That's still basically exactly how the current LFG system works, except it doesn't require the NPC's and you can join a group from anywhere, not just a major town.
Muse Oct 1st 2008 11:47PM
As a healer, I'm never again setting foot in the shock and horror of 25-man raids. Not only is discussing tactics for 45 minutes while mine can be summed up as "heal the tank" incredibly boring, but also extremely frustrating as one DPSer messes up and we have to do it all over again.
April Sep 28th 2008 8:59AM
This argument, though a valid fear, I think in time will be proven not stuch a big deal. Do folks generally only do regular instances in BC or do you find folks doing both regular and heroic? Do you think the 10 man vs 25 man is going to be any different? There will be plenty of folks who will want to do one type or the other.
As it stands having the option to pick regular instance runs or heroic runs has worked out really well. I can see this working out the same way.
Redgel Sep 28th 2008 9:02AM
it's no question everyone is gonna do the 10mans. easier and more convenient.
my theory is that the #1 guilds on my server are probably going to keep doing 25mans, because it sports the best gear. also, they might have to do 10mans also because dont you get 1st server kills for the guild by downing the last boss in said instance? Arthas Slayer lets say, no way they're giving that title up. and its a safe bet the 10man arthas is gonna be done way before a 25man would. the ladder is quicker.
the hard core guilds wanting to stand in the cities and boast the best loot in the game are going to do 25mans. the rest who dont care and just wanna see content and have fun, are gonna do 10mans
but that 10man first kill arthas title is gonna be the race, im calling it right now
MezzoForte Sep 28th 2008 11:21PM
I was under the impression (and I may be wrong by now with all the changes to wrath) that the 25 man versions had to be cleared before the 10 man versions were available, BUT that it was on some sort of timer so that after a bit the 10 man would open up if no one had defeated the 25 man version.
pumadam Sep 28th 2008 9:10AM
My guild is planning on pretty much only focusing on 25 mans. The gear is better and we have plenty of active raiders to not have any problems fielding raids on a regular basis. We are forming an "all-star" core group to blow through the ten man versions as fast as possible to get any idea of what everything is like and start farming some upgrades to be used in the 25 mans.
Over all I think it is a great idea to have 10 and 25 man versions. There are many people who never get to do anything beyond Kara or ZA and having a bunch of 10 man "end game" content will allow alot more people to have access to the game. I think this will make WoW even more popular and bring a lot of casual players back.