Officers' Quarters: The benefits of Cataclysm raiding
by Scott Andrews 
May 3rd 2010 at 3:00PM
If you've read WoW.com's reaction to the new Cataclysm raiding paradigm, you already know that I'm a bit biased about this whole situation. I can't deny that this announcement had me cheering. On the other hand, I'm hearing a lot of doom and gloom from around the WoW community. Few people seem to embrace these changes wholeheartedly, and that's all right. There's quite a bit of uncertainty -- even fear -- about how it will all play out. I understand that. All raiding guilds will be affected one way or the other, and it could be that your guild will have a hard time adjusting to the expansion's raiding environment.
As officers, however, we can't give in to negativity. No matter how you might feel about these changes, they are happening, so let's move the conversation into a more productive area. Let's examine how Cataclysm raiding could help us as officers and how we can take advantage of these changes to help our guilds thrive.
Fewer raids to schedule and lead
I know many people, officers among them, are unhappy that they won't be able to run both versions of a raid. That will mean fewer upgrades for your guild overall and thus slower progress. It will also likely mean less time spent raiding from week to week. For people who really love to raid (and I count myself among them!), this change can be tough to swallow. In terms of raw logistics, however, you can't deny that our jobs as officers will be easier.
If your guild focuses on the 25-player experience, you won't have to worry about making sure everyone in the guild also gets their 10s done from week to week. The 10s runs are where the A team/B team issue crops up in a 25s guild. You'll be able to sidestep this issue. If you run 10s, you can focus on making those 10s as fun and effective as you possibly can, without worrying about trying to team up with other guilds to run 25s for better upgrades. This type of guild alliance, while sometimes very helpful, can cause great stress to both guilds.
More players wanting to be in guilds
With only one lockout per zone each week, players will put a greater value on the quality of their raiding experience. Unless the normal mode content is very easy, I expect that PUGs of any size will be less common. Players will want to make sure, if they're going to step into a raid zone, that they're going to down a few bosses without too much hassle. The most effective way to do that will be to join a guild that can tackle the content. Combined with the new benefits that players will derive from membership due to guild talents, guild recipes and so on, I expect to see fewer players running around guildless in Cataclysm. That benefits all of us.
Raid size differentiating guilds
In my recently released how-to book on guild leadership, I talk about choosing "differentiators" for your guild -- aspects of your guild's identity and philosophy that set you apart from other guilds. They can help you recruit and create a niche for your organization.
In the past, guilds didn't have to choose one raid size or the other. Now, we very much have to. And that, in my opinion, is a good thing. Why? Players can now gravitate toward the path that they prefer. We can focus our recruiting on one segment of the player base, instead of striving to please everyone. Raid size will become one of the most significant ways to define your guild.
Less burnout and guild-hopping
Members who prefer one raid size won't be compelled to participate in the raids that they enjoy less just to help out the guild. That sort of compulsory participation is a major burnout factor. In Cataclysm, players will most likely be raiding fewer hours overall and, more importantly, only raiding the way they want to raid. Hopefully that will lead to fewer people quitting the game mid-expansion. These sorts of burnouts can become a huge headache for officers. If the raiding roster takes a big hit, burnouts can unravel entire guilds.
Guild-hopping is most common when a player runs 10s with a guild, gears up and then decides to "graduate" to 25s, not just for better loot but also for the challenge and prestige. This phenomenon won't stop completely, but with the gear and difficulty level between the two versions being more in sync, I believe it'll happen less frequently. After all, it's a risk to switch guilds. If players are happy with their raiding experience in 10s, they won't feel like they're missing out by not running 25s. They'll be less likely to risk the switch. Of course, players will still switch guilds for other reasons, but this new system should have a positive impact on the most common cause.
Streamlined and more effective training and gearing
Yes, it will actually be more difficult to do these things during the first tier of Cataclysm, when the only max-level raids are the ones your guild is focused on. But this is short-term thinking. This situation will prevail only for a few months. When the next tier is released (and throughout the rest of the expansion), you'll have an entire tier for training and gearing up behind you, just like you do now.
However, you'll no longer be required to drag along 25 players to get the best available normal mode gear from those older raids. You'll have the option to put a smaller raid together for those players who actually want to run it -- without settling for lesser gear. Also, since that 10-player version will be similar in difficulty to its 25-player counterpart, you won't have to wonder whether someone who is adequate in 10s can cut it in 25s.
Flexibility to solve attendance issues
While it may be the case that an individual player's raiding options are more limited, for a raid leader, this system has intriguing possibilities. Think about it. Say you're a guild that runs both 25s and 10s currently. One night you're planning to run ICC25, but only 21 people show up. In most cases, you now have no options other than trying to pug the last four slots or call the raid, because your ICC-10 is scheduled on another night and/or people may be saved to it from earlier in the week.
In Cataclysm, you'll have the option to run two 10s -- assuming you have the tanks and healers among everyone's dual specs to pull it off -- and you'll get the exact same loot. Admittedly, the drawback would be having two separate IDs for future nights that week. Still, even that could work to your advantage. If you can switch an ID from its 10-player version to its 25, as Blizzard said they might allow, you could resume whichever run made it farther, with the entire guild, after the Tuesday reset.
Likewise, if you're really hurting during the summer or the holidays, you could run one 10-player raid instead, for the same loot.
For a guild that runs 10s, if your attendance is through the roof on a given night, you can try your luck at the 25-player version without fear that anyone is already saved to it. Then, if attendance later drops, you can switch your ID to 10s and slot your run as planned.
Ideally you'll want to run what you scheduled, but having this sort of flexibility could really help when unexpected attendance issues crop up.
Other advantages to this new way of raiding may become apparent when we're actually in the thick of it.
I know that I've only focused on the positive aspects of the changes in this column, but the disadvantages have already been documented at length pretty much anywhere you look. Rest assured that future columns will deal with how to handle some of these difficulties.
In my opinion, Cataclysm will be the best expansion to date for officers and guild leaders. We'll have new tools, new guild achievements, new guild systems and now a new way to handle raiding that, despite some drawbacks, certainly has upsides for us. Personally, I can't wait.
/salute
Send Scott your guild-related questions, conundrums, ideas and suggestions at scott@wow.com. You may find your question the subject of next week's Officers' Quarters!Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Finnicks May 3rd 2010 3:09PM
Great article, I agree with almost everything you said here, except...
"I know many people, officers among them, are unhappy that they won't be able to run both versions of a raid. That will mean fewer upgrades for your guild overall and thus slower progress."
I'm really get sick of hearing this.
If Blizzard comes through on their promises with this new raid system, expect 6-8 piece of loot per 25m boss.
You will NOT gear up more slowly because you can't run 10m as well. You will gear up *slightly faster* than 10m people, and over *twice as fast* as 25m in Wrath, where you only get 3 drops per boss.
Kyanr May 3rd 2010 5:19PM
I think what he means is that people are going to upgrade more slowly than they are now.
Instead of running both tens and 25s you will only be getting the badges from one, so instead of the almost 60 frost badges you can get a week it will be about half of that, which means less gear.
It also means that if you are running 25s and 10s to maximize the gear rewards. IE, my main druid is geared for 25 tanking, but can still use upgrades from 10 so it is to my benefit to run both so that I can get the most loot.
galestrom May 3rd 2010 3:27PM
To be fair, I'm really sick of hearing item counts when it comes to raiding in Cata. It's simply too early to tell. =)
Kuro May 3rd 2010 6:04PM
"When we say “25 should drop more loot,” we’re just sharing a philosophy. You shouldn’t assume that this means that 10-player modes will drop 1 item or that 25-player modes will drop 6 items, or whatever. We haven’t finalized how much loot will drop, but our general goal is that 25s should drop more to help make up for some of the logistical cost." -- BluePost
As was said in the above referenced, it's too early to make predictions on this. It could go UP for 25's, or the player to drop ratio could very well go DOWN for 10 mans.
It also doesn't matter what they do--unless they get a perfect balance--someone will min-max the numbers and people will gravitate toward the format with the best options for them. A lot of times people's prefered raid format is: "the one that gives me loot the fastest."
From what it looks like though, gearing up via PVE is going to become a much slower process in in early Cata. because you'll be raiding half the time.
Jay May 3rd 2010 6:20PM
@Kyanr
Blizzard have said that the reason badge pieces are so expensive at the moment is because a player can get so many of the damn things. If, for example, people are able to farm only half as many badges a week, and if the items cost half as many badges, you break out even. (Or come out ahead by having less badge farming per week.)
In that case, it doesn't really matter that there are fewer badges from runs, does it?
(The only counter argument I can see is "I won't be able to grind more runs than other people, thus allowing me to bolster my ego by having badge gear faster". Don't know about you, but I'd hate to see a game designer trying to balance the system to reinforce epeen-flex.)
Lilkitten May 3rd 2010 10:28PM
There wont be no 6-8 pieces of gear drop in 25's. Zarhym already addressed this.
"When we say “25 should drop more loot,” we’re just sharing a philosophy. You shouldn’t assume that this means that 10-player modes will drop 1 item or that 25-player modes will drop 6 items, or whatever. We haven’t finalized how much loot will drop, but our general goal is that 25s should drop more to help make up for some of the logistical cost."
Odds are it will be a 5:2 ratio which makes it an even drop rate (25-10 is a 2.5:1 or 5:2 ratio). Yes, I know they said originally it will be more per player, but Zarhyms post really backs off that.
Zanathos May 4th 2010 2:58AM
Zarhym's post doesn't back off that. It says they're not ready to share numbers, The philosophy is unchanged, but they're not sharing specifics because people will latch onto them and raise holy hell when it gets tweaked.
Wowcoholic May 4th 2010 1:40PM
I offer up a different way to look at it:
I imagine they'll keep the 2 pieces of loot in 10 man and bump the 25 man up to 5. The ratio is the same per person, but the drop rate is increased by running the 25 man.
example: A boss has a possible 15 different drops. A 10 man would have a 2/15 drop rate on a single piece, where as a 25 man would have a 5/15 chance. So that single piece you've been dying to get, you'd see it more often week to week in a 25 man.
Lilkitten May 4th 2010 2:28PM
@Zanathos
Actually he does back off it because he gives numbers to NOT expect. He says not to expect just 1 piece off 10 and not to expect 6 off 25. So we can safely assume close to a 5:2 drop ration between 25 and 10 which is equal.
Lazarus2020 May 3rd 2010 3:20PM
A whole lot of bias as you said
You should now try to write a story on how it could be bad. I could give you one good reason... class balance: unless you make every dps class do literally the exact same amount of damage and bring 3 or 4 separate buffs than dont be surprised if this falls on its face.
saregos May 3rd 2010 8:49PM
And... with Drums and Scrolls, I'd hereby like to challenge you to name *any* class that can't bring at least 3 buffs.
Neodarkmatter May 3rd 2010 3:59PM
I'll assume you are talking about the 10 man runs since 25s tend to have a wider assortment of classes.
I am currently working on hard mode progression in ICC for 10 man and we have had not issues or need for heroism. We have druids and paladins but haven't had an issue with missing a certain class.
Also remember Blizzard's moto of bring the player not the class so I can see balance being less of an issue in Cataclysm. Can't wait to see how this all turns out.
visitingl337n00b May 3rd 2010 4:02PM
The buff jigsaw puzzle is definitely an irritating part of 10-player raiding, but they can correct the serious problems with a relatively small number of changes.
As for everyone doing the same damage, as they are fond of saying, player skill matters a lot more than class in determining performance. If your guild is hardcore enough for everyone to have multiple geared alts to sub in when they are needed for the hardest fights then have them do that. If your guild is less hardcore than that then you should probably focus on learning fights, attracting good people, and supporting one another to do more damage with what you have than worrying about which class does 5% more damage than which other class under ideal scenarios.
Cigan May 4th 2010 7:54AM
Actually there isn't a lot of bias. He didn't say there weren't going to be problems. He just pointed out that those have been talked to death already. He is specifically talking about the good things. Given how much doom and gloom there has been I think that breath of fresh air is greatly needed.
He said he will discuss how to address some of the difficulties in the future. Given the previous writing on this topic all over the net and that he addresses his article specifically within that existing context I don't really see bias here at all.
Zanathos May 4th 2010 3:04AM
Worry about it when it's a problem. Raid buffs will likely be nerfed to make them less important, or 10 mans will replicate them with area buffs. Blues have already mentioned this.
nekorion May 3rd 2010 3:18PM
I wish there was a "Guildless" set of talents, that cater to solo single player content. I'm almost always guilded but I know a few people who play wow very much like a single player game.
Anyways I don't want to jump too hard on the "blizzard might allowed 10-25 transitions" if they ultimately don't deliver. I'm very hesitant about it. I'm just fine with the 10-25 conversion anyways.
And the loot issue on 25 mans doesn't concern me at all. Everything will be dropping honor and valor points and I wouldn't be surprised if it was like 4 drops and 3 points on 25 man to 2 drops and 1 point on 10.
Golis May 4th 2010 12:56PM
Tony, I am in a similar situation, but with a different flavor. I run a guild of half a dozen people, but they are all family members... shoot, I am lucky that by the end of WoLK that one other person will even have a level 80 running heroics.
Meanwhile, in the off hours when the rest of them are asleep (they are east coast, I am west coast), I am working on a couple toons that are very happily running ICC25 pugs (hooray for Varian Wynn... can't believe I like the guy now).
I don't want to jump ship (transfer, move up, whatever) to another guild, I am the guy holding this family together.
What concerns me (down rank if you want, but I understand the "just wait until Cata"... this is only a concern) is that if good (not top) guilds are not running extra content later in the week after their main runs are finished, the opportunities for me to contribute to this type of content will be limited.
Sure, I could more agressively pursue a guild alliance, but with myself as the only raid quality player in my guild, it is not really an attractive package to be marketing.
Anyway, here is me hoping that Cata delivers on the promise. Blizz hasn't let me down so far, and I am not giving up.
William May 3rd 2010 3:26PM
what happens to achievs, shared also?
need moar pointz.
Tinwhisker May 3rd 2010 3:30PM
There's a lot wrong with this article but I'll just handle one thing for now.
Blizzard said they "might" allow you to downsize raid IDs from 25 to 10 but they won't actually ever allow it for the simple fact that in a 25man raid you have various levels of players and the ability to do downsize means you can side-step progression by dropping low performers in your raid, beating the boss and then up-sizing again.
visitingl337n00b May 3rd 2010 3:58PM
I think this is totally correct. I think the new raiding system is a huge improvement, but I think the ability to size up and down the raid as you go will never materialize because it would just create too many problems.
In addition to what Tinwhisker says, while their intent is to have 10- and 25-player bosses be nearly equal in difficulty, inevitably fight mechanics will make one harder than the other (bosses that heavily favor class stacking, for example, will be easier on 10's because a typical guild will able to more heavily stack the appropriate class as a percentage of your raid; other bosses might favor 25's because you can better control the granularity of tanks/healers). Imagine a guild going through and swapping the raid size up and down for different bosses depending on whether the boss is easier to beat on one mode than the other. It would be ridiculous.