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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria news1,000 guilds have killed heroic Ragnaros
by Mathew McCurley 
Nov 16th 2011 at 7:00PM
Interestingly, 76% of the heroic Ragnaros kills have been completed in 10-man raids, with 24% of the kills in 25-man groups. Ten-man raiding has certainly made endgame raiding significantly more accessible, and 25-man only guilds seem to be struggling to keep their numbers as high as they once were, especially when the 10-man versions of the encounters are more accessible.
While 2% is a vastly larger number than the old days of endgame raiding, the content is still out of reach for a huge amount of the raiders and raid groups out there. Heroic content is meant to be the hardest of the hard, and these numbers reflect that. Hard should not be impossible, however, which is why we are seeing such a disparity between 10- and 25-man kills. Raiding at the 25-man level requires a commitment from more people, and the wrangling involved just adds to an already complicated encounter.
Nonetheless, it's good to see raiders raiding and content actually being completed, as opposed to the old days when content was only made for a very select few people. Hopefully, one day the numbers will be higher as to better justify the creation and facilitation of more hard-mode encounters as well as even better raids. Firelands was a marked improvement in raid design over Bastion of Twilight and Blackwing Descent, and it's good to see the numbers reflect that.
Thanks again to GuildOx for the numbers and statistics. Here are some other awesome articles to check out featuring GuildOx's data:
- Most popular Horde and Alliance character names, by race
- Most popular WoW character names, by class
- The world's most experienced boss-killer
Filed under: News items, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 5)
noel mcleod Nov 17th 2011 8:36AM
If Blizz didn't have the tons of subscription income from us "casuals", they wouldn't be able to pay for the creative talent and developers and servers etc. to give those of you in the arrogant 2% your content. Learn economics, moron, or go protest with all the other really stupid people.
Rick Brown Nov 17th 2011 2:23AM
Get Fire Resistance gear, as much as you can. Keep all Melee healed by priests and druids. When Rag submerges, make sure that everyone clumps together in one spot, except the warriors.
http://hydrolyzefacts.com
Spellotape Nov 17th 2011 2:58AM
I wonder when this was determined ... on my server three guilds have down heroic Ragnaros, but one of them was actually a split from the second guild to have done it. No one had even joined the split guild until the day after this new third guild was given credit for the kill.
Bossy Nov 17th 2011 3:14AM
Since there are about 630 world wide western servers, I guess 3 guilds per server is a good average of the numbers the OP is talking about.
Bossy Nov 17th 2011 3:12AM
I always have questions about Raiding you know...
WHY are they so called popular. I play WOW for the PvP.
For an MMORPG WOW has simply the best responsive controls possible. Ever since I started this game I have been dwelling in the BG's and like them sooooo much more than doing scripted events on which you constantly wipe (until you get to know the mechanics and other 24 (9) dudes who do the same).
And I have to say: each time I see a mass of WOW fans (like the opening nights of a new expansion) I always ask people around me what their preferred activity is and it NOT always raiding...
Perhaps I am in the wrong game after all, but there simply is no better responsive MMO out there (PvP Warhammer was aweful in terms of control for example).
Quite frankly that doesn't bode well for me wanting to play Diablo3 ... those are ALL dungeons.
But perhaps ... my reluctance against this PVE group play is that Diablo could solve that dreadful dependance of group play by going solo or co op with friends and family.
So, I like WOW, I love WOW but it feel strange I am not really into this raiding thing at all.
Perhaps .... WOW INSIDER would be surprised just HOW many players are not even TRYING and just have fun like me in other parts of the game.
I always wondered why Blizzard didn't launch a pure BG/+arena game for consoles... I think it would be a tremendous success. Who knows it could top - as a gear chase/competition based fantasy game - even the Call of Duty franchize on those consoles.
I think Blizzard STILL lacks a lot of insight WHAT their players like to play ... and not the few % of successful raiders...
noel mcleod Nov 17th 2011 10:33AM
While I agree with 99% of what you say, MOST people never see endgame content in any game they buy (at least not without a cheat or walkthru, which doesn't work in an MMO). Guilds like Ensidia are the rockstars of the WoW world, and give the rest of us a target to hit by showing that it is possible.
The challenge for Blizz is to keep the rest of us paying so that they CAN develop content that we won't see until the next ex-pac. The Lich King encounter is awesome - my deepest admiration to anyone who completed it at level. And you shouldn't get "Kingslayer" if you completed it at 85 like me (I never use that title, although I am proud of Explorer and am pretty close to Veteran of Warsong Gulch).
Paul Nov 17th 2011 1:33PM
I completely agree that comments which imply that raiding is popular, or the most active aspect of the game are rather hyperbolic, mainly because all these changes in raiding from TBC to LFR are all about getting more people in thereHowever, the competitive PvP scene (rated BGs and Arena) is probably even less popular, and for the most part, the people I know that do PVP in WoW at the moment, only do so for the achievements, which I feel is always the worst reason to PvP.
The reasoning behind that last statement is how certain holiday achievements encroach on the PVP scene and absolutely ruin the game for 1 week or more for those that intentionally play. However, as I'm sure you've experience, this happens all year long, it's just more intense during those periods.
Out of curiosity, did you ever play Planetside during it's peak? Going from Planetside to WoW, I honestly found PvP in WoW to be the worst joke I have ever witnessed. It's clunky, herded, impersonal crap everytime I have set foot in there back in Vanilla and TBC. You shouldn't have to know people in order to have a good time in a PVP product. It's suppose to be the easiest type of content to pug into since it's often a short duration experience.
Admittedly, my experience isn't the trend, but just by comparison, to an MMO that was pure PVP, WoW's PVP just summed up why I raid more than anything else.
Z Nov 17th 2011 4:01AM
I suggest the emotion behind these numbers would be very very different if GuildOx would have also posted the number/percentage of guilds that are 6/7 and 5/7. Heroic Rag is hard, as it should be. But there are MANY MANY more guilds working on it atm, and the numbers of 6/7 are much larger.
I would be much more worried if 2% had killed 4/7 or less. But that is not the case. Plenty of guild have progressed into heroic modes and succeeded. It's just Raggy that proves to be hard.
I just wish Mat/WoW Insider would have acknowledged that fact though.
Stilhelm Nov 17th 2011 12:52PM
Exactly. Firelands is very accessible. The end boss on heroic is hard, as it should be.
BTW, my guild that is 6/7H in Firelands decided to go try H Cho'gall a couple weeks ago. Let's just say having FL gear isn't going to help much...
chaosdefined Nov 17th 2011 5:02AM
See this is why I find it amusing when the moaners on the WoW Forums complain that the game has become far too easy, and yet none of them have even completed half of heroic Firelands.
Killik Nov 17th 2011 5:36AM
One problem with a game the size of WoW is that a tiny, vocal minority is still plenty big enough to consist of almost everybody you see post on the official forums. I'm just playing devil's advocate there - you're right, they're probably trolls.
chaosdefined Nov 17th 2011 6:57AM
Most of the time they're people who complain that the game is too easy, but don't try Heroic modes and whined when the dungeons were really tough at first.
TonyKP Nov 17th 2011 10:00AM
I think that one reason why the 2% number might be worrisome to Blizzard even though similar bosses in previous expansions had similar numbers is the fact that raiding was so heavily emphasized in Cataclysm. The developers put a large percentage of their time and effort into raiding, to the point that there isn't much else to do at end game that doesn't involve it in some way, and if so few players are reaching the carrot at the end of the stick then it might influence other players to not even try. Those same players could be then become part of the 1.7 million lost subscriptions (so far).
Just supposition, but it makes common sense.
John Nov 17th 2011 10:32AM
A lot of the effort actually went into the EK / Kalimdor level 1-60 revamp, which does not seem to have revitalized the player base / bring in more players as they'd hoped.
Borick Nov 17th 2011 12:55PM
I thought that their revamp of the old world was 'crap'.
If they had done away with levels 1-55 and truly revamped the world to have more use and function than re-leveling alts they might have had something.
Now what they've got is a $100 investment to play a streamlined solo game, and most of the 'living world' aspects (You know, other players interacting and finding value in the areas) have been shoved into forced narrative. It's just not the same. It's not MMO.
I can't believe that Blizzard wasted so much time and effort trying to offer a capsule experience for the casuals. I believe what the casuals really wanted was what they've wanted since EverQuest -- for raiding exploitation to go away.
Fox Van Allen Nov 17th 2011 2:10PM
I'm surprised it's that high. Heroic Ragnaros isn't fun. I'm not sure why so many people like bashing their skulls against a wall 3, 4, or 5 days a week to try and down him.
ObiChad Nov 18th 2011 3:25PM
"If that doesn't put things into perspective for you with regard to Blizzard's trying to make raiding more accessible, I don't know what will."
I think the more important data point to look it is the following.
Right before Firelands dropped, ~62k guilds had killed a boss in the first Cata raid tier. Remember this was before the major nerfs introduced in 4.3. Currently, 44k guilds have killed at least one Firelands raid boss.
Now, Firelands hasn't been out as long as that first tier was, but still, that's a steep drop.