With all the recent information coming out about the Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK) expansion there has been many topics to discuss. The current "hot topic" being discussed is the change to raiding coming in the expansion. Blizzard has seen how popular the 10 main raid content has been that was introduced in the Burning Crusade and is reacting to it. Karazhan is hands down the busiest raid instance that Blizzard has ever created post expansion. More players have seen it that any other Burning Crusade Raid.

Due to this popularity and in an effort to have casual raider be able to see more content Blizzard has stated that in WotLK all raids will be 10 man and 25 man capable. What does this mean to the average player and the raider? Read on...

How they will work?

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/32665"> src="/image/view/32665/preview" width="200">

One of the 10/25 man Raids will be located in the Nexus

Blizzard has stated that in WotLK a few thins will happen to raids. In a nutshell they are:

• Raids will have 2 versions - a 10 man and 25 man version.
• Raids will progress in the same order for the 10 man and 25 man version, but 25 man will not depend on 10 man for progression.
• Gear will be a full tier higher for the 25 man version of the raid.
• The 10 man and 25 man version of the same raid will be on separate reset timers.
• There will be no keys or attunements needed for any raid.

Wow, that's a lot to take in at once isn't it. To make it clear to everyone, the approach so far (and it could change before release) is that if there are 5 raid instanced, you could progress through all 5 as 10 man or 25 man or both. They would be separate progressions though. While the gear would be better in the 25 man, you would not be required to get the 10 man versions gear to be ready for it.

The WotLK raids will be the same for both 10 and 25 man versions. This means that Blizzard can design one area and server two very different groups. 10 man raids are much more casual than 25 man raids and allow smaller guilds or even PUGs to attempt them, while 25 man raids require much more effort and coordination. All the time currently spent designing 25 main raids will now benefit many more players since the zone will be the same for both. Likely all bosses and trash will be the same as well.

Obviously, the mechanics of all the trash and bosses will change drastically between the two versions though. 10 man fights tend to be a lot less difficult or complicated than 25 man fights. With 25 players in a raid there are many more interesting and challenging mechanics Blizzard can implement, and many more combinations of classes that could be expected to be in the raid. This means that while the raid zone itself will be the same, they could play out vastly differently. Likely the bosses will be set for 25 man tuning and then have abilities dropped to make them achievable in 10 man groups. That way they will have the same feel from one version to another, just adding complexity or difficulty.

Implications for 10 Man Raid Guilds

The implications for small raiding guilds is huge. What this means is that small raiding groups will have a lot more content to work through. This is amazing news for all those small guilds out there that can run KZ and ZA but struggle to get 25 players to move on to bigger raids. This will allow all ethos players to progress through and see more content than ever before.

It also means that these groups can become more close knit as they work on progressively more difficult content together. They will have to learn to rely on each other as they progress though the raids. So far, this has been there but only to a small degree since most guilds can clear KZ within a month of starting it, and ZA about the same. Since there have only been two steps in progress for small raids, the sense of unity for progression disappeared very quickly as players started looking for that next step.

This change should mean that small guilds survive longer and thrive. You could in theory have a very skilled 12-15 man group of players that is a highly advanced raiding guild. Before this just couldn't happen. If you only had a small group of friends, you realized early on that to "progress" you needed to join a bigger guild. You won't have to in WotLK.

Implications for 25 Man Raid Guilds

As big as the implications are for 10 man raiding guilds, I believe they are even bigger for 25 man raid guilds and here is why. I see many of the casual raid guilds or struggling middle tier raid guilds being wiped out of the game. Most of the players that are in those guilds are there because they want to see the new content and to get better gear. Both of these things will now be able to be done in the 10 man versions of the raid.

This means that the true hard core 25 man raiding guilds will become even more removed from the regular players reach as they are abel to hone their skills without players being there that are just there for the gear. It will still happen of course as players will still want that gear, but many of the guilds that would have existed to fulfil that need will be gone.

Messiah's Take On It

I am a huge PvE player. I far prefer it to PvP, however with real life, work and family I sometimes have issues getting into and sticking with a hard core raiding guild. That's why 10 man raids became my favorites place to play when they were released. You can get together with a core group of friends and do something that allows that same feel of progression you used to only be able to get in huge time consuming 40 man raids. They also allows for a lot more social interaction and camaraderie as you are dealing with less people at one time.

The new raiding scheme will allow more players to become involved in raiding for progression, while still allowing those that have time for bigger, more complicated raids to have their space as well. The only issue there is the fact I mentioned above, those guilds that are in the middle ground will likely have even more issues getting 25 than they did before.

This change will also allow Blizzard to turn out more content that affects more players more often. Think of all the 25 man content that has been released, and really how few players ever get to see it. The Sunwell is a prime example, it is a great big raid that is amazingly done, and took a time of time to perfect. Yet probably less than 5% of all players will ever see the inside of it. All that time that Blizzard spent only rewards a small portion of their customers.

If the Sunwell was a 10/25 man raid, then the number of players that would get to see it would likely quadruple, especially if the other instances on the progression path to it were 10/25 as well. Designing raids in this way will take longer, since they need to balance it twice, however the largest portion of the work needs to only be done once. Once the history is written, zone designed, art and graphics created, mechanics done, then all that needs to be done twice is balancing. It will sure save a lot of work over doing a separate 10 man and 25 man instance.

Personally, I love the whole idea. While I really hate that it will likely remove the casual 25 man raiding guild from the game, I think it is worth it to allow even more players to get in on progression raiding. Great idea Blizzard.

The Messiah has had his say, what’s yours?  What are your worries about change? Do you think casual 25 will still exist? Do you have other concerns? I want to hear your comments and explanations.

Email me at: Byron Mudry - ([email protected]) or post in our forums thread!