WoD Raids

[TeaLeaf]

This is something worth recapping as there was so much stuff coming out of BlizzCon about the forthcoming expansion that the details might have been not fully appreciated (I was in that camp certainly).   So here's how they intend to implement raiding:


Pandaria raid mode|Warlods of Draenor equivalent
LFR|LFR mode 10-25-man scaling (like Pand. Flex)
Flex|Normal mode 10-25-man scaling
Normal|Heroic mode 10-25-man scaling
Heroic|Mythic mode Fixed 20-man Mythic [/table]

Note:    
I've taken a bit of a flyer in the way I lined up Mythic as the replacement for Heroic, but seeing as the current 'Flex raid' does not exist in WoD then it seems logical that they have realigned as per the above table.

One thing that the Officers will be discussing is how we deal with Mythic mode.    By making the raid size fixed Blizzard are acquiescing to the demands of their developers who have been unable to correctly tune Heroic content (let's be honest: or even Normal mode) to suit both 25 and 10 man raid sizes, so a fixed size raid group for the upper echelon of raiding will suit their encounter designers much better - I expect that this will mean Mythic become a far better challenge than some Heroic fights we see today.

The flip side of this 20 man Mythic raiding is that the 'other' raid modes will inevitably become slightly restricted in encounter design as they will need to be suitable for as few as 10 and as many as 25 raiders.  To me, this means that the difficulty will inevitably skew downwards somewhat and we'll see slightly simpler mechanics - hence I equated current Pand's Flex with WoD's Normal mode.

DMR's difficulty will be in what to do when moving to Mythic modes.   We currently do not have enough raiders to run a 20 man raid group (very few guilds do, as evidenced by Aszune Alliance having just two 25 man raid guilds, neither of whom are particularly successful).   A successful 20 man Mythic raid would need (I'd estimate) 26-28 people in order to run properly.  That's double what we currently have in DMR.  

I can see Mythic mode being a very large discussion topic in Officer channel for some considerable time to come. :frusty:

Anyway, that's the proposed raid changes we have inbound when WoD hits.    What do you think?

[Ziley]

Personally, I think that 20 people is too many. I'd much rather continue with 10 people and at max upgrade to 15. It just seems 20-man raiding would lose out on the social interaction that 10-man raids enjoy. However, as explained by Fatboss in their recent videos it could mean that the raid encounters we get in Mythic are MUCH more interesting (they'd have to be for this change to be acceptable, in my mind). Hopefully recruitment is not going to be too much of a hassle when WoD hits, but at least we'll have a few weeks before we've cleared heroic in which we can hopefully get some new people in.

[TeaLeaf]

WoD will most likely hit in late summer 2014, so we have a huge amount of lead time to plan and handle this.   I'm absolutely in agreement with your thoughts about the social aspect though.    The trouble is that in order to be ready for Mythic, we'll need to have pulled an appropriate number of people through Normal & Heroic beforehand so that they are appropriately skilled, experienced & geared.   :blink:

Hopefully they'll have some feedback over the coming months and perhaps make changes to the 20 man Mythic raid size, 15 as you suggested would be an acceptable number imo too.

[Ziley]

It might not be that late at all from some of the stuff I've heard around. I think the general consensus online right now is that a april-may release date might be the most likely. It appears they're further progressed in development than they've been on other expansions at this point in time.

[Devlan]

I recently saw a tweet from GC saying they did not know if Beta would be out before or after the end of February. I don't quite remember how long they usually run a beta but mid/late summer seems reasonable.

[Ziley]

Ahh okay the theories I've heard placed the beta start early january, so that would speed the process up by about 2 months. But if GC has announced the beta to be around february-march, then sadly we might have to wait till summer for WoD to come around.

[JonnyAppleSeed]

I like the feel and dynamic of the 10 man raids... Im a big cog in a little machine. 20man Im a smaller cog in a larger machine

With the normal (heroic) being flex on numbers it will help the transition to heroic (mythic)

Trying to find another 10-15 more raiders that can make the raids, perform, have a PC that can run 20man and be on the same page will be no small thing. Please keep that in mind if you have friends that would fit in with the way we run

I dont think its a great call from Blizz ... 80% of heroic guilds are 10 man and the change seems out of proportion to the effect it has on 25man .....

The quest for making epic raids feel epic has won the day
 
or
 
Clinical Jas says "Make people change guild that will give us some extra cash from all the character transfers":flirty:

[hubbah]

Just bribe people with alchol to come join like you did with me Jas hasnt failed you yet!