It’s not the size of your raid team, but how you use it – isn’t that how the saying goes?


This is our third week of 10 man raiding and we’re just tearing it up. Most hard modes are either one-shots or at most take us two or three tries. The only one that is giving us any problems (and justifiably so) is Firefighter, but that is to be expected. Just Mimiron, Freya, and Yogg0-3 to go (and Algalon, of course).


It’s been a lot of fun so far, and I find myself actually wishing I could speed up the raid reset so that we could get back in again. That’s never happened before – sure I’ve been keen to finish things off, but I’ve never wished for more raiding. I think it just shows how much more fun this format is for us.


I’ve done a couple of 25man runs lately and frankly, the more I do, the less I enjoy. I’m loving 10s. But it got me thinking back to 40 mans, early 25s, and some of the things that I miss/don’t miss about them.



Things I miss about large raids


1. Healing rotations and group assignments
No, really. I miss having sub-teams of healers assigned to heal various groups, and to step out at intervals to regen mana. I adored Dreamless Sleep potions. It’s probably why I enjoy the Vezax hard fight – I try to do as little healing as I can, early on – mostly a rejuv only if I can get away with it, so that I can come out both-guns-blazing in the Animus stage. And also why I loved the fight in Hyjal where dropping under a certain mana threshold would make you explode – so you had to step back and regen (or coordinate innervates – if only it had been changed to base mana back then!).


I get a real kick out of that feeling of the team really working together for the perfect balance of healing and mana management, that feeling that everything has to be coordinated, scheduled. Transitions. Regen calls.


2. That “epic” feeling
We’re never going to get 40man PvE raids back, but I do miss that epic feeling of so many people coming together with a common goal. Having to wrangle that many people was a nightmare (heck, trying to do it with 25 isn’t much better these days), but it sure did feel awesome when everyone came together.


3. Being at the pointy end
I’m absolutely loving 10 man raiding, but I still do get that twinge when I think about 25s. I don’t want to go back to them, but at the same time, it feels so odd doing the not-quite-endgame (where endgame is defined as top tier 25man hardmodes) content. I’m highly competitive, and it’s very strange to do 10s and not 25s. I know in my heart I’m not “settling”, I’m loving this.. but it’s hard to adjust to not being at the pointy end of 25mans.


It’s especially strange when planning gear and reading up on theorycrafting, because I’m no longer shooting for BiS gear but not-quite-BiS-**but**-BiS-for-what-I’m-doing. And since everything on EJ is aimed at the upper echelon of raiding and gear, some of the theorycrafting stands but much of it doesn’t. 10man raiding is still the bastard child of the raiding game, and I’m not sure when/if serious or “hardcore” 10man raids will ever be accepted as “real” raiding alongside 25s.


So despite having a blast, and most definitely NOT wanting to go back to 25s, it’s difficult to adjust to not doing them, and I do feel the occasional pang of jealousy. It’s weird, and hard to explain.


4. Buffs
A lot of our raids have been done with no pally and no priest. Ever tried raiding without fort and kings (for a start)? We’ve had to resort to the slightly dirty tactic of outside-the-instance buffing, but it’s not like we’re trying to get an edge – we’re just trying to get the most basic of buffs. Trying to do Vezax hard without fort, int or shadow protection is not as fun as you might imagine. It will definitely be good when they bring in the new profession buffs to help out.. but for the time being it can really suck not being able to rely on basic buffs, regen, a bloodlust, etc. This tends to make you “stack” your raid quite rigidly, leaving little room for people to swap in and out.


You really take those things for granted in a big raid.



Things I don’t miss (and why I’m loving 10s)


1. Lag
While everyone else is complaining about TOC being unbearable, we’re breezing through without a hiccup. Jumping into a 25 pug on the weekend, it’s noticeably more choppy. Ick. I don’t envy you guys trying to get your 25s done under those conditions.


2. People hugging the meters
In larger groups, meters seem to play a bigger part. In smaller groups, they seem to revert back to being a tool to find out who isn’t pulling their weight, and not so much about who is teh leetsauce. In 10 man groups I find that I don’t even think about meters (I haven’t used any myself since Kara). In 25mans I feel pressured to “perform”, to an extent – but in small groups, it’s all about just doing whatever is needed to get the job done. No egos, just teamwork. I forget that meters even exist. I love it.


3. Noise
The potential for 25 people to talk on vent vs 10 – it’s pretty obvious. With a 10 man group, we can all be having a chat while we’re doing trash (and sometimes even bosses) without vent being cluttered and loud and horrible. There’s the occasional time when we need to ask for vent to be cleared, of course, but it’s nowhere near as headache-inducing as a 25man raid channel. Being able to talk freely, and without it being overwhelming and noisy, really fosters that close-knit and relaxed feel in the team.


4. Loot systems
No DKP, no hoarding, no whoring, no wasting time with bids and rolls and re-rolls. If you need it for your main spec, go for it. If you’d like it for your offspec, feel free to greed. And with a smaller group, it’s easier for me to inspect the other few healers/casters to see if I want to pass to them instead. Looting doesn’t take 20 minutes, and doesn’t need to be recorded. If we bring an alt in to fill a role, they can grab loot as well – but everyone is mature enough to know when to step aside for a main or for someone we need to gear up a bit.


5. Herding cats
It’s early days, but so far things are going as I had hoped – being small, the guild can basically run itself. Raids, too. I simply put the times into the calendar, and off we go. There’s no pushing or cajoling or barking at people… they’re all grownups, they turn up on time and do their jobs.


6. $$$$$
We have about 25K gold in the bank at the moment, and a lot of mats. I turned guild repairs on for hard modes…. and then just left them on. Nobody has abused it (unlike back in the 25man days when I had to pull people up for repairing after 5 mans etc). But frankly, if it’s helping to gear us up – you can use it. And because we’re only 10 people repairing in raids, the gold will (roughly) go 2.5 times as far as before. And if I make pots or other consumables to share, we’re using 10 per attempt rather than 25. It also means I can be more generous with the gbank – there’s no need to sit and weigh up whether Bob has been in the guild long enough to get 6 shards for his enchant – we all know each other, we all do a good job, and I can just hand them over. It makes my job as GM a lot easier.


7. I can actually see sh#t on the ground
I never really noticed before (but then, I never ran Ulduar10 back in April/May) that 25 people (plus mobs) running around can make it pretty hard to see what’s on the ground. I honestly never realised how clear the runes were on the floor for Hodir – I used to have trouble spotting them, believe it or not. But it was probably because there was a mess of people running around all the time. And there are lots of situations where I’m glad for the extra space. Obviously you have to make sure everyone is in range for heals – but it’s nice to be able to spread out and not be right on top of people.


8. The atmosphere
The guild might be 2.5 times smaller, but it’s a hundred times more enjoyable. We run heroics constantly – obviously this is partly due to the badge change, but I think people are also more willing to mingle now that the guild isn’t so big. And with the speed and ease of gearing up alts, a lot of people have multiple characters to swap around and volunteer to do groups (and raids, if we need them). The sense of being a team seems to be much stronger now.




What are the things that you guys really miss about old raiding – and what are you really glad to have put behind us?



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