Draft said:
It's easier to get 25 geared/skilled people than it is 40. The raid team is already designing content that scales from 10 to 25, now they have to scale it to 40 as well?
25 guys working in coordination is still pretty massive, IMO.
well first of all in a 40 man you didnt have to have 40 fully geared people, heck when it was all about MC no one was "geared" we all had dungeon loot and crafted items. Once a guild made it past the first 2 bosses you needed more like 30 people that were in raid gear and could move in 1 noob per class group. Was it harder? that depended on the players and communication but it could be just as hard with 25. But it didnt stop many guilds from running alt runs and newer members into those same 40 man instances weekly.
Atleast with heroics theres that extra layer of gear to ease into raids. I dont mind the 25 man model but i do miss 40 man. Honestly the same problem exists SOME guilds fully man a 25 or even 2 or 3 but alot of guilds now still have loaner chars from other guilds or use the LFG tool to look for prospective players. And then some servers are just a mess that even 25 mans are too much to man consistently save for a small percentage.
The root of this problem is still partially blizzards design of pre end game, where the game is utterly soloable to the final level and still enjoyable with some dungeons thrown in, and of course envy. A game that doesnt force the player in any way to be social early on will have growing pains when they reach end game, thats the game design. Players who dont get into raid guilds or organize and start their own dont want to admit they want the same epics as those who suffer thru the preparation, the FAILS, and time it takes for everyone to get on the same page to successfully get the gear thats the players.
The problem is a two headed monster, players get sucked in but its all centered around their char and that works for a long time, i had a blast getting quests and running all over azeroth solo while leveling and progressing at a brisk pace. However, in the end game its all about what you can bring to the table as a team member that will help you progress, helping to buff up the tanks with crafting items and consumables, learning to use your class to keep healers and tanks alive in encounters etc instead of doing what you've always done to be successful because your char alone is not enough. You might have to learn how to kite something , or FINALLY use a skill that applies that has been buried in your skill book, accept that fact that your dmg or healing is nothing but your debuff or buff is the groundwork of an encounter. Furthermore for your hours of prep and practice you might not get a thing as far as drops go, might not ever get the drop your after.
On one hand MMO's are supposed to be massively SOCIAL games, but at the moment in many ways WoW is a massively POPULATED game where people dont have to use teamwork ( thats fine) but it causes backlash when people who dont make the transition to the endgame which is totally interdependent on players as opposed to there being another quest.