Will the current raid format ever be changed again?

[Deleted]

Ever since BC raid have changed, such as when raids went from 40 man down to 25 man and then in WotLk when two difficulties were added with 10 and 25 man. Later into the expansion heroic mode was added, creating 4 different levels of difficulty, but later a the release of Cata 10 and 25 man became the same difficulty, and finally LFR was added, creating a third difficulty.

We now have three difficulties: LFR, Normal and Heroic along with 2 player settings: 10 and 25. Do you think this will be changed again, such as one extra or one less difficulty and/or one extra or one less player setting?

[Keoren]

There will no doubt be changes eventually.

[Deleted]

Do not forget the challenge mode, it will maybe apply to raid one day!

[moveth]

I honestly think, eventually, that it will be a 1 size (probably 15man) raid across the board.

[Dakia]

I think it will probably change again. There just isn't much incentive to do 25m raids.

I'd prefer to 15m be the single size, but that is just me

[Thelxi]

If course it will change. My money is on one raid size, probably 15 next expansion, or the one after that.

[smokii]

i think blizz are intending to stick to the current format

10 and 25 - normal and hard mode
25 man only LFR

i hope they dont change it again tbh, i've had enough of blizz "experimenting" with raid models.

[Tiev]

I highly dislike 25-men.

I understand some people might not think 10 people is enough.

I'm ok with a 15-men.

[Batix]

Didn't vote, not a developer, have no idea if it will or won't.

But I will say that 15-mans would be pretty nifty! =)

[Siight]

I can't see them removing 25 man, because it fits with LFR. As for 10 man, it's a nice size for normal raids. Gives people choice.

[Wishblade]

I doubt we'll see much change in the raiding formats anytime soon.

[Ozztick]

My guild has been wanting to make a 15 man raid for a long time.

I say thumbs up to a 15 man raid in the future.

[nebula]

I doubt we'll see much change in the raiding formats anytime soon.

Not within the next two years, atleast

[Deleted]

I would really like something between 10 and 15, that will scale.

[Glorious Leader]

If course it will change. My money is on one raid size, probably 15 next expansion, or the one after that.

Yuuuup! Which is kinda lame. To this day I still hate the fact they merged lock outs. Dumbest thing they fucking did IMHO.

[Deleted]

Having in mind how flawed TBC model was (but epic as well) and what blizzard did to "fix" it with Wrath first and Cataclysm finaly, i tremble in fear for what they will come up with next time they decide to change it.

I am certain they will change it though...eventually.
40 people raids and tactical battles is an unrealistic plan (having in mind pc potential, lag, and ofc the human factor).

10 people on the other hand doesnt feel like raid and in order to make it functional you have to make several compromises. The changes in buffs, the extinction of multi tank fights, the decrease of encounters that raid splits in sub groups fighting different stuff in same encounter. And every single encounter much easier to coordinate and get the grip of it, even on those that were tuned to be more difficult in 10 man.

I would really prefer smt in the middle (between 10 and 25). I doubt that this is the change that blizzard is going to go for.

[Madruga]

I thought you were refering to another format. Meaning the progressive nerfs.

It is hard to say that Blizzard will never change the 10-25 raid sizes, or the shared lockout. They will probably change a few things eventually.

What I think ever will change again is the progressive nerfs. This, I don´t think will ever be dropped. Every single raid will have this feature now, with the option of turning the debuff/buff off. And the possibility of gaining a FOS soulhd you manage to do it.

[MoanaLisa]

No one really knows what's going to happen with normal/heroic raiding in the next expansion. There's a lot of social factors that could change how people view raiding. First and foremost, LFR will be available for every raid and likely every boss. That's going to have some effect but no one knows how much. Add in things like cross-realm raiding, battletags and the rest, it's possible that you could be looking at a very different situation 16 months from now. Most raiding is driven by guilds obviously but if people decide there's other things to do and that they've had enough of over-excitable raid leaders yelling at them and guild drama, that might cause a pretty significant change to guild structures. Recruiting could become even more difficult. And that very well could have a serious effect on raiding at whatever size/difficulty.

Challenge dungeons are sort of a wild card here as well. Tired of the time commitments required for raiding? Form a small guild of very elite players and go after the challenge dungeon leader boards. The effect of that might be small but it doesn't take a whole lot for things to shift around. A tank here and your best healer there and all of a sudden you've got 8-23 people sitting around or having to recruit.

Speculating, I think that a single-size raid will happen eventually. It might be 15, it might be 18 or some other number. There's nothing magical about it other than everything in the game so far is divisible by five. But that's artificial and need not be the case for raids although it might well be.

They might separate out the lockouts for LFR and other raid difficulties. I know that there seems to be a lot of current raiders that would like that so they don't feel they must run LFR when they don't want to. Self-control appears to be in short supply in that case and I'd like to see really strong reasons for separating the lockouts other than Blizzard stepping in to be a generic Mom and Dad for raiders who can't help themselves.

But really, it's impossible to know at this point. There's a lot of stuff out there that will have to shake out before anyone can predict what's going to happen. I think it's likely though that normal/heroic raiders are going to shrink in numbers again. Those that raid primarily in normal and don't bother with heroic should probably worry about LFR sniping out their more casual players. Those that raid primarily heroic should be concerned about their better players finding challenge dungeons more than a part-time activity.

[Prokne]

I highly dislike 25-men.

I understand some people might not think 10 people is enough.

I'm ok with a 15-men.

I think in the future they will realize that they can do a lot more by just having one raid size again. Right now they want to give players "choices" but eventually 25mans will die because of the difficulty running them with not enough incentive to do so. Although I think they should go to 20 man since IMO 15 people still doesnt make it feel epic enough.