Discussion: How much trash do you like in your raids?

[SpacedOut]

I've attached a poll because the question lends itself nicely to one, although I'm less interested in the distribution of results and more interested in the reason why, so please feel encouraged to post your thoughts for discussion

As the title asks, how much trash do you enjoy in your raids?

Consider two extremes, one being Trial of the Crusader from the third tier of Wrath with no trash whatsoever, and the other being Black Temple which to my mind has the highest trash-to-boss ratio of any raid I can think of (That's not mathematical, it's just a guess). Where along the range between these two options do you prefer?

Personally, I feel that having too little trash - I'll state now that I feel like Highmaul has too little trash - in a way devalues what a raid is. While I do enjoy boss fights over trash clearing any day of the week, I feel like having too little trash reduces the epic feeling/scale of a raid instance and partitions it into just a string of boss fights; after all, for a 'boss' to be a 'boss' it should have to be the 'boss' of something, and if it's an important boss lorewise it should be the boss of several some things.

If I had to put my finger on an ideal amount of trash, I'd have to set my sights on the ICC/Ulduar style, where some boss fights came almost immediately after each other, but when you had to fight from one part of the raid to a new area there were some non-trivial fights for you to get through.

What do you think?

[PrairieChicken]

Less trash the better.

No trash? Awesome!

[Vankrys]

not necessary a lot, but deadly trash, yes.
nothing say better that you are not prepared than wiping on trash.

[Deleted]

I like TotC style aswell some times!
I don't mind a raid like that again soon, but I don't mind clearing some trash before bosses. Just not like BT. Not ever again! NEVER!
The huge ammounts of trash fit BT quite well, but it was so freaking stupid boring to clear through every damn week.
Just thinking about it makes me angry!

Since it's called trash, it should just be trash mobs. Not packs that you need to CC, use raidwide CD's on etc. It's supposed (in my opinion) to be dead without much effort.

[Zka]

Not much, but it should be fairly interesting/engaging. Ulduar had wonderful trash before some of the bosses, that was a sweet spot. Highmaul is almost there, but sadly the trash isn't as engaging as it should be.

[Absolucion]

In all fairness, Highmaul trash is just right. Short enough to not get boring but hard enough to not be just mindless faceroll. They seemed to have gotten this raid 100% right.

[Ninotchka]

I really like Highmaul trash. It has variety, some of it just falls over and some of it is brutal when you first encounter it and don't know what to do. And the looter is hilarious, shame you can skip him.

10/10, would kill again.

[Tokru]

Heaps of trash like in BT.

Just gives a better feeling of actually invading a giant enemy base. It depends on the raid though. If the setting is something like very secret secluded lair less trash is more realistic.

[Sorissa]

I've only done the first few HM bosses, but I think they got it right. Just a few packs is enough of a break between bosses.

ICC and firelands trash just made me want to take a nap between bosses.

[Forgettable]

I would say between 1-3 trash packs between each boss feels right to me, with more trash near the end bosses. For example:

1 trash
1st Boss
1 Trash
2nd Boss
2 Trashes
3rd Boss
2 Trashes
4th Boss
2 Trashes
5th Boss
3 Trashes
6th Boss
3 Trashes
Last Boss

[Haywire5714]

5th option: Whole instance is trash, eg Mount Hyjal

[Deleted]

I prefer noone to minimal.. I really really hate trash!

[Wilderness]

I'm pretty happy with the trash in Highmaul. Its a fairly small amount, and a lot of it shows boss abilities or relates to what you'll see in a boss fight. I think its the right amount.

[Thelxi]

Next to nothing. I hate spending a lot of time on trash. Especially later on in the tier I get so sick of the trash taking up time.

[clevin]

If you say no trash, answer this - did you run ToC when it was current and the only raid in the tier? Because that was boring.

[ablib]

I thought ToC was one of the greatest and most inventive raids ever. I loved it. However, I understand why trash is necessary.

[Bender]

Highmaul levels of trash is fine. Some trash is needed to give the raid the epic feeling of invading a stronghold as someone said earlier. However, I think that the epic scale of a raid should be conveyed through other means rather than epic amounts of trash, because too much gets extremely boring very quickly. A very important sidenot to this, trash should not respawn unless the instance is soft reset imo.

[zvvl]

If you say no trash, answer this - did you run ToC when it was current and the only raid in the tier? Because that was boring.

Yeah, I did. I enjoyed not having trash. Elite 4 style is cool.

Trash allows Blizzard to make these large expansive dungeons with a lot of details a la Ulduar. However, they haven't really done that in a while so I'd prefer them to just not do trash or very very minimal amounts.

[Aurora]

It's really more the kind of trash that's important to me.

What I don't like:

• Respawning trash
• Skippable or patrolling trash that may not be pulled the first time around but accidentally pulled by someone not watching where they were going later
• Trash requiring cc or coordination any time because in the real world a whole lot of people afk or get distracted in between bosses
• Any trash with an RP sequence that has to be watched and waited on every time. (Drakes before Ultraxion)
• Gauntlet style trash with a set time sequence that can never be quickened up with better gear (spiders before Sindragosa)

What I like:

• No trash
• Trivially simple AoE'd down trash (most of ICC)
• Novelty trash that isn't a wipe threat but can murder those not paying attention and/or affect random people. (pre-nerf Butcher boar, Stinky/Precious, worms before ragnaros in firelands, ogre that steals your clothes in HM)

[Dole4011]

I don't enjoy trash, but I think it feels too much like porn if it's just bosses.

Personally, I like the trash that uses key ability ripoffs from the upcoming boss to introduce you to mechanics.