Heroic vs. Hard Mode
So having recently gotten back into the swing of things and raiding ToC in a guild that is 2/5 25-man ToC Heroic, I started to realize a fundamental flaw with the current system. It forces players to play the SAME EXACT FIGHTS 2-4 times a week, with little difference. This of course is ridiculously boring to anyone that has gone through it for a few weeks. Having done Naxx but skipped Ulduar having only gone back from time to time with friends, and having done Hard Mode's a handful of times.
By the numbers you currently fight the same 5 bosses each week, just 4 seperate times. After having only done this for a month and a half I'm already quite tired of fighting these bastards. I know there is no way that everyone is happy with the system, so I'd like to hear peoples thoughts. Do you guys think Hard Modes are better, or Heroic Modes?
My Opinion:
I think Hard Modes are a more sound option. The logic being that it doesn't force you to fight the same boss with very little alteration. For example, Hard Mode Freya and Yogg made the fight infinitely more difficult, the different between Normal Beast and Heroic Beasts on the other hand is basically just that they have more hp, and do more damage; Gormok does much more damage and has more hp as do snobolds, Worms have more hp and do more damage, Icehowl has more hp and you don't gain the speed buff on knockback. This means that outside of the increased damage output, the actual encounter remains unchanged. When you look at Hard Modes though, in almost all cases they changed the mechanics of the encounter drastically. The other thing was that it felt as though Hard Modes were more of a test of players skill, requiring you to have better co-ordination rather than just better gear.
Another reason I see Hard Modes as a better alternative is because of the way to Emblem\Badge system now works. Assuming you were to do the Daily Heroic every day, 10\25 Ony, 10\25 VoA, 10\25\10h\25h ToC, you could gain up to 84 Emblems of Triumph each week, and 336 each month. That means that after 2 weeks you would have enough Emblems for basically an entire 232 T9 Set. This means that raiders capable of clearing everything after roughly a month will have all of the Emblem gear easily, and most gear for their other specs. Even if you were to drop Heroic ToC runs from the setup you'd still be looking at 54 each week and 216 each month. What this means is that they are either forced to create really high item costs for Emblem rewards, as I feel it is right now, leave them low and make the gear very accessible. But that's another discussion entirely.
Hard Modes basically offer raiders who are interested in harder content the chance to do it and gain additional higher level loot, without giving them too many bonuses and making the content get very boring, very fast.
Anyways, I am interested to hear the input on this one.