Originally Posted by
Jezpalulaj
If I see one more person talking about how there's no reason to do 25 mans in cataclysm because more gear doesn't make up for having more players, I am going to throw a fit.
If you READ the patch notes, they say quite explicitly:
"...so while the loot quality will not change, 25-player versions will drop a higher quantity of loot per player (items, but also badges, and even gold)"
For those of you who don't have good reading comprehension, this means that if 10 man raids drop 2 items per boss, 25 man raids WILL drop 6 items per boss. Even if the drops-per-person were equal, this would be:
2 items / 10 people = 1/5 item per person
5 items / 25 people = 1/5 item per person
Blizzard has explicitly stated that 25 mans will drop a higher quantity of loot PER PLAYER, meaning that if 10 man bosses drop 2 items, 25 man bosses will drop AT LEAST 6 (I'm not guessing this, this is the direct consequence of what was stated in the blue post). I find this unlikely, because there would be a huge gear inflation very early in cataclysm if this were the case.
I think it's much more likely that 10 man raids will drop 1 item per boss, and 25 mans will remain at 3 items per boss. This will give the same ratio as I just stated, but with much less gear inflation from the guilds that raid 25 mans.
Another side effect of this is that 1 loot per boss in 10 mans will NOT gear up your 10 man group very fast. The 25 mans are going to be much more worthwhile, because you will A) get more gear, for reasons just stated, and B) have a much lower chance that someone in the raid doesn't need the item, which is entirely possible in 10 mans after the first couple weeks.
If I'm right about this, it will take a significantly longer time to gear up from 10 mans, which will not only be less fun, but will hinder 10 man progression. Yes, the mechanics of 10 man raids are generally easier to organize, but if the difficulty is the same, people raiding 25 mans regularly will have an easier time progressing than 10 man runners.
25 man raids will be considered better for this reason, and I fully expect that the 25 man guild will continue to be the standard; Blizzard is making this change only so that people who focus on 10 man raiding aren't being obliterated in progression by people who have killed a few bosses in 25 man and can steamroll 10 man with higher level loots.
So far, I've only talked about guilds, but I think that the change won't kill 25 man pugs, either. If the only difference in difficulty is in the group assembly, then YES, lots of people will be happy to raid a 25 man to get more loot out of it, especially considering that people will want to make the most of their ONE chance at that raid for the week. There still are significant benefits to raiding 25 mans under this new system, and I think that they will outweigh the annoyances of finding an additional 15 non-scrubs.
Right now, there are a lot of really sucky 25 man groups put together, because people consider the raid lock EXPENDABLE. All this is going to do is make it so that raid leaders are a little more careful when they put their groups together, and I expect the 25 man pug raiding experience to become much more enjoyable as a result.
Your paranoia is annoying and completely unfounded. Stop it.