Cata raid changes: for what I would probably say anyway, see Euripedes here.
10man raiding never really felt like raiding an instance for 10 players. Instead, we were traipsing through 25 player content that was lobotomized for us.
It isn’t easy being a strict(ish) 10 man guild in Lich King. Our raid comp is nowhere near ideal (no shaman, for instance), and without the gear 25 man raiders use to carry themselves through 10man content we have to use some extremely weird strategies to defeat bosses sometimes. We’ve had to use Death Knights to juggle kinetic bombs and tank the shadow bolting boss, for instance.
Hi, I’m a DK who tanks Prince Keleseth. Ever try to heal Festergut with two shamans and a druid? It gets a little hairy sometimes.
Anyway, point is, 10man raiding never really was 10man raiding. It was 25man raiding with less players and worse loot.
Amen. Also see Rilgon here.
Right now, in the scope of raiding in Wrath, that means running Icecrown 10 Heroic every week for shots at the couple of BIS items there (primarily Heroic Whispering Fanged Skull, but Heroic Stakethrower is a marked DPS gain, and a great hold-over until Fal’inrush) and increased Emblem of Frost income (less important now, but was VERY important in the start of ICC). When ToC was end-game content, this meant running ToC25 (for DV), ToGC25 (for H-DV and all the other 258s), ToC10 (for Emblems of Triumph), and ToGC10 (for those mother fucking leather gloves). And you know what? I did it, because my peers did it, and I had to do it to perform to the standards placed upon me by my guild, as we were pushing into difficult content and everyone had to bring their best game.
You know what this change means to someone like me? I don’t have to do that shit ever again.
Tangentially related, the flip side has been true for 10-man raiders, as well - the unspoken pressure is there, if you’re more than a casual raiding guild or a “strict 10” guild, to do 25s in your offtime or else you’re hurting the guild. I’m pretty tired of that bullshit, and I won’t be sad to see it go.
(Pic unrelated, but Peter is adorable. Peter is modern 25-day raiders; Cone of Shame Cat is in strict 10s. The wrapper is a trinket.)