First I want to clarify my topic. Is it better to be in an exclusive 10man raiding guild or be in some other type of guild- social, 25man etc and PUG 10?
I say personal topic because these are my opinions… no empirical evidence, no math, just Trade spam and embracing the ‘casual’ idol that is now WoW. Lets start with looking at what I think are some advantages and disadvantages of both
This topic popped into my head last week, when I read in Trade:
LFM 3x Imba DPS, 3x Healers for ToGC10. Will check Armoury, /w ToC10 achievement
Not to be a complainer but the person yelling this would not have been invited to my ToC25, let alone ToCG10! Although I maybe a little elitist! Sorry, but I want to win on current content.
I must admit that was very stunned. Are pugs really beginning to do stuff my guild can’t complete yet? Or is it simply to down the first boss or two for chance at some extra lewt?
SO heres a list straight of the top of my head.
10 man guilds
Advantages
- Gear stays within the group, therefore group gets stronger
- Community
- Do Achievements
- Easy to reform and continue a run another night
- Happy to ‘carry’ lower equipped members to get them lewt = stronger team
Disadvantages
- Very dependant on Tanks & Healers- losing one and finding a replacement can be painful. Especially is they are well equipped
- Some inflexible about raiding times
- Some personalities dominate
- Loot distribution, smaller guilds need to favour tanks & healers else the raid fails... regardless of how it officially is distributed.
- Because of the need for ‘spares’ some people will miss out on raiding spots and will start to be left behind equipment wise as they have to hold off pugging it.
- Need for certain classes can majorly handicap some encounters (Blizzard has addressed this in some ways)
10 man PUG
Advantages
- Can get in to group when it suits
- Group could be as a pug into a larger guilds run!
- No messing around- straight through!
- Some effort has been made to make sure no fail members in party (I.e armoury checks)
- Likely to be some over equipped players coming for badges or a specific drop
- Meet other/new people
- Random equal chance to win loot
Disadvantages
- Sometimes not enough toon’s of the right calibre are available so its either a fail or wastes your time as it can’t get sorted
- A few wipes can destroy moral and end a raid before it even started
- Hard to reform if it needs to be over different multiple nights.
- Lewt Ninja’s!
- A few ‘fails’ manage to sneak into every raid…
I am sure every can think of few that I missed.
So what do I think? To be honest I think both are methods of reaching for different goals. I don’t think I could do a 10 man exclusive guild anymore, but I do think Blizzard has tried to keep things mixed up, especially with upgrading the emblem drops as new tier becomes available.
PUG
Naxx10
OS10
VoA10 <except when new content>
VoA25 <except when new content>
OS25
10 man guild
OS10 + 1/2/3 * <I have done +3 a few times now and as a guild is much easier>
EoE10 *
Uld10 *
ToC10
ToGC10
10 man guild + friends**
EoE25 *
Nax25 *
Uld25
OS25 +1/2/3 *
25 man
Everything else! This area is beyond the scope of this article.
* Could be pugged but without some instant success generally loses moral to fast. Even though we are no in the end game of 3.2, I have seen plenty of Naxx25 fall apart after only a quarter or two.
** Ideally in the + friends format, all tanks & most healers are provided by the guild with DPS being outsourced to friends/alliances etc.
Final Thoughts
I guess these leads to my last thought… I don’t think 10 man guilds are optimal, even in ‘causal’; bring the player not the class WoW. They are holding to much internal risk.
But maybe there are perfect for finishing one tier behind content?
I think guilds should be aiming to run two ten-man teams! Arguable this opens up more content and achievements (hard modes etc) to more players and with a larger pool of equipped players it opens the door way to 25 man content in some form.
Trail of the Crusader is a great example of this its very easy to get two groups running ToC10 and then a progress group on ToCG10. This also means that for ToC25 most of the spots are taken up by guild members who you know are equipped with a very respectable ilevel for the content. Regrettably they will not be running this format again.
I do feel that I am not finished on this topic… To Be Continued!
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