30, 20 & 10 man dungeons – A completely different way of raiding

This idea came to me while I was watching one of my friends play WoW. As the noob he (lets call him Bob) is, he’d ask a ton of questions (‘whats the hardest raid’, ‘where do I get addons’, etc), including “Are 25 man raids easier than 10 man raids?” Now, Bob had this idea that the 25 man raids should be on a completely different level due to the fact that you had 25 players instead of 10, believing the bosses and trash didn’t increase in health, damage and ability’s. Of course I explained that they were similar in difficulty…

But what if they weren’t?

Imagine this. A new raid comes out that everyone is excited to go and try it out. The raiders with the top-tier gear from the previous raids were the only players able to go into this new dungeon (lets call it Uldaness) while all the undergeared players had to repeat the old content to get into Uldaness.

Now, imagine what would happen if there were 3 modes to each raid. 10 man, 20 man and 30 man. The bosses had exactly the same health, damage and abilitys on each mode. If you had a pretty average group of players, you could head into Uldaness 30 and have a slight challenge defeating the bosses. The bosses dropped iLevel 310 gear and that’s it, no special fun toys, rare pets, etc.

If you have a group of semi-competent to good players, head into Uldaness 20 and challenge yourself with difficult bosses. After a while of wiping, putting in a bit of effort, they eventually fall and you collect iLevel 320 loot and if your lucky some rare items.

Now, if your in one of the most hardcore ‘epic’ guilds, get a group of your best 10 players and try out Uldaness 10. You wipe a ton, you spend heaps on repair bill, but the satisfaction and loot you get when you down a boss makes it all up.

THIS WAY EVERY PLAYERS GETS TO EXPERIENCE RAIDING THE LATEST CONTENT

If you aren’t very good at playing in an instance for whatever reason, but you like the idea of raiding, you would be able to do it this way. The poor-playing players will get to experience new content, and the best and most dedicated raiders don’t feel like their being cheated, because they will get better gear and rare loot.

How Much & What Loot Would Drop?

I would say, each time you go to loot a boss, 50% of the raids size should be how much gear there is. There would be 5 gear drops in 10 man. 10 gear drops in 20 man and 15 gear drops in 30 man.

As for rare items… One thing a large amount of players enjoy doing is collecting various ‘goods’ in WoW. Achievements, pets, mounts, etc. If there was say, 100 special drops in Uldaness, in 10 man a 1%-5% drop chance per item sounds about right in my opinion. If every boss had a chance to drop any one of these 100 items, then I would say up to 5 items per boss are able to drop (if you get ridiculously lucky and get 50+ drops that’s sure going to suck the fun out of collecting them)

My ideas for possible rare drops are listed below.

• In-game pets
• Mounts (lower drop chance than pets)
• Lore-related gear (with no stats, purely for collecting)
• Quest starter drops (for fun and unique quests)
• RP armor sets

This would not only drive people on to continue playing, but also give more reasons for the more casual players to play more regularly, trying to get into 10 mans. Also, if you just have no chance of getting in a 10 man, you can surely improve up to the point where you can raid 2o mans.

What About Boss Mechanics? Like In Some 25 Man Raids You Need To Deal With 3 Of “X” While In 10 Man You Only Deal With 2 Of “X”

There will be no difference in the mechanics. If, like in the example, you need to deal with 3 of whatever in 20 or 30 man, 10 man will also require to deal with 3. This increases the amount of work you must do, making it more difficult. And like I said before, if it’s too difficult you can just go back to doing 20 or 30 man.

If, for example, there were 5 adds/whatever to CC in a raid, 10 man players would really have their work cut out for them and will need to be on the ball at all times. The 20 and 30 raids will have many more players to deal with the adds, making it easier.

What About PuGs – Wouldn’t It Take Longer To Set Them Up Because They Might Only Do 30 Mans?

This is possibly a problem, but there is a fix. The fact that 30 mans will be very easy will invite more players to join the PuG, if the number of players attempting to join the raid is 3 or more times as much as, say, the amount of people who join a 10 man ICC, then it will actually be an increase in speed for groups to form.

Guilds will be able to get members faster if they will be attempting 10 mans. Think of 10 man Uldaness (or whatever 10 man raid there would be) being as difficult for 10 level 85s to take down as it is for 25 level 80’s to take down heroic mode ICC.

PuG forming speed would remain the same speed as it is today and guilds will fill up faster if they are attempting 10 mans instead of 25 man heroics.

This is all just my opinion and not based on anything I’ve read/heard about. Whats your opinion on this? Do you have anything you would add?

What I think about GearScore

Hey everyone! Welcome to the site.

I’m not quite sure if this is such a good idea, but I have decided that GearScore would be the topic for my first post.

Wait! Come back!

This isn’t a “GearScore is good and the number it gives is law and nothing else matters” rant, instead it is my thoughts on how it should be used and when it should be used.

For those of you who don’t know what GearScore (GS) is; GS is an in-game addon that calculates different characters gear value (usually based on iLevel. For example, an iLevel 251 chest piece is going to have a lower GS than a iLevel 277 chest piece) and gives a number (score) according to your total (or average) iLevel. You’ve probably seen “LFM ICC 10 PST Spec and GS for invite” in trade.

On to my thoughts.

When it should be used

For complete (not partial guild) runs, and not with ridiculous expectations. If I see a “LFM ICC going for 6/12 10 man – Need 5K GS” I believe it to be reasonable. However, “LFM Naxx 25 need all – PST 5.3K GS and spec” is going to get quite a few unpleasant reply’s.

When it should NOT be used

As a recruitment tool for a raiding guild.

I’ve seen this so many times and it still shocks me. This goes against (what I believe) the purpose of GS is. Which is to quickly get people who seem at least relatively competent into a PuG without the need for checking their armory, gems, testing them on the training dummy, etc.

A raiding focused guild should be careful about who they recruit. Taking time to check out the players so they know if they are right for the guild. In terms of skill, gear, ability, attitude and personality. If you see a guild doing this, you can be relatively sure their not going to get very far.

How I would change it

Right now, its only a measure of your gear iLevel. Nothing else.

If I was on the team of people who programme GS, I would make…

1. The score take gems/enchants into consideration and lower the score if the gem is/almost useless (for example, a spirit gem on a DK would lower the score, although if a Mage has gemmed the second best stat (lets say it is crit) it will increase the score)
2. It only take the useful stats into the final score. If a Warrior is wearing mail with Strength+ Intellect, only the Strength would register. This way, you can’t fool the addon by wearing gear that is not appropriate to your spec/class

Thats it for my first, and quite short, post. If you liked it, let me know. What else would you like to see? Also, feel free to share your thoughts on GearScore in the comments.