25s or 10s – which way to go

Guild-Ox recently reset their 10 man strict rankings, and since we haven’t stepped into ICC 25 yet, is now ranked 18th in the world in strict 10s.

Wow.

Granted, a lot of us are rocking some decent gear from ToC 25, but I’m going to argue against those that say this means we out-gear ICC. While there are some significantly different (and nicer) pieces from ToC25, it’s all still the same ilvl. Obviously it’s itemized differently, otherwise there wouldn’t be an achievement for killing Anub with just 10man gear. So maybe we out gear it a touch.

Unfortunately this puts us at a crossroad. Do we stick with the strict 10 man runs this time around, or do we branch out and see how the other half is living in 25s? I know the content is supposedly more difficult, but in my opinion the difficulty isn’t from the bosses themselves, but from the additional players.

I understand that the bosses often have different, and sometimes more challenging, abilities in 25 mans (especially in hard modes), but you have a greater range of talent to draw from in these instances. For example Yogg’Saron has the Bellowing (Deafaning?) Roar in the 25 man hard modes, something you don’t have to deal with in 10 mans. Lady Deathwhisper has a mind control and additional adds in 25 man – again something we don’t have to deal with in 10 mans. On the flip side, ToC 10 and 25 are virtually identical. Other than the bosses having more HP and hitting harder (and a few more players in FC), there’s no additional tricks to learn.

This similarity made it very easy for us to work with another guild to raid ToC-25. Although to be honest, when we walked in the door we didn’t know for sure there was nothing different. We do adapt quickly though, so I don’t imagine it would have been too difficult.

So what's the real difference?

One of the things that makes 10 man raiding 'easier' is there are only nine other personalities for you to deal with. It's easier to adjust when something happens in both a raid or real life. There's less competition for gear, while having more individual responsibility and accountability. Not only can the raid function in a tighter fashion, but a smaller guild will also have fewer issues (simply by ratio of numbers).

Of course is no bed of roses. I'm fairly certain we've all ignored each other more than once, and there's definately some serious mislike between some of our members (can't we just get along?). The difference is though, that when it's time to gear up and raid, we all come together for a couple of hours.

Even if it is our goal to kill Ed every chance we have.

Sticking with the 10s

I think for now we’re going to stick with the 10 man only raids. While it would be great if we had 15 other like minded folks to raid 25s with, I don’t believe that any of our current members have the drive or desire to rebuild a 25 man raid guild. It would be virtually impossible for us to find a 25man guild that needed all of us, would never bench us, and raided with our schedule.

Of course, if this ever falls apart, you can bet I’ll be tossing out some applications in a hurry.

Unless someone happens to need a full 10 man raid group to join thier 25s.