I admit it did not come out as clearly as intended, but it was pretty apparent in the Blizzard forum thread that people were initially very upset. However, I definitely agree with you that after people get over their initial reaction of, “WHAT? I CAN’T DO BOTH ANYMORE?” people will be thankful that it is not /necessary/ to do both anymore, much like it wasn’t in vanilla WoW. It is a great change for a variety of reasons, but it does not come without consequences, some of which you clearly noted (i.e., balancing of classes and encounters, splitting of guilds, etc).

As Blizzard is making some very significant class changes, such as giving mages bloodlust, it will be interesting to see what else they do to create balanced raid groups in both 10 and 25 man raid scenarios.

The major problem that I have with the change is the class balancing act that’s going to ensue. How could Blizzard possibly balance all of the classes in both 10mans and 25mans when they’ve already failed at doing it in 25mans? Are Resto Shamans going to be the “25man healer” with Rain of Healing and Chain Heal (which are most effective in larger raids)? Are Resto Druids going to be the “10man healer” with Rejuv’s on 10 targets at all times? What happens on fights like Lich King and Saurfang, when Holy Paladins and Disc Priests simply dominate? What happens to Warlocks and Mages, who are incredibly dependent on raid buffs to do damage, while Hunters and Rogues effectively need one? Tanking disparities are going to be magnified in a 10man setting. I don’t trust Blizzard’s ability to actually balance 10mans and 25mans simply because the different raid sizes force people to play the game differently.

I’ll jump on board the train of “this’ll kill 25man raiding” if it remains in its current iteration, though I completely agree that Blizzard’s not going to let that happen. They are playing with fire here though. It’s simply too easy to downsize and too hard to upsize. Getting rid of 15 bad players is a hell of a lot easier than recruiting 15 good ones.