In the latest World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta build, the realm first achievements were added for the initial raid dungeons that players will experience:

Realm First! Nefarian – First guild on the realm to defeat Nefarian in Blackwing Descent on Heroic difficulty while in a guild group.

Realm First! Al’Akir – First guild on the realm to defeat Al’Akir in the Throne of the Four Winds on Heroic difficulty while in a guild group.

Realm First! Sinestra – First guild on the realm to defeat Sinestra in the Bastion of Twilight on Heroic difficulty while in a guild group.

On the forums, the question was asked, “Do 10 man guilds have the opportunity to gain these achievements?” to which Mumber replied, “They are available to both 10 and 25 player raids, whoever does it first.”.

With this short sentence, the argument of whether or not it was fair to pit 10 and 25 man guilds against each other in the progression scene approached a whole new level (ding!). Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of each raid setup going into Cataclysm and what Blizzard will have to do to make them as close as possible.

Since most of us are more familiar with 25 man raiding as it has been the only feasible option for progression raiding after Vanilla, we will start there:

25 Man Raiding Pros

• Already-strong base of established progression raiding guilds. Aside from leveling and a few roster changes, things will continue to be business-as-usual.
• Raid Effectiveness – If two people performing terribly in your 25 man, you still have 92% of the others performing well. If two people in a 10 man are terrible, that drops drastically to only 80% performing well.
• Roster changes – Having 2-3 people leave your guild is often not traumatic as you have several people on the bench to fill spots

25 Man Raiding Cons

• The ramp-up period for Cata raiding will take longer as it requires more people to achieve max-level (if only that damned tank would hurry up and hit 85!).
• Herding Cats – Execution can often be more difficult for larger groups of people, especially for spatial-mechanic fights such as Blood Princes which strongly favor 10 man groups.
• Recruitment Time – While losing a few people is never traumatic, someone is going to have to spend that much more time obtaining qualified recruits.
• Skill Density – Recruiting 25 consistently-amazing players can be difficult. However, if you pull it off, you can accomplish great things.

Moving into the newly-legitimated 10 man scene, we will see that both the benefits and negative affects of the 25 man situation are mostly amplified.

10 Man Raiding Pros

• Leveling should actually be quicker for 10 mans and thus they will likely see the content first as there is less chance for one person to hold the group back. However, if someone is sluggish, it will be detrimental for the group’s ability to raid.
• Recruitment Time – Replacing 1 person is much easier than 3
• Easier Execution – Raid leaders have fewer people to keep tabs on, and getting 10 people to execute is often much easier than 25.
• Skill Density – Finding 10-15 great players is much easier than 25-35.

10 Man Raiding Cons

• As most people are used to being in 25 man guilds, the 10 man scene will have an administrative ramp-up period where new guilds are forming, leadership established, rules and policies determined, etc.
• Losing players is catastrophic without a bloated roster. Unless you’re running with a big roster, which has its own problems, losing a core player or two is a raid-week killer.
• If the goals/policies of the guild are not agreed upon by a few players, the 10 man guild becomes easily segregated into two cliques.

With the above pros and cons of each raid setup being outlined, it is fair to say that the initial few months in Cataclysm are going to be up for grabs. Depending on whether or not a 25 man guild is having trouble getting all of its members to level 85 and geared out, it isn’t unreasonable to say that they may delve into the 10 man raiding scene for the first instance to grab the achievement and ranking for their guild. However, as time progresses, the guilds will undoubtedly remain separated into their respective scenes.

Long term, Blizzard is going to need to do a fantastic job of balancing encounters to be equally fair as far as global competition goes. The balancing will more likely be garned towards over-tuning 10 man encounters and making the 25 man variant a bit easier, simply due to the “herding cats” situation we mentioned above. Unfortunately, what is likely going to be the case is that these are over/under-tuned to extremes, and one group is going to get the benefit over the other while Blizzard sings a tune while tuning the tuning that had already been tuned but needs to be re-tuned only to be tuned again.

Needless to say, Blizzard definitely has some work cut out for them, but by the beginning-of-the-end of Cataclysm, I would fully expect Blizzard to have figured out a way to closely balance the 10 and 25 man encounters.

What are your thoughts?