25 person max raid size for expansion

[Sword_of_Doom]

Watch them. Or, at least, watch them crumble to dust, then emerge a couple weeks later, phoenix-like, into 25 man raid guilds.

The entire thing that defines an elite raiding guild is that they are the ones willing to do what it takes to be the best. Are all of these people just going to stop playing WoW, into which they have already invested thousands of hours, just because they need to reorganize?

I think it´s not very likely. People will complain, adjust, then get back to what they really want, which is being the best. If some people can´t adjust, their spots will be taken by one of the great legion clamouring to be part of the best guilds, Darwin-style.

-Jester

I think you may end up being right in your analysis but there is one fear of mine. The whole end game is predicated on challenge and difficulty and if that is taken away with the 25 man raid cap you will see droves of elite players leave this game. I read Fires of Heaven and Elitist Jerks (two top end WoW guilds) daily and on both boards there is a lot of good discussion on whether this is the end of elite raiding. Yes the this move by Blizzard will probably equal out the gear difference a litte bit better than the old system as well as give more access to more content to a greater pool of players. This is a $$$ move and it looks to be a good one. Tigole, one of the chief devs, estimated 25% of the playerbase has taken down Ragnaros and 15% have taken down Nefarion. That estimation is probably too high. So that means 80%+ of the playerbase feels ignored and left out. They got their Christmas gift early with with the 25 person raid cap.

Personally i am very disappointed. I loved the challenge of 40 person raiding and have absolutely loved the encounters in Naxxramas. They are by far and away the best in the game apart from C'Thun. Now i can't wait until Beta and see what the actual changes will be and how that will affect the long term raid future of this game.

If the encounters are going to be easier it will mean more access to everyone but you will lose the people who like challenges and difficulty. My guess is the encounters will be easier and that will be terribly disappointing. So who knows.....