Going Splat
I have recently been contemplating a switch from social 10-man raiding to a more hardcore 25-man raiding.
The difference (for me) between social and hardcore is a difference of focus. It is not a difference of skill, of time, of knowledge, I see it simply as a difference of focus.
A social raid focus on bringing the humans behind the toons, and may end up with for example two warriors tanking, two paladins healing, three mages dps’ing but no priest and no shaman.
A hardcore raid focus on bringing the toons, on the on-line world, and making sure that the raid is balanced class-wise to get as many possible abilities and buffs at hand to maximise the chances of being able to handle all kinds of situations, to maximise the chances of success.
A social raid chooses the players first, and the toons they play tag along. The goal is of course to see content, to down bosses and perhaps even to do achievements and hard modes, but their focus is on having a good night out with friends, and if the raid halter a bit because one or more of the players are not exactly up to speed, the raid works around that somehow.
A hardcore raid chooses the encounters first and the toons they need to beat these encounters, and the players who control them tag along. Their goal is the same as the social raids, and this goal is also their focus. Content, bosses, achievements and hard modes, and if a player is not up to speed she must learn to be so or she will not raid again.
One way is not more right than the other, it is simply two different ways of playing the game. One is bringing a bunch of friends and see how far you get, the other is deciding how far you want to go and seeing which friends you need to bring to get there.
However, as I was doing this contemplating, I’ve come to realise that the difference is larger than I initially though. It is not just a difference in which players or classes you bring, which goals you set up or how you deal with players who can’t meet the requirements of the encounters.
It is also a difference in how you treat your own toon.
I’ve come to realise that I will have to look over my gear and possibly probably certainly need to do some regemming and re-enchanting and even altering my selection criteria for what I pick to wear.
In a social raid, you are never quite sure what kinds of buffs and abilities you will get. Even though many buffs overlap nowadays, you can never be 100% certain you will have Replenishment, Blessing of Wisdom or Mana Spring totem, Spirit or Intellect buffs, just to name a few healery-related buffs. Or if you dps you can never be 100% certain you will run with a draenei in the group for that nice 1% extra hit chance.
Most likely you will have these buffs available, but you can never be certain and this uncertainty makes you gear your toon to be self-sufficient.
You don’t want to end up out of mana half way through the bossfight because all your replenishing friends were out of town that night. You don’t want to see your heavy hitting spells miss the boss because without that pretty draenei shaman in your group you are not hit-capped.
But it is different in a hardcore setting, and especially so in a 25-man setting. You know you will have Replenishment, you know you will have Intellect and Spirit and mana regenerating buffs. You know you will run with a draenei.
It frees you up to increase your spellpower, haste and crit and lower your mp5. It frees you up to replace those hit rating gems and enchants with something else.
If I ever get the opportunity to go down the way to the 25mans hardcore raiding I will have to stop being so damned self-sufficient and start relying on other people to be there.
It is kind of scary actually, like standing on a top of a high bridge with a bungee cord tied around your feet, contemplating the jump, knowing it will be a wonderful thrilling exhilarating experience, but still dreadfully afraid that you just will go splat at the bottom instead of bouncing back up.
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