The Best Casual 25 man Approach in 3.2
I recently had an epiphany in regards to how we will likely handle Patch 3.2. I'll lay out my dilemma for you first though and see if you come to the same conclusion.
1. We're a casual guild that raids 25 mans. We raid 2 nights/week for a total of 6 hours, never more.
2. We've killed General, but have yet to get to Yogg with enough time to do anything with him.
So, it's very possible when 3.2 hits that we'll be half way to a Yogg kill or less. Which begs the questions...
What do we do?
Where do we go?
(This is where the epiphany comes in. Drum Roll please)
We do Both.
There's 2 very cool things about 3.2 for us. Coliseum appears to be a short instance that we'll eventually be able to clear in a single raid day. More importantly though, they're adding the ability to extend Raid IDs. So, here's the plan once 3.2 hits:
1. Clear Ulduar Week 1
2. Extend Ulduar's Raid ID
3. Day 1 Week 2 - Coliseum
4. Day 2 Week 2 - Yogg progression
5. Rinse and Repeat until Yogg dies
Now of course it's not all sunshine and pixie dust. Obviously the guild is going to have to be on board for us to do this. If people really don't want to do it, I'm not likely going to push hard for it. (they may want to be able to pug the early bosses in Ulduar every week instead on our non-raid days) I also wonder if it's even possible to extend a Raid ID for like 5 weeks in a row. I'm hoping it is.
/crossfingers
edit:
Apparently it's only possible to extend a Raid ID for 1 additional week. Not terribly surprising, but disappointing for the plan. The new plan is likely going to be:
1. Clear Ulduar
2. Do Yogg all week
3. Kill or No Kill, move on
-or-
We'll head straight to Coliseum. Hopefully, we've just got Yogg dead at this point and the decision is easy.
1. We're a casual guild that raids 25 mans. We raid 2 nights/week for a total of 6 hours, never more.
2. We've killed General, but have yet to get to Yogg with enough time to do anything with him.
So, it's very possible when 3.2 hits that we'll be half way to a Yogg kill or less. Which begs the questions...
What do we do?
Where do we go?
(This is where the epiphany comes in. Drum Roll please)
We do Both.
There's 2 very cool things about 3.2 for us. Coliseum appears to be a short instance that we'll eventually be able to clear in a single raid day. More importantly though, they're adding the ability to extend Raid IDs. So, here's the plan once 3.2 hits:
1. Clear Ulduar Week 1
2. Extend Ulduar's Raid ID
3. Day 1 Week 2 - Coliseum
4. Day 2 Week 2 - Yogg progression
5. Rinse and Repeat until Yogg dies
Now of course it's not all sunshine and pixie dust. Obviously the guild is going to have to be on board for us to do this. If people really don't want to do it, I'm not likely going to push hard for it. (they may want to be able to pug the early bosses in Ulduar every week instead on our non-raid days) I also wonder if it's even possible to extend a Raid ID for like 5 weeks in a row. I'm hoping it is.
/crossfingers
edit:
Apparently it's only possible to extend a Raid ID for 1 additional week. Not terribly surprising, but disappointing for the plan. The new plan is likely going to be:
1. Clear Ulduar
2. Do Yogg all week
3. Kill or No Kill, move on
-or-
We'll head straight to Coliseum. Hopefully, we've just got Yogg dead at this point and the decision is easy.
Total Comments 5
Comments
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good luck man. I thought 3 nights a week wasn't enough.. 2 is really strenuous. I'd bet your guild will be willing to go along with it. You guys have been farming enough of ulduar that the gear shouldn't be a terrible issue. Not to mention at 2 nights a week its nearly impossible to keep up with progression allowing you guys to go at your own pace.Posted 07-28-2009 at 11:07 AM by hbombs 
- My guild also raids 25-man two nights a week (Fri/Sat) but we do 8 hours total and recently got one serious attempt on Yogg before running out of raid time for the week. We have almost the same plan you just laid out.
Thats the plan anyway, but I have a feeling it will turn into this fairly quickly for us:
Run the Coliseum Friday night until we hit a wall, then run back to Ulduar with our tails between our legs for that week.Posted 07-29-2009 at 01:44 AM by Sarris 
- I'd say colliseum, and I hate to be the devil's advocate to your grand scheme but, you're assuming that you'll slice through the colliseum without a hitch from the start. Yes it'll be short and sweet, but I'm expecting some petty pains in the arse and small annoyances costing a perfect run off the getgo.
The good news is: with the conquest badges, and, by proxy, runed orbs dropping like candy post 3.2 (and my return to heroics) is that overall gear ilvl will increase. The new instance boasts even higher levels. In which case, yogg attempts might become yogg kills with fewer attempts necessary.Posted 07-29-2009 at 09:02 AM by Conreeaght -
Oh, I'm certainly not denying that Coliseum is going to take a while to clear in a single raid. I realize that if we can dedicate 2 raid days to it that we'll progress through it faster. The post really is catered towards people that want to be able to say, "Hey I killed Yogg" and are less concerned with getting the best gear possible asap.Posted 07-29-2009 at 11:29 AM by veneretio - I like that, I really do. Far too many elitists that are riding the wave are often myopic to others achievements, and unable to congratulate them for their accomplishments and rather adopting the "well I did it first" point of view rather then giving an honest back pat and sharing in the joy that player is found. (I have my own theory that the elitist player is actually jealous that they can't recapture that high you ride after a first kill. So they attempt to bring that player 'down to their level,' but that's for my own blog to sort out.)
Maybe I'm just going back to my progression roots from BC, it has been very tough for me to fit into casual myself - as I keep having to silence my inner hardcore raider. I am enjoying this thing called 'a life' though that comes with more casual and occasional play, it is highly interesting.
I digress, when in doubt, you could always put it to a vote what your players want to do with their play time.Posted 07-30-2009 at 03:29 PM by Conreeaght
