The Weekly Marmot -- End of Expansion Raiding

[Rennadrel]

I agree with those expressing dissasitisfaction with the time between ICC and Cata. It is actually really, really bad. Way worse than in Classic or TBC.

Classic Naxx came out in June 2006. TBC came out just after Xmas so a six-seven month wait from the last raid instance.
Sunwell was March 2008. WotLK came out in November 2008 so an eight month wait.
ICC was December 2009. Cataclysm is... definitely not September, almost certainly not October. Maybe Nov again? Dec?

Whatever it is, it's a record setting 11-12 months between raid instances (and no RS doesn't count).

My guild is a 10m guild and we've killed LK HC and just getting people to turn up for raids now is a massive stuggle. I can't imagine what it will be like in another month or two/three month's time. I am surprised more people aren't pissed about this TBH. I know I feel a bit stupid for having given Blizzard $150+ with no significant new content to show for it. Sure they are working on Cata, but they are going to ask us all to pay for that in addition. Where the hell did my last $150 go?

I heard a rumour months back that they would release a re-tooled Molten Core for level 80s. How hard would that be? All the art assets are there. Just update some boss abilities, get some intern to make up some loot (it doesn't matter what it is, it'll be replaced in three months anyway) and Bam, people have something to do again. It would even tie into Cataclysm with the re-emergence of Ragnaros etc.

A level 80 MC would be awesome, but if it was a 40 man it would be a complete mess, they would have to thin it out to 25 man and remove certain things from the instance. I don't think they would since Ragnaros is coming back in Cataclysm, however I would be open to another raid in Northrend, something that doesn't have to do with dragons though preferably.

I would like to see some incentive for players to go back and do all the dungeon and raid achievements. A true Glory of the Instance achievement for collecting all of the dungeon and raid achievements currently in game, it would be awesome to have a special mount and title just for that and it would give guilds a reason to go raid old content and keep them interested instead of just doing ICC all the time.

[MirabellaofVendetta]

I just want to thank you for this "Weekly Marmot". It touched on something that is effecting my whole server atm and hit the problem directly on the head. It has also given my guild a shot of adrenaline to be one of the surviving guilds. After posting your video and making it a manditory watch for all raiders. We came up with a game plan and motivated the guild into progressing that night in ICC25 and filling both groups easily the next night. I am hoping that the ideas we implemented continue to energize the guild and want to thank you for bringing this problem to the forefront, hopefully more guilds will take the advice and bring their guilds to survive the end of the expansion.

[Fireburnspaper]

I'm going to mention this as something for others to think of as well, it's something our guild has done and it's been working out quite well.

Basically we were stuck on the last few HMs in ICC10 (we're a 10 man guild) for about 3 weeks. We were working on Sindy, got a couple really close attempts, but by and large we just weren't cutting it. After analyzing things, it was pretty apparent that a couple people had just kind of given up, a few more were tired of raiding but were at least putting in their 100%, etc.

After some discussion, we decided to take a break from raiding as a guild until Cata hits and those of us who still do want the 10m HM kills and achievements would find pugs looking for the same. My server has had a LOT of people stop raiding. The top two guilds on our faction called it quits, and there have been many other guilds doing the same.

Luckily, we'd made some contacts through doing some other achievement-focused raids, and were able to pool some friends lists and get a 'PUG' pooling from a couple different guilds that have quit raiding, similar to our situation. We went in to ICC10 last night and 3 shot putri HM when the vast majority of us had never really seen the encounter on hardmode.

Basically; calling a break no 'Guild Raids' and instead looking for similar people on the server who had shared goals wound up being a great compromise. The folks who were burnt out could take a break without feeling like they were letting the guild down, and the folks who still wanted to raid are clearing out the last bits quite handily. No friendships lost only new ones forged.

Time will tell what happens once cata hits, but I'm optimistic. At the very least, in the mean time there's no hard feelings, no gquits, and people are a little more free to do what they want.

Just thought I'd share my experiences =)

Best of luck to you all!

[12hett]

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