Arthas Will Start Off as a 25-Man Raid Only?

20th May 2008 12:25 PM GMT | Maticus | 3 comments
This blue post slipped under the net a few days ago; EU Community Manager Vaneras went over the new 10/25 man raid system in Lich King, how it will benefit players and perhaps most importantly, why and how a 10-man raid will be able to take down Arthas, the sum of all that is Evil in WoW!

Another fact that's revealed in this Q&A is that Blizzard are toying with the idea of making the Arthas encounter available as a 25 man raid first off, then making the 10 man version available later.

	Blizzard Quote: (Source)
	Since the new information about the new 10/25 man raiding system in WotLK appeared on the fan sites, we have seen quite a few questions and concerns pop up here and there around the forums. This short Q&A is meant to address the ones that has been most frequently posted: Can I do the 10 and 25 man raids of the same dungeon? You can do both 10 and 25-man raids and neither is required for progression in the other. Though there may be some additional thought put into being able to engage Arthas via 25-player prior to it being available to 10-player, but that is still in debate and just one of the ideas being toyed with. Each will follow its own progression line. The end game 10 person dungeon will lead to the next 10 person dungeon in difficulty and gear progression and the same goes for the 25 person dungeons. The lockout for each raid will be separate and we fully expect the larger guilds who can do the 25 person progression to still invest a lot of time in the 10 person versions. Why is it ok that we can kill Arthas with a 10-man raid? Gnomeregan was invaded and is still held by level 28's. The relativity of level and power isn't intended to be a benchmark for the difficulty of what exists in the world in comparison to each other. Also, we hope that no one thinks the 10 person versions are going to be easy simply because they don't require the same amount of player coordination. They aren't going to be 'gimme' dungeons, it's going to be a difficult progression. Guilds that aren't really clearing Karazhan, or not really clearing Zul'Aman, are going to REALLY have to step it up if they hope to face Arthas. It's still going to be very challenging. You're not going to be able to be a guild that can flop through Kara and expect to have the skill, communication, and coordination to take him down. Noone will want to do 25-man raids that can be 10-manned The 25 person raids are still going to be difficult, require more planning and coordination simply due to the amount of people required, reward better items, be a greater status symbol, etc. Gear alone would be reason enough to continue doing them. If your guild's only purpose is to experience the story, then yes, you'll be able to play the entire raid game in the 10 player size if you want to. Which isn't a bad thing, especially for those guilds that are of smaller size that aren't necessarily looking for the best of the best, but just want to see the story evolve with their group of guildies. We don't think it's anywhere near the death of large scale raids, but instead an extremely bright future for the smaller guilds that want to stay small but are still dedicated to progressing. The larger raid guilds are still going to be going after the larger 25 person size, and substituting with the 10 person on the off-days like they do with Zul'Aman or heroic Magisters' Terrace, etc. like they do now. What about the itemization differences between 10 and 25 man raids? And the tier looks? The difference between items will quite likely be something like a full tier for each dungeon between the 10 and 25 man version, but no final decision has yet been made on this. We're working on creating unique PvP and PvE sets for Wrath in terms of raiding and the arena gear.

Thanks Wuushu for the tip!

Tags: raids, wrath of the lich king