Exodus Done With 25 Man Raiding

[AdamSavage]

Noticed this at the bottom of the newest MMO Champ post.

Yes, I'll confirm the news here for anyone not in the loop or questioning the rumors. will no longer continue to function as a 25 man raiding guild. No plan to go 10 man as of yet, but that really doesn't matter because 25 man is what the hardcore raiding scene really is about and Exodus will no longer be competing in such a scene.

Why? How? Well this game isn't to blame. In the last few years this game (despite many people quitting and guilds dying) isn't to blame for vodka/Exodus' demise it's the raiding community. I don't mean this is a pointing the finger sort of way, it's an inevitable sort of flaw in the competition of the top end raiders. You see... we've basically been killing ourselves off slowly since day 1.

In the last few years we've certainly picked up the pace, but the "hardcore raider" is a dying breed and it's certainly becoming a more difficult breed to be a part of. What I mean by this is of course the time commitment and the level of shear dedication and determination it takes and costs to be at the very top. This isn't to poke fun, but to just shed light of why many people, and subsequently, many guilds will fall. Raiding for many many hours on end is fun, CAN be exciting, and at the end of it all can really prove who really wants that world first/us first/realm first the most.

Unfortunately we (hardcore raiders) pushed too hard. Tier after tier we just keep adding to the insanity in both farming preparations and actual progressing. It's almost as if progression itself never really ends after a end tier boss dies. Combine this with Blizzard actually putting new content out faster, alts playing a big role, PTR/BETA, dailys, coins, BMAH, well... you just get lost in it all. Right now there are a few legit world first guilds left. The competition is slim because the competition is literally eating each other (well not that literally). Good luck to everyone left in the race for this expac, but I don't know how much longer this sort of thing can last.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/323 ... ts-Fan-Art

[Lisaara]

They are correct. Hardcore raiding just is impossible to keep up with these days and there's just SO much stuff to do...it's overwhelming. You eventually burn yourselves out.

[sXe Angel]

Not only is it a huge time commitment, gearing up for the new raid content, getting familiar with the fights/boss mechanics, ect, but there's also a fresh crop of newer 'casual' lfr raiders, many who are ready to transition from lfr to doing normal raids. I see this as a double edged sword, in that while it is opening up raid content to a lot more people, it also means that theirs a lot more people who don't truly know how to preform in a normal (non-lfr) raid environment. As much as the 'hardcore raiders' may not want to admit to it, at some point all of them were fresh new scrubs and had to learn how to raid. For many of them it was probably a combination of reading as much as possible about their class/specs, learning as much as they could about the boss fights and mechanics, and having people with more experience than them (guildies, friends, ect) have the patience to bring them into raids and help them learn through in-game experience.

Which is why I find it kinda strange that there's a sort of 'elitist' mentality around many of the hardcores against the lfr/casual raider. If people want to see the challenging raid scene stick around and continue to be successful, what harm would it be to take a few casuals under your wing and help teach them to be better raiders? Give them tips on which addons are 'essential' to have, suggest some websites they can go to and read up on their class and the raids themselves, and take the time to take them on 'fun runs' where progression doesn't matter so much and you can take a little extra time to help them with awareness and mechanics. I know some of the casuals might not want to improve, and that's fine, the can stay lfr champs then. It'll be easy to tell the ones who are willing to put forward the work to improve, and with a little help and some patience they'll turn into fine raiders.

That's just my two cents though.

[Castile]

Certainly since I have quit even normal mode/heroic 10 man raiding it made me think why I bothered in the first place. So much time and effort and now my heroic/elite mode gear will get replaced by lfr bits lol! Sure it was fun to do something on hard mode (and even now on alts in MSV i look for 2 lines of guards on spirit kings and wonder where the 2nd is haha!)
but in the end gear is fleeting and that shiny mount meta will be 100x easier to get next xpac.

We had an ex Vodka (supoosedly) player in our guild and he all did was push, push, push until the raid team eventually broke. I dont see the point in that. Theres so much truth in that post

[Bulletdance]

It makes me really curious what Blizzard's reaction to this is. We'll probably never know, but raiding is something they put a lot of time in to and it sounds like they're losing that niche of players more and more. I wonder if they'll be able to adjust things enough to bring these kinds of hardcore groups back or if it's something they plan to move away from altogether.

[Makoes]

Who knows, maybe this will make blizzard more aware of all us casual players and give us more things to do (that do not involve daily rep grinding). More along the lines of new dungeons, LFR raids, more purpose outside rep and raiding. I would really LOVE to see more World events, and continuous world events, hidden areas to look for, maybe a random spawning portal that takes you to a rare locations with something awesome...wait, what was the topic again?

[Neilaren]

Well, they shouldn't just abandon the raiding community entirely... :/

It's probably the addition of all the rep-grinding content that was killing the hardcore raiding scene, because even when LFR level gear is made a lower item level, it still feels required for raiders to obtain to kill the normal mode bosses.

Because of high item levels in general causing gear stats inflation, many classes scale so well with gear that you can try your hardest and still seem to be low-end as a fresh 90, and you can not give it your all but put out enough numbers to get bosses killed in higher end gear. This makes gear more and more important to raiding. And how do you get the gear? By grinding reputations. By grinding Valor. By grinding LFR in hopes that RNG favors you. This is what burns us out more often than not.