My guild finally killed its first Mythic boss this week. Three months after its release we finally downed Oregorger after a not too shabby 33 attempts. I should be happier than i am but anyone that knows me, knows i’m never satisfied. Why do i think this stinks? Well, all 33 attempts occurred over a two day period this week. The first time we’ve been able to field 20 players with the actual gear required for the content. It’s disheartening but, in the long run, good for the raiding community. Why is this good when it negatively affects me? I can see the bigger picture. I understand why having one raid size for top end content is important.

Wiping is good. Not wiping is bad.

Anyone that has ever been a guild leader or an officer of any kind will tell you that the worst part of the job is maintaining a roster. The more players you have to maintain, the more difficult the job becomes. This isn’t rocket surgery. The actual content though? Wiping on that boss 500 times is more enjoyable than not being able to because you’re missing one person. Some may disagree with that statement but i genuinely enjoy figuring stuff out even if it means failing many times in the process. This is the core mentality i feel any successful raider must have. Failing to content is better than not doing it.

Players are flaky. 

Unfortunately for us, missing one or two members has been a consistent hurdle we’ve had to overcome since BRF was released. We have members ranging from their early 20’s to the mid 50’s. The younger the applicants we get, the more commitment issues they seem to have. Finding like minded and mature adults that can make our raid times is a full time job in and of itself. Every time we find a diamond in the rough, we lose another to school/job/life. It’s a vicious cycle that would be so much easier to deal with had Blizzard kept the smaller raid size as an alternative. I’m glad they didn’t though.

Balancing multiple raid sizes is impossible.

Flexible Normal and Heroic raids are a huge success. I’m glad this model was finally implemented. Being able to bring 10-30 players to a raid and having the content scale to your size is nothing short of amazing. Removing the logistics barrier makes doing the content that much easier. It also comes with a price and one i’m glad Blizzard wasn’t willing to pay.

Anyone that has done 10-man flex and 30-man flex will tell you that the more players you bring, the easier the content becomes. This is due to most encounters revolving around having healing cooldowns available at any given time. More players means more healers and therefore more get out of jail free cards. This is why flexible Mythic didn’t happen and hopefully will never happen. Having the most difficult content fixed to one size means the content is more difficult and balanced that much better. Blizzard chose to make the content better for once instead of trying to please everyone and i applaud them for it. I’m happy with their decision even if it means i may not get to see it.