What about the Big Raid?

Actually, I really won't miss Sartharion 3D on 25 man

I just can't see how very many 25-man raiding guilds are going to survive after the Cataclysm. Everything I read fails to give 25-man guilds any real incentive to keep running 25-man raids.

• The loot tables are the same in 10 man and 25 man.
• The lockouts for 10 and 25 man instances will be the same. So there's no more way to run both.
• 25 man raids are awfully painful to organize. I would not lay blame on one single guild leader who decided it wasn't worth his trouble to keep doing it.

There are a couple of details outstanding. They say that there will be "more" loot in 25-man raids. But how "more" has not been defined. Presently, two epics drop off 10 man bosses and 4 drop off of 25 man bosses, which means that the larger raid technically receives less loot at the moment per member. So, if "more" means there will be 5 epics in the future, then the larger raid is only caught up. If they go into 6 or 7 drops...  that might be something. But it seems very unlikely that this is what the developers mean by "more."

I'm betting somebody who is better than math could probably describe how a larger array of drops in each raid would make for more satisfied raiders. If 5 epics drop instead of just 2, then it would be more likely that you'll see an item made for your character. But I couldn't begin to do any of the maths about how likely you would win it over the increased number of people in your raid. 

If the developers mean there will be more gold in a 25 man raid, then I offer a stifled yawn in response.

If the developers mean there will be more badges in a 25 man raid, that is ... something. Maybe. The badge system is pretty cool, but getting a sweet drop after a good boss fight is much cooler. And I've been sort of thinking, that I really shouldn't feel hurried to gear up into the new tier stuff. That only means I'll have more time waiting for the next content to come out, feeling vaguely bored. If I can collect one or two badges from each raid boss and get the gear I need in time for the next level of content, then I don't really see any need to collect three or four badges and just do that faster.

There are a few other details up for grabs right now. Presently, you can only ever see legendary weapons if you work through 25 man raids. If that continues, it would be a reason to go 25. There have also been a handful of rare rare mount drops that only come from 25 man runs. I'm thinking Mimiron's Head here in particular.

The problem there is that legendary weapons and Mimiron's Head are already so incredibly rare that most 25 man guilds haven't obtained them anyway. As cool as I think it would be to get these kinds of things, it's pretty honking unlikely that I ever ever will by the way they have been implemented up til now.

And then, back within the guild progression system coming up, it seems like there could be some advantages to have a relatively large guild. There might be guild achievements only available from 25 man raids. The developers say they are trying hard to not bias for large guilds, but... it only kinda makes logical sense that a larger guild could get more progression done faster. So that may be a reason to keep doing 25 man raids.