A survey of gear levels in current 10- and 25-man Cataclysm raiding

If you've been curious whether or not you're geared enough to start raiding, the answer is "definitely maybe." Let me explain.

The nice people at GuildOx have collected and passed on their information for the average gear level for groups completing 10- and 25-man raids, and they were good enough to share this information with us. There are several interesting things to keep in mind about these numbers.

• These numbers are from the last seven days and only for the first time a group beat the encounter. Subsequent kills aren't counted in this data set.

• The average ilevel is higher for almost every single Cataclysm raid fight on 10-man than on 25-man. That is, the fights were first overcome by groups in higher ilevel gear on 10-man than on 25-man. Ascendant Council seems to be the only real exception to this rule.

• The ilevels for the groups defeating this content are well achievable, starting at 337 for Omnotron Defense System and Conclave of Wind on 25-man. This is well within the level of gearing achievable through heroics. Even the 10-man encounters don't require much more, starting around ilevel 341.

• There's a lot more data for heroic 25-man encounters than heroic 10s. Some fights don't seem to have had many or any clears on 10 for this data push.

• Heroic Conclave of Wind had 40 kills on 25s and none on 10s, while Ascendant Council on normal seems to be easier on 10s than 25s for some reason.

See the data in full behind the jump; you can make your own conclusions, but I find the higher ilevel for 10-man clears over 25-man to be very, very interesting indeed. I also find it very heartening that yes, you can gear up for this in heroics and rep rewards, so don't let your gear hold you back from attempting these raids.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.