WRUP: BRB, raid flexing
It's been a little over a week since we discovered flex raids. Since then, Blizzard has supplied more information, talking heads have hypothesized, and we've all had time to search our feelings and know it to be true.
So while we were polling your inimitable WoW Insider staff about what they're playing this weekend, we decided to take a dipstick of the team opinion on flex raids. So jump in and join us for the conversation, and tell us what you think of this new feature.
Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) I have writing to do and more atrium nonsense to fiddle with - still working on concrete and mortar. Flex raiding? It honestly sounds pretty cool. I like the idea of not having to suddenly call off a raid night because some people happened to take a night off without warning. It's a neat concept, and I'm kind of cautiously optimistic about it right now - I want to see it in action.
Chase Hasbrouck (@alarondruid, @alaronmonk) Heading to Great Wolf Lodge for the weekend, so no gametime for me. (With work ramping up significantly as I prep for my next deployment, my game time is pretty short anyway.)
Flex raids are...nice, I guess, but it feels like a solution in search of a problem that doesn't really exist. In my experience, the players who don't have the skill, schedule, or commitment to raiding in 10M normal don't have 9 other people in the same boat, so they typically just do LFR or non-raid content. Reading between the lines, it wouldn't surprise me to see flex and LFR get merged for the next expansion; public flex (tries to fill up to 25 but scales down difficulty if it can't fill group) and semi-private flex (your group with scaled difficulty, finds additional people if you have less then 10). If they do leave LFR and flex separate, I expect the difficulty and rewards from LFR to decrease dramatically, so it can fill its purpose as "the way to just see the raid."
Dan Desmond (@Antigen_) Like Olivia, I got a beta invite to FFXIV: ARR as well. I might poke around in that for a bit, I might throw a celebratory kegger for the fact that I finally beat FTL after 33 hours worth of failed attempts (on easy, no less), or I might try leveling a monk for the seventh time in a row. I wish I had a giant gameshow wheel to make these kinds of decisions for me.
I think flex raids will provide an opportunity for more casual guilds who disdain LFR as a source of content to get back into raiding. I'm a bit concerned that it'll completely supplant 25N raiding, even though there's not much of that around these days anymore, but as long as the lion's share of the target audience is happy with it, it's good enough for me. I probably won't take advantage of it, but then again who knows?
Daniel Whitcomb (@danielwhitcomb) I'm on track to Collect every battle pet in Outland while I level my shaman through the 60s, so that's gonna be my big project. As far as Flex Raiding goes. I like it. It's a great way to help small groups who want to play together more.
Kristin Marshall (@kristin) I'm going to PvP a bit on my priest and maybe get a little raiding in on Sunday. So, Flex Raiding... I like it. My raid usually runs 10-mans with a 13-man roster, but I don't see us using Flex difficulty while working on Heroic stuff. If we're horribly short and it looks like calling it is the only other option, it'd be nice to bring over btag friends to Flex it up instead. I think it'll be a great tool for guild recruitment and for groups that are looking to grow into a 25-man raid. Or for those 25-man raids who are a few short! There are quite a few good things going on with Flex and I can't wait to see how players roll with it.
Matt "Matticus" Low (@matticus) Going to try to mess around the PTR this weekend assuming it doesn't boot me out every few minutes. Otherwise on live, I just hit 90 on my Monk. I'm going start work on leveling my retribution paladin and maybe find some raids to join on my alts.
Flex raids: Love 'em. Adding them to our activities on our off nights. We've been running short handed most raid days either with 23-24 players and this will be a great help for us.
Megan O'Neill (@slowpoker) LFR on an alt, Challenge Modes on my main, and retro raids for pets and mounts on just about everything else. As for flex raids...I'm still not sure how my guild might use them. We might end up using them as recruitment tools to test out new applicants without needing to roflstomp LFR. Or we might use them like we initially did with LFR, as a pre-progression learning tool for various boss mechanics.
Michael Gray (@writegray) I'm enjoying my first Father's Day. As for flex raids, I love the idea. I wish they'd been around far before now. I play the game to play with friends, and dislike the permutations you must go through to field a raid of friends. This finally satisfies a key requirement for me that we never had before: the ability to simply and easily play with friends in any size group.
Olivia Grace (@oliviadgrace) I got an email this morning inviting me to the FFXIV ARR beta, so I'll probably check that out, but I have another 89 that needs to be a 90, and want to do many more arenas! We'll see. As far as flex raiding goes, I'm still so, so undecided. I think it will be great for many groups in the game, but I don't think I belong to any of them. Part of me thinks we're doing fine in 10n with occasional heroics, and doesn't want to step down a level.
Robin Torres (@cosmiclaurel) We are adopting two kittens on Monday, so we need to cat-proof the house this weekend. It will be good to have fluffy family members back in our lives again. Bonus: I love the idea of Flex raids. I just hope they end up working as intended.
Sarah Pine (@ilaniel) I actually think I'll be out and about a lot this weekend, so I doubt I'll get much play time in for anything, but if I do I'm going to work on leveling my paladin, who finally hit 80 this week. As for flex raids: totally excited. Really looking forward to them, they'll be great fun for my guild.
The weekend is the perfect time to kick back, relax and enjoy some game time. Are you an achievement junkie? Can't get enough raiding? Rolling a new alt? Considering taking the leap into roleplaying? Whatever your favorite way to play World of Warcraft, let us know in the comments what you're playing this weekend!
