Flex Raiding

I honestly cannot wait until flex raids are here.

Initially I was a bit dubious about them. Yet another raid format is going to be a pain. Do I now have to run three different instances of the same raid every week? Well, no, I don't usually run LFR, so I'm not seeing that I'll be forced to run anything more than I have time or inclination for. I do understand that raid groups working for any sort of server first ranking will make their raiders run all three lockouts. The chance to get your set bonus faster is really too good to pass up. Fortunately, that sort of rush doesn't apply to me.

I know there will be people who see that the loot from flex raids is not as good as in normal and want to run normal instead. Also the loot for the flex raids is going to be done the same way as in LFR currently. I was originally thinking that was a bad way to hand out loot and really didn't allow the raid leader any sort of control or ability to provide incentive for raiders to show up regularly.

However, I've now thought about the whole situation a bit more. I think that flex raids will solve a lot of problems.

The major bonus from flex raids, of course, is that you can bring whoever you have. Darkfall's common and constant problem is that we'll have anywhere from 12 to 16 or more people online at raid time. That isn't enough to try to pug for a 25man, but it is enough that it really sucks to decide who to have sit out. That large a bench just makes everyone feel bad.

Another bonus is that since you can bring anywhere from 10 to 24 people you don't need to worry as much about setting up the raid to have a 'perfect' class balance. Got three DKs? Bring them all plus everyone else who wants to show up. The need to have specific classes and class balance is something that I really don't like about 10s. Something I like and miss about running 25s is that you can bring doubles (or more) of a class/spec. I still fondly remember running Old Hyjal with 4 or 5 mages in the 25man raid.

I'm also no longer unpleased with the LFR-style looting that will happen in the flex raids. Originally I didn't like it because I'm a fan of master looting and using EPGP for handing out loot. I also really hate it when I use a charm and get a piece of loot I already have. However, I think that having separate loot for each person outweighs that. With personal loot instead of raid loot, having 8 people on the same token or wanting the same armor type does not matter. Everyone has their own chance at loot, and someone else getting loot doesn't take any away from you.

I would like to see that you could trade the loot you get in lfr or flex raids to other people who were in the same boss kill. It would be super nice if you could trade a doubled item you received to someone else who could use it. I'd also like the ability to trade it to someone to de if you got something that you and everyone else who could use it already had, but I can see not allowing that.

Either way I'm super excited for flex raids. I think that they will really help Darkfall and the other guilds like us that were really hurt by the marginalization of 25man raids.