Less is less

As I mentioned earlier about not being as much in the loop as I used to be about WoW...I didn't realize they haven't added "Less is more" achievements to Ulduar and ToC.

This was a good choice on someone's, whoever makes these type of decisions, part. While attempting to complete an instance with less than the usual amount of people is challenging for those who do it, it really defeats the purpose of raiding - where a larger group of people get together to complete something.

A few times I was part of a less is more attempt because it was unplanned or someone didn't show up. But if a guild decides to 8-man something ahead of time, who gets left out? Of course you can plan around doing it over and over again swapping out people, but that's a headache and I have yet to be involved in a "let's do it for everyone" scheme from start to finish. The person who plans it, usually gets their achievement or mount and the next week comes down with a cold.

And then there are these "dps it down" achievements that run with fewer tanks and fewer healers. I guess that's the payback for having a easier time finding 5-mans.

There is a thread over at the Raid and Dungeons forum about removing the uber cloak drop from the perfect heroic run (no wipes I believe from start to finish of the whole instance). Even the top guilds complain that since their are connectivity issues they shouldn't be punished.

Then there's the issue of cohesiveness again. Do you sit out the guy on Comcast every attempt because you don't want to risk screwing up just one attempt?

For 10 man regular runs we try to get as many teams going (usually 2) as possible. But for heroics we end up being choosier, because we know it takes a little bit more. You should be "punished" for lack of dps or lack of situational awareness, not a crappy computer connection.

More is more, because when you have to compete for a raid spot you tend to do better. I remember playing with very competitive people who still didn't really up their game until they joined a further progressed guilds and realized they actually could put out more dps. What was stopping them before? A guaranteed raid slot.

So there are things that promote success in a raid and things that can undermine it. I still haven't recovered from Undying and Immortal attempts. And it sad to admit the reason we got undying is because we didn't include some players we normally raid with.

While it may not always be possible, I want to succeed in spite of whatever drawbacks our guild may have. Not end up trying to run things when Player Y isn't online.