Hola to everyone,

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, but Summer ... happened and it was too hot to stay at home and write articles or even play games, especially in Greece ;)

Before start, some points about our blogging system. I know it looks kind of weird, and for this decided to buy the whole software and alter it our needs. So this is the last blog with this layout, i believe in maximum 10 days it will have the inner layout i want, so it can look so good as i want ;)

10-man, easy or not?

Samurai originaly is a guild that makes 25-Raids. We started 4 years ago with 20-Man Raids (ZG), went to 40-man with MC, followed Blizzard orders to lower to 25 that lasted all TBC and in the first batch of raids in Wrath, and after our ressurection this year, we started playing again mainly with 10-man as we didnt have enough people to maintain the 25-raid we want to have. Our main target is towards Cataclysm where we believe we can return to fully 25-Raids, but through this experience we had with 10-man run in ICC Hardmodes, i am thinking...is it really more easy to play like this?

I believe....nope. It isnt easier...

"Give me a break...25-raids are more difficult to be controlled and all big guilds do these raids nowdays. 10-man? What a fail !!!"

:) I dont fully agree on these comments. Yes big guilds do 25-raids nowdays and i believe it may not change at all that aspect in Cataclysm, but about difficulty and control...mmm here we disagree! First of all, i am talking for a 25-raid with guildmates, not a 25-Pug Raid. Yes pugs are more difficult to control, but ur own guild? What's the difficulty on this? If u have organised everything as u should have, to play with either 10-man or 25-man, is the same drill for me. The thing i analyse here is if its easier or not to play with 10-man.

One of the truths of 40-man Raiding back in the day, was...slacking. And forgive me to say that (Mitrux dont read the following lines), but slacking in 40-man Raids was a Hunter privilege, with all their autoshoots! What i mean, is that in 40-man slacking was a big big problem. And ofc the control aspect was even more difficult, to maintain 40 ppl to login the appropiate time and go to kill the boss and also to organise them within the battle. At that time, yes Raid Leader was a king..and his work was very very difficult. And for this Blizzard lowered the number to 25, as Kaplan told me when i interviewed him in Games Convention 2 years ago. They wanted to make the raids more efficient, to be able to play without have to create a massive group. In 25-Raids, although it is more easy to form it...slacking is again a problem. But as it happened in 40-man, also in 25-raids, if u have a slacker Healer or a slacker dpser, how it will affect the raid?

Answer: None, except some really HM like Putri or Sindra or ofc LK. In all the other fights, the slacker that doesnt do so good healing or good dps (ok tanking is not the same, and the reason for this is that u play with 3 tanks. If u had 6 tanks, u will have again the same result). So u may have in 25 people, even 4-5 slackers that dont perform well, and the same time do ur kills without problem.

Now, lets imagine a same situation...with a 10-man raid. You will have propably 2 healers or 3 in very few bosses, 2 tanks and dpsers. What will happen if one healer is slacking?

Answer: DEAD everyone (ok there are exceptions on this, if the 2nd healer is playing really awesome)

What will happen if 2 dpsers are slacking?

Answer: Wipe propably.

The problem u see with 10-man raids, is that the slacker cant...hide in the crowd. Cant hide his noobness to play as he should play, so the team must play really organised to perform well and dont get wiped ;) This very aspect, make for me 10-man a bit more difficult from 25-raids. Yes yes i said before 25-raids mean more glory, but 10-man, and especially in HM mean that these 10 players played really good. Is the same for 25-raid? Everyone of the 25 people deserve the bravo for their kill? No...no really i believe!

I am eager to see how this situation will evolve in Cataclysm. As we heared till now, 10-man Loots will be the same lvl as 25-raids and only the number of the loots will differ.

"So....September ended...what Samurai doing this period of time?"

After a nice Summer vacation, we gathered again since the first days of September, and start raiding again. Unfortunatelly some of the new guys we have accepted in our ranks, couldnt maintain the 4 times per week raiding we wanted and failed to what they agreed when they first applied. That delayed us again, and we lost 2-3 weeks to clear again our team and define our needs. That resulted to some kicks unfortunatelly, but we need to have raiders that will play 4 times per week. We have many casuals which are old members or guys that we respect, but to maintain what we want in Cataclysm, changed had to be done.

So we decided to change our raiding plans, as Cataclysm is being delayed a bit, and start playing with 2 groups of 10-man people every week, with target to test some pugs and in the same time, both teams finish everytime 12/12 to ICC and also make some achievements so we can get the ICC drake. (Zaratoustra already did it, some more will complete it this week). To accomplish this, we intentionaly rest some of our main raiders, so we can put pug replacements in their spots and test them through raiding. Our raiding week, start with Wednesday and Thursday raids with 2 groups in ICC10, and then on Monday we create our 25&pugs Raid. On Tuesday we will either continue the 25-raid or finish other bosses like Halion Heroic. Yes i know its not like we did in the past, as we cant maintain yet a fully 25-raid with guildies, but we dont to be forced to accept application with low gear (and ok gear is not so important nowdays) and minimum of experience in the game.

In our progression, we are now 11/12 ICC10 HM and 10/12 in ICC25. We believe that till Cata, we can kill LK in 25-Raid&Pugs and try to do a kill in LK HM ICC10. We will see ;)

Our starting plan for Cataclysm, is to lvl fast up to 85, and start again with 2 groups of 10-man Raids to new content. If in the process till Cataclysm or in Cataclysm, we manage to get a 3nd 10-man group to raid with us, then we may look the posibility to play as 25-raiding. If not, we will continue playing like this till we manage it. Also, as you can see in our join us page, we will create a 20-man PvP Team, the ANBU. This team will play in rated BGs over the weekend every week. So if u plan to continue playing only PvP, join our forces on this one.

"Memories"

I saw earlier today a video that Deathken creating for our Putri HM kill, and the feeling i had, was how important is that we have players in the guild, that we raid with them 3+ years now. And some of them, 4 years! Its really really cool, and its above any loot given. Loots come and leave (as women...exmmm) but this detail, is what i think matters most. I know that during these 4 years, we had many members (in the blog i made to count them all, are more than 300) but i believe some of them really created the magic here. The atmosphaire of this guild, the mood we have when we connect to play, the community in forums and ofc our many meetings / semi gathering is what it matters for me. U can't feel it, unless u become part of this guild. And ofc unless u raid with us.

I have very good memories from all this, even from members that destroyed their image and their history with the way they left. I believe they have too the same memories, and below all their comments through various forums and fb, i know they wish to be able to turn time back. To un-do what they did.We had a saying in Samurai back in the day...that when someone open the door and leaves, the door close for ever behind him...Nowdays, i feel that this changed. Ofc i wont accept anyone who wont apologise for his behaviour but i would even accept Mentoras back, with the proper words ;)

Take care, and i will update the blog soon, and i want to believe with a new design for them ;)