Dueling Perspectives: Battle Rez Limits in Cataclysm

Admittedly, ever since that fateful day on April 14th, 2009 when I paid one thousand gold to my trainer for "dual spec" (Which is now 100g, damn you Blizzard, where's my refund?), Asilwen became two different people with two differing opinions on many things. Sometimes these two versions of her talk to each other, and argue their points. Today I decided to document their argument over a new change in the Cataclysm Beta on how combat resurrections will work in Cataclysm raiding. If you haven't heard, this is what's going on.

Recently Blizzard announced their new plans on how battle resurrections will work in Cataclysm raiding:

For ten man raids: One Druid Rebirth or Warlock Soul Stone resurrections per raid encounter attempt.

For twenty-five man raids: Three Druid Rebirths or Warlock Soul Stone resurrections per raid encounter attempt.

Well what does this mean? It could mean different things, I'll give you my opinion and a summary of both sides after we see both perspectives argue this topic.

Today's Dueling Debaters are...

Discipline Asilwen (Or as I'll refer to her in context, "Light") who thinks this is a good change.

Vs.

Shadow Asilwen (Or as I'll refer to her in context, "Shadow") who thinks this is a bad change.

Duel begins after the break in...

3...

2...

1...

Dark: What a terrible idea. Limiting mid-combat resurrections in boss fights? How... for lack of better words... dumb.

Light: How do you figure?

Dark: For one it's taking away a class specific ability, what do druids bring that's unique to the table now? Ooooo, they can morph into a tree, how exciting. And warlocks aren't as raid supportive now!

Light: I think you're overreacting-

Dark: I AM NOT OVERREACTING! This is terrible! How am I supposed to get away with standing in the fire now!

Light: You argument is neither compelling or intellectual if those are your key points. I mean, let's face it, if you've been paying any attention to the future events that are happening in that magical world named "Beta" you'd know that that's pretty much the theme of the changes to come! Focusing less on raid composition and more on uniformity, which is great! Less specific needs means more people get the chance to raid. More people raiding is good, right?

Dark: Wrong. If more people raid, more people get the same gear I have. Which makes my AFKing in high traffic areas way more unimpressive. Besides, those aren't my only points. I mean let's face it. Everyone makes mistakes, even you and your wannabe holy knock-off self.

Light: Low blow.

Dark: See we've all had those bad raids, where things just aren't going our way. Mistakes can often lead to deaths. With the limit to how many people that can resurrect per boss attempt, that means people can't have those bad days and mess ups. I mean look at it this way; think back to your raiding history? How many "epic" comebacks and recoveries have you had on boss fights because of battle resurrections that led to bosses being killed. Kiss that goodbye.

Light: First off, you may have contradicted yourself. If people can't make mistakes, doesn't that mean that bosses will take a bit more skill to kill? Thus killing the harder bosses will become more alluring and impressive, giving perfect gear flaunting potential. Secondly, why are you expecting to die on a boss fight? Limiting deaths on encounters is encouraging skillful play and putting more emphasis on staying alive. No one should go into a boss fight and just expect to die. I think you're just biased towards death and corruption.

Dark: Well I do enjoy death, but that is irrelevant. I don't go into a boss fight expecting to die, that's preposterous.

Light: I disagree, I've seen the way you use Shadow Word: Death, you pretty much ask fo-

Dark:*AHEM* Anyway, as I was saying, this change doesn't make bosses any harder. It just encourages more trial and error raiding. Doing the same thing over and over until your raid eventually gets everything down to a science and can do it blindfolded and won't even need that combat resurrection. Or on fights that require a bit of "Luck", it would mean trying until all the planets align and you manage to succeed. This new plan for resurrections leaves very very very little room for recoveries if things start falling apart.

Light: Even with multiple resurrections, there is still a lot of trial and error in raiding, it's one of the key elements of it. Is that a problem? Not really. And really, how many boss fights will rely on luck? Not many, if any. Not enough to make a difference. Besides, most people don't even care about trying to recover anymore. If there aren't limited attempts on bosses, why not just have everyone die and run back in?

Dark: But you can't argue the fact that this change will make doing raids with random people in town harder, since the druids usually love just Rebirthing anyone they please, regardless of what the leader says.

Light: You might have a point there, but if someone can't understand simple concepts like "resurrect who you're told to", then I don't want my life to be in their hands in the first place.

Dark: And let's face it, we're not all math masters, how are we gonna keep track of how many people have resurrected in a fight?

Light: ...you can't count to three?

Dark: ...

Light: Is that a no?

Dark: ...

Light: *sigh*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let me now summarize the main points of the two sides, for those of you who hate reading.

For the change -

1. Means less mistakes can be made, meaning boss killings could be considered more impressive.
2. Puts less emphasis on making sure you "stock up" on druids/warlocks, giving other classes equal priority in raid composition.
3. DPSing.

 Against the change -

1. It means less mistakes, making some boss fights harder for the less serious "casual" crowd of raiders
2. It makes some classes less unique in buffs they give to the raid.
3. No more "epic" boss fight recoveries. 

So what does this change really mean to raiding? Nothing, really. I mean let's face it, you're not supposed to die on boss fights (with few exceptions *cough Arthas*). So allowing only a few combat resurrections per boss fight is being generous. I'm not even a serious raider, and I tend to lean toward the idea that one death on a boss is too many. Be prepared, stay awake, and do your job and this change won't affect you. Let that one or three resurrections you have available be for when you really have terrible luck with RNG.

What do you think about this change? Does it matter to you? Which Asilwen are you siding with? Do you want to argue with me over a change in the future so I don't have to argue with myself again? Let me know in the comments below!

And as always, send me any questions or comments you might have about me or the blog to asilwensadventures@gmail.com and they might be featured on an upcoming entry.