Consider adding flex raiding for 10 people up to 25 in cataclysm classic for normal and heroic difficulties. It was part of the original feedback that was rumoured about cata pre-wotlk and a change I haven’t seen mentioned in the recent blizzcon announcements, but would welcome greatly.
I run a relatively small sized Wrath “dad guild” with a core of about 20+ raiders who have actively been raiding every week since classic, beating the content at a our own pace at the highest difficulty available to us. As most guilds this size we have always needed to fill to the 30’ish raid roster required to account for absences/dropouts, finding the last 5-10 people has always been a struggle. With the noticable dwindling playerbase since tbc which is likely to dwindle further with cata.
I would like to continue playing with the core that I have without having to compromise down to 2(or 1)x10 players or struggling to compromise up to 25. Raiding together with the limited time most of us have during the week rather than splitting up across multiple nights.
To me it would be in line with other casual friendly changes made in wotlk (token, Totgc raid lockouts, ICC normal/hc flipping) a change to respect peoples time both inside and outside of the game.
Changes will always bring an impact but I don’t actually think this will have much of an effect, there were already clear difficulty differences between 10/25 where more/less space/cds/buffs/specs gave an advantage but rankings will normally be focused on 25 man so to me makes no difference. There will always be minmaxers looking to find the optimal split to get as much loot out as possible by making it easier by dropping people (which is still possible going from 25>10 for those bosses) which is their perogative, but from a “reliving the content at our own pace” guild this would be a welcome change.
It was a change suggested that turned me (and others) from a no to a yes about cataclysm now back on the fence - to be able to play the game more casually (being able to drop in and out) and not worry about recruitment or excluding people based on numbers. From an organisational pov it takes the pressure off.