10 or 25? How much is too much?

So, I really prefer raiding in 10 mans.  I feel like I can really know the capabilities of all of my teammates.  I generally play with a healer, sometimes I tank, sometimes I range DPS.  Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of my teammates can be a raid-saver.  In 25 mans . . . I do not have that luxury for a few reasons.  Most obviously, there are more people.  Also, and unfortunately, since we are a 'casual raiding guild', we do not have attendance requirements - translation:  we never know who is actually going to show up.

Even in 25 mans, I generally know who my tanks are, and most of my healers.  I will often know the abilities of most of the raid.  The folks I don't know are all over the place.  I raided with a new guildie, a rogue, who blew the roof off of the dps meter in Onyxia.  Another new guildie (in really solid Tier 8-9 level gear) was a few spots below the tanks in dps.  Most of the non-heroic content can be played with 20 decent raiders and 5 people who have no idea what they are doing.  Most is not always tho'.  When we do 25 mans and wipe on content that we have been farming for months it is usually because 50% of the raid is on alts that they don't know how to raid with, or people who are so confused by raiding that they die instantly - or worse, get ME killed!


The control, friendliness, relative success and level of fun has been much higher in 10 man content than in 25s.  I still run 25s, for the benefit of the guild.  But 10-mans is my favorite, by far.  I am excited when new content gets released, so that our 10-man team can move into that content.  I find myself dreading having to bring in the 25 man team into new content.