The Flexible Raid Could be a Very, Very Good Thing

First, let's get this out of the way:

5.4 will introduce a new raid difficulty that sits between Raid Finder and Normal, with corresponding gear, tentatively called the "Flexible Raid" option.

Flexible Raids allow 10-25 people per raid, and will adjust health and damage numbers to correspond to the number of people you bring. Got a few extra people for your 10 man? No problem! Can't fill out your 25-man? Again, no problem!

The goal of this difficulty is to bring back the easy, but still somewhat demanding difficulty that corresponded with 10-man normal mode in Wrath of the Lich King. Thus there will also be a fourth iLevel of gear, better than Raid Finder but not as good as Normal.

Flexible Raids will be on a separate lockout from Raid Finder and Normal/Heroic Mode. Unlike Raid Finder, though, you will still be able to earn the many special achievements for doing certain things in boss fights, and thus contribute to the Meta achievements (Glory of the Orgrimmar Raider being the upcoming one.)

Flexible Raids will require a pre-made group - this is still something that will encourage guilds to come together, but the difficulty and flexible size are meant to encourage groups to bring the people they like, rather than pushing for only the most skilled players.

Like Raid Finder, Flexible raids will use individual loot, which will come in handy when PUGging.

Ok, now my commentary:

This is a very, very good thing. And there are two major reasons why:

Firstly, the difficulty. Throughout Cataclysm and Mists, Normal Mode raids have been tuned fairly tight. As a totally anecdotal example, my guild was able to clear Naxxramas, most of Ulduar, all of Trial of the Crusader, and had two groups running ICC, one of which was on the Lich King and the other which consistently cleared up through Festergut and Rotface. In Cataclysm, we were able to do BWD, 3/4 in BoT, and then just Shannox and Morchok. And so far in Mists, we're halfway through MSV.

Now, there are a number of ways you could explain that, but one aspect is certainly difficulty. Having a difficulty level that allows for people with laggy internet connections or less-than-great skill makes a lot of sense.

Secondly, the flexibility in size is a really great innovation to bring. So often, our guild has put together a full group and then had to turn people down who either show up late or forgot to respond to the calendar invite, or make a bad roll and have to sit one out.

The way I see it, Flexible Raids can be for casual guilds or in-server PUGs who just want to go knock out the content but still want to actually play with the people they choose to play with and coordinate with TS or Vent. Normal will be for guilds who want to maintain a specific "raiding team," that is regimented and put together with care, and Heroic mode will be for guilds like that, but who want to be on the bleeding edge of difficult content.

Thus, Raid Finder's only real value moving forward will be the automatic matchmaking, which I still think will be enough of a draw to keep people using it (I'm sure I'll keep using it on alts.) By allowing for an easier, more flexible raid difficulty, Blizzard is taking an active step to help people make the game more socially interactive again.