25 vs 10, 25 = 10 man, Oh Happy Day!

Okay, let the debate begin.  I know there are many 25-man players out there that will just QQ until the cows come home.

Sure a 25-man raid feels more epic when you have 25 people.  But from a balancing perspective, it isn't hard to imagine that raids can be balanced such that the difficulty is about equal.  From my experience, the hardest part of a 25-man vs. a 10-man had absolutely nothing to do with the raid content and everything to do with coordinating, shepherding and lots and lots of waiting for 24 other people.  It was not about how much better they are, but just how much more patient and how much time they have to play.

From a 10-man's perspective, 25-man guilds had their cake, our cake and all the cake.  They got better gear, equal and sometimes less difficult content and they could do 10-mans as well so they could farm both and gear twice as fast.  What specifically makes them worthy of that much advantage?  Harder content?  It isn't that much harder and in some cases is easier.   It's only about putting up with more people and more people's problems.  Sorry, but that just makes you a masochist not worthy of blessings.

Now, I do ponder if this will hurt 25-man guilds to harshly.  That, I can't know.  However, it will end the constant flow of 10-man players abandoning their guilds for 25-man loot because they thought of the epic wait and nausea of a 25-man is pretty hard to take.

I love this change.  I can't wait to see how it works out for 25-man guilds.  Blizzard will have to toss them a bone, but it is my hope they do so only in such a way that 10-man players will say... that's nice, but not nice enough.

You Wanna Join My Guild

What's the real criteria for letting someone in the guild?

So, I have taken in the habit of chatting with someone a good long time to feel them out.  I will banter a little and see how they take my jokes, what kind of jokes they make, their age, their family make configuration, etc.  I make it seem like idle conversation, but in reality I wanna test their fiber.

There are a few obvious things, but many of these you can't see from just chatting.

• Doesn't cause drama - Problem is, this kind of stuff may not show up until they feel comfortable being a pain.  You know, first dates rarely show cracks in the facade.  You can't really know this unless they are a pain from the get go.  You also have no idea that some people build drama roles as they feel their importance to the guild grows.  That is, I am "all that" now so I can be a primadonna.
• Flexible - Able to go with the changes as they happen.  That is, sometimes you have to play your alt-spec, alt-character or whatever is needed to make the raid happen.  Sometimes, as raid leader, we can't just take whatever the player wants to take.  We have to take what makes it work.
• Thick Skinned - Yes, sometimes people say things that piss you off.   You have to be ready to roll with it, comically or off your back like rain.  If it is really a problem, a good raid leader will nip it when it reaches the "too far" point.
• Fit the group - Don't just take people because of a certain class or spec, though that helps.  You really want personalities that mesh.  Age and gender CAN play into this.  Play schedule is critical here as well.  If someone works nightshift and plays all day and you guys do the opposite and yet raid time is still compatible is still NOT a good fit.  Why?  You won't see them except at raid time.  You need the off-raid time to get to be friends.

Can you think of other need to haves?

Epic Raid "Fail" Leadership

So, I "fell" into a 25-man raid with another guild last Saturday.  As a raid leader, it's hard not to back-seat raid lead.   I tried my best to not be "that guy" giving instructions.  You know "that guy" that is always making commentary on the voice server while everyone else is silent or chatting away in "raid" chat.

The problem we had, however, was that the raid leader didn't raid lead.  Essentially, he just gathered people into a group and said, "go".  Unfortunately, it's hard to spot this early on because people have farmed the early part of ICC so much now it's second-hand, so you wouldn't expect instruction until Marrowgar, minimally.   This is barely functional at best unless you have a group that is blowing through the content without effort as ToC-10/25 is becoming.

So, here I was, up to Marrowgar and the raid leader was essentially silent, didn't say anything, didn't give any instructions.  The most we got was, "everybody knows the fight?".  That's like the old joke about foreplay where they guy considers saying "brace yourself", as enough.

Marrowgar doesn't present too much difficulty since it is almost the same as 10-man.  However, Lady Deathwhisperer is not the same.  Obviously, wipes ensue.  But with most PuGs it doesn't take many until finger-pointing and bailing occur.   PuG-25's are a crap shoot like this.

This points directly at one of the tips I mentioned about raid leading.   Raid leaders, please, stay on top.  Even if you don't know the boss fight be clear and honest.  TALK!

"I don't know this fight, but here is how I want to set it up and try it because that is what I read.  I will take comments for 3-5 minutes before we proceed if anyone here has more experience."

The last thing to do is be silent, not give instructions.  AND, during the battles, it is YOUR JOB to keep people on target.  I know when I DPS my mind wanders.  Give instructions and presume that there are people out there not on the same page of the script as you are thinking.

In this raid, I saw it coming.  He was going to just say, "have at it" on Deathwhisperer until I spoke up.  YES, I ended up being "that guy" after all.  I said, "whoa, wait! we can't just say go on this fight."  Then, I proceeded to explain at least how I have been in raids that did it and how.   It didn't help, but at least it wasn't total chaos.

Sadly, it devolved into finger pointing and crap and the raid leader didn't nip it!  He let people bitch and then HE bailed.   Please don't be that guy.   If you raid-lead a 25-man, please LEAD.

/end rant.

Learning to Raid Lead - Trial by Fire

Last night, I let another guildie run an "easy" raid on Onyxia-10.  I figured it couldn't go too badly. 

We didn't down the dragon, which is odd seeing how I've downed her every time before since anyone in the group has had any gear above 219, but that's okay, I am not wipe adverse as some members may be.

"That isn't how I wanted my first raid leading job to go", he said.

Well, it did.  I stood back and let it happen too.  It got me thinking, I don't think I ever read a guide to "how to lead a raid".  I am not sure there is even a good one out there or one that does it like I would.  I have read some good tips, but they aren't really procedural.

Nobody is perfect and even I don't do what I want myself to do every time, but I am trying. 

I will update my raiding leading axioms with these.

Tips:

• Talk aloud (on vent).  You have to talk, not type.  Talk to people directly, not indirectly, if possible (i.e. Joe do this, rather than Tanks do this).1
•  Know the fights from all points of view so you can explain it.1
• Stay in charge.  Don't let detractors pull down the momentum.  Derail it.  Have someone in the wings ready to replace the person that derails you.1
• Have the activity planned in advanced.  No one in the raid is going to answer questions like "so, what y'all wanna do?"  /crickets.

References:

1. http://picklemonkey.blogspot.com/2008/12/how-to-lead-raid.html

Emblems and WoW End-Game

A lot of discussion goes on about gear inflation, content disuse and such and I waxed on the topic only to be chewed on by the forums.  Essentially the problem, I think, with WoW is layered in the loot.  They need to reduce the loot inflation problem by "leveling" out the content.  All content of equa-level should drop from the same tables.  No more loot farming and the content is all relevant.  Gear should only progress slightly and even that should only vary a bit and then the game is about fun and skill more than gear.

My example:

5-man normal (drop varying level of gear to 200)
5-man heroic emblems buy 201.
5-man heroic (ALL drop 202)
10-man emblems buy 203

10-man (ALL drop 204)
10-man heroic emblems buy 205
10-man heroic (ALL drop 206)
25-man normal emblems buy 205
25-man (ALL drop 206)
25-man heroic (ALL drop 207)

VERY LITTLE DIFFERENCE IN GEAR.  HUGE DIFFERENCE IN DIFFICULTY.

All content is still challenging.
All content might drop something you want.
All content has value.

Emblems should still exists as consolation prizes.

Wintergrasp is Broken

Once upon a time, my server was relatively balanced, but not perfectly.  For the most part the Alliance won Wintergrasp, but it wasn't 100% of the time, it was more like... say 60-70% of the time.   I am sure that the Horde felt Wintergrasp was completely broken.

Somewhere after Ulduar became old hat and ToC-10 was the new thing, the Alliance bored of Wintergrasp and Horde moved in.  Rumors say a lot of allies decided to go horde.  The server changed from being 1.8:1 (ally to horde) to being 2.8:1 horde to alliance.   Now, the Alliance wins Wintergrasp twice per week.  Yes, twice, maybe 3 times.    That means the Horde holds it 99.999% of the time.

As a result the Alliance no longer goes.  It isn't fun to be massacred and camped.

So, what's broken here?

First, why do Wintergrasp now anyhow?  The only thing in there is honor points and a chance at the Vault mini-raid.  You can get better gear outside the Vault and there are tons of ways to get honor.  So, essentially, there isn't a reason which makes what used to be a really fun aspect of the game broken, in my opinion.

What seems odd to me is why the most obvious solution Blizzard could do to fix Wintergrasp is one they already have begun to implement in other battlegrounds and partially implemented in Wintergrasp and that is gating the player count.

If you gated Wintergrasp at say the 5's or the 10's, that is 5 from this side add 5 from that side, etc., eventually people would go knowing that both sides would be balanced, the fight would be tougher and the win would be sweeter.

As it is, bleh, picking my nose has more entertainment value.

3.3 LFG (AGAIN)

I said back in January, that I thought 3.3 would hurt guilds.

I think I need to amend that to say, it hurts small guilds.  Big raiding guilds benefit from it.  Members get that daily done in a PuG, don't bother anyone in the guild and get their frost gear, move on.

The people that are hurt by 3.3 are the smaller guilds that depended on each other for their daily quest.  They actually help build a reason to socialize and "hang out".  That was the life blood of smaller guilds.

That's gone now.

Virtual Friends

I was reading one my fellow bloggers "Big Bear Butt"'s post about a guildie that Ninja'd the bank and then server transferred away.  It was someone he thought he knew; thought were friends.

"TL;DR version – I don’t give a shit, I’m just pissed that, once again, someone I thought was a very good friend in the virtual world turns out to be someone I didn’t know at all." - BigBear

I think he is experiencing something new in the internet age that is indicative of WoW, or at least I think it is.  That is, that WoW allows us to be virtually different people.  For the most part, unfortunately, I think it is toward the negative side of our personalities.  Are we really this way?  Is the internet just the means to allowing us to act out how we would never act in person?

I think yes, to some extent.

I think that even if we sincerely feel certain ways toward the people we meet in WoW, in the end, when the rubber meets the road, these are people that if we never saw them again, spoke to them again, and such, our lives would hardly be severely impacted.  So, not everyone invests themselves sincerely to it.  Sure there might be the occasional connection that sticks, but unless the game is your life, these people are just pseudo-friends.  These are people you will be friendly to and enjoy a good laugh, but you don't take them home with you.  You don't go out to eat.  They don't meet your parents.  They don't know you and you don't know them.

Every internet relationship should have a barrier between you.  Never get too attached to the idea of the person on the other end being there because they may log one day and never come back.

Okay, I will type that again so maybe I will believe it myself... LOL.

Be nice to people on the internet and treat them like real people because hey are real people.

Guild Size 25-man

If you read my previous SWAG on how to size a guild, you might ask yourself.  How big of a guild do I need to do 25-mans?  I actually think you have more fluctuations the more people you add to a guild or the large it is.  That is, the more chance that there will be a changing crew over time due to the personal lives of so many people.  Add to that the variation in play schedules, kids, etc.

My equation from the previous discussion would estimate 25 = People * 0.59, or ... eek 42.37 people.  I actually think the possibility is that you may need even more, but 42 sounds pretty close to a minimum.

WOW, that's a lot of people to make 25 mans happen.

I wanna join your guild /ginvite

WHOA! STOP, DON"T TYPE THAT!  What am I rambling about?

Well, too often as guild manager or an officer for that matter, one might just ginvite anyone that asks and seems descent enough.  But, sadly, you are doing yourself a disservice if you do this.  Why?  Because you are affecting the objective of the guild.

The first thing one should do before inviting a single person into the guild mix is to decide why you are inviting and how they fit into the guild's objectives.  And, finally, you need to be sure that they understand the guild objectives and that the guild objectives are not going to change because they joined.

I'll give my guild as an example.  I have a few objectives.

• Mature (mostly age 25+), younger is okay if you are mature and don't use l33t speak or any such immature behavior.  Acting a little silly and joking is okay, but not immature.  Why?  Because some of the talk in the guild is inappropriate for children.
• Raids from 8-10pm with a STRICT cutoff time.  My guild wants and needs this strictness.  We all work and no one wants red eyes or tired at work.  This is a game not a 2nd life to me.  If you don't fit that mold, you are in the wrong guild.  If you want to keep going on a winning or losing streak past 10pm, sorry.  We are going to bed.
• We raid on specific days.  You can't raid those days, you will be bored and frustrated.

I am sure you have your own lists of objectives.

So, whenever I am interviewing that guy who says, "ooo ooo, can I join your guild, please please plz +++".  Usually the answer is, "no, because you are too eager and you haven't even asked about the guild".   But, if someone shows sincere interest, then I begin a short little discussion with them and explain our objectives and listen to a little be about them to feel them out.  Typically, they will give you clues as to how well they will mesh or not.  For example, one guy says, "I can raid those hours, but I work X-shift so I don't get up until 6pm".  That's a red flag for me, not because he can't raid when we do, but because he will be playing mostly when we are asleep and the only overlap is raid.  He will meet other people and hang out with other people so essentially raid is all he has with us.   As a GM, I want more.

So, just take my advice, think before you type /ginvite!

Raid Buff Status Add-on

If you raid lead, get this add-on.  It takes a bit to gather in all the info provided, but you'll be glad you got it.

Cataclysm Guild Support

I think 3.3 has really hurt casual guilds.  Casual players band together casually.  The more power Blizzard gives casuals the ability to casual outside the guild, the less ability a casual guild has to function.  Sure, some casual guilds are about socializing, but also most are about players with irregular play schedules or lighter raid schedules than bigger guilds.  But the social aspect was the glue and 3.3 damaged it with LFD feature.

I am looking forward to the new guild-based features in Cat.  that will supposedly tie you more to your guild.  Perhaps that will help.

You can bring a horse to water....

Sunday's raid was a bust.  Only 4 people signed up to go.  We had one guy get his account hacked and it is going to be probably a week before he will be fit to raid again, presuming he gets the majority of his gear back -- authenticators people!

If you ever join a raiding guild, please, please, please, accept / decline your raid invites.  And if you don't accept or decline, don't show up expecting a spot.

Edits:  3/30 - Luckily, Blizzard had him fixed in a couple days and I got the guild bank junk back.

Wrinkles

You have to be part lunatic to be a raid leader / guild manager.  That is, or extremely easy going.  I am probably more of the former than the latter.   I added people to the guild with a specific raid schedule and now one of the key roles (tank) decides he won't raid on Sundays (the last day in the raid cycle).   So, that means I am missing a key tank at the hardest part of progress. 

The right thing to do, is move him down from "frequent raider" status and he becomes a player that gets a spot when one is available.  But that is logic.   Unfortunately, that's not how things always work out.  Why?  Because a lead healer is his friend.  If I treat him in an "unfair" way, I lose a healer.   I suppose that also wouldn't be the end of the world, but it's not a pleasant experience and it sets me back.

I'm gonna have to think on this one before I make a move.   If you find yourself in such a situation, you can know that I, at least, am gonna have to think it through.

I wish my logic and emotions were not connected together, but, they are.  I hate being unfriendly which is, unfortunately, part of the job.   You don't get to be the person people like.  You are the person that makes it happen, I suppose I am telling myself.... (I am laughing at this point).

Why is end-content the goal?

I suppose Blizzard knows what they are doing.  But, sometimes, I think a game can be about the journey and less about the destination.  I mean, if the whole point of WoW is to rush to the end, you are just rushing to boredom and quitting, right?

Imagine a model where the journey is the destination and the end is well... the end.  Then, you put your focus not on getting people geared easily and quickly and dumbing down content so you can all be "to the max" but you make content harder where every step is the struggle, every dungeon is beyond elite and required gates to progress. 

I don't know the economics of the whole thing, but I'd imagine they know something $-wise that I don't and are doing the right thing for their bottom-line. 

But, I can lament, that it's not what cranks my tractor.

Leader Moment: Crunch Crunch

Okay, so a real-life friend is in my guild.  He doesn't play all the time, but I would call him a "less frequent" player.  He has a gross habit of eating while on voice chat and talking at the same time.  Yea, it's not the most pleasant thing to hear, but usually eating is pretty quick so what the heck.

However, I have a player who logs from voice and then gripes to me about it.  Do I do something?  Is it that important?  I ponder if that's really something worth doing anything about.   Sometimes, you just have to take people's pet peeves and say... grow up.    Always drama.

I guess my thought is that it is a failure on two parts.

1. Rude to eat on voice chat.
2. Rude to log out of chat
3. Rude to whine about it

"Maaaaa, he's picking his nose!"  "He's touching me"

I think the first thing is, if it is bothering you, just say so to them.  Why am I your heavy?  "Dude, I can hear you eatin' it's gross!"

Guild Size

This was one of the ultimate dilemma's for me.  When I first started being the GM, I didn't sign up for the job.  We were just guys playing WoW and none of us were max level so it didn't really matter.   For the most part, we weren't on at the same time enough or played the same amount of hours to really ever do anything together.  But, that's history.

Once we were leveled to 80 and actually had a chance to even consider raiding it was making sure no one ever had to sit out.  How many people does it take to just raid 10-man.  I knew it was more than 10 because we'd have absences, but then, you face the reality that sometimes you have more than 10 and you can't take everyone.

After time, I realize you have several class of players.

Frequent Attendees - Come to everything they can

Less Frequent - Come about half the time.

Infrequent - Come sometimes

With some stupid made-up math, I figure frequent is about 80-90% attendance, less is 40-50%, and infrequent is 10-20%.

So, our player count is 10 = 0.85 * Frequent + 0.45 * Less + 0.15 * Infrequent.

But, how many of each class of players do you have.  You can't really control this and people move from one group to another.  Without a large enough sampling you can't statistically have a good answer.  I am sure Blizzard has data that could help answer the question, but we have to go on guesses or at least on observance of our guildies.

In my group, about 50% are Frequent, 30% are Less and 20% are Infrequent.

So, if P = total player count...

10 = P * 0.85 * 0.5 + P * 0.3 * 0.45 + P * 0.2 * 0.15
10 = 0.425 * P +  0.135 * P + 0.03 * P
10 = 0.59 P
P = 10 / 0.59 = 17 players guarantees you never have to pug!

Now, if you want, you can argue that this post is a load of crap.  Well, IT IS!

However, as guild manager, it's my job to provide numbers for raids and it's the best I could come up with.  But in the end the reality of it is observation of your guildies.  Yes, it's spying.  But you have to watch when they play.

Next, it's about adding people that fit the category you really want.  Aim for Frequents and you get about half Less Frequents whether you like it or not.

Buff to Cataclysm

I am so torn on the idea of us getting a buff until cataclysm.  Sometimes I feel like I am always in the guild that is just a step behind the content swing.  While other guilds are far out ahead in beating the Lich King, we are still gearing to get past Festergut.  And, along comes the 5%, soon 10% buff.  I suppose it's our group that this buff is designed for, but the same time, I can't help feel being cheated of saying... "I can do it too, you ain't that l33t, you just have more time".

Though, I guess by the time we actually down the Lich King, it will likely be level 85.  LOL.

It's my burden

Last night, during raid.  I was training a new person or at least attempting to get someone else to raid lead.  I can't always be there and I was hoping to see some inspired ability and perhaps a new perspective on raid leading.  You never stop learning how to raid lead because it's all about the social dynamic of being pseudo-in-charge.

So, after a few minutes into the raid start we hadn't started yet.  There were numerous delays, which is one of the biggest banes of raids.  One of my guildies whispers me, "if this doesn't start soon, I'm leaving".

What reaction was this person expecting from me?  Sympathy?  Understanding?  Action?  I chose another route.  My thought was, he is a grown person and makes his own choices and the implications of those choices are his own, not mine.

I can't remember my exact response, but I think it was along the lines of... "that's up to you."

There was a time when I really carried this stuff like an albatross.  I wanted consensus.  I wanted happiness.  I wanted perfection and bliss.  Someone write me a reality check please.   So, call me a M&S (Moron and Slacker), but I learned that its a dream and move on.

Why ask?

So, I made the mistake again. As a learning raid leader, I didn't schedule precisely what was to happen -- I left it up in the air for the group decide. For some reason I live under the delusion that we are all going to work together as a team on everything we do and therefore coming up with the activity is equally a group responsibility. You can laugh at this point.

Can this work? Maybe in some situations.

Does it work for me? No.

I think the basic issue here is a matter of expectation. Personality comes into play here. Some want to lead and most want to follow. It is sort of the same scenario with DPS vs. Tank / Heals. DPS is the lowest stress position in the raid. That's what everyone wants to do is play and release stress so you will find fewer brave souls that will take the hot seat.

I digress.

If you ever ask the question, "so what do you want to do now?" you will likely get "/crickets". Most players will not tell you what they want. However, if you pick something they don't want, you'll will more than likely hear about it either out loud or in private tells. People want to choose upfront.

So, in summary, as raid-leader / raid-planner. The best thing you can do is plan the raid and schedule it so the expectation is pre-known. Members can then decide in advance if they are willing to buy into the objective. If they aren't they can bail or just not sign up.

3.3 LFG

I have to say that the new LFG has completely changed the dynamic of WoW for me. Yes, people can sing praises until the high heaven, but I am not sure everything about it is all roses.

For the obvious. DPS has a large queue time. Well, if you can't figure out the math, it's very simple. End-game 25-man raid guilds need 2 tanks, 5 healers and 18 DPS to complete a raid. That's a 3.6:1 ratio for DPS:Heals and a 9:1 ratio for DPS:Tanks. 5-man's need 3:1 ratio for tank and heals. So, a little wait on heals, but a big wait on tanks. Are the numbers this drastic? Probably not. You do have 10-man guilds and you have folks that don't raid at all. But, for the most part, tanks is the shortage. My only advice to DPS is be nice to the tank and wait and see how well they hold aggro. If they are weak, give them a lead. You need them more than they need you.

But not everything about LFG is about whether you can get in the dungeon or not. Some of it is the whole impersonal nature of it. Ever seen this? Enter dungeon, "hi", Pew Pew, "gg", teleport out. Rarely do you talk. You might get an occasional ... "my bad", "watch your aggro", etc. And, DPS that needs tanks badly will sometimes say, "this is a good group, queue again?". Well, of course they will say that because the queue sucks for them. With that impersonal nature, you don't get to meet potentials for new guildies, you rarely get to know other people on the server, so it's really just wham, bam, thank ya mam.

I do admit, that it made leveling and gearing my alt's easy as pie and very quickly you go from greens to 232 T9 purplies, but then what?

And finally, the thing I think that will bite LFG the hardest is burn-out. I think it will cause so much dungeon burn-out that people will be tired of them all very quickly.

What do you think?