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