How to Build a 20-man Raiding Team

Every Warcraft expansion we see the same complaints on the forums.

BLIZZARD Make Mythic Flex or 10-man again!

I think you really have different kinds of players. Type A and B.

1. Type A (Tortoise) Mostly play WoW and rarely unsub and guilds active and going doing various activities. May play side games but don't leave. Tortoise.
2. Type B (Hare) Episodic and get bored quickly/easily and come and go based on the latest new game release. Hare.

The problem guilds face is a social contract conflict between Type A and Type B players.

The Type A player wants to believe that guild or group is always there and they are a part of something.

The Type B player sees it more like a pick-up basketball game with strangers.  You play a bit and then you are gone and you may or may not see them again.

Guilds will have a mix of both A and B players.

Guild Leaders can also be of type A or type B.

Type A led guilds keep on trucking.  They may have some type B players in their guilds, but the type A's keep the lights on, create a foundation, make a home.

Type B led Guilds come alive with the expansion. A few of their Type A friends might flock to them to join in the pick-up game.   But, each expansion, less and less Type A's will be fooled by the allure of the fleeting team.

Type B Guilds will most likely struggle each expansion.   They have significant amount of flucuation of players.   They start raiding as soon as they reach the quorum minimum 10-man mark.  And even if they have a strong core and complete the heroic raids quickly, they only have their wow-progress numbers to convince others to make the move.   Many will hit a wall to reach mythic raiding.

Type A Guild never left.  When the Type B guilds hares are flitting away to Dark Soul 35 or Skyrim 13, those that remain in the Type B guild see only the type A guilds still standing.  Time to move to a stable home even if it's not as fast, light, brash and powerful.

I think, unless you are a VERY WELL led Type B guild, these guilds will compete with other Type B guilds. They consume each other as transient players "guild upgrade" based on the wow-progress until they can't any more. The lower type B guilds collapse.

Players that tire of the expand / collapse cycle either quit guild raiding or hope to find a guild that's more stable (Type A).

Some of the Type A Guild players might guild upgrade if their more tortoise-like players aren't as fast as the Type B counter parts, but many, having seen the expand/collapse before know better.

Legion Player Collapse Incoming

Now is that time in the expansion about two months in where all the race-to-raid guilds start to implode.

It isn't terribly difficult to toss together a really strong 10-15 man heroic raiding team that blasts through the content.

However, when you start to hit the Mythic level you need more than 20... you need 25-30.   Raid nights become frustrating because you are at 16 or 18 or 19 players and not enough.   They recruit like crazy but can't find the numbers.

So, better players start shopping up.  Weaker players get left behind and either quit or drop down the ranks to lower guilds.

Guilds go poof.

I've seen this so many times now.

Guild Cohesion

Unless your guild is excessively massive, it is impossible to really operate numerous raid teams.  

I would speculate that for each raid team you add to a guild you multiply the complexity of difficulties and coordination exponentially.    My guild runs two raids as many guilds do.  We have a primary team and a casual / alts weekend raid.

I had a long-standing player in the guild wanting to create another leader-team because the leader-team is full and he failed to sign-up and the causal team wasn't advanced enough for his wants.

While, in practice, this sounds like a quite reasonable request.   Here are the problems another leading team can cause, if you cannot coordinate properly.

1. If the teams are on different schedules, you have doubled the competition within the guild for people wanting the schedule that is more to their liking.
2. If the teams are on the same schedules, you have decide how important it is to the guild that both teams advance equally.  If it's important you'll have to balance participants and people want to raid with friends.   It can't be about just numbers.
3. You have the potential that teams can compete for the "better players".

I'm not saying it can't be done.   I know there are more hard-core guilds that make this happen.  

I'm just saying that it has drawbacks, issues and more "work" to make it happen.

If your guild does this... what approach do you use?

Guild Features Need Love

As a guild leader, it should not be a surprise that I think guilds are the heart of World of Warcraft.   That's not to say that solo-play doesn't work in WoW, and fun can't be had, but I wouldn't be here if it was a solo game.

Blizzard has definitely dropped the ball on giving some needed guild improvements.   Players should not be required to get add-ons to compensate for some of these core capabilities.

While they tried in Cataclysm with the guild experience and the guild recruitment tool, those were focusing more attention on the wrong areas, in my opinion.

Today, players walk up to any billboard in WoW and the game suggests a litany of solo-play activities.  But, for guilds, all they get is the guild recruitment tool that doesn't really work.

Guild Recruitment Overhaul:

1. Ability to invite people that are offline or alts of your own.
2. Automatically update the guild list to indicate how active a guild is... what activities they have done recently as a guild and allow queries on this information.  How many players that have logged in the last 3 weeks.
3. How many players are in the guild (not characters).
4. Have guilds that are inactive - no guild activities (no one logging into them) are grayed out as inactive.  They have a guild activity tracker system, let the players know when guilds are dead or at least how active they will be before you join.
5. Ability to search on exact raid times, bt times, etc.  Find one that matches your schedule.
6. Give players the ability to filter, search and set criterion to help them find the perfect guild.  
7. Why do players have to know about wowprogress.com or guildox to be able to assess a guilds progress?
8. Have a big block for guild leaders to fully write up on their guild and what it is like.

Handling Players and their Characters

1. Guilds should allow up to 999 account instead of 999 characters.  The number of characters should not impact the number of players that can join a guild.   The more and more character slots Blizzard gives us the more characters players want to bring to their guilds but this limits the number of people a guild can have.   Please fix this!
2. Build into the system to manage players (and their alternative characters) as a unit (by account) instead of having to manage them independently and try to figure out who is who.  Yes, I know this means that players give up some ability to have 2 toons in a guild and be anonymous on one or the other in the same guild, sorry, but I track alts already and have never had anyone have issue.

Guild Permissions:

1. Allow us to have permission sets independent of the ranks.  Ranks usually imply what activities players do or how long they've been with the guild.  But, this doesn't mean they also need privileges.  They might, but they might not.   With permission sets, I could apply different "jobs" to different players regardless of their ranks.     Example:
1. Member:  PvPs set, Raider set.  Bank Manager set.
2. Member:  Raider set.
3. Officer:  Guild Chat set.  Bank Manager set.  Raider Set.
2. (7/6/16) Guild Note Permissions.  Add the permission that a player can only edit their own guild note.

Ranks:

1. I'd like about 5 more ranks.  I probably don't need that many, but it's nice to have ranks to indicate length of service in the guild.   I can do this, but without permission sets, I need different ranks for different bank permissions.   Example:
1. New 
2. Member (> month)
3. Tenured (> 6 month)
4. Senior (> 12 months)
2. Allow ranks to have a sub-titles that guildies can see on name plate.  Today you get "recruit" in your guild tag, but the guild could see guild labels instead.  The guild reputation no longer means anything:
1. New -    Joeman
2. Raider -  Joeman  
3. Officer - Joeman

Guild Calendar:

1. Ability to indicate when players are away and when they will return.  Sort of like a "leave calendar"
2. With #1.  If someone is scheduled on leave, automatically decline for new events on their scheduled away times and link to the "away" notice.
3. Ability to chat/set away notices from the phone app.
4. Ability to give notes when you accept an event like "I will be 5 mins late", "can't make it, cat's on fire"
5. Make calendar notices more "in your face" than just the blinking ?. Like when they log in.   Here are new activities on the calendar.  
6. Allow creating repeating events so I don't have to copy paste week to week for regular raids. Perhaps just a month at a time if they are afraid of forever events.
7. Allow for color coding activities on the calendar.

Guild Bank:

1. Give us the ability to set types of items on a tab and when people donate the items to the bank it automatically attempts to place it on the correct tab.
2. Make the guild bank auto sort.
3. Have the ability to exclude certain items from being added to the bank.  If people submit junk and it's rejected and returned to the submitted ("your item type is not currently requested by the guild").
4. Better API for monitoring suspicious guild bank activity.  People regularly withdrawing gold, regularly withdrawing items, etc.

Voice System:

1. Provide an API for external voice providers to hook in for quicker voice joins.  Yes, I know WoW will have a new voice system soon, but unless it can compete... folks will still prefer Discord, Teamspeak, Ventrilo.   Don't close the voice economy down.    Then, if voice services choose to allow it, they can auto join voice servers in a single click.

Guild Notes:

1. Give US a LOT more space for guild notes.  
1. 1024 characters for the player (per account).  The play can tell a little about themselves, offer up contact information if they are willing, etc.
2. 1024 characters for officers.  A small space to track notes about the players play schedule, teams the participate on, what kind of activities they like.
3. 1024 character for the guild manager.  A small space to track issues or conversations with the player in case of dispute.

Guild Planner:

1. Give guild planners the ability to plan activities.  Quick and easy way to add raids to the calendar.
2. Suggest ideas for guild activities:  Raids, 5-mans, challenge modes, rated battlegrounds, pet battle tournaments, races.   Have a suggestion of the month that pops up.  Keep the players engaged.  Help guild leaders improve their guilds.

Just think of how much better organized a guild would be if we had the tools to make a guild sing.

Guilds didn't need guild perks, guild leveling.   They are nice, but they need tools.

What about your guild?  What would you add?

Leader Moment: Present Leader

So many things about guild leadership can be delegated if you can find people that are equally dedicated to making a guild functional except for one thing.

Being present.

I believe that it's a responsibility of being the guild leader to be the "glue" or the "anchor" of the guild.  If you aren't present then the anchor is gone.

It isn't difficult to maintain a presence even if you aren't online all the time.

Ways to be omnipresent.

• Give the guild ways to contact you off-line - I give my personal phone number, e-mail, and they can use DiscordApp.com to contact me.   For the most part, even with my 250 person guild, people don't use it.   Just like you, they like to maintain some distance as well and will respect it.
• Participate in a little of everything - I like to be involved a little in everything so I understand the dynamics of the issues involved in those things.   Even if I don't raid with all the raid teams every time, occasionally making appearance is a great way to let the guild know you are hands-on!

Don't give your guild members a moment to wonder... where is everyone and is it time to start looking again.

Leader Moment: Just Chime Up Already

You may find you have a guild member that just never says what they want out loud.   They might mention it at first when they join the guild, but after that, they expect a personal invitation to everything or they feel snubbed.

There is nothing you can do to placate them.

My response is, don't accept that criticism.  Just respond quickly that it is not how you operate your guild.   If they want something, they must tell you and your job then, is to help them toward that goal.

They may not have what it takes to be the greatest Mythic raider or even a Rated-BG star, but that doesn't mean you cannot help them toward that goal.

But, I believe, it isn't the leads job to pull them off the sidelines if they aren't willing to meet you half way.

How to handle the "offensive" person

Occasionally I get a player that's a little "edgy" or "salty" as the current slang term is currently.  These are the kinds of players that go for the shock factor as "their thing".

You might also get a player that comes from a background where talking like a rapper is just how everyone does.

How do you deal with these kind of differences if it's a problem for you?

The first thing I do is try to understand why they are "showing out", as we say in the south.   I ask them if they feel like it's appropriate to talk/type that way and who they think might be offended by it and why?

If they have the mental capacity to understand that someone could and why they might be offended, that's negotiating grounds to bring them in line slowly.

The next thing is to explain to them that "Open Channels" such as "Trade Chat" or even "Guild Chat" are not necessarily the best places to talk about your privates or what favorite "positions" you like and why.   These type of conversations are really limited to close friends and its better to work toward being close friends and keep the touchier topics for a much much smaller audience ... say less than 5 people.

If you can't seem to get through to them.  You might have to give them options.  Options including submit, desist, or perhaps find another guild that is more like-minded.  Never cave, or you'll lose ground.

Guild Write-up / Policies / Rules

It's that time again, just before a new expansion, when guild leaders should be reviewing their guild policies for what worked, what they mentally adjusted during the expansion but didn't document, and get it all down in words.

I highly recommend all guilds have a basic document that does the following:

• Explain what the primary guild goal is.  This goal should be as specific as you can make it.  Your goal here is to delineate your guild from every other guild.  Ways to be different include:
• When you play - Pick a time frame.   Unless you are huge you can't be a raiding guild that raids in the morning, afternoon, night and late night.
• When your primary activity is scheduled.
• What content - Pick what activity will be your primary focus.  It is hard to be strong at Rated Battle Grounds and Raiding and Challenge Modes, etc.
• What Type of Player - Pick if you are seeking hard-core raiders, casual raiders, ranked PvP, etc.
• What age of Player - This might or might not be important to you.  I know it can cause debates, but people in different phases of their life have different priorities and these can impact guild activities.
• Explain guild rules
• How players should act and how infractions are handled.
• How your guild activities operate, who to contact, etc.
• What is required to join an activity, i.e. try out or logs, or just gear checks.
• Their access to the guild bank and how it's handled and what the bank is used to hold.
• Explain guild ranks.  What do your guild ranks mean and how do players get them.  For you, they may only mean access to the bank, but the members they are a prestige as well.  You can use them to signify what activity someone participates in, how much help they provide the guild or even how long someone has been with you.   Some guilds even give them cute names, but just having them is a plus.
• Explain Guild Behavior.   In my guild, I want guild members that are cooperative.  It's very hard to Shepard cooperation but it makes a guild a family instead of just a group of people all competing for the same gold ring.

Doing these things will help slow down membership churn because as you advertise, you know exactly what to say to explain to them what your guild is about.  If they know, they are more likely to jump in knowing exactly what to expect.  Yes, people change and their lives change as well.  But, isn't it better adding members that fit you rather than you trying to fit them.

What kinds of things would you put in YOUR guild policy?

Here is ours.

Guild Recruitment

I haven't been posting much lately.  My game activities have gone from being lackluster to insane with Warlords of Draenor.

I have grown the guild from about 20 players to over 340, with 240 active and about 50 raiders.

I won't claim to be an expert by any means, but over the 2 years of this expansion I did my best to try and define what the guild was about and make sure anyone that joins the guild know in advance what we are so they know coming in what to expect.

Here are the things I tell them right up front before I send ye-ole invite.

1. How many people are in the guild.  Some people like large and some like small.   And when I mean people I mean people not characters.    /ginfo will tell you accounts which is close enough.    But, it doesn't filter those that are absent.   So, I make sure to export my roster using ALTS add-on and filter it with Google Sheets.
2. When they can expect player to be online.   This is important if they want to play from 8AM to noon and you guys all come on from 5PM to 10PM.   
3. About how many they can expect to be online.   That is, I may have 250 players, but usually 10-30 are online in the evenings unless we have a big activity.
4. What kinds of things the guild does.   Whether you PvP or Raid, when, what's required to join.   
5. Ask them what they hope from the guild.   I always want to be sure they aren't looking for the 13/13 Mythic raid team when we are the 13/13 Heroic guild with a few toss in mythics.   The goal is to reduce the probability they will leave because you aren't their style of guild.
6. Tell them Guild Policies up front... the big ones.   Can they curse?  Can they troll trade channel?  Can they use offensive toon names?  How long absent before they are removed, etc.

I also do my homework and look for bad signs.

1. They claim to be something they are not.   That is, they claim to be a mythic raider but their char sheet says otherwise.   I am not looking for their skills, I am looking for their honesty.
2. They change guilds frequently.   This is an indicator you might have a problem player.   And, then you can softly nudge them away with phrases like, "I'm not sure we have the kind of guild you want".
3. They rail on their current guild.  If they are bad-talking their guild, guild leader, raid leader.  This is a sign that they will do the same about you when they leave.

Neutral Signs:

1. The guild just kind of left me.  This happens a lot right now in WoW.  I am very sympathetic to this kind of player.   They aren't willing to follow the guild in race / server transfers.   Or their friends all went to play Overwatch and they still want WoW.
2. I pug raid a lot because I don't have a good schedule.   Unless you force players to raid with you, it's great having a few that may or may not be available to fill in and pug raiders still seems to get gear now-a-day.

And after you feel confident they might fit your requirements and they are still interested.  You should let them know, you will be giving them a link to your guild guidelines.  That is, let them know you have rules and how the guild works.   If they are fine, invite away.

There is no promise they will stay, but you should feel more confident that they will be the kind of guildie you can keep long term.

Calling out mistakes

When raiding, mistakes happen.   You'll find that the basic sequence is:

1. Here is the strategy - and perhaps your task assignment.
2. Pull
3. Mistakes happen
4. Most learn from their mistakes
5. Go to Step 1

However, occasionally, someone is truly struggling with a mechanic and you are faced with how to handle this.

We are a friendly group.   We strive to not call out specific players unless they are among a list of players struggling.   That is "John, Joe, Mary, watch out for fire".   But never, "John you were in fire". 

Most likely, instead, you hear, "Several people were in fire, here is how to handle that mechanic, please try to do better".

The key here is that some people are overly sensitive to hear their name called out.   And even especially sensitive when they are called out more than once.

Unfortunately, the more times the same mistakes happen, eventually something needs to be privately handled on the issue or someone else, in the group's frustration will cause them to handle it for you and not necessarily the way you'd prefer.   Drama will ensue.

It happened to us this week in raid.  Someone made the same mistake several times.  After having their name in the list 3 times, they quit the raid and quit the guild and insisted we were being disrespectful to (a) his age (b) his limitations as a player.

The problem is, this player never spoke up.  They never said, I can't do this.  They never said what other things can I try since I struggle with this mechanic.   Instead, they waited until they were past their limit and then up and quit.

If this happens to you, here is how I handled it.

I let them know, the mistake was not ours.  The rudeness was not ours.   All the mistakes  were on them.  Here was their failure.

1. They failed mechanic - not the biggest problem.
2. They failed to speak up on their difficulty with the mechanic. - BIG PROBLEM
3. They quit instead of speaking up - THEIR PROBLEM.

Raiding is a team sport and team players have to participate more than just causing fails over and over.

If they speak up, and have difficulty, you then have options.   You can work around the issue if you know.   But if you work-around the issue without knowing, then it looks equally insensitive.   Don't let your raiders get away with being shy.

All-in-all, I'm saying.  Don't accept a criticism from someone when you know you are making all reasonable accommodations given a known circumstance.

Yes, eventually, it may come to sitting them out for a fight they can't do.  That doesn't mean they can't come back for later content.  Or eventually figure a new strategy.

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?

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.

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!

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).

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.

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?

The Rush-ing-ator

We have an old friend join up to WoW for the first time. He has gone from level 1 to 74 in only a couple weeks and all I can do is share my lament for him how he will burn out of this game so quick that we will be saying goodbye in a few more weeks. Seen-it-done-it in a month or less.

That, to me, is one of the sadist parts of WoW, the pressure or desire or created desire to be with the rest of the server, hanging around at level 80 getting tired of the same instances over and over hoping for something more to come along. Though, that isn't how I feel about it, I can sense that feeling in others. You know it..