Dear Xtasia,

Came across the blog and decided to write you. I am a gm of a small raiding guild, and we tried to get a raid group together for Dragon Soul. We are mostly casual, but we are running into problems when it comes to keeping our raiders. Some raiders have left because we don’t raid enough, or aren’t progressing enough, and this puts our raids on hold for the raiders who do still raid casually.

Recently, my raid leader approached me and said he wanted to add one more day. But with the recruiting issues, I didn’t see how this would be possible without a solid roster, but I asked people anyway. Some raiders do not want to add a day more due to RL conflicts etc, so now my raid leader is threatening to leave also.

This sucks because some of the raiders are long time WoW friends who enjoy playing together, so I really don’t want to let this fold.

What to do?

-Burnt out from Raiding

In long term raiding, progression and commitment are symbiotic. You'll need both to complete objectives, like epic weapon quests.

Dear BOFR,

A successful and long lasting raid team is a group that shares the same progression values, commitment and schedule. Your big problem is your raiders are not on the same page for progression, time commitment, and calibre of performance. These things are symbiotic. If any of these things go up or down, the rest must change as well. Your job is simple depending on your preferred outcome.

If you want to move up to the next level in raiding then you’ll have to do a few tough things.  Decide who are your best players and cull the weak links. Build your new team around this core’s schedules and values. Heartless? Maybe, but if you don’t do this, and do it right you’ll end up with more headaches.

With more time commitment comes an expectation of results, so you’ll need to establish your groups values, such as “everyone must read the strat in advance, everyone must cap their valor, everyone must min/max their gear. Establish this now with your core, and make sure all new members understand and agree. You are building a culture…

You’ll have positions to fill so figure out the classes that would optimize the group, and begin recruiting for like minded high performace players who can raid at your times, in the appropriate classes, and perform at the level you expect. Do not compromise or you’ll be in this situation again. Your team deserves the right people and the right chemistry even if it means you are pugging for a few weeks. Usually players of similiar skill level will stick together, so don’t be upset if a superior player moves on… In progression circles, better now, than later when they’ve soaked up all your gear. Conversely don’t be a pussy and keep a player thats terrible because you are afraid to hurt their feelings. Your other raiders are counting on you to cut the chafe so do your job!  Be creative where you recruit someone ‘LIKE YOU’.

Raiding with a close knit team can be rewarding but its not as easy as it looks. It takes a fair, strong leader.

The other alternative is to maintain the casual team. First I’d take a good brutally honest look at your team’s skill. There are generally two types of teams that fall into this catagory.

Weekend Warriors: good players who have real lives and can’t make the 5days/week commitment of progression raiding teams because of work, families, etc. You can pick up other Weekend warriors by promoting an enjoyable, results oriented raid team. You’ll need to be moderately choosy but ultimately it’s all about making the best use of limited time online so group chemistry and competency is the most important aspect here.

Terribads but TerriFUN!: Terrible players who have alot of fun and see the content, eventually. You can appeal to this group by being an opportunity for new players just beginning to raid, and keeping the experience social, light, fun, and easy going. You can recruit for this team by running random dailies and meeting people picking up pre-raiding gear. Look for a personality you enjoy with a decent understanding of their class. The downfall of this type of raid is that you need to be ready for people to move on so they’ll be a bit more turn over.

Good luck, Xtasia

Xtasia

Xtasia has been the GM of Eternal Destiny as its two incarnations in DAOC (percival) and World of Warcraft. She has 14 years of guild and raid leadership experience. Xtasia plays on the Alliance side of Lightbringer (US) with her real life fiance, Eikai, whom she introduced to their addiction.