Expectations

Expectations are a funny thing. We all have them and a lot of the time we expect others to have the same or similar expectations. When we first formed our little Raiding Guild, various members had preconceived expectations on many things. I had the expectation (I am going to see how many times I can use this word....) that it would take a couple of weeks to get everyone together. There were a lot of transfers involved so that was my assumption. We had another member that expected it to take less that a week to form. In the two to three weeks it took us to get up and running, he already quit.

Re-Rollers.

We had two people re-roll. To me at least, this also effected my expectations of how long it would take us to become an effective team. You see we decided initially to have a team of Ten Core Raiders and supplement them with Casual Raiders. Our two re-rollers are Core Raiders and they are levelling up well, they are almost at the mid sixties. To make this a little more interesting, one of them will be a tank, so we are left with seven level 70 core raiders. We are now forced to rely more heavily on Casual Raiders to fill more spots than we had planned for.

Raiding Moral.

This situation has effected our Raiding Moral. Last night, for instance, we had exactly Ten people available for our Bear Timed Run attempt. We were close too, but a little mistake followed by a poorly times DC meant we missed it by a few minutes. After that we headed to Kara and soon after our second boss kill, one of our casuals had to attend to his daughter and it left us with nine. We continued on regardless and did quite well as well. But this is where we hit another expectation. One of our Core Raiders was disappointed that we were always running low on players. We have also cancelled a couple of raids for this reason. I understand where he is coming from and I do share his sentiment. I am looking into the future when we get two more core raiders up to Seventy. We will then have Nine members devoted to being at every raid it's then that our casuals will fill the groups nicely.

Communication.

This is a wonderful thing. Communicating your own Expectations will get around everyone's issues when those Expectations are not met. If we as officers had said "We will take One Week to form the guild and schedule our first run", everyone would have understood the goal. Some of the transfers would have acted faster. We may not have lost the impatient ones(though if they left because of that they would have left eventually anyway).

Guild Moral.

I believe as a result of many factors, we are currently only seeing minimal activity on Off Nights in the guild. As we get our Raiding Team together and functioning as a single unit, this aspect will also improve. When we achieve in our raids, it increases the general moral and I believe it will make people want to spend more off time playing as well.

Razorbax

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Updates!

I am running a bit short on ideas for posts this week so I thought it was time to give a few general updates.

Transfers?

So far I have my Two Druids and Mage on Nagrand. Originally I had planned on leaving all three of my Boxers on Medivh, but now I am just left with the two Shammies. My problem though is I just have not had the time to play them on Medivh. Right now I am considering transferring them to Nagrand but I am finding it hard to let go of my roots.

The Guild.

We are moving along nicely. We have had some average runs and some great runs where everyone meshes together. I believe as we raid together more we will come by that cohesion.

Noobs?

Steely has the Advantage as of last night. We were heading to the 2nd Trash Pull from the bear boss and he just casually started walking up the stairs to Agro. That brings the official score to Beld 2. Steely 3.

What's New?

I was looking for some entertainment while commuting to work so I decided to give Podcast's a shot. I headed over to TN and downloaded the latest episode featuring Anna. I have to say I really enjoyed it and I will defiantly add it to my list;).

Feral Updates.

One night after a raid I was having a chat with a friend and he pointed out how the Feral's in his old guild used to Cap their +hit. I didn’t think much of this initially but I am always open to suggestions. After a bit of investigation I found there is a huge benefit for this. I decided to try it out by replacing 2 +12 Stam gems with Epic +hit Gems. I have to admit it made a huge difference. I had a much easier job of staying above the treat of our Druid Off-Tank, who has more AP due to lesser quality gear. It does seem odd but I tend to find as your gear improves, you tend to lessen your threat. Anyway, back to the topic. I definitely recommend gemming for some +hit. I am just not sure if I should cap it to ~9% or stay at around half way, like I have at the moment.

Beta News.

I have heard on the Grape Vine that the first round of Opt-in's should occur on the 1st of August. Now I am not really interested about participating in the Beta myself, but I signed up on all three of my accounts anyway. IF I do happen to get in, expect some form of competition to give away a Beta Key!

Razorbax.

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Raiding Rules.

As I have mentioned previously, I have just joined a new Raiding Guild with Beld. There is always a lot of work to do with any new venture. One of the tasks I have been given is to write up suggested Raiding Rules. I have come up with the following though I would welcome feedback.

The Draft.

Please find a list of rules that we will be following during our Raids.

Attendance.
Summoning will not be offered. The exception to this is if a Casual Raider has just been informed there is a spot for them. In all other cases you should be ready to zone in by the raids start time.

Raid Leader.
When the raid leader is Talking, there will be complete silence in Vent.
Suggestions and Strategies will not be discussed unless the Raid Leader requests advice. If you have any feedback you are welcome to post in the forums.

Buffs.
All Raid members must have all buffs applied at all times. If a member dies, 30 minute buffs must be applied before the next pull.
Full buffs will be applied before each boss encounter.
SS's will be managed by the Warlocks present. In the event of a wipe a Warlock should announce if there was no SS present.

Drinking.
Drink when you get the chance, except under extreme circumstances, we will not wait for Mana during Trash.

Resurrection.
The order of Resurrections should be as follows.
    Characters Capable of OOC Rez.
    Healers.
    Others.
Do not release until it has been determined that there is no SS.
In-Combat Resurrections will be called by the raid leader. The Druid casting the Res should immediately announce this in Vent to prevent duplicate (wasted) Resurrections.

Wipes.
If a Wipe is called by the Raid Leader, healing will cease immediately and everyone should try to die in a good spot.
In the event of a wipe, the recipient of a SS should immediately announce if they have it available.

Non Progression Loot Rules.
These are the rules for NON-DKP Instances.
DKP will be used for all Progression Instances.

Loot Distribution will be set to Group loot with a Blue threshold.
Need and Greed rolls will be used.
Need represents an Upgrade Item for your Spec.
Greed is used for Off Spec items or Minor upgrades where you would not mind the item but cannot justify taking it from another player.
Greed Rolls will be used for All BOE and BOP Patterns/Plans etc. Guild Profession Reps (once they have been posted) will roll Need if they Need the Item.
Patterns that make a BOP item will be rolled with Greed and there will be no preference given to Guild Profession Reps.
BOP Patterns etc, that are not needed will be vendored with the money being deposited in the Guild Bank.
BOE Patterns etc, that are not needed will be deposited in the Guild Bank.
You can only roll on items that you are able to use immediately.

Well, there you go. What do you think I missed or messed up?

Razorbax

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Leader or Follower?

Today's post was inspired by a recent thread in the RD's member forums. The RD's have had some issues with Raiding lately. We lost a few key members to more progressed guilds. Our raiding just is not consistent. We consider ourselves to be a Casual (Family) Guild that Raids. With the eminent release of WotLK coming up, our members either can not be bothered to play or they want to progress further to see as much as we can before the Expac.

The Question?

This is the comment that started the discussion I want to cover today.

The class leaders need to be more responsible.  I didn't even know who mine was till I read this post.  In a raid or out they should take the time to teach people.  If in a raid  take a min to say "hey you should be doing this or that"  It just helps to keep everyone on the same page.  I know I read a lot of the post saying you should read the strategies and stuff like that but try as I might I cant understand half of the over technical talk in that stuff.  Bottom line teach don't expect people to just read some forum post and expect them to understand.   Then again maybe I'm just talking about me. I know I could use the help.

Now I have no problem with this player. He is a good person and fit's into our guild well. However my opinion varies slightly.

My Answer.

My response to this post was as follows:

I don't agree about class leader responsibility. The Information about existing class leaders is easily found on the forums or an easy answer from an officer. It is up to you to come and say "Hey, can you help me understand this". We do not know what you know and don't know. When we see something we will point it out but its up to you to approach for advice. All the class leaders are happy to help anyone that asks at any time.

I didn't really express myself well here, but what I am getting at is you have to take ownership of your knowledge or lack there of. If you don't understand your role in a fight, I think it is up to you to step up and say, can you explain that again please? I think it is you that should approach your class leader or some other experienced player and ask about a strategy you don't understand. I believe it should be a two way street.

Another Answer.

Beld, on the other hand, is far more experienced player. He has been a member of a high end raiding guild. His opinion is:

No offence here Razor but I don't agree with you about class responsibility. In my opinion the Class Leaders should not only be helping their class, but they should be helping the raid staff and indeed the whole Guild.  They should not only be teaching and helping their class members, but they should be encouraging, motivating and driving their class to be the very best they can, and creating the atmosphere of pride in their own class.  They should be ensuring there are enough available geared and skilled members of their class for all raids.  They themselves should be reaching out the hand of knowledge but also the hand of friendship.  They should be doing something.

I agree with everything that that Beld is saying. He just has not covered the whole picture, in my humble opinion. Yes, a class leader should be all those things. My question though is "What is the responsibility of the Player?".

Another Opinion.

Over in World of Matticus, I think Matticus has covered the point I am trying to get across.

10. Willing to ask questions until understanding is achieved.
11. Willing to answer questions until understanding is achieved.

This is what I call the Two Way Street. I think this has to be the most important point in forming a successful Raid.

What do you think?

Razorbax

PS. As per usual I am quoting Beld without consent. I also used his reply as ammunition to try and make him step up as a Class Leader. He never learns does he;)

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