I have personally never been the GM of a progression guild but I have been in the officers circle of enough to know what goes on behind the scenes to make a guild run smoothly and right before the expansion is one of the busiest times a GM and participating Officers will experience in the World of Warcraft cycle. As a raider it is one of the most boring but can also be one of the most worrying. Guilds tend to feel the need to go through transformations and changes during new expansions so that they can recruit new talent or down the most current content. Raiders will worry about not leveling or gearing in time for that very first pull or being replaced for progression entirely because their class is no longer viable.
This post is primarily written through the eyes of a raider in a Hardcore Progression Guild. These views may not be necessarily shared with other pieces of the guild puzzle. But as a raider you may not always get your opinion heard by Officers if you're in one THOSE types of guilds so hopefully if you run one of those types of guilds you'll read this and maybe see where a raider is coming from! So let's get into it shall we?
Dos!
-
Reward People For Hard Work
-
People will take this one a lot of different ways. Some people (including me) feel like farming/buying your own food/flasks/pots ect. before a raid night is something that every raider should do. Other people feel that if you're doing hardcore progression then the guild should be far enough along that they should provide cauldrons and feasts for their raiders. It should be more common than not for raiders to help the guild farm for materials or to bring their own personal stores for progression but unfortunately in my experience that is not the case.
-
Reward your raiders who go the extra mile even if you feel that everyone should be doing it. Raiders who sit in Stormwind and wait to be summoned and expect a stack of potions from the guild bank that they didn't help farm should not be treated the same as someone who flies to the dungeon 10 minutes before raid to help summon with stacks of flasks and food sitting in their bags. Hardcore progression raiders who don't go the extra mile are just as bad as carrying someone through a raid because that's extra weight they're putting on someone elses shoulders. And it's super important for you to show appreciation to raiders who do look after themselves and others. Raiders will get irritated if things they work for are handed out for free to the point where they will stop and create a snowball effect until the GM/Officers are farming for the entire guild which is never good.
-
So reward guildies who help you farm by putting raw mats in the guild bank or bring their own food/feasts to the raid if you haven't gotten the pattern for raid wide food. Just simply saying thank you (you would be surprised how many guilds I've given stacks of herbs/food and haven't even gotten a thank you from) will make a raider feel like their job was well worth it.
-
And reprimand guildies who don't. If your guild requires you to have a stack of food, a flask or potions and someone says they don't have any be sure to speak up and let them know that they are pulling the group down. It is important for your guildies to know that your rules are going to be strictly followed.
-
So reward guildies who help you farm by putting raw mats in the guild bank or bring their own food/feasts to the raid if you haven't gotten the pattern for raid wide food. Just simply saying thank you (you would be surprised how many guilds I've given stacks of herbs/food and haven't even gotten a thank you from) will make a raider feel like their job was well worth it.
-
Reward your raiders who go the extra mile even if you feel that everyone should be doing it. Raiders who sit in Stormwind and wait to be summoned and expect a stack of potions from the guild bank that they didn't help farm should not be treated the same as someone who flies to the dungeon 10 minutes before raid to help summon with stacks of flasks and food sitting in their bags. Hardcore progression raiders who don't go the extra mile are just as bad as carrying someone through a raid because that's extra weight they're putting on someone elses shoulders. And it's super important for you to show appreciation to raiders who do look after themselves and others. Raiders will get irritated if things they work for are handed out for free to the point where they will stop and create a snowball effect until the GM/Officers are farming for the entire guild which is never good.
-
People will take this one a lot of different ways. Some people (including me) feel like farming/buying your own food/flasks/pots ect. before a raid night is something that every raider should do. Other people feel that if you're doing hardcore progression then the guild should be far enough along that they should provide cauldrons and feasts for their raiders. It should be more common than not for raiders to help the guild farm for materials or to bring their own personal stores for progression but unfortunately in my experience that is not the case.
-
Enforce Raid Start Time
-
This is a huge personal pet peeve of mine. You have 3 or 4 hours a night to do progression and starting 30 minutes to an hour late can mean the difference between realm first kills sometimes. You need people to understand that they need to be online and on time, when you apply to a guild you are given the raid times and upon entering you agree that you can make those raid times. Attendance should be a mandatory thing and “not showing up because I don't feel like it” should never be an excuse. If you want to be casual, then be casual. Play when you feel like playing, but when you agree to be in a hardcore guild then you choose to be apart of something much more serious.
-
Showing up late or not at all on some days should not be something that is considered okay in your raid team. Just because you have a bench does not mean that showing up an hour late is okay because you have enough people online at the time to pull. If you're on a hardcore raid team, whether you are pulling the boss or not, you should be online and available from the time raid starts until the time raid ends. If someone in your raid is streaming then raiders on bench hoping to get in for a raid spot should be watching the stream. You can sit in your guilds voice chat program and be doing something else but you should be there to show your dedication to the guilds progression.
-
This is a huge personal pet peeve of mine. You have 3 or 4 hours a night to do progression and starting 30 minutes to an hour late can mean the difference between realm first kills sometimes. You need people to understand that they need to be online and on time, when you apply to a guild you are given the raid times and upon entering you agree that you can make those raid times. Attendance should be a mandatory thing and “not showing up because I don't feel like it” should never be an excuse. If you want to be casual, then be casual. Play when you feel like playing, but when you agree to be in a hardcore guild then you choose to be apart of something much more serious.
-
Give all of the gear to one person all at once
-
I understand the concept of giving all of the tank gear to tanks at the beginning of the expansion. But that shouldn't be your immediate option. In Cataclysm it was really beneficial to get your healers as many 4 pieces as possible because the beginning of Cata was just murder on healers. Even in full 346 ilevel gear healers would cast 3 healing spells and then sit in the corner and cry. Thankfully, MoP doesn't seem to be heading in that direction so the tanks getting gear is best bet but I don't believe that giving one person 4/4 tier before any other person on that token sees any gear is also not the way to go.
-
Having one person have all of your gear is probably one of the worst things that I can personally think of in a raid. It's the same thing with the very first Legendary (specifically Tarecgosa) where the guild puts a lot of time into one person then if that person is gone for the day or leaves entirely then your guild is either back to square one or might not even be able to pull that specific progression boss because your other tank can't be kept up by the healers because no one has any gear. Hopefully, however, the main tank is an officer or even the GM so chances of them leaving are slim to none.
-
I understand the concept of giving all of the tank gear to tanks at the beginning of the expansion. But that shouldn't be your immediate option. In Cataclysm it was really beneficial to get your healers as many 4 pieces as possible because the beginning of Cata was just murder on healers. Even in full 346 ilevel gear healers would cast 3 healing spells and then sit in the corner and cry. Thankfully, MoP doesn't seem to be heading in that direction so the tanks getting gear is best bet but I don't believe that giving one person 4/4 tier before any other person on that token sees any gear is also not the way to go.
-
Always Blame the Healers (Even In Jest)
-
This is just obnoxious, don't do it. As a healer, this is extra infuriating, you know what I'm talkin' about. Everyone has been in a guild where the raid leader just wanted to keep pulling so instead of actually looking for the cause of the wipe they chalk it up to the healers not healing enough and moving along. Healing is a very stressful job, the most in the game in my opinion, and to always be blamed for wipes is annoying and frustrating.
-
Give your healers some love every once in a while. I always hear tanks and DPS being congratulated at the end of a boss kill but how many times do you hear “great job healers”? During my time in WoW I can say very little unfortunately. So please, as a healer, give your healers some love because healers are the first part of your raid that is going to get burned out. And constantly joking that the healers are “bad” or just flat out blaming them for your death when you were standing in bad things to max your dps is not helping them!
-
This is just obnoxious, don't do it. As a healer, this is extra infuriating, you know what I'm talkin' about. Everyone has been in a guild where the raid leader just wanted to keep pulling so instead of actually looking for the cause of the wipe they chalk it up to the healers not healing enough and moving along. Healing is a very stressful job, the most in the game in my opinion, and to always be blamed for wipes is annoying and frustrating.
No comments:
Post a Comment