Raid Survey: Availability

Please complete the survey:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGctWE5FMkNFbDAyQldWSGlkSGVUMlE6MQ#gid=0

Happy Thanksgiving! (and empty calendar this week)

Wishing everyone a thoroughly enjoyable thanksgiving weekend! Highly recommend taking the time to be offline a lot and refresh those batteries - very much like a vacation does from school work or work work. If you are not living somewhere it is presently the Thanksgiving holiday, don't be afraid to join in and eat a lot and laugh even more!

Out of respect for ensuring that there is no implicit - nor explicit - pressure 'to raid' or be online this weekend, we have an empty calendar this week. No iRaids are scheduled for this week, no iRaid stat points or otherwise are being awarded nor missed. No logs are being kept of any semi iRaid groups nor of pugs. In short, iRaid is 'stood down' this week to give everyone a chance to focus on family, friends, or 'me time'.

This is not to say that there aren't plenty of people that are planning on raiding in pugs or doing LFRs - and if you are online, see who is planning to do what and when if that is of interest to you this week. It can be a great way to see how others are doing what you are doing and come away with notes for the raid group or yourself.

We will return to regular iRaid programming after these holidays!

iRaid update post Blue/Green split

Two raid groups, One iRaid to bind them

Recall that a number of factors contributed to us re-forming our larger iRaid group of raiders into two raid events rather than a single one:

• we reached a point where enough raiders had geared up that there were more people geared to raid and signing up for raids than we could fit into a single 10-man raid and there was an interest to retain the intimacy and challenge of a 10-man raid rather than initiate a 25-man raid

• we had raiders geared and performing to a level that they should be clearing 4/6 bosses in a single raid event night and we had raiders geared and performing to a level that they should be clearing 2/6 bosses in a single raid event night

• some players did not want to fill pushed to clear 4/6 when they really were only ready for 2/6 and some players did not want to clear only 2/6 when they were ready to clear 4/6

• historical evidence from the past 6 years demonstrates that binding both the raiders wanting to clear more bosses in a single 4-hour window and the raiders able to clear fewer bosses in a single 4-hour window results in 'disaster' and lower enjoyment for both sets of raiders - where disaster equals raiders moving on to other guilds that are clearing more bosses per hour and raiders clearing fewer bosses per hour dropping out of the raid group because they end up feeling like they are holding the raid group back

• some weeks, people can be more attentive and perform at a level that clears more bosses per hour, and some weeks people want a less attention-demanding raid and are happy to be out raiding with friends even if clearing fewer bosses per hour

• at the beginning of an expansion, we always end up with a group that early on get 'ahead' of others in gearing and ability to down bosses per hour, and after several weeks of raiding, most of the raiders end up in the very similar range of gearing and ability to clear a similar number of bosses per hour

• we still need a way to keep track of raid stat points across groups to better allow raiders to shift between groups - more especially in several weeks - and for it to be obvious how to loot mounts etc.

Therefore, we placed the raiders that otherwise were at risk of moving on to raid with other groups clearing more bosses per hour into their own 'blue group' with the specific criteria that everyone signed up for blue was intent on downing at least 4/6 bosses per night. Likewise, we placed all raiders presently geared at a level that they could reasonably and enjoyably tackle 2/6 bosses per raid event night into 'green group'. There being more raiders in blue group than fit into a 10-man group, and there being fewer raiders than necessary to field a 1-man group in the green group, we balanced both raid groups to have adequate diversity of tanks, healers, and dps, as well as "loot soaks" (varied classes and armor types).

This is not to say that people are bound to either blue or green group permanently. And we fully expect the bulk of blue to be 'caught' by the bulk of green several weeks down the road which will permit a higher degree of switching back and forth as needed and as accommodates the raid group needs.

In both groups, every raider is essential staff! It is far too early in the expansion for anyone to be carried - everyone contributes in so far as they can to accomplishing downing bosses.

As alts are leveled and as we recruit more iRaiders, we will address which group they will raid with and whether a third group will start on a different day (for example to allow people the flexibility to raid within iRaid on their alt/second main).

Name that raid!

Don't forget that we are still soliciting suggestions for naming the raids - they are presently green and blue as Bear's favorite colors. Naming conventions or guidelines are simply that they need to in no way infer one group is better than the other.

Status Check

We put a lot of effort into carefully balancing both raid groups to set them up for success at a reasonable level of boss kills per hour while keeping the performance demands at a level that continued the level of expected enjoyment of the participants. We planned for the first week of blue group to down 4/6 MSV bosses and we planned for the first week of green group to down 2/6 MSV bosses. Meticulously reviewing raid logs, other data sources, and knowing each raider and their preferences was what drove how to group who into which of blue or green. A second pass at the groupings then focused on balancing both groups for the greatest chance of success which lead to some blue group raiders seeded into green group (for obvious reasons, green group raiders cannot seed up into blue without putting at risk the number of bosses per hour efficiency, at this time).

The result was unquestionable success.

Both blue group and green group performed exactly as expected with blue downing 4/6 in one night and green downing 2/6 in one night.

With Elegon holding blue in check for what will likely be 2-3 weeks, green will, predictably, gather more gear and become as familiar with the 4/6 fights as blue is presently, and has the time to catch up rather quickly to blue's progression. with blue presently clearing slightly more than green, depending on drop rates of gear, we should expect blue to accordion ahead slightly again but in general, to meet again with resistance once within HoF and again for green to bracket into range.

The key is that there isn't the pressure on green to keep pace with blue and there isn't the stress in blue of not clearing as much as they can any given night. We are always going to have that endless stream of raiders coming in to raid that are not as geared as some of the raiders that started earlier than the newcomers did. This is the driver behind likely needing a third group on a different day as once green group moves to gearing and performing to 4/6 bosses per night, we will need a raid group for the newcomers to enter into at a rate of 2/6 per night.

So many bosses and LFRs and Reps and … oh my!

With the advent of patch 5.1, there is going to be a LOT to do. Next week, there will be both halves of all three raid instances available in LFR. There will be, of course, all three raid instances available on 10-man normal. There will be more reps added in 5.1. And many (pretty much everyone) raiders can still benefit from gear from the exalted rep level of factions or MSV LFR drops.

The sheer amount of time that it takes to 'keep pace' with the blue group gearing and offline raid boss learning is prohibitive for most to level to characters (or more) to an 'at par' level - prohibitive to most but those with boundless time to be online.

Blue group is very demanding and has a relentless progression path. Green group presently requires far fewer hours of preparation and gearing (e.g., blue group is now pushing 480+ ilevel while green group is pushing 470+).

As you look forward to decide how to spend your time, and in answer to some queries, it is recommended that you decide whether you are going to push hard in blue or move at a more comfortable pace in green. A good example of the difference is that even if blue barely gets one boss down, it will be pushed hard to get the next one down whereas if green group barely gets a boss down, that is likely the most it was expected to get down that week and 'seeing the next boss to get familiar with it a bit' would be hardest expectation of each raider.

More simply put: green is not expected to down far more bosses per hour than they are geared for; blue is expected to down more bosses per hour than their gear makes comfortable. The gear demands of blue constantly moves forward each week by adding more bosses to fit into each night forcing raiders to eek out more performance from the gear they have.

Obviously there are limits. And blue group is not intended to be a 'no fun death march' - however, it is meant to bring about a 'holy cow we are totally pushing past our limits' raid environment to satisfy the request for such.

The advice and counsel given before MoP expansion was released continues to stand: recommend you pick a main, and keep it first and foremost the consumer of your online time regardless of whether you are in blue group or green group. After which, diversify into other toons at will as time permits.

We are aiming for blue group to have cleared MSV entirely and be ready to begin heroic modes in 2-3 weeks. We are aiming for green group to clear MSV entirely 2-3 weeks after blue group.

So far, everything is on track!

This expansion is harder. There is more to do much earlier on than in previous expansions. We do not out gear the raid content and that is making individual raid performance more important than in Cata. People have definitely commented that they feel that we are taking raiding more seriously this expansion than in previous ones. We are also one of the upper ranked guilds on the server as a result. All feedback received to date indicates that while people do feel that this time around, raiding is more demanding than it was previously, everyone has said they like it and that they are enjoying it.

Steady as she goes…

We are keeping a close eye on the variables and feedback to monitor that we are succeeding in keeping the raiding environment enjoyable as well as performing well. We won't hesitate to make changes as needed when needed. As always, please share your thoughts with us so that we can consider it both individually and in comparison with the rest of the feedback.

Smashing Success Night!

Sure enough, last night we took two raid groups into MSV and had tremendous success in both!

The Stone Guard down! (Blizzard needs to fix that achievement issue!)
Feng down!
Gara'jal down!

The Spirit Kings down!

All in all, excellent progress! We set out to take 4/6 down with one group and to take 2/6 down with the other group and both succeeded well within their raid windows.

Congratulations to all for a great, fun evening and all the hard work and effort you put into it!

Fun Shirt Designs!

Ronin, we are taking your suggestions for fun t-shirt designs. We can pretty much have whatever we want on the front and back on pretty much any color t-shirt - adults, women, and kids' sizes and fits. Two examples (one in grayscale and one in color) below to get you started:

Sign Up for Raiding! It's Important!

This week more than usual, it is absolutely critical that you sign up for raiding so that we can make sure you have a raid seat - we have just about 34 people we might have to fit into 20 spots and we need to know how many of those 34 plan on raiding this Friday and Saturday - and a 25-man raid instead of 2x 10-man raids isn't out of the question! Unlikely, but not without some chance.

There are some raiders that reliably show up week after week (they still need to sign up else lose their seat) and there are a lot of raiders that we can't tell from week to week if you are going to be signing up. Signing up helps us plan and confirm early and reduces the admin strain - more importantly, it avoids someone sitting out unnecessarily.

There is one raid event on the calendar for each of Friday and Saturday. Sign up no matter how many other people are signed up. Let us sort it out once we know who all is signed up.

Your sign ups also help us focus our recruiting since we focus recruiting on raid seats that are frequently empty. Don't have your raid seat recruited away because you planned to raid but didn't tell us!

If you have any questions at all about raiding or whether you are ready to raid, please contact Beartooth and get these resolved quickly.

Two Raid Groups

We have enough players signing up now - both in guild and our friends in iRaid signing up but under a different guild tag - to consider the move from one raid group to two raid groups imminently. This could be a period of change and tumultuous path forward, so let's ensure we maintain a high degree of communication and frank openness to avoid any smarted feelings or correct any misunderstandings.

We also should take this moment to recognize that we are exactly at that point early in an expansion where some players are ready to clear 4/6 bosses in 4 hours of raiding and some players are ready to clear 2/6 bosses in 4 hours. After 6 years of experience, we know that binding those two sets of players together only results in major issues and a subsequent return to one raid group as many depart.

To take these concerns head on, we are forming two raid groups effective immediately. To be very clear, this is not an 'A' team and a lesser 'B' team.

Nor are players being assigned to a specific roster.

Raiders will sign up for the raid group that specific week that they can both contribute to (it is way too early in the expansion for anyone to be carried) and that has the level of performance/attention to detail demands that they are interested in meeting that specific week.

Granted, players that have characters presently that it takes them 3 hours to clear one boss, should be signing up for the 2/6 bosses in 4 hours raid and not the 4/6 bosses in 4 hours raid. Obviously. Players that have characters that presently can clear 4/6 bosses in 4 hours can sign up for either raid depending on whether they want a more demanding raiding night or a more casual one.

Just because you are raiding one week in the 2/6 bosses raid group does not mean you won't be raiding in the 4/6 bosses raid group the following week.

Please use common sense and respect for others and sign up for the appropriate raid group. i.e. Don't sign up for the 4/6 boss kills in 4 hours raid group if you consistently have an active time under 90% and dps under 40k, or your healing throughput isn't quite there  yet, or your tanking gear and active mitigation reaction speed is still be learned -- all that does is hold back the other people from moving efficiently through the raid instance.

If we find we consistently have open spots in either raid group, we will recruit determinedly to fill those spots with new guild members. In the meantime, we will place friends and friends of friends as often as possible in those empty slots to maintain the reliability of the raiding groups.

I think we all know that not too far in the distance, everyone will have around the same gearing levels and experience with the fights at which point the two raid groups become a lot more 'at par' and it will be the case that both are "planning on clearing 5/6 or 6/6 in 4 hours" and so the question becomes, where do the new alts or new members go if they are only geared / performing to down 2/6? Most likely by then, we can carry 1-2 people. Or, we can start a 3rd raid group. Or, some of the mains will shift out for their alts to take their raid seat. It's a problem we have successfully navigated for over 6 years - let's not worry about that at this time.

Right now, we want to focus on making sure everyone gets a chance to raid each week if they so choose and that they get to experience all of the content that they can experience based on their gearing and personal performance. We very much want to avoid having 6-8 fun raiders sitting on the sidelines each week.

Hmm... now, what will we name these two raid groups ... hmm ... (Hint: taking suggestions and they have to in NO WAY even remotely infer that one is 'better' than the other.)

Guild Reset - A Good Restart

In ancient Japan, samurai were beholden to one master and forbidden from being allowed to serve another master - nor be masterless. It was game over for them should their master die or go away. Ronin were samurai that decided not to give up the game when their master went away. Ronin banded together for adventures, better gear, more gold, festivities, and to farm - sounds familiar.

When the first guild leader stopped playing a long time ago, the raiders did not give up the game. The second guild leader moved on and again the raiders did not give up the game. And so on and so forth. The last guild leader moved on to GW2 with long-ago-former guildies, and again, the raiders did not give up the game. No. They are truly ronin. Free-willed. Free. Enjoying the life and the game. Related to each other through respect, fun, and experience.

Recently, the guild was reset. A new guild leader was selected from the ronin. The officer roster has been cleansed and is ready for re-assignments. The guild itself was renamed. We kicked off the week by raiding under the new name, downed bosses, and ranked in the top ten on the server.

This has been a good restart.