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.
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