- we are in a very healthy place - let's keep improving on that
- we are short 1-2 tanks - and we need them staffed and ready to tank MSV/HoF in 1-2 weeks.If you have one, or have a friend, get them into guild!
- fill out the new survey if you want us to consider your availability: link
- guild LFR on Tuesdays 9PM server
- guild open raid on Thursdays 8:30PM server; mains > alts
- 3 raid rosters and one open group
- respond to raid events on the calendar by Tuesday night
- raid rosters are small - everyone in that group is counting on you to show up
- be reliable and bring your best performance on every pull
Raid Status March 2013
Hi everyone, happy Friday!
I’m glad you made it tonight - the reason I suggested we get together is to
- cover a handful of notes; and, as always,
- invite you to send me your suggestions
- my email
- in-game
people have had changes to their personal schedules and we have a few new faces in the guild - all of which translates into changes in raid rosters
we recruited more great people and specifically only raiders - we do however still need 1-2 tanks!
we adjusted raid rosters to accommodate people who prefer to raid Wed+Fri and we have kept our bread and butter: Fri+Sat raids
we have had several days to adjust to the 5.2 changes and time for each of us to form our own plans for how we can progress our gear
we have also confirmed that Blizzard has continued on their track for increasing the encounter difficulty tuning - and the new encounters are a blast, and they demand high performance, … and they hit like a truck!
to ensure every raider that has at least MSV-level gear can get in to see normal mode raid content, now in addition to the raid rosters, we are putting an all-guild weekly open raid on the calendar on Thursdays - mains and alts are welcome, priority to mains - this should help with gearing
further, we have added a guild LFR on Tuesdays which is a massive success from the perspective of reducing the queue time to 10 seconds, and helping us all raid together as well as cross-pollinate strategies and approaches across raid rosters
we collapsed 4 raid rosters down into 3 raid rosters and each has about 11-13 raiders in it - this is a key point that I earnestly want you guys to get your heads around: that means we have anywhere from 33-40 raiders looking to fill 30 spots each week. In addition, we have the raiders moving up that are not yet in a raid roster - in total, we have ~55 raiders right now.
Now, we’ve been doing this raiding thing for a lot of years now and we know a few things, right:
- if you soak loot across 30 people in a raid roster for a 10-man raid group, it takes a lot longer to stack enough gear and stats to succeed in progression fights compared to soaking loot across 10 people in a raid roster for a 10-man raid group. so we want to keep the groups small and soak loot to stack stats and make quicker progression.
- however, small groups are at risk of not running reliably each week due to player outages. and while in the past we have had almost religious attendance, that track record has slipped enough over the past 2 months that for now we need to run at least 11-13 people in each roster to ensure the raid groups go off without a hitch reliably each week.
- and of course, when you put more people in a raid roster than fit into a raid group, people do not like rushing home from work or personal events or rescheduling their family activities and time only to find that they are not raiding that night; which is why we post the raid events by Monday night, and confirm the rosters by Tue/Wed. This does however, require that raiders sign up early so that we have a picture of who is available - and of course, if we guarantee that you are raiding, it’s key that raiders show up because we know pugging late into the week is just … bad
- lastly, we know that showing up prepared, early, and ready to perform makes for a great evening for everyone. for new bosses they have never seen, every raider should have watched at least 2-3 different fight strat videos for each boss they are going to attempt that night, and preferably, they watched the strat video they most liked twice or enough times to really understand what they need to do in that encounter to effectively contribute to downing the boss
So we have rosters, and raiders, and reliability, and performance.
And this is where each and every single raider needs to bring their A game whether they are on standby, or in the raid instance. Whether in ToT, or running an alt in the guild LFR run that week.
It starts with reminding each other to sign up and to be online - raiding or standby. It’s in the most friendly manner you can muster, reminding each other to perform your very, very best from sign up to end of the raid night. It’s helping to call things out in raid, and helping by paying attention to your own raid craft.
Bring your best raiding craftsmanship you’ve got - every time.
This week, and going forward, you get and keep your raid seats by being reliable and by performing. What is ‘performing’? Effectively contributing to downing the boss.
Everyone has something they need to work on - we all do - and it is on us to work on it. To improve it. Otherwise, we are just holding the other 9 people back. It’s on us to help each other - and that starts with signing up and showing up - and reminding all the other people to sign up and show up.
The fewer times we have to replace empty seats with pugs, the better for your overall progression - not just this week, but next week because the loot that was soaked shows up in raid the following week.
If you are having problems with mechanics, seek out people who are not having problems with them and bend their ear to get some help. We’re family - lean on each other.
If you are having problems with dps, your tanking, or your healing, lean on people that are not having problems and get your craftsmanship up.
If you are not having problems, lean over and whisper some good counsel or lend a helping hand.
We will effectively have 4 raid groups running each week (3 rostered and 1 unrostered) and a huge LFR group. There are plenty of people that need help polishing something or other and there are plenty of people to help you polish that craftsmanship.
In the end, however, it boils down to you. You have to improve your raiding craftsmanship. That part is on you.
Be reliable. Perform your best - whatever that is.
Do what you say you will do - and do it well.
To set the bar high, let me throw this out there: in my raid roster, this week, with the raid calendar event posted Monday night, by Tuesday night, 12/12 players had responded - and all had accepted. The other groups were in varying degrees of ½ to ¾ responsive to their raid events with a very large % tentative.
Start improvements there. Make a point of signing on Monday night or Tuesday and responding to the raid events you see on the calendar.
Then make sure you have studied up on the fights and your own class/role.
Show up. And put your best performance in on every pull.
Rinse and repeat and we will see all of the groups in ToT soon! We could even be doing 25m raids in Throne before you know it! Remember, way better gear has a much higher drop rate in 25m than it does in 10m; however, we have to have enough people that can effectively contribute to downing the boss on 25m before we can do that 25m into ToT and to get there, first people need to sign up, show up, and clear through MSV, HoF, and Terrace.
So bring your A game. Do what you say you will do, and do it well!
If you have any questions, or comments about the notes I shared with you tonight, please email them to me (my email address is in the guild info), or mail them to me in game, or just bend my ear sometime over the next few days.
Thank you for taking the time out of your evening tonight and I hope that it was well invested -- which we’ll know to be true if more people sign up and show up for the raids - and the raids start clearing more of the content!
Happy hunting tonight!
