raid-preparation
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How do you prepare raiders for a new expansion?
Raiding last week was tough all around for my guild. Between completing all of Dragon Soul on heroic, the release of Diablo III, and the simple nightmare of trying to field a 25-man raid guild these days, it's not easy to keep everyone's spirits high. My guild does a remarkable job with it, but the main issue isn't really the content itself, which we can easily clear. It's keeping raiders interested and logging on so we have a full team to work with. Mists of Pandaria is just over the horizon, however, and for the first time since I joined the guild, we've got a fairly substantial amount of time to farm until we're blue in the face. Heroic Lich King died at the end of Wrath of the Lich King, but we didn't get more than a few weeks to breathe before we were all hurriedly leveling through Cataclysm and preparing to throw ourselves at the raid grind all over again. With my previous raid guild, we pretty much called a halt to raids after umpteen Black Temple clears, a few months before Wrath of the Lich King launched. While Sunwell seemed interesting to me, the rest of the guild -- who had all been around far longer than I, mind you -- didn't feel up to the challenge. It does make me wonder, though, how different raid guilds handle prepping for that new expansion experience. Is there protocol to follow?
Officers' Quarters: Tax time
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available this spring from No Starch Press. In the United States, federal and state taxes are due in just a few days -- April 15 is the deadline. If you haven't figured out your taxes by now, you're probably in a bit of a panic. Though we often resent paying, taxes are the price of living in an organized society. They pay for defense, schools, roads, social programs and a host of other benefits. Some we can all agree on; some are a matter of fierce debate. In a guild, taxes are often a controversial issue. Some guilds who use point-based systems like DKP will tax members' point totals to prevent point hoarding. This week, one reader is wondering about a different kind of tax. Hi Scott, I am a member of a casual raiding guild. Recently some of the officers have been kicking around the idea of a "raid tax" -- a set value of mats used in a week's worth of 25-man raiding that can be paid by members either in gold or through supplying the mats themselves. It's funny because the "tax" for a given week sounds exorbitant to me (close to 1,000 gold when they figure in the price of enchanting mats and gems for loot).
Breakfast Topic: Is your guild prepared for Patch 3.1?
There is a lot of speculation that patch 3.1 will drop tomorrow. I'm not really buying into that speculation yet, but the background downloader was active over the weekend delivering up another part of the patch files. That is a strong indication that the patch is nearing, and at the least means guilds should start ramping up their preparation to push into Ulduar.For many hard core raiding guilds this means making sure the right members will be on and fully buffed and ready for lots of raiding as soon as Ulduar opens up. Equally important is making sure that reserves and alternates are available so progression raids don't grind to a halt.
Learn2raid: A beginner's guide, part 2
So you want to be a raider, eh? Plenty of people will argue against it, tell you it's not worth the time, but in the end, in your heart of hearts you know you want to see that end game content and wield those ungodly weapons. Not sure how to go about it? Well, that's what this guide is for. Learn2raid first took you through the questions you should ask yourself to make sure you are the sort of person that can be a good raider. But knowing you are a raider at heart isn't enough. If you remember from part 1 of this beginner's guide we said we were first looking at the three steps needed to get ready to raid: Introspection, Preparation, and Application. There is a lot that goes into getting into raiding, and without prep work your most valiant attempts may fall flat. Getting Ready to Raid Step Two: Preparation Now that you've answered some questions about yourself, you're ready to prepare to raid. Preparation for getting into raiding requires more than just making the decision and applying to 45 guilds in the hopes that one will accept you. Take the time and do your homework. It will save you a lot of trouble – and the anguish of possible rejection - in the long run. Gear: First, make sure you research your gear. Do you have the best possible gear for a casual player in your class? If you don't do you know where you can get it? There are a couple great resources on gear for your class and spec out there on the net. I have bookmarks to WoW-loot.com and WoW Wiki listed on my bar, but honestly, I found that the best way to research gear was looking at players I knew.
