Officers' Quarters: The raid farming blues
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.
At one time, possibly for ten or even twenty minutes, Molten Core was an exciting challenge. But now, if I never see the featureless brown walls of that godforsaken cave for the rest of my life, it will be too soon. Most raiding guilds probably aren't at the point where running Karazhan or Gruul's Lair is the tedious chore that weekly MC runs became, but someday all of this shiny new Burning Crusade raid content is going to be old hat too. At that point, it's going to be harder and harder to convince people to go back to it to help alts and newer guild members gear up. One reader dealt with this issue prior to the expansion.
Hey,
Great column. Here's a situation I came upon many times while running with a raiding guild in summer 2006. I'm curious as to how you dealt with it. I spent 4 months in a progress guild . . . and we did a great job for the time that I was there (downed C'thun in June '06 . . . moderate progress in Naxx after). But I came into the guild later than most of the people, and I only got in because of skill. I was one of the rare exceptions that was allowed in the guild of AQ40 hardcore raiders, with cloth blues from DM . . . I was a resto shaman.
As time went on, we would get me the occasional piece of gear from a farm-status instance (I ended up with 5/8 Earthfury, but that's kinda necessary), but for the most part the guild was focused on progress, and we did not do MC or BWL very much anymore. The problem is, when Naxx hit, it got even worse. We were constantly wiping in Naxx, having issues with bosses that we shouldn't've, and I attributed it to the fact that everyone wasn't as geared out as possible. Some people needed pants off Rag, some people needed that one piece from Nef, . . . I was still using Finkle's Lava Dredger!
But we would always come to the point where someone would suggest we do a farm instance, and the rousing opinion was "NO", mostly because 75% of the guild needed nothing from those instances. This made it very difficult to be what was considered undergeared, and it frankly destroyed any chance I had of being a successful component. Especially being a Shaman, no matter how much skill I had, I needed the +heal/mana in order to be viable in long boss encounters. Mana Tide can only do so much. In the end, I had to quit [the guild] . . . How did you handle the difficult times where you wanted to straight-out progress, but people needed gear from farm status instances? Did you require going to these instances, much to the disgruntlement of many of the old school, 8/8 t2 or more crowd? Or did you have to cater to those who had majority opinion, and only accept the most geared applicants?
Dan
Some of you may already be at this point: You recite the speeches of the opera event along with the announcer; you ninja Netherspite's blue beam for kicks; you try to Shatter as many people as possible when Gruul is at 5% just to keep things interesting.
It's inevitable: You and many of your fellow guildies are going to become incredibly bored with Karazhan, Gruul, Magtheridon, and even beyond. But you're going to have to go back there to help other members out. If your guild has been around for a while, you've already gone through this with a number of raids (even BWL for the top progression guilds like Dan's). So you know what I'm talking about.
It's inevitable. And as a guild leader, it's never too early to prepare for the inevitable.
I've never been an advocate of required attendance. Many serious guilds set a minimum number of raids per week that must be attended in order to keep your status as a member. If you're really intent on seeing all the raiding content that the expansion has to offer, it may be the only way to go. But I find that level of obligation to what is essentially a hobby a bit hard to swallow. And my guild has a number of people who don't really like raiding. They are more than content to PvP or run Heroics. So for me this is not a solution to the problem of raid farming boredom. And there were indeed nights before the expansion when our raids were rescheduled because not enough people were willing or able to make it. It's the price you pay for a more casual atmosphere. Fortunately we were able to do Onyxia with about 20 people, so that was always a good fallback option!
So how do you stave off the raid farming blues? Ideally, your guild will have enough people dedicated to the cause that they won't mind running the older stuff from time to time. But many of your members are going to need some kind of incentive to clear all that trash between Curator and Shade for the hundredth time. You and your officers need to provide that incentive.
Some kind of point system is the most immediate answer. Earning points in older raids that members can spend on the uber drops in Mount Hyjal or Black Temple is plenty of reason to show up. But this is a short-term solution for most guilds, since eventually your best-geared players will reach the point of saturation where they have so many points that they will never be outbid on any drop they desire -- even in a zero-sum system. And that's assuming there's anything left that they actually want.
Ultimately, you have to find a way to make running Kara, Gruul, etc. fun again. Mix it up a bit. For mature guilds, there's always the option of running a raid-themed drinking game. (One particularly devastating rule for our MC drinking game was taking a sip every time somebody said, "Loot the hounds!") But there are plenty of ways to use in-game mechanics to make a run interesting. For example, make a rule that every pull has to be done using an engineering device, and bask in the mayhem when three Lair Brutes charge your helpless, poultryized tank. Or set up a Kara run where everyone has to wear a dress. Yes, it will probably take a bit longer to get through the dungeon with such rules in place, but if they're announced ahead of time, you'll have a much better chance of getting enough people to make the run happen at all. (Most people will need some warning to acquire that dress, too.) I'm sure our readers can suggest many more such diversions to keep the old runs from getting too stale.
You might even find that such runs get a little too popular. Just make sure at least some of the people coming actually need the loot!
Send Scott your guild-related questions, conundrums, ideas, and suggestions at scott.andrews@weblogsinc.com. You may find your question the subject of next week's Officers' Quarters!
