raid-leading
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Officers' Quarters: My roommate is a slacker
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. As a guild leader, it's never easy to tell someone that they aren't pulling their weight. What happens when that person is your roommate? hey Scott. few months back, me and my dad revived our old guild, and it went soo good! within weeks our ranks were swelling with people, having a good time etc then we started raiding, all was well untill we started progressing properly. one of my raiders (Bob for this story) has an itemlvl of ~563 yet doesnt pull his weight as dps (Mage) he tends to slack if he thinks he can get away with it, threatens to get angry etc if people keep complaining about his damage. heres the real issue. this raider is my roommate and longtime friend.
Officers' Quarters: Humbling Hellscream
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. Garrosh Hellscream, son of Grom, Chieftain of the Mag'har, Warchief of the True Horde, is no pushover when you meet him in battle. Nor should he be, as the final boss of Mists of Pandaria. He can break your raid team's spirit faster than he nuked Theramore. One such team is fracturing under the pressure of Garrosh and his freaky Old God souvenirs, and their raid leader is asking for help. Hello Scott! I am currently the raid leader/GM for a startup guild on a high-pop server. I was able to create a guild, form a raid team, and get them 13/14 very quickly on normal. However, I recently lost my partner tank (I tank as a warrior) due to RL issues, and had a DPS rage quit during our Garrosh attempts. I've converted a dps to tank (he has sufficient gear), and am having trouble finding the right comp/team to get Garrosh down. We rarely wipe on the first 13, but we are having trouble on garrosh.
Officers' Quarters: Drawing boundaries with a new raid team
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. When you're both the guild leader and the raid leader of a guild, everyone looks to you to have all the answers. This week, one such officer finds himself tanking for a second, newly formed raid team. He wants to know how he can help without becoming the default leader of the team. I have a question I would like discussed and I'm sure others are having similar question. I have what I consider a social raiding guild. ... I come from a history of progression raiding from MC onwards and raid leadership since the 15 man UBRS days. My main is Wumper-Saurfang and my guild is Carpe Jugulum. ... We have our midweek (more serious) team, Thursday night team (recently started SoO) and a social Flexi raid on Saturdays. Physically we have too many for a single 10 toon raid, and not enough viable raiders for a 25 toon more serious raid. My question is how do I bridge the learning gap in the Thursday raid without becoming a leading participant of the raid? We have a new team that has started with a positive intent, a clear charter and rules. From the midweek (more serious) team we provide youtube guides videos for fights they are coming up to, visual class guides, discussion threads of tactics, approaches and role based discussion. We stream our fights for members to watch (and they do) when we're not recording for guide creation. If I am to get involved in the raid, because I am the GM and raid lead and would be tanking on my second bear, I will wind up taking a lead role within the raid. Currently I fill in as a reserve tank as required.
Officers' Quarters: Creating a casual raid team
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. This week, a former officer gets sucked back into a leadership role in a new guild. After a bad experience with her previous raid team, she's debating whether or not to bring casual raiding to her new home. Good morning Scott: Early this year, I wrote to you about a problem I was having with a fellow healer in my casual raid group. Since writing to you, and receiving your awesomely helpful answer, I tried to work with the guild. I worked with the troubled healer to get their overhealing numbers down, educated and trained the raid leader, trained replacements, and finally stepped down - both from healing and from being an officer. I just couldn't find happiness there. But I was happy with my decision. In late 5.3, ready to progress towards something new, I found a new server and faction changed my characters. At a friends request, I parked myself in a new guild to help level it up. Said friend accidentally mentioned my previous officer and raid experience and the guild leader promptly bumped me to an officer position... and has been asking me to start and lead their (very casual) raid team.
Officers' Quarters: No leader = no raid?
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. When your raid leader is absent, does your guild cancel the entire raid? This week, an officer is in a guild that does just that. Hi Scott, I've read a lot of your columns and I'm curious if you could offer some advise on how to suggest changes to a GM. Ok, I'm an officer in a guild that is focused on "casual progression" (if such a thing exists). We have regular raid times and dates that the whole guild is aware of, and use the calendar to build our raid groups. For some background, our GM is also our primary raid leader. When he is unavailable to raid, due to work or life, we typically don't raid. We have two tiers of guild officers, one to focus on class knowledge and guild activities, and the other who are raid leaders. The raid leader tier is short in number because some guild members don't want to lead raids and others because our GM doesn't feel they would be a good raid leader.
New raid team development website needs users and feedback
If you're a raid leader looking for better ways to manage your team roster, Cosine (@mashiox) may have a solution for you: the new website Whozawhat. Whozawhat is a site that, once you have registered, allows you to create teams of raiders using a tool that pulls information from the World of Warcraft Armory database. It will then return information to you about your team in a straightforward, easy-to-read table format. What's nice about it compared to the armory itself is that it allows all of your raid team members to be viewed in the same place at the same time, and will also instantly let you know if your raid members have full gems and enchants. If you want to analyze a team member in greater depth, you can click on their name and it will display that character in a manner similar to the armory, as well as letting you know if that character "passes" the gem, enchant, and talent audits.
Officers' Quarters: Expansion team
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. Here at the OQ we've heard from a lot of guilds who are being massacred by normal mode Throne of Thunder. This week it's refreshing to hear from a guild that has found unexpected success in Tier 15. They're now weighing a second raid team, but the raid leader has doubts about this expansion. Hello Scott, I'm the raid leader of a casual, family centered guild. We have always been on the lower end of the raiding curve, clearing raids only after they have become old content. However most recently we have been progressing remarkably well during Mists. For the first time our guild has attempted the raid while still current. While only going 3/12 in Throne of Thunder is nothing to the guilds who are now farming heroic Ra-Den, it has greatly lifted the spirits of our guild and it's members; so much so that there is now talk of forming a second raid team.
Officers' Quarters: 7 ways to stop the bleeding
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. The good news for raid leaders these days is that so much help is coming from patch 5.4, if what's on the PTR is any indication. Flexible raiding could be a lifesaver for guilds who stalled out in today's challenging normal modes. Virtual realms could inject new blood into every realm. The Throne of Thunder raid should see an across-the-board nerf from the patch, too. With all of these changes on the horizon, what raid leaders need to focus on right now is holding on and keeping their teams intact. The bad news is that no one knows when the patch will drop. We are likely at least six weeks away from 5.4, and probably longer than that since Blizzard has new systems to test and a new raid to tune. This week's email comes from a raid leader who isn't sure he can make it: Hello Scott, I am the current Raid Leader of a 10 man raid guild that considers ourselves to be progression-focused, semi-hardcore, or whatever you want to call it. We raid 3 nights a week for 3 hours a night, keep logs of all our runs, and really push to be successful. In the past, this worked out fairly well for us, as our guild maintained a top-10 place on our server according to wowprogress.com all through tiers 12, 13, and 14. However, since the release of MoP the members that made up the original progression team have been slowly bleeding away for one reason or another. At first, these losses could be absorbed by the extra standbys on our roster as well as a few people that swapped from our more casual 2-night-per-week team. Eventually we had to start recruiting out of guild in order to fill our raids each week. Generally speaking, for each player we lost the replacement we found was of a lesser caliber, whether it be in skill, gear level, or dedication. With the release of ToT and the difficulty of certain bosses (Horridon for example), our progression has begun to seriously stumble.
Officers' Quarters: The new burnout
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. Mists has delivered new content faster than any WoW expansion to date. The days of waiting six months, eight months, or more between major patches seem like a bad memory now. With patch 5.3 likely to drop in the next few weeks, that will mean we've had an average of one patch about every three months in the wake of 5.0. In years past, officers had to steel their guild for long lulls, which always seemed to land in summertime. They had to make backup plans to account for long absences from players who just couldn't stand to run the same raid one more time. Guilds who couldn't find replacements sometimes found themselves closing shop instead. In 2013, that age seems far behind us. However, the accelerated content has brought with it a new kind of burnout instead, and it's one that officers and raid leaders should keep in mind as we move deeper into Mists.
Officers' Quarters: Extinction event
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. For some raiding guilds, the last couple of weeks before a new patch is an opportunity to get those last normal or heroic encounters down, earn achievements, or farm for the last few items the raid team needs for the next tier. For others, they are a reminder of how little the guild has progressed. This reminder prompts raiders to weigh leaving the guild. This week's email comes from a raid leader facing this tough situation. Hi Scott. I've become Raid Leader of my old guild. Which, is driving me crazy. This raid team has been through thick and thin, through multiple Gm's and having lost multiple strong raiders I came back to the guild to help them and to join the team as Raid Leader. I've been having a really tough time though. Progression is non-existent. We're stuck on Blade Lord due to a lack of strong dps players and the new people who show promise need to do Mogu'shan Vaults to get gear for Heart of Fear. The raiders who've been on the team since the start of this tier are bored and have had enough of no progression and Mogu'shan Vaults. They're mainly all thinking of leaving the guild and if so, it'll mean the end of this guild, which I love.
Officers' Quarters: Backseat raiding
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. Raid leading is never an easy role in the best of times. When players start to question your decisions and argue with your strategies, the job can take on a whole new dimension of hassle. That's the case in this week's email: Recently drama erupted in my guild which I felt had been brewing for a while now. My fiancé and I joined a newly formed guild and it was known at the time, we went through with the GM how we were not a package deal and if one of us did not make the cut that we were okay with it. The only thing we requested was fair treatment. Shortly before cataclysm I was asked to be an officer, due to some qualities I had shown during raids, namely not being afraid to speak up and ultimately voice who had made the mistake thus creating more accountability ... I took over raid leading and led the guild to a double digit us ranking according to Wowprogress. During this time drama began to brew, two players one of which was new ... and one of which was a founding member started a campaign which I could clearly see to discredit and argue strats I had prepared as well as judgement calls I made on the fly, it all escalated when one of those wanted to argue the raid comp and then in turn that my fiancé should be the one sitting not the new mage who was a recruit (and dating one of the other core raiders) despite the logs showing that was not the case. The gm wanted me to do it to appease them and I refused, the raid ended up being called.
Officers' Quarters: Elegon, the Raidslayer
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. Oh, Elegon, you magnificently annoying Titan-created celestial Internet dragon. You are far from the hardest boss Blizzard has ever designed, but you require precision in all phases in order to win. One mistake by any member can botch the whole attempt. You are part of the tradition of unforgiving first-tier bosses such as Magtheridon and Blackwing Descent's Nefarian. It's no surprise to me, then, that some guilds are struggling with you. This week, one raid leader is questioning what he can do to improve his chances before his entire team falls apart. hello Scott, i really need some advice here. i am a officer and raid leader in a progression guild. i run two raid teams - the second and third for our guild. when i joined here, i came to be with friends, and with the understanding that there was no raid spot for me in the primary team, so to raid i would have to start my own progression group. that was almost a year ago. I already had a group that i raid my primary alt with, a casual fun group that i love, and now this progression group for my main. Both groups joined the guild with me. so, in a nutshell, here's the problem: I'm not much good at raid leading.
Drama Mamas: The case of the raid leader and his future wife
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. I'm not usually a fan of Coldplay, but my new favorite show, Newsroom, made me like this song. It's also appropriate for this week's letter. Note: You can't fix people. Hey Drama Mamas, I'm writing you guys to talk about a situation that is on the brink of breaking open. Just to say ahead of time, this is a situation of a couple who are in the upper ranks. She is an officer, one of two and he is the raid leader. As the GM, I leave the raid leading to my raid leader. I participate in the raids as well, but I prefer not to be the one giving all the directions in the middle of fights. The issue is his fiance. We'll call her A. Out of the two, she wears the pants. More often than not, she is either talking over the raid leader ( we'll call him B) or running the show through him where the rest of us cannot hear (their computers are right next to each other). This wouldn't be much of an issue, but it undermines the person I put in charge so when he actually tries to lead, our others don't give him the respect and attention he needs. Often times, I will step in and start calling the shots when things get too out of hand.
The Guild Counsel: What barbecue teaches us about raid leadership
The fourth of July is here, and along with the fireworks and fun in the sun comes my favorite meal of all: barbecue. There's nothing better than grilled-up meats rubbed in spice or slathered in sauce. Recently, as I was finishing off a perfectly smoked rack of ribs, I realized that there's an interesting parallel between barbecuers and raid leaders. You can see many similarities between the personality types. I put my theory to the test and consumed lots and lots of barbecue, all in the name of science, and I have concluded that you can indeed tell what type of raid leader you are by your barbecue style. So grab burger and a nice cold drink and read on as we interpret the smoke signals and read the tea leaves of grilling!
Drama Mamas: The case of the raid leader and a guildie's wife
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. Should inappropriate behavior always be against guild rules? Help me, Drama Mamas! I'm a newbie guild leader (of about two months now), but I was an officer in my guild for over a year before that. When my GM/RL retired from WoW a couple of months ago, I took over and things have been going pretty well. We're a medium-sized, active PvE guild with a core raid group. My raid leader is my only officer. Recently, my RL (who is also a good friend) told me that one of our raiders, a woman who is married but not to him, had sent him some dirty whispers during raid. He said that she was "in a weird mood" and kept on saying sexual things to make him laugh on Vent. Her husband is also in our raid. The RL told me so that he wouldn't "feel weird about it."
Officers' Quarters: 9 warning signs that your raid leader is bad
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 from No Starch Press. A good raid leader is the heart and soul of a successful raiding guild. Guilds have been made and broken by these stalwart, savvy, and thick-skinned individuals. A great raid leader is a truly special asset that all guilds seek but few are lucky enough to find. The rest have to settle for whomever is willing. Unfortunately, while willingness can be difficult to find in and of itself, the role requires so much more than that. Those who fail at it often do so in spectacular fashion. Others are less obvious in their failure, and their raiders suffer for years as a result. How can you tell your raid leader isn't managing the job very well? Read on. (Also, before I start the list, I want to note that every single item here is drawn from a real example. I've either experienced it personally or I've read about it in emails from you. This column was actually inspired by an email from RBG Leader. Thanks!) 1. Your raid leader is quiet in Vent. A raid leader needs to be the most vocal person on a raid team. He or she has to coordinate mechanics, explain guild-specific strategies, call out for cooldowns and battle rezzes, warn the raid of impending special abilities, get on people's case when they're consistently messing up the same thing, announce breaks, request suggestions, etc., etc., etc. It's not a role for the shy.
Officers' Quarters: How to earn respect as a teen officer
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 from No Starch Press. Teenagers as a whole have a terrible reputation in online games. In WoW, they are blamed for everything that's wrong with the community. People say they have no patience, they don't know how to play the game, they ruin chat channels with mindless chatter, and they're selfish, whiny, lazy, disrespectful, and entitled. Certainly some of the people who fit these accusations are teenagers. However, not every teenager acts this way, and a good portion of the people who do are actually adults. On the internet, unfortunately, perceptions tend to win out over reality. This week, a teenaged officer asks how she can earn the respect of her peers. Hello there Scott- Our guild currently is going through some major issues at the moment when it comes to who shall be running what when it comes to what is occuring in the guild. ... About a month or two ago, our guild leader ... decided to call it quits for the time being, our guild was going downhill at that time, and people starting to abandon us. We reasonably thought that sooner or later this guild was gonna expire sometime in the future, and that nothing could stop it. However, it came to the point where some of our officers and such managed to pull back the guild together through emails and messages spread across multiple medias. Our guild, in my mind, finally has settled back into what it was before, however without the guild leader to guide us. All of us (the officers) decided to take the role of leader. ... Things were going pretty smoothly.
Officers' Quarters: 6 qualities of a successful raiding guild
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 from No Starch Press. Recently a reader asked me, "What do raiders typically look for in a guild?" My initial reaction was to balk at the question. All raiders have their own preferences and pet peeves. What possible common factors could there be? However, I realized I was approaching the question from the wrong angle. Players might not agree on the details, but there are essential qualities that every raiding guild should strive toward in order to attract and retain members. Below, I have outlined six. 1. Stability A stable roster led by stable leadership is the ideal situation for a raiding guild. It's also incredibly difficult to maintain. Life, drama, and boredom can poke holes in your roster and your officer corps at any time -- and there's often little you can do to anticipate or prevent it. The best way to establish stability is by gathering like-minded players who find value in accomplishing goals as a team. Commitment is much easier to earn when your members are on the same page and enjoy raiding together.
Officers' Quarters: Trouble with a demoted raid leader
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 now from No Starch Press. The only thing worse than being asked by your guild to lead raids is being asked to lead raids in which the previous raid leader still participates. This week, that's exactly what one unfortunate player is facing. Hi Scott, I've been reading your blog for a little while because I'm a Cata baby and I want to make sure I'm able to navigate the sticky culture of guilds. I've gone through several guilds on my hunter main, trying to find a consistent raid group with real progression. After leaving a couple of guilds because progression just wasn't happening, I was recruited as a DPS for my current guild's Group Two. The first few weeks of raiding were rocky, because the raid leader is not very articulate and is bad at explaining fights. He also takes criticism very personally and for the first couple weeks his DPS was (no other way to put it) terribad. One of the group's healers basically overrode him in voice chat and effectively took over management of the raid group, although the original raid lead was still party leader and loot master. However, several of the group members had a problem with the way the healer ran the group and the way he spoke to other party members. Despite the fact that Group 2 was now getting real progression and players were earning great gear, tension still mounted.
Officers' Quarters: Mailbox roundup 4 -- raid leaders
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 now from No Starch Press. Here at Officers' Quarters, I receive a number of emails every week that don't get featured in the column for various reasons (which I explained the first time I did a roundup). Today it's time to examine two of these shorter -- but no less interesting! -- topics. This roundup's theme is raid leaders. Bad player = bad raid leader Scott, I really don't know if I'm writing just to get this off my chest or to ask for advice ... We had the same raid leader through several expansions who was very authoritative, decisive, and effective. Then he had to step back due to irl stuff and we were left with a leadership gap. No one really wanted to step up and be raid leader but eventually one of our officers decided to take it over. I'll call him John. John had a very different leadership style. I'm not sure if it was your column or elsewhere that I once read about the personality differences between a raid leader and guild leader but John has much more of guild leader style. Very much focused on having everyone get along, trying to get everyone to agree with everything, trying to get everyone to like each other ... When John makes mistakes that contribute to something bad happening, he likes to take whole blame for it. He won't look beyond his own contribution to the fail to find that the tanks failed a switch, a dps pulled aggro, or someone failed to move out of the fire, which is what put them in extreme danger in the first place. When I try to point out that I need him to be more critical than just taking all the blame, two things happen. First, he backtracks and tries to say he's not taking on all the blame, even if he's typed out explicitly that something was "all my fault." Second, he becomes completely demotivated and sullen in Vent, which effects the mood of the raid.
