Elitist Jerks - View Single Post - Can you have a guild with casual and harcore raiders?

davewolfgang · 08/25/07, 1:18 PM

Being from what is more known as a more Casual Guild who's just getting into Gruul, we have even had this problem. When TBC first came out we had a core of 10-15 players that did all the quest, ran all the instances up to 70, did all the key chain quests, and got their key to Kara rather quickly. Once we had enough keyed, and felt they were ready to really get into Kara we started setting up runs. The one thing that helped this along was getting everyone on the same page and that's a good guild web site, and keeping a scheduling calender and pushing everyone in the guild to use it.

At first we started only scheduling 2 nights a week and weekends, so that the core could learn the fights and get all the strategies down. Once this was done, we moved into Kara nicely. For the others still on their way up due to playing times and RL, we learned that just because you are "keyed" or "attuned", that doesn't mean you are ready for Kara. (This was less of an issue with 20 and 40 man's on OC because one mediocre player didn't always hold the raid back) But with Kara being on 10, you really WERE only as strong as your weakest player. After many long threads and discussions in the officer forums, we came up with minimum requirements for each class before you would be able to raid. This was not only with just gear stats, but also playing time with an officer and/or the class lead. This really cleaned up the teams, and people that weren't up to snuff knew that they would have to get there before they would get a chance.

What was noticed is that the "usually" the type A and B players were the ones gearing up and getting all the requirements done first and usually on their own. And through some "tough love" this was made known as to WHY this was. We lost a few, but really only the ones that were really on the way out anyway, because for the ones that really wanted to raid, they realized WHY we were having these requirements. Now that we are getting into Gruul's, we are setting up minimum requirements for that instance and probably will for everything above that. One of the things that's kept us from getting further is that we finally have enough A and B players to set up two Kara teams, and when we schedule Gruul's we are still having to bring outside players. But we all know we ARE a mainly causal guild with 95% of the players with family and kids and 40+ hour a week jobs.

During this time we did lose a few who thought the guild wasn't progressing "fast enough" and did want to raid more often and moved on. We wished them well, and some even came back because the grass wasn't always greener on the other side.

The reason I bring all this up is the one thing that kept most all of the drama and jumping ship to a minimum is Communication! We encourage all our members to be active on the web site and the forums, where we have team, class, professions and all sorts of other forums where anyone can ask questions and good discussions can occur (I actually was first directed here by our rogues in their forum discussing all the Theorycrafting here and have been browsing and found this post). Scheduling is done at least a week in advance, if not two, so that everyone knows what's going on and we can resolve scheduling conflicts or fill spots BEFORE the night of the raid. I have actually seen some C and D type players BECOME A and B type players because of the input and communication of the guild as a whole. We have several players running and posting WWS on every raid and even some 5-man Heroics to help everyone see how they are doing.

We aren't going to be getting any world or server first kills, but we will get there as a good, strong guild of good friends.

08/25/07, 1:18 PM	#32 (permalink)
davewolfgang Glass Joe Tokawulf Night Elf Hunter <The Red Dagger Society> Eldre'Thalas	Getting there Being from what is more known as a more Casual Guild who's just getting into Gruul, we have even had this problem. When TBC first came out we had a core of 10-15 players that did all the quest, ran all the instances up to 70, did all the key chain quests, and got their key to Kara rather quickly. Once we had enough keyed, and felt they were ready to really get into Kara we started setting up runs. The one thing that helped this along was getting everyone on the same page and that's a good guild web site, and keeping a scheduling calender and pushing everyone in the guild to use it. At first we started only scheduling 2 nights a week and weekends, so that the core could learn the fights and get all the strategies down. Once this was done, we moved into Kara nicely. For the others still on their way up due to playing times and RL, we learned that just because you are "keyed" or "attuned", that doesn't mean you are ready for Kara. (This was less of an issue with 20 and 40 man's on OC because one mediocre player didn't always hold the raid back) But with Kara being on 10, you really WERE only as strong as your weakest player. After many long threads and discussions in the officer forums, we came up with minimum requirements for each class before you would be able to raid. This was not only with just gear stats, but also playing time with an officer and/or the class lead. This really cleaned up the teams, and people that weren't up to snuff knew that they would have to get there before they would get a chance. What was noticed is that the "usually" the type A and B players were the ones gearing up and getting all the requirements done first and usually on their own. And through some "tough love" this was made known as to WHY this was. We lost a few, but really only the ones that were really on the way out anyway, because for the ones that really wanted to raid, they realized WHY we were having these requirements. Now that we are getting into Gruul's, we are setting up minimum requirements for that instance and probably will for everything above that. One of the things that's kept us from getting further is that we finally have enough A and B players to set up two Kara teams, and when we schedule Gruul's we are still having to bring outside players. But we all know we ARE a mainly causal guild with 95% of the players with family and kids and 40+ hour a week jobs. During this time we did lose a few who thought the guild wasn't progressing "fast enough" and did want to raid more often and moved on. We wished them well, and some even came back because the grass wasn't always greener on the other side. The reason I bring all this up is the one thing that kept most all of the drama and jumping ship to a minimum is Communication! We encourage all our members to be active on the web site and the forums, where we have team, class, professions and all sorts of other forums where anyone can ask questions and good discussions can occur (I actually was first directed here by our rogues in their forum discussing all the Theorycrafting here and have been browsing and found this post). Scheduling is done at least a week in advance, if not two, so that everyone knows what's going on and we can resolve scheduling conflicts or fill spots BEFORE the night of the raid. I have actually seen some C and D type players BECOME A and B type players because of the input and communication of the guild as a whole. We have several players running and posting WWS on every raid and even some 5-man Heroics to help everyone see how they are doing. We aren't going to be getting any world or server first kills, but we will get there as a good, strong guild of good friends.