Raid preparations

[gbsilk]

Hey guys - things have been going great raiding wise the last couple of weeks. We've hit T5 with a bang (caught on tape).

That being said I think there are a few little things we could do that would really pay dividends.

[glow=red,2,300]Raid start times[/glow]

We have a few guys who log on to raid very early in their morning. We have some people who really struggle to make it to the end cause we finish late. Both of these problems can be solved by being a little bit more organised at raid start time.

What I would like to see us do is this - 20mins before raid start time invites go out to everyone online. At this point you should be ready to go (not doing dailies, grabbing pots, repairing, respeccing etc).

If you have signed up to raid (as we all should be) your spot will be held until 5 minutes before start time (provided that you are ready to go when you log on). First signed up will get the nod (class composition pending of course).

Everyone should be at the instance by raid start time (either by summons or flying there). If we haven't got a group at start time we will pug (as an aside we should encourage the guys who pug regularly with us to fill in an app to join). The aim is to start as close to the time in group calendar as we can.

[glow=red,2,300]Highly recommended mods[/glow]

We don't have a lot of required mods (everyone should have omen, DBM etc). We do suggest certain mods that make things easier for everyone. Its not a coincidence that the people having the most trouble with Solarian Saturday night were those without the alarm.

I know (and I do fear that this is true of me also) that most of us tend to view ourselves (quite rightly in my view) as pretty damn good at this game, as being elite, skilled (failed island jumping aside...). There is however a risk that this confidence will lead us to think that maybe we don't need everything that a 'normal' player will need to do well.

The trouble is 4 hours into a raid on a Saturday night, having had a few drinks and maybe not that much sleep, its natural not to be 100% on top of your game. Solarian alarm, VR alarm etc are good mods to have because you can't slip up, miss the warning and wipe the raid. If we suggest a mod its almost always for a really good reason.

The mods take up almost no memory and no bandwidth - there is no reason not get them as a backup.

[glow=red,2,300]Minimum requirements[/glow]

Unfortunately there are certain minimum gear requirements to raid. Be.imba is a good guide but you should also be aware of other sources of information. Check the minimum requirements and the suggested requirements before signing up. It would also help to have an idea of the level of puggers before we bring them in too. I'd rather bring an undergeared guildie than an undergeared pug.

There is another area to this, WoW isn't very system intensive and it doesn't require a top end system to run. That being said if you are consistently at less than 5fps (or even as low as 1fps) when raiding you are going to really struggle. If that causes you to wipe the raid then you may have to miss out on a run.

[glow=red,2,300]Know your role - listen on vent[/glow]

One last little thing - I really like that we have fun on vent (eg Sunday night) but it would really help me out if everyone listened when we were explaining fights, took the time to think about what they will be doing and what they need to do and ask questions if you don't know.

This includes

[/b] - know which mob you are picking up, think about where to take it don't under any circumstances taunt mobs off the MT
Tanks - know when to break cc and when to leave a mob cc'ed till other mobs are dead
CC'ers - be up the front or at the assigned place for the pull. Have your mob targeted before the pull happens. Watch for cc breaking damage and ask to move the kill target if its in the way. Have a cc counter and use it
Hunters - RL will give you an md target at the start of the night - remember who it is, if they ask for a different md for a pull don't assume that you have changed md targets permamently.
Healers - know your target and stick to it. Trust the other healers to heal their targets and prioritise heals (eg MT before healers, healers before DPS)
Everyone - know the kill order, know the strategy we are following and follow it (even if you disagree with it) if you don't know something ask before the pull!
[/ul]

[Rakshasi]

Oh my god, awesome post. Words to live by... /gm countersigned.

[faithhealer]

This is not a mail that says you cannot talk thru vent.

This is not a mail that says you cannot have fun over vent.

What this mail want to say is as follows:-

DURING RAIDING
1) We are using vent so that the raid leader and the respective designated assistant raid leader are communicating with the whole raid team. Passing over important informations so that the raid team will have a higher chance to take down a boss.

2) We are using vent so that at any critical juncture in a raid, somebody can yell out to let everybody knows something bad is happening.

3) We are HOWEVER not using vent so that we can listen to all the funs between individuals when we are RAIDING. This may be a turn on for some but do you think it is the same for the rest?

Can the Raid Leader / Guild Officers impose some vent discipline when we are raiding?

Or do you think the present situation is appropriate and we should just let it be since this is a fun guild doing a fun raid into SSC / TK trying to take down a boss which is a first for the guild?


My 2 cents on the present vent situation / raid discipline.

[drglnc]

I am all for fun in vent!!! BUT, once the raid leader starts describing a fight or we start pulling.... ONLY the raid leader should be talking except for the occaisonal,if i dont say this now we may wipe type of thing, escpecially with the vent lag issue we have had recently.... Buffing requests, joking, ect. should be keeped to text while raid leader is talking.

[faithhealer]

This is not a response to Drginc.

Its an expansion of what I think is good discipline when we are raiding.

When we start a raid, I would assume that all are concentrating on the job. I would also assume that everybody's idea of having a good / fun experience is the fast and efficient way we clear the trash and down the boss. Wiping with the knowledge that we were serious in taking down the boss and giving our best is also a good / fun experience.

Please do not be mistaken that I am disagreeing to having fun in vent. You can have your fun over vent if you are not raiding or when you down a boss but we should not be having "fun" over vent when we are neither here nor there.

When we have a wipe, it is the time for the raid leaders etc to analyse what went wrong and any changes they should make to make the next attempt better. It is also a time for players to analyse, why for example, they died early in the encounter. All communications should be in raid chat and not over vent unless you are the raid leader/s.

Having "fun" over vent after a wipe is really not funny.


My 3 cents now.

[gbsilk]

Thanks for that Field. I appreciate the thoughts. I certainly don't want to step on your toes either. I am not sure I agree 100% though.

I would actually say that since my post above there has been an improvement in the "listening to the raid leader" bit on vent. Sure there is a lot of chatter but generally people quiet down and get things done when needed.

I don't mind the banter between raiders over vent at all. Provided people are listening (and can be heard) when the important bits are happening (boss fights and pre-pull basically) I am happy for people to joke around. Having said that I didn't consider that others might not like it.

Post wipe (particularly if its a noob wipe) I am also happy for some good natured ribbing of the hunter(s) responsible. Unless there is a reason for analysis of the wipe (eg boss fights) I think that a bit of joking actually helps us refocus.

I actually tend to disagree with your point (3) too (except the turn on bit - well maybe it is for Bob... and Ferek too lol) - I actually think that vent is great because it does let us have fun together. I had assumed that, for most of us at least, we enjoy the social interaction as much as getting the bosses down.

Although, as I said above, I didn't appreciate that others may not enjoy this as much.

We have some interesting personalities in guild and I don't really want to stamp the character out of our raiding. Consequently, provided we are a bit more aware of others feelings, I wouldn't suggest imposing harsher vent discipline unless and until it actually stopped us getting bosses down.

I'll see if I can amend my first post to put an anonymous poll up on this page and hopefully we can get more of a feel of how everyone is thinking. If a lot of people think its over the top then I would be more than happy to scale chatting back on vent.

[faithhealer]

Thanks for the response.

I think we can safely say we agree to disagree with each other on certain issues.

Since you are the Raid Leader and feels that the situation is ok, then it is ok. You ARE the Raid Leader!. ( I am neither sarcastic nor negative here, you do call the shot in raid and the raid team do/does your bidding that are within reasons. If you are still in your comfort region with all those vent "fun" and think that the raid will not be affected, then it should be ok.)

OK, what's next?

[apollor]

Listening during descriptions, and generally keeping the channel open for important tells etc is a good idea, but... I for one would just stop coming to raids if we got to the point of it sounding like a Library. i.e. hearing the crickets in the next field chirping from the silence.

There are probably times when we have our little outbursts that could be text'ed instead, and it's good to see people combining both text and voice to make communications work.

I love having fun, it's a game and goal one should be I think to enjoy ourselves. While getting the job done. So keeping a lighthearted approach to it all is great. :-)

In a raid, we've got 25 personalities, there will always be quite ones and more vocal people. We're also still learning those personalities and getting to know each other, I think if you've noticed we've improved a lot at knowing when is a good time to joke, when it's time to listen up.. and when it's time to PAR-TAY!.

One suggestion I do have however, is to please enable the "tick" or "Click" noise when someone on vent actuates their mic. And to listen for it. That alone will mean that we can hopefully reduce talking over people, which is about the only thing that annoys me :-)

There is an article out there about leveling out volumes of people so they sound consistently loud. this is great for windows users, but please spare a thought for us Mac users that don't have this option in the client. If you're a soft talker, just bump your 'outgoing' sound level a few notches and that will help us out a lot, while the Windows users will just auto-level it out anyway.

And laaaastly, I promise..... HAPPY WOWING!!

[castus]

Mac user? Well...not much we can do for you...

In any case, I look forward to the friendly banter and occasional jabs. It's all about building camraderie. We are doing better at keeping it to a level that does not interfere with raid success. It's the RL's job to let us know when it's time to get down to business.

Remember...it's a fine line between Serious Raiding Guild and Casual Progression Guild. You have to have balance.

[baddemon]

I agree with Castus.

That being said, what is going on lately with people not being ready at start time? I sent out invites tonight 15 minutes prior, and got 7 people! for SSC! I sent a last round of invites at 8:35 PM, and got all the way up to a grand total of 13. Do people just not want to raid?

I've also seen several people in a different, PuG raid when our raid is starting. Do you not like your guildees? We need everyone, and every person who is pugging Kara while we're trying to put together a 25 man is one more person we're gonna have to PuG ourselves, and who will probably get all of our loot! Just doesn't make sense to me.

I hate to sound lecture-y, but if you plan on raiding, please be ready to raid so that we can do the first pull at start time. There were a few of those tonight too, sending the "I'm almost done with this BG" whisper. Remember guys, you're holding up everyone else in the raid, which frankly I think is just rude. It's one thing RL gets in the way, nothing you can do about that. But please don't be playing on an Alt, or running BGs, or a Heroic, or doing dailies when we're trying to get the raid together. The quicker we get everyone together, the faster we start - the more time we'll have to down that next boss! I don't want to raid 5 times a week, I want to make the most of the time that I do spend raiding! Sorry for the rant.

[mae1984]

I disagree strongly with Field, agree strongly with Apo and have one thing to say about the poll.....Grrr : P

[Rakshasi]

As to bad's point, I have to tell you guys that i'm busier and busier lately, but when i'm on i *will* help you get things started in any way I can. Unfortunately now, I'm busy T W F nights for sure =(.

And of course the talking amongst raiders/listening thing is a important balance to maintain. There is some concentration involved and it can get boring/annoying IF you dont have fun/like the people you're doing it with. Laughter and fun is very necessary I believe!

But point taken of course, when the raid leader's talking we should keep it quiet and listen (there's always raidchat, anyway).. unless he's talking *about* me, then everyone should drown him out =P.

[Rakshasi]

haha my vote really screws the poll.