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How to Handle a Trial That’s Failing (When They’re a Referral)

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Here’s a situation every raid leader has seen at some point.

One of your best raiders (maybe your top DPS or a senior, long-time player), comes to you and says,

“Hey, my friend is looking for a team. Think we could trial them?”

You trust this player, and they’ve been with you through tiers (or years) of progression. Of course, you say yes. You’re sure their judgment is sound and they’re staking their reputation on them thinking it’ll be a solid fit, right? The new guy goes through the interview process and is able to answer the questions honestly, even if they’re a bit light on recent experience (because they’ve obviously just come back to the game or are trying a new class this time around).

But then the trial starts… and it’s rough.

The friend is average at best. They miss interrupts. They’re out of positions. Their logs are low. Worst of all, their mistakes are holding the raid back from moving forward.

Now you’re in an awkward position.

Do you keep the trial to keep your core player happy?
Or cut them and risk losing both?

Why This Happens All the Time

Raid teams are built on relationships. Referrals are natural. People want to raid with their friends. And most of the time, when a top player vouches for someone, you give them the benefit of the doubt.

But the problem is that being a reliable raider doesn’t automatically make you a good recruiter.

Option 1: Keep the Trial

You value loyalty. You want to avoid drama. And maybe you’re hoping the trial will improve over time.

Pros:

  • Keeps your veterans happy.
  • Avoids an awkward conversation.
  • Buys time for development (if they’re coachable).

Cons:

  • Weak performance continues.
  • The rest of the team starts noticing and asking questions.
  • Resentment builds.

If other players feel like someone’s being carried because of a referral connection, the team’s culture (and possibly trust) takes a hit.

Option 2: Cut the Trial

You have standards to uphold, and you’re on the clock. Performance and chemistry matter. You’re willing to make a hard decision.

Pros:

  • Reinforces your raid’s expectations.
  • Clears up a weak spot.
  • It may actually strengthen team trust long-term.

Cons:

  • You risk losing the original referring player.
  • You might create tension or drama.
  • The veteran player may feel resentful or disappointed.

The leadership dilemma is: Do you value the immediate harmony or long-term standards?

Middle Ground: A Collaborative Fix

Before you swing the axe, try this:

  • Talk to your veteran player first and be honest: “Hey, your buddy’s struggling. I want to be transparent about where they’re at.”
  • Ask if they’ve coached their friend, and if they think the player can realistically improve.
  • Offer the trial an alternate or backup role with a path to earn a position on the roster.
  • Set clear performance goals: “Hit X DPS, avoid Y mechanic, improve interrupts.” Warcraft Logs can help track these metrics on a raid-by-raid basis, and you can measure that progression.

If they meet the bar? Great. If not? Everyone had a fair opportunity, and the squad stays intact.

The Long-Term Cost of Soft Standards

Keeping someone on the team who doesn’t meet the bar (just to avoid losing a better player) might feel like the easier move to make. I can tell you from experience that it rarely works out long-term.

You don’t just risk performance. You risk your identity.

Every raid slot matters if your team is trying to get that CE achievement. Every weak link creates drag.

Make the Hard Call

Leadership means protecting your team’s health, even when it’s uncomfortable.

Be clear. Be consistent. And be fair.

“If one weak link is sinking the boat, it doesn’t matter who brought them aboard.”

Your star player might respect you more for being honest than they would for bending the rules, and giving an exception. And if they don’t?

Then maybe they weren’t the right teammate you thought they were.

Matt’s Notebook: The One Armed Bandit

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Another week of farm for DJs and another week of progression for Last Call.

  • We managed to fully clear the raid again within two days. It was the first time I had seen any serious raid action in a long time. I did sit out on One Armed Bandit, but since the boss man wasn’t back yet, I got the call up to come in for Mug’zee, and we spent some time in there configuring with one less immunity. We did end up 4 healing it and executed a nice push early on. I did get a few pulls into Gallywix, and although I didn’t get into the last phase, I did see a good part of phase 1.
  • Over in Last Call, we started working on One Armed Bandit. I didn’t realize how finicky and exacting this boss can be. I guess we’re getting close to the end, and this is one of those pinnacle bosses (along with Mug’zee). We spent most of our progress just working on the fundamentals, including dispel placements, Big Hit placements, interrupts, and DPS prioritization. Our best was around 45% or so, which is solid for a first night of progression. Our second night was much better, as we did end up getting two good looks at the last phase. We ended with a 1% wipe with around 150 million health remaining. It was extremely close, but there was some general confusion towards the end. We had a few players get roasted by beams or get too close to pylons. Not only that, five coins were lying around at the end that weren’t picked up, which meant the boss was hitting quite hard. It was a solid week of progression for the team, and getting this much learning time in within two days overshot my expectations significantly.
  • Our new tank in Last Call is working well with us. Actually, our latest group of recruits have been meshing nicely (a DPS Monk, and Prot Warrior). Unfortunately, we don’t have a Ret or Prot Paladin available for Mug’zee, which makes mine popping that much more dangerous. There is a world where I bring back Diplomattic (my Ret Paladin) back in, though, but that’s not an option I want to consider just yet. I’m already thinking long-term about what the roster will look like entering Season 3. I do want to shore up our healers some more, even after adding a DJs healer into the team. At the rate we’re going, Gallywix is achievable. Mug’zee would be the final hump.
  • Bored of visions already? Yeah, me too. I got all of the currency and the helm enchants required for my main raiding characters. I’m just annoyed that the greater helm enchants are also time-gated.
  • My Shaman just needs two more 12 keys for full resilience. My Priest isn’t too far off from that either. Hopefully soon!

Those’re the updates for the week!

One Button to Rule Them All

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Blizzard recently announced a new feature that’s got the community riled up. A one-button rotation option will be introduced that automates the next optimal spell cast. On paper, it sounds like a dream come true for players who struggle with complex rotations or for those who want a more relaxed gameplay experience.

But there’s a catch.

The one-button option comes with a longer global cooldown (the gcd), meaning that while you gain simplicity, you lose speed. Blizzard says the intent is to provide an alternative for players who use addons like Hekili to guide their rotations. The idea is to give players a built-in option rather than relying on third-party solutions.

But is it really going to change the game? Let’s break it down.

Why It Won’t Matter at the Mythic Level

At the Mythic raiding level, this one-button option is not going to see much use. The problem is that gcd penalty. When you’re pushing hard content, every millisecond counts. Adding even a slight delay between abilities can make the difference between a kill and a wipe.

Mythic raiders are already primed to think on their feet. They’re analyzing cooldown windows, juggling procs, and reacting to boss mechanics while weaving in their DPS sequence. This one-button system can’t keep up with the speed and precision required at this level.

One potential use that I could see, though, is the highlighter feature that comes with it. Even for skilled players, having a quick visual cue as a reminder could be handy. Think of it as a built-in priority helper. You’re still pressing your own keys, but the highlighter points out your next best option.

That said, I can’t see anyone who is seriously aiming for Cutting Edge relying on the full one-button rotation setup. It’s just too clunky for high-end content. Not saying that it’s impossible, because I suspect there will be a group that manages to do so but it’ll be towards the end of the tier with massive nerfs to the raid and equally large buffs to the characters.

Who Will Actually Use This Feature?

I see this being most useful for newer players or those picking up a new class or spec. If you’re learning how to be a Shadow Priest after maining a Warrior, you’re probably overwhelmed by the number of spells. I’ve been a Priest main forever, and I still get overwhelmed. The one-button option lets you get your feet wet without feeling like you’re drowning in keybinds.

Start off pressing one button, get a feel for what abilities trigger when, and eventually transition to pressing individual keys as you get more comfortable. It’s a teaching tool, not a crutch, and that distinction matters.

Another group that might benefit is the casual players who aren’t pushing Mythic+ or raiding at a high level. For them, the convenience might outweigh the GCD penalty. The same goes for players with accessibility challenges who might find a one-button rotation genuinely helpful for maintaining steady performance.

The Real Impact: A Wake-Up Call?

There’s one aspect of this feature that might catch some players off guard: the reality check.

If you’ve been using addons like Hekili for a long time and suddenly find that your damage drops when using Blizzard’s built-in version, it might make you question just how much of your rotation was actually instinct versus following visual cues.

I’m not saying everyone who uses rotation guides is a bad player, but there’s a difference between knowing why you’re pressing a button and just pressing it because it lit up. This new system might be a bit of a rude awakening for some players who thought they were more skilled than they actually are.

Ultimately, this feature is less about helping high-end players and more about making the game approachable for those who struggle with complex rotations. As long as it’s framed as a stepping stone rather than a solution, it’s not inherently bad.

The real key will be community perception. If players start using it as a crutch rather than a training tool, it could lead to some awkward encounters where one-button users find themselves vastly underperforming compared to their peers.

As always, the key to mastering your class is understanding why you’re making certain choices, not just following an automated sequence. If this feature helps players transition from basic to advanced play, great. But if it becomes a band-aid for bad habits, then it will end up being another unused option in the settings.

Matt’s Notebook: Gallywix Cleared!

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Good season, everybody! Gallywix was a kill that we just stumbled into. It took us a total of 60 pulls. Most of our efforts were spent working on smoothing out the first pull. We wiped once we entered the final phase for the first time, and then we killed it on the subsequent pull. It was completely unexpected, as I thought it would’ve taken us longer to get a better understanding of it, but I gotta give flowers to the team for a job well done. Now our off-season starts as we slowly work our way back there and begin farming. We’ll have a pair of healers away this weekend, which means I get to come in. I’ve been on the sidelines, and I haven’t fully raided on my Priest since March.

  • We did add another healer to the DJs, and that brings us up to a healthy six-healer unit. This will be important as we enter the Summer months. We’re closing recruiting otherwise as we have a full slate right now.
  • Over in Last Call, we ended a few trials and some of our rostered players, as it was just no longer a good fit for us in the direction and approach we’re planning to push towards. Our healer count is at exactly 4, which is a perilous number for me as it means I have almost no buffer. The fallback healer I have would be me playing one of my other Priests.
  • Speaking of Last Call, we successfully defeated Sprocket! It took us 111 pulls, which is about on par with the average. Unfortunately, we struggled on going backwards with the reclear on Stix. There’s just something about it that makes farm kills that much harder. I know that we’re a solid team and we’re capable of it. I was so frustrated because we crushed Sprocket with an hour left. I wanted to push forward and go on to One Armed Bandit, but the rest of the senior team felt it more efficient to reclear Rik Reverb and Stix. We have about 10 weeks left in our season, and I really want to get to Gallywix and try to get a clear on it. The two hardest bosses are coming with Bandit and Mug’zee, both of which will take some serious time to learn.
  • Corruptions have come out this week, and much to my chagrin, it has also been time-gated. I can’t believe seven-year-old content is being drip-fed like this. The main content patches have been so much fun so far with Liberation of Undermine, but these other secondary patches don’t feel good right now, and we’re being forced to wait.
  • On my Holy Priest, I’ve been told there’s a new raid spec that’s back in play (Oracle Holy). Prayer of Healing is on the menu again! Can’t wait to try it out and see how it plays.
  • It’s a long weekend coming up and I will be out a few key players. I hope we will still have enough to get some reps in.

Matt’s Notebook: We’re on to Gallywix!

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This is it! We’re on the final door step now. Gallywix is all that’s left standing, which is great news since we’re on the verge of entering the summer months soon. This means we’ll be entering farm mode! In the first exciting news, I’ve ordered a new PC finally. It’s much needed considering my current PC has lasted me since just prior to Covid so it’s definitely aging and I’ve been running into some performance issues in raid (especially with a full 30). Anyway, let’s jump into the notes.

  • Death Jesters is now on Gallywix. Mug’zee reached a point where any pull could be the kill if everyone was able to stay alive and committed. Phase 1 is certainly a hot mess as we’re planning our bombs and getting a feel of the start of the encounter. We are looking to recruit another healer to add to our lineup such as Resto Druid, a Mistweaver, or a Preservation Evoker. Come check us out here!
  • Last Call is now on Sprocketmonger, and we’re starting to consistently make it past the first intermission here with more players alive. I’m disappointed though as we lost one of our long time raiders. He was struggling with using Liquid’s Weak Auras pack and got so frustrated that he just decided to step down from the team altogether. One of our tanks, a Demon Hunter, has opted to switch to DPS due to inconsistent work schedules. We did recruit a new Protection Warrior, so I hope he will work out. Lastly, one of our Mistweavers has been occupied with things going on outside of the game that they also had to step away. On this team, we’re looking to add a hybrid healer (Windwalker/Mistweaver or Devastation/Preservation or Shadow/Holy Priest). Our application form can be found here.
  • Crest cap lifts this week! Rejoice! We’re going to need around 400 crests or so (assuming you’ve been capped out).
  • Our first set of Dinars become available this week! I have no idea what to buy! My Priest doesn’t need anything out of Heroic and I’m limited in what I can purchase from Mythic since I haven’t killed any of the bosses after the first two.

Ugh, back to work. Have a good week!