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Discuss: How transparent should a guild be?

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We’re now 11/12! One more kill will seal out the normal mode tier and allow us to start putting in work on the heroic modes of Throne of Thunder. Some of the players were curious as to what our goals after should be. Do we spend a little more time farming out the normal modes or do we immediately push into heroics? At first, I wanted to spend some time to farm out the week and try to get more weapons, trinkets, and 4-pieces completed. I felt that we could use a little more beefing up. But a player brought up an excellent point that you won’t actually know how much DPS you need until your raid starts hitting enrage timers of a boss. If that happens consistently, then it’s time to downshift and get the gear to help beat that timer.

The good

In that sense, it’s a good idea to share your vision for where you want to the guild (even if it’s just the short term). It seems that almost everyone has something that they want to contribute. In a 10 man, I bet that the feedback’s a little more manageable. But in a 25 man guild with a 30+ roster, it can get a little overwhelming when everyone has their own ideas. But nothing’s wrong with transparency when it comes to guild goals or even philosophy. At the very least, those who disagree with it know ahead of time what they’ve gotten themselves into. They can either embrace your style or move on and find another organization that best suits them

  • Goals
  • Values
  • Upcoming plans

The bad

Now what happens when transparency revolves around disciplinary action taken on a guild member by an officer? They may have been forced to sit out a night or become demoted because they were deliberately offensive to someone else or exceptionally poor raid play. I’m against sharing with other players why someone was punished. Frankly, I don’t think that’s their business. In my past experience, when an officer mentions in passing why someone was disciplined, people start talking about it and then sides start being taken which turns into a massive mess of a headache.

It’s not that big of a deal. The guy screwed up once and now they have to face the music. It’s not exactly something that’s up for debate. Having disciplinary action up for debate just causes more trouble than it’s worth. There’s no point in publically mentioning it either because then it turns into a point of public shaming (which could further exacerbate the issue and even cause them to leave). GMs have to periodically release players from their roster and there are good reasons to do it but it doesn’t have to be shared and not everyone needs to know.

I remember a really long time ago when one of my players came to me and said that they wouldn’t be able to raid that night (or for the next few raid nights). I asked if everything was okay, and she said no, she had been sexually assaulted. Immediately, I told her to take as much time as she needed, we’d still be here. Naturally, when a veteran who regularly appears in a raid stops showing up for a few nights, people notice. I started getting questions and out of respect, I had to deflect it. Even this information was withheld from my own officers because I didn’t know at the time if it was something that they needed to know. True, she never said “I’d like to keep it private”, but I felt I should’ve erred on the side of caution anyway. This is definitely one of the cases where one doesn’t have to be as transparent.

  • Private player matters
  • Disciplinary action

In the end, it’s beneficial to be as honest and forthcoming as possible. But recognize that GMs will occasionally be put into a really tough position. I’d wager most GMs are loyal to their guild first and will do just about anything to preserve it – even if it means slight deception.

I’m going to throw this topic out to you guys. One of the factors most prized about guilds (from applicants) is that of transparency. They don’t want to be left out in the dark. But exactly how much do you really want to know? Is there anything that can be left off the table?

Zone Healing

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Ever play Ultimate (or Ultimate Frisbee)?

The rules are quite simple. You have two teams starting at opposite end zones who attempt to advance the disc to the other team’s end zone. Once the pull (like a kickoff in football) is initiated the teams can start jockeying for possession. A team that advances the disc to an end zone secures the point.

Kicker: The person with the disc can’t move. They can pivot on one foot but they can’t move. The opposing team gains possession whenever any pass is incomplete, intercepted, or received out of bounds .

Teams will employ different strategies to prevent the other team from scoring. One of the common defensive strategies is zone defense. Players are pre-assigned to sections of the field as they attempt to intercept and stop opposing players from advancing towards their end zone. It’s used to stop the offensive team from making really long passes. There’s usually one or two players that will close in on the disc handler. There’s different variations of it, but the key concept is that the defenders have their own sections to work with (not to mention that covering a small area instead of advancing up and down the field all the time is great at minimizing fatigue — I would know).

Gosh, I can’t wait for summer to get here.

Zone healing

Now the concept of zone healing works the same way and is used in situations where not every player is within range of the healer or where players are constantly shifting in and out of range. Sometimes there are raid mechanism place preventing you from moving or that keep you constantly away from each other. Zone healing is an approach that directs the healers to only heal the people that are within range of them. They must trust the other healers to cover the players near themselves in other areas. If you’re assigned to the blue beam of Durumu’s platform, then you can heal anyone that comes in range as the other beams are being moved around. Most raid frames have a function where the individual frames turn transparent if a player isn’t in range. As the healer, this makes your job easier. Any frames that are opaque (or solid) are the players that depend on you to live.

I understand, I have trust issues too. For the officers, zone healing is a great way to isolate which healers are true rock stars and which ones are struggling.

It’s a simple and effective healing strategy to use if the encounter demands everyone to be spread out. Let me give you some examples:

Ji-Kun

Ji-Kun has an ability called Caw. It’s a common raid mechanic where she’ll send sound waves at a player and damages anyone nearby within 8 yards. This calls for people to be spaced out around her main platform. Depending on which Ji-Kun strategy you use, you’ll have groups clearing out nests and may not have the same, consistent number of players on the main platform at all times. Be flexible.

Dark Animus

Healers will have to generate threat on the little anima golems at the start of the fight to hold them in place. If the golems are brought together, their attack speed greatly increases and will quickly snowball into a wipe. This requires everyone to stand in place. As the little golems are gradually killed near the Massive Anima, players will be freed up and can move around the room consistently. In addition, Matter Swap will switch players with their most distant ally forcing healers to react accordingly and dispel or heal any teleported players.

As a healer, you’re not going to be able to hit everybody. DPS and tanks will come and go through your area of the map. It won’t always be a set group of players all the time. Keep the players in your zone healthy!

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Turtle Hate

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I thought the turtles in Firelands were bad. Nope! The Tortos ones are even worse. It took us forever the first time we got there to get him. Between the stalactites, the spinning turtles, and the earthquakes, it was a huge chaotic mess.

Biggest pressure point?

Me.

My effectiveness on this fight is practically zero. The majority of my time is spent marking turtles and assigning kickers at the right times. Leading and coordinating Tortos is a big nightmare and I start panicking whenever we get to him because I end up second guessing stuff throughout the fight. Thank goodness we 2 shot it the other night (our first wipe was due to an errant Hunter Barrage that went off when we were clearing bat trash, so it didn’t count as a one shot). It’s not always smooth sailing.

We’re now at week 4 and I’ve gotten a little more comfortable with it. The DPS has gone up leading to additional breathing room with turtles. The punters already know when to expect calls before I even make them and have started calling their turtles. But out of the encounters here so far, this is by far the most draining. I suppose it’s possible that I can eventually wean myself from marking turtles. Not quite there yet though because I’m concerned that two sets of turtle shells will go flying in and we miss out on a breath interrupt.

I hate turtles.

Hearthstone: Why the Disappointment?

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Because people got their expectations too high.

I’ll admit, I was one of them. I already knew it wasn’t going to be a game. I knew it wasn’t going to be an expansion or a new IP or anything like that. Blizzard would only save important news their own BlizzCon (or maybe E3). I’m a little amazed at some of the hate for it. They already said was going to be something small.

We can’t get hyped up for stuff like this because then we set ourselves up for a huge let down when it’s not an epic cinematic announcement or a title of sorts. In the announcement video, Blizzard mentioned they had a small team working on it. It’s meant to help you kill time. Add Hearthstone to another list of things you can do during Tuesday patch mornings.

And it’s free!

Granted, I thought it was going to be an announcement related to Blizzard All Stars, so I’m just as guilty of that. Once I heard about the announcement, everything clicked and actually made sense.

I was a huge Magic player back in the day. You can classify me as the Spike player, always looking for the power cards and investing amazing resources into it.

There are two problems that I foresee in my ability to enjoy Hearthstone:

  1. It’s a free 2 play game. League of Legends is also a free 2 play game. I’ve invested somewhere to the tune of $1200 in League of Legends in the form of boosts, champions, skins, and gifts. If there’s any cash options, I’m so screwed Sad smile.
  2. My dad has my iPad 3. Like all the time. I haven’t seen it since January. Actually, come to think of it he probably knows how to use it more than I do. When’s the last time any father knew more about current technology than their son? I am slacking.

Depending on guild interest, perhaps a Friday Night Hearthstone is in order. I remember playing FNM and having a blast. Despite playing the overpowered Jace-Eldrazi Bant deck, I only won a handful of FNMs (I hated Jund).

It looks like it’ll be a great entry level card game for those who want to try their hand at CCGs. No word on whether cards can be traded/sold, however.

The Heart of the Swarm

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Patch 5.2 last week.

Heart of the Swarm this week.

It’s a wonder that I got any sleep at all. Actually, I managed to beat the single player campaign on hard (I’ll give brutal a run later on). Blizzard’s story team made me feel absolutely depressed halfway through the campaign but by the end of the game I was eager to see what they had planned for the next expansion. Speaking of other games, last week Sim City came out and there was all sorts of issues with the game. Certain features were removed. Amazon had to pull the title from the store for some time due to server issues.

Blizzard learned much from it’s Diablo 3 launch last year. They staggered the launch times around the world to ensure that they wouldn’t get overwhelmed. I’m sure their networking teams learned much.

But they’re not quite off the hook.

I have to replay certain missions again. Why? Because the achievement servers were offline robbing me of precious achievements!

In the Warcraft front, we’re up to Magaera this week. Got to the 7th head. A kill should be coming in fairly soon. I’m a little anxious on Ji-Kun though because I’m still not 100% sure what to really expect when I get there. I want to get my thoughts together on Tortos though. Warmed up to the fight the first few times I did it on the beta, but after two kills on him so far, I’ve already grown weary.