I was having a discussion with a fellow officer last night after our raid. We had just completed ToC 25, Ony 25 and VoA 25, with relatively few speed bumps. My friend and I were talking about what makes me happy from a leadership perspective in a raid. I decided to type out the list I came up with as what I look for from my raiders.
Sign up! – One of the biggest problems any raid leader or anyone who organizes a raid is knowing peoples availability. My guild is very raid oriented and we do have raid sign-up sheets as well as a section for people to post when they are out of town ahead of time so we know who is available and when. We also ask our raiders if they can’t show to sign up on the list as not available. There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to track down people to make a raid happen. There has been many a time my guild leader has sent me a text asking where certain people are. The end result is both of us (more him than me due to my work schedule) scrambling to find people to fill gaps so that everyone else who signed up isn’t left in the cold without a raid.
Bring Consumables! – My guild supplies flasks, food and elixirs to raiders. We have officers and raiders that are potion and elixir specced so even if you don’t have access to the raider tab of the guild bank, you can get your consumables made. Often times us crafty types won’t even need all the mats, usually I just need the Frost Lotus and I can whip up a ton of flasks. We also have raiders who bring a ton of fish feasts so there’s always food buffs available as well. There’s very few things as frustrating durring a raid as waiting for people to buff up with flask and food or to hear someone didn’t bring any. If you need flasks, ask before the raid!
Have Your Gear Ready! – Before showing up to a raid make sure you’re gear is properly enchanted and gemmed. If you have that shiny new piece of gear you want to wear to the raid that is fine and dandy, but make sure it’s ready to use! It’s incredibly frustrating to see a raider show up with empty sockets or no enchants. I know in my guild, we supply Abyss Crystal’s for guildies to use on enchants, and enchanters will supply the rest of the mats 9/10 times. JC’s are always available and we stagger patterns for the most part so there is always someone who can cut a gem that you will need.
Make sure your gear is repaired before starting the raid. One boss in it’s not fun to hear some one’s gear is in the red. Also make sure you’re using the right gear. Some people will fish or cook before the raid and sometimes forget to take off their fishing pole before heading off to the run (*cough*fishingpoleZabos*cough*) and then do part of the instance in the wrong gear.
Know The Fights! – Most raid leaders will have the information readily available and posted for you to view well before the raid begins. I make it a point to sticky all the boss strategies and videos at the top of the thread aptly named “Raider Forums”. With the Internet around and sites like bosskillers, tankspot and our own little space here at WoM there is a plethora of information available on most if not all fights in the game. At least have a general idea of what is going to happen, it makes our job a little easier when we’re explaining what we need you to do and it helps keep the pace of the raid up.
Don’t Ninja AFK! – Having players afk or ninja off of ventrillo without saying a peep to anyone is very annoying. Calling out for someone to do something over vent and get no response is not fun, nor is waiting for someone to get back from the afk before a pull. While I used ventrillo as an example, this holds true to raid chat, party chat. Basically just pay attention to communications. If you need an afk break just send a tell to the raid leader and say “afk 2 min” just let us know!
Mind Your Attitude! – This is a very social game. In a group or raid you are interacting with 4, 9 or 24 other people all with the goal of having fun in mind. We all understand that real life happens and things outside of your control will affect your mood, but when you’re in such a dour mood that you’re bringing everyone around you down or you’re spending more time kvetching rather than raiding, it might be time to take a break for the night. Getting snippy, pitching fits or the like is non conducive and counterproductive to a raid. You need to be able to check the baggage at the door and unwind and have fun for a little while with a group of people.
To quote Matt “Either leave it at the door or just leave”.
Don’t Stand in the Fire!!! – Since the dawn of raiding, players have been drawn to standing in the fire. It’s warm cozy effect lulls them into a sense of security and happiness. As a raid leader there is nothing more frustrating than watching someone stand in the fire / void zone / thunderstorm / aoe damage and just die instead of moving. It is the bane of all raid leaders! Yes sometimes things happen like lag or graphics bugs. But as I told one raider last night, if you don’t see a spell effect and your health is going down maybe move a couple feet to the left or right and see if it stops! Help us help you stay alive! Remember you can’t DPS if you’re dead!
Leading a raid is often times thankless and almost always a very frustrating job. We see to the happiness and well being of a multitude of people and try to make sure the raids happen in such a way that people are still having fun rather than feeling more worn down at the end of the night. We appreciate any help we can get in making things go smoothly. When your raiders come prepared and happy it makes things so much easier not only on the leaders, but the raid as a whole. My raiders do the things above and I can honestly say I love raiding with my guild because of it. It lets us goof off and have a good time enjoying the game together and less time worrying about making sure everyone is ready. Yes hiccups happen but for the most part they are all on the ball, and that makes me very happy.
What about you? What do you do to help make raids and groups easier?
P.S.
A total non sequitur here but like matt I too have my own projects I work on when I’m not writing for WoM. If I could I’d like to take a second to plug my latest project (Thanks matt for the go ahead to plug =D).
Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know this but for those who don’t I’ve recently started co-hosting a podcast about gaming with two other “gentlemen”. Rodger / @wowdawgs from www.wowdawgs.com and Enrique / @spoonwolf from www.spooncraft.com. Our podcast is For The Lore and is available free for download from iTunes. Direct links can be found at Forthelore.com. Join us for all things surrounding story driven gaming. We stream live on mondays through ustream with pre show starting at 6:45pm est. We cover all games with a story there as well as our own works of fiction writing and game design. We do cover WoW but not exclusively!
That’s all I have for today. Until next time, Happy Healing!
Image from druidheal.com
The ninja AFK is definitely amongst my biggest pet peeves. Complaining about loot during a run is sure to get on my bad side as well. The appropriate time is after the raid. Perhaps, the least expected thing is I really do prefer quiet raiders especially if you’re new to my raid. I already have a network of people that I trust to discuss fights. Too many voices is just chaos.
.-= Veneretio´s last blog ..Revelations: Rethinking Glyph of Indomitability =-.
Know the loot rules, and if you use DKP – know how much you have. Fifteen seconds after the boss drops that awesome piece of shiny you want is not the time to be raising an issue about a DKP mistake….
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My biggest annoyance is the “Mind your attitude.” Theres nothing worse than being in a 5 man with someone who is elitist, acting better than everyone else, pulling before the tank, complaining about someone only doing 3.5k dps, etc. Nothing bothers me more in this game. If you don’t have something nice to type, then don’t type anything at all!
And also, I hate to admit that I’ve done the fishing pole one before lol.
.-= Smashie´s last blog ..Guide: Ret pvp spec =-.
@Smashie we’ve all done the gear thing before I think at one point or another lol but it’s nice to have my raiders send me a tell or say it on vent to remind everyone to check their gear. Especially after a resistance fight like Saph.
I don’t know about raid leaders, but people in fires…omfg…
As a healer it’s a pain in the ass to keep them alive. Or those people who have an AoE spell on them and they run through the middle and wipe the entire raid, making sure to kill the healers first. It sucks and it pisses off the raid leaders, and then they call it and we never get to finish 🙁
.-= Just Jennifer´s last blog ..So How About Those Mom Cliques? =-.
My biggest pet peeve is people not owning up to their mistakes
I would much prefer someone to say “ya that was me and it won’t happen again I will fix it” then staying silent and hoping no one noticed
@kimboslice I run “nanny” mods like obituary and ensidia fails. I make it known that I use said items. I don’t have to use it with my raiders (thankfully) as they all own up to their mistakes, but it helps break the habit you just described early. (just letting them know you run it not necessarily having it report to raid)
All of the above!!!!
Not to mention the chronically late people those that assume they don’t have to be on time because they can be summoned.,or the people who “borrow” something during a raid and for some reason feel they don’t have to pay it back. Where is that written??
I’d give up almost everything on the list if people would stop standing in fires….
That being said, proper signups and pre-repairing are high points on my raids.
I have never understood how people can stand in the fire. Really. How oblivious to their surroundings can people be? It makes me scared becaus if those people don’t pay attention during their hobbies, when they SHOULD by all rights be paying the most attention becuase they are doing something they choose to do, what hope do any of us have when they’re, say, driving along and something happens suddenly that requires their attention, such as a sudden braking while driving?
.-= Professor Beej´s last blog ..Dollhouse – Evolution of Joss Whedon’s Tried and True? =-.
Great article and all excellent points 🙂 I wish more people would pay attention to that sort of stuff! Bottom line is that I think a lot of people don’t take raiding seriously and don’t care which is a shame because it can create a lot of stress and ruin it for other people. It’s all about managed, constructive fun! 🙂
.-= We Fly Spitfires´s last blog ..Inbreeding In Aion =-.
You forgot one… Dump it before you pull it… Aggro that is.
Its not as bad these days, but there are still fights (especially as a warrior, hey, I get rage starved sometimes) where DPS can pull aggro. Please. Please Mr Hunter, Feign before you make Onyxia spin and cleave and breathe all over the healers you stood in the middle of.
very relevant post, just linked on our guild forums as we have had issue with people signing for raids. We also just relaxed our rules for Ulduar as it’s pretty much on farm but found that people responded with ninja afks and attitude 😐
.-= Upyursh´s last blog ..Addon Review: Skada – Recount Alternative or Killer? =-.
Ninja AFK’ing and Attitude issues saw 2 members of the guild I’m in (in which I’m an officer) removed. There’s only so many times you can call for someone over Ventrilo, PM’s, *and* raid chat without them answering that it starts to irritate you- and the rest of the raid- to no end (not to mention hearthing to Ironforge after a wipe without a word to anyone in the raid, only to respond “I’m going to level my enchanting”… yes that really happened).
Attitude is the other one. My guild is a laid-back, casual, we-raid-for-fun guild, and people who come in and get all hardcore and negative because someone peed in their cheerios this morning are really not tolerated- especially when it’s directed at the newer raiders on a run, whose mistakes may be from pure inexperience.
.-= Binya´s last blog ..A Busy, Grind-Happy Week =-.
Actually I find signing up systems often to be stupid.
In our situtation:
We’re a raiding guild, everyone fills in a little form on the recruitment page and one of the questions is: we raid 4 times/week. This this that and that day, can you come.
I’ve never ever seen a recruit who answered no.
Sometimes a “yes” often times a “that’s no problem I can make those times easy” and sometimes a “I never log out only when server resets I’m not online”.
So, in my image: everyone can come everyday and we recruit on that so on raiding day………everyone should be there.
Except………….when you can’t.
SWo I’m trying to change things in my guild to get a “sign down” system. You said when you joined that you could come all days: let us know when you can’t come.
Also I think a sign up system sends a wrong message. It sends a message that you can choose from the raiddays the days you like most.
NO. You signed up to be a raider and are expected to be there.
Just like a soccer team: you call when there’s an exception and you can’t come. For the rest you’re expected to show up.
(oh yeah, I heard it’s an undocumented feature that you get a big haste buff while standing in the fire ;-))