Officers' Quarters: State secrets

Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook.

Privacy and information security has never been a more relevant topic than right now. With the revelation that the U.S. and British governments have been engaged in unprecedented worldwide surveillance of our Internet communications and phone calls, the threat to our privacy is very real.

As an officer, you are on both sides of such situations. It's up to you what information to collect about your members and about other guilds. It's also up to you what to keep to yourself, what to share with your guildmates, and what to share with the world. Let's look at some of the privacy issues that officers must face.

The world and your logs

Combat logs are a valuable tool. You can tell a great deal about a player or a guild's strengths and weaknesses from their combat logs. Many raiding guilds require a link to an applicant's logs before they'll invite them to the roster.

When other guilds make their logs public, go ahead and look. If you're struggling on a boss, study what other guilds are doing to beat the encounter. Look at their composition, their average DPS, the spells their healers use most frequently, etc. It's fair game, and if guilds leave their logs public, you can assume they don't mind people poring through their data.

Keep in mind, however, that all logs on World of Logs are set to public by default, which means anyone can look at them, including the rival guilds on your realm. You can keep them private if you want to, but you have to set them to be private.

If your raid team is struggling, uploading public logs may not always be in your best interest. After all, you might ask recruits for their logs, but they might look at yours before they even decide whether to apply.

Log visibility helps the community, so I encourage guilds to keep their logs public. However, no one will blame you if you don't want to show the world what you've been up to in your raids.

You're not the NSA

Applications are important for building the best possible roster no matter what your guild's goals are, from raiding to RP to PvP. Finding out about a player before inviting them helps you to keep out the troublemakers and needy players that will drag down the guild experience for everyone.

It's easy to go overboard on questions. Asking about age is relevant. Beyond that, you don't need to know where someone lives, what they do for a living, or what their kids' names are to figure out whether they belong in your guild. You're not screening NSA employees, after all, just guildmates.

It's best to focus more on their gaming and guild experiences and less on their personal lives. I like to keep personal application questions open-ended. The best one, in my opinion, is one of the simplest: "Tell us something interesting about yourself."

They won't reveal anything they don't want you to know, but their response will still tell you a great deal about them as people. Best of all, they won't feel coerced into giving up private information just to get an invite.

The no-win IP trace

If you use a Vent server, it's possible to obtain a player's IP address from the software. You can then trace that address using any of several different methods to reveal what location they're logging in from. But should you?

In most cases, a trace does more harm than good. If a raider says they can't attend because they're in a hotel room with crappy wifi, a quick IP trace might reveal that they're actually right at home. Do you really want to know this, however? It merely confirms what you already suspected. Plus, calling the player on it is likely to drive them out of the guild, whether due to outrage or embarrassment. The white lie that they're traveling is a way for them to take a night off without giving you the real reason, which they obviously considered too private to share. By tracking them down, you're not doing them or yourself any favors.

Sure, we'd all prefer that such a person be honest about their reasons, but prying into their affairs is worse. A better approach is to ask them to be honest with you rather than snooping.

If some anonymous user is disrupting your Vent, you can track their IP to figure out where they're from. That may reveal who it could be, such as a disgruntled ex-member -- if you know where they live. However, it's easier to ban their IP from the server and move on with your life.

Tactics like IP tracing might also raise real worry among your current members. If you're willing to do that, they might wonder what you would do to them if they cross you. Not to mention, the methods you use can put you in murky legal territory, depending on the laws of your country.

Damage cooldowns

Drama happens. We do our best to contain it, but sometimes it just gets away from us. In these cases, the most effective way to mitigate the damage is to keep it as private as possible. Move conversations from guild chat to whispers, a private channel, or an invite-only Vent channel. Discuss the problems with the officers in /o or in your officer-only forums.

You can't -- and shouldn't -- order players not to discuss details, but you can ask them not to.

The only time you owe your guildmates full disclosure is if the drama involves corruption within the leadership. For example, say an officer has been embezzling from the guild bank. Or they've been favoring friends with raid invites in express violation of guild policy. In these cases, you really need to disclose everything to your guild members. Otherwise, rumors will spread and no one will trust your officers again.

In the case of personal drama between players, on the other hand, the less that is said in public the better. If a player asks you about it, the best response is simply to tell them, "The officers are handling it."

If you have to discuss drama with the guild as a whole, make sure it's in a place where no one from outside the guild can overhear you or, worse, copy and paste from a website and preserve the dysfunction for all time.

Outlandish revelations

In the course of months and years in a leadership position, you may find guild members telling you very strange things about themselves. Some of it can be highly personal, shocking, or bizarre. Some of it may even be criminal in nature.

The best policy in these situations is similar to that of a psychiatrist: tell no one what you've heard unless you have a strong feeling that the person is about to hurt someone or themselves.

Short of that, zip it. Gossip is an ugly habit for a person in a position of trust.

/salute Officers' Quarters keeps your guild leadership on track to cope with sticky situations such as members turned poachers or the return of an ex-guild leader and looking forward to what guilds need in Mists of Pandaria. Send your own guild-related questions and suggestions to scott@wowinsider.com. Tags: applications, building-guilds, combat-logs, drama, featured, guide, guide-to-officers, guild-advice, guild-applications, guild-leadership, guild-management, guild-officers, guilds-guide, ip-address, ip-trace, leadership, officers-quarters, privacy, secrets, world-of-logs, wow-guide, wow-guild-management, wow-guilds, wow-leadership

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Officers' Quarters: One realm's solution to low population

Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook.

Low population realms have been a problem in WoW as far back as 2007 and they continue to be. Blizzard has opted not to merge realms like other aging MMO's have done. For a long time, players asked for these mergers. They've watched their already low-pop realms bleed more players because of the population problem, making the issue worse and worse.

Recently, Blizzard unveiled their solution this ongoing issue: virtual realms. Potentially slated to arrive in patch 5.4, virtual realms could be the answer that we've been waiting for. In the meantime, however, one low-pop realm has taken matters into their own hands by organizing their guilds and creating a better experience. They call it the Kargath Guild Council on Kargath-US.

I had the pleasure of interviewing two of the minds behind the KGC -- Battlevixen, officer of Bloodsworn, and Merciful, guild leader of The Iron Fist -- about why they founded the council and the challenges they've faced along the way.

What was your realm like prior to the formation of the KGC?

Battlevixen: Prior to KGC, Kargath suffered from attendance issues that did not allow a lot of guilds and groups to raid. We had a lot of smaller guilds/groups that could not fill a 10man roster. Very few players were able to even pug because of this. There was also almost no communication between all the various guilds. Each guild kept to themselves for the most part.

Merciful: In addition to people who just stopped playing WoW, we were losing good players to other realms. The notion is that Kargath is a dying realm, and once that takes root in people's minds, they self-select themselves off the realm.

Why did you decide on a guild council as a solution?

Battlevixen: Merciful and I thought a serverwide guild council would be the best way as players that we could help our server. At the time, Blizzard had not announced their intentions of creating flex raids or virtual realms. The biggest issue we saw was that there were a lot of guilds recruiting and a lot of players looking for raiding guilds/teams but these people were not connecting due to real life activities and raid time availability. This really hurt the PvE progression on Kargath because only the larger guilds were able to raid consistently. We had a highly progressed raiding guild completely switch to a high population server as well as several long-standing guilds completely collapse due to not being able to fill a raiding roster to allow them to consistently raid.

Merciful: Communication -- we wanted everyone to understand that they weren't alone in the situation that was evolving, i.e. that attendance and the normal course of players leaving would start to erode all our ability to raid.

What was the response like after you announced the idea? Were other guild and raid leaders receptive?

Battlevixen: We had 22 different guilds attend our first meeting and everyone agreed that we had to do something ourselves to better the server. By sitting back and not doing anything, we were watching our server population dwindle down to almost nothing and that hurt recruitment and progression. Everyone agreed that we had to be the ones to take action to improve our server. We had a few people that opposed the KGC at first, but now almost everyone is onboard and utilizing the KGC to help our realm out.

Merciful: I was surprised at the high turnout. I expected half that many. It really showed me how concerned everyone is about what is happening. On one level it shows you how much people want this game to continue and this situation to resolve. It's a great sign that people care and with that you can solve a lot of problems.

Tell us a bit about how the council operates.

Battlevixen: The KGC meets once a month on a pre-determined Ventrilo where GMs, raid leaders, and officers discuss problems and possible solutions. We try to determine how effective we can be and how we can improve on what we are doing. We have a KGC channel in-game that allows GMs and raid leaders to more readily be able to find potential recruits or even just a temporary fill-in for their raids. This also opens the line of communication between all the various guilds and their GMs, which was not there before. Prior to KGC, most guilds kept to themselves and did not interact much with other guilds. We try to promote and host OpenRaid and serverwide LFRs for players on the realm. This is also used as a recruiting tool to try to bring more players to Kargath.

Merciful: Again -- ever increasing ways for people to communicate with each other and play the game across guild lines.

What unexpected challenges have you encountered?

Battlevixen: We have had some open opposition from players that felt we were trying to abuse the KGC to create mega-guilds and weed out all the smaller guilds, which is not the case. Some players prefer smaller guilds, so we want to try to provide a more stable raiding schedule for them. The KCG can be, at times, time consuming that diverts our attention from real life things. We do not have a president or chairman for the KGC. We do not want anyone to feel they need to stay online 24/7 to maintain the KGC. Every member of the KGC helps out voluntarily.

Merciful: Time mostly. We have our own raid teams, real life, and then the other things we do for fun in the game, that devoting a few hours to this a week is difficult.

Do you have advice for other low-population realms out there?

Battlevixen: With the soon release of virtual realms, low-population realms will be able to more consistently raid. To help your specific realm, no matter what the population is, players need to communicate. Not to just their friends and guildies, but to everyone on your server. Set aside old beefs with players and open the lines of communication between all the various guilds and raid leaders on your server. That is the first step in trying to help out your realm. Set up alliances between several guilds to raid together, and if everything goes well, you could eventually talk about merging the guilds together. Create realm hosted LFRs, PUGs, and OpenRaids. There will have to be sacrifices made on all sides though and everyone has to be willing to do what they can to try to help out. You have to want to make your server better.

Merciful: Echoing Battlevixen -- communication. The first step to addressing the issue is getting your server together and talking. Very low pop servers are going to have a very tough time. My next thought would be to find similar servers and talk cross server -- see if you can at least team up somehow for events that Blizzard allows cross zone (PvP, challenge modes, previous tier achievement runs). Kargath (our server) is in the top third of all US servers as ranked by WoWProgress and still it's considered a dying realm. I can't imagine what one of the bottom third servers must be going through.

What's your opinion on the virtual realms concept?

Battlevixen: The concept of virtual realms is appealing, however I think it is a step away from community. Back in vanilla, BC, and Wrath, there was a huge sense of community within guilds and realms. People had something they could be proud of and they were willing to work together to accomplish a common goal. I do think virtual reams will help smaller population servers by having easier access to raiding consistently, but I do not think it will bring back that sense of community.

Merciful: Battlevixen has hit it on the head -- it's about building a community. You want to raid with friends and people you enjoy playing the game with, not just random people you pick up through an LFR interface. Virtual realms is an acknowledgement of the game's declining population. The old ways of building and retaining raid teams and guilds through community tools doesn't work efficiently anymore (forums, posts in recruitment threads, etc.). All those relied on a growing community. The question for the Blizzard devs is "How do you help us build communities -- and how does virtual realms support that effort?" There are many solutions, and the one elephant in the room that virtual realms points to is "Alliances" although that is probably too radical for them to consider anytime soon.

Thanks to you both! Good luck with the council, the realm, and your guilds.

It's fantastic when guilds collaborate. Often, guilds working together can solve problems that no single guild could solve alone. If any other realms out there are organizing in this way, I'd love to hear about it below.

/salute Officers' Quarters keeps your guild leadership on track to cope with sticky situations such as members turned poachers or the return of an ex-guild leader and looking forward to what guilds need in Mists of Pandaria. Send your own guild-related questions and suggestions to scott@wowinsider.com. Tags: building-guilds, featured, guide, guide-to-officers, guild-advice, guild-alliances, guild-leadership, guild-management, guild-officers, guilds-guide, kargath, kargath-guild-council, leadership, low-pop, low-population, low-population-servers, officers-quarters, raiding, recruiting, virtual-realms, wow-guide, wow-guild-management, wow-guilds, wow-leadership

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Officers' Quarters: 7 ways to stop the bleeding

Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook.

The good news for raid leaders these days is that so much help is coming from patch 5.4, if what's on the PTR is any indication. Flexible raiding could be a lifesaver for guilds who stalled out in today's challenging normal modes. Virtual realms could inject new blood into every realm. The Throne of Thunder raid should see an across-the-board nerf from the patch, too. With all of these changes on the horizon, what raid leaders need to focus on right now is holding on and keeping their teams intact.

The bad news is that no one knows when the patch will drop. We are likely at least six weeks away from 5.4, and probably longer than that since Blizzard has new systems to test and a new raid to tune. This week's email comes from a raid leader who isn't sure he can make it:

Hello Scott,

I am the current Raid Leader of a 10 man raid guild that considers ourselves to be progression-focused, semi-hardcore, or whatever you want to call it. We raid 3 nights a week for 3 hours a night, keep logs of all our runs, and really push to be successful. In the past, this worked out fairly well for us, as our guild maintained a top-10 place on our server according to wowprogress.com all through tiers 12, 13, and 14. However, since the release of MoP the members that made up the original progression team have been slowly bleeding away for one reason or another. At first, these losses could be absorbed by the extra standbys on our roster as well as a few people that swapped from our more casual 2-night-per-week team. Eventually we had to start recruiting out of guild in order to fill our raids each week. Generally speaking, for each player we lost the replacement we found was of a lesser caliber, whether it be in skill, gear level, or dedication.

With the release of ToT and the difficulty of certain bosses (Horridon for example), our progression has begun to seriously stumble.

We are now no longer even top 20 on our server, and it seems like every couple of weeks we lose another player. [...] From week to week we often struggle to get 10 players on ready to raid. Because of this we have to tolerate poor performance, unannounced absences, constantly showing up late to raid, and other things that simply got you benched back in the days when we had a strong roster of 13 skilled players. There are a plethora of raiding guilds on our medium-population server that are competing for good players, so recruitment has been extremely difficult as of late, and as we slip further and further behind progression-wise we have very little to attract new players with. [...]

Being made Raid Leader also has made me feel personally responsible for the successes and failures of the team, and while I'd like to think I do a decent job at leading the objective evidence of our poor progression suggests otherwise.

What advice would you give to a raiding guild that sees itself steadily slipping from relevancy? How can we hope to shore up our team and start having fun and killing bosses again? Is it even possible to get ourselves back on track, or do we have to reevaluate our goals as a guild and as a raid team?

Thanks very much for your time.

Sincerely,

Struggling to Keep it All Together

Many guilds are in your shoes right now, STKIAT. Don't let your slip in the rankings fool you. I think you can turn the team around, if you're willing to try. Here's what I suggest.

1. Figure out why players are leaving. Are you skipping over the actual reasons when you say raiders are leaving "for one reason or another" or do you not know the reasons? If you don't know, you really need to find out. If you can track some of these departed players down, ask them about it. Now that they're gone, they might be willing to offer information that they didn't want to bring up before they left. This is also a chance for you to feel them out about coming back, if they haven't found new raiding guilds already or burned the bridge back to yours.

2. Communicate with your existing raiders about what they like and don't like about your raids. Along the same lines as above, you need to figure out what it is that's driving people out of the guild. Even if you already have a really good idea, you might be surprised by what people tell you if you straight-up ask them. It's never a waste of time even if you're right, either, because it shows your raiders that you're trying to improve their raiding experience. Player retention should be your top priority, and communication helps retention.

3. Don't tolerate disrespectful behavior. I assume your raid team is mostly adults or older teens who are responsible for their own actions. Benching people or doling out punishments doesn't really do much to prevent problems like late log-ins, low attendance, or attitude. It just makes people sulky, crabby, or both -- and you're likely to need them someday.

A better approach is to have private conversations with these players and treat the issue as a problem that you both need to solve. Ask if there's anything you can do to help them out. Either they will open up about the issues they're having, in which case you can try to figure it out together, or they'll have to admit that they've just been lazy.

Don't underestimate the power of public shaming, either, especially if you've already had private talks about the problem and they haven't shaped up. Calling people out as late or absent over Vent -- in a calm, straightforward way -- can let everyone know that you're aware of it and you don't like it.

Whatever you do, don't ignore these issues and let people get away with them. Other players on your team may not say anything to you, but privately they might be really frustrated about it.

4. Be careful about "poaching" from your own raid teams. It's always tempting to find players from within the guild to plug holes. However, if your guild has a progression team and a casual team, mixing the two is going to create a messy situation. The progression team may feel hamstrung by poor-performing or less-motivated casual raiders, the casual raiders who make the switch may feel overwhelmed, and the casual raiders who are "left behind" might resent the fact that you are taking their raiders.

5. Evaluate the reasons for your progression stall. Find different strategies. Coach underperformers. Break the bad habits of your veterans. Study logs of the guilds who are beating those bosses. Check out my tips for raiding in Mists. It's meant for more casual raiders, but I think much of it would apply here also. I also recommend this column on successful raiding guilds.

6. Recruit. Duh, I know, but a great way to stop the bleeding is to find new blood. A new player makes everyone feel better about a raid team, especially if that person is a solid raider. It reinforces the fact that this is, in fact, a team that people want to join. To stop losing people, you have to add people. You're not going to sell raiders on your progression during this patch, but you can always sell them on a good raiding environment -- but first you have to fix that environment and make your pitch true.

A schedule change might help both attendance problems and recruiting. Three nights for three hours may not be ideal. Two nights for four and a half hours could be better for adults with families and jobs without costing you any raid time. Whatever schedule most guilds on your realm follow, try to be different and you might recruit players just because your times work better for them.

7. Talk about the plan moving forward. Once you've gathered all the information you can, acknowledge the problems in a forum post. Explain what the guild's goals are going to be in the near future and after patch 5.4 releases. Mention what the patch is bringing to WoW and how you can leverage it to help the raid team succeed. Give them leadership that's honest about the past but optimistic about the future. It could be exactly what people need to feel better about your raiding situation.

By taking a proactive approach and emphasizing communication, you can hold out till 5.4 drops. I wish you and all the other hard-working raid leaders out there plenty of luck!

/salute Officers' Quarters keeps your guild leadership on track to cope with sticky situations such as members turned poachers or the return of an ex-guild leader and looking forward to what guilds need in Mists of Pandaria. Send your own guild-related questions and suggestions to scott@wowinsider.com. Tags: building-guilds, featured, guide, guide-to-officers, guild-advice, guild-leadership, guild-management, guild-officers, guilds-guide, leadership, officers-quarters, player-retention, raid-leadership, raid-leading, raiding, stop-the-bleeding, wow-guide, wow-guild-management, wow-guilds, wow-leadership

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Officers' Quarters: Flexible raiding and you

Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook.

Just when I think I have Blizzard figured out, they throw us a curveball. Only a month ago, I made the case on the Starting Zone podcast that raiding had evolved into three difficulty levels, and those levels could be compared to the easy, normal, and hard modes that most single-player games offer. I wrote in a column that normal mode raiding should now be labeled "guild raiding," because it took a certain level of coordination to succeed at that level. Normal raiding is no longer PUG friendly.

I said on the podcast that Blizzard is still figuring out just where the difficulty of normal modes should lie on the curve. It seemed that once their encounter designers figured out the appropriate tuning for the three modes, that is what raiding would look like for all foreseeable upcoming tiers and expansions.

As it turned out, Blizzard had a new raiding system hidden up their sleeve the entire time -- a system that few could have predicted. Let's look at the potential impact of this new way to raid and how your guild might need to adjust.

A brief history of "flexible" raiding

We've had "flexible" raid sizes a few times in WoW's history. You could run Molten Core with 40 players, but in reality you could succeed with far fewer. Up until Ragnaros, a full complement of 40 players was a luxury rather than an ideal. The original Onyxia encounter was doable with 20-something raiders if you knew the fight.

One of the reasons Blizzard reduced the raid size to 25 in The Burning Crusade is because they wanted each player to matter. Thus, this expansion wasn't very flexible at any raid size.

During Wrath of the Lich King, most raid bosses prior to Icecrown Citadel in their normal incarnations could be defeated rather handily with less than a full group. (In fact you could earn achievements for doing so.) Since then, however, most raid bosses have been tuned too tightly to run with empty slots unless you already had a leg up on gear.

Also, raid leaders knew we were hamstringing our raid by running with fewer people. Flexible raiding is about to change all that.

The future of flex

Smart guilds have extra raiders. People to fill in and swap in as needed, because falling short of 10 or 25 was a big problem. 10-man raiding guilds no longer have to leave those people at the portal. Your raids can be inclusive rather than exclusive. 25-man raiding guilds no longer have to recruit or poach like crazy if their raid falls short of the required amount. They can just use the flexible option.

Granted, hardcore progression guilds are going to shun this option, at least for their main raids. Flexible raiding isn't really meant for them. Yes, they will use it to learn an encounter or for extra gear, to get alts up to speed or to train new players. For them, it could become a "better" LFR.

The guilds who run flexible raids as their main raids will be those who raid for fun and the social aspect. Such guilds who don't want to deal with LFR jerks will no longer have to. Fun-first guilds for whom normal mode was too taxing can stop banging their heads against the Elegons, Garalons, and Horridons of normal mode. Complex loot systems will be irrelevant because flexible raiding will use LFR's per-player looting. In short, flexible raiding could be a casual raider's dream come true.

We may also see a resurgence of PUGs. What was once a common practice in WoW has fallen by the wayside of late except for a handful of world bosses. Anything besides LFR has been too complex for most PUGs to handle. Flexible raiding could change that.

This is an opportunity for officers and raid leaders. By inviting PUG players from your realm (or even cross-realm), you'll have opportunities to recruit that weren't readily available before. Best of all, you'll never have that awkward situation when you bring in a PUG but then your guildmate logs in two bosses later and you have to decide between them. Also, bringing PUGs will never mean lost loot for the guild.

The right mode for your guild

Come 5.4, many guilds will have to decide which raiding mode will be their focus. Your members are likely to have mixed opinions. Some of your raiders will prefer to use the flexible option to skip the headaches of normal mode. Others will see it as too easy and worry about getting bored.

The first step toward deciding is always communication. Talk to your raiders about their preferences and see if you have a large majority that favors one mode over the other. That will make your choice easy, and of course you can revisit it later depending on what happens.

The best part of this new system is not just flexibility for the number of raiders, but a flexible difficulty level also. Unlike the normal to hard mode progression, you'll have both difficulty levels available right away (though not the entire raid's worth). If your guild is split and you're not sure what to do, my advice is to begin with the flexible raid. Here's why: It's better to begin with success and move up than the reverse. If your guild destroys the flexi-bosses then you can upgrade to normal using your success as a springboard. If you begin with normal and have to give up, however, your morale will suffer. Low morale can make the flexible raid mode harder than it should be for your raid.You won't have to sit people in those first few weeks when everyone is excited and wants to see the new raid zone.Everyone will be able to see the boss mechanics, at least if you're a 10-man raid with extra people. If you transition to normal mode, that will mean an easier learning curve no matter who's raiding that night.Whatever you decide, again, be sure to communicate. Explain to your raiders what you'll tackle first and how you plan to proceed based on the outcome of your early efforts. During the weeks that follow, gather feedback from your raiders about what they like and don't like about the mode you chose. Discuss and adjust.

One interesting question remains: Does WoW need four distinct difficulty levels? Will Blizzard continue to spend the time and resources required to tune four levels? Or will flexible raiding eventually become the normal mode, leaving hard mode raiding as the lone level that requires having a specific amount of raiders on your roster?

Ghostcrawler says no, but who can say what the future will bring? In the meantime, let's enjoy the plethora of options that we will have at our disposal when we go after Garrosh in 5.4.

/salute Officers' Quarters keeps your guild leadership on track to cope with sticky situations such as members turned poachers or the return of an ex-guild leader and looking forward to what guilds need in Mists of Pandaria. Send your own guild-related questions and suggestions to scott@wowinsider.com. Tags: building-guilds, featured, flexible-raiding, guide, guide-to-officers, guild-leadership, guild-management, guild-officers, guilds-guide, leadership, officers-quarters, raiding, wow-guide, wow-guild-management, wow-guilds, wow-leadership

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Officers' Quarters: Next in command

Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook.

Some people became guild leaders because they had a vision for a new type of guild or a new policy. Some just saw a need for better organization among a group of friends and took up the mantle. Some are elected. Some volunteer. Others have the position thrust upon them.

Such is the case for the author of this week's email:

Hi Scott,

I was recently given the GM position by my former GM who also happens to be our raid leader. He's cancelled his subscription as he's not enjoying the game anymore, and left everything to me. His leaving has caused other members to leave as well, for similar reasons. I can't fault them for not wanting to stay if they aren't enjoying the game.

I initially feared these people leaving would be the death of both the raid team and the guild (we are small, with few people playing other than to raid), but other members of the guild have stepped up and begun to help with recruiting to replace our missing raiders, and I am very appreciative of their efforts.

So my greatest problem at this point is that I never wanted to be GM or raid leader, and now I'm both.

As an officer, I would help guildies with quests or crafting, sending invites to alts and so on. I was perfectly content with this role, as I am one of the more active players. These days though, I am less than excited to login. What was a fun diversion and social experience is becoming a chore where I'm supposed to run everything.

I rolled an alt on another realm, on the opposing faction, and found a nice guild there. The intention was to just have a way to play and enjoy the game again without feeling the pressure of being in charge. I find that I am now more inclined to login to this alt than my main because the game is fun again. The complete lack of pressure (which is largely self-imposed I guess) is great.

I don't want to cause any more turmoil in my guild, and don't want to leave my raid team hanging, but if things continue as they are now, I can foresee myself quitting in frustration.

I don't really know how to deal with this without causing more trouble. Any suggestions?

- Not Enjoying Leadership

Hi, NEL. The good news is that you have plenty of guild members who are willing to pitch in. Not every guild leader is so fortunate. It could be worse.

It's not strange for you to feel this way, though. You didn't want the responsibility. You didn't ask for it. You shouldn't feel guilt or shame that you want to stop doing it. This is a very predictable outcome based on how you got both positions.

Besides, being a guild leader or a raid leader is a high-stress position. Being both is asking for burnout. I always recommend splitting these roles.

Not a life sentence

You've done your part in managing the community during this crisis, but you don't have to be the guild leader forever. Think of it this way. If your commanding officer falls in battle, and you're second in command, then you need to take charge in that moment for the good of your fellow soldiers. You need to get them through the battle safe, the best that you can.

You've done that. The worst is over. Now you can resign if you want to. You can ask for a new CO.

No matter what happens, your members will be grateful to you for keeping the guild and the raid team from collapsing after the old guild/raid leader quit.

Step down the right way

Start by informing your officers that you're feeling too much stress and not having fun anymore. You're burned out. Tell them what you'd like to do, whether that's returning to your old role or stepping away from the game or the guild for a while. Be honest with them that you don't want to resume these positions in the future.

Some will panic, but reassure them that you want to do this the right way. You don't want to repeat the mistakes of the guild leader who dumped everything in your lap.

Remember that it's not just your problem. You're not alone in this. You're not the only one who has to come up with a solution. Let the officers discuss it. As a team, you should all decide what to do next. Hopefully, other officers will volunteer for the roles that you're vacating.

If anyone is hesitant, ask them to try it out for a month. If they don't like it, someone else can try. No one should feel like they will be trapped in a position they don't want, like you did.

Once you've identified successors, then you can tell the rest of the guild that you are stepping down and why. Such an announcement is far less shocking and troubling when you've already got a solution to it.

I hope you can resolve everything without too much trouble. You've earned some leave time.

/salute Officers' Quarters keeps your guild leadership on track to cope with sticky situations such as members turned poachers or the return of an ex-guild leader and looking forward to what guilds need in Mists of Pandaria. Send your own guild-related questions and suggestions to scott@wowinsider.com. Tags: building-guilds, burnout, featured, guide, guide-to-officers, guild-leadership, guild-management, guild-officers, guilds-guide, leadership, officers-quarters, raid-leadership, wow-guide, wow-guild-management, wow-guilds, wow-leadership

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Officers' Quarters: Breaking good

Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook.

Breaks are good. Everyone needs a break from something that they do on a regular basis: work, school, sports, etc. Raiding is no different. Raiders need breaks. So do roleplayers, arena teams, and achievement junkies. Whether it's one person stepping away from WoW for a little while or a team taking a week or two off from group activities, this kind of short-term sabbatical is a healthy practice.

As an officer, breaks can be dangerous to your guild if you handle them poorly. Take a lesson from the Horde: Thrall needed a break and now Durotar is a war zone. Let's look at the right way to manage it.

Timing is critical. For guilds, there are three kinds of breaks. There's the well-deserved rest after achieving your goals. Many officers are afraid to take a break at this point because they don't want to hamstring momentum. However, it can be beneficial. If you give everyone a little time to recharge, they may be more focused as you approach the next big goal.

Then there's the break you make in preparation for a long push. The week before the next expansion, raiding tier, PvP season, etc., is a good time to rest and make sure everyone is refreshed. Even sustained success can burn players out if you never let up.

The third type of break, and the most dangerous, is when your team is not performing well. Everyone is tired and distracted, you seem to be doing worse and worse every week, and the guild is demoralized. Players are taking personal breaks as a way to step away, and since the guild is still going, attendance suffers and makes the problem worse.

If you reach this point, it probably means you waited too long to take a guild break. To avoid a catastrophe, you need to follow the steps below even more carefully.

Set a definite date to come back. The worst thing you can do in a break situation is give no time frame. Prior to the break, you must say, "Our next activity will be on this date." Otherwise, it feels too much like the guild is breaking up instead of just breaking. Players need reassurance that everything will get back to normal.

State a set of goals for your return. Goals provide confidence. Setting goals says to your members that you believe they can achieve them. Goals give everyone something to focus on during the break, whether it's watching strategy videos, improving their healing throughput while under pressure from DPS, or coming up with a new chapter in your roleplaying scenario. Like a return date, goals also reassure players that the break is, in fact, temporary.

Keep it brief. One or two weeks is the standard. Unless you are one of those guilds who rips through raid content by raiding nonstop for a few weeks and then breaking until the next tier, one or two weeks should be enough. If you go longer than that, you risk players growing impatient. You also risk having them seek out opportunities with other guilds in the meantime. If they impress this other guild, someone in that guild might try to poach them. It's a crappy situation, but it happens all the time.

Don't suggest alternatives. Never say something like, "If you absolutely have to raid, you can raid with X guild on X nights." Poaching problems aside, the point of a break is for your players to step away from whatever it is you do every week, not to find out who else is offering the same activities.

Some players will convince themselves that they can't possibly burn out because they're having so much fun. They'll just keep going and going until one day they realize they're very, very burned out. Sometimes they get so burned out this way that they quit the game completely. The purpose of breaks is to prevent that. By suggesting alternatives, you're just enabling these players to keep pushing toward that point.

Don't offer substitutes. A break is a break, not a change of pace. A change of pace can be good, too, like running old raids for pets, achievements, and transmog items instead of banging your head against a progression boss for another four hours. But when your guild really needs a break, a change of pace isn't enough.

As an officer, part of your job is to listen to your players and feel out those moments when a change of pace will do the trick or when a short break is absolutely critical.

Make sure it's not just you. If the officers have been recruiting like mad, defusing an ongoing high-drama situation, or handling some other intense duties, then it may not be the guild that needs a break, but you. Don't put your guild activities on hiatus just because the officers are tired. Instead, let the officers take a break one or two at a time over the next couple of months. Take a break when everyone needs it, not just the officers.

Part of doing something well is learning how and when to stop doing it for a little while.

/salute Officers' Quarters keeps your guild leadership on track to cope with sticky situations such as members turned poachers or the return of an ex-guild leader and looking forward to what guilds need in Mists of Pandaria. Send your own guild-related questions and suggestions to scott@wowinsider.com. Tags: breaks, building-guilds, featured, guide, guide-to-officers, guild-leadership, guild-management, guild-officers, guilds-guide, leadership, officers-quarters, taking-a-break, wow-guide, wow-guild-management, wow-guilds, wow-leadership

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Officers' Quarters: All star team

Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook.

This week, a raid leader faces a difficult decision: stay with his current guild or join the hottest raid team on the realm. (FYI, this email is from mid November so adjust your progression expectations accordingly.)

Hello, I am in a conundrum and require some help.

I am a Raid Leader for a guild, and have been since early Dragon Soul for this guild (2 years in total). our team has always gotten content down, just took a long while to due so, usually to low numbers and unskilled players and poor attendance. We have been progressing through Mogu'Shan Vaults and Heart of Fear with some pace, just getting Zor'lok and Will of the Emperor this Thursday on Normal. Now i am one to play to the utmost caliber, pushing the limits of my class (Blood DK) with both mitigation and damage, even ranking on all bosses killed aside from Elegon.

Now here's where my issue is, a guild on the server that was just recently formed and stomped 6/6 MSV and 4/6 HoF in 1 week has asked me to tank for them.

I know 1 person in the guild (was on my team for a bit) and the rest only by name. Now i know that i will kill more bosses with the new group as long as it lasts but being a new guild it doesnt have a solid base, but i would alienate a lot of people that i have grown to like in my current guild if i left, especially considering my position and officer rank.

Now my question is, in your experience, do you think i should struggle leading the team i have and know that i will not only have to fight bosses, but poor players/attendance or should i give it a shot with the new guild that is made out of some of the top players on the realm?

Thank you for your time,

Raid leader with a conundrum.

Hi, RLWAC.

It's the classic problem: friends or progression. Unfortunately it's very hard for me to give advice about such things. In fact, I very rarely post such emails on WoW Insider, because in most such scenarios it's all but impossible for me to give useful advice. You have the weigh the relationships that you have in your current guild against a better raiding experience. Which one is more valuable to you?

That's not to say you can't move on and stay friends with the guildmates you've left behind. It's absolutely possible, but it's also true that you won't see or talk to them nearly as much. You'll have to spend time getting to know the people in your new guild if you want to build new relationships there.

The all star cycle

What makes this situation so different that I would turn it into a column? Well, I'd like to talk about the phenomenon of "all star teams." In the eight years I've been playing WoW, I've seen this happen over and over again. A bunch of the realm's best players get fed up with their current guilds and get together to form a new one. Or, one of the better guilds collapses and ex members start their own. Either way, this new guild goes on a poaching rampage to collect all the realm's best and brightest into a carefully selected team -- or in other words, an all star team.

Now, as a vocal opponent of poaching, I don't support this strategy. However, I do recognize it's inevitability. These things go in cycles on every raiding realm, as far as I can tell.

And it is a cycle, I assure you. Why? Well, these guilds always start out by absolutely crushing content. They tear through bosses and quickly rise to become the top guild on the server. With so much talent on one team, it's expected.

As their fame grows, they get tons of applications. They quickly figure out who the weakest links on the team are and discard those people in favor of better players. Soon, they really do have the realm's best under one guild tag. However, they've angered a lot of people in the process, both with the initial poaching and then the subsequent gkicks.

Doomed to implode

Such enterprises are doomed to implode under the sheer weight of all the egos on the team. The best players frequently have the biggest egos. Friction begins to heat up as soon as the team hits a Heroic encounter that gives them some trouble. Egos clash as everyone has their own idea about how to fix the problems or who to replace next.

Since the guild came together entirely out of self-interest, it's no surprise that its members feel very little loyalty to the community. As soon as they don't like the direction the guild is headed, or they have a verbal throw-down with someone on the team, or they think they have a better offer from another raiding guild, they bail.

The raid leader struggles to keep everyone happy and eventually it all falls apart. They go their separate ways, transfer servers, form less ambitious guilds, or return to their old communities.

The reason this happens is because it was never a real team to begin with. Real teams have loyalty and trust, and players who are willing to put their own needs aside for the good of the team. Most "all star" raid teams have nothing of the sort.

There's nothing wrong with trying to assemble a great raid team. The problem is the way that many such guilds go about it. Some do it in a fair, nonpoaching way and should be commended. Others poach shamelessly, and it sounds exactly like what's happening on the realm in question here.

Weigh all the factors

So, RLWAC, as you weigh this decision, keep in mind that there are a lot of other factors to think about besides progression. Will you get along with the people there? Do they get along with each other? Is the guild stable, with solid leadership? Are people committed to it and to staying on the server? How do they treat their raiders? Is raiding with this guild actually fun, or just efficient? Is this an organization you'd be proud to say you belonged to? If you join and it disbands a week later, will you be able to return to your guild or will that bridge be burned?

If you do decide to stay with your guild, however, don't do it because you feel obligated. Stay because you genuinely want to. Otherwise, you'll just resent the players in your guild for holding you back, and you will quickly burn out. This other guild may not be the answer, but your desire to join it may indicate that you're feeling trapped and not having as much fun as you should be. In that case, you may want to start looking at other guilds, but an all star team comes with a lot of red flags attached. Go into it with your eyes open or not at all.

/salute
Officers' Quarters keeps your guild leadership on track to cope with sticky situations such as members turned poachers or the return of an ex-guild leader and looking forward to what guilds need in Mists of Pandaria. Send your own guild-related questions and suggestions to scott@wowinsider.com. Tags: all-star, all-star-team, building-guilds, featured, guide, guide-to-officers, guild-advice, guild-leadership, guild-management, guild-officers, guilds-guide, leadership, officers-quarters, poaching, raiding, wow-guide, wow-guild-management, wow-guilds, wow-leadership

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Officers' Quarters: An overhealing intervention

Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook.

Healing can be a tricky thing to evaluate, but crazy overhealing combined with mana problems makes for an easy diagnosis. This week, an officer wonders how she can approach the problem in a guild where constructive criticism isn't always welcome.

Hi Scott:

I am an officer and raid healer in a casual raiding guild that has a 10-man team attempting current content. We aren't progressing fast ... but everyone feels good about where we are.

Except for me.

Don't get me wrong. I am never frustrated with the group as a whole for our attempts. Most of us are parents with full time jobs and there are only a few who have the time to even hit VP cap during the week. Some are (rightfully) terrified of LFR. But almost everyone gives 110 percent.

My issue is with my co-healer, who handles tank healing. This person is a good sport and a good player. They contribute to raid materials, are always willing to help gear folks, and they are always at raid on time and ready – three big wins in any officer's book. The issue is that they are a really bad healer. They are constantly overhealing encounters by 20 to 60 percent of total healing and are out of mana before the encounter is half over – after cooldowns. They are always on the top of the healing charts, but their effective healing (total healing minus overhealing) is way low.

They get kicked from LFR constantly but are incredulous as to why - since they are always topping the charts on healing done. I noticed yesterday that they were constantly using Penance on the tank right before a pull - I've heard of pre-shielding but pre-healing?

It has gotten to the point where they are raid healing to boost their numbers, even if I've got the raid under control. This lack of healing discipline is an issue for two reasons: one is that I'm starting to overheal (I'm a very efficient healer usually) when they snipe heals, and two is that I'm having to abandon my healing assignment to keep their targets alive when they run out of mana.

I'm all for helping a fellow healer out, but I'm concerned that this person is keeping us from progressing. Our raid leader feels that, since we're a casual raiding group, we shouldn't worry about numbers and just keep having fun. Our main tank is tired of dying and has asked me to step up as tank healer ... but I know that this person is very firm about their spot as tank healer and I don't ever want to pull rank in a casual raid. ...

I don't feel comfortable confronting this person, mostly because of my raid leader's disposition towards numbers and perceived elitism. Instead, I've posted guides on our forums about rotations, MP management, and raid discipline for healers. I know this person has read them, because they can hold conversations with me about the contents. But either they don't think they realize they are target of my passive-aggressive posting or they don't care.

It has actually gotten to the point where I am silently teaching another raider to raid heal... and gearing up a DPS. I get so stressed out healing, but not because of failed attempts. I enjoy raiding and I love our raiding team, but I just don't think I can deal with the lack of discipline anymore.

Is there another option – something I haven't thought of? Any assistance in this issue will be super appreciated.

Thank you so much in advance!

Sincerely,

Casually Going Crazy

Hi, CGC. This is an interesting predicament and one that, unfortunately for you, has no easy solution.

A healer's role

The crux of the matter is about the role of a healer, and your healing partner doesn't seem to understand their role. Healing is about finesse rather than brute force. It's not about big numbers -- it's about resource management.

I don't put much stock in healing ranks or meters. Neither HPS nor total or even effective healing tells you the whole story. Anyone can use every throughput cooldown on cooldown just like a DPS, but is that really going to get the job done? A good healer knows when to conserve and when to go all out. Running out of mana is a big problem. A healer with no mana is like a dead DPS. The fact that your healer doesn't understand this is hard to swallow, but here we are.

If anyone should switch to DPS, it should be this other healer, not you. It sounds to me like they are better suited for that kind of job.

Changing roles may help you to avoid a confrontation, and perhaps you'll be happier. In the back of your mind, however, you'll know that the raid's progression is stalling because of this healer and that you didn't do anything about it. Can you live with that?

Your fun matters too

I've written before about a guild's criticism culture, and it sounds like yours is hands off when it comes to this kind of thing.

Your raid leader says not to worry about numbers and keep having fun. But what about your fun? If you're not having fun because of the way this healer is playing, isn't that a legitimate issue to bring to the RL? Cleaning up this person's style will benefit not just you but the whole raid. Better progression can also mean more fun for the guild.

Have an honest discussion with your RL about why you're not having fun and what this healer's style of play is doing to the raid as a whole. Maybe it will sink in and convince him that in this case, the numbers really do matter.

If the RL won't speak to this healer in a frank way, the task will fall to you. You say you don't want to for the good of the guild, and that is noble. However, I get the sense that this issue is affecting you on a personal level, and that is not good, either. At some point you have to stand up for yourself. Some drama may come of it, but at least you'll feel like you did what you could to resolve the problem, whatever happens.

If you don't, either you or the next person who comes along to heal in your place may say enough is enough and lash out in a very negative way. It's better to have the discussion when everyone is calm than to let it simmer until it boils over during a raid.

A different kind of chart

I'm sorry to say that I'm pessimistic about your or your raid leader's chances of convincing them to heal smarter. They seem to have a stubborn pride in this tank healing role. In my experience, players like this will seldom heed anyone's advice. They have it in their head that big numbers mean winning. They'd rather wipe the raid and be #1 on the meters than see the group succeed. They think that as long as they're topping the charts, the problem must lay elsewhere. They've done their job and that's that. I might be wrong about this person, but you should be prepared for the worst here.

The best way might be to show the raw data. Prove a correlation among the crazy overhealing, the times when they went OOM, and whether or not you wiped. Keep track of it on a fight-by-fight basis. If this healer cares about charts so much, make a chart of your own. Show them how frequently the high overhealing corresponds to OOM, tank deaths and a wipe.

Just remember to be respectful and constructive. If they start to get emotional, back off and give them some time to process.

It's good that you have a Plan B. In the end, however, you may wish to consider that you may not belong in this kind of guild. If your raid leader won't back you on this, you might be happier in a raid with more accountability and more open discussions of performance. It's something to think about for the future, anyway. In the meantime, I wish you luck keeping those tanks up ...

/salute
Officers' Quarters keeps your guild leadership on track to cope with sticky situations such as members turned poachers or the return of an ex-guild leader and looking forward to what guilds need in Mists of Pandaria. Send your own guild-related questions and suggestions to scott@wowinsider.com. Tags: building-guilds, drama, featured, guide, guide-to-officers, guild-advice, guild-leadership, guild-management, guild-officers, guilds-guide, healers, healing, leadership, officers-quarters, raid-healing, raiding, wow-guide, wow-guild-management, wow-guilds, wow-leadership

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Officers' Quarters: 3 resolutions to improve your guild in 2013

Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook.

If your guild has been struggling during the last weeks of 2012, now is the time to take steps that ensure a better 2013. Here are three ways you could get the New Year started off right.

1. Add fresh blood to the officer ranks.

Are your current officers pushing themselves too hard? Or are they doing barely anything at all? If so, then it's high time you took a look at what needs to be done around the guild and who's actually doing it. You may have some lame-duck officers who shouldn't be officers anymore, and some hard-working regular members who deserve a promotion.

Adding new officers -- and/or culling useless ones -- can energize your leadership corps. Having more hands to man the ship can spread the work around and ease burnout symptoms. New officers also means new ideas that can spark new guild activities or better approaches to old ones. New officers can also inject some much-needed enthusiasm as they seek to make their mark and prove to the vets that they are worthy of the rank. If your guild has been stagnating lately, a new officer or two can liven things up.

2. Recruit outside your comfort zone.

Recruiting is such a painful ongoing task that we often fall back on the same routines. We paste our message in trade chat or bump our post on the realm forums, hoping that this time we'll actually find somebody.

Doing such things is not futile, but the results are often meager. Recruiting is fundamentally about connecting with people. These impersonal techniques don't really allow us to do that.

Expanding your efforts to more personal and proactive methods may provide a better return on your time. Opening up guild activities to outsiders comes with inherent risks, but you may be surprised at the quality individuals you can find if you simply give people a chance.

If you see a guildless player doing dailies, invite them to a party to help them (and you) do them faster. Be friendly. Use it as an opportunity to get the know the player a bit. Don't just pitch to them about your guild.

For social guilds, holding public contests for your faction (with prizes, of course) can be a much better advertisement than any trade chat post.

For raiding guilds, use LFR to your advantage beyond just a source of extra valor. In the weeks after a new raid releases, bring others from the guild with you. Then take the lead in your runs. Explain each encounter in raid chat as you clear its trash. If the group wipes, identify why right away and provide constructive tips on avoiding that same mistakes again, so people are less likely to quit on the group. At the end of the run, make sure to let people know that your guild is recruiting. People who are looking for a good raiding guild run LFR in the meantime, so those runs are a great way to meet raiders.

3. Have more fun.

Even a game as fun as WoW can become tedious if you let it. Grinding dailies, grinding raid bosses, grinding valor and honor points -- it can become a real drag if your guild isn't adding anything to the experience.

Running a guild can be just as tedious. Creating policies. Reviewing apps. Dealing with the bank. They're not very exciting tasks. It's easy to get bogged down in them and forget that you're actually supposed to have fun at some point.

Do yourself and everyone else a favor and remember to enjoy yourself now and then. Let someone goof around on Vent during a farm kill. Tell a few jokes in guild chat or strike up a conversation about a good movie you saw.

Schedule a guild activity that isn't just about gearing up or grinding points. Go after some achievements or do some world PvP. Do something beyond the typical. Do something that your guildmates will actually remember next week, or even a year from now.

Remember that tons of guilds can achieve rapid raid progression or dominate in BGs. Players might join your guild because of those accomplishments, but they are far more likely to stay when they enjoy the community's environment and the people who contribute to it.

How many progression raiding or competitive arena guilds form overnight, have massive success over the next two or three months, and then disband? They don't go their separate ways because they're having too much fun -- it's because the guild was focused so much on accomplishing tasks that they forgot to enjoy themselves while doing it. Tempers flare over a dumb issue and the guild environment isn't unique or enjoyable enough to convince people to stay. So it all falls apart.

Don't let it happen to your guild in 2013! Think about what you can do better, but most of all, what you can do to make it more fun. Happy new year, and

/salute
Officers' Quarters keeps your guild leadership on track to cope with sticky situations such as members turned poachers or the return of an ex-guild leader and looking forward to what guilds need in Mists of Pandaria. Send your own guild-related questions and suggestions to scott@wowinsider.com. Tags: building-guilds, featured, fun, guide, guide-to-officers, guild-activities, guild-advice, guild-leadership, guild-management, guild-officers, guilds-guide, leadership, officer-roles, officers-quarters, promoting-officers, promotions, recruiting, wow-guide, wow-guild-management, wow-guilds, wow-leadership

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Officers' Quarters: Three questions from a raid leader

Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook.

Today's email comes from a raid leader with three different questions regarding raid comps, bank mats, and problem raiders. Let's jump right into it!

Hello Scott,

I am currently a high officer in a a new 25 raiding guild, MT and fairly new raid leader. ... Recently, after a pug for MV, 4 new raiders decided to join our roster, enabling for us to have a full raid group. The issue comes then, in to parts:

Since the problems we've had finding raiders, we were "forced" to take those 4 new guild mates, making a core group not as efficient due to lack of variety, therefore buffs, abilities, cooldowns, etc. How inconvenient truely is this composition with repeated classes?

Furthermore, I would ask you for advice on how to encourage members to contribute with mats, Golden Lotus for example, to the gbank such as other raiding comodities?

Nevertheless, the main reason I was willing to write to you, is the fact that we have two of those new raiders too close-minded.

This means they are not receiving any advice from me, or any other experimented player, on how to improve their performance, considering they are perfect as they tan right now, even when they have commited mistakes more than once. This goes to the point where they tried to steal the raid leader status, but they are not, in our opinion, cabaple of it, and have caused many wipes. How should I, or we, deal with this kind of attitudes? What can I do to show I am a serious raid leader, who is still learning about the job but who deserves respect, and to be listenned, since he was trusted for that spot? I dont like screaming at people, but I had to a few times. This is worrying me since those two has caused several wipes with their attempts to lead, and confusing other raiders about the strategies we are using, even when my strats usually have proved to work better for the team, even if not perfect yet.

I hope you could help me as soon as possible and I haven't overwhelmed you with so many questions and doubts.

Than you, in advance, for your answer.

KMM

Hi, KMM. I'm happy to help with all three issues. Let's tackle them one at a time.

For the question of composition, well, it depends. Technically, an all-druid raid is possible (or all paladins or all monks). Would this make encounters tougher? Absolutely.

Blizzard has said in the past that ten-man raids aren't balanced with the assumption that the raid will have access to every buff. If you have them all, then you're giving yourself a leg up. The larger raids, on the other hand, are balanced with this assumption. With a skewed composition, you are in fact making progression a bit harder than it should be.

The most important thing is to have access to all raidwide buffs/debuffs (especially Bloodlust) and enough battle rezzing classes to cover the three allowed per fight. Beyond that, having diversity is ideal but not essential.

It's far more important to have motivated, skilled raiders who get along. It's not worth losing a valuable raider just to enforce class/spec diversity. If a key component is lacking, I recommend encouraging someone to switch rather than trying to recruit. Remember that hunters can choose a pet to cover missing buffs/debuffs.

Donations

Acquiring donated bank mats can be difficult. It means players have to give up either time or gold to the guild, and some are reluctant to do so.

One solution is to offer a small amount of DKP or similar if you use such a loot system. Loot is always the best motivator for raiders. However, this can mean that donations trail off at the end of tiers when most raiders have all the loot they need.

Another solution is for the bank to purchase these materials from raiders at a discount. Yes, players could sell them on the AH for more gold, but they aren't guaranteed a sale that way. Many will take the convenience over an inflated price.

I don't recommend making donations a requirement of membership. However, you could charge your members for feasts and flasks per attended raid night. You can drop a guild bank right as the raid starts and ask everyone to give a fixed amount for the evening's consumables. The log records who donates so you can eventually catch people who are stiffing you.

By offering them at a discount versus the AH, you're providing members with a service while still recouping some of the cost. If they're used to these items being free, the threat of having to start charging for them could help increase donations.

Of course, you can do all of the above. The flow of gold and materials into the guild has to match what's flowing out in terms of consumables. You need to strike a balance somewhere. Otherwise, you'll eventually empty the coffers and be unable to provide anything at all.

Problem raiders

Your new raiders sound like they are bad at both teamwork and communication. These are poor qualities in raiders -- and they need to know that.

The next time their conflicting strat causes a wipe would be a good time to announce to the raid that the confusion is causing problems. Ask everyone to provide suggestions or alternative strategies in whispers to you rather than over Vent. In general, it's easy for 25-man raids to get mixed signals over Vent, so it's better for one person to go over the strategy.

If they don't get the hint, I recommend a private conversation after the raid telling them in no uncertain terms that they need to let you lead. Tell them that you're happy to address specific complaints but it has to be done privately for the sake of avoiding drama.

If this doesn't do the trick, then take the issue to the guild leader -- not to intervene on your behalf, but to discuss benching and/or kicking these players. It's better to replace them as soon as possible than let them continue causing wipes and undermining your leadership.

Screaming doesn't usually solve problems in raids, and your raiders can actually lose respect for you if you have to resort to raising your voice. If you want respect, be calm but firm. Speak your mind but don't criticize players unfairly. Admit when you're wrong and ask for patience rather than trying to gloss over it. Finally, remember to have fun and make sure your raiders are having fun, too.

/salute
Officers' Quarters keeps your guild leadership on track to cope with sticky situations such as members turned poachers or the return of an ex-guild leader and looking forward to what guilds need in Mists of Pandaria. Send your own guild-related questions and suggestions to scott@wowinsider.com. Tags: advice, bank-mats, building-guilds, drama, featured, guide, guide-to-officers, guild-advice, guild-bank, guild-leadership, guild-management, guild-officers, guilds-guide, leadership, officers-quarters, Raid-Comp, raid-composition, raid-leader, raid-leadership, raiding, wow-guide, wow-guild-management, wow-guilds, wow-leadership

Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)

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