Around Azeroth: Axe me no questions

Karazhan is a pretty dull place nowadays. They used to welcome thousands of guests a week, and now they're lucky to see a few dozen warriors. So the bosses have decided to mix up their battle tactics when a group does come around. "To this day I still have no idea what made Shade of Aran want to wield an axe instead of his trusty cane," writes submitter Colter. "Perhaps Karazhan just required more lumber."
Want to see your own screenshot here? Send it to aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com. We strongly prefer full-sized pictures with no UI or names showing. Include "Azeroth" in the subject line to ensure your submission dodges email spam filters; if you'd like to be credited, also include your name, guild and realm. Tags: around azeroth, around-azeroth, AroundAzeroth, featured, screen-shots, screenshots, world-of-warcraft-pictures, world-of-warcraft-screenshots, wow-screen-shots, wow-screenshot, wow-screenshots, wow-ss

Filed under: Around Azeroth

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Your PvP Questions: Spell announcers, MMR and patch 5.3

It's been a little while since I last did a PvP mailbag, and the emails have been piling up! So, if you have PvP questions, do drop me a line, I will do my best to respond to them, possibly in columns such as this one, or if I can fire off a quick email I will. Do note that I'm far from a PvP specialist in all the classes in WoW, and PvP questions which are class-specific would probably be better directed to the relevant class columnist.

Janrana wrote:

Hi Olivia, since reading about it a while back in one of your columns I've been a big fan of SpellAlerter, but it doesn't seem to have had any updates in a long while and is a bit broken for me. It doesn't seem to have all the spells any more and it also causes some errors to appear when it's on. Do you know of any alternative?

As it happens, I do! First and foremost SpellAlerter is alive and well... ish. It was updated for patch 5.1, but hasn't had any further updates since then. It still works at least fairly well, but I wouldn't rely on it completely. At least, it still allows you to set up custom alerts, so if there are spells it's missing you can add them in.

Another alternative is OhSnap, one I've been using myself recently. It works very similarly to SpellAlerter, but without such a large selection of spells, and unfortunately there isn't yet the option to customize the spell list to add or exclude specific spells. Nonetheless, OhSnap seems to have most of the major spells in place, things that you'd need, and although it is far from perfect it's not throwing any interface errors at the moment.

It shows you four categories of spell for your target, and sporadically for other enemies, and these can be edited to include or exclude various components, as well as have the font changed. However, that is really the only customization available within the addon, so if you're after something more easily tailored it's probably time to break out the big guns.

And those big guns, in this instance, are to that perennial favorite, which I don't like at all, GladiatorlosSA. Why don't I like it? Because of the sound alerts. I find them distracting when I should be communicating with my team-mates, rather than helpful, and would far rather have text alerts, but there's no denying that GladiatorlosSA is a very well-made, very comprehensive and very popular addon.

NicoSinatraGrindley asked in The Queue

Can somone please explain MMR..... to me it seems bull sh*t, my 1600 or less team goes again 1700+ mmr rated teams. but when we lose we lose a huge chunk of rating a maximum of 16 we we gain a maximum of 13 rating change upwards... but teams with a mmr at 1700-1850 gain 69 rating, then if them 1750 team lose they lose 0 rating... we went against a comp that had 1589 mmr and lost to us.. we joined instantly again and they had 1650 rating and won.. they lost 0 rating and gained 69 rating.. this is just a horrible head ache to me... please I'd appreciate any advice on this.

I thought I'd pull Nico's question out and actually answer it properly in a column, as the answer I gave in The Queue's comments was brief at best. Basically, MMR and rating are two separate systems. Yes, they both have the word "rating" in them, and both are ratings, but it's important to distinguish between them to avoid confusion.

MMR is Matchmaking Rating, which is the system used by the game to match one team against one of similar skill. Your MMR will increase or decrease according to your wins and losses, so if you've never played any arenas before you'll start with an MMR of 1500, and if you lose to a 1500 rated team the system will conclude that you're actually not a 1500 MMR team, and pull your MMR down a bit until you stop losing. The MMR systems is essentially aiming to give you a 50-50 win-loss ratio, so that you're winning half your matches. It's perfectly normal, when you're first getting started, to drop a few points in MMR until you're down at a level where you can start to win, by the way, so don't stress about that!

Rating, on the other hand, is a different system altogether. While you begin with 1500 MMR, you will have a rating of 0. If you beat a team with a higher MMR than yours, you will gain more rating, if you beat a team with a similar or lower MMR, you will gain less rating, if any. Your rating increase is therefore based on your MMR and the MMR of the teams you face. Rating gains do not relate to the opponent's rating, rather to their MMR.

What was likely happening in Nico's situation was that he was facing a team with a similar MMR, but a low rating. They could have just got started that season and been winning and therefore gaining big chunks of rating, with their rating being well below their MMR they will gain more even from matches against lower MMR teams. The system tries, to an extent, to match your rating to your MMR, so if yours are fairly equal and you're sitting at around a 50-50 win-loss, you'll only be gaining and losing small chunks of rating unless you beat a team with a far higher MMR than your own.

What about personal rating? Why is that different to team rating? The game doesn't want you to stroll into a 2.4k rated team and instantly have 2.4k rating, rather you should have to earn your rating just like that team did. You'll start in any new team with a personal rating of 1,000, and quickly gain rating to match your team rating, as long as you keep winning. For rated battlegrounds, your starting rating is zero, and you'll gain at a steadier pace.

Now, I do understand that this is pretty confusing. So, let's have some bullet points to sum up what I've spelled out above: MMR (matchmaking rating) is how teams are matched against each other.Team Rating, usually just called rating, is the points gained or lost by winning and losing.Personal rating is the rating of an individual player in that team.Hopefully that's cleared a few things up!

Sally asked:
Will PvE gear be better for PvP than PvP gear when patch 5.3 starts? I've been told it will be, and want to start doing more PvP, should I stop trying to get PvP gear?

In a word: no! PvP gear will remain the best for PvP. Brian Holinka, the new Blizzard PvP designer, has been very clear about this on Twitter, and while there may well be some outliers, the overall design intent is for PvE gear to be passable for PvP, but not the best. Do you want to capture flags, invade cities, attack towers, and dominate the enemy for your faction? Do you dream of riding your War Bear with pride? We'll steer you to victory with secrets of Battlegrounds and Arena, prepping you with proven addons and keybindings that win! Send questions or comments to olivia@wowinsider.com. Tags: arena, arena-guide, arena-strats, arena-tips, arenas, featured, guide, how-to-play-battlegrounds, how-to-pvp, match-making, match-making-rating, MMR, personal-rating, pvp-guide, rating, team-rating, wow-arena, wow-arena-guide, wow-guide

Filed under: PvP, Blood Sport (Arena PvP)

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Hello! starting to learn tanking:) got some questions.

I'm guessing you are in a guild? Do you raid on another spec?
I ask because, your guild should help you. What guild wouldn't want a backup tank?

It's how I started too...I used to melee dps on my dk, but eventually started tanking when we lost a tank.

I found it very hard at first, but now I love it. IMO, it's much harder to do than dps and healing and can be stressful. But it is an awesome feeling to be in command!

5 mans are great training grounds. Try to run them with friends who will forgive any errors. We tanks can be very sensitive.....criticism can hurt a lot and may put you off for life if you just do randoms!

What I found hardest was learning to handle large groups of mobs....it just takes practice. I use ELV UI which shows threat levels on target frames...remember to press V if you can't see them.

Also, the first raid boss for us this expansion sucks for tanks. It can be tricky to get right......talking about the stone guard here. Takes a lot of coordination with the other tank(s). As a tank, you will have to work very closely with your tanking partner.

I would also recommend running some older content as practice. Firelands or Dragon Soul would be good places to practice.

Good luck in your journey!

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Hello! starting to learn tanking:) got some questions.

Obviously you will want to read the tanking guide from Icy Veins HERE.

Then if you think you have what it takes (the mentaility and the patience to learn how to tank) then go for it!

Obviously practice is key, so you will want to practice through dungeons and other non raid gameplay.  

I have tanked before and loved the feeling of controlling a group of mobs or a huge boss and it is a great feeling when you do it right, but just be patient, be prepared and don't get down if you struggle at first!

Good luck, and hope that helps!

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EVLui questions

Just installed and liking it.  Do have a couple concerns though.  My quest log appears on the left of my screen, and I cannot move it.  I don;t know if there's a window in the UI that controls this.  I'm unable to find anything in the Blizzard interface topics either.

Addons I have are - Addon Control Panel, Can't Heal you, DBM, Fontifier, Data Store, Recount, Gatherer series, GTFO.

One last request, if I may.  Any further addons I should take into consideration, that, hopefully would not conflict with the Evlui?  Suggestions I've heard are Classic Decursive Panel and Power Auras.

My characters are level 90 Shadow Priest, Elemental Shaman, and Arcane Mage.  Also have level 48 Affliction Warlock, and 21 Holy Priest.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks for listening.

My train of thoughts were derailed.  There were no survivors.
"Life's too important to be taken seriously."  Oscar Wilde

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Your PvP questions answered

This week on Blood Sport, we're taking a slightly different approach to recent columns. It's been rather heavy of late, lengthy pieces explaining my concerns about the current state of PvP, mixed in with some guides relevant to the current season. But, today, it's my birthday, and I'm feeling rather more light-hearted than usual. I've had quite the flurry of requests for PvP guidance and tactics lately, so I thought I'd throw them to the floor, provide some answers, and let WoW Insider's PvP community provide their input as well.

In the interest of brevity, I've edited the questions down to size!

Estrellita asked:

What do you think the changes to PvP gearing will be? Ghostcrawler and Daxxarri have been talking a lot about them and not really saying anything much useful.

That is a good question, and one I'm a little concerned about. Let's pull together the information we have on this already, and then we can have a good look at it!

The most Daxxarri has really said on the matter is contained in this post: DaxxarriQuote:

Why not add in a reduction in conquest points required to purchase gear as the season progresses? Like a 25 point deduction per week. That way casuals/people re rolling aren't left in the dust mid way through the season.

Stay strong! This is a subject that we've been giving a lot of thought to lately. We'll have more to report in the near future.
And in this one: DaxxarriQuote:

Changing the PvP Honor gear from 483 to 476 next season is a HUGE mistake. You are making it impossible to enter PvP Arena/RBG on a near level playing field when people with full 2/2 Malevolent are starting the season with 491 gear and 498 T2 weapons.

This is the biggest gear disparity EVER in PvP. Usually Honor Gear > Last season PvP gear so players can have a fresh start and compete on semi-even playing field.

You guys are making a huge mistake and you have time to fix it. Please listen to you community and don't go through with these changes.

Not to worry, there's already stuff in the works, and the item level change on that gear is just a smaller part of the larger picture.

We'll be posting a blog that explains the upcoming changes later this week.

Changes are definitely incoming, and Ghostcrawler has discussed them briefly himself, via twitter.

What we do know is that we don't know much at all. It definitely seems like there are big changes coming, and I for one suspect that they will relate to how easy it currently is for PvPers to gear up for raiding.

I do also hope that whatever solution they have in mind will alleviate the current problems of gear escalation, where it's nigh on impossible for players starting late season to catch up to those who have been gearing for months and capping every week. The gap in item level between conquest gear an honor gear is a big issue here, not to mention the item upgrade system.

Because it's fun to speculate, and it's my birthday, I'm going to throw my tin-foil hat on and say that they're turning PvP gearing into a completely new, revamped system. I reckon they're going to remove T2 weapons altogether, and make the glorious gear purely vanity-based. They're also going to increase the cap for lower level players and keep it consistent for higher level ones, rather than the current ramp-up as rating increases. That's my two cents anyway! What do you reckon?

Runatical asks:

I have a Blood DK as a main, and love tanking, but I have been told that you can't tank any more in pvp because of the changes to tanking vengeance in Mists. Is that true? And can I still tank anyways? If not, what should I play?

The changes to Vengeance that your friends are talking about actually came in part-way through Cataclysm, not during Mists, in patch 4.3.2. All it means is that your attack power doesn't ramp up when you're hitting other players, so tank damage took a big hit in PvP. What your friends could be thinking of, though, is the changes to Death Strike in 5.1 -- it no longer heals you when you use it on other players.

However, those changes definitely don't mean you should discount your DK. Sure, they aren't great in arena, as they just can't put out the damage, despite being hard to kill for melee. But they can be reasonable flag carriers, though not quite so unstoppable since the aforementioned changes to Death Strike. And what's more, PvP is about playing what you like! There's something very entertaining about being an annoying unkillable person keeping the enemy busy in random battlegrounds -- I do it sometimes on my paladin tank!

As for what you should play apart from your DK, if it's melee that you like then arms warriors are very strong at the moment.

Thelsian asks:

I read your article on CC being out of control and I think it is. I get cced for entire arena matches and its really not fun, I hate it, and I wish blizzard would fix it, they have totally wrecked arena with CC. Its far to much. Do you have any ideas for what to do? Ret paladin.

I hear you, Thelsian. CC in arenas, particularly if you're facing up against good teams, is very powerful at the minute. Paladins, particularly, have very few ways to deal with CC, apart from their trinket, Hand of Freedom for roots and snares, and their bubble, which is also their major defensive cooldown.

But there are always things you can do. In my experience of retribution in arena, the way to deal with a CC chain can be to bubble, then cast CC of your own. Ret paladins, with the stuns and the AoE blind, actually have quite some CC at their disposal. Once you've done this, you'll be pretty vulnerable, so that would be the time to blow cooldowns and try to get the upper hand damage-wise. This is rather a gambling approach, though, as by using your bubble to grant you immunity to CC, you've left yourself a little defenseless.

The other option is to use line of sight to your advantage. This feels a lot more passive, but if it's cast time CC that's coming after you, the caster will get frustrated before too long if they can't hit you! Roots and slows are the usual solution to this, but for that you've got Hand of Freedom.

Do bind Hand of Freedom to a decent, easily accessible button, if you haven't already. That should be your default, immediate response to any kind of CC on your character. Cleansing yourself, too, particularly against rogues, can be very useful indeed. Once you're close enough to do so, stick a Hammer of Justice on the CC-er, and blow them up. Once they're under high pressure, they may have to think of things other than CC.

You'll be pleased to hear, though, that nerfs to instant-cast CCs, particularly AoE ones, are planned.

Ramalala asked:

Hi Olivia, I know you play a shaman healer in PvP, what do you do about heavy burst at the moment particularly from warriors? I just seem to get killed immediately and its depressing...

I've cropped your email there, Ramalala, for space constraints! Shaman do have a tricky old time with heavy burst from melee classes, definitely, and from your email your main experience was in 2v2 with a DPS monk. Firstly, remember that 2v2 is not balanced. That's why it doesn't award titles any more, it's too easy to take flavor of the month classes and faceroll your way to the top. 2v2 is really just a way to get points!

Now, I don't know a great deal about the monk class, so perhaps our commenters can help out, but what you need is crowd control. While you can blow all your cooldowns and survive temporarily, you've blown all your cooldowns, and that's no good! If I find myself in a situation where two melee are coming after me, I will do my very best to hex one from the out. If they instantly trinket that, there's one trinket gone, at least.

Then you've got your earthgrab totem, your capacitor totem, frost shock, ghost wolf, and whatever your partner can bring to the table. Pillars are your friends! And if you've got a warlock on your team, make them put their demonic gateway over a long run so you can use it to escape. To survive melee burst as a shaman, you need a cool head and good team-mates.
Do you want to capture flags, invade cities, attack towers, and dominate the enemy for your faction? Do you dream of riding your War Bear with pride? We'll steer you to victory with secrets of Battlegrounds and Arena, prepping you with proven addons and keybindings that win! Send questions or comments to olivia@wowinsider.com.

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A bunch of questions from a vet player coming back after years of inactivity

Jerfy, on 11 January 2013 - 01:18 AM, said:

Hey there!

Welcome to the forums, and welcome to Mists of Pandaria!

The answer to a lot of these questions is "it doesn't really matter." Why so? Because in Cataclysm (somewhat) and especially in Mists of Pandaria, Blizzard has been doing an increasingly good job at balancing classes and specs, at least in PvE. This means that there are very few, if any classes or specs left that just cannot compete. I realize that this isn't a very satisfactory answer, so...

For tanks, they're all good right now! All tanks now rely on "active mitigation" to survive, and are no longer punching bags with 3-minute defensive cooldowns. Some take the damage better than others, though, and a Warrior or Paladin is going to take smoother and more controlled damage than a Death Knight, which still relies heavily on self-healing and proper timing of Death Strike to stay alive.

For healers, again, they are all good right now. There is always a bit of variation in performance, determined by the current state of the content/gearing, etc, but I really can't say that there is a healing class that outshines the others, or one that lags behind.

For DPS, yet again, things are pretty well balanced. I'd say that melee DPS have an advantage at the moment, and will be doing overall more DPS than most ranged, but the difference is minor, and it depends a lot on the fight. And, it is *still* the case that melee DPS have a lot to put up with in terms of avoiding things in the boss's proximity, and that they're more prone to dying to all manner of things, and so on. The usual problems that melee DPS faced still exist, so keep that in mind.

Choosing a race does matter, in the sense that some races have bonuses that are considerably better for raiding than others. For example, as a physical DPS player on Horde, you're almost always going to get the best results by being an Orc or a Troll, and not a Blood Elf. For Alliance, the bonuses are a bit more even, so as long as you aren't a Worgen or a Night Elf, then you're probably getting good benefit for your class/spec. You really need to look at it in terms of race/class combinations, though.

For professions, you really just want to have some crafting professions ultimately, unless you enjoy farming materials and selling them (but this isn't really efficient in the least, I would say). Any of the crafting professions should be fine.

In regards to PvP, I really cannot comment I'm afraid.

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Addon Spotlight: Your addon questions answered

Welcome to another addon question session! I was prompted to do one of these by the fact that a recent reader question has been answered by some updates on my curse client downloader. A while back I wrote a column about archaeology addons, in which I asserted that much-loved addon Archaeology Helper was all working perfectly, despite not being updated since 2011. Since then I've had a few people contact me to let me know that, actually, it isn't.

Apparently, it was all good in the old world, the only place I could test it as my toons don't have very high level Archaeology, but wasn't working in Pandaria. Prolific addon author Oscarucb has recently taken it over from Biasha, starting from mid-December, and since I wrote that last column back on November 1, has done a lot of updating. There's now a new release version for all you Archaeology fans out there, so do go and check out this fantastically useful archaeology addon.

Moving swiftly forward, let's tackle some more addon questions. If you have addon questions, or want to make us aware of an addon that we should be covering, do drop an email to olivia@wowinsider.com.

Delphinae asked:

During the beginning of Cataclysm, I used Spellalerter to assist me in interrupting NPC abilities. I could enter a spell name and choose from 20ish sounds to play when that NPC spell was being cast. There is enough visible activity to process that I found a sound helped me better react to important interrupts. Sadly, it hasn't been updated in a while and I was wondering if you had a recommendation for a similar addon? I'm just looking for something to play a custom sound for selected spells and I don't mind typing them into settings if needed.

There are a couple of addons that will do this job for you, the most well-known of which is probably TellMeWhen. TellMeWhen is incredibly configurable, almost too configurable in some places, and will essentially display an icon, or text, or play a sound for all manner of alerts. TellMeWhen can track, to name but a few, cooldowns, buffs/debuffs, reactive abilities, multi-state abilities, temporary weapon enchants, totems/wild mushrooms/ghouls/lightwell, rune cooldowns, internal cooldowns, others' cooldowns, diminishing returns and spell casts.

All of these elements are based on icons. The setup isn't the easiest, simply because of how much this addon can do. But, rather like weakauras, a great way to get started is to head over to the addon's forums and import a class or NPC example into it with an import string. Once you've successfully done that, and it's not hard to do, the import/export section is in the main options as well as in the icon configuration screen.

Another interesting addon for this is OhSnap. It doesn't work for NPC abilities, but it does seem to work relatively well in PvP, and could be a decent replacement for SpellAlerter with some more modification. At the moment it requires coding to alter the spells it informs you of, but keep an eye on it!

Will asked:

I've mined over a thousand, maybe close to 2 thousand, ore and have received fewer than 10 gems. However, a friend of mine claims he is getting a gem about every 10 veins, which I think is about every 40 to 50 ore. That's a huge difference.

Here is where my addon question comes in. Do you know of an addon that will track the gem drop rate? I've thought about starting a spreadsheet to track this manually but dread all the alt-tabbing that would involve. I'm interested in him and I both tracking our results. I don't think the wowhead databases track this kind of data.

I do! Give Sifter a go. If any of our wonderful readers know of any addons that might help Will with his mission, other than sifter, do pop a link in the comments below!

Alex asked:

Do you know of an addon that can monitor the remaining absorb on Spirit Shell, and the casting period?

This is a really good question! I have been meaning to look into this myself for my own discipline priest. I felt like it should be possible with weakauras, and with some google-fu assistance from our very own Dan Desmond along with my own tinkering, I've got a couple of weakauras strings that can be added to your weakauras. These show progress bars for both the casting phase of the spell, and for the absorb shield duration and amount. The limitation, so far, with limited tinkering, is that it only displays for a few units -- target, focus, player and pet. If you want displays for all four, you'll need to duplicate the second weakaura four times. There are more complex ways to go about this, and I will likely continue to work on it, but for now it's a start.

There is also an addon called DiscShieldsHelper, which displays all this information on a mouseover tooltip, or for your target, for all the discipline shields. There's also Bobble Absorb Bar, which shows absorbs on your own character for all relevant spells.

Wildwater of Kargath-EU wrote:

Regarding the issue of the DK, that wants to know if he's behind the boss, I have 2 suggestions:

1. There's an addon called droodfocus. It has a module or part that shows if you're behind the boss or not. Maybe this part of the addon can be used as requested. I once tried it out in wotlk, so it might be outdated by now. The addon has feral specific timers, so I didn't stick with it for my rogue.

2. MSBT: Since you cannot be dodged, when your behind the boss, you can set a sound file for dodged melee hits in the Triggers or Events. I used that for positioning on Ragnaros-heroic progression to squeeze the deeps as much as possible.

These are some really great suggestions, and thanks so much for the email! I really love the collaborative nature of these columns, not being a database myself I don't ever pretend to know about every addon in the world, so we do rely on your reader input. And are very grateful for it, for that matter!

I had a look at droodfocus, and while it does feature a warning for when you're not behind your target, it does so on a failed spell. While I don't play druids to a high level, I'm fairly sure there are druid spells which simply won't work, or will work differently, if you're not behind your target, just like rogues. I seem to recall platform fights such as Ultraxion being entertaining for these! I'm also relatively confident that DKs suffer no such restrictions. So, I'm not sure if droodfocus would work in this case, as I don't think the DK's spells would fail, therefore triggering the addon.

However, Mik Scrolling Battle Text's sound alerts are an inspired suggestion! While many use Mik's for the floating combat numbers, fewer use it for the audio warning features. And it's a shame, because they're great! Warning you whenever you get dodged, and are therefore likely not behind the boss, is a great way to ensure you're in position. If I remember correctly, parries wouldn't happen if you were behind either, so perhaps that's another one for the list.
Addons are what we do on Addon Spotlight. If you're new to mods, Addons 101 will walk you through the basics; see what other players are doing at Reader UI of the Week. If there's a mod you think Addon Spotlight should take a look at, email mat@wowinsider.com. Filed under: Add-Ons, AddOn Spotlight

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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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