Friday (25 Feb) - Where Have all the Cowboys Gone?

Friday (25 Feb) - Where Have all the Cowboys Gone?

The subject above is the title of a recent post by the senior raid leader in Wild's guild, Bd. He has been out of action for nearly two weeks now and reported that he may be out another week or two before he will be able to run raids. Real life is a beech, but he's doing his best to keep us informed. In the interim there has been a lack of communication and action by the other guild officers, including the other raid leader and the guild leader.

In the few chances he's had to get in game, Bd has heard from other guildies that dissatisfaction is growing. No specifics were offered, but the general tone was one or worry that there raid progression in the guild has ground to a halt and that guild leadership has been silent about it. Bd did express that there was some urgency to the issue, suggesting that the guild leader bring guild leadership together to address the concerns this week, even if Bd himself was unable to be there.

I responded to his post and in his reply he added that he has observed that:
* players seem intimidated by Heroics, which are needed to gear for raiding
* a general lack of interest in raiding, perhaps the result of not doing Heroics
* the lack of guild officers assigned that focus on raiding and raiding preparation

As for Wild, I'm wondering where some of my friends are. Folks like Lady Hunter, and Rs, and some others were core raiders that are barely present now and not raiding at all, even when raids were scheduled. Like I started with, real life is a beech. We may be seeing a changing of the guard within the guild, as long time raiders step back and open the doors to our many new guildies. So far guild leadership - at least publicly - hasn't asked newer members to step forward, and from Wild's small corner of the world I haven't seen much interest in taking a larger role from the rank and file members, new or old. I'm hoping Bd's post on the guild website will prompt a response from the guild leader.

As far as I'm concerned, the answer is pretty simple and straightforward, but it's also one I proposed back in Wild's FS days that went nowhere. But here it is anyway. If as a guild we are timid about getting into Heroics, and if that is holding us back in getting raids together, then let's plan and organize heroic runs.

Announce that we will be running Heroics as a guild as many nights a week as we have guildie interest. Guildies would have to sign up for the Heroics just like we do for raids, and with the same criteria. If you sign up, show up. I would also add a new wrinkle - if we had enough guildies in the right composition show up then we would raid. If not, we'd do Heroics. Make it a firm time, too. No more of this waiting around an hour to see if we got enough people to show up for a raid. Track who signs up and who shows up. Those who made the effort but miss out should be rotated in so everyone gets opportunities. Mains would have priority, with alts to fill in where needed.

I would also go the extra step of personally asking every guildie main (1) are they interested in this idea and (2) what period of time is best. Generally we raid 6-9pm on weeknights. But I'm on at various times of the day and there is almost always at least a few folks around. There may be guildies who say they'd like to run at 3pm, or at 9am, or whatever, and the guild should try to bring those folks together and set up scheduled runs.

The main logistics issue would be handling the tank assignments. I think we have enough healers to go around, but we don't want to overburden the tanks. Tank availability would be the one limiting factor in how many runs are scheduled, and so there should be a special discussion - with all our tanks - to get their input on how they would like it to work. Whatever they need the guild should bend over backward to provide. I would personally chip in to pay for tank repair costs and consumables - or whatever it is that is limiting out pool of tanks.

Another issue to address is that tanks are generally assumed to be the group leader. The majority of tanks do prefer that, but there are players who like tanking, but don't like running the group. To increase our pool of tanks, I think the guild should look at pairing tanks that don't want to be group leaders with players who aren't tanks but are willing to lead groups.

The upside is that guildies will be working together, we will gain confidence in our ability to clear heroic dungeons, and along the way we will be picking up loot needed to be successful in raids.

There is no downside to this beyond lack of interest. However, every time something like this has been proposed, the response is always along the line of "getting raid ready is the responsibility of the individual, not the guild." I don't disagree, in situations where there is a base of players eager to raid. And the case could be make that if guildies are apathetic I guess we just won't be a raiding guild. But I'd also then question how committed to raiding guild leadership is, and how hard they tried to make it happen.

Wild will make that proposal to MM leadership, and I'll see where that leads. Heck, I would even organize and run it, if they wanted to give it a try.