I’ve started a guild!

I don’t normally do this, but I’m going to talk a little bit about what I’ve been up to in game. Darkbrew and I have started a guild, and it’s going amazingly! We got the LK down on 10 man normal last week, and last night, we roflstomped our way through the first two hard modes. We’re probably able to get down at least 4 of the other easy hard modes tonight, but we have paused to see whether we can get Saurfang with this group.

If he looks like he’s going to be enough of a challenge that we’d have to spend another whole night on him, we’ll skip him and do the other accessible fights.

One thing that leading a guild has taught me is the value of team chemistry. Spending a little time joking in vent between progression attempts is time well invested- it eases the sting of repeatedly hitting your head against a hard encounter, and helps avoid loot drama.

I’ve noticed that on my realm, there are a lot of older 25 man guilds that have stopped raiding because of lack of attendance. This has led to a rash of new 10 man guilds that are stocked with 25 man geared and experienced characters, so it’s hard to set your guild apart. A couple of things I’ve been doing that I think help are:

• Providing flasks and repairs. It’s not nearly as expensive as I though it would be, and the opportunity cost is, what, mammoths? Bikes? Achievements? Screw that.
• Acknowledging that nobody likes to be benched. The reality is that most guilds will find themselves in a place where they have too many raiders for a single 10 man, and not enough for a second concurrent raid. We’ve handled this so far by using alts of the first group to run everyone who got benched at a later time of the week, however this can’t continue forever- most people can’t dedicate enough nights a week to make this a viable strategy. Once we have enough people to reduce the number of alts in the group to a reasonable minimum, I’m planning on putting half of the well geared and highly skilled raiders from the first group into the new group, including an officer or two. I can’t overstate the importance of avoiding a “B team”. Nobody wants to feel like they’re second class raiders.

Anyways, I promise to keep these “what I did this summer” posts to a minimum. Also, if you’re looking for a new challenge with a fresh, dynamic team, you should consider applying with us! [edit: we raid Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 PM eastern till 11 PM eastern] We’re particularly short on rogues, locks, and shamans, and could use a (blech!) feral druid. Preferably a tamed one that will keep mangle up.