Ready Check: Getting your raid going
by Michael Gray 
Feb 3rd 2011 at 3:00PM
Even beyond that, once players are inside the doors of a raid instance, things aren't going as well. It seems like raid members aren't familiar with the fights, or maybe there's just not enough DPS. Maybe raiders can't quite tell if tanks are dying because the tanks are too squishy, or maybe the healers haven't adjusted to Cataclysm yet.
The first message is: It's okay. You're not alone. It's not just you. Many players are having these problems, and lots of people are struggling with the issue. But there are things you can do about it.
Roll call
It seems that many raid leaders eschew one-on-one contact, preferring to post information and requirements on forums. The idea, then, is that no one is getting singled out. No one is being "picked on." That makes a lot of sense; you never want to give a raid member the idea that he's being singled out unfairly. But when you're in the situation that the raid isn't going so well, you need to get the raid going more than you need to avoid that issue.
Go ahead and poll each member of the raid, and ask them how they feel about things. Do the raid times work out? Do they still love the game, or has Cataclysm given them some angst with their class? What can the raid members do to help them get ready? After all, the problem could simply be bad luck with heroics.
This kind of individual attention is what's needed to make sure folks feel involved and valued; often, that feeling is all it will take to get folks back in gear.
Time check
If you're having trouble filling your raid, it might be time to doublecheck your raid times. After all, the last time we raided heavily was a year to two ago. In that time, people have moved and jobs have changed. Schedules have altered. Heck, for that matter, entire babies have been born.
You can't assume that the schedules that worked in Wrath of the Lich King will work equally well for Cataclysm. If you're having trouble getting the raid group filled, that might be one of the best places to start.
Role check I'm not speaking for anyone else here, but I've played my paladin since way back when we kicked open the doors to Cataclysm. It's mostly the giant pixelated hamster wheel known as achievements that keeps me on him; except for losing all of those cheesements, I'd be a double-furry worgen druid already. I doubt I'm the only one.
The nice thing about Cataclysm is that it's a great time to try new things. Let people switch up their roles and swap places around. Especially if raid members are curious about playing one of the new races, a little bit of change might be just what you need.
Keep moving
Conventional wisdom has it that sharks need to keep moving to stay alive. Raids are a little like that. If you start canceling raids or stop trying to move forward, doubt and apathy will set into the raid members. People will question the viability of the raid, and that doubt can grow into a raid-killer.
This is all no good at all. Even if you don't have enough people for a 10-man raid, throw together a heroic and go do that. Check on Tol Barad. Perhaps even explore PvP. The idea is that you have 10 people who want to hang out together and do content; you should try and get them in to see some content.
Of course, some moderation is called for here. If you find yourself making alternate plans every raid night, you need to get yourself overhauled ASAP. In general, you have one week's worth of alternate plans when you can't fill raids before people start looking elsewhere to go raid.
Ready Check shares all the strategies and inside information you need to take your raiding to the next level. Be sure to look up our strategy guides to Cataclysm's 5-man instances, and for more healer-centric advice, visit Raid Rx.Filed under: WoW Rookie
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Necromann Feb 3rd 2011 3:06PM
Whole babies you say? I've never seen a partial baby been born.
Matthew Rossi Feb 3rd 2011 4:26PM
I was born prematurely. While one could argue I was whole in that I had all the standard body parts, I was so small and underdeveloped that I had to be kept in an incubator for a month and I couldn't breathe unassisted as my lungs were not fully developed.
So I could be said to be a partial baby at the time of my birth.
Hangk Feb 3rd 2011 4:30PM
"Despair thy charm, for Rossi was from his mother's womb / untimely ripp'd!"
cyanea85 Feb 3rd 2011 10:55PM
Rossi, sent before his time into this breathing world scarce half made up?
God, I love that play...
Pottsy11 Feb 4th 2011 2:58AM
Richard the III......
T_T
Doing it for year 12 this year, and it was agonizing to read through the first time, hopefully better the second with more understanding and not just trying to rush it.
Fletcher Feb 4th 2011 5:52AM
Premature babies represent! I got you beat by a month though - I was *two* months premature.
cyanea85 Feb 4th 2011 7:24AM
You really have to love Richard to love the play. Iago from Othello is the really famous Shakespeare Machiavellian villain, but I love Richard so much more. He's just so...deliciously evil. The whole scene where he woos Anne and manages to blame HER for him killing her husband and then gets her to marry him? I was laughing my ass off at it. He's smooth, and you have to respect that.
I've found that if I'm reading a particular play and I'm finding it boring/dry, I'll watch one of the many zillions of performances available on the internet. It really gives the text a face and a voice and helps you enjoy the play a lot more.
For Richard the III, I recommend the 1983 BBC TV version (if you can find a copy of it, that is...). I found it to be sooo much better than the Ian McKellen version that came out in the nineties, as much as I love McKellen.
Here's the intro scene to that version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw3Bte9bHto&feature=my_favorites&list=FLLzpr337iF-0 - It was after watching this (that happy little "I'm evil and I know it" smirk he gets near the end...worth the admission price alone.)
Richard III is really one of Shakespeare's better plays. Good luck in reading it!
Rai Feb 3rd 2011 3:15PM
The general attitude towards raiding now the difficulty has been increased is somewhat depressing. Our guild run last week failed and even before the first wipe I could feel tension in the air.
I for one welcome the new challenge, it's just a shame that people are so pessimistic.
/pessimist
Finnicks Feb 3rd 2011 6:27PM
For us it's the gear requirements.
Tuesday was our second night working on Magmaw, and after an hour we had the mechanics of the fight down... the problem was that 5 minutes in the boss was at 60%, the healers were approaching OOM, and the tanks' cooldowns were gone, meaning we were nowhere near beating him before enrage/OOM healers/dead tanks.
So we ran BH and then did some heroics. Hopefully next week we can bring our DPS up enough to actually bring him down.
Ice Feb 3rd 2011 7:33PM
Oh I know the feeling.
We were doing magmaw and defense system and had few wipes there and there to difficulty whether it was healing, adds aoe, dps generally, tanking chaos.. (this was pretty much start of cata after people had geared to full heroic with some rep epics)
After mere few wipes I could feel the tension. People started to talk slowly and "bleergh"-like. After only few tries at magmaw I heard the dreaded "this isnt working, lets call it. Maybe when we get some more gear..". That was it? one boss? No other bosses at other places at all?
Of course, I would've said at that point (but I didnt)
-"I'm sorry guys but this is NOT ICC anymore. We have NOT farmed this for year, there is no 30% buff, we are not decked in full heroic epic gear and this is not sleepymode "mistakes wont matter". Man up and face the challenge like real GAMER not some wuss who wants silver-plate full of gear. We cannot overgear progress state.
I'm sorry but easy raids made lazy raiders. I've seen way too many good players turn into lazy, slacking, bad players because of wrath raids and now they are struggling in cata even if I KNOW they can do better. *slap slap* wake up."
Now, onwards and kill some bosses!
Pyromelter Feb 3rd 2011 7:50PM
"the problem was that 5 minutes in the boss was at 60%, the healers were approaching OOM, and the tanks' cooldowns were gone, meaning we were nowhere near beating him before enrage/OOM healers/dead tanks."
IMO this is one of the best parts of cataclysm raiding:
DPS matters. Sure, in wrath there were a few gear checks, like patchwerk and festergut, but really, just grinding out a bit of gear and next week they go down. 60% five minutes in?
This isn't your grandfather's gearcheck anymore. DPS matters, min/maxing matters, getting your rotations and time-on-target matters, having the best enchants and actually spending hard-earned gold on crafted epics and best-in-slot enchants really does matter.
Mylozen Feb 3rd 2011 8:47PM
@ finnicks - what strat are you guys using on magmaw? It certainly can be a bit of an intense fight for healers but it offers plenty of opportunities for mana regen. Make sure the healers bring potions of concentration, they can pop them during spiked phase. It also helps a lot to have everyone except one kiter stacked in melée, we use a frost dk but there are other options. Also make sure tanks alternate after getting chewed on and the people doing the spiking do it as quick as possible to save the tank in the mouth.
BMEgal2 Feb 3rd 2011 3:18PM
Great timing Mike! My fellow officers and I are all struggling with this exact problem...having a few suggestions as to what to do about it helps a lot!
Tim {the other Tim} Feb 3rd 2011 3:18PM
So if you are all sad about raids not going well, like I was two days ago, try Halfus in BoT this week. Our raid group was having many troubles and i was afraid the team was going to break apart. Then last night we killed Halfus on the first pull. We had 3 people who had never there before, it was really weird.
Give it a try with renewed vigor!
Jen Feb 4th 2011 8:28AM
But check your drakes first! We tried Halfus (Storm, Slate, Whelps) and it was a 3-hour long wipefest. Magmaw was far, far easier. (For 10-man, I recommend getting a tank on the adds and the rest of the raid stacking on the melee. Much, MUCH easier than running around.)
Caz Feb 3rd 2011 3:35PM
My guild was just getting into Cataclysm dungeons - and in fact had completed our first heroic - when all three of our tanks and both of our top DPS decided that we weren't progressing into Cataclysm raids fast enough. This was on January 7th - one month after release. All five of them left to go to another guild that was just starting to raid, so they could "chase purples".
Funny thing is, the five of them hardly log on anymore, and when they do it's on one of the alts that they kept in my guild because they don't feel like raiding and are hiding from their new guild.
I'll never understand the need some players have to guild-hop and burn out as quickly as possible instead of just having a little bit of patience and working together; but it happens far too often.
Saeadame Feb 3rd 2011 4:03PM
Agreed... well, I guess my guild is progressing, but I just don't have time to raid with them. But I like the people, so instead of trying to find a guild with better raid times for me, I stay and raid in alt raids which are usually more convenient. Who cares about gear, really. I can do my daily heroic now with relative ease with just the gear I've bought with valor points, and heroic gear. So who needs raid gear? To make my daily a snooze fest? Nah...
N-train Feb 3rd 2011 4:29PM
Having been a GL for the start of two expansions now, I can tell you that this is an annoying phenomenon that is going to occur with some part of every guild in the first month or so of every expansion.
Even in the smallest of guilds, you're going to see a split between the "hit the ground running" crowd and the "ease into it" crowd and there's no real way to avoid some kind of tension or drama. You're always going to have people who gun it to level cap in 24 hours and get impatient and you're always going to have people who will hit 85 a week before raiding is set to start.
Let the speed runners burn out, and give the slowpokes a middle-ground, reasonable deadline to be at levelcap/ready to raid, and hold them to it. Throw out raid invites way in advance and be ready to replace no-shows (usually the speeders), and recognize that if people would rather start raiding with strangers for gear (that will get replaced in a couple months anyway) than with their friends, then you probably don't want them around anyway.
Sunaseni Feb 3rd 2011 4:42PM
That's one of the things you had to anticipate beforehand and put it out to the members how you wanted the guild to go. In my guild, I made a post detailing the plan of how we would proceed in the expansion (basically, we'd take our time because of the holidays, etc), and allowed those who wanted to leave and head to more hardcore guilds try at it. (No one left, but that's beside the point.) Your guys probably didn't see the guild going in a clear direction that they wanted, and it can't be guessed if you could have prevented it, but surely, a goal to aim for (like a certain deadline to be raid ready, ours was Jan 2nd), would have told them "we'll be up and running soon (TM), we want to play together".
Nothing you can do now except just finding good people for your guild to replace what was lost. (Note the "for your guild".) Just note that the next time an expansion drops, be ready to detail your plan for the next expansion to give your guild a path to success.
Siaperas Feb 3rd 2011 3:41PM
I'm glad this was posted. I told my officers that my schedule changed, but I still feel guilty about not being able to make raids at all during the week. Since Cata was released, I've only really been able to log onto WoW on weekends. That's put me behind the guild in terms of level, let alone gear.