I think I have a good solution for this. My guild is doing the same thing and to ease tensions here's how we did it.

In LK era we had several 10 mans going a week plus a 25 man. With the change in lockouts, we aren't doing that anymore, and so we put a notice out on the guild forums before Cata even dropped that we would form groups when enough were ready and go from there.

As expected, our main raiding 10 man group became officers and some of our top raiders. As we finally began to get more tanks and dps and heals ready and "group 2" was formed, I personally stepped out of the main group and replaced myself with another DPS and then founded group 2.

This has created some unity with the guild knowing that they have me, an officer, in the group leading it. I also told everyone the truth once we got in there and had a small little group meeting. Group 1 was hand picked, and group 2 was hand picked. We made the choices to have each group have the same or similar composition. When asked why I wasn't in group 1 and was replaced by a non-officer, the answer was simple. Myself and another officer both play shadow priests. I, however, have an offspec of Holy, which is something the other officer doesn't have. (If he needs to swap out he has a raid capable shaman and paladin to fulfill healing or tanking roles as needed).

This made it easier to understand that while I would love to raid with the officers and the GM because I know them better, and I myself am rather shy, I am with group 2. Personally there to ensure they succeed as well. I'm not raiding with the main group on any of my toons and so it's not an 'alt' run for me, which says that I am in the same position as them. I haven't heard any complaints so far.

So what I'd recommend to the officer in the letter would be to speak with the GM and the other officer and decide who is going to switch to the second group. It's important to do that, and it's even more important not to have alts in the group if it can be avoided. Something that we learned in LK is that some of our alt runs were main runs for others. What ended up happening is we downed bosses, got our LK kills and progressed on our mains, then we geared up our alts as a second thought while other people were in there on their main barely getting to where our alt did. Some people felt it was unfair that we didn't rotate them into our main runs that were essentially gear farms.

We also changed our loot rules pretty dramatically guild-wide. If you are an alt you will never receive gear over a main (on mainspec rolls) by only being able to roll offspec, regardless of what spec it's for. This way it ensures that alts remain secondary. (Exceptions being if we ask you to bring in your healer instead of DPS one week, or the like.) Main spec is what you are in the raid group as, off spec is your other, official offspec. One piece of main and offspec loot per run unless you are uncontested or everyone else of spec has received loot. Tier loot is being done like suicide kings in that once you receive it, you can't receive another piece of tier until everyone that can get that token has one (regardless of which piece of tier it is.) Attendance policy is simple. If you can't make it, you let an officer know with as much time as possible. If it's short notice and consistently you will find yourself replaced. If you're consistently late or absent without notice, you will be replaced. If you can't improve, don't learn the fights (by reading up when we ask you to (and we provide the links, so there's no excuse. You don't have to do research, just watch videos and read strategies) then you will be replaced. We have backup raiders who want to raid so if you prove you don't really want to, you won't have a spot. This is to make sure people don't take a 6 month hiatus (like they did in wrath) come back and immediately get back into the group. If you have to take time off because of real life, we move you to backup raiding where you will remain until a spot opens up. It's not a punishment to you, but keeping a spot and hoping you show up will be nothing more than a punishment to the group.

Hope this helps. Just remember you have to have the same loot rules in both groups, the same general rules, and it wouldn't hurt to move one or two of your mains into the second group, especially if it's full of alts.

When I first started raiding, this happened to me, where I was just a regular raider, but I was never in the "main group" and my group kept getting people swapped into the main group because they were either friends of the officers or alts of the officers themselves, so my group never really progressed if we even ran at all. The dissension that was caused actually ended up causing a guild split (some time after I left) and now they're lucky if they can get a 10 man together. I can't stress enough that you need to keep the groups solid and together and have a list of backup raiders. Make it known to those raiders that they are responsible for keeping their gear as up to date as possible and if by Saturday night they aren't pulled into a raid with us they are welcome to pug or form another run. I have even helped form a raid group for some of these members myself so the burden wasn't just on themselves. As the recruitment officer, I also am keeping a look out for tank and healer applicants. If I get them, I let them know they are backup until such time we have enough to form a third group, if it gets to that.

wow... /walloftext

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