The Dambusters

• There are too many people for one team

• Those not selected for Ironwall still deserve to raid. Not all who initially trial with Stonewrought will be good enough. Heroic progression is not ‘easy’ even if it can be pugged.

• Ironwall/Stonewrought will feed to/from each other

• It’s hard at first. Things need time to settle but we will get there. People with no trust in me or no vision who leave Stonewrought are really not helping. If you don’t believe in it, just leave.

• If you think you are too good for Stonewrought, prove it and Ironwall will be interested in you. If you can’t be patient, leave.

• Stop thinking about what the team can do for you and do your part for the team! This is not a dedicated raid guild so if you only want to raid and contribute nothing else, this is not the place.

• Don’t tell me a ‘second team will never work’ when this guild is living proof that not only does it work, but it’s incredible when it does.

• If you don’t like the way The Dambusters is managed, fuck off. This is not a democracy or a negotiation 😁

In this blog post I will clarify the recent Officer rank adjustments and why they have been made.

Recent Officer role changes include:-

• Spyrot promotion to Warrant Officer
• Miacla promoted to Flight Sergeant
• Vorgox promoted to Flight Sergeant
• Eltank promoted to Chief Tech
• Sonicay promoted to Chief Tech
• Tornwar promoted to Chief Tech

Major rank change..

The rank of Chief Tech inside the game has been changed for various reasons.  This rank was previously used to provide regular progression raiders with access to Gibson bank tab and a higher repair allowance.  These uses have become limited and I decided that the guild could benefit in a number of ways from having a ‘Team Captain’ type rank.  Chief Tech (Junior Officer) will be used to gauge potential future officer material by elevating them from previous ranks and allowing certain Discord privileges.  Unfortunately, since a  one-click ‘officer’ button Blizzard has introduced within the guild control permissions window has limited granularity of our ranks this rank will not enjoy any ‘special’ officer related benefits such as Calendar events management, editing Message of the Day, editing/setting public notes or even accessing Officer Guild Chat.  However, members who attain this rank will be included in the Officer chat in Discord and if you have Whatsapp you are welcome to join the guild’s Officer chat on Whatsapp.  You will also be able to recruit players to the guild, something I am now restricting to officers only.

Recruitment..

I have now closed free-for-all recruiting to the Dambusters. Only Officers of rank Chief Tech and above will be able to invite people to the guild.  If anyone would like to receive an invite for a friend or an alt then you must contact an officer for the invite.  I am now commencing a recruitment drive during which I will attempt to flood the guild with more new people and hope to get a few excellent players among them.  Please feel free to seek out new players to join the guild and either invite them if you can, or speak to an officer to get the /ginvite for new members.

*PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL OFFICER RANKS WILL BE REQUIRED TO HAVE AN AUTHENTICATOR DUE TO THE POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS PERMISSION LEVELS*

/Salute

Understanding it..

I’m a big, stubborn brute of a man. I learned at a young age that you can go so far to help people out but sometimes you’re wasting your time when people don’t want to help themselves.

There are lots of reasons that the guild is the way it is and central to those reasons is my own fulfilment.  If i’m not enjoying the way the guild is then it falls apart.  I have one person to keep happy above all others and that is myself and for very good reason. I’m the one who has been here since the very beginning and I’m the one who will always be here.  It’s up to me to invite everyone to come along with us, and that’s where it gets complicated.  My own happiness comes from knowing we have a big bunch of people who feel like they belong, so while my intentions are to ensure I am happy, that is all for the good of the guild.

The Dambusters guild aims to provide a platform so that people can feel at home in a community without toxicity and where there are very few limitations on the type of WoW content our guild members consume. If a few guys want to get together and start a new Rated Battleground team again then I will support them in every way I can. We have done so before and we might do again.  If some guys want to do 3v3 arena then the guild has a Discord channel they can use and a pool of players they can shout to when they need a new teammate. Doesn’t mean they’ll get an answer when they shout, but at least there’s a community here to ask. There’s also nothing stopping recruitment to the guild.

Raid teams are encouraged and operate under the umbrella of the guild. This is so that I am able to maintain an element of control over how the guild name is outwardly perceived in the wider community. For example, if the raid team turns out to be a bunch of jerks then that bunch of jerks are displaying ‘The Dambusters’ above their heads and thus, I have the right to correct things. My raid leaders are pillars of the officer team who are positioned by me in order that they command respect not only within their team but among the wider guild community. If a raid leader is not performing then I have the right to express my opinions and come to an understanding or else find new people to fulfil the role.  It’s my job to ensure that the officers are upstanding members of the guild and any attack on the officers is an attack on my decision to make them officers in the first place, and my management of them while carrying out their role.

I’ll say it again for anyone who doesn’t yet realise. THIS IS NOT A DEDICATED RAID GUILD.  This is actually a social community guild with a subsidiary raiding scene. Mostly referred to as a Social Raiding Guild, although that’s not entirely accurate due to the fact that the structure, i.e. ranks, bank system, membership requirements are completely independent on a guild member’s interest in raiding.

Anyone may join this guild as long as they don’t turn out to be toxic. They may be quiet, they may be loud, they may be highly skilled or they may be a 5 year old child playing with their big sister.  It doesn’t matter to us, as long as they behave.  From this pool of people we have managed to unearth some really superb people, some of whom have gone on to be great raiders aswell.

When I assist people to implement a team within the guild, I expect these values to be made clear to members of their team. It is a large part of the role of our raid leaders to ensure that people within their team are well aware that this community isn’t designed around their desires. Members of each team must become part of the Dambusters community.  Some take time to feel part of it, others feel the warmth as soon as they get that green spam when they join.  I always want a big welcome for new members to aid this process.

The Dambusters harbours some excellent and highly experienced people. Some have had their own guild leadership experiences and many have experienced different types of guild leadership. This guild has been through many tough times and has always come through the other side stronger than before.  I have learned never to bend my will to the whims of others because eventually the guild loses it’s connection to me and feels disjointed.  I need to always maintain strong influence and that starts with the officer team.  If I don’t feel supported by every officer then I’m already beginning to make plans for changes.  The road to success within this guild is through strong ties with me because in here I can fix almost anything.  When people start to walk away from me then the guild shifts and I have learned not to allow that.  It happens.

Central to my values of leading the guild is protection.  The guild has been a labour of love for ​1/4 of my life so deep set within my mantra is a strong desire to defend it’s existence.  For that reason, subsidiary teams within the guild must never be allowed to overtake my own vision for the guild.  I’ve been burned more than once by allowing teams to feel too big for the guild so my defence mechanism when this starts to happen is to insist that the raid leaders respect the way the guild operates and in return I will always elevate them and ensure they carry out their roles with freedom.

Ironwall..

I keep harping on about us having another raid team.  I face derision and disbelief from some quarters so here’s my view of it so that people know how I see it. I have deliberately decided to create a 2-team raid scene on multiple occassions since the first experiment during patch 5.4 (Siege of Orgrimmar).  The common argument among my detractors is “we can’t even get 20 regulars for Stonewrought” which is an understandable opinion on the surface of it.  I’m looking at the bigger picture. In fact there is enough skilled raiders within the guild to create a full new raid team that if assembled today would immediately be competitive to the current Stonewrought team.  People seem to believe that they know better than I do who we have in the guild.  Of course there is no likelihood of Ironwall rising up today but that doesn’t mean I won’t be trying to make it happen over the coming weeks.

People need to realise that all it takes for another team to assemble is a raid leader who is capable and willing to dedicate some effort and spend time discussing with me how best to select a team, decide on raid times and get to work. It’s not in plain sight so people can’t imagine it but remember I have done this and I will do it again.  The benefits of having 2 teams is undoubtedly worth it.

Think about it, potentially double the roster pool size, more leadership, a competitive edge between the teams, constant communication between raid leaders of either team and myself as a conduit to keep things running smoothly.  Raiders who can’t attend a certain schedule but who can attend another schedule. Raiders who are better suited to the other team and discussion on swapping raiders among the leaders. A Discord server full of 2 teams worth of raiders. Double Sexy Fridays where we could have up to 60 people bashing out normals then heroic farm, with potentially half of those numbers being made up of players getting to feel the sense of raiding and an opportunity to impress the respective raid leaders.  Wednesday night races to see which team can blow their progressed content down the quickest.  That will all happen if we can get a positive attitude towards this thing so put some faith in me because it will happen.

The Current Situation..

We are deep into a lull period in the game which is no fault of anyone in the guild.  In fact we are one of the more active communities on this hige server so we can be quite proud.  The raid leaders polled the Stonewrought team recently to find out who is available up until Christmas, that poll was met with apathy so we are now winding down progression raiding until after the new year. We will still be around tho, Sexy Friday will still happen and possibly gold boost runs as well as the usual Mythic+ activity.  I have been working a lot but I now have a couple of weeks off work on the run up to Christmas.  I have real life stuff to attend to but I also have a lot of free time so I am starting to recruit generally for the guild, not specifically for raiding.  Specific raid recruitment is the remit of the raid leaders and anyone else who wants to do so is welcome to help out.  I will, as always, recruit generally and will be hoping to find a gem or 2 by doing so.

In the meantime, all I ask is that everyone play the game the way you want to play the game. If this guild fits with your attitudes then great, if not then don’t make a song and dance about it, just find a place that suits you better.  I will always be here trying to do the right thing for the Dambusters and we will always be around.  I look forward to joining you all in game over the holidays and into next year where we will be gunning full steam ahead for Ny’alotha, the Waking City!

/Salute

Well what a journey it has been. 10 actual years and still going strong after all we have been through together. I’m bursting with pride to know that something tiny I created back in Wrath could still be affecting people to this day. All the players we have had, kept and lost over the years accumulate to make this community something to cherish. This Friday 26th July we will host an event which will inject some fun, togetherness and drinking (in-game and out) into the occassion. A big prize draw (detailed below) will be conducted as we get together to pay tribute to all of you who have made this community so special for so long.

If anyone would like to check out the history of these occassions then click this link.

EVENTS

The guild formation will begin at Dalaran (Broken Isles) so use your purple Hearthstone and meet up 7pm Server Time just outside Krasus’ Landing where the Hearthstone puts you. I will be standing on the steps opposite. From there you will be invited to a raid group and wait around until we have enough to start.  Please try to be early because I want to get going sharp if possible.

Dalaran Jump

We will get together on a nearby Dalaran island and leap off to our death. The nearest to land at a designated spot will win a prize!

Alliance Smash-Up Raid

Raid as a guild and visit some Alliance neighbourhoods to thank them properly for disrupting the peace! A prize will be allocated for the MVP of the group to be decided by your fellow attendees!

Commemorative March (RP walking)

Enter Orgrimmar Valley of Strength as a guild and line up together in unity. We shall remember former Dambusters who are no longer with us for various happy and sad reasons. Important note: other players might try to troll us so we must be on our best behaviour and not get into any arguments with others on the server. We live here now and we must be ambassarods for the guild at all times! I have recently removed someone for terrible behaviour in general chat. This needs to be a happy day where we start being recognised a bit more around the server. Shout out about who we are but please be humble in the public chats.

Join us on Discord

Get together on our Discord server. We will likely use the ‘Crew Room’ but please ensure background noise is kept to a minimum so that we don’t have to move to another (push-to-talk) room. There will be a lot of people online so this is important.

Dambuster Draw

I will conduct a ‘Dambuster Draw™‘ using a /roll method which will be visible by people attending the event raid team on the night. Players will join the draw by sending in-game mail to Bigpyjamas with gold for their tickets and be allocated a number in a live spreadsheet which can be views using this link.

DRAW RULES

1. Tickets cost 1,000g each
2. Characters may purchase up to 10 tickets each (maximum 10,000g per character) IN-GAME MAIL
3. Players who have alts can purchase tickets on any or all their toons
4. Characters must be guild members to purchase tickets
5. Closing time will be Friday by 6pm Server Time, I recommend people get their tickets bought early so that final prize pot can be adjusted prior to the draw
6. Gold prizes will likely change (increase) depending on ticket uptake. The guild bank will receive an allocation as part of the fund raising.

PRIZE LIST

[Please note: this list will increase and change as the draw approaches]

30-day game time (x2)

Dreadwake Mount

Transmorpher Beacon

Horde’s Might Fireworks Display (Account Bound, unlimited use)

150,000g (subject to possible increase)

100,000g (subject to possible increase)

Level 25 battle pets prize list

[Feathers]

[Barnaby]

[ShadefeatherHatchling]

[Crimson Bat Pup]

[Leatherwing Screecher]

[Playful Frostkin]

Summary

• Send ingame mail to Bigpyjamas 1,000g per ticket (all characters can buy up to 10 tickets each so 10,000g max!)
• Attend 7pm(ST) using purple Dalaran(Broken Isles) Hearthstone and join the created raid group
• Join Discord
• Get booze (in-game is recommended, irl is up to you)
• Enjoy

Useful Links –

Guild Anniversary Blog History

Dambuster Draw List Spreadsheet (view only)

Current updated Dambusters officer list:-

Warrant Officer – Mookoo

Shethehunter

Flight Sergeant – Harxiee

Pappapaladin

Pinnyless

Thabz

Vexy

Mookoo is the serving Ironwall raid leader.

Shethehunter is the primary guild bank manager.

Harxiee is Ironwall assistant raid leader.

Pappapaladin is assistant guild bank manager.

Pinnyless, Thabz and Vexy are guild recruitment assistants.

Outgoing officers are Lennan and Pixy who have been unable to fulfil their previous roles due to real life commitments. Thanks to those guys for the good work they have done and a warm welcome to the officer team for the new leaders.

/Salute

It’s been a while since I published a blog and a lot has happened since my last installment.

Most notably, our recent reversion back to having two raid teams has been an unmitigated success in it’s first reset, providing the guild with 3 further progression kills taking us to 5/11 Mythic overall.

It became evident that with approaching 30 raiders attending on Wednesday nights and with more people joining the guild every week, the likelihood was that having competition for places in the Mythic progression ‘Ironwall’ team was becoming a real possibility.

I decided to revert to the way we had it previously with ‘Stonewrought’ team being regarded as a development team which feeds Ironwall with capable raiders. Having previously had Pixy leading followed by Pinny, I decided to make contact with Janniick again in order to set up a strong leader who has the ability to organise his team between raids as well as during. So far, it’s working but it will need dedication and a good team attitude from those involved. At this stage of the expansion, a lot of people think it’s straightforward to pug heroic but the plan is for medium to long term and also Janniick expects to build a Mythic capable team relatively quickly. The hope is that both teams will be ready to rock n roll as soon as BFA lands and we hit the ground running. Exciting times.

Meanwhile, with the split happening, of course a few people have been put into Stonewrought who have been running regularly with the amalgamated, bloated Ironwall team previously. This doesn’t need to be permanent, especially during this current period of flux where things are still settling. Every Ironwall raid night is an opportunity to sit ready on standby and be ready to jump in and if the player does well then that makes their chances of regular Ironwall selection much more likely. Apart from that, settling down with Stonewrought, with Janniick looking to recruit to improve it, could become a really satisfying place to raid.

In recent weeks, Ironwall are having attendance issues as real life prevents different people from being able to make it each raid night. We need to keep pushing Stonewrought to ensure Ironwall is able to select people at short notice and go! In spite of these issues, we have been able to get good progression with both teams. Stonewrought started slowly but after only two raid nights together we are sat on 8/11 standing in front of Heroic Coven. As the expansion rolls nearer to a close, this guild will soak up plenty more players from guilds who cannot cope with people who stop playing. We are the guild who evolve to continue prosperity while others are downsizing. We are growing!

The Dambusters has transformed in a year. Almost the entire roster has been refreshed and so many new friendships have been formed that the guild just feels like it did at the start of Legion. It’s a testament to the way we operate that even tho 99% of the roster is of different players from the start of Legion, the actual community feels no different.

My rebuild is complete and I can look back on the summer reformation with great pride. We have a highly engaged memberbase who generally enjoy the game and I’m sure that’s in large part because of the guild they are with. There’s a saying in WoW I use a lot, “you play the game for it’s content but you stay for the friends” and that is so true.

The guild lost a great many people just over a year ago and went into hibernation as a sleeping giant. Since we reawakened, we have managed to build that community of friends that people stay in the game for. We all look forward to new content together and relish our time together in current content. Everything may not be perfect but we work hard as a guild and we care which is rare these days. I always say I can work with people who care too much, are passionate etc. but I cannot work with apathy. We foster caring behaviour which sometimes spills over but it’s far more interesting than having lots of people who aren’t particularly bothered.

The recent, rousing Dambusters Draw was brilliant and gave people a taste of what a fun thing that can be. The raiding has been fun and successful considering the company we now keep on the server rankings, especially given our relatively newly assembled status as a team. Come the next tier, I think we will shock some guilds with our good performance which looks to spring on from the raiding structure we have assembled.

Stonewrought raid team looks to be getting it’s long deserved separation so that it may be allowed to go it’s own way and hopefully flourish with Pixy volunteering to take interim charge while we search for a long term solution to it’s leadership situation. Ironwall will be able to release it’s usual Wednesday handbrake and burst through content without having to merge with Stonewrought. Although that has been fun, I think we all agree that in order for both teams to fulfil their potential, they have to have their own identity.

The ultimate testament to a good guild is to have people get to know us and then move from their main server to join us. We have had that recently and there are more following. While it’s particularly helpful right now for Ironwall raid team, this trend of people carrying out paid transfers to actually join The Dambusters has happened throughout the years at various levels. There are people here who paid to transfer from Xavius to Ragnaros and then also took the FCM from there to Grim Batol. That first move from Xavius came at a personal, real life financial cost to guild members in order to follow us from such a dead server onto the bigger Ragnaros where we really thrived before that server became unplayable for the Alliance.
Grim Batol is one of those servers that floats between high pop at expansion launch to medium and even touching into low at the worst times, but it always bounces back to high each new expansion. I like it because it’s peaceful enough to get stuff done during normal expansion time lines, exciting and busy during new content and yet always offers opportunities to smash horde players, or of course be beaten up by them. While that gets tiresome at times, I simply could not play on a PvE server because that exhilarating experience is lost and for me personally, it ruins the experience.

 Something I learned from our time at Ragnaros, avoiding log in queues is another real priority for me. The last thing I want as the leader of a relatively casual community guild is to give people that horrible moment of ‘oh damn, here I was just gonna log in and do a few things, I guess I won’t bother’ when faced with a 20 minute queue. That may be acceptable for high end raid guilds but it’s not really viable for us so we have to stick to the relatively reasonably sized servers where playtime is never curtailed during those peak times on a Wednesday and Thursday.

I am looking forward to the test of this guild as we enter the next tier of raid content later this month. With both teams sure to gain enthusiasm on the run up to Antorus, it will be really interesting to see the synergy of the guild continue and our competitiveness become heightened slightly. With 2 teams running simultaneously, I believe that will be our pinnacle as a guild and it can help us continue to breathe life into the community as more good players join us. I’ve always said that recruitment is the lifeblood of the guild and these days, that ethos is as true as ever. We lose players from the guild roster through natural wastage, people stop logging in for whatever reason and eventually find their characters guildless. Meanwhile, at the other end we are constantly bringing in fresh minds to join our cause and almost always the new players get an immediate and impactful sense that they have found something special.

I absolutely love it when we overwhelm a new Dambuster with rapturous welcome messages and that’s happening more and more. It’s a sign of how we operate when Ironwall are raiding, deep in raid thoughts yet we take a moment to welcome new players along with everybody else.

I hope that attitude never leaves us. It’s what makes us Dambusters!

/Salute

Most people think they’re a good team player but what really separates the real team players from the others? I can see it a mile away so here are my thoughts on it after a raid night where the tone was set by a glaring, early mistake by myself on Goroth while healing on Caledonia.

On a night like that, obviously a team hangover after beating the lips off Kil’jaeden(yes Dalton), people definitely did not bring their A game. People had to go AFK and deal with real life and the rest of us seemed to switch off at times. It’s frustrating to have a stop-start night like that but I’ll tell you what will prove a point; Sunday night’s attendance and attitude.

If after arguably a disappointing evening, people have decided that a heroic KJ kill will do for them, they start switching off or failing to attend because they’d rather do something else then that tells me a story about character. Some people in our team turn real life down in order to be there and I’m one of them. We care that the others have pushed time aside so if we make a commitment to the team then unless an emergency comes up, we have done what we need to do in order to manage that window of non-interruptions and focus on what we want to do.

The real test comes when things don’t go your way. When the chips are down and people aren’t at their best then you really see who’s who. When people must go and deal with stuff they’d rather not then they leave behind a situation where the team has to believe in itself and calmly manage the best use of our time. When Daltzilla had to take a timeout, everyone knew he had no choice and the team made good, calm decisions about what to do in his absence. Elizarlena stepped up and the team responded.

I don’t know much about why the other guys had to go but I’m sure it was important and it left the team weakened. One or two returned by the end and while it was just one of those nights, I’m excited to see how we respond on Sunday. Make no mistake, Sunday is a huge test and it will show us who we can rely upon when the going gets tough. The reaction is crucial and I know we will have a positive experience because I know this Ironwall team has spirit.

If everybody pulls it together, keeps focused for the full evening and works hard then we can get both bosses down again. I expect wipes and so should everyone else. We have players who missed Thursday night returning and those of us who are battle hardened from an actually quite impressive 7/9 haul also returning for a tilt at repeating the success of last week where we took everything!

WHEN we wipe, the patience to be a good team player is tested. When you’ve made your own mistakes on progression and now feel you have the fight under control and then someone else makes errors that cause wipes, look inside as well as at those making the mistake, because they need you to stick by them. No doubt you’ve been where they are and while maybe they should know better, some people just have other things going on that can cause a momentary loss in concentration and these days, fights are very unforgiving on that. Saying that, people really should listen when they are told not to tunnel the boss and stand in stuff, if you really cannot prioritise moving ahead of casting your stupid little 500k damage spell then Wednesday evening is your place, learn that fact and stop pretending you’re good.

The caveat tho, when the team wipes, that IS raiding. Raiding is all about wiping. If you’re so used to blowing content down that you can’t deal with a full night of wiping endlessly and getting zero loot then a progression  raid team is not your thing, learn that and adjust your mindset if you need to. We want people who learn and put time into the game on the other nights while not raiding so that they give themselves the best chance to provide value to their team mates on the night.

There is no way Avatar or Kil’jaeden should be treated as on farm, even tho I may joke that they are after a first kill. That is not the case so I hope to see the results of everybody’s game face on Sunday. I look forward to people having managed to set aside that time for your team mates who feel badly affected when you are not there. We are still adding to the roster in preparation for possible mythics and definite Antorus, The Burning Throne.

I’m looking forward to seeing Ironwall come together again to pull out a solid night and may the lovely loot gods be with us. Some of us deserve a better legendary and according to my mathematical calculations, killing heroic KJ provides a 143.8% increased chance to drop a sexy legendary 🙂

/salute

Because I am such an ambitious Guild Leader, I always wish the guild is seen as successful and selfishly as a player who wants to raid at a high level, it also means I am always looking for the best Raid Leadership in order to furnish the guild with respectable progress. The trouble is that we have a very delicate balance within the guild of casualness and also determination to become better, those differences lead to occasional clashes of opinions. My previous determination to accept a strong Raid Leader in the past at the expense of guild harmony caused a huge collapse and while I still would love to see such focused and organised raid leadership again, he was far from ideal in a lot of ways. He upset a lot of people but that’s how progression raiding is, players can’t take being dropped from a team too personally. A guy must call the shots on who plays and when, it’s not an easy thing to do.

What I want, is a Dambusters superstar to really emerge and love the guild, love all aspects of leading a progression raid team and enjoying the fact that the GM will support (and critique as necessary) but all for the greater good of the guild’s image and happiness of it’s members. Daltzilla is on the path but he will admit his own imperfections and that he has a lot to learn as a raid leader and student of the game in general. I will make no apology for constantly looking to improve the raid leadership and that may come with replacing Daltzilla with another at some point if the guild requires a change there. What I really would rather tho, is that Daltzilla grows and grows like Spyrot did but without feeling that he outgrows the guild which is an absolute fallacy. A dedicated raid leader can do great things here and without the admin side which comes with the guild leadership. Leaning on me is not a failure, it’s a virtue and I can do a lot of things to make life easier so I want to be used and helpful. Officers in this guild should be using my example of being a servant first and not someone to serve.  Officers here sometimes struggle with the notion that they have a little power and it has been known to change players.  I never change, my leadership style is the same as it was when I founded the guild on 26th July 2009 and i know that because my personality is all over it. I expect respect, banter and friendly attitudes towards myself and others in the guild and around the wider community. When I see people behaving well and playing their game with enjoyment then it impresses me and they will progress up the ranks of the guild in due course.

I am currently looking for people to show me why they can become officers and serve their fellow guild members while providing their own style of leadership within the framework I provide. People like Shethehunter exemplify impeccable behaviour and total dedication to the guild. She has a long track record of trustworthiness and She has been a custodian of the guild for a number of months and a valued officer for years.

Regarding raiding and social balance, it’s a difficult thing to achieve while the pendulum of balance remains at the social side and if the guild tries to reign in the raiders’ flamboyance. I intend to ensure we allow raiders to be opinionated around the guild within reason and for friendly discussion to be allowed to develop. I don’t want to see people getting butthurt because they feel inferior or because they weren’t able to contribute to a heavily raid-centric discussion.  Raiders like to min-max and they like to talk about how best to do so, any debate about the game within the guild chat is healthy in my opinion so I want to encourage it.

I have had conversations with experienced guild members who understandably insist that the guild must remain casual in it’s raiding desire. They fear a recurrence of raider-created drama from the past.  I think there’s more to the point than that and I would suggest that as long as we don’t have an ego maniac in charge of raiding in the guild then we should be able to shape a behaviour pattern that remains compatible with the overall guild. In order to achieve that, I must ensure that raid leaders respect my direction and visions at all times and having had plenty of experience watching raid leaders of the past, I know exactly the signs to watch out for that they may be getting a bit too big for the role.  During raids, I will subordinate myself but between raids the guild leader’s advice should be taken seriously. One example which has been a point of note for me for years in this guild is that certain raiders who behave inappropriately, especially (but not exclusively) in the guild chat must be brought to task. During Damsy’s reign as raid leader, he insisted that he would deal with such incidents involving ‘his’ raiders himself.  I have since learned that a raid leader must be willing to accept that if a raider behaves inappropriately and I witness it then I have every right to deal with it myself. if during a raid, then as long as it’s kept within the raid itself then the raid leader will of course be expected to deal with it.

What we want is for everyone to treat everyone with respect and not get shirty with people. I had a problem because I apologised and left a failing mythic+ Court of Farondis run where nobody knew what they were doing, the damage was hopeless and we had wiped a bunch of times before even getting to the first boss. As the healer being asked to do the impossible, I decided the group should cut it’s losses and quit. Members of that group were friends in real life and they decided to band together and chastise me for leaving the group in the guild chat! I tried to explain and got a barrage of nonsense in reply so i eventually kicked a guy who took it too far. That incident created the spark for a power hungry pair of raid leadership partners who I trusted, to build up a storm against me and they then took the entire raid roster and formed a new guild…..which of course is now utterly dead.

Moral of the story, Raid Leaders whom I ‘hire’ will take my position within the guild seriously, not only paying lip service but actually with their actions to back me up as I will always back them up when required.

I have no such concerns about Daltzilla who is a loyal supporter of the guild and my leadership therein. I hope we can grow together and bring some heroic progression success to the guild as soon as we are ready. I am not in the business of stifling a team by holding them to only heroics, if they clear heroics then the next natural step is mythics so we shall see how things go without me pushing so hard that I willingly accept faults in the character of a raid leader. Never again!

/Salute

The Dambusters has never been a raiding guild but since Icecrown Citadel, the guild has raided at varying degrees of commitment, from the ultra casual and borderline noobfests of Magmaw in Blackwing Descent to the relatively successful and commitment driven Emerald Nightmare mythic progression that saw the guild once again reach the higher area of the server rankings.

One thing I have learned about raiding in this guild, is that while I continue to ‘hire’ Raid Leaders, nobody will ever be able to provide the same level of consistency and commitment that I have given to the overall leadership of the guild which makes me really wish I could be a raid leader.  I have struggled with this reality for a long time but while guild leadership is definitely my forte, and maybe leading teams too, I do not have the required passion for learning the deeper intricacies of a boss fight from the perspective of someone who needs to know everything about it in order to lead a raid.

A Raid Leader MUST be able to break fights down by their mechanics and really understand what is happening (to each raider) during a fight at all times in order to rectify issues as they happen. I am still really learning my own class and fights from my own perspective and I struggle for motivation to really break boss fights down so I know that’s my weakness and it means I cannot realistically lead raids. That brings me back to my point, I must ‘hire’ Raid Leadership from within the guild and that is not an easy thing to do.

Ideally I would have excellent raid leaders who know everything about every class and every boss fight, are patient, know how to organise a team and squeeze the best out of each player but the world is not that cute so we will work hard and try to improve as we go, hoping enough people have enough fun to keep them interested.

So, all that being said and my general wishes having been made clear, let me explain what stage we are currently in at the moment with regards Tomb of Sargeras and the group we have been building towards.  Daltzilla has shown an excellent attitude and he has been able to get things really moving by pulling guild groups together for the casual raids we have been doing thus far.  That said, he is well aware that in order for things to progress, the standards being set must improve greatly. We will start to see the end of ‘everyone welcome’ invitations as Daltzilla gets a bit more selective about who he needs inside the team. People will start to wonder why there’s nothing to sign up for on raid nights and that will be because he will be hand-picking the players who he believes have shown enough to make the grade.

We have been saying that these events are a trial to find who we have and who can handle the rigours of actual progression raiding. Lets face it, failing to blow up normal ToS proves we have some who can and some who currently cannot. It is the duty of the raid leader to ensure the team makes progress and he is being judged on results by myself at each raid event. He will quite rightly start selecting those he feels can get us kills in order to ensure he remains in his position as raid leader.

For those who find themselves overlooked, I recommend patience until I can select a normal mode raid leader to take the group and if anyone feels they would like to try doing that then I suggest you speak to me in game and let me know your plans. I am especially looking for people who can commit time and be well organised in the expectation of building a group capable of catching up to and competing with Daltzilla’s team. Ideally, as we have had before in this guild, I would LOVE to see 2 teams running within the guild and even competing with one another for boss kills. At this moment, with people playing at such different levels, the guild needs to get organised and select those most ready to commit and provide to the main team and pull up our standards and expectation levels which will be the impetus for a 2nd tier team and also be an example for the 2nd team to follow.

As we kill Avatar and get onto Kil’Jaeden, the demands are approaching that required of heroic progression will be visible. It was noticeable that while certain people are allowed mistakes in early pulls, and even silly mistakes in later pulls, consistent lacking of class knowledge is absolutely not compatible with ongoing progression raiding and really must be pinpointed and separated from the players who know their stuff. If not, those more experienced players will grow frustrated at being held back and we can’t have that.

Everyone must be realistic about themselves and understand that they have a level. Not everyone can make the grade but EVERYONE can continue to learn and work hard in order to become noticed. I hope that all Dambusters with intent on raiding will redouble their commitment to learning their class inside out and using the WoW community (i.e. sites like Icy-Veins) to gain more knowledge in order to be more valuable to your raid leader. Make him struggle to overlook you!

We will be watching people’s performances in mythic dungeons and everyone who makes the raid team, including myself, will be on trial continuously to ensure the team is as strong as possible. You may be asked to sit out as the raid leader asks another player to come in. If so, maintain a good attitude and use the time to improve any weaknesses you might have.  I recommend smashing the training dummy in order to make your ‘rotation’ perfect so that you no longer even need to think about what abilities to use, you just do it and then you may concentrate on fight mechanics and what you are being asked to do by the raid leader.

I would ask for patience and understanding while this transition period is in effect, any questions then Daltzilla or myself are worth talking to.  If you have concerns about this direction then best to talk to me, I am happy to answer any questions but remember I’m usually pretty busy in game and I don’t bite unless i’m in kitty form 🙂

/Salute

Roar