/Salute Dambusters!

It’s been a long time coming but since I have good news, it’s a great feeling to be bringing you a blog post.  I have been pretty much out of the game since September, only making fleeting appearances in-between then and now. My own personal inactivity has been enforced rather than chosen but I am delighted to be able to tell you all that I have returned to breathe new life back into the Dambusters.

Over the years I have made attempts to encourage our officers to take more responsibility with guild administration and while there have been times where that’s been possible, I am under no illusion that generally the officers are happy to help out while distancing themselves from bearing the burden of running the show.  I assert that could be the case because of who our officers are; I have specifically encouraged a certain type of person into our leadership team ensuring that anyone who became a little too bossy has been ruined for it.  So it is entirely my own fault that the guild has been left to hibernate in my absence since the bossy types are not in positions of influence lol. This has meant that with Bigticket being absent, the guild has faltered and for the first time such a long period of low activity has descended.  My own career changes have been detrimental to my WoW time but the long-laid plans I set in motion when I decided to make a life change are now coming together and I will be online much more.

People of course have still been playing, some of you have moved guilds temporarily and some may have found new homes they are happy to remain in.  That’s all part of the game and I respect that.  But The Mothership™ is back in orbit and it’s time for people to start planning their own comebacks if you want to be part of it again.

Most of the officer team will return for Legion prelaunch if not earlier and I’m sure plenty of Dambusters will also be back.  Spyrot will be leading raids in Legion and he is starting by pulling together a Dambusters raid of normal (and possibly some heroic) Hellfire Citadel this coming Friday 15th April which is on the guild calendar for people to sign up for and will require people to join our TeamSpeak server. The raid will require no previous raiding experience but an item level of 690 or higher. The aim is to have some fun and get a start on the road back to a more organised raid schedule in time for the next expansion.  Anyone who is interested in raiding more seriously should try to get involved because the guild will start off with all guns blazing in Legion.  We have a lot to discuss on TeamSpeak regarding events and scheduling and we also have our 7th Dambusters Anniversary edging closer so it’s about to be all GO!

Bonesi and Shethehunter have never really been away. Gierrod and Idioms will be back for Legion, Jolts is crazy busy with his work so we will see how things go nearer Legion time and Perrinaybara has been out of the game for too long so will rejoin the Dambusters normal ranks if he returns to the game.  Lonok is long gone so he won’t be returning to the officer team. Pocahunter (and her many alts) is already back in the game and she will carry out her officer duties diligently as she did in the past.  Spyrot’s thirst for raiding progression has taken him to another guild to chase those boss kills he craves which is of course the type of driven attitude I expect from a raid leader who will return and no doubt have his work cut out for him as he shapes a new team ready to hit the ground running in Legion. I hope Spyrot will receive the support he needs from the team as we look forward to becoming a main player in the Grim Batol progress rankings.

Lets make it happen Dambusters, I need all of you back to the Mothership so please make your plans and I will see you back in here where you belong.

/Salute

The guild has undergone a recent heavy swing towards raiding simply because the team is being managed by a dedicated leadership team and also because the team is running 3 nights per week which takes up more of each raid members’ time.

We often find that some of the most dedicated players happen to be raiders and as such, we see them online a lot. The guild also has an extensive community of players who are not considered part of the progression team roster but nevertheless provide great depth and character to the guild overall.  These people are crucial in that they add the balance to the pendulum of our guild which would otherwise become a pure raiding guild.

I’m talking about people who for whatever reason don’t or cannot commit to a specific schedule and the dedication needed to perform at progression level. People like Grim, Pocahunter, Yukfu, Shethehunter etc. These Dambusters stalwarts are just as important to this guild as the Idioms, Spyrot, Jolts etc. because without them, all influence would surely levitate towards raiding.

The primary motivation for my own determination to maintain this structure for the Dambusters is fear. Fear that we become just another raiding guild. Fear that the raid leaders decide they want to be the GM so take the team and create a new guild. Fear that the guys who don’t raid get stuck in a guild who doesn’t care about them since they can’t raid. Fear of raid drama causing guild implosion…

We have all seen guilds ‘merge’ together, guilds blow apart and guilds slowly die and I would guess that in almost all of these occurrences, the GM could have prevented the chaos by being clear as to the aims of the guild, the format of play the guild desires and by ensuring the people of the guild are compatible with that vision and further, they follow that vision enough in the sense that the essence of the guild is never lost.  I suspect a large number of guilds who disband do so also because their GM goes AWOL, proving that they don’t care about their guild enough to even bother planning how it will operate in their absence.

Too many GMs play for their own self interest. They see the guild as a vehicle for their own personal raiding advancement, or for their own monetary (in game gold ofc) benefit or indeed just to satisfy their own ego. The latter may be acceptable as long as the GM is fair and relays his message to the guild clearly and sticks to his/her ideals without wholesale changing of guild direction on a whim.  Twisting a guild’s direction constantly will lead to a crisis of identity and people will leave.

The way we operate as a community, we are massively enhanced by the raiding team’s outward appearance on the server leaderboards and inwardly appealing to members of the team itself. The guild benefits from having good players who are also good people that care about being here. Often the best of whom become officers and are asked to set examples to the rest of the guild. Some maybe should be officers but due to the way we manage the guild, not everyone can be an officer.  Some Dambusters are here only for certain reasons and have really no intention of becoming part of the family.  That’s fine but you won’t see me encouraging this attitude and they certainly will not be leading the guild as officers.

To caveat the obvious benefits of having an organised raid team, guilds are ever reliant on the happiness of that team and particularly it’s leadership. For me, that is a potential bombshell which is only in my control to a limited degree. It is my job to keep the entire guild happy and secure but other people’s individual happiness is something I have no real influence over. If a critical guild member became embroiled in a situation leading to an unpleasant exit from the guild, they could well attempt to drag other members out with them. This is something a raid team in particular can bring because raid teams have players who inevitably enjoy the challenge and want to be the best. If they see another team doing something they want to be doing, they leave and to compound their decision they will often tell others why they should follow and the very human nature of it will mean they are at pains to prove their decision was right.  Thankfully although this situation may be commonplace among raiding communities, it hasn’t been a factor in the Dambusters very often save for maybe very few isolated cases.

These concerns are what drive me to look after the ‘little guy’ in the community. The player who is just so happy to be here. Here’s a shortened example of one particular recent message I received:-

“Just wanna thank you for what you’ve done for the guild these 6 years. I really hope that you’ll stay as Guild Leader for as long as possible, this year has been fabulous. I’ve been in a few guilds, and this guild beats the others by lightyears! I also wanna say that what you do for the guild, you do it more then great, you always try to make sure that everybody can be (involved) with no matter what it is. The Whatsapp group is a positive thing, you get to know about things that isn’t in the guild calendar like that one (impromptu) HC BRF raid where I eventually got 4 pieces of gear. I finally wanna say once again, thank you for all the things you do for the guild!”

How can a GM not be moved by such a heartfelt statement? These testimonies are surprisingly regular and they serve to reinforce my stance that the whole of our community deserves my full attention regards overall guild leadership.  I would suggest other guild leaders should be doing all they can to follow my example.  In addition to this type of stimulus for sticking to my guns, the toxicity out there in the wider community strengthens my resolve even further to provide a safer guild environment not only for the social community members but also for our raiding players.  All Dambusters are a family and although the balance and keeping everyone happy is an everlasting struggle and test of our leadership skills, it is a very worthy cause evidenced by our relatively happy member base.

I appreciate all the help I get from my guildies and from my officers in particular.  They are aware of the difficult balance we aim to achieve here and are understanding of the decisions I make which maintain that balance.  It means provisions are made that don’t necessarily point to raid team benefit nor do they aim directly at benefitting non-raiding events but if we can manage to get more fun runs and more activities like some of the stuff we done last Saturday at the Anniversary event then we are on a very sure footing as a community.

/Salute

And the winner of the Screenshot Competition from the 2015 6th Anniversary is….

MINIHAVTORN

PRIZE FUND  –  400,000g

MVP

IDIOMS  –  Officer MVP   –    20k + ‘Landro’s Gift Box‘ + Blizzard Store Mount, pet or helm of the winner’s choice + Coalfist Gronnling mount

OMEGA  –  Non-Officer MVP   –   20k + ‘Landro’s Gift Box‘ + Trading Post Garrison Auctioneer + Coalfist Gronnling mount

Selfie Competition Winner

–  Vial of the Sands + 20,000g

Gnome Party

–  1,000g each

All gnomes will get  1,000g each, this could be up to 40 people if we get an amazing guild turn-out.  As with last year, I expect people to join as the day goes on which will mean that some miss out on parts of the day and of course you only get a prize if you attend the event. Please check your gnome’s mail box afterwards because last year I received returned mail 30 days later.

Dalaran Jump Winner

HEINOUR   –  Vial of the Sands + 10,000g

Gurubashi Arena Winners

HEINOUR   –  10,000g for solo winner

IDIOMS/BAMBALAM/KIRAH   –  10,000 each for team winner

LOTTERY

–  100,000g

1. 30,000   –   Shethehunter

2. 25,000   –   Lonok

3. 20,000   –   Caledonia

4. 15,000   –   Omego

5. 10,000   –   Sparkkle

Well done everyone

/Salute

Any errors of calculation or judgment, please notify me by email (bigticket@dambusters.eu) or by whatsapp if I’m not available in-game.

Here we are Dambusters, 6 years in the making and what a journey it has been!  We have seen some amazing things over the years and we have only become stronger and better progressively as time has gone by, using the firm foundations we have laid as a community that ensures we embrace new members and encourage people to play the game the right way.

As your guild leader, it gives me great pleasure to still be here pouring out the superlatives to describe this guild and all our members.  The work we have done gives me the opportunity to host a culmination of events in celebration of what you have achieved in the past year.  Again, many thanks go to the guild members who have helped to make our prize fund so generous this year.  Everyone has played their part but there are a few exceptional Dambusters who boosted the prize fund as always.

PRIZE FUND  –  400,000g

• Throughout the duration of the day, there is an ongoing selfie competition.  Take your own opportunity to create the perfect selfie moment during the course of the day.  Qualifying entries MUST have a guild banner somewhere in the selfie but the location and content is otherwise completely up to your imagination.  A decision on the winner will be made by myself by Sunday at the latest after deliberation.  Please email selfies to bigticket@dambusters.eu

• Every year, The Dambusters celebrates it’s formation date with a raft of activities for everyone to join in with.  This year is no different and we will start at 12pm noon (ST) on Saturday 25th July at the Hero’s Rest Inn, Stormshield. We will proceed to drink the bar dry and when there is no space floorspace left uncovered by beer vomit we will hit the streets of Stormshield!  RP mode marching to celebrate the guild community and as a solemn reminder of former guild members from the past.   You never know, one day some of our old friends may just return!  I want to see guild banners everywhere and I expect friendly behaviour with the other members of the server while we are there.  BE AWARE that this is a big opportunity to be trolled by others from the community but I EXPECT TOP BEHAVIOUR as noted in this blog post and I will be reminding all guild members about this.

• After we have remembered old Dambusters enough, we will create level 1 gnomes and bring them to Stormshield (I have Pettysue sat at the gnome start point waiting to provide portals for everyone).  Get naked and feel free to mingle with the Stormshield patrons.  Feel free to be warm and friendly to others who ask about what on Earth we are actually doing but the primary goal is the feel-good factor that lil gnomes will offer as we all dance about like idiots together.

• Next up we will log our desired characters for a massive guild battle royale down in the gurubashi Arena in the Cape of Stranglethorn.  We will have a total brawl where everyone will land on a countdown and commence warfare, no grouping at this point and it’s every man for himself until the last Dambuster is standing.  When dead, release and run in but DO NOT resurrect.  You are welcome to return to the arena as a ghost but no resurrecting as you will affect the outcome of the fight.  After the first (likely short fight) we will team up in pairs that I will decide for reasons! and do it all again in our teams.

• After kicking each others’ butts in the arena, we will proceed to kick our own butts over in Dalaran. Our annual ‘jump off the tallest platform and see how close to Bigticket’s guild banner we land‘ event will be short and silly but fun and a nice reward awaits the winner.

• DAZZLING ROD  Dodgeball game should be fun.  But first, lets make sure everyone has the item.  We will stream down to the Ironhold Harbour and make sure everyone has their toy from the chest in the East Tower, then play dodgeball on scene and probably all the way around Tanaan, dodging balls and probably killing mobs along the way.  I would like this event to extend to us basically just smashing around Tanaan as a mob, breaking people and generally owning the place.  If we end up with a strong enough team then I would like to Go to Throne of Kil’Jaeden and kill Kazzak or assault the horde base Vol’mar.

• LOTTERY – Everyone who attends the day’s event will automatically be entered into a draw which I will conduct at the end of the day and there will be a guaranteed prize pot of 100k.

MVP

Voting has already started and is well underway for the accolade ‘Most Valuable Player’ of the past YEAR for two categories,  Officer and Non-Officer.  All Dambusters may vote one of each regardless of your rank and for any reasons you can think of.  Please ensure any remaining votes are in during the day so i can count and announce the winners.  Any personal message to me will do, via WhattsApp, in-game mail or whisper.  You may not vote for yourself!

Prizes for the MVP votes will be as follows:-

Officer MVP   –    20k + ‘Landro’s Gift Box‘ + Blizzard Store Mount, pet or helm of the winner’s choice + Coalfist Gronnling mount

Non-Officer MVP   –   20k + ‘Landro’s Gift Box‘ + Trading Post Garrison Auctioneer + Coalfist Gronnling mount

Selfie Competition Winner

–  Vial of the Sands + 20,000g

Gnome Party

–  1,000g each

All gnomes will get  1,000g each, this could be up to 40 people if we get an amazing guild turn-out.  As with last year, I expect people to join as the day goes on which will mean that some miss out on parts of the day and of course you only get a prize if you attend the event. Please check your gnome’s mail box afterwards because last year I received returned mail 30 days later.

Dalaran Jump Winner

–  Vial of the Sands + 10,000g

Gurubashi Arena Winners

–  10,000g for solo winner

–  10,000 each for team winner

LOTTERY

–  100,000g

1. 30,000

2. 25,000

3. 20,000

4. 15,000

5. 10,000

It is entirely possible that the guild may find recruits looking to join on the day because of the server publicity generated.  If so, please send them to the guild website to apply as normal.  I hope the recruitment staff (and other officers concerned) will be on hand to process any applications, however newly joined guild members on the day are not eligible for any prizes.  Bigticket and alts are not eligible for any prizes so please do not vote for my characters 🙂

Hope you have a great day guys, you deserve it!

/Salute

Any errors of calculation or judgment, please notify me by email (bigticket@dambusters.eu) or by whatsapp if I’m not available in-game.

Ever since the formation of The Dambusters, I have realised something pivotal to my own guild leadership style which is also a real life skill I thankfully understand only too well. You cannot please everyone. Furthermore, you cannot force people to love you!

I know it must be hard to fathom but yeah! even I’m not loved by everyone lol. We can only do our best with the tools available and we must remember that while we are demanding of our team mates in the game, people pay their own subs so they are entitled to go in search of satisfaction if they are not getting that here.

That being said, a little patience and faith in the guild’s leadership would be very much appreciated. We have actually bent over backwards to accommodate certain players which is something that irks me considering I always employ the mantra that the players should adjust to the guild and not the other way around. Our raid schedule was drastically altered to help new members to fit in quickly and I’m delighted to see that we have a few real gems in there who continue to flourish here.

For every gem tho, there is often an unsatisfied Dambuster who feels the need to scratch their own itch and so it’s for the best that they look for a more suitable guild for their needs. It’s all very well me saying ‘but wait, better days are coming..’ And of course I would hope I get the trust and faith of our members but not everyone is willing or able to take what I say at face value and we wish them well as they move on.

The constant revolving door of a guild can frustrate some but imagine instead of a revolving door – an exit only door with no recruits coming in! That spells the demise of a guild and thankfully The Dambusters have always had the ability to recruit good people and quality players. Our goal is always to try and retain those famous guild members while the game itself lurches in and out of lull periods.

We have some high quality players recently arrived and a plethora of good players already here with some further mythic level raiders due to join within the next week so the future is bright. It’s up to us to ensure they feel really warmly welcomed here and immediately at home. We are famous for our rapturous welcomes and that first impression is crucial.

It will then be up to our formula and morals as a guild to show incoming members that we are a long term guild with a strong future that they can invest their valuable time in. We can’t keep them all but let’s see if a bit better organisation in the coming weeks will put us firmly on the map as a contender on this server.

/Salute

With patch 6.2 here and a new raiding tier, we have plenty to be excited about. The guild will surely again witness big changes in the coming weeks with the likelihood that returning players will appear and boost the skill level of the Stonewrought raid team.

The 6th Anniversary is only a month away and we have plenty of  preparations already underway for that. The 26th of July should be a big occassion and I hope to see as many of you as possible in attendance on that Sunday. It should last about half a day with plenty of idiots engaging in silly behaviour and plenty of prizes getting dished out. Most importantly tho, is the start time because that will be where we march as a guild in memory of fallen former Dambusters who are no longer with us. That aims to be a poignant moment and each of us should endeavour to attend at the start because one day it could be you being remembered.

There is much to do in 6.2 (HA that rhymes) with the biggest ever WoW patch to date and the opening of Timeless Isle 2.0 namely Tanaan Jungle, rep grinds, rares to kill, exploration to finish, dailies to do…and raids to farm. This guild will be going all out to ensure we continue our traditions as a social community guild who raids.

I have talked about fresh starts for our raid team members and while that will be an important aspect to our team’s immediate selection, I note that the raid leader job has been made to be agonising and certain attitudes towards the team and the guild must change from this day onwards.

A few Dambusters may have been feeling like they are uninterested in content which they have already done but it has come to pass on multiple occassions that the raid team needed it’s members’ full commitment and ended up falling short. If you believe you are too good to be doing the same content as your team then you can best believe you probably should find a new guild today!

As GM of the Dambusters, I will be forcing home an attitude of togetherness among my guild members who I expect to stand shoulder to shoulder with their fellow Dambusters through the good times and the bad. There are times when a progression boss will go down after some hard work and the team will feel good but there are also times when a few raiders fail to attend meaning without a 20-man team available, the group have no choice but to revert to heroic. That is the time when I am looking to see the people who want to be there no matter what the content is, no matter the difficulty, no matter what loot you get out of the evening. Times like those tell me a story about who will be there to save my ass when I need it most in the bad times.

I want to be able to call on my raid team mates and be proud to say we battled together and we made it. During more relaxed times, I feel it is our duty as skilled raiders to encourage a few of our guild’s less experienced players to join in and get that buzz of playing with the big boys. We should be setting an example of conduct and not just walking away because ‘meh, it’s not mythic so I don’t care’. We could be blooding future strong raiders for our roster.

Rest assured that as your guild leader, the raid leader I install to manage the team will do so with my full scope and as an officer team, we are determined to ensure we only take people who can be bothered to be there for the other guys in the team when the team needs, not the other way round!

As I have said before, this guild is about looking after your guildies at all times and that means when you’re raiding. Most of our members don’t actually raid to any competitive level. Some people in the guild actually really can’t stand raiders and the drama they can bring to the guild and it’s my own mindset that our raiders be particularly well mannered and shining examples of conduct to the rest of the guild.

Raiding has rewarded this guild with a great many benefits from some of the best people I have had the pleasure of playing with to some of the most committed officers and hardest working players we have had. However, any raider who acts like they are above it in our guild will get a rude awakening from me because I like nothing better than destroying an ego in a flash if I think they are undermining the guild in any way.

I know there are members of this guild who sit and snipe and my gaze is upon you, if you feel this blog post is aimed at you after what I have said then you’re probably right. If you cannot act like the Dambuster I expect then you should either politely make your exit now or be found out the hard way when I slam the door in your face. Everyone in my guild has an opportunity to show that they really are true Dambusters and display pride at being here with a willingness to trust your officers that we will do our best to move the guild forward.

Test my ability to pick out non-committal raiders who only log in to raid then bring an elitist attitude then you will find yourself in my sights, which believe me is not where you want to be. Stick it out and put in the work to feel really a part of the team and a friend in the community and you will rise up!

/Salute

Well, we are right among that lull period when people are fed up with playing the same content. This is actually a time in the game’s cycle that this guild proves who we are. We are still pushing content and still pretty active when a lot of people are waiting for the next patch.

That’s not to say we don’t have people who would rather be logging in to find the new shiny shiny has arrived but for me, I have plenty to be getting on with in this game other than getting all bored of it. I’ve never understood the burnout people get where they munch away at the game on their character and then get bored after a few months. I’ve got too many characters that I love playing to ever get bored of the game so when I get itchy feet, I usually log an alt and get that buzz back!

The game community is also affected by the summer season and people have things to do in life which don’t involve plunking arse on seat for the lighter nights playing video games. This is another period where the Dambusters are affected, but not seriously to the point of ceasing operations entirely. It’s not easy and we see it whenever we try to pull groups together, there are less people around but there’s still just about enough to get us by.

Recruitment is the lifeblood of any guild since players will come and go but when they go for a time, if we have done our jobs then there should be others recovering the numbers. In the end, our goal is obviously to retain as many people as possible while still recruiting but that’s not easy to achieve. Just look at the guilds around the server who have been cut down because they cannot get a mythic team together. It’s pretty hard for people to come to terms that they cannot raid at the highest difficulty now and because of this, guilds are struggling and even disbanding.

The fact we are still fighting through this lull period proves we have the heart, the guts and the community spirit. We have the right type of people who want to get stuff done even while the going is rough. We even still have solid people who are away with real life business and will return so as long as we keep plugging away, we can turn the corner.

3 million accounts less than at the start of the expansion yet we are largely prepared for these fluctuations in the population. I have a feeling there could be another 1 – 2 million subs lost by the next figures release so that 3 million is likely already a lot higher.

It is more and more difficult to maintain recruitment levels in the guild so credit must go to our recruiters for keeping the roster topped up. Credit must also go to the officer team for their general organisation skills which keep the guild bank looking neat, the player notes and ranks up to date as well as ensuring inactive characters are removed from the roster. A large part of the recruitment also comes down to the sterling work done by Stonewrought raid team because without them our guild is less attractive to higher skilled players who scrutinise the raiding progress made by a guild before applying to join.

This guild has touched many hearts because we have a structured leadership team who care about the direction we are headed. We will continue to unearth hidden gems around the game who have yet to experience the game while being a Dambuster! We will find them and continue to grow.

Ask not what the guild can do for you, ask what you can do for your guild and it will become yours!
/Salute

First off, it’s been far too long since my last blog post. I have punched out 2 posts but failed to finish them before they became obsolete regards the fast-paced changes each week has brought. This one will be published as complete thank goodness.

The guild is going through a frantic period of additions the scale of which we have not seen since patch 4.3 brought Bailen’s horde guild members to the Dambusters.

The Dambusters have added almost an entire team of raiders, most of whom came from the formidable ‘Two Faced Jokers’ guild and these additions will undoubtedly bolster our roster. This has meant an unprecedented upsurge in raiding demand and subsequently puts a lot of work onto the shoulders of our officer team, particularly the Raid Leaders Akosa and Spyrot.

Ilyad, the former TFJ GM has been extremely helpful in smoothing the process as his team have made their transition. I expect their own leadership to quickly rise to prominence here after settling in and adjusting to the way we operate. TFJ have witnessed similar issues to ourselves in that with Heroic Blackhand down, finding the extra raiders with sufficient quality to boost the team to that Mythic 20 has been elusive. The Dambusters ‘Stonewrought’ team has had similar issues while coming within touching distance of the numbers, the strength in depth of the team has fallen just short of Mythic requirement to date.

The Dambusters are now at a crossroads and we all need to pull together to make sure the opportunity which currently presents itself is not wasted. I am doing my utmost behind the scenes trying to pull our recently appointed Raid Leadership team together so that the administration of the raid team is settled. Things like scheduling, and loot systems have been the root of my concern lately.

Loot will be as previous, pure Suicide Kings. For explanation on what Suicide Kings basically is, watch short videos here and here.

Schedule changes are being discussed but as the current raid days of Thursday/Friday/Monday have been used for some time, I ask that new raiders please be patient with the leadership until concrete decisions can be made depending on attendance and the team’s needs. As I have discussed with Ilyad, the raid schedule is under consideration and it is possible that after a week or two it becomes apparent that it needs changing, however we must base the decisions on the majority of the team’s ability to attend.

The next week of raiding is still to be fully defined but it could either be another full clear on heroic to have a good look at all raiders’ operational abilities before trying to pick the best composition of 20 for Mythics then ask some to be online as substitutes.

It’s possible the raid leaders may decide to go straight in and have a pop at a mythic boss just to see how that goes before deciding who makes the grade but without knowing the top team, certain people may be left out to begin with.

Rest assured tho, that whatever happens the aim is to push whatever mythic content we can right now and reinforce the team before we hit the ground running in patch 6.2’s Hellfire Citadel. If some raiders cannot commit to the team’s schedule when we get settled then we may pull together another team to clear heroics. Any new team formation would require a raid leader and all the raiders who are more suited to heroic content, and hopefully assisted by members from the mythic team depending on schedule compatibility.

Make no mistake, this is a well maintained guild with a strong guild leader and an officer team who keep almost constant communication using our Whatsapp group. Any respecting Warcraft player will benefit from being part of this community because we actually take care and pay attention to our members’ needs and look out for each other rather than chasing self-interest.

Meanwhile, all Dambusters are welcome to join the guild’s Whatsapp ‘Crew Room’ group by having the app and speaking to me or another officer in game.

This is an important time for my officer team. We have a lot of work to do and every decision we make may not necessarily work out as everyone expects but you can be sure we are working hard to make it work. Every one of you is an ambassador for The Dambusters and I expect all of our members to exemplify our respected status out in the wider community. This guild has been mentioned in WoW Insider, Convert To Raid and has a proud community within.

Feel free to leave any thoughts, suggestions or questions in the comments section below.

/Salute

The guild’s progression raiding has been using the ‘Suicide Kings’ loot distribution system since Siege of Orgrimmar and we have used it in the past too.

Stonewrought currently operate the KonferSK Suicide Kings addon which is used to allocate everyone on the raiding roster a spot on a numbered master list. Each new raider who joins the team is added to the bottom of that master list.

Each raid night, the selected team is taken from the master list to create an active list sorted in numerical order corresponding to their positions within the master list. When a piece of loot drops, the master looter will offer an item up to the raid team and whoever wants it may whisper the word ‘bid’ to the master looter.

From the bidding raiders, the one who is nearest top of the current active list will receive the item and immediately drop to the bottom of the current active list.
*Note this raid list is not the master, just the active which got pulled out of the master for that evening’s raiding and the final order from that raid night will slot back into the master list without disturbing any unused raiders in the master.*
Raiders may use their bids to claim any item that is put up for grabs by the master looter, even if the item is offspec. The reason this is acceptable is because of the consequences of taking the item. If a player is happy to drop to the bottom of the list for an item they have no intention of using then it’s their own problem and the next item that drops will likely be out of their reach.

Likewise if a raider wants to sit atop the list feeling comfortable that he will get first option on anything that drops only serves to benefit the rest of the team who can gather upgrades the number 1 raider is passing on.

This may appear to be a strange situation which requires further meddling but in my opinion a mental note by the raid leader about which players are acting in a way which doesn’t benefit the team on a regular basis. If the raid leader feels the player is deliberately trying to hold others back and gimping himself in the process then that player’s team commitment could come into consideration. By the rules of the loot system tho, there is no other need for governance and it’s is entirely possible a player may well simply only need 1 special item so he has every right to sit there and wait for it, if it ever drops.

We also have a way to minimise the frequency of gear being disenchanted because people may be afraid to lose their spot high on the list due to a minor upgrade. We implemented a /roll system to run parallel with the bids. If nobody bids on an item then anyone who /rolls on the item can win it. A suicide ‘bid’ always trumps any /roll but if you could use an item maybe as a minor upgrade or for an offspec then you may /bid alongside anyone else in the same situation. Highest wins of course, assuming there were no favoured suicide bids.

I think we need to consider a check for our raiders who do /roll on items because the nature of the /roll means that there are no consequences for winning it. Literally anyone could /roll to take an item and possibly have only interest in it’s vendor value. We must ensure the /roll item is usable on the character either on main spec or even offspec.

This brings me to ‘Bind on Equip’ items. Idioms and I have discussed using these BoE items only to either gear up the currently raiding team (not their alts) or to be used to help generate gold for the fast approaching 6th Anniversary this July. The proposal is that BoEs if not required as an upgrade on the night then they will go to the guild bank where they will be held on the bottom row of the Grand Slam (deposit) tab and offered at a 50% discount of it’s market value on a first come, first served auction basis.

This plan has been discussed and agreed by the guild bank management team who will help orchestrate the system. Any officer has access to Grand Slam tab but primarily offers to purchase the items should be made directly to Shethehunter or Poca where possible, and if they are unavailable then Idioms or myself.

I initially thought requests for items through in-game mail may be a good option but on consideration, it’s possible 2 different players could bid to 2 different officers for the same item therefore selecting who came first might prove controversial. I think it might be best to keep it simple and only allow items to be bought when the officer is online to ensure fairness.

Prices will be published at first using the guild Message of the Day and we will see how that goes before adjusting the publication of items/prices as required.

A good video illustrating the ‘Suicide Kings’ loot system can be found by clicking this link.

/Salute