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
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