No More Progression Pugs

I have been wrestling with an issue that I feel has been an underlying problem to our raiding throughout the past. This has the potential to be polarising and very controversial but it’s something I feel strongly about implementing at this important period right before the next tier of raiding starts.

I want to put a halt on any guild raid team member pugging personal progression with other teams as a general rule from the day 5.4 launches.

Already you might be a bit shocked because it might well be something we have all done up until this point to get chances of gear and personal progress as well as that all-important experience of boss strategies that can come in handy when doing it with the guild.

I understand there is an argument to be made for gearing up and experiencing the fights with other teams but consider the negatives of pugging:-

• You don’t experience it with your friends in the guild, your own team.
• There is a possibility that when it comes to the crunch and that one or two last pulls on a night of wiping on a progression boss, a guy who has already cleared it and got the loot won’t be as interested to stay beyond and get it done even when the kill is so close!
• The other members of your team might feel resentment that you decided to pug and leave the team behind.

Try to consider these points from the perspective of the team mate who didn’t pug that clear weeks ago but could have easily. Why did they not pug a clear? Did they wait out of loyalty to the guild team? Are they not good enough to pug a clear?

Flip the coin..

Be the player who cleared it already. Does the gear make them so much better? Are they glad they experienced the killing if the final boss with randoms? On a personal level, are they as hungry for that kill with the struggling guild raid team as they would be if they still needed the kill themselves?

I’m not suggesting everyone who pugs a clear will no longer care about guild progression but what I am suggesting is that it is evident to me that there have been signs that this issue has affected the guild team and no matter what I have to do, I will reverse it. Players who have that hunger satisfied by pugging a clear in the past will be forced to show their true commitment to the guild in 5.4 and there will be no questions about their determination to work their asses off for that kill the guild (the other 9) deserve.

I’ve seen the slackers, I’ve felt the weak links who’s attitude is to benefit number 1. That lacking hunger translates to a lack of steady guild progression and it’s a trend I am bringing to a close right now.

No longer will I line up in the raid team beside a player who thinks he’s god because he has cleared the raid and has the gear to show for it! There will be 1 exception to this rule and that will only be that new recruits with more progression will be exempt from scrutiny for obvious reasons.

The guild will however be studying people’s progress and gear to ensure we all remain steadfast and together to clear the next tier as one unit. We raid enough in a week to satisfy the players we have and any overshoot in raiders’ hunger for more will be offset by flex raiding which everyone is welcome to use as they wish.

Indeed flex raiding is the catalyst for this change since players will no longer be held to LFR or the guild’s normal progression raid team for their raiding fix. Flex will be a fantastic filler which can help people to understand the tactics of future normal progression bosses as well as being useful to gear up alts. The guild have yet to set in stone flex and normal mode schedules but with flex’s all-encompassing nature and separate lockout from normal, I would hope that people will be flexing their butts off most nights of the week if you have the alt characters and the desire to do so.

Normal mode and looking ahead to heroics is not a pipe dream for our team as we are beginning to settle into a rhythm while steadily recruiting in the hope of finding more gems like we’ve done in the past with the likes of Sîdney, The Stig™, Jibbas, Teniel, Wenya and so many others from the past. We keep unearthing these pocket rockets and giving the team true competition for places and long may that continue. My vision is to see these guys flourish and become a respected team among the server’s leaderboard. Lets do it together tho, share each progression kill with our Dambusters family and it will feel sweeter!

Pugging a clear has had it’s time but we are now better than that. We don’t need to pug to progress. If we find ourselves wanting to pug at the end of a lockout week, lets schedule another raid night! We have the players available now and we will continue to recruit to make sure it lasts.

This is a great time to be raiding with the Dambusters because you will be raiding beside equally committed people who are just as hungry to squeeze every bit out of their class to get that boss down, the same as you are!

/Salute