Raiding With The Dambusters

As I always say, we are not primarily a ‘raid guild’ however we do raid and some of us absolutely love it!

We should always remember that there are others who have little interest in raiding but those who have little interest in raiding should also let us raiders have our fun without being paranoid that the guild will suddenly change into some hardcore raiding guild where the raiders are getting preferential treatment. That has never happened and never will because I need to make sure that the raid team never get above their station in this guild. You can ask them, I don’t often let them think the guild revolves around them because it doesn’t.

However, the raiders are just as important to me as any other Dambusters and it’s also my job to make sure that the guys and girls who don’t wanna raid will not look upon the raiders as ‘them against us’. We are all members of a family here and we all have a part to play in maintaining the cameraderie no matter what activities we like to partake in.

That said, it’s been quite some time since I aired my views on how things stand regarding Dambusters Raiding so here I am.

I am absolutely delighted with the rise and rise of Spyrot and Wenya’s Team A considering the fact we struggled and scratched our way through Throne of Thunder just managing to clear normal mode Lei Shen to get the ‘Ahead of the Curve’ achievement before the new patch dropped and the instance was heavily nerfed.

Our team have gone from wiping over 100 times on Stone Guard and then Feng back in the opening weeks of MoP to clearing ToT by the nerf and now we are 2 bosses away from clearing Seige of Orgrimmar’s 14 bosses many weeks faster than we have ever cleared any raiding tier.

I can put this down to multiple reasons off the top of my head. Number 1 is the evergreen and everangry inferno that is Raid Leading Warrant Officer Spyrot who has been an absolute Dambusters stalwart right throughout this expansion and I have watched him progress leaps and bounds as a raid leader who can dissect boss encounters and find ways to problem solve 1000% better than he could at the beginning of the expansion.

Now, I’m damn well taking some credit for this because when we needed a raid leader, he stepped up and took the job with both hands. I saw his potential as a leader and stuck by him, offering advice on the best ways to deal with certain issues as they arose. Him and I have talked all things guild and raid leadership over the last couple of years and he has largely taken everything I have said on board, resulting in an astute management style which has him leading raids in the Dambusters primary raid team at heart.

Spyrot and Bigticket don’t always see eye to eye, sometimes there are passionate disagreements and other times there have been downright slanging matches between 2 brutal, resolute and ruthless contenders but we both want only 1 thing and I am glad to say that it’s all about this guild. You guys are lucky to have people who are willing to slug it out on occasion to make sure this guild is at its best and in Spyrot, you have a fighter. In Bigticket, you have a determined leader and I will stand up to be counted when the pressure is on.

Number 2 has to be the recruitment of our recent incumbent partnering Raid Leader Wenya (Tiorenna) who has come in when we were struggling through Throne of Thunder and really brought a unique perspective and a bunch of skill to the team. She is a fountain of knowledge which earns her the nickname ‘The Library’ and coupled with her mediatory skills in dealing with people and disputes, she really has worked wonders alongside Spyrot in leading the team.

The dynamic between the pair has really worked and has accelerated the way Spyrot has learned how to tackle each new progression encounter beyond belief. There has been a sort of ‘good cop, bad cop’ routine where Wenya has been the mediator with calm and drilled factual approach to problem solving and Spyrot being the fiery warhorse with a sore arse letting rip and frightening people into focus. This is not my intended synergy and although it has worked for us, we have witnessed times where it can cause negative effects but I assume we will see a smoothing off of this angular contrast between the raid leaders as we continue towards reaching our full potential as a team.

Devilslotus is very capable of leading these raids but seems well suited to the ‘everyone’s friend’ style of sub-leadership and ensuring the team is pulled together when Spyrot or Wenya request it and also stepping in with objective opinion when needed during times when things need to change. He is a very valuable raider with his dual role capability and will surely make a good out and out raid leader in future.

Number 3 must surely be our recruitment policies. As detailed in yesterday’s blog post, we aim to bring in new members with the right attitude that will fit nicely with the way we operate here. Just look at people like Jibbas, and Vhati. Even Sîdney for that matter and there are other gems we have unearthed lately too.

We must keep hunting for this calibre of people and if they are good enough to enhance our raid teams then that’s gotta be a bonus. Bailen recently joined the guild and seems to have opened the floodgates for his friends to join too. I hope they find us to be as welcoming and friendly as they expected.

Now, the more recently formed raid team orchestrated by Manacle and Warsworn seems to have started hitting a vein of form. After a tedious and frustrating first few weeks, the guys are making steady progress and are now exactly halfway through the Seige of Orgrimmar having literally this moment just killed Iron Juggernaut for the first time, they are getting better as the weeks progress. The guys raid Thursdays and Mondays at 8pm server time and are always looking for solid raiders to enhance the team.

Although we will always be that mothership guild harbouring teams within, we will always encourage any type of group activity. That’s what this game is all about and if raiding is the popular activity of choice then I’m all for it.

I’m looking forward to this guild having 2 strong raiding teams blitzing heroics over the coming months, we will be a heroic guild. In Warlords of Draenei, we will continue the same strategy as we might need to pull both teams together for our 20-man Mythic level raiding!

/Salute