Raid Plan and Progression

This is what our raid teams are going to be doing just so that you know what is happening from week to week. People ask all the time and sometimes the plan does change if we have a reduced team or people are running late. It is a bit dependant on these things however this is basically how it goes:

The raid week starts on Wednesday. So this is the schedule:

• Wednesday Night - Upper Iskar- Manno
• Monday Night - Archie - Lower six on heroic or Normal Achievements

• Saturday - Heroic Lower Six
• Sunday - Upper Six (as far as possible on Normal or Heroic) dependant on who turns up

The Question of Progression into Mythic.

The general consensus in that we don't have the skill or the gear to progress into Mythic at this stage. However, on Thursday nights I will be attempting to get into PuGs so I can at least learn the fights a bit because, let's face it I'm the most retarded player the guild has got. I'm going on the idea that practice makes perfect. I'll be starting to look for a group to join at about 7.30 -8.30. If anyone wants to join me we can look as a group.

When both the groups have got a shit ton of gear we will go into Mythic as a merged group. The idea is to outgear the bosses so much that we can ignore the mechanics that we fail so hard at. I personally think we've got a bit better at the mechanics but the officers and some of the more experienced raiders tell me we suck balls at mechanics big time. I'd so love to prove them wrong, we all know what happens when I try that, they get proved right more..lol

PvP = Fun Times with Guildies

The PvP boys might like to start some rbgs at some stage. First of all though, it might be a good idea to do a few bgs with them to learn all about how to win if you are interested in going along with them. I'm sure the guys would like a nice big well geared team to start rated battlegrounds with.

The guys are great to hang about with and the laughs are real. The trolling of each other and the opposition is hysterical. If you've never tried PvP give it a go with guildies because it really is a fun way to spend a few hours.

Plans and Speculations

We've got a plan. Let us do the plan and win the fights. The other thing to think about is that the expansion might come out sooner rather than later. There's speculation that there will be no Beta testing and that the expansion will drop soon after the movie is released which will make the expansion drop some time in July. How wonderful it will be out of our Garrisons and back into the world of warcraft leveling and planning for the new raid content.

I know you are possibly sick of hearing me say this, I'm saying it anyway, I'm so proud of you and we are doing great for a casual raiding guild. You guys are like my warcraft family and it's always nice to log on and hear about your day irl. Good Job team.

End of Expansion Blues

I've been running around the magic fountain in my garrison talking on TS, stopping to check my emails, write essays and do some facebooking. This can only mean one thing the end of expansion blues has begun. Our raid team have achieved what many think is our limit that is we killed heroic Archie a couple of times and most of us have got the Moose Mount....ah the moose mount with it's shining blue antalas flying through the air with no wings....how does it do that anyway, I wish real life were more like WoW where things like physics didn't matter. Apparently, I've managed to piss a heap of people off with my natural ability to piss people off talent. I only know this through whispers in the dark, hints and innuendo coming indirectly to me. Apparently, I'm so unapproachable it's necessary for people to send the message through others. These are the messages.

People are unhappy about Kylz taking over the weekend group and recruiting for it.  As a show of dissatisfaction a few raiders have decided to withdraw from all raiding, this is unfortunate. Kylz is doing a good job so I have no intention of demoting her to make other people happy. This brings me to the main raid, apparently people are pissed off with me for inviting people who aren't part of the main raid team. This is a problem I agree. So not turning up yourself is really not the ideal solution. The reason I've been inviting people who are not part of the main raid team is because people in the main raid team aren't turning up. It's a catch 22 situation. People don't want to invite PuGs and in fact many have said they will just leave the raid completely if I invite PuGs who have the appropriate item level  and required Dps. This may come as a surprise to the main raid team, most of the guildies don't actually have 728-731 item level gear because, a lot of them haven't been in the main raid team. They've been doing LFR and Mythic Dungeons and the weekend raid to get gear.

It really is annoying when we have a solid team and then team members start dropping off or moving on to other guilds or other games. I understand the frustration of having a full team of people with ALL the appropriate gear to progress into Mythic HFC and then having to gear up four or five other guildies, this puts us back to heroic again. I was looking at our team on WoW Progress the other day and my heart just sank when I saw how geared our main team is, and then realised that most of them aren't coming to raids anymore. I realise that as the Guild Leader the buck stops with me and that I have to work harder to keep people in the guild and in the raid team. What I would ask of the team is that you communicate your dissatisfaction with at least one or two solutions to the problems in mind. I would also ask that you be reasonable in your requests, For example allowing me to invite PuGs so we can progress if you aren't happy with the lower item leveled guildies coming to the main team raids. Being a bit flexible in terms of item level or helping the lower level guildies get gear by taking them with you to PuGs.

I did enjoy my break from Guild Leading it was very nice to have a holiday for a few weeks and I may have another holiday in the future. I've been the GM of this guild for four or so years and it's been a real learning experience. I will be more open to suggestions and listen to you more. However, I'm not the kind of person who is a hard line leader, I'm not going to be kicking people from the guild or the team unless there are good reasons to do that. I'm going to give people a chance to improve if they have the right item level. We all had to learn once.  One of the things I have been passionate about is for Riftwarriors to be a place to give new players and new raiders a chance to do proper raiding with a team of more experienced raiders. Some of our best raiders only had the experience of LFR before joining us and look how far they have come. Some of the more experienced raiders have come from top raiding guilds and I appreciate their patience and input into the training of the less experienced players.  I agree that Heroic Raids aren't the place for learning that's why we have Group 3 or the Weekend team. Please read about or watch the fights before you go into them. There are plenty of guides around. You can even watch the Riftwarrior Recordings if you like. These can be found on WoW Progress too.

What Makes a Good Officer

This week I'm going to be discussing what makes a good officer. An officer is a person who supports and advises the leader of the guild and assists new members to fit into the guild, supports the raid team and behaves in an exemplary manner. A potential officer might stand out above other guildies in their actions and behaviours. A member might be consistently putting their hand up to do jobs to benefit the guild. They might quietly be helping others to get the most out of their experience in the guild. I might notice someone who has great leadership abilities who acts for the team not for themselves.  I might receive some really great suggestions from a person on a regular basis that end up enhancing the guild overall. I might notice people who are recruiting for specific roles within the guild. What I really value is maturity, strength, motivation and the ability to rise above the rabble and stay calm publicly. Privately or with me then it's just fine to lose your cool and freak out a bit. I want officers to present a united front to the guild population. That is not arguing in front of the guildies or undermining the other officers or myself. That's not a very good leadership team. If you have a problem with my leadership you can talk to me about it alone, not in front of the whole guild or raid team.

We have a lot of members who are really looking out for the whole team and at one point everyone seemed worthy of an officer role. However, I can't make you all officers. In the next few days I will making changes to the officer role and starting again with the promotions. We've had the same people in officer roles for a number of years, now and I'd like to give some other people a turn at the job. I will be keeping Kylz, Brenton and John(Bashy/shorty). I will keep Bainmar on in his position really nobody else wants to do the PvP thing more than him. The rest will be getting promoted to Legacy Members. This is a rank for people who have been with the guild through thick and thin, highs and lows. The people who have stuck by the guild when the going has been really tough. This rank is also for people who were founding members who don't play anymore but with any luck might come back. You guys will have a lot of perks and rewards and as you know I appreciate you all so much.

What do I expect of the guildies. I expect you to be nice to each other and respect each other. I expect you to be yourselves and relax. To feel at home in the guild. If you want to invite your friends go ahead and do that the more friends the better really. Like all big groups of people I expect there to be a few personality clashes. What I would ask is to try to accept people no matter what they are doing maybe they just aren't your cup of tea that person may have great value to the guild as a whole. Sometimes people take a little while to grow on you and everyone tends to have a good side, you just have to be open to seeing it.

We are all really lucky to have such a strong guild. We are like a family in many ways and I really think it's great that the support we share online often extends to offline activities as well. We can keep in contact via the Riftwarrior Facebook Group and I encourage all the new members to join this group. When you recruit people it's fine to direct them there and also to the  WoW Progress Website where people now have access to the recordings of our fights. James and Brenton do such a good job of putting those together it's a great way to advertise the guild.

Riftwarriors 13/13 Heroic HFC

I'm back as the Guild Leader again. I've had a nice break thanks to Jasmine who is taking a break herself now. Under Jasmine's leadership we were able to get the last two bosses of HFC down, Archie and Tyrant. You can access all the Youtube recordings of our fight by visiting WoW Progress. Thanks Brenton for attaching those to that page. This will help with recruiting. I'm not sure what people will think of the Sven montage, everyone in the guild loves it.

As for recruiting we need healers and dps for all the raid teams. The teams are Group 1 who are the original main raid group. Group 2, that's the PvPers who raid in the arena  and battlegrounds, against the truly tough bosses, where strategies such as the tortoise dick defense can be seen here and here. Group 3, which is Kylz weekend raid team who are progressing nicely through normal and into heroic. Kylz has been diligently recruiting for her team and organising the raid times around her shifts at work. I have made her an officer. You will find her raids in the calendar so, please check regularly there for the times.  Alts are welcome to join this team while they are forming and to help push the progression so more people can get the moose mount. I think we can come up with some creative names for our raid teams. If you can come up with any good ones please post them below in the facebook comment section.

You may or may not have noticed that I write a blog on stuff that I learn at University and on topics related to psychology which I research at the University online library, I just love that place. This week I wrote about gaming and the psychological benefits of playing a game such as WoW.  You can read that here. I gave you guys a good wrap because you are awesome.

Where to from here, we've completed Heroic HFC and now we can start to dabble into Mythic. A few of us have had a go in PuG raids so we won't be going in completely blind. I believe we can do the first two bosses easily with our dps at the moment. We are over geared for these two fights. If everyone works together and is fully engaged as we were with the Tyrant fight that looks fucking amazing guys if you've seen that recording. We were moving as one. That fight is suppose to be the hardest fight in that raid and we completely one shot it. We had all our best dps and heals on at the time so I know that we can do it again.  We do need to recruit dps and heals, so keep looking around for new recruits. I would prefer it if people didn't swap to roles that aren't what they like to play. It's better if everyone plays a toon that they love to play. We might well end up with a team of hunters because everyone's main seems to be a hunter :).

In preparation for taking on these Mythic bosses please watch these guides. Remember that we out gear these particular bosses so there's no reason to think we can't do them.

Fat Boss Guide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTqO9jpGPfc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl-WlFkw3LI

Method Guide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3s1xtY0_V0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOduM_TGp2U