Comments on: Casual Raiding: The Guild is Not the Raid

By: Samwitagat

Samwitagat — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 08:29:33 +0000

Communication is key my co gm and I took the time to write out a mission statement showing what is expected of each rank of our guild. We are a casual guild that also has a hardcore 3 night 4 hour a night progression team. The people who arent on this team form other raids and run to whatever sucess they get but our 10 man is almost militant. When we decided to go this route we sat the entire guild down to see what they wanted and the resouding answer was rules in black and white. Every member of our guild knows what it takes to get a shot on the main run and some persue this while others dont. The folks who dont make the raid team arent shunned in any way and in fact alot are looked to for comedic relief on a rough wipe night. As long as you as a raidead/guild management are upfront and honest you can have both worlds.

By: Aylfric

Aylfric — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 16:20:50 +0000

P.S. this is, admittedly, running 10-player raids. If we have enough signups for two groups, we run two groups simultaneously.

By: Aylfric

Aylfric — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 16:20:04 +0000

Well… some of what Frost talked about, having different team rules for teams within the guild, could still apply. But you’re right that with guild reputation, there’s an emphasis on forming groups mostly from within a guild. Look at what h4z3 wrote above too.

In my casual guild we do things differently but… it involves work for the officers. (So this might seem less casual.) We’re very anti-clique in my guild so this is what we do.

We have a common set of guidelines or requirements for raiding, like you must get a few mods (DBM or Bigwigs, a threat meter, and oRA2) and at least be able to listen in Vent.

Gear, we’re going to have some sort of benchmark in terms of your general gear level. If you sign up for a raid you’re not prepared for, an officer will talk with you (as kindly as possible).

Who gets to go in a night is based on who signs up and the composition requirements of the raid.

We then keep a spreadsheet to track attendance and who has gotten to go, and that affects invites. The general idea is that people who’ve signed up and missed raids should get some priority the next time they sign up, although this is dependent on composition requirements.

What prevents frustration from progress? We now allow people to designate themselves “progression” raiders. There are again benchmarks for what that means we expect from people in terms of preparation level.

Then, some raids will be designated progression raids, and progression raiders will be given priority on those nights.

It’s not perfect, but it works for us.

Raids are

By: DarkDragoon

DarkDragoon — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:14:24 +0000

im curious frost with the way the guild perks are going to be in cata, im afraid that this concept may not be very easy to accomplish. any tips?

By: The Darkling Thrush

The Darkling Thrush — Wed, 12 May 2010 07:53:33 +0000

Another great post. I am struggling with being the guild master of a casual guild, being almost raid ready myself (gs 4800, have done a couple of weeklies), but having no guild mates who wil be ready anytime soon. I would sure like to experience some of the Northrend raid content before Cataclysm comes out (and ICC becomes about as relevant as the classic raids are now), but hate the idea of leaving my guild to do it. Wishing I could find a raid team like the one you mention.

By: h4z3

h4z3 — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:06:16 +0000

Your Guild and Raid Team don’t have to be separate, even for Casuals. My Guild raids ICC 10 twice a week, and we are progressing fine(we’re 10/12 and working on Sindragosa atm). After we down LK we will start running Heroic 10, and we are all pretty much casual-semi casual. Everyone of us is either married or engaged(engaged in my case)and have way too much going on to be Hardcore. Not that there’s anything wrong with being Hardcore, trust me if I could I would.

Yet, we are still able to get together twice a week and progress nicely through ICC. Slower than others maybe, but regardless we have a lot of fun doing it and I wouldn’t want to raid on a regular basis with anyone other than them. I actually think having our Guild and Raid Team be one and the same helps us. We form a bond as a Guild and then bring that bond into our Raids. Again, not saying that if you separate the two that you can’t form bonds.

In the end though, I guess it comes down to w/e works for you and what you like the best/feel comfortable with. For me this way works the best.

By: bryan

bryan — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 07:02:21 +0000

whats wrong with steady shot QQ

By: Feytal

Feytal — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:02:57 +0000

Thank you for the post. A friend linked it to my old guild website. My guild me went through this and forgot that the guild is not the raid group and stomped his way through some of us who worked hard to start it going as far as to say “this wasn’t a guild, it wasn’t a guild until I made it one” I am glad to see someone who understands that there are peeps behind the keys who may not ever be “raiding member status” but can still be fun to hang with in game.

By: Iwaswrong

Iwaswrong — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:29:10 +0000

My guild is a social/casual guild that raids. We have enough in out raider rank to clear all 25 man content ad often run 2 x 10 man’s three times a week. We have a raiding rotation for when we cant fill all the 25 man spots. i agree totally with what is said in the op there is a great distinction between the guild and raiding team – they are not the same. The rules in place for raiders are the standard rules re gem/pots/buff food.

There was a lot of time spent by officers to establish a fair system for raider rank – this isn’t to say that non raiders cant raid they do, but raiders get priority to new content – when raids are on farm they switch to free for all – therefore any one can set up a raid for that instance which we do on a regular basis to gear up guildies and alts – raiders are not expected to get locked to a raid that is on offical raiding rotation.

It has worked well – and casual guiilds can semi hard core raid and still we are all guildies .

By: Gravity

Gravity — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:18:08 +0000

By coincidence another blog I read posted on similar topic, which your readers might enjoy.
http://nonelitistraiding.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-to-make-raiding-alliance-work.html