Too many on the bench?

Too many on the bench?

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Raid Leader: On having more players than raid spots

Hello folks,

One of the issues that arise when you have a 10 man raiding guild is down to the pure lack of raid spots and while it's important to not over recruit so you dont have people constantly being disapointed sometime the inevitable happens and you have more people than you can get into a reset.

Most people are fine about not coming into the raid once or twice, but push it to three times and you start upsetting a lot of folks who just dont feel valued and involved. Of course neither of those statements are true, it's just the nature of the beast.

There was a bunch of drama that happened last night regarding spots in the ToC clear team for a few members. Up until the last couple of weeks we hadnt really started raiding Trial of the Crusader so it's now that the team have really gelled and everyone knows the tictacs (small white mints!) and the place is getting cleared in just over an hour. We then clear Ony 10 and VoA 10 if we have control of Wintergrasp. This gets a fair whack of the weekly raid lockouts completed for 10 people and it's only natural that other players want in on this success. Considering that we have a core of 13-14 players who have been part of the team at one stage or another it makes for some very fuzzy logic about who should and who shouldnt go.


On one hand there are members that have been in there for a number of raids, especially in the first couple of weeks where we did more than our normal two per week in order to learn the place, these folks have worked hard and deserve their spot. But on the other hand there are people who have been left out for the last 2-3 weeks, not because they didnt want to come or put the effort in but because of availability, gear levels and class balance of the team, so in their mind they are just as viable now the place is on farm as the original team member.

The issues that surround a situation like this are massive and can lead to players leaving or in game friction so it's important they are dealt with straight away and a plan formulated to push everyone forward as a guild not just those 10 people.

Having the same 13-14 people running ToC week in week out means that only those people will be gearing up at a faster rate and that could lead to a large gap between the top end raiders in the guild and those who have been left at a disadvantage with the weekly pug.

So what are our goals?

Well that's quite easy, my goal as a RL and officer in the guild is to try and gear up as many of our members and teach them the latest tactics for the latest content as fast as possible and as smoothly as possible. As a raid leader my job is progression and farming, as an officer my job is trying to make sure my guildies are happy and content. Sometimes the two conflict but mostly they are in a fair balance.

So what are our options?

Option 1: Bring the best, exclude the rest

A perfectly viable option for a very small guild that's currently clearing progression content however this only really works when the guild has few members and their gear levels are not massively different thus allowing player A to overtake player B and gain his spot the next week by pugging and getting a couple of lucky drops. Sure it's a more frustrating way of doing it and requires some luck but it is possible and it does keep everyone pushing hard to improve. If the player left out doesnt get into pugs for a week, gets a bad pug or simply doesnt get any loot however, the gap between these players gets larger and larger and essentially you end up in the situation where players significantly outgear the others leaving them less viable and stuck on the bench. Not really a long term option in my opinion but certainly the way forward for cracking unconquered content.

Option 2: Bench rotations

A logistical nightmare and the cause of many a guild argument. But he/she did/didnt attend last week, etc. Unless you track everyones attendance 100% accurately you will have people who dont like it or think that they should get a permanent spot in the raid. What about balancing classes because of this and that could lead to the perception that player A gets into every raid for whatever reason. Sometimes this is a valid point, player B has turned up to every raid, played well, knows the tactics and has reasonable gear, they have put time and effort into the team and as such expect a return on their investment of time and willing. It's mainly here problems occur. If a raid leader cant backup their decisions with facts and statistics, they get accused of nepitism, but then again you cant please everyone. I quite like this system and might suggest this as the way forward, i'm still thinking about the issues that could surround this and the tracking of stats required.

Option 3: Ask people to volunteer to sit out

Probably the worst thing you can do, your unlikely to get many volunteers and the ones that do volunteer are the ones you tend to want to keep in for balance reasons. Dont do this, all it does is open things up for too much discussion and debate and to be honest I've tried this recently and realised it's a big mistake. People will start offering other people their spots rather that opening that spot up completely and letting you fill it with whoever should be next in line, you then get the classic line "I'll drop for XXX but just them" and all that kind of bullshit.

Option 4: Tell people they are on the bench

This works sometimes, but be prepared for a bit of grief, not necessarily from the person sitting out but maybe their friend or relative that did get a spot and say how unfair they think it is. Be prepared for people to start trying to swap themselves around and make sure you stop the moves if you can see any objections, dont let your team be built for you otherwise you might not have all the tools you need to get the job done.

Option 5: Start up a new team

So here it is folks, the option that i'm the most interested in exploring, it's got many pitfalls and will become the subject of a few blog posts over the coming weeks. There are people that are sitting out raid after raid, people that will be an asset to the guild if only we make the opportunities happen, it's my job as RL and an officer to help ensure there are enough chances for people to raid, working alongside our GM and other officers who are also very focussed on achieving results. The problems that we face with setting up another team are pretty standard but are still large blockers. Remembering that we already have the best kitted players in the original team who we dont want to break up. When setting up a second team it's a challenge to make sure you have the right balance of classes available to you because there is a large percentage of your resources that are already allocated to the original team. Remembering that there are also relationships between people in guild, some good, some tenuous at best, you dont want to split up couples because they get massive satisfaction from raiding together and you dont want to be putting too many clashes of personality into one team. These are all areas to be aware of, you wont ever be able to keep everyone happy but you can at least set the foundation for success. We originally had ideas that we would not bother running 25 man raids but as we have progressed it's become apparent that it leaves a void that we cant fill with any other content and that the majority of us do want to do 25 man content but we still need to make sure it's a personal and guild orientated affair, that's another reason we need to nurture and grow a second team, people who have gone through the same learning curve and been molded into a similar team with a streak of their own style so that both teams work the same way but bring different attributes to the table.

Concluded Action: Option 5 here we come!

So here's the crack, i'm now creating a second 10 man team to clear ToC and make sure everyone feels involved. I've scheduled the first raid for Thursday of next week, its the day after the original team raids so that if they are around and we are short we can bring some alts in to fill spots.

I dont expect this to go too smoothly because it's going to take time to teach the team and let them gel together again, but I am hopeful that it wont take as long to get sorted as the original one, I think that within two weeks these guys will be clearing ToC in around 1.5 hours and gearing up at an amazing rate. I have two tanks in mind, me as a healer and another 2 healers to start with dropping that down to 2 healers in total after a few clears to increase the amount of DPS.

Wish my luck, i'm looking forward to pushing us into the 25 man levels soon after.

Cheers folks,

Cyb

Last Updated on Wednesday, 14 July 2010 23:59 Written by Cybac Thursday, 12 November 2009 11:47