The Future of WMD (Episode II)

The new long-term goal of WMD is to get to a place where we can tackle hard modes every single raid.

In my opinion, normal modes are just warm-ups for the real content. Hard modes are more fun and more rewarding. Over the coming months we must make changes to ensure all raids become hard mode raids. I don't want an A and B team forever. They're just temporary measures and I don't like them. I want one big team where everybody is able to do hard modes.

This means creating more hard mode-raiders. We need at least 3 hard mode-capable tanks, at least 4 hard mode-capable healers, and at least 6 hard-mode capable DPSers. That's a total of 4 more hard mode raiders than we have currently. This seems feasible.

It will mean we have to start sharing spots, but we've been doing that every week until recently. I'd rather share spots than waste a night doing old content that nobody's interested in.

I think we have the potential hard mode raiders in our midst. They just need help to improve.

My definition of a hard mode raider is someone with 5 qualities: Gear, mentality, personality, reliability and adaptation.

Promotion would be based on someone who can tick all 5 boxes. Any Reservist with the following can be considered for promotion:

* First of all, their gear should never be an obstacle. That doesn't necessarily mean they have full tier 8. If somebody does great work in crap gear, then gear isn't an obstacle for them. That's what I want.

* They need to be interested in raiding and tactics. For some people raiding is just something to pass the time, for other people it's a hobby. Hard mode raiders need to take raiding and their class seriously.

* They need a personality. It's not fun raiding with someone who never speaks. A hard mode raider should be willing to speak up, offer suggestions and get involved on the forum and in-game.

* They need to be reliable. That means I can trust them to put the raid first when they're there. They won't go regularly go AFK, have regular PC hiccups, they show up when they sign up, etc. Obviously no one can be 100% all the time, but it's easy to spot repeat offenders.

* They don't need experience. They need adaptation. They need to be able to pick up new tactics in a flash and more importantly, adapt when things go wrong. If the tactic changes mid-fight, they should be able to improvise on their own, without being told what to do.

So those are the 5 things I need from Team B people if they're going to be promoted and it's everybody's job to help them get there. It's in all our interests. The more hard mode raiders we have, the more new content we can munch down on.

Things In the Pipeline:

Here are some of the upcoming changes that I'm currently considering to help us achieve our goal:

Officers! I'm getting a little stressed trying to manage everybody, so I need to delegate. Basically, I want to hire a DPS and Healer Officer. Their job will be to ensure everybody on their team is happy, doing what they're supposed to, and knows how to play. They'll also be in charge of recruitment for their respective team, (in consultation with me).

If you're interested, let me know! (I doubt anybody will volunteer, so I might pick people).

One of the first jobs of the officers will be to sit down and look at people's main talent specs to check they're raid friendly. Everybody's main spec should be for the good of the raid.

Another thing that's going to change at some point in the future is looting, specifically some kind of clause to ensure that those who need the item the most get it, if the officers agree. I believe the MT and the tanks should have loot priority. That's easy for me to say, I'm a tank, but it makes logical sense that the person who's death will cause a guaranteed wipe has the best gear. It also makes sense for someone who goes offspec DPS regularly gets dibs on a weapon over the other offspecs.

I've no timetable for introducing these things, I just want to give you a preview of what's on the horizon and get feedback and opinions from you in the meantime.

Let the explosions and drama commence!

First!

Anyway. My starting thoughts are again fine with this. I don't mind at all.

Couple of things...

1) Officers - Not interested, even if asked, answer would be no. Marv is the first choice for obvious reason's and thats fine with me.

2) The comment about tanks being the first for loot is a bit flawed.

believe the MT and the tanks should have loot priority. That's easy for me to say, I'm a tank, but it makes logical sense that the person who's death will cause a guaranteed wipe has the best gear

What about..

The person that keeps the tank alive should get the first dibs on gear

Or the people that shorten the fight so there is less chance of the tank dying get first dibs on gear.

Sadly, WoW doesn't work like that.

So yes, I am against this decision.

D

I'm not sure agree with you about that. I think a well-geared tank benefits the raid more than a well-geared healer or DPS (though they're still very important) when we're trying brand new bosses.

Either way, as I'm the one who will benefit from this the most, I won't push the "tanks first". I don't want it to sound like I'm out of myself on this one.

I'll go along with whatever the majority think.

I'm in agreement with D over the loot priority, however I do feel that there should be some other things taking in to consideration when looking at loot distribution, i.e - why the person is getting, how much of an improvement it is etc.

Of course this can only possibly apply to Tier gear for the tanks - and with the number of Paladins we have in the raid and the amount the tier actually drops...

As for Officers, I think it's a good idea. And I also agree that Marv should take the healer officer role.

I agree with D re. the tanks get geared first. Having been in raid groups that have done this, this can cause awful ill feeling - why are the tanks the most important, for example? What makes them more special than *insert other here*? Everyone brings an equal part to raiding. Without one side of the DPS/Tank/Healer triangle, the raiding is doomed. DOOMED AH SAYS!

/channeling Private Frazer

Personally, I find that the vast majority of Murlocs are infinitely sensible when it comes to loot. I can't really see a problem with what we do now since we are aware what others need, and what they personally want, and I've not seen anyone be screwed over on loot. Indeed, Murloc has the healthiest attitude to loot that I think I have ever witnessed. If we are all on the same level to start with, then perhaps we can go forward and gear up equally and at the same time? I am aware this will be much easier come 3.2, and I am girding my heroic dungeoning loins in order to get lots of lovely badgers.

In regards to the Great Merge of '09, I'm up for that. I think it's a very good idea to try and get everyone on the same level, and remove the A Team/B Team scenario. Bigger pool of players who can heroic = more fun and explosions = CHEER!

This will, however, mean that possibly for the moment hard mode attempts might have to be placed on the back-burner until us B'ers are up to a standard? How will this gearing up go about? Will there be a priority system (either like we have now, or even pro-Team B), or will we go back to first dibs, or will there be a sort of Team A/B hybrid? Will it be starting soon, or are we going to wait for the Great Levellising 3.2?

After 3.2, perhaps there could be organised Murloc heroics to help with badgers, for instance? That would benefit everyone, not just us Team B's, I think.

Hopefully some good feedback there. My brain is made of toffee, I've started my diet today, I've only had honey rather than sugar, and I think I'm going to die. If I make no sense, it's the severe lack of yummy sugar.

*waves my little 'Marv for Healz0rz' flag*

Officers - if things are feeling too much for one person to handle, then yes, should definitely delegate out and get extra bodies in there. Too much pressure on one person tends to lead to burnout which leads to not-happy groups in my experience.

Personally, tho, I am not a good 'role' officer; while I can and have done 'support' in the past (eg drafting rules, banking, doing ML / running auctions, etc) I am not one of nature's leaders.

Loot - the eternal bugaboo! In general I don't like anything that treats anyone any differently to anyone else comparable. In as much as, it's cool to give someone's main priority over someone else's alt, or mainspec over offspec; it's not so cool to prioritise one main over another, or an alt over another alt.

Discussion, as long as it doesn't turn into pressuring someone, is always reasonable (Bob's still got T7 there, while Mary's got T8 - maybe Bob would consider passing on the T9 token this time?).

Or of course there's a wild world of DKP systems out there. Or EP/GP, which at least seems fairly tidily handleable with an in-game addon.

Or the dread /random.

Basically don't mind as long as it's fair and feels fair to all.


Team A/B wise - I guess there's also the possibility of doing (partial) Ulduars or whatever with a mix of B's, A's that couldn't make the "hard" raid, and/or alts, just with a view to breezing through the place with normal mode kills for a minimum of fuss and a maximum of gearings-up and experience-gaineds. Not sure how many viable spares we have though (albeit I do have, erm, more than a few alts myself)!

Cardinal wrote:I want one big team where everybody is able to do hard modes.

/approve

Cardinal wrote:This means creating more hard mode-raiders. We need at least ... 4 hard mode-capable healers...

We have 3 currently. Rynar hasn't got to raid enough for me to judge whether he's hardmode fodder (), and there's Dahl and Gimi as offspeccers. I'll keep a close eye on Rynar next week with Derky away. However, this means we'll have to (a) start rotating so Rynar gets geared up, or (b) use an offspeccer as the 4th healer. That is a choice that needs to be made! Which leads me to..

Cardinal wrote:I'd rather share spots than waste a night doing old content that nobody's interested in.

/agree - this week has been a bit wearisome with just regular farmruns and no new content dealt with. So I'm inclined to go with any solution that lets us try progression content more often.

Cardinal wrote:My definition of a hard mode raider is someone with 5 qualities: Gear, mentality, personality, reliability and adaptation.

Let me refine that with what I want to see in a healer.

- Gear: I'll run a be.imba review on all four Oracles sometime soon. Healers DO need gear as much as MTs - get your blues enchanted, and put the best enchants on your purples.

- Mentality: I want Oracles who know a lot about their class, not just one spec. Granted, I play the hybrid of hybrid classes, so could just be a personal bias. But be ready to use all your class' abilities, not just the flash heal, the nuke heal, the special heal and the omgcraptankisgonnadie thing. Secondly, having a working offspec (gear and skills) is a definite bonus.

- Personality and Reliability: nothing specific to healers here.

- Adaptation: Be prepared to defend your tactics and tell the dps if they're in a bad place BEFORE wipes happen, or adapt to them by moving. Ask if you want another player swapped between groups, ask a dps/tank to save their specials for you on certain fights, etc. Don't let them die (or get yourself killed!) and then come up with a "/sigh I can't heal you if you're standing in fire". I've done my fair share of that kind of whining and it's a lame excuse.. Plus, in 3.2 with limited wipes per week this will be particularly important.

Cardinal wrote:Officers!

No problem putting on the big crown of seaweed for the Oracles.. Don't think it will change anything for us - I'll just go armoury police on you every now and then. I think most of the four Oracles tend to have sensible builds - and where I've noticed gaps/lack of synergy I've already poked said persons for explanations! D, I'll ask you to have a look at Rynar's healing (com logs) after this week's raid, see if you notice any inefficiencies.

Cardinal wrote:some kind of clause to ensure that those who need the item the most get it, if the officers agree. I believe the MT and the tanks should have loot priority.

I'm inclined to agree with D here - good dps/powerful heals are also key to avoiding wipes (look at Dahl and his low base hp! ). However, to help the most regular raiders (whose gear is most important to progress) get a slight edge on prios, how about everyone making a Top5 upgrades list - including the most coveted, weapons (+OH) and trinkets? That way it's easier to see who's in competition for what.. and it will help track who will benefit more from an upgrade?

To add onto my original post. I don't actually see why we need any sort of loot council. We don't have a greed problem now as far as i know?

I know recently (I won't go into detail but Card will know) we had a looting issue which was frowned apon, but I don't think thats something to base an overhaul on. A simple word in the ear should of done with that.

D

I do agree with the majority of your points, however there are certain areas that I believe need more thought.

Changing the looting rules to give the loot to the worst geared player who can use it has both benefits and flaws. It gives benefit to the raid as you are only as good as your worst player and getting them upgraded quickly is a priority. However, others who have put the time and effort into getting better gear may feel slightly frustrated as they will always have to wait for the better gear to drop multiple times for them to get improved gear.

The current loot rules work, on the whole, and it seems everyone is happy with them. However, in most recent raids, I am waiting for gear to drop, particulary tier gear, as it is a huge upgrade for me. As I'm still running around with 5 pieces of Naxx or equivalent gear, and some Ulduar upgrades which aren't brilliant, I know I need better gear. I still need 4/5 pieces of Tier 8 and get increasingly frustrated when someone else takes the tier set to replace an item that quite frankly isn't much worse, Dahl knows all too well my levels of frustration. Even though I do get frustrated at the seemingly lack of upgrades, I know it's just about luck at the end of the day as to whether an item drops or not and I'm quite prepared to accept that.

Officers are a good idea if you feel too much pressure leading/looting and all others things that come with the job. You'll need someone who is vocal, good in-depth knowledge of classes/tactics, able to make decisions that may not be favourable and able to tell people what to do and how to improve. One officer of each group (Healer/DPS) would probably be best.

I agree with most points in this post. Though i've not been vocal on the forums the new policy on A and B teams in regards to hardmodes is something i've pleased to see hopefully wont be a long term thing and that we will aim to have one big team, all able to handle hardmodes which i agree should be our focus.

As in regards to officers, i'm quite sure we've had a healing officer and a tank officer for a long time We just havent made it official.

As for DPS officers, that may be trickier though, as i would assume recruitment of a hunter may better be judged by a WMD hunter then a general dps officer. Though as for now we've been going with our feedback to new recruits on the forum, and i suspect most still will contribute even though a officer is handed more responsibility. But a dps officer in regards to raids/general welfare of our pewpewers sounds fine to me.

Only thing i dont see a point is the changes to loot rules. Due to two simple reasons:
1: We're rading a 10 man, as an example, i looked over my gear today, and of all my Ulduar gear i have won 1 tanking item in a roll for it, yet i have more then enough tanking gear for any Ulduar encounter. Simplem as this, with a small group everyone gets enough in time.

2: We handle loot incredebly well as a group. People are passing to give other people setbonuses, seeing them as bigger upgrades. Even among offspecs this is the case, we know who uses which offspecs the most and act accordingly. The simple lootrules that are in place also works wery well though they may favour anyone allready heavy geared, but read point one and you'll see that aint really a problem or unfair in regards to a few points Balg mentioned.

And as for priortising players/classes/roles in regards to gear i think the opinion is rather clear and strongly support the wievs layed forth in oposition to this. In WoTLK and especially in 10 mans were you need everyone in optimal shape for hard modes there are none that have less use of gear then others, it may have been the case in a 40 man raid in vanilla, where we are at now it's not.

But lastly i'll just say that i think this shows how great you are at acting upon feedback in regards to where people want with this group, and in general yet another sign of how great a raidgroup WMD is.