WoWGrrl's World

Heya folks!

Great to see you again. (It's been a long time... sorry I've been away so long)

I just came back from a nice holiday by the lake - my best friend and I got a chance to bob around on top of the still-really-really-cold lake in a neat two-person inflatable dingy my friend bought for the occasion, and had a nice visit with my folks who are happy and healthy and enjoying the summer as well.

See those legs over there??! Those are ACTUAL WoWGrrl and Friend legs. I'm holding the raft while my friend gets in. Seems like I'm being nice, but really, I'm just letting her get wet first before I decide whether I'm going to get in.

(see us floating around in the wee vid I uploaded to YouTube here - thanks Mom for recording it!)

As a result of this holiday to visit family and float in a gorgeous lake, I missed both Wednesday and Thursday's raid nights last week, and due to other time constraints with close friends, I'm missing tonight's raid, too.

And then there's the athletic camp coming up in August that I've decided to take part in that will take me away from another week's worth of raiding in exchange for exercise, socialization and probably a bit of drinking.

Ain't summer great??!

Sure, unless you're the poor sod of a Raid Leader who is trying to put together a properly-balanced 25 man raid team in order to keep guild progression moving forward.

What Summer Does To Raiding

It maims it seriously in some cases, and in other cases livens it up quite a bit.

In the case of my Ulduar25 raiding guild, we're more on the "maimed" side than the "livened" side, but even our maimed raiding is still pretty great.

I mean, it's one thing to be blindsided with a sudden flush of raiders taking weeks off of raiding (at a time) to spend with family, and it's quite another to have built a solid team of raiders and then simply recognize that Hey! Summer's a pretty neat time to spend outside and away from one's computer!

(I take no credit for building the solid team of raiders, I am just fortunate enough to have been recruited)

Feeling Impatient? Ponder Our Raider Town Hall Results

I do notice that some people are starting to be more noticibly frustrated with the effect of summertime on one's raid team - if only because my own guild recently had a "Town Hall" meeting in order for concerned membership to properly air concerns and frustrations, and I got to hear all about the Summertime Effect.

It was actually pretty great to be a part of this meeting even though I participated very little myself - to hear how a solid raid leadership helps the team work its way through the tough times without causing more problems for the fall, when the raid team returns to normal.

Here was some of the basic conversation that went on:

• Regarding Progression
  • Leadership lays out the facts: Progression is tough in the summer, especially on a 3 day raid schedule. There's a lot of junk to clear before we get to Yogg Saron.

  • Overall team decision: Do better with the time we have, so we get there faster. Our group agreed to improve upon trash-clearing efficiencies while the Loot Council went through their decision-making process, especially on items with a lot of competition. Dual-speccing is used to swap in a couple of new tanks for early trash after a boss, since our two main tanks are tied up in the Loot Council.
• Regarding Recruitment
  • Leadership lays out the facts: We're still recruiting, never stopped, but quality applicants are few and far between when recruiting for the end content of Ulduar 25. Feel free to refer folks if you know of anyone. However, also note: In September when regular raiding resumes for most of our team, we're going to wind up with a large Raid Overflow, and this means raiders will be asked to sit out of raids more often. We have a solid team minus the fact that people are doing more family activities and taking more holidays during this time of year than any other until Christmas nears...

  • Overall team decision: Keep doin' what we're already doin', and know that this "problem" is a seasonal thing. If you've got extra time to play, give some love to an alt - most all of us have an additional 1-2 toons that we raid with outside of Official Raid Night in the nuthouse, and it's in PUGs on alts that we tend to meet new quality recruits anyway.
• Regarding Ulduar 10 / VoA
  • Leadership lays out the facts: We're a raiding guild that has focused its attention on Heroic-level raiding (25 man), and we're working on Ulduar, at least until 3.2 comes out. Any raiders who wish to participate in other levels of raids are welcome to gather a team or join a team or PUG it or whatever they wish. Any Officers or Official Raid Night Raid Leaders who choose to get involved in off-night raiding are doing so as MEMBERS not as LEADERS.

  • Overall team decision: PUG it if ya gotta... there's usually guildmates who are willing to join you in order to ease the pain a little bit.

There was more that was discussed of course, but those three things were the main points of concern within the more impatient ones in our raid team (coincidentally, newer members and not folks who had been part of the team during the Christmas holidays last year, which was the last real raiding slowdown).

Results Of The Town Hall Meeting

Unfortunately I was only around for Tuesday's raid last week, which was the raid we went into right after the Town Hall meeting was held (on vent and on raid chat, it was well-attended by summertime regulars from what I saw), so I can't say what the rest of the week was like last week, but I know Tuesday was a way better raiding day than we had experienced for weeks prior.

With boundaries provided by the Raid/Guild Leadership and a Solid Raiding Core that agrees with the Leadership's philosophy and boundaries, the Raiding Team was quickly able to come up with important things that we could each do to improve the quality of play we experience.

Members stepped forward to offer Tanking skills to speed up clearing of trash.

Members talked about the difference between the Summertime Raid Schedule and the Fall/Wintertime Raid Schedule and how we hoped certain behaviors would factor into the decision-making about who is and who is not placed on Overflow when the time came.

Members talked about ways to improve the team's innate ability to encourage the best performance out of all of its members, so Raid Leadership didn't have to be "the heavy" and Raid Membership didn't feel like nobody even notices good or bad performance. And so that when Overflow time came, it was clear to each member what they could personally improve to avoid Overflow as much as possible.

From what I saw, Officers did a damned good job at providing boundary answers for the team, and then let the social leaders** within the Membership part of the team make suggestions that the rest of the group agreed with or could at least live with.

I'm quite interested in seeing how things have progressed over the past week with my own absence. I'm sure there'll be more to write about :)

**Social Leaders: You know, those folks who are leaders no matter what rank you assign them. People refer and defer to them no matter their official status in society because they're leaders at a level that cannot be defined by a title.

How's Your Guild Handling The Summertime Effect?

Whether you're in a raiding guild or a leveling guild, Summertime has probably changed the face of your guild just a little bit. People who hardly played before are playing with a vengeance, but some of the more familiar names aren't around as much as they used to be and maybe you're getting worried.

No need to get worried of course, but I'd love to hear about how you're seeing the Summertime Effect on your guild and realm! If you have a blog and want to write an entry, be sure to leave a link to the entry on your comment so others can follow through!

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Related posts:

1. Why I Raid
2. Awesome Retadin Consumables Guide

Tagged as: loot council, Raiding, ulduar, wowgrrl picture, wowgrrl video