Ninja In My Heroic Raid!

In light of some recent comments on this blog and situations I'm seeing sprout up in-game all over the realms now that Ulduar has released, I think it's time for a Part Two of this ongoing series.

What I write here is, of course, only my own opinion about how things work in our particular raiding guild, so if you have comments, questions or constructive criticisms I'd be glad to hear 'em.

Inspiration For This Entry

To be truthful, when I write my entries, I never know how they're going to be received, and I've learned to not pre-judge my own entries as a direct result.

Sometimes entries I think will get a lot of response don't get any, and sometimes ones that I just put together because I had some funny screenshots are the ones that get the most responses.

On that tune, I got some GREAT responses to the Three Things To Do During Downtime In Raids entry I posted a few posts ago!

I thank everyone who posted a response, there's some more great entertainers there that I didn't know about at posting time (like Peggle and the Bombay Cat), and some I'll post about in the future (toy train set ;) ). Always great to read the great comments I get!

Recent Comment Re: Experience Of "Hurry Up And Wait"

Mortigan left a comment on the Three Things To Do During Downtime In Raids post, talking about his own playing adventures as a leveling Warlock, now in Northrend at level 73.

Mortigan describes a leveling group dungeon PUG getting together, and how painfully slow it tends to gets together:

"For me, the hurry up and wait comes at the beginning… usually while someone in the group searches for a healer. The 4 of us are typically spread out all over the world, and continue our solo quests or whatever, until someone finally grabs that elusive last player. Then it’s a bit more waiting while we try to get a few people to the stone (or to me, since I’m a lock) and we summon the rest. THAT’S the long wait. Then the dungeon starts…"

- Mortigan

Mortigan also wrote more, which I will answer over time in one way or another (probably through my Raiding Tips and Tricks email series which I'm regularly adding new editions to) - be sure to check it out, and feel free to ask any questions of your own.

Forgotten Qualities Of Raiding Guilds

There are many features of a Raiding Guild that non-members and Officers tend to forget about being "benefits" of their raiding guild.

Run, Valdesta, Run!

Things like dungeon group formation for Regulars, Heroics and PUG raids outside of official guild raid nights, and how much easier it is to get into a group that starts fast, moves fast, and can tromp multiple instances before calling it a night.

Above, we heard Mortigan's experience with getting together to run a dungeon. It's an experience that isn't foreign to any of us who have delved into dungeons and raids in World of Warcraft, but thankfully an experience that doesn't match what I've seen, thanks to my membership within a Heroic Raiding Guild.

An Example Of Dungeons Run With My Guildmates

Dungeons and Heroics aren't a real focus in our Ulduar 25 guild these days, but while we were all leveling from 70 to 80, or while we were all gearing up and vying for high-competition drops in the early Naxxramas raids, there was a stark difference between my Holy Priest's raiding guild and the Social/Leveling guild I was in with the rest of my alts.

In my social/leveling guild, I noticed that players were much more passive in terms of helping form a complete party, and as a result, the parties formed much more slowly and players tended to continue their own quests and journies during the wait.

In my raiding guild, the difference was noticable: The parties filled completely, quickly, and as soon as people were added to the party they started to head to the instance immediately because we're ready to go that quick.

Why The Difference In Group Formation?

I'm sure there's a whole lot of little reasons that pile all together to create this, but I'm sure all of us in raiding guilds can agree - one thing that separates us from the non-raiding/leveling/socializing group of players is that we have a different sense of PURPOSE when it comes to running Dungeons, Heroics and Raid instances.

Whether we want the challenge, the gear, the camraderie with other players or any of a billion other reasons... the result is that we gather together under a guild name with our various goals and strong senses of purpose, and from there, fast dungeon runs flow.

Why My Raiding Guild Rocks

Aside from having this collection of purpose-driven players under its tag, we have a strong sense of connection to one another even when we're playing alts not guild-tagged the same.

Patchwerk Want To Play!

We have an Alts Raiding Guild as well. It helps keep raiders connected on off-raid nights since there's only so much one can do on their main, and we all keep our playing fresh by playing a handful of alts. After going through Naxx since December, many of us are at the raiding stage with one or more alts now, too.

And while there's always exceptions and extreme circumstances that aren't as nice as most, when Raiders decide it's time to move on with their Raiding lives (ie: leave the guild), the guild line and vent server remains positive and the guilded individuals stay focused on our own various purposes quite easily.

How Does Your Guild Compare?

I'd be really interested in hearing how your guild handles things in comparison to the wee bit you know about the one I'm in.

What's cool about YOUR guild? :)

Related posts:

1. Why My Raiding Guild Rocks, Part One
2. Looking Back: From Social Guild To Raiding Guild
3. OMG An Update, Take Two – Guild Merger, Raiding Continues