Everything you need to know to be a raider in this guild.

[GM Fright]

Welcome and welcome back, scumbags.


We're about 2-3 months into our return to raiding in this guild, and we're at a very important point in the development of the direction of the guild. Hallaer, the officers, and I wanted to make sure we did not miss the opportunity to lay the groundwork and expectations we hold for our members and the guild as a whole. These expectations will directly affect everyone in the guild and their ability to raid with us, so please take the time to read through this fully, and if you have any questions, please ask.


First, we wanted to inform the newer members of where this guild has been and is coming from, and also to remind the older members of the high standards, expectations, and structural regulations we had as a 25 man heroic progression guild. The easiest way to do this is to link a few of the important and/or policy related posts I made in my time as GM. Please take the time to at least glance at them to give you an idea or to remind you of what it is like and what is required to raid at high levels.

This is the post I made after we transitioned to 25 man raiding, outlining the original expectations and priorities of the guild, all of which remained consistent throughout our time raiding 25 man content:
http://artofruin.guildlaunch.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5025697&gid=144239
Here is the outline of DKP rules and, more importantly for our purposes here, the attendance policies and expectations for achieving the Dedicated rank:
http://artofruin.guildlaunch.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5085860&gid=144239
A post near the beginning of Cataclysm reiterating our expectations and policies. If you read only one, read this one:
http://artofruin.guildlaunch.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6332126&gid=144239
Another post similar to the previous one:
http://artofruin.guildlaunch.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6613675&gid=144239


Some important excerpts from those posts:
"There are two other important factors in your potential success within this guild, besides attitude, and those are your attendance and your performance. So far, as expected, overall attendance has been very acceptable, with only a few exceptions. That leaves us with, as currently the primary measure of your... we'll say "worth"... to the guild, your performance. This is not to say that if you perform, you can be a dick, or you can show up when you like. What I'm basically doing is issuing a standing edict: Perform, or be replaced."

"I play this game to progress no matter what, and I'm going to surround myself with players who have the same goal. Ask yourself if you fit that description, and then figure out whether or not you've been playing the part."

"So that's that. Sign Up, Show Up, and the rest is cake.
So long as you don't suck."



So where does all of this lead us today? Well, as we are still a raiding guild, we needed to establish our goals and expectations for raiding. They are pretty simple, and they can be summed up in one sentence: we will have the same high standards and expectations as we did when we raided 25 man heroic content 10 hours a week, but now we plan to do it only two nights a week, and as a 10 man guild. That primarily means that we will still hold our raiding members to the same standards, but some of the structure will change.


Here's the nuts and bolts of the issue at hand: the expectations of our members at each rank.
Dedicated and Raiders - Sign up, show up, raid. If you are not able to have reasonable attendance for our Saturday night raids (and "reasonable" is much less demanding a word now than it used to be), then you are not fulfilling your duty to the guild. You are here to raid, and you have to sign up and show up in order to do that. If you are not able to attend a raid, then you must post in the "Absent to Raid" thread in this forum. We ARE tracking attendance, because we are not interested in dealing with flakey and unreliable raiders.
There are also performance expectations, "performance" meaning both raw numbers and raid awareness.
Raider Initiates - Exactly the same as above applies to you, except you will be analyzed more closely and expected to put forth any and all effort in improving your character as is necessary to make you become a solidly contributing member of our raids.
Casuals - Anyone at the Casual rank will never be invited to progression content raids. Casuals are: former raiders whose life currently does not give them the opportunity to raid, and, on a very limited basis, some certain family and friends of current raiders. The Casual rank is not a place where an initiate or raider who does not perform or attend well enough to maintain their spot is dropped with the hopes of being dragged along to fill a spot and maybe earning their raider rank again. Casuals will never be invited to raid on progression nights, and anyone removed from the Raider or Initiate ranks for attendance, performance, or attitude deficiencies will be asked to leave the guild.

Raid nights:
Saturdays are progression nights, and the raid starts at 6pm server. That means you need to be signed up, online, available, and heading toward the instance by 5:45pm server.
Thursdays are currently our alt/casual/initiate raids. We will go into 5.0 content (which raid depends on the make-up of the group) and farm up some gear for our alt or our newer members. Main characters/specs will have priority on loot rolls so that our newer raiders will have the fullest opportunity to gear up and get into our progression raids more quickly.


We will not be as structured or strict as we were before, but yes, we do expect to progress. It isn't hard to keep a casual atmosphere and raiding schedule while maintaining high standards. We will be a more casual guild, but I only want to be casual with other solid, dependable, and good players. Besides, casual is only fun if we can casually kill things, and killing progression content simply requires certain things. If you feel you aren't able to meet our standards, please discuss it with an officer and we will make sure the right decision is made.

The priorities of this guild and its leadership have not changed:

GM Fright on 06/08/2010 wrote:

1. Support our dedicated raiders. 2. Further progression. 3. Ensure the overall benefit of the guild.

[GM Fright]

To sum up and reiterate:

Sign up, show up, and perform, or you will no longer be able to raid with us.

We intend to progress, albeit in a more casual way, and therefore we cannot abide poor attendance or performance from our raiders and initiates.

Saturdays are progression, and Thursdays are alt/casual/initiate raids. All raids start at 6pm server, and you must be signed up, online, and available at 5:45 server to be invited to the raid.



Also, help us recruit! We are always willing and ready to look at new, great players who will be dependable additions for our raiding team!

[GM Fright]

Also also, a couple more of my old posts that spoke a lot to the tone and expectations of the guild at the time, but were a little less serious:


http://artofruin.guildlaunch.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5414158&gid=144239
(A fun but productive post from very early in 25 man raiding)

http://artofruin.guildlaunch.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5614483&gid=144239
(all about things that would happen during the cataclysm launch)

[GM Fright]

Progression raid night invitation policies:

We will base our invites for progression raiding nights (Saturday nights) on several things.
-Who signed up
-What classes/players do we need for the bosses we will be attempting
-Who has shown themselves through both attendance and performance to be dependable and contributing members of our raids


We are not using any sort of DKP, but we are tracking attendance. If you sign up and show up, but are asked to sit out, you will be recorded as present and that will be taken into consideration in future raids.


If you feel you are frequently asked to sit out, please remember that we raid old content on Thursday nights, and that those raids are the absolute best times to prove that your ability and gear level are appropriate for our progression raid nights.


Progression is priority, and once we've reached an acceptable level of progress through a certain tier of content, we will be more able to bring in less-than-optimal raid make-ups or lower geared/less experienced (at that content) players simply for the sake of getting everyone raid time. Until then, progression is priority.



A second B-team group of sorts is certainly an option, and we aren't terribly far from that, but it will require more recruiting. So help Vyvii and Tavie recruit.

[Somosito]

Read those old posts... and I just have one thing to say...

I fucking miss Nanners.

[GM Fright]

Updated slightly the section on Casuals.