catmao1536

put lots of strain on guild leadership

catmao1536 | 02 septembre, 2010 06:04

Do you anticipate any change in schedules and time spent when Cataclysm hits?
The two-nights-per-week model has worked well for us for the first four years, and I see no reason for that to change. The changes to raid lockouts may mean less time jogging 10-mans and such on off nights, though those who are inclined will always fill that time with alts, achievement point whoring or other time sinks.
Will you institute level caps or goals when Cataclysm first arrives?
In general, I think we are hardcore about that kind of thing, and I imagine the slower levelers in the guild will hit 85 within a week of the "I'm using the beta to plan my leveling path so I do know how to spend my caffeine-powered questing binge" poopsockers among us (and there's several). If somebody were to take an unusually long time leveling, then there would probably be a lovely reason for it and they would work with them individually.
Is "advance recon" in the beta an element of your guild's overall strategy and designs?
Due to having a few friends in high places, they did manage to get the guild in the alpha and subsequently the beta. There's some actual math/theorycrafting geeks among us, and I do know they are all trying their hardest to favorably shape the evolution of their classes, as the developers try new things and reply to feedback. Aside from that, I think people are enjoying the content and familiarizing themselves with the new mechanics and zones. There is not any kind of guild mandate to do so, however.
Do you foresee any new mechanics, content or features ahead in Cataclysm that will significantly affect the guild's playstyle or approach to raiding?
There has been lots of concern in the "serious" raiding world about the shift to shared loot and lockouts between 10- and 25-man raid sizes. It is something that can put lots of strain on guild leadership, as people start to ask themselves why they ought to bother "carrying the bads" in 25s when they could do 10s with friends for the same rewards. There's also issues with lockout splitting/joining that have the potential to cause organizational headaches for raid leaders. They think they have an edge here, as a guild that is in it for the enjoyment of killing pixel dragons over for the loot, with a roster that is as unified and homogenized as any. So while I don't expect us to change how they do things, I do think the raiding landscape might change around us, which may finish up working to our advantage.
Other things like buff/debuff sharing between classes, better balance between classes (goodbye mandatory "X number of holy paladins" and other changes will make our lives as officers simpler. Raids will be simpler to organize around important buffs/debuffs, and rosters will be more flexible.
They would have assumed that a smaller, tighter team with only a few on the bench would mean less recruiting, but it sounds as if recruiting is an ever-present task.
The age of our roster can be a double-edged sword here. On the one hand, our raiders tend to have stable schedules. Work is a known quantity, and they can plan their social calendars so as not to conflict with Tues./Thurs. raids. But grownup things like job promotions, kids being born and the occasional retirement leave holes in the roster that need to be filled. When those holes open up, it can take weeks or even months to adequately fill them, which means lots of work for the officers.

What proportion of the guild actually take advantage of the four days/week schedule by not logging in at all on nonraiding nights?
That fluctuates with the availability of fascinating stuff to do (i.e., new content and relevant 10-mans). When a new patch is out and there is gear to be gotten and achievement points to be whored, they tend to see much more activity throughout the week. But sometimes like now, with everything clear and tiny incentive to run 10-mans, I'd say the huge majority of the guild only logs on for raids. Our forums are active, so people can be social there without having to log on and do laps in Dalaran. At any point, however, there's people (perhaps 25 percent of the roster) who, whether due to time limitations or because they are not interested, only log on for raids