Lyrics by Anna of http://toomanyannas.com

This is the product of the evil corruption of BA Chat.

I’m not a frequent denizen of EJ forums but this thread, Raid Healing Leadership, caught my eye. So there’s a good conversation going on there, and CLEARLY I need to put in my two cents. (I’ve posted 3 times now so they’ve actually gotten six cents) I finished up my response there and thought this is good stuff Auz, you should put it on the blog.

So Mondays asked:

Apart from that when i assign healing i get almost no replies from any of the healers and we usually end up wiping due too the healers not doing what they’re told. Not only that some of the healers simply do not read forums,enchant and gem their gear properly. Is it a lack of dedication and respect or do i simply fail? I’ve been healercl in my previous guild and i’ve never experienced this before so i’m quite frustrated.
Also the overhealing and the flash heal spam is freaking me out how can i tell people to change their gamingstyle in a non offending way?

The best way to get respect from your healers is to give it, and to be a resource of information. We don’t have any way to pay these people other than shiny epics, so I find positive re-enforcement works better than berating. Set yourself up to be their mentor and personal coach rather than their boss.

I try not to tell my healers how to heal, but rather give them information that leads them to the conclusion. People tend to own more what they come to rather than what people tell them. (I call it the fine art of letting someone else have my way) “PallyZ I see that often when a tank that I’ve assigned you to dies, you’re casting flash of light but it seems like you’re losing ground on the tanks health, how can I help you fix that?” (Have links to WWS for the inevitable “nu-uh”)

Another pitfall I’ve learned to avoid is trying to cram a bunch of information in at once. I work with my healers and give them one task at a time to focus on. Once they’ve made improvement on that one thing, give them another “DruidQ I see that you’ve really mastered the rolling lifeblooms rotation we were talking about, I think now it’s time to shift our focus to how you can incorporate swiftmends into that rotation to help us recover from spike damage.”

Be clear with your healers regarding your expectations of them in raids. I don’t say “bring consumables” I say, “every healer should make sure they have 20 golden fishsticks or 20 blackened sporefish” 20 guardian elixirs and 20 battle elixirs or 2 flasks and 4 charges of weapon oil for this raid, if you are unsure about which of the available consumables are best for this encounter/your class, I’ll be happy to talk to you about it in tells BEFORE our raid time.”

Reward good behavior! When you write a wall of text healing strat, hide an easter egg in it. “Whisper Auz the red dragon flys by night for a 10g prize.” When someone blossoms under your tutelage praise them! When someone got that clutch heal and keeps the raid from a wipe puff up their little pixelated egos. When we were learning Kael, I went out one night and bought a bunch of cockroach pets, and at the end of the night I gave one to every player that didn’t die before a wipe was called that night. I told my raid “Be the cockroach.” When we killed him there were a bunch of cockroach pets running around the raid like a badge of honor.

Over recruit. Your healers have no motivation to do what you ask them if they know you have to take them regardless of their behavior, enchanting, gemming, etc. I keep a mental note of how many healers I need for the average encounter and make sure I have enough healers on staff to sit 1 or 2 a night. This allows me to maintain flexibility in healing composition, sit tired raiders and occasionally say “I see you’re having trouble getting that new weapon enchanted so I’m going to sit you tonight to make sure you have the time to farm for those enchanting mats”

So I’ve just offered you a spot as an officer in my guild and now I’ve asked you to sleep on it before you answer me. What things would you consider before answering me?

Below is a list of questions I think any member should answer before taking on a leadership role in an established guild:

• Do I intend to make a long term commitment to this game?
• Do I intend to make a long term commitment to this guild?
• What will my responsibilities be?
• Do I want to make a long term commitment to these responsibilities?
• How are my views inline with that of the current leadership core?
• How are my views different from that of the current leadership core?
• What strengths do I have to bring to this guild in a leadership role?
• Which of my weaknesses might affect my ability to hold a leadership role?
• Is my GM aware of these weaknesses?
• Am I willing to commit to being a good example for my guildmates?
• Can I establish a good working relationship with the other members of the leadership core?
• How do the other officers interact with the GM(s)?
• Is that how I want to interact with the GM(s)?
• Do I respect my GM(s)?
• Why is the GM looking for a new officer?
• Does your idea of the authority you should have as an officer line up with your GM(s)’s?
• Does your idea of the role you would play in the leadership core line up with your GM(s

What things would you consider?

The Gold Star goes to Bell from 4haelz! (I took artistic liberties to fit it on the header) Thanks for all the suggestions. They were all much better than what I came up with on my own. In fact, I had such trouble picking that I made Mikedabutcha help me. While I was adding Bell, I updated my blog list, because I now read a lot more blogs. Thanks to the friendly people at BA, I’ve been introduced to many good blogs, RSS feeds, feed readers, better layouts, using pictures, copywrites, disclosures, and questionable chat content. They’ve also gotten me to promise to throughly embarrass myself on the internet this weekend, so check back for that.

Warning opinions expressed in this post are mainly from the perspective of a raiding guild and may not apply to other types of guilds.

So recruiting a new raider is always an interesting experience. But what happens when someone who has already raided with you applies as a raider a second time?

On the positive side, you’ve raided with this person. You know what to expect from their attendance, attitude, raid preparation, comprehension and consumable use. Sure apps tell you what to expect, but everyone knows the right answer and reality don’t always match. Additionally your team knows them, and integration into the guild should take less time.

On the negative side, it didn’t work out once. Like I’m fond of counseling one of my friends “There is a reason he’s your ex.” Unlike an app, this player carries baggage from their previous experience with your guild.

Generally when I’m considering a previous raider as an applicant, I focus most heavily on why and how they ceased raiding with us. Was it a philosophical difference or a lifestyle change? When they ceased raiding how did they treat their peers and the leadership core? Did they disappear overnight or did they take time to talk about what was going on?

If the player left for a philosophical difference, what has changed? If your policies haven’t changed and their perspective hasn’t changed, then I believe tagging the player again will only lead you back to the same place. If your guild’s policy changed or the person’s perspective changed you should still do an inventory, are these changes sufficient to prevent further friction?

If the player left because of a lifestyle change, how permanent is this change? Are they likely to have real life obligations pull them away again or are they now able to make a stable commitment to your guild. If their lifestyle is not stable, the raider may fall into a yo-yo pattern of commitment and flakiness that cause your more stable raiders to question why they are stable when this player’s mercurial nature is tolerated. While I will occasionally give this type of applicant a second chance, I won’t give them a third.

How was this player’s attitude when they left? If they said unpleasant things to other team mates or leaders, those people may be hesitant to allow this person to integrate back into the guild. If your other raiders are opposed to this player’s return then you are probably better off bringing in a player without that baggage.

Finally, how well did this player communicate with the leadership the last time they left? When people have to leave a guild, the way they chose to communicate and how much they chose to communicate tells you a great deal about their level of respect for the commitment they made to your guild. If they didn’t bother to talk to you the last time they were in your guild, I wouldn’t give them a second chance.

Auz, you didn’t discuss what happens if you removed a player. Yeah I didn’t. Generally I won’t remove a raider unless I feel there is absolutely no hope that this player will integrate in the way I need them to. Because of this, I won’t generally consider a player I’ve removed from a raiding position.