NOTE: this post is largely catered to guilds that raid in some form, but based on the comments from my last  Wrath post, it’s a process a lot of you are looking for some help with.

In a recent post, I discussed the opportunity for change that Wrath is bringing, and the ease with which people can change their goals, class, etc. So with all this change, how are we supposed to make sure we have what we need for Wrath raiding? Or perhaps a more accurate question would be “How are we supposed to raid with 25 death knights?” It’s may seem overwhelming but in reality this follows much the same process as normal recruitment; identify your needs and then fill them.

Identify your needs:
Repeat after me; “I will over recruit for the expansion.” But wait, Auz over recruiting is bad. Yes normally overrecruiting is bad, but I promise you that some of the people who want to try this new raiding thing/class won’t like it, some of them won’t be good at it and some of them are going to get tired once they realize that Wrath is the same old thing in new paint and quit for War or something. So just trust me and recruit 20% more people than you think you need.

Your Wrath needs are not going to be the same as your BC needs. I’m not in Beta (curse you Blizzard) but several of my friends and co-bloggers are. From what I’ve heard the ratios are largly the same for tank, healing, dps raid slots with slightly less varition in number of healers needed per fight. (I’m not putting too much faith in this because Karazhan didn’t vary as much as Sunwell either) So count on 2 Main tanks, 3 dpsers who can tank if needed, 7 to 8 healers and 12 to 13 pure dpsers for a typical raid mix. The real difference in Wrath is that Blizzard has worked very hard to make sure no single class provides something irreplaceable to a raid. Now I’m not about to get into the whole “Blizzard is making us all the same” debate, but what that means for your roster is that you don’t need to break it up into 1 hunter, 2 rogues, 1 shaman etc. You can break your roster into Tanks, Healers, Melee DPS and Ranged DPS. I’m will admit that my expertise is really in the healing area and so I trust other people to determine our guild’s needs for DPS and tanking.
My desired Wrath healing roster is broken up like this.

• 2 Priests
• 2 Druids
• 2 Shaman
• 2 Pallys
• 6 Really solid healers of any class
• 4 DPS players I plan to give preference for off spec healing gear in exchange for the ability to borrow them for healing heavy fights. In return I intend to give my dpsers 4 healers they prefer for dps offspec gear and they may also steal in a pinch.

NOTE: This will give me 14 dedicated healers. My guild requires 75% attendance so 12 healers should be enough to ensure I can draft 9 healers on any given night. However I’m taking my own advice and looking to go into Wrath well stocked.

I’m not going to give you a list of what your roster should include for Wrath because that is largely dependent on your guild’s attendance requirments and your members expectations for how often they should sit.

Fill your needs:
I believe it is unrealistic to assume that everyone in your guild will want to remain the same class or role for Wrath. With the gear reset there is no need to require them to do so. That being said most guilds cannot allow everyone to just level whatever they feel like and be expect to field a functional raid. Regardless of how much guidance you give your raiding core everyone’s first step should be to gather information about your guildmates intentions. To gather this information for our guild I made the following request in our guild forums:

I then took the responses and entered them into a table so that our leadership team may begin building our Wrath team.

My guild intends to do our best to accommodate the people who want to change classes and met our expectation of skill in their desired class. Depending on the nature of your guild you may or may not be in a position to guide your guildmates as they decide what class they intend to raid with in Wrath, but at least you’ll know what to expect and what needs you’ll have to fill outside of your current guild members. You may also let your teammates know that 14 of them intend to play death knights and while you might not be the type of guild that makes demands of it’s members the competition for death knight slots in raids and death knight gear will be high so they may wish to reconsider those plans.

Mini Ask Auz:
In my last Wrath post Kyrilean asked in a comment:

My answer:

So follow me here for a second.

Matt got Saresa up in arms about why Warlocks make great lovers after he declared that Warlocks are not his type. Matt then challenged his readers to defend the amorous virtues of their class. The challenge prompted Syd to highlight the virtues and pitfalls of a druidic lover. With me so far? Good!

I’m here to tell you they’ve got it all wrong. Regardless of class, GMs make the best lovers.

• Do it for the DKP - Sleeping your way to better loot is a time honered MMORPG tradition for a reason; it works! A wink and a nod from your GM can open a great many doors for you.

• We’re a real command act - Sar hinted she’s learned a few tricks from Domxia, but who do you think trained Domxia? Her GM that’s who. After leading a raid full of people to protect Azeroth from annihilation, your GM can certainly handle it if you want to hand over the reigns and let them lead.
• We’ve done our research - GMs are studious people who are used to needing to have all the answers. I’m certain your GM knows tips and tricks that the average lay person doesn’t.
• We’re dependable - You can’t be a GM for very long if you don’t do what you say you’ll do. You can count on your GM to keep their promises.

• We’re discrete - As GMs we’re often privy to more intimate knowledge of our teammates than the average person. We’ve learned how to keep our mouths shut and never kiss and tell.
• We’ll tell you exactly what we want - GMs have learned the advantages of giving people a clear, concise explanation of our expectations. Your GM will never tell you “If you really loved me you’d know what I want.”
• We have endurance - Sar mentioned a warlock’s endurance but that’s piddle compared to the strength and endurance it takes to keep members motivated and on track. Regardless of our hitpoints, we’ll keep going as long as we’re needed to get the job done.

• We know how to gather a crowd - If you’re into that kind of thing, you’ll find your GM has a knack for drawing people together to meet a common goal
• We’ll try anything once - We’re always up for something new that might improve our play.

Before you ask:

• No, this didn’t prevent you from getting real content. I wasn’t planning on writing today before I read Syd’s post.
• Yes, I’m still planning on following up the Wrath planning series.
• No, I’m not serious sleeping with your GM is a terrible idea. I mean sure it could be fun at first, but hell hath no fury like a pissed off GM. No matter how it ends, you’re screwed.
• Yes, I intended you’re screwed to be a pun.
• No, I won’t apologize for punning in public.

So unless you’re living under a rock, then you know they’ve announced a November 13th release date for Wrath. Also, if you are living under a rock, stop. First rocks aren’t comfortable homes. Second, if you’re going to be a good leader you need to know what’s coming and prepare for it.

Now if you’re anything like me, the release date was the trigger you’ve been waiting for to start making solid Wrath plans. Sure I’ve been keeping up with Beta and Test server information but always with a grain of salt, because it’s Beta. I’m not ready to go up in arms about Beta information until it’s written in something more solid than a flavorful gelatin product that I’m sure has a trademarked name. A two month timeline on the release means it’s time to start taking Beta and especially test server information more seriously.

So as an online leader what does an expansion mean to you that it doesn’t mean to other people? (Conversely if you’re a member what should you expect to see your leadership do to prepare and how can you help them?)

The major thing a vertical expansion provides is an opportunity for change.

Whoa wait a minute, Auz you said vertical expansion, I heard this was a Wrath expansion, has that medicine the doctor given you finally gone to your head?

No little voice in my head, it’s not affecting me any more than to make me publically argue with the voices in my head, I’m ashamed to admit I was doing before the medicine they gave me. Vertical is an adjective that gamer theorist (yes this is a real class of people, some of whom actually get paid but most are laymen with blogs like me) have attached to expansions that require a character’s growth (leveling) to reach new content. It’s counterpart is a horizontal expansion which provides more content and items to be acquired without requiring character growth to reach it. (I apologize to all the gamer theorists out there I have offended with my crude but concise definition of these concepts.) So the Sunwell patch could be considered a horizontal expansion and the Wrath is a vertical expansion. And now someone queue that music from the now you know comercials.

Uh Auz, we don’t have a staff, you’ll have to do that yourself as I’m incorporeal.

What do you mean we don’t have a staff? Matt has a staff, and I’m at least as cool as he is.

Yeah but Matt suckered them into it by bribing Wyn with cookies and snagged Syd with that clever So You Think You Can Write Blog Posts So Matt Doesn’t Have To thing.

Darn him, I’m guessing I can’t steal that idea and have it work twice huh?

Nope but you might be able to train the pug.

I do have cookies… ChickGM and Pugdude!

Damn it voice in my head, you’ve gotten us way off track, and probably lost our readers.

<Ahem> So vertical expansions create change, by requiring us all to level. The gear advantage that individuals and guilds have and the requirements that zones have disappear. Shaking the Etch-a-sketch of wow gear hierarchy and forcing us to draw a new picture. In addition the class balance etch-a-sketch will be shaken, and we’re going to get used to classes playing new roles. (Rogue Synergy? Pally AOE heals? Druid out of combat Rezs? It’s a scary new world) Finally, the tradeskill etch-a-sketch will be shaken.

So in the face of all this potential change, what does an online leader do?

First, read Bre’s post, protecting your landscape.

Okay now, do an internal check. Find out what aspects of the game you are willing to focus on, both as a leader and a member of a guild. Then keep your mouth shut about them so that you don’t influence the others and you get honest feedback.

Next, speak to your guildmates. Sure right now you’re a casual guild, but what secret hopes do your guildmates hold? It may turn out that now is the time that your teammates want to start some raiding or maybe your raiding guild is tired and wants to step back? You’ll never know if you don’t ask them. (Note I’ve been out of touch with my guild for a bit, but before I was away I already knew the thrust of my core members. Even if you are in close contact with your members, you should check again. Some people’s opinions are going to change as the possibility of change is higher.)

Take your polls and put them in three categories, the leadership, the core, and the future (your newer members).

• If your leadership, core and future are all in alignment - The future path is clear and your life is beautiful. Give your guild recruitment leader/process a pat on the shoulder and start working on your path.
• If your leadership and core are in alignment but your future is out of alignment - Let your future know that you’ve heard their views but that the guild is not going to change to meet their expectations. They are welcome to stay on if they’ll accept the current guild path or you won’t begrudge them if they look for a guild more inline with their desires. (Bonus points if you help them find it). Then take a hard look at your recruitment process and make sure you’re clearly stating the guild focus and asking people about their goals within that process.
• If your leadership and core are out of alignment - This sucks. If there is room for compromise, I highly recommend exploring that opportunity first. If not, then one focus has to win out. I will refrain from commenting about which I believe should win out and only say that no matter which side goes the guild has a hard time of rebuilding ahead of it. Whichever side wins, let the guild know as soon as possible so that everyone can make plans. If you are stepping out of the leadership position, a gracious last act would be to help the guild establish their new leadership to the best of your abilities.

Now that you’ve found your guild’s Wrath path, it’s time to lay the groundwork.

• If your guild is continuing along it’s old path - this work is fairly easy. You’ll need to look over all your publically available information to make sure it’s updated for Wrath (applications, website, etc) and you might want to use that time to look over your guild rules to ensure that what you have documented is actually what you’re enforcing.
• If you’re making a path change, - let your guild know right away, so that people know what to expect out of the guild for Wrath and can make plans accordingly. Then take a look at the guilds on your server who are currently on your desired path. Read all of the guild’s publically available material and if you are fortunate enough to be able to find a leader in another guild who is willing to answer your questions, remember that this leader is also preparing his/her guild for Wrath and you should use the time they make available to use wisely. From this information you’ll have a good idea of what other guilds offer and their structure. From there you can work with your leadership to determine what you can offer and what new responsibilities need to be doled out. While you’re discussing this, think about how your guild can differentiate itself from your peers in your chosen niche and be sure your recruitment process capitalizes on this distinction.

Let it be known that I’ve never lead a non- PvE raiding guild, though I have been an observer or member of most types of guild. With that caveat, here is a rough listing of the responsibilities, as I see them, of the leadership for different guild niches.

Any Guild

• Guidance of focus
• Recruitment process
• Acceptable behavior standards
• Enforcement of standards
• Communication -Website, Vent, Email Chain, Phone list as required
• Conflict resolution
• Shared resource management
• Event Organization as required
• Documentation of required information
• Publication of guild standards, goals and accomplishments as required

Role Playing Guild

• Environment crafting
• Overarching guild plot
• In character/ out of character protocol and expectations.
• Role playing guidance
• Event Organization

PvE Raiding Guild

• Research - zones, bosses, classes, patches, etc
• Set raid strategy communicate it
• Loot distribution system
• Expectations of raid behavior
• Class/Role leadership

PvP Raiding guild

• Research - zones, pvp objectives, classes, patches, etc
• Set PvP strategies and communicate it
• Expectation of PvP behavior
• Class/Role leadership

If you have anything to add that I’m missing please let me know in a comment.

I had intended to make this a complete guide to Wrath guild planning, but this post is already too long and I’ve only just begun. So in order to; not draw me from my own guild for too long, keep you from falling asleep and bolster my post count, I’ve decided to make this a post series.

Hey Auz I know this is the end of the post, but you see all those bullet points you don’t have links for. You should totally fill in the blank spots for those.

I know voice in my head, looks like I won’t run out of topics for a long time.

As I was slipping back into real life I found myself sitting down to write on my book. It’s been a while so I chose to re-read a few sections to get my mind back in the game. I’m out of practice so my mind was wandering rather staying on the topic at hand. I thought I’d share the results of that wandering with you.

• I wonder how many officers a typical guild/clan has? Do you think it scales with number of members.
• A lot of these sections remind me of the functions of a Human Resources department, is there room for a post drawing comparisons between the two? Is there a benefit to this comparison?
• That guy that said I write about guild leading like it’s a small nation, should I lighten up in my presentation here? I find most of my writing takes an air of professionalism for the topic. Why would someone bother to read something that it didn’t seem like I’d addressed the matter as something of import?
• I wonder what the comparative age of guild masters to the average age of their guild is?
• Why can’t I see the google notebook Matt sent? I wonder if it’s just me or everyone he sent it to.
• You think anyone is really going to buy a book about guild leading? Maybe no one has written one before because no one wants one.
• Tonight’s the last raid before the weekend for the guild… I wonder how it’ll go tonight. I need to go over our twins strat this weekend….
• I should use the polls on the blog to get some informal statistics about the things I wonder about general guild leadership…
• hmmm this will be another post without pictures, I’m pretty sure that means Matt’s going to hyjack my blog and get Wyn to retroactively add pictures to these posts.
• My pug has put my legs to sleep, how can something weighing 25 pounds keep me weighing at least 10 pounds more than that (=P) in place?
• I should move the dog, and go to the kitchen for lunch…. what should I have for lunch, I think there’s a leftover wrap in the fridge, mmmmm wrap…..
• I still have over a thousand entries on my blog reader, maybe I shouldn’t try to go back to working today maybe I should take a day to catch up on that and rest before putting myself back to work, clearly my mind is not on topic and you have to be a good reader to be a good writer….
• Oooo I still have to work on the new guild website… I was going to use that to write my chapter on guild websites and the series I wanted to write for the blog about websites… I think that technically makes it count as work on all three things…..didn’t I have a guild that said I could use their website too for that blog series… have to check my blog idea notebook… you know I haven’t checked that thing since before I stepped away, it doesn’t do me any good if I don’t use it..

And with that, I beg your leave to go work on the new guild website. Let me know if you guys liked this  format or hated it. It’s atypical of my writing style, but like the chicklette said maybe I need to lighten up some and try new things.

I have been a piss-poor blogger this month. I’ve been a poor guild leader, and you can guess how real life commitments have gone. To avoid the risk of being the officer who shared too much, I will just say it was unavoidable and unexpected. To those of you who sent kind messages to let me know I was missed, it was very touching and definitely brightened some bad days.

Despite my inadequacies as a leader this month, my guild has done well without me. They’ve killed a new boss, recruited new people, lost two members and gone on mostly as normal. Why have they done well without me? Don’t I spend my days writing about good leadership and how that has a positive impact on guilds? If I’m really all that good at what I do shouldn’t they have struggled in my absence?

They did well for two reasons.

• I have an amazingly strong and dedicated officer core
• While the event that took me away was unexpected, the possibility of such an event was foreseeable, so we had prepared for the possibility of my extended absence.

I returned to raiding two nights ago, and I’m slowly working my way back into the game and leadership of the guild. While I was away there were some things that popped up that and as I settle back into leadership I’ll have my hands full for a bit, but it dawned on me that if I hadn’t been able to return this guild would have kept on ticking without me.

In some ways that makes me a little sad, knowing that while I helped build it and create it, my guild is now it’s own entity and no longer requires me. On the other hand, I’m very proud. I’ve put in place a plan and gathered people who are so strong and believe in the goals of the guild that even without my help, it continues to thrive. I imagine this is a similar emotion to that of a parent watching their child move out into the world alone.

Okay Auz, touching moment, I’m glad you’re back ya know cause here I am reading what you’re writing, but what does all this mushy stuff with your guild have to do with me?

I’m glad you asked imaginary reader in my head. It has to do with you because it dawned on me, while I was sitting there contemplating the nature of my guild and the situation that pulled me away from it, how many unexpected things have happened to myself and the people I’ve been guilded with over the time the guild has existed. It dawned on me that the unexpected, happens often enough that you should be prepared.

In the business world, I was once employed by a brokerage company. It was there that I learned a great many of the tools I use today in my guild leading. One of the lessons I learned is that when a small business owner dies, the best indicator you can use to determine the future of the business they owned is “Did they leave a business succession plan?” I don’t know the statistics, but the ones I made up on the spot say that 90% of all small business whose owners did not plan out what should happen to the business when they die, fail shortly after the owners death.

Now death is one of those final things, and honestly there are more important things to plan in the event of your death than the future of your guild. (Like who gets your framed first issue of Nintendo Power) However, what if your main tank gets moved to night shift? What if you have to move to Wyoming (I still don’t have a reader from there so I’m pretty sure they don’t have the internet)? What if your recruitment officer has a baby and has to quit playing video games. (Yeah I know she should teach it to drool on the 2 key (chain heal) and be a resto shaman/hunter) Fortunately most things that would take someone away from the virtual world give you a small amount of time to plan for them, but I’m here to tell you from first hand experience that isn’t always the case.

The easiest solution to unexpected absences, is officer redundancy. Guilds all have commonalities that have to be accomplished that take effort outside of play time; recruitment, new member initiation, dispute resolution, in some cases loot distribution, any information tracking the guild requires, website or contact information maintenance. Regardless of how your leadership structure divides these responsibilities or what other responsibilities your guild leadership may have, it’s a good idea to make sure at least two of your officers are trained and able to handle any one responsibility.

A second tip is keep and eye out for leadership potential and develop it where you can. Earlier I mentioned I have two members who manage our WWS reports and auctioning off our raid goodies for cash. I also have another member who leads off night runs of ZA. These members have proven to me that they are responsible and willing to put time into our guild, and should I need to grab another officer they are a good starting point. My guild already trusts them and has found them dependable in their roles. These potential leaders a fertile crop from which the next generation of our guilds leaders may spawn and in allowing them room and culturing the leadership they have shown our guild also reaps the benefits of their existing leadership.

A third tip is establish your hierarchy. It’s ugly but the number one thing I’ve seen tear a guild’s leadership apart is the struggle for dominance. Leadership is established in two ways it is both bequeathed and earned. As a leader I may choose a new officer and place them in a position of authority and responsibility, but from there they have to earn the rest. They earn a guilds trust by proving dependable and reasonable. In a guild where the leadership struggles against itself it’s often because officers and leaders undermine each other in an attempt to garner more of the guild’s trust than the others. When one leader of a guild is removed, the balance that is already in place shifts as others take on new responsibilities to fill the void. By firmly establishing spheres on influence and trust between your officers and any potential new recruit to a leadership role you can help prevent this from happening.

While the need for a written plan of succession that appears in the business world does not appear in the virtual world, I encourage virtual leaders to take a moment and contemplate what would you like to happen to your guild if you weren’t there? And what would you do if another person you count on wasn’t there? By contemplating these things and even talking about them with your officers in advance you may be able to take the sting out of an unexpected event that might otherwise prove damaging to your guild.

I apologize for the unorganized nature of this post and lack of pictures (Sorry Matt). Much like leadership I am easing myself back into blogging and my other writing. Based on the results of the poll and my recent easing back into my former life, Tales from the Tabletop will become a feature of this blog rather than it’s own blog. Expect to see that begin to appear as a new feature soon.