Setting your raid schedule

I’m going to pass on the message from Kirk and Kestrel and try to set an example for everyone else: If you have a blog, use it to comment. It helps drive traffic in both directions.

Props to Lilsheshe, the GM of Sinful Intent, for tipping me for today’s piece. In my past Guilds, we would set a day or four to raid. We would raid on those nights of the week until we accomplished our goal or until it was no longer practical to do so. I don’t know about you, but raiding with no end in sight does seem a bit demoralizing until you get a boss down.

By the way, if you’re looking for a casual raiding Guild, look them up (Sinful Intent). I believe they’re short on healers (Priests, Druids, Resto Shamans, etc). They’re also based in Ner’Zhul. Right now, they have two groups running Karazhan and are on the threshold of breaking into Gruul. They recently suffered a loss of several players impairing their ability to raid in the 25 mans. Bless her ability to hold the group together. That right there is a real Guild Leader. You’d be hard pressed to find other individuals like her and her leadership for not throwing in the towel.

My Guild raids from 6PM - 9 PM flat. It doesn’t matter if we’re one shotting bosses or if we’re wiping like no tomorrow. It’s three hours in duration no matter what we do. With that in mind, it’s absolutely important for us to maximize our time in the raid instances. Some of you may set your raid times to end at 10 PM or 11 PM. But all too often, I’ve noticed on several pug raids that I’ve taken part in is that there are set start times, but end times are insanely flexible.

So consider setting a final, non-negotiable end time that everyone can look forward to. Why?

1) It gives you and your raiding team a set time to look forward to. Would you prefer a 9-5 job or a job where you would clock out whenever your boss says so? You might be wiping on trash or boss attempts, but at least you will know HOW MUCH LONGER it’s going to go on for. If you stare at the clock and notice that you have 30 minutes of raiding left, all of a sudden, you realize that you can actually endure one more wipe if necessary.

2) Everybody bullshits to get out of a raid. My dog ate my mouse. My in laws are in town. What’s more, people give these excuses in the middle of the raid because they don’t want to raid anymore. They’re looking for an easy way out. It’s all human psychology. They come up with a BS excuse that may or may not be right with the intent of getting out of the raid so they can do something else. By setting an end time, your raid mates can plan their life around it.

For example, knowing my raid ended at 9 PM allowed me to delay construction of my 1500 word essay on criticizing Lysistrata until after the raid. It allowed me to calculate that I could watch the NHL season openers on Wednesday AND finish the paper which would have been due this morning.

Clearly this is a poor example of time management, but if I had not known when our raid would end, I would have missed out on watching the NHL season openers. That would have been deeply tragic.

Next, tailor your raid days that will maximize your attendance. If everyone can raid Tuesday, it should be a no brainer to schedule your raids on that day. That should be a straight forward concept.

Lastly, the amount of days spent raiding will also have a huge impact. Whether you’re aware of it or not, raiding three days a week versus two days a week can be far more draining. You might think to yourself ‘Oh its just an extra day’, but to some people it’s a lot more time for them to invest in. It’s also dependent on your raid’s ability to solve certain encounters. If you have no problem clearing to Shade of Aran, but have the toughest time cracking him below 80%, then chances are your raid isn’t ready to take him down yet. There is no sense in scheduling another day of four hour consecutive 80% Aran wipes. It demoralizes your team, it adds unneeded expenses, and your team won’t try hard at all because they know they can’t do it yet. It’s best to try the boss a few times, gauge the probability of success with your team, and then call it and come back when the week resets.

In the end, you know your raid team best. If they’re willing to jump back in there and continue running into the brick wall, then do it. God knows I haven’t had my share of attrition night, Guild first kills (Mag). Perseverance has helped a lot. For the past two weeks, we’ve been getting Leotheras down to phase 3 where he is below 10% every attempt before our Guild wipes. If that’s the same with you, then maybe coming back another night would be the right answer. Having a refreshed raid is far more effective then a fatigued raid.

I’ve managed to derive a mathematical formula for raid performance. Basically, you assume that your Guild operates at peak efficiency when you go into an encounter. Guild performance is inversely proportional to time spent in encounter. In other words, as time goes on in the raid, skill decreases.

Know your Guild and what they’re capable of doing. Push them to the limit, but don’t tip them over the edge.

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