it’s a very common mistake to assume that every raider trusts you 100% and is comfortable telling you whenever something is wrong. in reality, most people in guilds are being treated like strangers on the internet. I tell my friends when something’s up. my raid leader? I just make sure he knows I wont be available.

I’m not a raid leader nor GM, just a guildie. In my guild, they never count the number of wipe. Officer plan raids on a weekly schedule. We raid 25-mans from 9pm to midnight. At the beginning of every raid the RL give us the programm of the night : “Tonight, Thorim hard mode until 23:15 then Freya normal for loot ! Woot ! Lets go !” or “Tonight Iron Council hard mode and if he’s not down at 23:30 we kill him normal and go Razorscale quickly.”

When people know that usually the torture will end at 11pm or so, they are more willing to wipe again. In our raid, we know that at midnight, there won’t be another try. Sometimes, when many people feel like “this time we’ll down him, one last try please !” The RL ask people who need to go, if there are people availiable to take their place we try one last time, if not : “/rw End of raid”. Final point. No hard feeling on people leaving, never.

For 10-mans, things are different. The schedule is midnight until people need matchsticks to keep their eyes open. It’s the hard mode raid, the one that try Algalon10. But the atmosphere is this raid is very different. People know that there will be wipes, a lot and they are here for that. Everyone is there to give the best they can, not just for loot. These raid are for the crazy ones… I love those raids… I want my drake and my Mande-étoile title…

And thanks for commenting on my blog Lodur.
Nef
.-= Nefernet´s last blog ..Qualities of a good raider =-.

Last week we had horrible problems with raiding. Half the people slacked with flasks, people barely did decent DPS, healers/tanks failed with cooldowns etc. We kept wiping on trash and easier bosses. We decided to call it an hour before correct time. After that awful night our RL wrote a post on forums that can be summariezed as “you people all sucked horribly, get your act together or get replaced”. It seemed to help quite a bit as yesterday we downed FL +4 (guild #3 kill with many new people), XT hardmode (#2) and Hodir hardmode (#3). Kologarn and cat lady were done without deaths. It was like a day and night difference even though the players were the same.

We didn’t kill Hodir before scheduled raid end but RL just did a readycheck, yes = one more try, no = leave. All were for that last try and we did kill him on hardmode, though a bit after we usually finish raids

So basically I’d say main thing is to have clearly defined raid times. If end time has come either quit or ask members if they want to continue but never force someone to do so. Even if 1-2 don’t want to continue and can’t be replaced call it. Don’t offer any benefits to the ones who stay (exept a possible kill) or people might feel forced to stay. If things are going terrible try to see what’s the problem and if it doesn’t get better don’t push too hard. There are several nights every week, sometimes an early-off might help a bit.

And after 12 times it’s even not certain if people are even satisfied of getting him down in the end. You’re sort of left with this ‘we should’ve done better’ feeling.

But I think we’ve all been there at one point or the other. Hope the holiday was a good one at least
.-= Shyraia´s last blog ..Heirloom Cold Weather Flying, OMG! =-.

Everything I personally learned during my 2+ years of raid and guildleading in serious raiding guilds considered, I’d have to say that pushing until your official raid end time is the best option most of the time. Your more easy going people might get frustrated and some might even end up loggomg, but you should have replacements ready to go anyway. If you go the other way, your best people will feel like quitters and if you aren’t careful a defeatism attitude can turn into something dark really quickly.

In the end it will all come down to how well you can spin stuff as a leader, but quitting early has never really worked out for me.

I like to call breaks if we’re having some learning curve issues. Takes five, stretch, clear your head, etc. Sometimes just stepping away for a minute can really make the difference. It’s worse though when FailBot is screaming at you that your new warlock just ate Thorim’s lightning…..again.