An Elitist Casual

Casual Guilds and Blizzard’s Raiding Game

The in-betweener. The almost-good-enough. That gal that takes the game way too seriously. However you describe the antinomy, the moderating impact these gamers have on the MMORPG seascape could help chart and navigate the courses of many games and gamers. This discussion takes place in the realm of the raiding game, active guilds, and from the author’s most recent experience: World of Warcraft.

Elitist casuals that have casual raiding experience have likely felt frustrated in the casual raiding game. Casual and friendly ties and obligations combined with raid encounter requirements can make raid composition seem like a chess match with Deep “Blizzard” Blue on one side of the table and a barrel of monkeys on the other. Key members of the raid can lack fundamental knowledge of their class or role, and their ties make an impervious shield of obliviousness that makes counsel or replacement impossible. Although these are all key concerns that we should address, let’s first take a look at the raiding game from a strategic raid planning and management perspective. How do you get the most out of the guild you have? Only once we find this upper bound can we look for improvement elsewhere.

Fortunately for you elitists committed to casual raiding guilds, Blizzard has modified the raiding game such that you can function in a casual environment and be both successful and happy. The 10-man to 25-man tier progression is a huge boon, allowing a willing guild to create an elite 10-man group that can rip through 3 raid instances in one night, and a second 10-man group where less experienced and capable members bash their faces against a few key raid bosses over and over again until they learn how to SOOTF, use their abilities correctly, and realize that 90% of maximizing their potential does not involve shiny purples. As members of the elite 10-man decide they have finished gearing from said 10-man raids, a member from the tutorial group can move up, and a fresh 80 can join in the action without frustrating the experienced players. Even better, if the elite that has finished gearing up could help in the remedial group, think about how much more quickly those players could improve for the 25-mans!

Of course this is subject to attendance, but the concept is sound. The groups might fluctuate slightly, and certain people might have to sit out one night. As long as these casuals are true to their own philosophy, getting into every raid shouldn’t matter, and everyone gets to have more fun.

Regarding 25-mans: At least for now, in general, do not do half-guild half-PUGs unless you share the raid with another like-minded guild. The potential frustrations of “Max Tier” PUGs outweigh the potential benefits. Do not do guild runs until:

1)      You have 25 persons in the guild that have fully completed the 10-man version of the same instance.

2)      All 10-man instances that more than 5 people need gear from are clear for the reset period.

All opinions about Naxxramas aside, 10-mans are there for a purpose. Repeat the above strategy for each tier of raiding! Expect 10-man Ulduar and Icecrown Citadel to be more efficient paths to excellence than instantly dropping your 25-man Naxx and charging guild-first into 25-man Ulduar on Tuesdays.

Next, we have raid leadership. The guys or gals that tell everyone to do this or that. The well-intentioned but sometimes misguided  person that chimes in with something they read on Elitist Jerks or BossKillers without actually having a full understanding of the fight. This is where the elitist casual can be a guilds best friend… and worst enemy.

Elitist casuals may find it easy to exert their raid optimization energies on pre-raid preparation, especially during pure progression. One might type detailed strategies, calling out roles and assignments by name, taking care to put gamers where their talents (or lack thereof) best suit the raid. While this is certainly a noble and helpful pursuit, in the author’s experience, results have been further impacted by simply being a good raid leader. We aren’t talking about your run-of-the-mill raidwarning jockey “roll 5 million on this shiny purple… next” leadership. We’re talking about marking mobs (yes, trash). Good kill orders, live strats and assignments, swift, smart decisions and clear communication.

It isn’t easy, but it is definitely effective.

Just as an example, an exceptional raid leader of the past brought a group of 10 casual raiders in nothing more than Karazhan and Gruul gear into Zul’Aman on the 1^st day of the 1^st reset for the instance, and beat the 3-box timer. We’re talking about several pieces of Tier 5½ gear in half an hour, yet they had never even set foot into Mag’s lair. That is smart strategy, good guidance, and amazing raid leadership.

If an elitist casual can take a nimble, but firm, grip on the reins of the casual raid machine, progress can be made. The finer details for good raid leadership are out of the scope of this article, perhaps they will make their way in at a later date. There are quite a few good raid leadership references on Elitist Jerks.

This is an important step to make in the transition from a casual raiding guild to a serious casual raiding capability, and shouldn’t be omitted in lieu of simply filling the roster with what might be better players. You might just end up with more frustrated players and difficulty transitioning to effective 25-man raids.