Guildmaster’s Corner: Opening Your Raid to Open Raid

by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

Having trouble filling your raid group?

Siege of Orgrimmar blues getting boring for everyone?

Raiders eyeing other guilds and different games?

I’ve been there. I know the pain. There was a time when I briefly considered the prospect of downsizing to a 10 man organization, even temporarily. The odds of a guild surviving that are not very good. I looked at the idea of using a week 1/week 2 rotation where we’d do a 10-man on week 1 followed by a 25-man on week 2. That was also ruled out fairly quick. People joined a 25 man guild specifically to do 25 mans.

Last week, we looked at the two main kinds of players that form the backbone of the guild. Today we’re going to look at supplementing that roster by resorting to a new tool that wasn’t available in previous expansions.

If you’re like me, you tend to hop onto Open Raid to join other events because you’re a little too lazy to create your own. We spend a ton of effort on our guilds and raids. But the thing is, you’re not putting together an event from scratch. You’d need at most a handful of players to ensure you have a full group. Your raid ought to be strong enough to get through most of the early content. Players on Open Raid are looking at a shot for gear either from you or from their Warforged Seal usage. In most cases, an established guild on Open Raid is far likelier to find success than a pickup group for heroic content.

I put together a Guild event on Open Raid. No sense on relying on the people in guild and hoping that they can show up on time. The reason here was two fold for me:

1. Attract potential players looking for a Heroic raiding guild.
2. Send an indirect message to everyone that we’re still going to raid – with or without you.

Try to put together your event on Open Raid a day or two before the event’s to be held. Figure out how many players you’re going to need at a minimum and add an extra one. It’s also best to determine your roles. My guild operates on a signout system. Anyone who knows they’re unable to show up posts on the forum. For this case, I knew I had at least 5 players who were unable to make the raid (which is almost 20% of my roster). I listed my event as having 5 slots available. I selected Extreme Raid as the type. I ensured Masterloot was specified and mentioned it again in my ad below.

Putting your event together

Here’s the event information I used. Feel free to copy and edit away according to your needs.

UPDATE 1: Approvals will begin sometime after 4:30 PM Pacific. Invites will begin at 5:30 PM Pacific.

Greetings,

Conquest is an Alliance raiding guild currently recruiting players for Warlords of Draenor. But why wait until then to apply? We’re hosting a Heroic Siege of Orgrimmar run today! We’re specifically looking for DPS and healers.

Raid times: Mon, Tues, Thurs 6:00 – 9:00 PM Pacific
Guild website: http://www.cqgaming.com

All available spots will be filled via Open Raid until our roster is completed in order to ensure that our raids continue to be active. Please come prepared with your own flasks and potions. We will supply the food for you. There will be an approximate 5 minute break around 730 PM Pacific.

The raid group will be assembled on a priority basis for guild members, then potential recruits, and for players who are available on Open Raid. Please place your ilevel and experience in your comments as well.

REQUIREMENTS:
* Mumble
* 560+ ilevel
* Meta gem and cloak preferred
* Heroic raiding experience preferred
* Please have RC Loot Council installed

LOOT:
Conquest utilizes loot council to maximize loot effectiveness. Most of our main raiders have what they need, however. The odds are in your favor that there is potentially something you can use (and that’s in addition to the Warforged Seals).

Please contact Matticus if you have any questions regarding the raid or the guild.

After you’re done, just sit back and wait. Double check it for grammar and spelling issues. Like it or not, you’re representing your guild. Put your best foot forward.

If there’s any information you’ve forgotten or any updates you need to make, you can edit your initial post and place it at the top. I’d also recommend leaving a comment.

Most of the basic information can be completed with the event fields. The rest should be used to include any other requirements or special information. In this instance, I asked interested players to get RC Loot Council since it significantly speeds up the looting process. You should specify a time at which your approvals and group invites will be going out.

The elimination process

2 hours before raid start: By this time, you should have a number of players who have indicated their interest in attending your event. We ended up with around 14 players who had signed up. With about an hour or two remaining, start eliminating players who don’t make the cut. Why they’re not eligible is entirely up to you. Maybe their experience level isn’t high enough. Maybe they spelled something in their comment incorrectly.

Whatever.

Your event, your rules.

I outsource this part of the process to my officers. Now we’ll start adding players Battle Tags to our friends lists and approving them in the event.

30 minutes before raid start: Start up your raid group. Invite your raiders.

15 minutes before raid start: Start inviting the players from Open Raid. You might have an overflow group setup. I keep them all in group 6.

Anyone that doesn’t need certain bosses can sit out. Anyone that shows up late, sits out. Once raid starts, it’s time to get the show on the road.

Raid over?

Whew!

Your raid event is over! The first thing to do after loot is taken care of is to thank the Open Raid players for volunteering their time. Remind them that your guild is recruiting and leave it at that. If they want to apply, they will. Request that they leave a rating and a review for you on Open Raid. If you have extra time available, you should do the same for them.

From this, I managed to sign 3 new players to the guild. Way better results compared to using the recruiting forums.

Good luck! Have you used Open Raid before in the past to run your own events? I’d be greatly interested in hearing about your tips in optimizing signups.