Comments on: Building a better Raid Leader

By: Ron

Ron — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 03:13:47 +0000

Interesting thought. I know we don’t see eye to eye, but I felt my input on this subject was worth mentioning.

All personal issues aside, in the 5+ years I played WoW you were by far the best raid leader I ran with. I’d even go as far to say that I miss breaking down raid success/failures with you.

You weren’t perfect by any measure. You didn’t understand every aspect of a raid and you were overly cocky, but you knew when to delegate duties/assignments you didn’t understand and you used your cockiness to motivate rather than to express disappointment. There were usually composition issues (by choice) in raids you organized, but I think that was mostly due to a feeling that there was a lack of skill in the raid rather than poor insight on your part. You had problems dropping the hammer when it needed to be, but you also had to deal with managing a lot of sensitive people and different personalities.

The only negative you did not counter with a positive was raid preparation. Researching progression boss fights for 10-15 minutes during a raid really killed the mood. Hopefully that is corrected by now.

Big picture, I think you handle raid leading very well. If I had a choice to appoint anyone I knew in to that role, it would be you.

By: Mach

Mach — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 20:04:34 +0000

I’ll have you know I have 13 posts started …finishing them is another story though

By: theerivs

theerivs — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:50:14 +0000

What is this patience you speak of? Great post Mach, I can’t to see what the next post is in 3 months

By: kyrilean

kyrilean — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 12:55:51 +0000

I’d also like to point out that although these traits are good in a general sense for every type of guild, there are varying levels of appropriateness depending on the type of guild you are in.

For example, patience might entail explaining the same item to someone 15 times in a casual guild. In a hardcore guild, it is most likely appropriate to only have to explain it once.

By: Krikket

Krikket — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 04:47:06 +0000

One thing I want to add to this list that’s key for a good raid leader is approachability. Many times, raid members are not comfortable piping in DURING a raid with alternate strats or with specific issues that do not affect the entire raid. In fact, it’s often not in the best interest of getting things done to be open to everyone’s suggestions & concerns while cat herding (see #3 on your list).

However, I think the most effective raid leaders are ones who are approachable outside of normal raid times. I don’t think that necessarily means that a raid leader should have to deal with every quirk of personality or try to rearrange to universe to accommodate every raid member, but I think it makes people feel more like a member of a team (rather than just an entry level worker bee) if they feel like their voice is heard.

I don’t think no matter how much we play, or how many classes & specs we’ve run, that any one person knows every quirk of every spec at every moment. For a silly personal example that we’ve already seen come up: blowing back Blood Beasts on Saurfang. An elemental shaman can do it about 50% of the time (due to a 45 second cooldown on our knockback) where a boomkin can do it 100% of the time – assuming they’re talented for it, as their cooldown is much shorter. Do I expect EVERY raid leader to know that? Absolutely not. But a good raid leader hears the elemental shaman in re: to the cooldown, and doesn’t constantly ride that person for not knocking back every wave.

I’m maybe mangling this (I’m tired, it’s late!), but I know that personally – I want to feel like I can go to my raid leader on an off night and say “I have some thoughts about what we’re working on in progression – do you have a few minutes” and feel like I’m being heard, even if I never see my thoughts implemented.

(Disclaimer: I think you absolutely have this down. I just also think it should be on your list.)