[Wesclorck]

The officer corp of my guild is debating whether, in order to make sure there's consistently enough geared and experienced players online for raid, to actively rotate members of various classes into progression raids or to have a strict core and sub in lower rank guildees when there's an absence and recruit when there's a gkick/gquit.

I've found in the past that raid-spot rotations make core raiders concerned about losing their spots and diminishing the raid's effectiveness. Getting gear and experience to the same players as consistently as possible seems like the fastest way to clear new content and keep that core happy. The drawback is subbing in too many will be a blow to the raid. The non-core sub-pool might get frustrated and gquit. We'll have to recruit more frequently and learn the strengths and weaknesses of new people.

Rotations will spread that gear and experience around, so when we sub someone in it won't be as big a shock. There won't be a fixed sub-pool so there won't be that frustration. We'll be able to fill the raids, but our top performers might get frustrated and gquit.

I prefer a more core-approach but I wonder what experiences and advise others might have.

[Silthias]

In my last guild, we had a core approach, with about 27 Raiders, so if we ahd people sign off it was a big problem, as we had to drag someone else iin who did not know the style of the fight or how we work together, and their gear wasn't teh same standard, it was almost the same as pugging them. I personally would advise goign for a mix of both, have 30-32raiders, and then rotate them, it won't involve alot of swapping out so ppl shouldn't worry about their spot too often, and gives flexability.

Regards,

Silthias

[Aughban]

Source: Wesclorck The officer corp of my guild is debating whether, in order to make sure there's consistently enough geared and experienced players online for raid, to actively rotate members of various classes into progression raids or to have a strict core and sub in lower rank guildees when there's an absence and recruit when there's a gkick/gquit. I've found in the past that raid-spot rotations make core raiders concerned about losing their spots and diminishing the raid's effectiveness. Getting gear and experience to the same players as consistently as possible seems like the fastest way to clear new content and keep that core happy. The drawback is subbing in too many will be a blow to the raid. The non-core sub-pool might get frustrated and gquit. We'll have to recruit more frequently and learn the strengths and weaknesses of new people. Rotations will spread that gear and experience around, so when we sub someone in it won't be as big a shock. There won't be a fixed sub-pool so there won't be that frustration. We'll be able to fill the raids, but our top performers might get frustrated and gquit. I prefer a more core-approach but I wonder what experiences and advise others might have.

In my guild they are currently using a fixedish pool of healers and tanks, however there is usually a 2-3 overlap with DPS however we do take core raiders first and trails second but the leaders actively try to trail trails so they can be promoted up to a backup raider (trail -> Backup Raider -> Raider).

[rustyboy]

I think you always need to have a core pool of raiders in your main group for progression and once something is on farm and the core raiders don't need drops you then start subbing in other members for those encounters. So a full clear of BT for example you might have up to 30 or so people actually raid that night and you sub when you need.

[Clifford]

I believe that a core group of raiders (approx 32) is the best approach. This gives you class flexibility and allows people to take time off. The only risk with this approach is if attendance drops for whatever reason (eg summer holidays) then you will struggle to raid.

[bosephus]

I think this depends on what content you're raiding, as said above. If it's progression for the guild, then you want your top raiders in there. If it's content that you've already cleared and are comfortable with as a guild, then get a rotation in.

With summer coming up and other games sprouting, people will unpredictably drop out of this game. It's better to have people within the guild that you can call on if one of your regular raiders needs an absence for some reason. And to get those people geared and experienced, you've got to be recruiting frequently and using a rotation to get them into play.

I've been in two guilds where we had about 30 raiders. I found that it wasn't enough because we would frequently be sitting at 22-23 people trying to find someone to pug in. In addition to not knowing the fights (often times it would be his or her first time in the instance), there would always be difficulties with determining how to allocate loot to pug'gers not on the DKP system.

The guild I'm in now always keeps recruitment open and gives priority for raid slots to those who sign up first on the guild website and then the officers consider rotation to ensure new people get some experience as well as keeping enough veterans satisfied. This approach puts more responsibility on the officers to continue aggressive and selective recruitment, but we're never waiting on additional raiders to come online or hurting when somebody has to leave early or somebody disconnects. Substitutions that know what's going on can be found within minutes and the raid can keep rolling.