What does it take to be a Raid Leader!

[Manginae]

Thanks for this guide, mate. This made me think a lot about trying to become a raid leader and I will do my best to succeed.

This is why I decided to make a thread which showed what it takes to be a Raid Leader. I hope you do well!

[mangaart1st]

Awesome post, I have been RL in two different guilds in the past 3 years one progression based was 4th on server back in Ulduar right up until some guild drama, and my current one which is more casual and tries to be inclusive to those that are interested in raiding. Couple things I would like to add from my own personal experiences.

Patience is a truly a Virtue: I have found one of the most important things to a Raid Leader is an to have an abundance of patience. As in every raid in every guild in every mmo, things are going to go wrong. Your raiders are going to make mistakes, there will be wipes, there will be case of under performing or clearly not performing. If you cant show patience in these events why would your raid have patience in you leading them. You are very much the customer of your raid, as much as the leader. You have to earn the right to lead people and their willingness to trust you and follow your decisions. Being patient and setting the example for patience will allow for a better all around attitude and outlook within your raid.

Treat People like they are People: It's often very easy as a raid leader to get caught up in the numbers involved with working to complete an encounter. We are going to need this much DPS, this many healers doing X amount of healing ect. It's often that we forget that these "numbers" are actually people that have life outside of wow. They have jobs, family and friends ect that may prevent them from doing all the research into their class that others do themselves. Understand your trying to convince people to follow you into these often complicated encounters that may take a good amount of their time to complete that they could otherwise spend elsewhere. I often wonder how it is that I can convince all my raiders to 6 nights a week listen to my advice, follow my directions and spend their free time based on my ability to lead them alone.
Most of this is from treating everyone equally. We all do our part, no one ever is seen as not contributing to the success of the group so long as they were online and played to the best of their ability. I always address mishaps or wipes as the need for improvement by the team, ALL OF US including myself. I have never seen a raid with 9/24 absolutely perfect players who never need to improve and one really poor one. Treat your raiders like they are all equals no better or worse then the raider standing/lying next to them and you will build a stronger relationship within your raid.

I really enjoyed this post and have applied a lot of what has been said to my own raiding style. I hope this truly does encourage and inspire those to take up the task of raid leading. We can never have to many awesome raid leads in WoW.

[Manginae]

Awesome post, I have been RL in two different guilds in the past 3 years one progression based was 4th on server back in Ulduar right up until some guild drama, and my current one which is more casual and tries to be inclusive to those that are interested in raiding. Couple things I would like to add from my own personal experiences.

Patience is a truly a Virtue: I have found one of the most important things to a Raid Leader is an to have an abundance of patience. As in every raid in every guild in every mmo, things are going to go wrong. Your raiders are going to make mistakes, there will be wipes, there will be case of under performing or clearly not performing. If you cant show patience in these events why would your raid have patience in you leading them. You are very much the customer of your raid, as much as the leader. You have to earn the right to lead people and their willingness to trust you and follow your decisions. Being patient and setting the example for patience will allow for a better all around attitude and outlook within your raid.

Treat People like they are People: It's often very easy as a raid leader to get caught up in the numbers involved with working to complete an encounter. We are going to need this much DPS, this many healers doing X amount of healing ect. It's often that we forget that these "numbers" are actually people that have life outside of wow. They have jobs, family and friends ect that may prevent them from doing all the research into their class that others do themselves. Understand your trying to convince people to follow you into these often complicated encounters that may take a good amount of their time to complete that they could otherwise spend elsewhere. I often wonder how it is that I can convince all my raiders to 6 nights a week listen to my advice, follow my directions and spend their free time based on my ability to lead them alone.
Most of this is from treating everyone equally. We all do our part, no one ever is seen as not contributing to the success of the group so long as they were online and played to the best of their ability. I always address mishaps or wipes as the need for improvement by the team, ALL OF US including myself. I have never seen a raid with 9/24 absolutely perfect players who never need to improve and one really poor one. Treat your raiders like they are all equals no better or worse then the raider standing/lying next to them and you will build a stronger relationship within your raid.

I really enjoyed this post and have applied a lot of what has been said to my own raiding style. I hope this truly does encourage and inspire those to take up the task of raid leading. We can never have to many awesome raid leads in WoW.

Thanks, went under how should i conduct

[Banterloft]

Amazing and helpful post. So...

>>>Bump<<<

[[Drama]-Messina]

I really like this thread, the contribution from different players, and try to make a guide for raid leading is awesome.
I read the entire topic, and I must say you got a lot of things right. Don't know if Tankspot do this, but this is IMHO; worth a sticky? =)

[Daduke77]

Great guide, thank you. I am taking my first job as raid lead this week, and will def make use of your suggestions. One question for you all...how stuck on strategies are you? I realize that there are different stratagies for different raid comps, and skill levels. If we wipe continually on a boss, should I be willing to listen to suggestions from team members? Does this undermine confidence in my leadership, because it seems I don't know what to do? Or does it show my flexibilty, and willingness to adapt as needed.

I'm really looking forward to Wednesday night. It's gonna be fun!!!

[Manginae]

Well, personally i would learn all of your guilds str's and weakness's and then go accordingly. You should listen to suggestions. But give your plan at least 3 shots.

If you take up a suggestion, then know why you are doing it, and then thank the person over vent.

I would go with adaptations, based on how much dps you have, heals, and tanks. And how geared they are.

I hope you do well!!!

Glad you liked the guide.

[Manginae]

Bump since it was getting far down

Anyone have anything to add?

[Blacksen]

http://www.blacksen.com

I've been writing articles about effective raid leadership for a while. While I think the first article is really good, it's also very vague and doesn't offer many specifics or niche comments on raiding.

[Manginae]

Bump