help me convert from casual to raiding plz :)

[Trork]

Hi guys,

I am an officer/raid leader of a "casual" guild, we do raid sometimes but its like 4 times a month we actually raid (10 man) as a whole guild, and I want to change that; I want us to be raiding 25 man content and have been trying to make this happen for a while now. It seems that I almost try on my own, the GM (IRL friend of mine) doesnt do much about the guild, I run the site, make the raids, etc. He has annother IRL friend/co-worker that handles the recruiting. We have around 1-15 ppl on at the same time on average, but we lack heals and tanks (I am tank and GM is a healer).... anyhow, our website is tragedy.wowstead.com if you want to check it out. Please give me some tips on how to make us a raiding guild, cause I am sure most of our guild members want this as well.

here is our guild roaster in wow-heroes.

[Reev]

Well, it can be difficult to make the jump into 25 man raiding because attendance is usually poor when people think a scheduled run isn't likely to have enough people. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I've found that the best cure for this is to make sure that you are raiding consistently. The easiest way to do this in a guild who doesn't have attendance is to team up with another guild in a similar predicament. You may have to try a couple different guilds before you find one that meshes with your guild's personality, but once you start getting 25 mans happening regularly, people will be more likely to log in. It also makes recruiting easier. The other advantage to running with another guild is that they likely already have a reasonable set of tanks/healers that you can draw on.

I've found that without a sudden massive infusion of new players in a guild which is struggling with attendance issues, usually the war of attrition wins. You may recruit a couple people, but then a couple people leave the guild, or start a new job and can't log on, or quit the game, or start a project overseas or whatever. It ends up being a revolving door with no real gains or losses. Getting a big infusion of new blood, whether it's just in joint runs between separate guild, or whether it's being absorbed or absorbing another guild, stimulates the guild. It gets people motivated again. On top of that, once you have a reputation for being a 25 man guild, and you start downing bosses, more people start to apply, and it becomes a lot easier to maintain that attendance.

That's advice based on my own guild, which has gone through any number of difficult phases, but always come back stronger than ever.

[Penlowe]

Not to disagree with Reev, his statements are sound but the heart of the issue is here:

I am an officer/raid leader of a "casual" guild... I want us to be raiding 25 man content

Your personal wants are not in line with your GM's or anyone elses' in your guild. This doesn't mean you can't still be friends, still be the raid leader or anything else drama inducing.
I suggest digging up info on the Small Guild Alliance, it exists on a dozen or so servers, maybe even yours. It was founded on Perenolde by people like you, they loved their guild but wanted to see more, SGA allows for that. Bonus: you can do SGA 25 & guild 10

[Trork]

Not to disagree with Reev, his statements are sound but the heart of the issue is here:

Your personal wants are not in line with your GM's or anyone elses' in your guild. This doesn't mean you can't still be friends, still be the raid leader or anything else drama inducing.
I suggest digging up info on the Small Guild Alliance, it exists on a dozen or so servers, maybe even yours. It was founded on Perenolde by people like you, they loved their guild but wanted to see more, SGA allows for that. Bonus: you can do SGA 25 & guild 10

Have been discussing with other officers/GM a little bit over the forums, they all want the same, not to be hard core raiders, but still wants to see content etc like I do. Since I work alot (around 10-12 hours a day mon-fri) I don't have much time to search for guilds to merge into ours, but will deffinatelly do it on the weekends.

This Small Guild Alliance, will look into it, and it does seem like a good idea too

[Synapse]

People still try to draw a line between what hardcore and casual is. Just play on the schedule you have, and be consistent. If people are coming on alts or bitching about flasks, they're being dumb. Raiding takes: a couple days a week, some gold for repair bills, flasks and buff food and an interest on coordination greater than that of a stroking lemming. Consistency and Coordination are the keys.

[Pimealukko]

I'm an Officer in my guild and the things I always discuss with our GM come down to two factors... one is a foundation for the GM/Officers and the other is the rest of the guild.

1. As a GM/Officers, you need to be consistent. Layout what you expect to see for raids and detail all the rules therein. Maintain those rules/raid nights as best you can.

2. For the rest of the guild, you need to show them what you want out of the guild ... the rest is up to them. If you want 2 nights a week and people show up one night a week, you need to re-think recruitment to make your goals come true. If people are complaining about flasks, food and why they need them, start to slowly replace them with people who want to use flasks/food etc. etc. etc.

You can't force people into doing what you want, but you can show them what you want to do and then let them make their own decisions on whether they want to be apart of that. If they don't, you need to realize that you can't let someone put their goals ahead of the guilds.

[Trork]

I hve now changed some stuff in the guild, recruited more people, taking geared people into raids, and people that dont mind wiping a few times, having consumables etc. we downed last week lord marrowgar and got achievement boned (as servers number 8 guild to get that achievement) and now we are getting lots of people into the guild. Thanks for all the suggestions and help guys Tonight we down lady deathwhisper, hopefully ^.^