In the last few months I have seen a disturbing trend of guilds needing more players on the Ravencrest server. At present this is the guild rankings on Ravencrest:
1. (A)Requiem [ 09/01/2009 ] [B-J-C-V-A] [ 10/27/2009 ]
2. (A)Tide [ 09/02/2009 ] [B-J-C- - ] [ ]
3. (H)Consilio et Armis [ 09/01/2009 ] [B-J- - - ] [ ]
4. (A)Departed [ 09/01/2009 ] [B- - - - ] [ ]
5. (A)Roll for Blame [ 09/07/2009 ] [ - - - - ] [ ]
(A)Reckoning [ 09/08/2009 ] [ - - - - ] [ ]
(A)Ruin [ 09/09/2009 ] [ - - - - ] [ ]
It is almost 2 months since TOC was released but our server has only had 4 guilds down even one boss on the 25 man heroic raid. The 50th ranked US server has 11 guilds that have downed a boss (7 of them on Anub) and the 1st ranked server has 33.
A look at the Ravencrest forums has an even more alarming trend. Look at the recruiting posts from the top 2 guilds:
Requiem -- Looking for Boomkin or Shadowpriest, Hunter, Mage, Rogue, Warlock
Tide -- Looking for DPS/Tank DK, Feral Druid, Holy Pally, DPS warrior, 3-4 Ranged DPS
The entire server only has 4 guilds that can clear content while others have many times that and guilds can't find people to fill their ranks??? How is this possible?
Blizzard has always created their instances so that the optimum way to clear content is to have a good mixture of all classes for obvious reasons. When I was the recruiting officer for Requiem I always used the theory of recruiting a minimum of 3 players in each class and adding a few hybrid/ranged dps to fill out the roster. The goal was 35 active players so we could have attendance of 70% and still be able to field a full raid. I know Requiem has been raiding with about 28 players since 3.2 was released and unless the above situation is addressed there is a real danger of them not being able to raid as attrition will occur (you can expect at least 1-2 players a month to leave a guild due to RL,etc). From the looks of the Tide post it appears that they have the same issue.
Why is this occurring? Here are my possible answers:
School - I know in the past there is a bunch of turnover that occurs when school lets out and when school gets back in session. We should be well past that so I'm pretty sure this isn't the issue.
Reputations - Both Requiem and Tide are known for having high standards and people may be afraid to apply. There may be some truth to this as both guilds have well deserved reputations as tough and I know from past experience that players in Requiem have tendency to be extremely critical of people that don't do things optimally. What many don't realize is the passion most raiders are about game mechanics and their frustration when other don't take the time to understand the fundamentals. I have always wished that some members would be a bit more political in sharing their opinions but what most people don't see is what happens when someone applies to the guild. If you bring an open mind and the willingness to improve, the application process make any player (even a failed app) better. All members take a very proactive stance in helping a trial succeed because without new blood the guild will ultimately fail. Of course it helps if you get to know members before you apply but if an applicant shows they are willing to put in the time and they have a reasonably good understanding of their class, the recruitment process is easy. Still, it is possible that this is why people aren't applying to the guild.
Effort not worth the reward - Raiding is time consuming. If you want to be a raider you can expect to spend (4 hours a night) x (4 nights per week) or 16 non-stop hours a week raiding. This doesn't include any time you would spend on farming, gemming/enchanting/glyphing gear, playing with alts, or running heroics/pvp. A raider can expect to spend at least 25 hours a week on the game. This isn't realistic for a majority of the game population due to other obligations. In Vanilla WoW I remember hitting 60 and having difficulty finding a raiding guild. My main was my paladin and I remember looking at awe at the Lawbringer geared paladins in Ironforge and wanting to do whatever I could to get that armor. These days you can get similar gear by doing a few 5 man TOCs and grinding a few heroics. The bottom line is the 25 hour/week time investment just isn't worth the return anymore.
Server - Ravencrest!!! I have always defended the server but if you have ever tried to run the 5 man Herioc TOC you will find your group made up of 1-2 Deathknights / paladins / warriors and yourself. Occasionally another class will show up but a majority of new players go with these 3 classes because they have the best survivability for leveling/pvp and raiding guilds do not need these classes. The bottom line is the Ravencrest player base is bad and as we continuously lose the few good players to known progression servers our player base slowly gets worse.
I think the combination of a low server player base along with easier loot has put us in the current situation and I don't think the situation is going to improve any time soon. My solution would be for Blizzard to realize that they have 3 types of players: PvP, PvE-Hardcore, and PvE-Casual (RP servers are mainly a joke). When Cataclysm hits and they recreate the whole world they should let everyone transfer to the realm of their choice and make it easy for guilds to transfer as a whole. The path they are on right now seems to me to only lead to more frustration by a player base that can't get good players and an eventual jump to another game where they can start fresh.
1. (A)Requiem [ 09/01/2009 ] [B-J-C-V-A] [ 10/27/2009 ]
2. (A)Tide [ 09/02/2009 ] [B-J-C- - ] [ ]
3. (H)Consilio et Armis [ 09/01/2009 ] [B-J- - - ] [ ]
4. (A)Departed [ 09/01/2009 ] [B- - - - ] [ ]
5. (A)Roll for Blame [ 09/07/2009 ] [ - - - - ] [ ]
(A)Reckoning [ 09/08/2009 ] [ - - - - ] [ ]
(A)Ruin [ 09/09/2009 ] [ - - - - ] [ ]
It is almost 2 months since TOC was released but our server has only had 4 guilds down even one boss on the 25 man heroic raid. The 50th ranked US server has 11 guilds that have downed a boss (7 of them on Anub) and the 1st ranked server has 33.
A look at the Ravencrest forums has an even more alarming trend. Look at the recruiting posts from the top 2 guilds:
Requiem -- Looking for Boomkin or Shadowpriest, Hunter, Mage, Rogue, Warlock
Tide -- Looking for DPS/Tank DK, Feral Druid, Holy Pally, DPS warrior, 3-4 Ranged DPS
The entire server only has 4 guilds that can clear content while others have many times that and guilds can't find people to fill their ranks??? How is this possible?
Blizzard has always created their instances so that the optimum way to clear content is to have a good mixture of all classes for obvious reasons. When I was the recruiting officer for Requiem I always used the theory of recruiting a minimum of 3 players in each class and adding a few hybrid/ranged dps to fill out the roster. The goal was 35 active players so we could have attendance of 70% and still be able to field a full raid. I know Requiem has been raiding with about 28 players since 3.2 was released and unless the above situation is addressed there is a real danger of them not being able to raid as attrition will occur (you can expect at least 1-2 players a month to leave a guild due to RL,etc). From the looks of the Tide post it appears that they have the same issue.
Why is this occurring? Here are my possible answers:
School - I know in the past there is a bunch of turnover that occurs when school lets out and when school gets back in session. We should be well past that so I'm pretty sure this isn't the issue.
Reputations - Both Requiem and Tide are known for having high standards and people may be afraid to apply. There may be some truth to this as both guilds have well deserved reputations as tough and I know from past experience that players in Requiem have tendency to be extremely critical of people that don't do things optimally. What many don't realize is the passion most raiders are about game mechanics and their frustration when other don't take the time to understand the fundamentals. I have always wished that some members would be a bit more political in sharing their opinions but what most people don't see is what happens when someone applies to the guild. If you bring an open mind and the willingness to improve, the application process make any player (even a failed app) better. All members take a very proactive stance in helping a trial succeed because without new blood the guild will ultimately fail. Of course it helps if you get to know members before you apply but if an applicant shows they are willing to put in the time and they have a reasonably good understanding of their class, the recruitment process is easy. Still, it is possible that this is why people aren't applying to the guild.
Effort not worth the reward - Raiding is time consuming. If you want to be a raider you can expect to spend (4 hours a night) x (4 nights per week) or 16 non-stop hours a week raiding. This doesn't include any time you would spend on farming, gemming/enchanting/glyphing gear, playing with alts, or running heroics/pvp. A raider can expect to spend at least 25 hours a week on the game. This isn't realistic for a majority of the game population due to other obligations. In Vanilla WoW I remember hitting 60 and having difficulty finding a raiding guild. My main was my paladin and I remember looking at awe at the Lawbringer geared paladins in Ironforge and wanting to do whatever I could to get that armor. These days you can get similar gear by doing a few 5 man TOCs and grinding a few heroics. The bottom line is the 25 hour/week time investment just isn't worth the return anymore.
Server - Ravencrest!!! I have always defended the server but if you have ever tried to run the 5 man Herioc TOC you will find your group made up of 1-2 Deathknights / paladins / warriors and yourself. Occasionally another class will show up but a majority of new players go with these 3 classes because they have the best survivability for leveling/pvp and raiding guilds do not need these classes. The bottom line is the Ravencrest player base is bad and as we continuously lose the few good players to known progression servers our player base slowly gets worse.
I think the combination of a low server player base along with easier loot has put us in the current situation and I don't think the situation is going to improve any time soon. My solution would be for Blizzard to realize that they have 3 types of players: PvP, PvE-Hardcore, and PvE-Casual (RP servers are mainly a joke). When Cataclysm hits and they recreate the whole world they should let everyone transfer to the realm of their choice and make it easy for guilds to transfer as a whole. The path they are on right now seems to me to only lead to more frustration by a player base that can't get good players and an eventual jump to another game where they can start fresh.
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