As a shadow priest, you have a decent amount of control, you’re reasonably hardy, but you do not have many methods of saving your partner in a pinch.  That means, in a team with two damage classes, you want to get either a frost mage or a rogue for a partner.

If you’re keen on the security of running with a healer, be prepared for some long games.  You’re a very survivable class, and you can live easily enough if your healer gets CCed (crowd controlled via a silence, stun, polymorph, or the like).  That said, you can and should dispel your partner whenever able.  This is doubly important if she is your means of survival.

Arenas are About  Opportunity

At the most basic, you’re trying to live for long enough to see an opening, and take it.  A Druid’s partner with no HoT (Heal over time) effects on him is an opening.  A player with his death knight partner three quarters of the map away is an opening.  A paladin who just activated divine plea is an opening (you dispel it and kill him, fyi).  Learning to recognize these openings will allow you to gain wins.

The warrior finishes his bladestorm and your health is low. You jump off the bridge of the Nagrand Arena as you cast a Power Word: Shield and book it toward a column.   His paladin healer is halfway across the bridge, inches from your rogue.  Bad move.  Your rogue gets a blind on the paladin, and your flight from the warrior brings you even farther away.   While running you’ve been applying DoTs.  Vampiric Embrace has refilled much of your health, and you turn and fear.   The warrior breaks this, but not before you’ve disarmed him.   Too late, he realizes his health is low and he’ll be unable to put up his Shield Wall without weapons.  A Mind Blast followed by a Mind Flay finishes the job.

Arenas are FAST

Not only do you have to see openings, you need to act on them with ninja speed.  Keybind any ability you imagine you will ever use.  Now unbind your backwards button.  Walking backwards is aways too slow.  Change your turn-left/turn-right buttons to strafe left/right.  Know what spells can be cast while facing away from an opponent or while he’s trying to stay behind you (Vampiric Touch, Shadow Word: Pain, Devouring Plague) and the ones you’ll need to get some distance to cast (Mind Blast, Mana Burn).  Think fast, play faster.

The paladin charges as you discuss with your partner who to kill.  You place your focus macro on the healer, cast a DoT on the incoming paladin, then find yourself silenced. Puzzled, you slowly back away from the paladin before realizing you’re dazed.  Too late, you conclude the paladin is protection specialized.   He follows his initial attack with a judgment, hammer combo that gets you dangerously low on health.  You try to apply your shield, but the paladin uses his Hammer of Justice and you’re stunned.  You pop dispersion, hoping to live through the stun.  The paladin pops his wings and burns you right through the 90% damage reduction.  You should have been more prepared.

Look for Patterns and Outplay them

If the enemy team answers your fear, damage, silence, kill attempt with a quick CC and some line of sighting, repeat the attempt but swap to the other target (the line of sighting should work against the healer this time).  Figure out how your enemies are playing, and try to counter their patterns.  Related: break your own patterns.  Playing an effective style is good, but don’t let your opponents counter you too easily.

You’ve been running circles around pillars with this resto shaman and his warlock partner for what feels like forever.   The warlock keeps trying to burst you to death, but your frost mage partner is keeping him pretty well locked down.   You notice the shaman is being very careful to stay behind the pillars, but his warlock is staying close to him, careful to stay in healing range.  You stop using your fear and wait for all of your cool downs to become available.  They’re playing tight together; you pop your AoE fear and both of them are sent running.   You Mana Burn the last of the shaman’s resources and place a DoT on each of them.  Disarming the shaman after the fear, you kill his mana tide totem.   Without mana, he cannot support the heals on his partner and himself.   You kill the shaman quickly, and the warlock leaves.

Know Your Partner

Duel your partner.  Duel them fifty times.  Hell, duel them a hundred and fifty times.  The point is, you should know each others strengths and each others weaknesses.  If you know your rogue partner dies quickly if disarmed, you’ll be watching for that in a match to help her out.  If your frost mage partner can’t stand being offensively dispelled, you’ll know to look for that.  The best way to up your PvP game is to duel each other and ask questions.  Duel while on a voice chat program together, if possible.

“Damn. You schooled me. How did you kill me through dispersion? Really? That does a lot of burst, eh? Can we try that again, but I’ll use my fear earlier this time?”

Communicate!

This feels basic, but it is fantastically complex.  Good 2v2 teams strike a balance between communicating ever nuance and being unable to hear each other.  At its simplest, you should both know who you’re targeting, what CC abilities to use when, and when big cool downs are used on either team.  Vent, Team-speak, the in-game voice chat program, skype, or some form of verbal communication is a MUST.  You both should talk, and you shouldn’t have to press a button to do so.  Most voice programs will let you do this, and you should explore features to make it easy for you to talk when you need to.  If you can’t read your partner’s mind yet, at least be talking!

“Who are we on?”

We’ll open on the druid, and hard switch once hits HoTs fall off.   Use your silence then and I’ll sheep the warrior.   If he’s not dead by then, I should be able to finish him with a counterspell.”

Great! Call out if you get CCed and when you’re using your trinket.”

Master all of these things, and you’ll have yourself a killer 2v2 team.   Encourage your partner to do the same, and you’ll start gaining some serious points.  Don’t get discouraged if it takes a little bit of time to start making serious gains.  If this is a new skill set for you, you’re going to be changing some habits.

If you feel like I’ve left something out, or you have a question or comment about a particular match-up, feel free to leave a comment here or email me.   Next week we’ll be talking about gear choices, talents, and keybindings!   Until then, go rack up some arena points.

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2010. | Permalink | No comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 2v2, Arena, dueling, duels, how to, PvP, shadow priests, spriest, World of Warcraft, WoW

Protective, shimmering radiance fills the air as you crouch, watching the spot the dagger-wielding rogue disappeared.  A Fear Ward is active, but your feet are numb.  You pace, reviewing your plan of action as you renew your shield. Suddenly the rogue is upon you, stunning you in place and crippling your movements.  This was expected, you reassure yourself whilst spamming the Psychic Scream button.  With only 60% of your health remaining a momentary break in the stun-lock lets you send the rogue running.  As you run the other direction to create distance, you apply Shadow Word: Pain and Devouring Plague.  You turn to Mind Flay him, but he wraps himself in a cloak of shadows and vanishes.  Typical.

Round two will begin soon, but you know you’ve taken care of the hard part.  You’ve lived, and that’s often enough.  A quick Prayer of Mending and a Renew will top your health back up; this isn’t the first time you’ve been grateful for your healing powers!  Before you can return to Shadowform, the rogue has opened up again.  Knowing that without a 15% damage reduction you’re a softer target, you disperse into a cloud of effervescent mist.  Once safely taking almost no damage as the rogue continues to stun, you retake Shadowform.  He’s triggered your Prayer of Mending, so this assault has actually returned vitality to you.  All is going according to plan.

You cancel your Dispersion and fear the rogue.  Once again, you run the other way, but this time, you turn around and blast him with Psychic Horror.  The rogue drops his daggers and cowers in terror.  You apply all of your damage over time effects, knowing even if he returns to the shadows such effects with finish him off.  Unleashing your Shadowfiend for extra damage, the ethereal demon transports itself the 20 yards to the rogue.  Whether too distracted to notice the fiend, or too concerned with the damage you’re now dealing to him, the rogue closes the distance to you and attempts another stun lock.  You accept this, knowing your DoTs are killing him while they heal you.  Too late, he notices the Shadowfiend.

As stuns hit diminished returns and you find sweet freedom.  You reapply DoTs and hit solidly with a Mind Blast.  Appropriately, you kill the rogue with a Shadow Word: Death.

This is dueling.  This is Shadow Priest PvP, Part 1.

Strategies vary by opponent, but the basic toolbox of your abilities stay the same. You should keep your Power Word: Shield up at all times, and spend as much of the fight in Shadowform as possible. You have a few very strong CC (Crowd Control) abilities: silence, fear (in the form of Psychic Scream), a cower/disarm effect (Psychic Horror), and Shackle Undead. As much as possible, these abilities should be used offensively. It is also quite possible for you to “reset” a duel by healing yourself to full and using Dispersion or Hymn of Hope to regain all of your mana. This is not an ability every class has, so if you manage to control a class for a few moments, get some distance, heal up, and not be too low on mana, usually this spells a win.

A few duels aren’t very difficult, others take some time to master.

Against Hunters, you first need to know if your opponent is Beast Mastery. This should be obvious by their exotic pet (spirit beasts, giant lava gos, that sort of thing). If they are, get your DoTs up on them and stay in their melee range. This prevents them from using some of their best attacks, and gives you the perfect opportunity to fear both them and their pet. You should do this every time fear is off cooldown. If he uses Beastial Wrath, use your disarm/cower to survive, or pop Dispersion with your DoTs up on him. This keeps you healed, and means he’s wasted a cooldown. Disarming him before going for a kill also helps, as he will be unable to use Deterrence.

Duels against Marksmen or Survival Hunters are similar, but you want to make strong use of your silence. Silencing a hunter prevents them from trapping you. Always trinket if he’s going to blow you up, and remember your disarm prevents him from using most of his damage. Use it.

Against Balance Druids, Dispel is your best friend. Dispel the Moonfire and Swarm they put on you, and dispel the Barkskin and HoTs (Heals, over Time) they use on themselves. Fear will ruin their Treants, so use it when they throw them at you. Burst them really hard, and you win. Let them burst you, and you lose. Silence and Psychic Horror should give you the edge.

Restoration Druids are at once easy and hard. If you have your DoTs up and they’re behind on HoTs, fear and then Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Silence, Shadow Word: Death should finish them. The trick is getting them to this place. Try to save your Shadowfiend for moments where you’ll need to make them fight for health, and constantly Dispel them. When you do pop the fiend, be ready to dispel Roots off him.

Feral Druids can rip you apart, and they’ll rage out of your fears. That’s okay, turning around and facing them pretty seriously ruins their damage potential. Abolish Disease is your friend, so keep it active. This is one of the few fights where Psychic Horror should be used defensively. It will not disarm the Druid (they fight with claws, after all) but it will CC them for 3 seconds. Use this to DoT, kite (read, run away) and Mind Flay them as they chase after you. They have an instant cast cyclone that will create trouble. Don’t forget to dispel HoTs, and when you’re going for a kill Silence them (even in cat form).

Against a Holy Paladin, dispel their Sacred Shield and keep your DoTs up. Try to silence them if they get low and go for the kill. Remember, if they get one heal off, they almost reset the match, so you may have to out last their considerable mana pools.

Against Retribution Paladins, silence them early. Most of their damage is holy, so while a disarm helps a little, your silence is your best tool. They can kill you through Dispersion if they pop Avenging Wrath (you’ll notice the wings), so pop it early if you need it. If you keep their damage low and yours high, you’ll win. If they bubble, Mass Dispel it if they’re going for a heal-to-full. If they’re running around, just keep yourself alive and kill them in 12 seconds. Protection Paladin duels are similar, but they’ll have more burst damage and less sustained damage. Survive the burst and you win.

Shaman duels can be long, but the same basic rules apply. Keep your DoTs up, and silence as soon as the grounding totem is used. Against an Enhancement Shaman, if you fear him and his wolves you win. Save your fear for that moment, and just as he trinkets/the fear ends, disarm him. Elemental Shamans have a lot of burst damage, so if you can Line of Sight them, do it. Try to do most of your casting (Vampiric Touch and Mind Blast) while he’s silence so he cannot interrupt you. Against a Resto Shaman you may need to kill some totems. Your wand triggers a global cooldown, so its best to get close and swing at it with a dagger, than be in range for a fear. That, followed by or right after a Psychic Horror, should spell a win.

Against a Warlock, you always want to try and fear the pet at the same time as the Warlock. Doing this early in the match can spell an easy win. Pet management is also a skill not a lot of Warlocks have. If the pet is simply on aggressive, you can pop your Shadowfiend when going for a kill and fade the pet onto your fiend. This doesn’t always work, but when it does it feels great. Dispel Shadow Ward off him, and anything off yourself other than Unstable Affliction (if he’s an Unstable Affliction Warlock). If you have a Warlock low, don’t be afraid to run away, Disperse, or just Line of Sight him and let your DoTs do the dirty work. Silence is your friend. If the warlock is Destruction, always dispel his Nether Protection asap!

Against any Warrior, make good use of your DoTs and keep your shield up. Fear is good, although he’ll break it right away. That still forces him to turn around and run for a second, and often that’s all you need to get out of a stunlock. You can disarm his Bladestorm, or you can use disarm to prevent him from using Shield Wall. Either is a strong choice.

Against a Discipline Priest, you need to fight the fear/dispel war. Your fear has a shorter cooldown, so this is very winnable. Don’t fear into his fear ward, dispel it first. Dispel everything off him, and save your cower effect and silence for when he’s low on health and without many buffs. If it turns into a mana burn war, he will win. If the other priest goes for that, try to put in some significant damage. If he’s too cocky, you win. If he goes defensive, go back to dispelling.

Rogue fights often look like what I described above. The key is, you can reset the fight, but his Cloak of Shadows can do that too. You need to live until after he’s cloaked. Don’t waste your disarm before that. DoTs and defensive play will win you this fight.

Fights against Mages are easy, unless the Mage is Frost (which they all are). Practice and get good at Shadow Word: Deathing a Polymorph. Get DoTs up on him easy, and dispel him and yourself. Pop your Shadowfiend, and don’t be afraid to dispel it as well. Silence him when going for the kill, and Mass Dispel his Iceblock and burst him down. Devouring Plague’s upfront damage is your friend, and you’ll chase him a lot and you’ll need damage while moving. Save Shadow Word: Death for the Polymorphs.

The final duel you will commonly encounter is against an Unholy Death Knight. Dueling a Frost DK looks a lot like fighting a Retribution Paladin, and Blood Death Knights are Warrior versions of us. Either fights aren’t too bad so long as we keep Abolish Disease active and silence/fear/disarm them. Unholy Death Knights are a different story.

Here’s why: Unholy Death Knights talent into a permanent pet and a way to make their diseases un-abolish-able. Anti-Magic Shell, if timed right, will also ruin our damage and absorb a poorly timed CC ability. I try for a very easy silence, and then apply all of my DoTs. While silenced, the DK will try to CC you with the ghoul. Eat that, and be ready to fear them out of the silence. During this time you should have abolish disease up. The immune to abolish effect requires  that they be death coiling you, so your silence just bought you some time. Just like a Warrior, they’ll break the fear right away (although unlike a warrior, they turn undead. You could try a shackle, and it will win you the match if it works, but usually its too risky). Psychic Horror the Death Knight before he can get his Anti-Magic Shell up. If you manage this play perfectly, burst him down and tell your friends all about it. If you do not, you’re in for a long game of kiting, Line of Sighting the Gargoyle he’s going to pop out, healing to reset (which he can do too) and dispersing with DoTs up on him. Don’t be afraid to get him low, throw up DoTs, and Disperse. This is a challenging fight.

And this, my friends, is how you duel on your priest. Do a lot of it, as its one of the best ways to get good at PvP. You’ll notice I’ve excluded duels against shadow priests. To this I reply: bring it.

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Calsong, dueling, Mind Spike, PvP, shadow priests, World of Warcraft

I’m going to start with quoting three bullets from last week, explain them even more vigorously, and then finally explore the areas where there should be rules.

1. Make sure all members are familiar with the rules.

Unfortunately, this is much harder than it sounds. You (and your officers) will often parrot people your rules, until up to a point your members are so familiar with them, they will start warning each other i.e. “Dude, we don’t do that.”

You have to make sure that the posts that explain your rules are simple, visible and accessible. Try to have a link at your rules on the front page. To give you an example from GamerOfSorts: Had your website a familiar layout, make sure to have a link to rules next to “Home/About/Guides” etc.

Take care of your presentation. Divide the text with logical breaks;

• Social Rules,
• Loot Rules,
• Raid Rules,

and so forth. Bold the important parts. Italicize the kinky emphasize. Use Bold & Underline for key sections.

Read your rules over and over, and cut down unnecessary information. Don’t bother giving out examples (have a thread for rules questions instead). Keep the word count down.

Be firm. “We ask of our members to respectfully agree with the loot rules, and should they find themselves in a position where they personally think are wronged with the loot cousnsnsns zzzz…” NO: “Respect the loot counsel’s decisions. Disagreements should be posted on X forums.” Short and effective. Your members shouldn’t have to bear through a poor attempt at 15th Century English Literature to read what they’re supposed to do.

Repeat your rules and your members privileges at every opportunity. If your raid provides free mats for enchants, repeat it after each raid. If your guild policies that members should be at the raid doors before 15 minutes, repeat it 30 minutes before the raid. Assume the best of everyone, and everyone can honestly mistake or forget. Your job is to make sure they’ll forget the less and less.

2. Don’t be afraid to enforce your rules. There should be a good reason to have a rule. If you don’t even care about enforcing a certain rule, it shouldn’t be a rule at all.

When you’re making your rules, start from the basics and forget about everything your guilds had previously. Do not make rules that are there because you had them in every other guild you were a part of.

You have to be just when enforcing your rules. A non-enjoyable part of being a Guild Leader is being the Officer of the Officers. Officers have a tendency to bend the rules to their interpretations. For example, you guild may offer mats for enchants, but only for main chars. Your officers, with access to the guild bank (presumably) may think it’s OK for them to take the mats for their alts as a reward for their hard work -you have to step up and say “No”.

There may or may not be incentives and/or rewards for Officer ranks and above. If so, make sure your members know the limit of these rewards. If not, make sure your officers know about that before they step up.

If there are clear cut rules that you’ve presented to your members and they’ve agreed upon them, you can get away with pretty much anything. There are quite a few guilds who are solely made to support the Guild Master, and that explicitly remarks the Guild Master gets the pet/mount/fluff items that drop. Is that a selfish way to play the game? Maybe. But at least the guy is open with his interests and asks for people who have no qualms about it. However, if you illusion your members into equality and fail to provide it, deliberately or not, you’ll face the wrath of your members soon enough.

3. Don’t change them at all in the early stages. Plan ahead to have sensible rules in place, listen to your first recruits’ input on rules, but keep them as they are. It’s better to stick to something and try it out then try to be flexible and have no stones set up.

I’ve explained this bit last week, but let’s open it up. Rule changes are funny little things. They come in two fashions:

• De facto changes within the guild that reflects how the previous rule’s become obsolete.
• Drastic measures taken by the Officers to cut down certain actions.

The rule changes that come from the bottom, from your members, should belong to the first group. An example would be: Your guild used to raid Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Sundays. Suddenly, you have a shortage of people on sundays. You make a public poll, and see that Thursday would be a better option. You then change the rules accordingly.

For the second example, say your guild has a rule to use flasks in progress raids. Several people slack about it, despite the measures you’ve taken. You introduce a rule to kick these people from the raid after second warning, downrank the raid (A Cataclysm feature -hint hint!) and continue the raid with 2 x 10M groups. In this example, you didn’t really change the rules in fact, but the penalty is now more punishing.

In both cases, rule changes should reflect the liquid manifestation and needs of your guild. They should also serve a specific purpose. Don’t make rules just for the sake of it: “From now on, members will pay 1k gold to guild bank each week, just in case we’ll need the guild in the future” = WTF /gquit.

Remember: If you need a rule, enforce it. If you don’t need a rule, delete it.

Closing up, here’s a nice template to give you an idea/inspire you with your rules structure:

Social Rules

• Guild-chat conduct
• Ventrilo Conduct
• Member-to-Member disputes (Outside of Gchat or Ventrilo facilities)
• Exercise of Social Rules and possible punishments

Raid Rules

• Raid days and times
• Gear / Gem / Spec / Enchant / Consumable requirements
• Informative requirements (Watching the fights, reading tactics)
• Raid chat / Ventrilo Raid channel restrictions
• AFK / Raid break rules

Loot Rules (DKP)

• Amount of DKP earned per hour / boss kill / first boss kill / start of raid-end of raid
• Minus DKP rules for punishments
• Starting bid / Overbid / Off-spec Bid rules

Loot Rules (Loot Council)

• Introduction of Council
• Loot priorities if applicable
• Loot criteria like:
• Upgrade value
• Performance
• Activity
• Outside-of-raid helps
• Solving Loot Disputes / Reporting Loot council misbehavior complaints

Officer Rules

• Officer jurisdictions and extends of power
• Loot Council Head: Responsible for ultimate decisions in LC.
• Banker: Responsible for Guild Bank management.
• Class Officer: Responsible for Recruitment and performance of its class
• Tank/Healing/DPS Officer: Responsible for Recruitment and performance of its role
• Raid Leader: Responsible for herding sheeps.
• Guild Leader: Responsible for herding sheeps that herd sheeps.
• Daily/Weekly/Monthly meetings and/or reports
• Rewards/Incentives to Officers if applicable

Miscellaneous

• Guild members’ conduct in Trade Chat/Realm Forums/Realm PuGs
• Unofficial raids policies (Alt Raids, Previous Content Raids)
• Guild bank donations
• Guild bank benefits
• Monetary (Gold) rewards and prizes
• Other niche rules

Join me next week when I explain the art of charming best players in your realm to be your personal slaves great assets to your guild!

~DKS

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2010. | Permalink | No comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: changing guild rules, DKS, dps meter, Guest Posts, guild leadership, guild rules, Guilds, starting a guild, World of Warcraft

Being that I have shiny keys syndrome… I get distracted easily. I have stopped playing WoW and have been playing other games and writing about them. With such a major change I feel as though I have disappointed or lost a few readers. Understandably of course. So I am looking for a WoW blogger to keep up the interest. Let me get into more of the details.

I’m looking for:

A class oriented poster. Alts can be fun, and I myself have posted about my alts every so often, but I need a focused blogger. I would prefer a Shadow Priest since that was what I posted and focused on. I am open to other classes though.

A blogger that will post at least once a week. I don’t expect a post a day, or even two a week. I do, however, expect you to post and keep active. That can be one big post or a bunch of little posts throughout the week.

A blogger that will be consistent. I want to be able to rely on you to get those posts out.

A blogger that can correct their own grammar and spelling. I’ll be honest. I have a hard enough time correcting my own I don’t want to proof read and correct everything you send me.

This is not a paid position. I wish I could pay you, but I can’t. My blog does not make any money. I don’t have ads up. Hosting, newsletter fees, domain fees, and anything else comes out of my own pocket.

What I offer is a site that is already getting traffic as a place for you to get your name and writing out there. A self hosted site that already has an audience. GamerofSorts.com has a Google page rank of 2 and an Alexa Rank of 844,117. It’s not high, but as you can see I do get a little bit of traffic.

If you are interested email me at GamerKirei@gmail.com with an example of your work (more than one if you have it), a realistic amount of posts you can do a week, a link to your blog (if you have one), any questions you may have (I like questions ) and a little bit about yourself. Afterall, we’ll be in essence working together and I want to get to know you!

You can also use our contact form. Link is at the top of this page.

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Blog, guest post, World of Warcraft

Ack! Sorry! Hit publish before I was done! This is a guest post by Jonathan Yeong the creator of the blog Gaming on Set. Head over there to see great articles and game reviews to boot.

You’ve been staring at the guild registrar for days, contemplating whether you should start a guild. You have the money, you have the guild charter, but what next? How would you even begin starting your own guild? For all the up and coming guild leaders out there, here are a few tips on having a successful guild.

Why should you start a guild?

Being a guild leader means you have an emotional attachment to your guild. As a guild leader I choked up with pride every time my guild hit a milestone. It’s almost like when you first stare into the eyes of your newly born child…*cough*. Everyone might not have such an emotional attachment to a guild, instead they start a guild for many (normal) reasons:

• They are sick of playing pugs and instead would like to quest with people that they can trust and that they know.

• You have a group of friends and you think it would be really cool to start a guild.

• You are inspired to start a guild that one day everyone will know about.

There are many reasons for starting a guild, lets assume you already have, what do you do next?

Choosing a guild direction: What do you want your guild to be?

There are a few different types of guilds out there, and as a guild leader you decide which direction you want the guild to travel in. Do you want a small, casual guild that just gets together every night and does a few quests with each other? Or do you want a large scale raiding guild so you can do those high level raids. Picking an objective for your guild and then sticking to your objective is important. Members join your guild because your objective matches theirs. By now you’re probably ready to sink your teeth in the nitty gritty aspect of being a guild leader…

Building your guild.

Recruiting people

There are many ways to recruit people. Here are some of the major ways guilds get members:

• Spamming chat in cities. It’s a sure fire way to get members. For the amount of time you spend you will get a lot of members, but maybe only a few good ones.

• Posting in forums. If I’m looking for an organised guild a forum is the first place I look. It not only means that you can tell players more about your guild, but it shows that you can take the effort to go that extra step and write more than the few lines that you spam in chat.

• Friends. If your guild is doing well then roping in friends of members or your own friends is another good way to boost your member count.

Should I get a tabard/cape?

The answer is a yes! Although it isn’t needed, if you have the money to buy a cape then do it. A cape tells people “this is my guild and I’m proud to be in it”. Having a cape gives your guild a logo and plus it’s always fun designing a cape that everyone can see.

Do I need Ventrilo/Teamspeak? (voice communications)

In a lot of instances voice communication is a must have. Having a Vent or TS server helps you coordinate plans when you’re playing. It also means you can change your plans on the fly if something happens. Having a Vent/TS server means you have a place to hang out and chat with people. To me speaking to someone is more friendly than typing to them. However you have to take into account the real life monetary costs of having a Vent/TS server. Fortunately there are many free servers out there for you to use.

I’ve got everything else do I really need a forum?

In most instances forums aren’t really that necessary, especially for smaller guilds. However for larger guilds forums make organising events so much easier. Forums allow you to put up a sign up sheet, see who’s coming and also informs members on upcoming events. Forums can also be a way to get members to know each other better or a way to post builds or other information that can be useful for other members.

I’m a guild leader! What now…

To have a guild that is somewhat successful there are certain traits that guild leaders have. Now this isn’t a do or die list. I’ve seen many guild leaders that don’t have any of these traits and they still have successful guilds, but as a member seeing a guild leader with the following traits tells me he/she actually knows what they are doing. So here are some traits that I believe make a great guild leader:

You have to be definitive.

As a GL you shouldn’t be swayed easily by different opinions. If you believe that it is the right thing for your guild than go for it. You should always take into account of what others think, but in the end, what you want to do with your guild is up to you.

You need a thick skin.

There is always going to be some arrogant retard or idiot out there who think they should run the guild. You shouldn’t stand for that. Lets face it as a guild leader you will get crap thrown at you, but you need to harden up and move on. Remember if someone really does get on your nerves and also the other members nerves, then kick them. Just don’t think that you are a bad guild leader just because an arrogant arsehole said so.

You need to listen.

Guild leaders need to listen to other people. So I’ve said to be definitive and a thick skin, but it doesn’t mean you should be arrogant. The good guild leaders I know always talk to other members, always try to get involved, and always see how their members are faring in the guild. Of course if you have a huge guild this can be a lot harder and this is where your officers come in.

Don’t underestimate the power of officers.

Officers are important. Remember, officers are members that you would trust to run your guild. Major decisions that you make shouldn’t be made until you listen to the views of your officers. Officers also have the power to run the guild when you are away, this means that if you have issues that occur in real life you can be sure that you’re leaving your guild in safe hands. However this can be a double edged sword. Promoting random members that have just joined the guild to officers is a horrible thing to do. There’s been many occasions where I’ve seen my friends guild wiped by crazy officers who kick every member. So unless you trust the member, or at least know what they are like, you shouldn’t promote them to officers.

You need to have time.

Being a guild leader means you need time to join in with guild events. You should be attending most events that are organised and that you should be encouraging people to join in with events. To get people involved you have to involved in the guild yourself.

In conclusion, after reading this should you still start a guild? The answer is a definitive yes! Leading a guild is a challenging aspect of an online game but probably the most rewarding. Although it might not be for everyone for some it’s something you can nurture and grow over time and in the end it might as well be your baby.

Jonathan Yeong

Gaming on Set

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: guest post, guild leader, Guilds, linking out, newbie guide, World of Warcraft

This is a guest post made by Windsoar. Be sure to visit their blog Jaded Alt to find other quality posts on World of Warcraft Topics.

If you’ve ever been an officer for a raiding guild, there always seems to be that certain someone who makes your trigger finger itch over the /gkick function every time they log on. The most frustrating, infuriating, and down-right annoying member that you can ever have to suffer in your raiding guild is the guy who just doesn’t get it – he has a perpetual misconception about what a raiding guild is formed for, and therefore, infuriates other members, the officers and non-guildies complaining about changes that he feels should be implemented. Well buddy, this one’s for you – these are the reasons that your inane requests are not considered, are not on the menu, and will never be implemented.

Raiding Guilds Raid

That’s right – they raid. You know what that means? You are expected to raid too. Some guilds expect you to show up every conceivable night that they raid unless you can mail a certified note signed from your Dr. that you really were in the hospital. More casual guilds may only make a generalized note of whether you were there 1-2 times a week. Read that section again. See where I said even casual guilds keep some kind of eye on who shows? That means, if you don’t show up to raid, you won’t be invited to raid when you do show – pretty simple concept, but one that seems to baffle many a raid member who shows up once a week, if they feel up to it, and expect or even demand to raid with the guild. Guess what pal, you don’t deserve anything. You may get, you may not – it’s up to the guild.

We Have Standards

They might not be much. They may be a certain flair to your gear, a minimum dps/hps/avoidance number that, no, we did not arbitrarily pull out of our collective asses, but actually considered for the content we are trying to clear. In addition to these minimums, we will expect you to:

• Be on time

• Take breaks upon request

• Chant/gem/repair in order to eek the best out of your character

• Follow the raid leader’s instructions without a witty (or more likely a not-so-witty) rejoinder

You will be a cog in our machine, and if that’s too much for you, please, save me the officer meetings about your behavior, the during raid chats that take away from my enjoyment of the game, and generally, the perpetual headache that you bring to my day by manning up and typing /gquit. We know you’d be happier… really.

Did I Mention We Raid?

Do you have an alt? That’s lovely, glad to hear you get the most out of your game time. I will happily congratulate you on Level 20 achievement! However, do not ask, beg, or whine about the lack of people willing to run you through Deadmines. I may do it for my spouse, I may do it for a friend, but I don’t do it for strangers, and I’m not doing it for you.

If I’m on my main and it’s not raid time, I am:

• Running a heroic for badges to improve my gear… for raiding

• Pugging a raid that the guild no longer runs to improve my gear or strategies… for raiding

• Doing dailies for cash… so I can repair for raiding

• Getting materials for flasks or food… for raiding

All of these things will preclude me from helping your alt become awesome at L20. 20 is not an awesome level for me – Deadmines gear is not a must-have, and I will not take your whining about how you must finish Deadmines at the correct level as relevant. If it’s that important to you – pug it with people your own level.

*Crickets*

“I never see anyone on except at raid time.” This isn’t true for all raiding guilds, but it’s a pretty common complaint – you want to know why? It’s a raiding guild. People joined to raid. Period. Oftentimes, they will have all their alts in a leveling or friends guild where they spend their non-regimented time hanging out, shooting the breeze, and otherwise enjoying their WoW time. This is not an issue that your guild officer’s care about – if people are on to raid, have their flasks and food and are prepared to mete out awesome dps, everything is good.

Love Your Officer

Actually, we don’t really require this or even care. I’m not going to be upset that you don’t worship the ground that I tread if you’re in my raiding guild – I just want you to show up prepared, help me kill the giant bug at the end of this instance, and hopefully, have a good time doing it. Everything else is optional – yes it can be fun to form an old instance night, or run a heroic with guildmates, but it is not required, and will likely never be a core issue for any raiding guild you might join. If these things matter to you – screen carefully and save everyone the time and aggravation of trying to set you straight. And for every raider I’ve had the pleasure of working with who has not been that guy, thank you!

Jaded Alt

© Kirei for A Gamer of Sorts Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: guest post, Guilds, officers, raiding, Rant, World of Warcraft