We've done eight heroics so far, the next one starts tonight. We've kept changing the raid rules based on member complaints, concerns, and feigned ignorance of the current rules. Our member's time zones run from West Coast USA to Western Europe, a 9 hr spread IIRC. We used mercs for our first few raids (Thanks Team Synergy and Gun Down!), and were borderline, but now we finish comfortably if we are disciplined and follow the rules.
We've tried to establish rules such as pig slayers going one at a time, going one at a time when the phase is less than 25% health, waiting for final zerg until most players have gone (44/50 in a guild of 48 + 2 alts for currency insurance), or a certain time has been reached, which has varied. No matter what we do, someone always tries to say that they aren't available later, they need to zerg now, or they quit because they missed a raid altogether.
We've also considered going to a model where every raid, ten players get full zerg rights from the start, and each raid it's a different ten, alphabetical order to keep it fair, but haven't gone to it yet. What we won't do is restrict dmg totals. You shouldn't be penalized for having a strong squad and a deep bench, and that's also a fantastic way to lose your strongest players.
We've copied a top guild's model, where the raids last 8 hrs (theirs go 6 hrs), first one opens 0600, the next opens 1200, the third opens 1800, followed by a midnight opening. When the raid opens we go full zerg until 20% health left in phase 3, then all raiding stops until final zerg, exactly 8 hrs from the opening time. We allow "false starts" where you do a "Leeeeeroy Jenkins" and use one garbage toon just to establish yourself in case you miss the raid. Spending three minutes to do this out of 480 possible minutes is reasonable, IMO, and if you still miss the raid entirely then I don't know what to tell you.
With this model, some start times are advantageous, whereas others are horrendous. I feel this evens out, and is fair to everyone. The kraken and people from a certain time one can't have their cake and eat it too, every time. My only concern, until we get stronger, is players overkilling phases indiscriminately, and having little left for phase 4.
This is our first trial of this method, 1800 EST.
Thoughts/comments?
Also, we have two open spots atm, no krakens, just up-and-coming whakes/dolphins/F2P with seven or less 7* toons, looking to improve rapidly. We raid heroics consistently 3x/wk, with "extra opportunites" if interested. We're sitting at 1750 guild points, 1950 after this raid.
We can also help with T6/heroic raid if you're stuck, and have even helped with T5's on occasion.
0
Replies
Good luck tommy and thank you for allowing us to participate in your raids! We are glad to hear that we helped your guild become self sufficient in completing your own heroics!
When 2nd attack is green lit, we usually kill Rancor within 5 minutes.
So the general idea is to let a few guys do phase 1? Then everyone uses 1 team in phase 2&3? But when theirs 20% left in phase 2&3 someone who can finish that 20% using one team will have a go at it am i being correct?(then phase 4 free for all)
1 attack during first 12hours (screenshot into Line as proof, although they are mostly used as inspiration for squads by now).
At the 12hour mark its free for all, usually a 2minute zerg of the last 30-50% of P4.
We waste millions of overkill damage, but after some time of raiding thats not really an issue.
Yes it's extreme. We thought there is no way we could enforce this without players getting salty and leaving. There are certain boundaries even with the most dedicated and loyal players that is hard to predict. It was safer to steer clear of this.
Again, we have dedicated members and we strive to get most, if not all, on board. We usually have 90-95% participation. Those who did not get on in 6 hours mostly understand it was a fair amount of time. Because we have so many rotations on our raid schedule, most people are able to have 3/4 advantageous start times.
We do a 12 hr tap phase where you can send in your Leroy Jenkins for damage
During this phase you can prefight to get good RNG on phase 1. Just not log your damage until Zerg o'clock.
Then we Zerg the whole thing at the 12hr mark.
Goals for out guild
- everyone gets a prize
- The best players and largest rosters have the opportunity to use their rosters to maximize damage.
12hr tap phase followed by Zerg accomplishes this.
We have also broken all 50 members into 3 groups (we call them squadrons) that rotate which gets the 1st window of attacks.
We do "4 Windows" of 12hrs each as follows
1st Window 2 days - 1 day 13hrs remaining: Group A get one attack each. At 25% of damage in P1 they must attempt retreating all players and auto battle those who fail to escape
2nd Window 1 day 12hrs - 1 day 1hr remaining: All who have not yet attacked get one attack each
3rd Window 24hrs - 13hrs remaining: All members get a second attack
4th Window 12hrs - 0hrs remaining: Free-for-all (if needed)
Since you can't do more than one T7 every 48hrs there is no need to rush through the raids. Also since P1/P2 is the highest chance of massive damage, by rotating who gets the first shot at it you rotate those with the best chance for top 5 finish. In addition, by limiting the damage in P1 to 25% max per person you keep from too much damage coming off the board.
We also have a graphic of the raid schedule and a FAQ posted in our guild chat. So far that's been working well for us. In almost every single T7 we've had 100% of our members get damage in. I'm sure we will have to tweak it more in the future, but for us it's working well so far.
We're the same, 1 attack whenever you want till Zerg time. I think we've had 100% participation.
My thought process is to keep it simple. We will take screen shots of any suspected cheaters and boot them. So far it's been minimal work. It did take a week or so to get there.
We do this as well. Except we try to waste as much damage as possible in phase 1 at least. Meaning we try to get at least 20 members to attack at once, otherwise the phase will be over with only 5 attacks or so. This allows most players to participate in phase 1-3.
We open a raid and registering attacks isn't allowed for 24 hours. This allows people who can't actually contribute to the raid to sacrifice a toon against the pig guards. This registers a score of zero but will provide a raid reward to those guys.
People typically pre-load Phase 1 attacks so Phase 1 is over in seconds once the 24 hours is up. Pre-loading means starting the battle vs. the pigs before the allotted start time, but not finishing it until that time has ticked over. Phase 1 needs something like 1.87m points to be completed but our guys achieve this score many times over. Its of no consequence because we have the ability to complete the raid. People who false start are penalised by not being allowed to participate for the rest of the raid.
There's no limits on the next phases - 2 and 3 generally last 2-3 minutes each and then Phase 4 lasts about 10-20 minutes, depending upon how many happen to be on at the time.
We might limit our members who 7* Scoundrel Han to Phase 4 only when the time comes to help accelerate rewards and Han shards for those who don't normally rank high.