This post is mostly aimed at members of the MishMash Crew on Velen (World of Warcraft). Some of the discussion may be of use to folks who are having similar issues, so you’re welcome to read. Comments are reserved for the MishMash Crew, or those that I deem insightful.
Recently (Nov 3, 2007) our GuildMaster (a reasonable and level headed person who has managed to grow a large family style guild) commented on the fact that as people hit level 70, they frequently leave. I can sympathize with them as I’ve been wondering what part I’ll have in the guild when I hit 70. The easy thing to do is to leave and go to a raiding guild. I suspect that many of the 70s have done exactly that. Well, I do like the folks in the guild and I’ve offered my meager services to research what is required for end game raiding. What follows are mostly my opinions which are prone to be wrong and biased, but they may serve as a starting point for discussion at least.
What are the basics we need for PVE raiding? I’ll make a list of the ones I can think of.
- A solid group of people who can build a raid group on the scheduled days. Kara is a 10 man raid, so we’ll probably need 20 to 30 people (not toons) capable of entering to make up for absent folks, and to build groups tailored to encounters. We don’t have that many people yet.
- A loot system. There are many out there, but I humbly suggest rolling for gear as it has low overhead, and it’s fair in the long run. The only folks who should roll are those for whom the gear is a clear upgrade. Also, a mage shouldn’t roll for warrior gear. There is a lot of fuss at the borders, and I suggest that the raid leader or loot master be the final judge of when it’s appropriate to roll. Once we are comfortable with raiding, we can discuss other loot systems, but rolling seems like the path of least resistance.
- A good raid leader and an honest loot master. There will likely have to be interviews for the raid leader position. I don’t know how we solve the problem of “hiring” someone to do something when we don’t know what qualities we need. Maybe we rotate raid leaders until a good one shines through.
There are some specific things that are required for Kara and getting them can be time intensive. There is of course, the key. One probably shouldn’t go into Kara without the right gear, and there are some faction items that are very useful in kara which require reputation grinding. Gearing up probably means no items less then 70, and mostly blues appropriate for your class. This means instance runs in the high level dungeons. These are 5 man affairs and so easier to organize.
Here is the guide to Karazhan. The key is obtained in this series of quests. I’ll be adding more entries as I do more research.