Refocusing for Sunwell

The advent of Sunwell has unsettled the raiding scene on Medivh, the number one progression guild on our server has collapsed and a new raiding guild has appeared on the scene. With new content on the horizon, my co-gm, officers and I find ourselves with the need to re-focus as we prepare to enter and conquer Sunwell.

When we formed up we knew we wanted to be an end game raiding guild. We defined the raiding commitment we required from our raiders. We defined our loot system, our member expectations, how we distribute our resources and picked our officers. Somewhere along the way we went from just trying to get ourselves established and organized to being one of the well respected guilds on the server. In that transition we stopped focusing so much on where we were going and settled into a routine.

Our biggest challenge is that with about 4 months of BT/Hyjal raiding and only one week of a full clear of both, we are slightly under the gear tuning for Sunwell content. Our current loot system as been serviceable for our 9 months, but really does a nice job of distributing loot fairly equally among our raiders. Some officers and members are in favor of ensuring we do more to gear up our main tank and maybe a few other of our highest level attenders to allow us to catch the gear gap for Sunwell more easily. This and a few other suggested changes, are causing us to question, how far is too far to go to ensure rapid progress.

Our raiding guild isn't like the stereotypical raiding guild. Anyone who has read my other posts, knows how much I focus on the humanity of my raiders. I believe in loyalty and I know the best way to get respect is to give it. When my co-gm and I created this guild, we sat down and talked long and hard about what we wanted it to be and how we wanted it to differ from other raiding guilds. One thing that has never changed is that we want to carry ourselves and treat our raiders and server mates with dignity and kindness.

It's become readily apparent that in addition to having fostered the environment we wanted, we've also gathered a collection of highly skilled players, who are capable of doing more than we have. Some of this can be attributed to our late start to TBC raiding, but some of it is also, that in an effort to be fair and keep all of our members involved in this guild, we are spreading resources equitably, but not always where they will have the largest impact in our raiding success.

The reason we've stood behind this policy is that my co-gm and I believe having a strong bench is what's allowed us to have nearly uninterrupted raiding for 9 months. (We took a week off for Christmas and one night for the Super Bowl) but now, I'm coming to question if this is the best direction for our guild.

While it can be unsettling as a leader to stop and examine something that has been a part of our guild since the beginning, I believe that continuing something because "it's what we've always done" leads to stagnation. Every good leader needs to take a moment every now and again and examine where they are leading their guild and how the needs of their guild have changed. Regardless of what we decide, I'm certain my guild and it's leadership will be stronger because we've taken the time to examine what would otherwise be routine.