Guild Banks.

Our system is quite striaghtforward. We have a general Guild Bank where guild members can donate items, like pre level 80 items etc and consumables like scrolls etc and metal bars, green items & blue. They request anything they would like off the guild forum.

Things get more complicated for raiding. We have a Raid Buff bar, which currently holds food buffs created by guild members. This year I plan to expand on the self service feature of it, by adding flasks. Since Blizz has nerfed the potion consumption during a fight to one potion, the potion side is not much of a priority, ..more of an added extra. Permissions are set so that members of the guild can take 2/3 stacks of raid buffs. (3 for hunters) with no special ranks or permissions set it is a guild supporting itself and feeding itself.

In WOLTK, Leni and I have been offline, and the raid flask/potion addition to each raid has not been as it was in TBC. The amount of time distributing these items slows down the raid organisation and initial setup when summoning. So the plan is to setup Flasks and food on 1 self serve tab, I am planning of appointing the Alchemists and Leni to organise this back into production, and putting forward the food buffs required.. This Tab needs some direction and motivation, and I will be looking to put the raid buff self serve back into full swing as it was ment to be.

The Crafters Tab.
Initially we tried this once before in pre-TBC, and TBC. It didn’t work…primarily because its function, and direction got itself lost and failed to adapt to the changing demand of both the guild and the AH market. I didn’t have any involvement in the process of it, but could see the potential of it, this time round I wil be taking a big role in its function. In making sure that it works and develops into what to can be.

There are 3 professions which could develop the guild profitably in progression
Jewelcrafting.
Enchanting
Inscription.

Gearwise, these three professions lower the consumable cost of each raiders gear. And de-crease the down time pushing the potential of upgraded gear.

Outfitting.
Leather
Tailor
Blacksmithing
Leg enchants, cloaks and Titansteel. The single most Pre-raid gear is craftable. And with long standing members of the guild, still without these items looking for heroics, slows the guild down in raid progression. Make a list of all the titansteel wearers, titansteel smelters. Cloaks, and ebonweave's line up a wardrobe, outfit the raid, and sell off the rest. But keep a stock of 1 remaining for main spec raiders.

Buy the matts for these Epic BoE, craft them and sell them. Use the profit fto suppliment supply of herbs for Alchemists flasks and Cooks for food buffs.

Think of it like an army to feed. And that costs. The specifics of who and what currently is under wraps by myself until i am happy with the overlay of the setup.

GM Talk - Raiding

Over-view the Raiding
Over the last few weeks I put together a Thursday Raid. The guild appears to have 2 levels of progress. Uldar & OS level and Naxx level. While I can understand the frustration on both sides, there seemed to be little happening to enage the problem. And that’s prehaps the area where the GM of the guild who was RL AFK with a new baby girl steps back into the game and guild. I heard there was a lack of interest in raiding at the high end, by the mid-geared players, and non raiders (wtf non raiders in your guild?) feeling cornered into filling a missing spot, and being undergeared & inexperienced. Many have expressed dissapointment when coming to help out fill a spot, being a good thing, to read the expression, not enough DPS tattered across raid chat. It wasn’t until Leni (Mother of above baby girl and Officer of TDD, stepped in and confronted the comment head on, and explained the reasons why it was so offensive.
…the smallest things, mean the greatest.
"Not enough DPS" / "Too many new folk to the raid who havent done it before" /………………... "DPS isnt good enough" someone would state that as a fact, the reader would see that as an ungrateful slam at their effort, experience & gear. Take the comment into context of a raid, and ask me where the enthusiam went to sign up?...now you understand.
Last Thursday, I assigned Patchwerk as the boss to bench test members of the raid with. I deliberately picked out the lesser members of the guild who wanted to raid, and assessed with recount addon, their failings. 30 minutes spent with a rogue pumping out 800 dps, turned into 1600+ dps under 1 hour of suggesting rotations…No respecs, no buffs, and using a blue and a green dagger. Sometimes we forget that some of us will research and understand websites such as Elitest Jerks, and those who play for the joy of playing hoping that others will take time with them to develop their characters together, within their guild. Players have an expectation of their guild to support them, and in turn they will respect and support you. That’s part to do with life skills, and lets not forget, we still exist outside of warcraft too. I absolutely hate sweeping statements with no direct link to its relevance, person or group if you don’t follow it up person to person later. Get them in a party and take them somewhere, where they feel they are being supported, by you, and working with you to get things right. When I offer spots to guild members who havent signed up for the raid, their first initial question is, "is my gear at the right level?"
The standard of raiding is one of 2 things.

How balanced is your raid and can it support an undergeard, inexperienced healer/dps/tank ?

And how much commitment are you prepared to give to support that member joining your raid, and what preparations have you made to include this member?

Being a raid leader, you can ask/tell a raid member, more experienced, to whisper and buddy the new member along. While the Tanks /w each other and inform the Raid Leader of their tanking assignment (MT or OT) and healers are free to assign themselves in their own chat channel, while you over-view the rest. We've practiced this in TDD and it seems to work out. DPS has 2 groups, ranged and Melee. And its easier to buddy them according to which group they belong to.

Communication crossing
Tanks, DPS and Healing. While suggestions and observations are welcome always, too many instructions from multiple groups will confuse the individual they are directed to. There is a raid leader, a Main Tank, a Lead Healer and an assistant raid leader. These 4 are the only ones who should be giving out instruction to each group.
Raid Leader
Assistant RL
Main Tank - DPS - Lead Healer
The raid Leader and Assistant are 1 group and are the ones finalising the plan & stratagey on Vent
Tanks speak to that RL Group, as does the DPS and Lead Healer.
MT, DPS and LH speaking across each other, does not work. And that’s where your drama will start up. This includes loot, recount (in all its information and statistics) & disagreements. Take it up with the RL Group and it will discussed AFTER the raid, and not during.

Keeping a Log
I keep a raiding progress thread for the Thursday Group, so that things like wow stats and my personal thoughts about the raid are available for those raid members to reflect on, and to take note where things need improvement for the next raid. This also allows them to go out for the rest of the week, and 5 man some instances, or take the experience of these raids and what they have learned to 25 man pugs, or even 10 or 5 man pugs, with a lot more confidence.
It's also your single most opportunity to show your appreciation of those who attended and show your commitment to them. After all, YOU depend on them to come next week, right? Better to show your commitment to them as a leader, than someone who logs in on the raid night, smash some bosses and then log off with "GJ all" …theres no development in that, of your team, your team work, or team building.

Addons to Download

Debuff Filter This addon filters out the debuffs and buffs that you don't care about. If you're a melee class, you can filter out everything but CoR, FF and Sunder. If you're a caster, you can just show debuffs like CoE and Winter's Chill. Healers can filter out everything but their buffs and HoTs, etc.

After trialing this addon, i would recommend it for Unholy DPS, as you can constantly monitor which deases are up and when to use S'Strike to its full potiential. The Unholy Blight /dfilter needed to be added to both debuff and self buff. A recommended addon for sure 19/05/09

Unholy 2H Spec

After spending lots of gold, and my next respec being 50g, i copied Rezinar's Unholy spec and dropped the DW idea.
I am now happy(ier) with my DPS, but a little sad about losing the DW. Ohwell.
I now have to work on gear, and anything BLUE craftable from the AH, is up for priority grabs.

Crafted
Vengeance Bindings
Chestplate of Conquest

Cloak of Holy Extermination

Ring of Scarlet Shadows

Quest

Trollkickers & Ring of Foul Mojo Gundrak

DW - Options & being a GM

Unholy DPS Duel Weld Both Rezinar and myself read up on some forums about DW'ing and came across the Elite Jerks forum. The frost tree pre 3.1 worked fine, but with the moving of specific talents up and down the frost tree and basically killed of the cookie cutter build. Unholy seems to be the other option to save the DW build/stlye of play. Initially this is a started build for the gear that i currently am wearing, the more advanced spec's scale with higher level gear (Which i dont have) so practicing these rotations and reaching levels of spell hit etc will not be so expensive etc.

GM, Main Tank, Raid Leader & Master Looter .....(no more) The Tanking role i initially took up, i am now retiring from. The point being is that i do not have the same ample time to catch up with the 3 existing tanks within the guild, and those on trial membership i hope will pass onto full membership. I used to be GM, and RL, and Main tank there was alot to be learned from that experience. But being a DPS, within a raid itself i much easier for me to see what is going on around the whole of the raid without having the boss or (insert mob here) in my face blocking my view. And also able to feedback on erros made by players within the raid better. That for me is a new interest, and a better style of play. Guildwise i prefer to concentrate more on, and Raid Leaders who have the energy and ability to research and lead the guild to continue having that role, as they currently do. Having the drive to do it is much more inspiring for a guild. My strength is a co-ordinator, and i guess "assisting the raid leader" is much more ideal. Have a fight, wipe then feed back to the RL what needs adjusting etc etc. Anyway..moving on Officers within a raid need to have an authoritive role, being Master Looter, Or Raid Leader etc. They are your back bone of the guild and need presence within a raid, even for the old veteran players to (and espically) the new members of the guild on trial. This goes back to the saying a good guild isnt based on 1 GM, but the support/framework the GM has to support him/her. Be it by accident or just events of late, me having to be offline for a month or 2 out of the game, has shown what the officers are made of. And how well the guild has continued onwards with the administration group in place, and well versed on the specifics of what the guild is about.. If you're officers do not know what the guild etho's is, then you will have a tear in the team which will cause friction. However communication/discussion are the most important aspects of your officers, and the ability to debate guild issues without spite. I am lucky to have a wealth of officers, nominated by officers who are able to function without a GM present, and assume the lead roles without complaint.