World of Warcraft - How to Recruit the Right People for Raiding
MMORPG.com World of Warcraft Correspondent James Alderman writes this article that outlines some of the undesirable elements in players when you are trying to recruit for a raiding guild in Blizzard's popular MMORPG.
When The Burning Crusade was released, it had a large impact on raiding guilds. Some guilds remained unchanged, others splintered off and some disbanded completely. While a lot of old players who had quit playing WoW came back once the expansion was released, some quit altogether. So to say that The Burning Crusade shook up the raiding scene is something of an understatement.
While the transition from 40-man raid dungeons to 25-man dungeons was more drastic than the transition will be to WotLK raiding, there will still be enough of a difference to also have an effect on raiding guilds. Old players becoming active again, the option of running the 25-man instances as 10-man instances, the addition of a new class, and the new race to the new level 80 cap will be enough for some guilds to break up and new ones to form. You may find yourself in a situation where you are in charge of recruiting new members when you’ve never had such a responsibility before, so this guide is meant to help you in weeding out the bad recruits from the good ones.
First of all, you need to know how often your guild plans on raiding: will your guild be a hardcore, nightly raiding guild or a guild that only raids a few nights a week? This is important because it will have an effect on what sort of players will be applying. Hardcore guilds tend to attract people who are more obsessed with loot, so it’s more important to weed out the players who are the WoW equivalent of gold diggers. Casual guilds tend to attract players that are more on the laid back side, so it’s more important to weed out the players that are too lazy to learn how to play.
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Recruit the wrong players and you'll be seeing a lot of loading screens.
There are many types of undesirable players, and not everyone knows what to look for. Not everything will be covered by this guide, but most of the big things will be, so your results may vary.
One type of player that you want to look out for is the Epic Digger, the kind of player who is only raiding for the epics and doesn’t give a damn about his fellow guildies. The Epic Digger isn’t always easy to weed out because he will often come across as someone who just wants to help his guild eat through content, when in fact the only reason he’s trying so hard is because he wants to get his hands on the epic loot. Now, it’s not a bad thing to want better gear and loot, but the Epic Digger takes it to the next level by actively screwing over anyone he can in order to get loot first. They are often rude and can have a bad effect on morale with their selfish attitudes.
One way to weed Epic Diggers out is to pay close attention to what questions a new recruit may ask. Does he seem to ask more questions about loot, looting policies, and how soon he will be able to roll or spend DKP on gear? Another thing to look for is if the recruit ever passes on loot so someone else can have a chance at it before he does. If he’s told he can’t roll on something because it will benefit someone else more than him, does he get overly upset? If he exhibits all of the attributes above, then he is most likely an Epic Digger and it might be best to kick him from the guild when you have a chance.
A second type of undesirable player you want to look out for is the Lazy Slacker. This is the type of player that hangs out in the background, barely doing more than what is absolutely required of him. He will frequently show up for a raid unprepared, and rarely reads strategy guides on whatever content your guild is currently working on. No matter what class he plays, he will usually only spam one or two abilities and as a result perform poorly in whatever role he plays. He may try and use his “busyness in real life” as an excuse to not try hard or make an attempt at being prepared, even though you will frequently see him playing on his alts when not raiding. Lazy Slackers are dead weight at best, and hindrances to progression at worst when they show up unprepared.
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A Lazy Slacker is the type of player most likely blow up his fellow players when he has debuffs such as “Living Bomb” (from WoW Classic), “Mark of Kaz’Rogal” (from WoW TBC) or “Polarize” (from upcoming WoW WotLK) simply because he didn’t read the strategy for the boss and doesn’t know what to do. He will be relatively easy to spot once he begins raiding, and once you have identified a player as a Lazy Slacker, the best way to deal with it is to simply stop inviting him to raids.
A third type of undesirable player is the Vindictive Jerk. While this type of player isn’t necessarily harmful to your raiding effort in a direct way, he can nevertheless hold your guild’s efforts back because he simply makes life hell for anyone he’s around. He’s frequently rude and insulting to his fellow players and he will often openly mock players that he encounters from other guilds, either in game or on the official online forums. He is bad for your guild’s reputation and will hamper recruiting efforts or your guild’s relationship with other guilds.
The Vindictive Jerk isn’t always a bad player, in fact a good majority of them are good players, but his boorish personality will make the game unenjoyable to those he plays with.
It’s not always easy to decide if someone is a Vindictive Jerk, and if he is, then what to do with him because everyone has bad days. Some Vindictive Jerks toe the line, being rude infrequently, but frequently enough that his name comes up often as a problem that needs to be smoothed over. Some simply aren’t aware of their effect on other people and can be rehabilitated once they are made aware of it, but if someone is a problem and an embarrassment rather frequently, it’s usually best to remove him from the guild.
A fourth type of player is specific to DPS roles – the Blood Luster. The Blood Luster is the type of player who lives for damage-dealing. He will often bring as many consumables as he possibly can in order to maximize his DPS output, and in a raid setting, is blind to anything except where he places on the damage meter. This can be a big problem because the Blood Luster will almost always ignore where he stands on the threat meter. At best, he will pull aggro from the main tank and merely get himself killed. At worst, he will pull aggro and wipe the entire raid.
Unfortunately, the Blood Luster isn’t necessarily a type of player that is easy to detect and weed out, because it’s not something you can pick up on until you start to raid with said player. However, most Blood Lusters can be rehabilitated into good players when properly coached into paying more attention to threat and don’t necessarily have to be removed from the raid. But if one is a constant problem, even after being confronted several times, then it is best to remove him from the raid permanently.
These were just a few of the types of players to keep an eye out for when recruiting. Perhaps the best way to check up on a player is first to ask what guilds he has been in and then to check in with that guild to see what kind of person he was when he played with them. While anything that you are told should be taken with a grain of salt, it is a good way to get an early warning as to what sort of person you are recruiting.
Wrath of the Lich King brings with it a new raiding landscape. If you are reforming a guild, or starting a new one, be sure you are bringing in not just good players, but players with good character. Recruit the right people and your guild will go far.
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