I often hear the same complaint from friends I have in different guilds. “Our raids go soooooo slow and we waste a ton of time.” I listen in on these raids sometimes and it just boggles my mind how much time is wasted. I realize this is a hobby and a game and shouldn’t be serious business all the time, but the flip side is that I’m trying to have fun and I’d rather not waste my time sitting around like a lump on a log. Many people I talk to share this same point of view. If you’re someone in charge of raids in your guild, then this quick guide is for you. As a raid leader, no matter what the skill level of the people you’re leading, you have the power to greatly increase the speed at which you raid.

The Fundamentals of Raid Efficiency

There are a few fundamental things you need to keep in mind when trying to increase the efficiency of your raids. These will help guide you when you are coming up with ways to speed up your raids.

• The majority of time in instances is spent clearing trash. A lot of people, raid leaders and members alike, take the tact that trash is easy and unimportant and therefor doesn’t require their full attention or effort. The truth is that you spend most of your time clearing trash and if you wish to maximize your efficiency then you should put just as much effort into clearing trash as you put into clearing bosses.
• Most guilds spend way too much time on loot distribution. With point systems, people are given way too much time to send in bids for loot. People shouldn’t need more than 20-30 seconds to figure out if they want an item or not. It shouldn’t take 5 minutes. With loot councils, too much time is wasted carefully deliberating where each item should go. Minimize the number of people actively giving input in a loot council (more than 3-4 and it becomes unwieldy). Most loot decisions aren’t worth more than 45 seconds if your time. If you’re spending more than this on more than 10% of your loot decisions then you’re wasting time.
• The tanks set the pace. Regardless of who the raid leaders are, the tanks are going to set the pace of your raids. Since the majority of your time is spent on trash, the majority of your wasted time will come from waiting for trash pulls to be set up. The single most effective thing you can do is get your tanks (especially the main tank) on board with your plans or find a tank who can keep the forward movement. They are the ones that need to be ready first for each pull, everyone else follows their lead.
• Always keep the whip cracking. Fast, efficient raiding requires constant upkeep on the part of the raid leaders. This isn’t fire-and-forget. It is up to you to constantly keep people focused and remind them of the goals. Don’t get mad that people need constant wake-up reminders and constant prods to keep moving, it’s human nature. Just expect that if you’re not encouraging forward movement every five minutes or every trash pull then the raid will stop, because that’s probably what will happen.

Discipline Doesn’t Mean Being Belligerent

The first thing people think of when they hear “discipline” is some audio clip they heard of a raid leader going ballistic on his raid. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Yelling can get them moving quicker in the short term, but this comes at the cost of increasing stress levels which reduces long term performance. You don’t need to yell to get your raid in shape. Discipline is about setting expectations, giving clear guidance, and getting your raiders into a routine.

• Expectations. You set expectations by telling your raid exactly what you want. You want pulls to happen quickly, you want to minimize deaths on trash, you want loot to be done quickly, and you want people to be giving the raid their focus. I’ve often seen raid leaders getting frustrated by the conduct of their raids yet they haven’t actually clearly articulated what they want from their raiders. The responsibility falls squarely on the shoulders of the raid leaders to lay out the expectations that their raiders should follow.
• Guidance. Once your raiders have been told what’s expected of them in terms of goals and conduct, you need to give them guidance on how to achieve those goals. If you want pulls to happen quickly then you need to take the initiative to constantly be giving verbal cues and guidance. Take a firm hand in the movement of your raid. Don’t ask “are we ready for this pull?”. Tell your raid “we’re pulling in 15 seconds, get ready” and follow through. Delegate assignments to various leads so you can move quickly. Have someone has been designated to mark targets and assign tanks. Have someone who sets up healing assignments in advance of reaching the pull or boss. Constantly remind people of the various things that can kill them on trash. Quickly and calmly chastise people for making dumb mistakes that got them killed on trash and wasted your raid’s time. More severely chastise people who make a habit of not paying attention or giving full effort on trash.
• Routine. Getting your raiders in certain routines is the key to making it all stick. When your raid is in the habit of conducting itself in a certain way then the inertia of it will help you maintain order and discipline. If you keep pulls coming quickly all the time then people will learn to adapt to this and come to expect a constant stream of pulls. Mana users will get in the habit of drinking the instant they’re out of combat. Tanks will get in the habit of being in position for the next pull without having to be herded and reminded. Fast movement through trash is actually interesting and will keep the attention of your raiders away from their TV. People will simply be in the habit of blazing through instances and the amount of guidance you need to provide will be reduced over time.

It’s in Your Hands

If you’re a guild leader or raid leader then it’s all in your hands. If you put the effort in to increase the efficiency of your raids then you will see results. Don’t just dismiss the idea out of hand because you lack faith in your raiders; you need to effectively lead them.

At the end of the day a guild is nothing more than an extension of its leadership’s will. These are some of the principles that guide our leadership of Fusion. This is how we are to remain a top end competitive guild with a limited schedule while clearing old content every week.