How to Prepare a Raiding Guild for Mists of Pandaria: Steps 1 & 2

With Apotheosis at 8/8 HM in Dragon Soul and most of our roster having obtained our Glory of the Dragon Soul Raider achievements, it’s time for me to start looking ahead to Mists of Pandaria. Even if my own future is somewhat murky, since I’m really not sure what my plans are for Mists, I’m the guild master of Apotheosis and I will make sure there is a viable raiding roster available… assuming there’s enough interest from the guild, that is. If everyone decides to call it after Cataclysm, I won’t rebuild a guild again from scratch.

So I’ve decided to try to share this preparation work with you all.

Step One: Determine What You Already Have

We can do this easily by examining our current roster. Obviously, this is based on a 25-man raiding guild, but you can still take stock of who you currently have on your roster if you’re doing 10s. Here’s what I’m starting with:

28 Raider-ranked people (includes 5 officers)
4 Initiate-ranked people
= 32 people on the raiding roster

Role breakdown:
– 8 healers (2 of each class, 1 holy and 1 disc)
– 2 main spec tanks (1 paladin, 1 DK & 3 OS tanks, 1 DK, 1 druid, 1 warrior)
– 12 ranged DPS (3 mages, 2 shadow priests, 1 moonkin, 3 hunters, 2 elemental shaman, 1 warlock)
– 10 melee DPS (2 frost DKs, 1 combat rogue, 1 mut rogue, 1 feral druid, 2 ret pallies, 1 enhancement shaman, 1 Arms warrior, 1 Fury warrior)

I also have a large community in my guild, many friends of Raiders, many retired Raiders and such, some of whom may be interested in joining us come Mists.

So I have ~32 people to start with.

Step Two: Figure Out What People Want

The next step is to see if people are willing to continue raiding with us and, if they are, what class and spec they’d like to play.

To that end, here’s what I’ve already done:

– ~2 weeks ago, I posted on the forums asking people to start thinking about what they wanted to do in Mists, with a list of questions they should start mulling over.
– ~1 week ago, I posted on the forums reminding people to start thinking about what they wanted to do in Mists.

Today, I posted on the forums asking every raiding member of Apotheosis to send me a PM with regards to their intentions and also invited any non-raiding member of the guild to let me know of their interest in raiding for Mists.

I did so by asking them to answer these questions (previously posted ~2 weeks ago):

ALL RAIDERS OR HIGHER (not Initiates yet) should now start sending in responses to me via Private Message (PM) on the forum.

1) Would you like to continue raiding as a member of Apotheosis in Mists of Pandaria?
2) If so, would you like to remain your current class and spec or would you like to reroll?
3) If you want to raid and would reroll, what would you reroll to (class and spec)?
4) Would you be able to continue to raid during the current days/times on a 75% attendance basis? (Tues/Thurs/Sun, from 9pm ET until 12am ET, invites at 8:45pm ET) If not, what days/times might work better for you?

If you’re not SURE, please let me know and give me what you’re leaning towards, both if you want to raid at all or class/spec stuff.

If you are NOT a current raiding member of Apotheosis, but you might like to start in Mists, please answer the following questions in a Private Message (PM) to me on the forum.

1) Would you like to raid with Apotheosis in Mists of Pandaria?
2) If so, what class and spec would you likely be playing?
3) Are you able to make the current days/times on a 75% attendance basis? (Tues/Thurs/Sun, from 9pm ET until 12am ET, invites at 8:45pm ET) If not, what days/times might work better for you?

If you’re not SURE, please let me know and give me what you’re leaning towards, both if you want to raid at all or class/spec stuff.

You have approximately one week to get this info to me. (Initiates will be asked for this information if they pass their trials.) I’ll start sending out nastygrams to people as of 12:01am ET on Monday, June 11th.

So that’s what I’m starting with and that’s how I’m proceeding.

I’ll be storing their answers in a spreadsheet. Down the left side in the first column is the player name, in alphabetical order.

Column B: Current Class
Column C: Current Spec
Column D: Raiding in Mists of Pandaria? (Y/N)
Column E: MoP Class
Column F: MoP Spec
Column G: Times?

Once I have responses from all the raiders, I’ll have a much better idea of where we’re at for Mists of Pandaria and what I’ll need to start recruiting for. As an example, let’s say that both my tanks want to do something else, like Mhoe wants to heal (hahaha) and Chronis wants to go back to his hunter. Let’s further say that a DPS, like Majik, wants to be a Brewmaster Monk, but no one else wants to be a main spec tank. I would then recruit for 1-2 more tanks for Mists of Pandaria and would not seek out another Brewmaster Monk unless the expansion was around the corner and I was screwed with no tanks.

Similarly, say all my healers want to keep playing exactly as they are. I would want to go out in search of one more healer and would seek a Monk, specifically, since I believe in a balanced roster.

Next week, we’ll start in on Step 3 where we look at the results of my guild’s answers, compile the results and see where to go from there. And remember, it’s never too early to start planning ahead for the next expansion!