Eight Man Raiding and You

**Raiak** · 10-04-2013

I am going to be answering hopefully a lot of the questions in the FAQ type set up below but before that I wanted to just talk about some of the raiding principles of Aureus Knights.

We view raiding as a legitimate investment of your time and effort. While we are not a "raiding" guild, we do strive to be a guild that raids and offers serious progression for those who seek it. Raiding is also very much a team sport to us and we ask that when you are in a group of eight you understand your actions directly impact seven of your fellow guildmates and the time they have set aside to progress through content. It is important that you always be as raid ready as possible; this includes spending some out-of-game time reading and researching new fights and making sure you have the correct cross-class abilities, as well has having any consumables that might be needed to boost your performance.

1) How do I raid with AKS?
Our plan is to form as many eight-man teams for "The Coil" as we can. Each team will be referred to as a flight, which will be a mostly static set group of people. This should allow us to accommodate everyone who has an interest in raiding. The first step is to post and make sure to keep up to date with our Coil Roster Thread (stickied at the top of the Raid Forum. Follow the instructions and an officer will attempt to match you with others who share your playtimes.

2) How will I know which flight is mine?
Your flight will bet set up by the officer team. We are going to do our best to set up the flights based off availability, as we view this as the most fair way to manage raiding groups of this size and quantity. For instance, if five of eight people can do Coil on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and three of eight can do Wednesday and Thursday, we would set the flight up to run Wednesday and Thursday. This is all going to be tracked via our handy dandy raid-tracking spreadsheet (super appropriately named right?). This will show your flight and team members. Also, I encourage you to come up with a cool team name like The Fighting Mongooses!

3) What if I just became Coil ready and don't have a flight yet?
As you can see on the spreadsheet, we have a pool of waiting members broken down by role that we are going to be using to form new flights as well as to shore up flights that happen to be missing a player for a week.

4) You mentioned missing players for a week. If I have real life stuff to do and I missed a day am I out of the band?
No! We understand the importance of real life. If you miss a day, we ask that you try to let your team know ahead of time so they can prepare, but we know that isn't always possible. We will try to fill your spot for the week using the pool of waiting members.

5) What about my lockout? If I fill in am I dooooooooomed to lose my lockout for the week?!
Of course not, and don't use so many Os in doomed. It's all going to be okay! The lockout for the week is going to belong to the person who last filled in the spot during the current lockout timer. For example, if your name is John McTankington and you are Flight One's tank and have to do a civil war reenactment on night one of a lockout timer, we will fill your spot for your team with Joesph Tanksquire III. When night two of the raid week rolls around for that group, Joseph will have the option to continue for the week or to allow John to have his spot back. This is where we are putting our faith in the community of awesome people we have to respect the time and effort put in by the groups to progress and by those willing to fill in a spot to help you out. If they elect to finish the week out, they have earned that right.

6) So, I am raiding and things are going well! How do I get my sweet loot?
Our system for eight-man raiding is going to be a simple need-before-greed system. With the substitution system we are going to be using, this is really the only viable option for eight-man groups. Just always remember that these seven other people are not only the team you will be running with the majority of the time, but are also members of your guild. I am going to throw out a disclaimer here that has never come up but we always have to say it: Nothing will irritate your officer team faster than loot drama. NOTHING. If there is an issue, bring it up to an officer after the raid has completed for the night and we will do our best to address the situation.

7) What if I am new to raiding or not confident in my class?
Fear not, "noob"! Everyone starts somewhere. If someone asks for help, we will do our best to do a few things: Have them run a few of the progression steps with us (hard mode primals for example), fill a spot in a coil group (we feel much more confident in asking one of our leaders to sit out for a week than impeding one of your groups) and ask one of you to have a theory crafting session with people who need help. Please don't let inexperience deter you from enjoying the raiding adventure with your fellow Knights!

8) This all seems well and good but what if I have other questions or concerns?
Questions are normal, and you shouldn't feel bad about them. At a certain point, every boy and girl goes through a change when they start to get curious about raiding. They start to take a notice in "sweet loot" and notice they are thinking more and more about proper damage rotations. If you have any questions, you are welcome to see any of the officers, but your Raid Leadership Team comprises the following:
Artex / G'artex Tia
Naylan / Rowan Rayne

9) Thanks, Raiak! This post was not only informative, but a real pleasure to read. Do you have a P.O. box or shipping address I can send gifts to thank you?
No thanks are needed other than enjoying your time raiding in AKS, as above EVERYTHING else we value the fun of the experience.