Guild Leadership 101: Screaming WE ARE A FAMILY AND YOU BETTER PLAY TOGETHER does not make it so, and does not make it happen

Something silly-sad happened last night in one of the Forsaken World guilds I'm in that made me *gasp* *drumroll* miss raiding. Or at least, the discipline inherent in a good raiding group.

In Forsaken World, higher level guilds get major perks - including access to BoP ingredients needed to craft non-BOP high level food and potions. And subsidised potions, cool mounts, the whole works. What I find very important though, is the BoP food and potion ingredients, since in FW, you DO NOT REGEN (or well, you regen like a dying snail) if you do not eat/drink.

There's a daily instance called Gods' Trial, which runs for 1.5 hours in the time period when I play, and is an 'xp instance'. It's exactly what it sounds like - a super easy instance where you get oodles of xp. It's designed specifically to do that, and it's so simple that even PUGs find it hard to fail at it. Each run lasts about 20-30 minutes, depending on how fast people kill, and even as DPS pugging this, queue times are under 5 minutes, usually under 3. For a healer or tank, it tends to be under 1 minute.

So last night, feeling like a Dyootiful Nugget, I decide that I shall Be Social and Go With the Guild Instead of a PUG that Cannot and Will Not Fail.

And just like the previous time when I did this instance with said guild...

...I had to wait 20 minutes for people to FUCKING ARRIVE after being invited and the group showing as full.

20 minutes for something that, were you to queue in LFG, you'd get a group and be teleported in in under 5 minutes.

So, back to the fact that in the guild group I was in last night, there were two extremely inconsiderate people who made us wait 20 minutes at the instance transfer mob.

And so I whispered to our illustrious GM, who was in the group, '...not to be bitchy or anything, this is just feedback - but... our guild runs are always so slow to start. And people might be pugging because of that. In a PUG I get a near instant queue regardless of what class I am. If I go with a guild group I have to wait at least 15-20 minutes.'

...and she essploded. O.o

Nugget *cheeps*: But but... yeah I get the support the guild thing, but this instance is so easy, and ANY class gets a super fast queue. Naturally for harder instances I will prioritise the guild (being a healer), but for this one... anyone can get a slot - FAST.

Illustrious GM: Well you better hope you are active in the community, it's not about PUGs I will NEVER go with PUGs unless it is a LAST RESORT we are a FAMILY it doesn't MATTER if the PUGs are OKAY. (Yes, she started to remind me of a crazed Christian fundamentalist.)

Nugget: O.o Okay, fine. Sorry I said anything.

Nugget *thinks*: Ur stoopid.

Nugget *thinks moar*: ...so we have to stick together and 'be a family' but people being totally fucking inconsiderate is fine? Making people stand around for 20 minutes so they're deprived of one extra round of something they could have gotten into in a MINUTE that only runs twice a day (once, effectively, unless you stay home and play all day) is fine?

*shakes nuggetteh fist*

Stoopidity.

And so...much as I'm glad I'm no longer raiding, much as I NEVER want to raid again, I miss some aspects of being in a disciplined raid.

Worst thing was, the solution is so obviously (to a nugget anyway) to make it known that hey, people, be considerate to your guildies. Don't make them wait, or else you will be whapped. But no, making the group wait 20 minutes for a 1 minute queue is fine. Stating that this attitude is a problem is not fine.

Stoopid.

Forsaken World - Counterintuitive advice for DPS from a Divine priest

If you're not a Protector or a Warrior, and you see me, your friendly neighbourhood divine priest, being hit by a crapload of mobs - DO NOT AOE. (Unless, of course, you can kill all the mobs in that one AoE. Then go right ahead.)

And more importantly, DO NOT PULL THE MOBS OFF ME.

Seriously.

Because you'll die faster than I will if you do that.

See, PWE's game engines have retargetting lag on heals. After I target someone, I need to make sure I've selected them for at least 0.5s (or it could be 1s, I count by 3 spins of my mousewheel upon target change), or else the heal goes to ME. Not my target.

When a crapload of things are hitting on me, I'll be spamming heals on MYSELF, and probably the tank.

If a nice DPS (mages especially, you're so squishy), comes in and says I WILL SAVE J00 I WILL TAKE THEM!!!!!

That DPS will usually die. Not because I'm being mean but because I've been totally focused on, 'Oh oh oh oh stayin' aliiiiiiiiiiiiive!' that by the time I realise what you've done, and retargetted, and waited for the retarget to take... you'll probably be dead. This especially tends to happen in Arena of Souls.

Divine priests are very durable. Especially those with Iron Bone pets.

If you wanna tell the tank the healer's being eaten though, that's great - because I'm usually too busy BeeGeeing to be able to type that. And if you have a spare heal, no matter how puny, healing me with it is sweet. ;)

P.S.: This advice is good till level 49 - my priest isn't 50 yet. And so far trash in FW doesn't have the kind of disabling power that mobs in Guild Wars do, nor do they yet hit as hard as WoW heroics - where you really don't want them whaling on your healer.