Cataclysm Raiding - The Natural Order Plan

Mission Statement:

We, the members of Natural Order, want to make sure that everyone in the guild will be provided a fun gaming and raiding experience. Those who wish to raid, will have opportunities to do so, regardless of guild rank, provided that they meet the conditions for raiding as established by the guild. Raids should be fun guild activities, and no one should have to be concerned with being spoken to in anger or being harassed during the raids. Members will not be asked to 'sit' from raids unless absolutely necessary, and then only in a rotation where everyone takes a turn 'sitting on the bench' so as to ensure the broadest participation possible.

Presumed Cataclysm Gearing Preparation:

Based on blue posts, and the beta, the gearing progression has been established to be this: First players will set themselves up with normal dungeon gear, crafted gear, and gear from questing. That will allow players to run Heroic Dungeons. These heroic dungeons will be a necessity to gear up in, in order to survive within the raids, unlike in Cataclysm. It's closer to how things were in Burning Crusade. Once a player has geared in the heroic dungeons, they will then be prepared for Normal Raiding.

Raiding GearScore Baseline:

Because raiding in Cataclysm is a bit more initially gear intensive than in Wrath we are going to have a very general gear score guideline. Once we establish what a fully normal dungeon geared player's GearScore is, and what a fully heroic dungeon GearScore is, we will look at that as a GearScore buffer. If your GearScore falls under that buffer you may be asked to sit for other people, and asked to run more five man heroics to increase your baseline gear, rather than raid. Once you are within the buffer, we will not sit you based on GearScore, however we reserve the right to redefine the buffer zone limitations depending on experience. For instance: If people below certain gear scores simply don't have enough health to survive certain encounters, we will be forced to revise them.

Raids:

The initial two raids are Blackwing Descent and Bastion of Twilight. Both are smaller raids with only 4-5 bosses within them, as opposed to a massive Ulduar styled dungeon. Blackwing Descent is recommended as the first raid. After these two, and their heroic versions, we will move onto Throne of the Four Winds, normal and heroic. The final boss of Throne of the Four Winds (Al'akir) is the final boss shipping with Cataclysm.

EP/GP:

We will continue to use EP/GP. All scores will be wiped with Cataclysm to 100/100 (the GP score must always have a value to avoid division by zero errors). No EP or GP will be rewarded for Pre-Cataclysm raids at that point. Points will return to current tier points as established on the forums for the initial Tier of Cataclysm raids.

Main Character Declarations:

We have a separate new "Main Declaration" thread. Here each raider will declare which character is their raiding main, and what their primary and secondary spec will be. If you change this, you must inform the raid leaders and guild on the thread. Frequent switching between alts will be frowned upon highly to start Cataclysm. We ask that everyone stick with their declaration and decision through at least a full tier of gear. Should they wish to switch to raiding with another character, realize that re-gearing will be more difficult in Cataclysm after the first tier, and that gearing a character and switching to another one is very hard on a guild who raids as we do. Please pick a character and stick to that character.

Initial Raiding:

We will plan on no raiding for 2-3 weeks as people level, and gear. Once people reach level 85 we can begin running Heroic Dungeons as a guild. Once we seem to have enough people ready to go, we will begin scheduling raids and seeing what we see. The initial raid may be scheduled days in advance, or it might be a last minute 'lets go see what happens' type thing, but after that point we will being our raiding schedule

Raiding 25 versus 10:

On Guild Raid nights we will raid whatever sits the fewest people. If we have 27 people on we will raid a 25 man and sit 2. If we have 32 people on we will raid three 10 mans, and sit 2, rather than sit 7. However, if we have 32 people on, but only 4 tanks, then we raid a 25 man as we aren't able to staff the three 10 mans. The goal is to sit as few people possible on Guild Raid nights. Whenever possible we will do 25 mans as they provide more gear and more points for buying gear.

Proposed Schedule:

We initially propose to schedule the following days and events, but this may change depending on the availability of raiders and raid leaders.

Tuesday - Guild Raid. 25 or 10 man(s) depending.

Wednesday - Rated Battleground PVP. Separately we will need a PVP General to lead our guild rated BG efforts and coordinate our Wednesday battles with the alliance.

Thursday - Guild Raid. 25 or 10 man(s) depending.

Friday - Open for Heroic Gearing, or Achievement Runs, PVP or other Fun things.

Saturday - Old School Raiding. This will entail both going back to the old Vanilla and BC instances, but also the Lich King or Ulduar, etc.

Sunday - Open for Heroic Gearing, or Achievement Runs, PVP or other Fun things. Eventually possibly an "Alt Guild Raid".

Monday - Progression Monday

Progression Monday:

Progression Monday will be us being srsbizness about raiding. Those interested in joining serious progression attempts will sign up for these raids. These will be repeated wipe-fests on bosses we haven't gotten to yet. It will use the raid locks from the Guild Raids earlier in the week. It will be expected to be the better geared players in the guild. Progression players will be expected to participate in discussions on the website, view and discuss videos and raid strategies, and meet all raiding conditions, including a stricter gear score, and actual output numbers from Recount, World of Logs, etc. All those who meet these conditions will be rotated through progression attempts, as class balance dictates. For instance if we have three retribution paladins capable and meeting the requirements who wish to go, only one might be invited on any given Monday, and the other two asked to sit. If possible the Raid Leader should inform people of this in advance so people do not show up on Monday night, so sign ups on the Guild Calendar will be required well in advance of the raid night, as the lineup might be decided 24 hours or more in advance. Those that sit will be recorded as sitting, and will get a turn the next time they sign up, should balance allow it. While these will not be set teams, expect these to be smaller groups than our regular raiding, and these raids will not be the same fun raids as the Guild Raids. This will be more serious raiding. It will involve alot of wiping on bosses, following directions, and being quick to rez and get back. To be prepared, and follow all raiding conditions. Players that won't, will be asked to sit for those that do. It's not for everyone, but we want to offer it to those that want to push the envelope one day a week.

Raiding Conditions:

1) Declare your main in the appropriate Cataclysm Main Declaration thread.
2) Have Mumble installed and able to at least listen.
3) Have all required guild add-ons installed (EPGP Lootmaster, DBM, etc)
4) Sign up on the Guild Calendar Online for events you wish to participate in. Sign up as Tentative if you're not sure you can attend. Sign up only as "sign up" if you are sure you will be attending.
5) View Bossfight videos. We ask that everyone who wishes to raid, visit the website at least once a week and view any bossfight videos we post, and listen to explanations. It cuts down on explanations in raid, and helps our success tremendously. Do NOT watch these as we gather up. Watch them earlier in the week some time, or an hour before the raid. Do not do it while we're pulling trash.
6) Read the Raiding 101 Thread which is updated regularly, and will continue to be updated for Cataclysm. Do whatever it says there.

Sitting:

It will happen that we won't be able to raid everyone, every week, every day. When that happens we will ask for volunteers to sit. These sitters will get the same EP the raid gets, whether they stay in the raid or not, as long as they stay online and are available to step in as a replacement as needed. People who sit, will have their names recorded in the Members section of the website, with which raid they sat, on which day. The next time people are asked to sit, that person will not be asked to sit, and someone who hasn't sat will be, or someone who has sat less than another person will be asked to sit. We want to have full recording and disclosure of who volunteers and is asked to sit, and how many times. This way we can not ignore who has missed raids, and who is more deserving of a particular spot on a Guild Raid night. These numbers do not apply to Rated BG's or to Progression Monday, only to Guild Raid night.

Off-Night, Daytime, and Late-Night Raiding:

Should someone wish to organize raids, alt raids, off night raids, daytime or late night raids for those unable to make the normal Guild Runs, we will help to facilitate this in any way we can. It will depend on people willing to organize and run these raids for those who it applies to. If you are unable to attend a normal raiding event, or wish to organize one at an 'odd' time, please let us know so we can incorporate it.

Revisions To This Plan

We plan on revising this plan as necessary, to ensure that we are meeting our mission. Comments and suggestions are welcomed.