Belghast

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GroupCraft:  Preamble

Communication

Last week I stated that the first step in building successful groups was to build a pool of players.  You cannot build a group without the players, and in order to get those players you need a solid network.  However, without good communication skills you cannot build your network. This step in the group building process goes very much hand in hand with the previous one.  Communication is the general heading for learning how to interact with players in a very deliberate fashion in order to achieve your required results.

Be Specific

Let me make a call back to what I had originally stated as the problem, being that players in general do not know how to ask for a group properly.  It is my experience that saying “Does Anyone want to do something?”, “<class> Looking for Group”, and “Anyone need a me?” all garner the exact same response…  crickets.  As Copernicus responded to the last post, there are a lot of players who simply are not motivated to lead, and those who are often times need some downtime.  So announcing that you are wanting to do something, without wrapping any specifics around it, tends to make players uncertain of whether or not they should respond.

Simply changing your request to something like this.. “I’m a priest, wanting to heal a heroic violet hold, is anyone interested in running it with me?” will give you much more determined results.  This statement, while not that much more complex than the previous examples does several things right.  Firstly it answers the question of where.  It tells the players that you are wanting to run Heroic Violet Hold.  Players who also want to run this instance, are much more likely to respond to this knowing that your destination is predetermined.

Next the statement announces that you are a healing priest, and that your intent is to heal the instance.  This means that in order for you to build the instance you are going to need a tank and some dps.  So tanks and dps who also want to run the instance immediately know whether or not there might be room for them, since your intention is once again clearly spelled out.  It allows people watching chat to make the important decision of whether or not they are in the mood to run that instance, with a character that compliments what the group has already.

Be Direct

In truth, while this will give you better results I have always found it better to go to the players directly.  When building a group, I tend to lock down a few players before I open up the invites to the general population. It has been my experience that the fewer places you need filled by the time you ask in open guild chat or a social channel, the faster and more positive your response will be.  If you are looking for 2 dps for example, you will have a much easier time filling than if you HAD 3 dps, looking for a tank and healer.

Directly messaging a few players to ask them if they are interested, helps to shape the group and give you an idea of what exactly you are going to need to succeed.  I will cover this theory a little bit more in depth in the group balance topic, but the basic idea is to lock down your core players first through direct communication and as many DPS as you can muster, before bringing it out into the open.  Many players feel intimidated responding to requests in open chat, but when contacted directly will respond quickly and positively.

Communicate Clearly

While I am covering this towards the end of this post, it is probably the most important point.  Be aware of how your communication reflects upon you.  Read these two statements, and tell me which one you would rather group with.  “We need another dps for a 10 man Naxxramas, are you available?” or “Need 1 dps 4 Naxx 10, u avail?”.   I personally have a good deal more faith in the first player as being a good leader. The second player seems lazy, and as a result gives me the assumption that they would not take into account all the details in their rush to get “phat lewtz”.

What you say is often times not as important as how you say it.  An over use of abbreviations makes you seem far less intelligent than you really are, and as a result gives players who do not already know you a question about whether or not you will do a good job in the assigned roles.  There is nothing hip or trendy about communicating poorly.  You will find the best results if you always strive to type as clearly as possible, and with minimal usage of abbreviations. 

It is best if you view communication with new players as a business transaction.  Would you entrust your money to a bank that was not diligent enough to spell out what they were trying to tell you?  Probably not, and by the same token why should a player entrust you with their grouping experience if you are doing the same.  You are trying to sell yourself, or your group to the potential member, and as a result it is always best to put your best foot forward.

Next Topic:  Assembly

Last week I had high hopes for things starting to settle down for me.  The last three days of the week were pretty hellacious, but I had managed to wrap up one project that was causing me a good deal of stress.  It seemed like I would be handling many of the issues that had stacked up while I was devoted to that project which all in all should have been a few low stress weeks.  However I was sorely mistaken.

Friday afternoon I got thrown under the bus, figuratively at least.  I work for a good sized municipality as a web developer.  The small team of web developers for the most part represents the tightest cluster of modern development skill-sets in the entire IT department, with the majority being what I would term as, “application babysitters”.  The result is that we often end up getting pulled in to things at the last minute, to serve as virtual ballast in an effort to keep the entire project from capsizing.

Friday I was steamrolled by one of these such projects.  Including a develop that seemed to be willing to do anything at all in his power to halt the progress of the project as a whole.  Due to other issues I had to leave midday, but when we last spoke I had a clear path outlined and agreed to work on a solution to act as a stop gap measure to keep the project on track.  Today I sat down to start working on the application only to find in a few short hours that everything had changed.

For this very moment, I appear to be out of the loop, so I am finally able to sit down and write a bit.  However everything is very much in a state of flux and could end up undoing itself at a moments notice.  Ultimately, I am tired of dealing with individuals who will do anything at all, to craft excuses as to why they can’t actually do their own work.  Without a doubt, I do fully understand why it is that postal workers…  go postal.  Dealing with governmental employees takes a whole kind of stomach that I have yet to full develop.

It’s Everywhere

Part of my morning ritual involves stopping each morning at “Kum and Go”, a gas station chain in my area.  This serves as my morning caffeine destination, and gives me something to drink on for the rest of the day. Over the course of the year and some change we have been stopping there every morning, I have gotten to know almost all of the morning staff.  Even to the point of bringing the morning manager a small Christmas gift this past year.

One of these individuals who has warmed up to us over time is Tim.  Great guy, good sense of humor, and while he started out a little bit standoffish, he has warmed up and become rather personable.  At some point last week I was trying out the new WoW Mountain Dew flavors, and in checking me out I found out that he too plays WoW.  I am just constantly amazed and how widespread the game has become.  Now I just have to work my magic and get him to somehow transfer characters over to Argent Dawn.

More Guide on it’s way

The continuation of the groupcraft guide will be following shortly, but I wanted to get a quick note up to attempt to explain why I hadn’t been posting.  Depending on how long this break in the work storm lasts will determine how quickly I can get the next segments done.  In truth I should have worked on them this weekend, but after the insanity that was Wednesday, Thursday and Friday last week I frankly needed a break from thinking. 

What better way to stop thinking than to grind away playing a horribly overpowered and mindless class…  aka the Deathknight.  I am going to pretty much have to eat all the nasty things I have said about the class as a whole.  While yes I am annoyed that so many players have abandoned much needed classes in order to migrate over to the unholy warriors…  I cannot at all deny how fun they are to play.  Friday I was level 66, and by Sunday evening I was level 71.  The time between seems to have somewhat disappeared on me.

The Problem

One of the issues I have encountered over and over in this game is the issue of how to get groups.  I have sat around watching players get frustrated when groups do not just magically happen around them.  Honestly, I used to be one of these players.  Just like so many players I would pose the question, “Anyone want to do something?” or the dreaded “Anything going on?”.  Each time expecting someone to magically form a group for my own benefit around me, when in truth the only refrain would be that of dead silence.

At the release of Burning Crusade I came to a revelation.  It was not my guild, or my friends, or anything else that was the problem at hand.  It was the way in which I approached the problem of getting groups going.  I was in fact doing everything wrong.  I set myself to the task of learning how to assemble group, and after a few weeks of trial and error I was building them every single night and burning through dungeons with ease.

I’ve shared my knowledge with guild mates and friends in less complete versions, but here I am trying to distill all the basic theory I have collected into one easy to follow guide.

Preamble: You Need People – General Networking

If you are going to group up, you in the most basic sense need more people than just yourself.  Yes I am stating this to be overly obvious, but it leads it’s way to a key fundamental of group building.  You need a ready supply of players at your disposal, or you need a network.  Networking is a concept used often in business circles but in its most fundamental form you need a list of “known good” players if you ever hope to start assembly groups with a regular frequency.

Looking For Group – Pugging

Networking in WoW is a process occurs gradually, but is so fundamental to being able to succeed in this game that I feel it is best to cover the topic as a sort of, preamble.  The only real way to network is to get out and expose yourself to new group of players.  The most basic way to get access to groups of new players is through the use of the looking for group tool inside World of Warcraft itself. 

If you are in the process of building your network, I would highly suggest staying in the looking for group channel your entire time playing.  Often times there are random grouping opportunities there, but more importantly an astute reader of the channel can pick up patterns.  There might be a healer, tank and a couple of dps looking for heroics, and all that it really takes is someone paying enough attention to make the connective tissue and organize the ready to form group.

Friends List – Known Good Players

While you are spending time in pick up groups, take note of the good players you encounter.  I suggest you utilize your friends list as a way to track all of the players you encounter that seem to know their classes and can execute assignments well.  Before long in your friends list you will have a directory of potential grouping options, allow you to quickly assemble groups with a core of players you already have experience grouping with.

You will quickly start to notice patterns while grouping.  Certain guilds just seem to have higher quality players than others.  When you find one of these guilds that seems to be both active, and populated with really good players I have found it useful to create a macro that does a simple “/who guildname”.  This allows you to easily check and see which players from that guild are online, and zones they are sitting in.  If a player is standing in one of the hub cities, it is generally a good sign that they are not otherwise busy, and are potentially an option for grouping.  I have had good luck in the past at “cold” messaging players that are from guilds that I know to be solid.

Social Channels – Haven for Good Grouping

Most Servers have many active social channels.  Get to know these well, and join them.  An addon like Cirk’s Chatmanager makes sifting through channels for potential grouping prospects considerably easier but the default UI is more than adequate.  Social Channels are by default, populated by Social Players…  which in turn makes them much more open to the concept of grouping as a whole. 

Once you “hang out” in the channel for awhile, you will learn the various players personalities and who will be more or less likely to accept your group invites.  These channels open up a door to a whole body of players and make it easier to assemble a group rapidly.  Various raids and guilds have specific channels open to members and their friends, and these channels often lend themselves to potential raid invites later down the line. 

Next Topic:  Communication

It’s that time again, another Tuesday, or to WoW aficionados…  maintenance day.  The day where little boys and girls sit by the warm glow of their screens cautiously watching for the sign to enter Azeroth once more.  For the Duranubs, it is another day spent wondering whether or not the server will be stable enough to raid.  For me personally sitting here trying to prepare for the impending disappointment brought by Titanguard  once more being fickle.  I am convinced that this will be one more in the long line of things that refused to drop: Shoulderguards of the Bold, Barbed Choker of Discipline, and Destroyer Shoulderguards.  It is a pattern…  certain pieces of gear hate me with deep dark brooding passion.

Bowing to peer pressure

Well its not so much, peer pressure, but I still feel like I am somewhat jumping on the bandwagon.  It started with Larisa moving from pinkpigtailinn.blogspot.com to pinkpigtailinn.com, and then continued with Ariedan moving from wordywarrior.wordpress.com to wordywarrior.com.  It seemed like most of my favorite blogs were abandoning their cheap/free subdomains for the sake of a real domain name.  In a blatant act of following the leaders, I did a quick search and sure enough, Aggronaut.com was in fact available.

I snatched it up as quickly as I could rifle through my wallet for my credit card.  I have in fact had the domain for a few weeks now, but was waiting to make sure that my google analytics was in fact wired correctly and various other house keeping details.  So from this point on, both the original Aggronaut.housestalwart.com and Aggronaut.com resolve to the same location.  Thanks to everyone who has been reading this blog and making it so surprisingly popular.  Had I not gotten the overwhelming support, I don’t think I would have ever “ponied up” for the “real” domain name.

Life and Limb

Ysinnia has been an active support of me and my dumb actions for going on six years.  She helped me to found House Stalwart, acted as a gateway drug into heavy raiding, taught me to love and respect the power of the dwarven priest, and has been a great friend all along the way.  Though she has shifted in and out of the mix due to real life responsibilities she’s always been a great player.  When Burning Crusade was released, she shifted from her dwarven priest to her druid, and with the release of Wrath became one of the best Trees I know.

A few days ago, I added her new endevour to my blogroll, but haven’t really had time to give her a proper plug.  She is currently working on the Limb From Limb druid blog, in which she covers the life and times of a more casual player in wow.  We miss her horribly in Duranub, but real life has forced her to take a step away from the rhythm of the raid life.  She’s hopelessly addicted to the “Get That Achievement” game on the Achievements forum.  While I think she is nuts sometimes for it, she apparently enjoys being made to grind achievements by strangers.

Mostly I added that part in to fluster her, but I think it is a cool source of inspiration.  Limb from Limb is shaping up to be a good blog, and I highly suggest adding it to your RSS feed.  Great player, great sense of humor…  you just can’t go wrong.

Pathfinder

Every so often I write something that might be a bit more than just one of my random brain dumps.  When this rare event happens, it becomes a sort of guide that can be referred back to.  Stealing a page from the book of RollingHots,  I have decided it might be prudent to create a guides page so that it is easier for new folks to find these rare nuggets of wisdom, or at least not horribleness.  If you notice at the top of the site, there is a new link entitled…  wait for it…   Guides.

It took me hours to think that name up.  I hope people find it even mildly useful.  The real reason behind this is that I am working on a new guide for the site.  At the start of burning crusade I found that the groups were not coming as frequently as I wanted them to, so I set out to learn the ancient art of how to pull together a group from out of thin air.  The resulting guide was posted for my guild, and I am in the process of updating it to be more sane.  Hopefully in the next few days I will get it posted on the site.

A Final Thought:  Normalize Repair Bills

In closing I want to through something out there.  I think the time has come for blizzard to seriously consider normalizing the cost of repair bills for plate, mail, leather and cloth.  Last Sunday, I ran Naxxramas with my boomkin.  At one point during the run, I looked down and noticed that all my gear was in the red, so I flew over to Wintergarde keep to repair.  I was expecting the worst, because I am used to the plate repair bills…  and was shocked at a full epic repair bill for the Naxx leather gear I was wearing was only 35 gold.

This figure may or may not seem normal to you, but I will tell you that on Belghast, that is less than two deaths worth of repair bills.  Even on a good night of raiding, I am dropping over 100g in repairs alone.  My worst night ever that figure climbed up to roughly 300g, and in truth it was a little bit over that.  I simply cannot make enough money each week to cover 4 nights of raiding on my warrior.  Honestly this is the point at which blizzard needs to either adjust quest rewards to compensate the difference in armor classes, or look at maybe finally normalizing the costs.

In the old world, the basic theory was this.  Plate classes had the least reagents to buy, so as a result they had the highest cost of repair to normalize things so that each class had to pay out roughly the same cost for a night of raiding.  However, as gear has increased, the costs of reagents have not increased to a level to keep up with the astronomical repair bills that most main tanks have each night.  I very literally watch my gold reserves draining every single night, and it is very hard not to do the math in your head.

You start to calculate, how many more weeks can you afford to continue to raid.  I’ve had friends help me out with money, but in truth this only serves to delay the inevitable point at which I literally run out of money.  The time has come for blizzard to finally address the disparity in the “cost of living” for the various classes.  So I ask you my readers, what are your thoughts?  Religiously grinding daily quests are not the answer, this simply adds more workload to an already overworked player.  We should not have to work a “second job” just to be able to afford to raid. 

Basically I feel like general motors, looking to blizzard to bail me out