How to get a spot in the raid

As raiding picks up, the number of people who sign up will obviously start to exceed the number of spots. The following guidelines will come into play to help determines who gets an invite and who remains on standby (in order of importance)...

1. Role/Class requirements- Obviously, a certain number of healers, tanks and DPS are required. This means a particular healer may be invited to every single raid for a year, while a DPS may only be asked to half of them (dual specs in 3.1 will help open this up a bit).
2. Attendance and Attitude- No one wants to raid with a Negative Nancy or with someone who's chronically late. If you are either, you may find invites will be few and far between.
3. Skill- Yes, this is after attitude. Personally, I'd rather raid with someone who's fun but needs practice than someone who's uber 1337 and does nothing but complain. I want to enjoy the trip to the final boss, not spend every minute looking for an excuse to call the raid...
4. Gear- Though gear will never be the only reason to invite/exclude a person, if the raid is progressing to a more difficult stage, those with sub-par gear my be asked to sit out. This also works the other way, where those with particularly nice gear may be asked to sit out the easier parts of a raid to ensure that gear drops don't go to waste.
5. Preparation- Come prepared. This means having food, pots, ammo, correct gear set, etc. Consistent lack of preparation will adversely impact future raid invites.
6. Communication- Simply put, if you're going to be 5 minutes later and haven't told me, I have no way of knowing that I'm supposed to hold a spot. Please communicate with me and/or other guildies regarding absences, lateness, etc.

In the end, you are competing for raid spots in a manner of speaking. Though I make every effort to include everyone, the fact of the matter is that there are 8 other people in the raid (myself excluded) and their needs have to considered as well. Players who consistently show they're motivated and want to do well are the ones who will see the most purple...

PS Kissing up won't help either.  I like EVERYONE and always feel bad when someone sits out. :(

Raid Chat Channels

I've set up 3 chat channels for raiding. One for healers, one for DPS and one for tanks (send me a whisper for the channel name & password). These have a very specific purpose during raiding: they organize information. I'll be monitoring each channel, so if DPS has a certain issue/concern/idea/question, they can air it in the DPS channel. It's not meant to hide the information from the rest of the raid, but some info just isn't critical for anyone not playing that role. A case in point is heal assigns. These will be spammed to the healer channel since it's not vital that DPS know who's healing them (just that they're getting heals). At other times, the least embarrassing way to communicate info (Such as "OMG, Panda sucks. We're gonna have to double his heals") is through the channel. Though they can certainly take on a life of their own, during raids the channels will be for raid-related stuff only.

Weekly Raid Lottery

Here are the "tickets" along with random numbers. Congratulations Nighthut!

1	Nicknack
2	Kanstali
3	Teos
4	Amellae
5	Warhound
6	Warhound
7	Warhound
8	Nighthut
9	Kamikazi
10	Teos
11	Amellae
12	Landdorin
13	Felidan
14	Adelice
15	Ninjarogue
16	Adelice
17	Nighthut
18	Kamikazi
19	Nighthut
20	Moonsparrow
21	Warhound
22	Moonsparrow
23	Nicknack
24	Kamikazi
25	Teos
26	Kamikazi
27	Nicknack
28	Kanstali
29	Teos
30	Kanstali
31	Amellae
32	Landdorin
33	Amellae

A Random Number Generator is no way to distribute loot.

The raid is progressing smooth as butter and everyone's amazed at how easy the bosses are falling. After the third boss, someone links a damage meter. "OMG! Bob's DPS is equal to everyone else's combined!" Bob lol's then explains he has to call it a night. His spot is filled 10 minutes later and suddenly the raid can't even clear trash. The raid leaders calls it 20 minutes later...

Such are the benefits and dangers of an unbalanced raid when it comes to gear. I'm not one to limit people's loot, but I'd like to implement a basic loot-distribution system. This is not to suggest that the KCDS is greedy (far from it). It's just a passive system to keep loot even. I hope it will be simple and fair to everyone. Here's the plan:*

• For every raid, you earn 1 point (1/2 point if you attended for less than two-thirds).
  
• Every item you win costs 1 point (you can have negative points). Players who are asked to bring an alt, will have one "point-free" drop per week to avoid penalizing their main.
  
• You must defer to anyone with 2 points more than you.**
  
• You must defer after 2 consecutive item wins in any one week.***
  
• Points (earned and "spent") fall off after two weeks.
  
• You are never required to roll and may pass simply because you want others to get gear as well.

That's it. This will help ensure that the raid stays somewhat evenly geared and the absence of any one person isn't a threat to raid success.

PS The above is never in effect when KCDS PUGs. Every person for him/herself in those cases ;)

* This applies ONLY to main spec. Off-spec rolls are open to everyone and do not use points.

** "Defer" does not mean you can't have the item. It simply means that anyone else (main spec) who wants it receives priority.

*** "Consecutive" means winning two items in a row for which you were eligible (i.e. if Boss 1 drops tank gear, Boss 2 drops DPS/healer and Boss 3 drops tank, a tank who won on 1 & 3 would have 2 consecutive wins). By deferring, the next drop would NOT be considered "in a row" and you could roll again, provided you had the points.