Looking for a Raid Leader Experience.

Hello, I'm looking for help with forming a new learning raid group. Unfortunately, I'm not very experienced in this field and I need some insights, in hopes to be a new raid leader.

Because this is formerly my first MMO, I'm only experienced for as long as the game existed, I feel I'm lacking in terms of understanding battles in depth. I could pick up mechanics a few times, But I could never understood how/when/where or what not to do when the shit hits the fan, especially things like pushing phases or figuring out why some damages can be taken. Frustratingly enough, I don't want to go into details, its been difficult keeping positive mental health of people I'm with.

Please show me the ropes of a learning raid leader. Your mentor guidance will be greatly appreciated.

PS: I don't mind the struggles. I'm prepared for it.

Communication.

I would say for one work together, this is my first mmo but I lead my own group and one thing I've learnt is that you are not always right and that another member maybe more right then you in some instances and you should listen to your group as much as you expect them to listen to you.

When it comes to learning mecs, learning them quickly is good, in fact I'd expect myself to learn the mec as quick as possible so that I can guide people through it, how? Studying them and understanding it in fight, all this would fall down to yourself and how quick you learn. I've even had people asking me "how do I know?" and i'm like "well because I notice these things"

About when shit hit the fans, I assume when your whipping on the same mec over and over again?
Make sure your group KNOWS what to do but knowing and doing is 2 very different things. Talk to your group, who died? how did they die?

For example what recently happened to me:

had a new WHM in the group, MCH and WHM kept on dying. How and why?

A10S during the Pray phase, they both kept on dying and the WHM didn't know why. After doing a little research it turns out he was passing the pray but not moving in time so when the 2nd pray/puddle dropped it killed him. So we had to sort that out with him.


But all in all it's about communication between you and the group.


Another thing I would add is getting like minded people who see raiding in the same way as the rest of the team.

Hello and welcome to the world of raid leading!

Martin already covered the communication part pretty well, so I will try to take different approach on the subject.

Motivation.

As a raid leader, you don't need to be the very best player in your group. Being a raid leader is more like being the motivational cornerstone of the group; when things go awry, people look up to you to make the *right* decisions as well as say the inspiring words necessary to keep the flow going. You don't really want to hear a "can we stop please" in the middle of your raid after a set of mind-numbing wipes. Out of personal experience I have to say, that when people start getting unmotivated, there's something wrong with the group dynamics, the members or the leader. Each and every issue is something the raid leader should tackle head on to snip the problem early on.

While this preach of "keep people motivated" may seem like a triviality, it's not as easy as it may first seem. Even if all your raid members are (probably) all adults that are supposed to be able to keep their shit together, we're still all human beings challenging difficult content together. People do get psyched, and you need to try to keep level-headed and focus when others don't. When everyone else seems to be getting tired and giving up, as a raid leader, give it one or two more pushes and see how it goes. It is pivotal to keep the communication going throughout the raid, and even a positive "focus guys, let's get our game face on!" or "I am proud of you bois" can have an effect in the overall success of the raid.

Sometimes you may have to act like a raid sheriff: if people are discussing non-relevant content and dying because of it, then don't be afraid to step between them and tell them to focus on the actual fight instead.

I will cover more parts about mechanic handling, raid strategies and forming a group of like-minded people later if no one has discussed the areas by then.

Before you start anything, decide on what kind of group you want. Do you want a hardcore static or do you want a casual on? Is it a weekend group or a 4 says a week group? It matters for most people. Also is it linkshell or FC based?
Make sure you have a ts3, mumbler, discord, or some kind of VoIP with a private server. Even a ps4 voice will improve your static


To recruit people:
Make a post on your server forum with your plans, what roles do you need, intended startup time, and what days of the week. You may also want to make this post in your data center other server forums because of the raid finder and cross PF coming in 3.5. Next make a OF during your server's prime time with the essential information (time, days, FC/LS, static mindset, VoIP, exeperienced or new.) BE PREPARED TO BE ASKED A LOT OF STUPID QUESTIONS.
If you can recruit 1 or 2 of your good friends that understand that you are in charge, managing your static will be much easier.

Once you get your static together, run ex primsls on your first get together. Here you want to figure out how your static works together, what makes some of them tick, and will anyone be a potential problem. Cause a few wipes also and see how everyone reacts.
If everything goes smoothly, go raid the next day. If you felt like anyone could be a problem, talk to them one-on-one or replace them

Well I had a lot more but it seems everyone else got it lol

Hi Martin and Shane, Thank You for responding! I'll bear in mind to keep a good morale before the battle and to be prepared of what to expect before a raid. Yes at the moment, the difficulty of finding like-minded team, but one step at a time. I know I'll get there. Also starting multiple LS for it.

Remember it's a game !

To me one of the most important thing is to keep in mind this is a game and we are here to have some good time.
When I RL I always try to make sure every one is having fun, even if we keep dying all night long I consider it to be my duty to make silly jokes, to "make fun" of ourselves (nicely of course) cause we are all "sooooo bad we should go to Sastasha unsych with 8 people to maybe down it" etc
Most of the time I'm in casu friendly FC and we do not really seek challenge so my "stupid"attitude works pretty well :)

Unless I play with real beginners, most of the time my comrades are abble to focus and learn things by themselves, what they really need it a little bit of stupidity to relax.

And I think if more players remembered that we would propably have less "1 wipe rage quit" in DF ^^

Yes, zcrash I already have a standard of charter in writing, finalizing it real soon. And will be looking into Voip etc. it will be a slow struggle at the moment as I'm starting out on my own until I find a reliable teammates. Thank you so much for the details!

I have done those runs where I wipe on purpose and yea... it was ugly, which is why I've learnt the hard way and saw the double standards in a lot of people. It was sad but for myself it was a positive experience. I now know what I really want in a group.

Yup I understand what you mean but unfortunately its not going to be casual. I want to win positively. I want my team to be able to understand when the jokes have to stop immediately and get down to business.

Leading a raid group is not an easy task. I led one for Gordias and some of Midas and it was definitely a life lesson. Anyways, here's some tips I'd like to give you:


1. Sort out loot rules in advance. Make sure everyone is on the same page about them. You may think it's not important when you're starting prog, but I've seen people loot swipe just to have "bragging rights on beating a fight" and it leaves people who would've actually used the loot out in the cold. And, understandably, a lot of them end up being upset, too.

2. If you don't know anything about a person you are recruiting, feel free to ask around. I ended up letting a member into my group who had a reputation for causing drama. Spoiler alert: they caused so much drama that the group eventually broke up. People even warned me this person was going to do that... and I didn't listen. Which, I mean there's some merit to not just listening to what other people have to say and making your own opinions... but if it's a huge group of people telling you something is a bad idea, then maybe reconsider it.

3. If there becomes a conflict in the group, address it before it spirals out of control. Don't let bad feelings fester, or things will blow up in the end. One good way I've seen this done is have the raider leader plus the people in question move to another channel after raid to talk things out.

4. Find a way to communicate with all members outside of the game. My group uses LINE, I had a previous group use GroupMe. Sometimes, my current group uses our FC's Discord as well. This is absolutely vital in case of emergencies. No one likes waiting around 30minutes to an hour for someone to show up.

5. Keeping everyone's spirits up is part of the leader's job, but understand there's only so much you can do. The rest is on the team. If people insist on bringing each other down or bringing themselves down, then all you can do is either tolerate it or replace them. If it's bad enough, I'd suggest replacing, as that behavior tends to become rather infectious... and pretty soon, everyone is like "lol why are we doing this again?" and raid becomes not fun.

One thing I didn't see mentioned here which is something that does need to be said, is to remember that YOU are the leader and YOU are the one in charge and making decisions. It's really important that you maintain control of the group during boss fights and take command if things start to go bad during one of your pulls. I had a reputation back as a raid leader in WoW for running a tight ship, I tolerated no BSing during boss fights and made sure people stayed focused and on task and we did pretty well.

I also had a fairly strict no carry rule in boss fights that made sure people did their job from start to finish, as an example, in one of the raid fights from the wrath of the lich king xpac in WoW, there was a boss that summoned massive but very slow moving lava tidal waves with very clear indicators of safe spots. He did that roughly every 60 seconds, I had a strict rule in place where if you died to the very first one, you weren't allowed to roll on anything that dropped. As far as I'm concerned, a person that dies 60 seconds in to a fight doesn't deserve an item over someone that stayed alive, did their job, and did all the mechanics. Harsh? Maybe, but it encouraged people to excel and get better.

There's already a lot of great advice in here from lessons people have learned.

Ultimately - as the raid leader, you're the one who will be addressing any performance issues / drama. If someone isn't pulling their weight, failing to learn mechanics and holding the rest of the group back, find out why. Find out what the problem is and what will help them. Sometimes, they're really nice people who might just not be cut out for raiding, or might have lost motivation. As the raid leader, you need to decide what to do. Do you cut them lose and replace them or risk someone else leaving because they get frustrated with the lack of progression? Setting clear guidelines for the group beforehand can really be helpful in this area. Also, be concise, clear and to the point when addressing people about such problems, but also understand that there's a real life person behind the character - so be kind and respectful, not a dictator. Don't let things fester and hope they will go away or work out in the background. Get in front of problems and figure out a solution.

Set your loot rules and expectations clearly. In our group, everyone gets 1 secondary class they want to gear up. Loot will always go first to primary roles in the raid, then if that person doesn't want/need it, it will go to the person(s) who called it as secondary classes. After that, free roll. We assign weekly who will get the upgrade items based on what is best for the group overall and try to be fair to everyone.

Being a raid leader is like being the conductor of a train. You need to keep things running and progressing smoothly, keeping things on track, but also making sure to address any concerns or questions that come up. You'll need to account for different play styles, different learning styles, and the pace at which people pick up mechanics. There are going to be times when the train gets off the track and it's up to you to figure out how to get things back on track. These times could be related to progression or to changes in the line up. If you find that people are messing up on simple things, or mechanics they used to do flawlessly, it can really help to take a 5 minute break - encourage everyone to step away from their keyboard, stretch, get a breath of fresh air, etc. Talk about what's causing the problems and find a solution, or mix things up.

The other big bump you'll often find in raid groups is when someone leaves the group, whether they want to or because they're asked to. It isn't uncommon for 1 person leaving to open the door to have other people leave as well. Don't be the raid leader that assumes you're 'too tight knit' to have these kinds of problems. If you need to recruit new people, or pug for a while, be the unifying voice that keeps everyone else on track and together. If the group needs a cheerleader, be a cheerleader for a while. If they need a swift kick in the pants, then put your boots on. When bringing in someone new, be mindful of what personalities and play styles you have already and try to respect them.

Know what people's strengths are - as well as their weaknesses. Sometimes a popular strat just won't work for your group and that's okay. Figure out what does work for you and your group. If someone is great at mechanics, have them be the raid caller. Know what tools are out there to help you analyze performance and identify any problems. Even someone as simple as having someone video the fights can help people to see 'OH, that's the thing that killed me'.

Above all else, remember that this is a game and it's supposed to be fun. People are going to screw up, but create a group that has fun screwing up together. Celebrating the win is a lot of fun when you have 7 other close friends by your side.

Thanks everyone for all the insights! Greatly appreciate it!

I've led groups in previous games, so I'll chime in my experience. As a raid leader, you have to be able to put the iron boots on when needed, but you also need to be someone your group looks up to. For example, on another game, I had a group that as soon as I left the clan, the clan fell apart. Whereas before, it was being held up because people respected and looked up to me as a leader. I've also been a raid caller, because people understood me better than the raid leader in WoW (how a cross-European group understood a Yorkshireman the best I will NEVER know). Utilise the tools, understand who is understood the best, understand the nuances of the group. And yes, I've been a cheerleader before too (both in groups and IRL), so I know how to throw my energy into it and give people that encouragement they need, and let me tell you, it WORKS. If you're being hit by the same barrier time and time again, people will get demotivated and feel like they can't do it. So a pep talk, cheerleading on, etc, works wonders. Once people understand the mechanic that is. Also, get rid of members only as a last resort (unless they're being abusive, bullying, etc), always try to understand their problem and how to address it. I know you're on Jenova, but I'm free if you need to drill into my banks of experience any further.

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Originally Posted by Onshinn

Hello, I'm looking for help with forming a new learning raid group. Unfortunately, I'm not very experienced in this field and I need some insights, in hopes to be a new raid leader.

Please show me the ropes of a learning raid leader. Your mentor guidance will be greatly appreciated.

PS: I don't mind the struggles. I'm prepared for it.

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Take a read of this, it doesn't just apply to healers but the concepts apply to the whole team. http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...al-exploration
Hopefully, this will give you some guidance on the forces you have to deal with as an effective raid leader.