This seems to be the mantra of mythic guilds everywhere – where are all the raiders? Where are the people who want to kick bosses in the face? Where are the people who want to hang out with a bunch of random weirdos for a laugh and a few jokes? Where are the people who are willing to do this 2 nights a week? Because we can’t find them. 

Our guild cleared Heroic Blackrock Foundry a few weeks ago now, but we haven’t been able to move on the Mythics, simply because we don’t have the numbers. For whatever reason there have been a couple of people away for each raid night, and because we have exactly 20 raiders it means we’re left with not enough people to do Mythic content. The obvious answer is, of course, to PUG the missing people, but this isn’t ideal when trying to do progression. And I suppose my question is why there are so many raiders lacking that we need to do this in the first place? 

How 20 man mythic broke raiding

My feeling is that the forced 20 man requirement for mythic raiding is what has caused the issues. People who were raiding 25 man had to drop some people, and teams raiding 10 man needed to double their team size at a minimum. And that’s where the issue is. There are more people looking for players than there are players who were “abandoned” by the cull of 25 mans. 

Now a “logical” thing may have been for some 10 man teams to merge to create the new 20 man required size, but this isn’t easy. Guild merges are incredibly difficult (especially when big egos are involved), and there is very little support available to facilitate this. There are so many issues to deal with – who gets to be the Guild Master of the new combined guild? Do existing officers still get to be officers? What happens when guild gold and guild bank contributions are imbalanced? What are the guild bank access rules? And that doesn’t even cover whether the two guilds are a good fit, and who gets to keep their main when there are 4 of the same class now in the team. It’s very tricky.

So we tend to be stuck. We have recruitment posts on the WoW forums of recruitment and on the specific server forum, but we are lost in an ocean of other guilds who are in exactly the same boat. That is, they want about 5 more players on their team to have a consistent group of just over 20 that allows for absences that come up. And anyone who does post as a player looking for a raid team is immediately pounced on. One post I looked at today was posted a few hours ago, and already has 8 responses on it from prospective guilds.

There have been a few posts from small groups of players looking for a raid team, but they all include roles that we have an abundance of (priests, I’m looking at you!) 

Everyone wants a free ride

This is another issue we have – some of those who do apply just don’t have the skills/gear/team spirit that is needed. We’re moving in to Mythic Blackrock Foundry – an ilvl of 650 just isn’t going to cut it. There have been situations in the past where the guild has decided to take a chance on a lower geared person, only to have them leave as soon as they’re geared up. Which isn’t fair and makes the officers even more reluctant to take on someone with a lower ilvl. 

Is it just about the loot?

One of my other theories about why it’s so hard to find raiders is the thought that perhaps people are just playing the game for loot, and will only participate in the easiest way to get it. LFR can be a pain and has different tier so it’s not appealing. But Normal or Heroic level – that can be relatively easy to get with little effort required. So are people settling for this so they don’t have to grind through Mythic? Maybe. 

What to do?

Well it’s a good question. Our team has decided to open up the option for everyone to change their main for 6.2 if they wish. The thought behind it is that perhaps we’ll get some gaps in different roles. There’s not too much change at the moment, but not everyone has indicated their preference yet so there may be differences soon. 

But other than that, it’s just a grind of trawling the forums, spamming trade chat and keeping an ear out for people who are looking for teams. 

Know anyone looking for a mythic raid team?

GUILD PLUG! (You didn’t think I’d post all this and not at least try to get some new members, did you?!)

Are you looking for a raid them that wants to get down the mythic bosses for the super awesome loots? Do you want to have a laugh while doing it? Only got 2 days a week? Then we might be the team for you! <Deadline> are a Horde based guild on Oceanic server Barthilas. We raid 2 nights a week – Wednesday and Sunday 7:30 – 11:30pm server time. We’re mostly looking for dps (not priests though!) at the moment, but if you’re a resto shaman or holy paladin, we’d like to hear from you, too! We are moving in to mythics so we’re looking for people who can commit to bashing their heads against a brick wall while we all learn, but I promise it’s a load of fun and totally worth it. If you’re interested (or know someone who is), check out our thread on the Oceanic Forums here for more info and for a link to the app on our website.