Rebuilding: Pugging for Progression

     Sometimes it’s tough to rebuild. Personally I think one of the biggest problems my guild has faced since the release of Cataclysm is recruitment. In my experience, most guilds will invariably have some turnover when an expansion is released, and even to a lesser degree when a major content patch is released (or rather soon after). We’ve always run a fairly tight roster, preferring to have good people that you know how to work with over training up a bench roster of raiders. The problem is the best way to rebuild when those people leave.

     

     We have engaged in various forms of recruitment activity; from spamming in SW to posting on EJ and other well know WoW resource websites. By far the method we’ve gotten the best players from is pugging. Basically our strategy involves filling your remaining spots with pug players that undergo a relatively liberal vetting process, and the ones that work out well, you invite back. What I’ve found is that if you can get a good player to go with you into a raid 3 times, they will come to your website and fill out an app. It helps that we can clear about 6 bosses a night; killing bosses shows that the core of the group knows how to get things done. We usually end our 1^st day of raiding with some progression attempts at the very end. While these attempts do not always end in a kill, the overwhelming success that the run had in the night outweighs the discouragement that a pug may feel at wiping several times on that last boss.

     

     The downside to this strategy is that you have to teach a small number of people some fights every week. This is more of a strain on the raid leaders than it is for most of the group however; we don’t really schedule an official break, so most of us will dip out to get a drink or what have you while everything is being explained.

There is a definite benefit to not having pugs in the run however. As our ranks fill back up, fights are getting easier and easier. I’m really looking forward to the day when we get our last two kills and start hardmodes.