Keys to success in a raiding guild

The most important thing that contributes to a guild downing raid content is competent people behind the computer screen.

The second most important thing that contributes to a guild downing raid content is structure.

If you want to be a competitive guild you need to cultivate and strengthen these two areas and you will succeed. My server, in its infancy had a guild called Genesis that was THE premiere horde guild. They were the top dogs until the guild leader decided to quit the game. He recently came back and started up Genesis again. He did this when the top 10 guilds were solidly into progression in ICC 25. He had nothing and yet while other guilds were struggling to get that one more boss down he took on quality players and got the job done going from nothing to being currently ranked the 3^rd guild on the server.

How does this happen? How can someone come in in the middle of the progression race and get players so good that the guild rockets to the top of the ranks? I feel its because of his recruitment strategy and guild structure. A friend of mine from a previous guild was in Genesis recently and through him I found out that they recruit heavily and use performance as a benchmark as who keeps their spots in the raid or even the guild. (using structure to keep quality people and weed out the non quality ones)

I have also been thinking a lot lately about the new raiding structure in Cata with 10s and 25s having the same loot, and personal raid id's going away. After my blog posts of doom recently about the death of 25 mans, I have come to realize that there are a few reasons a guild would want to run 25s in Cata.

1. It's almost impossible to get all the class buffs you want in a 10 man

2. Perfect raid composition for each boss is also close to impossible with only 10 people to choose from

3. Hybrids with geared offspecs are going to be WAY more wanted for 10s than any dedicated class.

In a 25 man setup you have a lot more wiggle room of what classes you bring because of overlapping buffs and not making someone play a spec they don't like.

Now how do you get the competent people and keep them? You recruit until your raiding ranks are somewhat bloated, 25 to 50% over the bare minimum to raid sounds about right. Then you make them compete with each other for spots. Base your decisions strictly on who can do the least amount of stupid things then who performs the best on the meters IN THAT ORDER.

From there you structure your leadership to clearly define what you want from your members. This could come in the form of guild rules, a strong gm, a very vocal raid leader, or many other possibilities. If the raiders know what is expected of them then they can be brought to raids or sat depending on how well they do those things.