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Hey folks,

There have been a few questions recently on backups and how we do them, so I will try to explain how we deal with them for you all...

- Backups -

• Why do we need Backups?

Firstly, in an ideal world where everyone signs in 3/3 raids per week and nobody takes any Holidays/Days off/Sick days we wouldn't need backups, We would set up a team of 10 people and raid every raid without any problems.
....But this is of course not an ideal world, and people will sign out for various reasons as we all have lives outside of WoW (well.. some do hehe).

To allow us to raid 3 days a week smoothly we therefore need extra raiders to cover any spots when people sign out, which will force us on nights that we have more than 10 people sign up to push people on to backup.

• How much backup do we need?

This is pretty much an unknown variable that we have to adjust as we go. Some people sign in 3/3, and some people sign 2/3, some people sign out once a week on set days, some people sign out once a week on varied days. If you look at the sign-ins for some days we have 14 or more people sign up, and on others we have 9 or so. The aim we have is to try to balance the ever changing sign-ins so that we always have 3 raids per week.

Also, when you have to consider the factor that the raid needs a role balance also, this usually means a few extra backup are needed, as there is no point in having 10 DPS sign up and no healers or tanks, and even though we can sometimes get around this by using Off Specs or alts, this is not usually an ideal situation when it comes to working on progression. This is also the reason that currently you may find that certain roles may not be rotated as much as others (....but as soon as they add the healing specs for Rogues/Mages/Warriors/Locks/etc this will change hehe)

• How do we handle backups?

We try to handle backups as fairly as possible, this is something I personally have always tried to enforce as I am a strong believer that we are a team, and we should treat everyone in the team as fairly and equally as possible. The way they currently work is simply that backups are based on the number of raid days since your last backup. This way everyone has equal backup rotations and doesn't mean that the people who sign up more frequently are punished by put on backup more often.

I will try to give an example based roughly on the current numbers we have...
If player A signs in 3/3 then he will be backed up roughly every 6th or 7th raid day (which works out at every 6th or 7th sign in - as player A signs in 3/3)
If player B signs in 2/3 then he will still be backed up roughly every 6th or 7th raid (which works out at every 4th or 5th sign in - as player B only signs 2/3)

Of course the numbers are not exact, as due to the whole rotations being based on how everyone signs up then this will change from week to week depending on how heavy the sign-outs are. In holiday periods people may not have a backup for months, then if everyone signs in 3/3 every week all of a sudden then backups will happen a lot more frequently.

All Sign-ins/Sign Outs/Backups/Half attended raids/etc are all recorded by the council on a spreadsheet that we keep updated constantly, so we can monitor these backups and ensure they are as fair as we can make them.

There are always "grey areas", where some due backups have been delayed by a raid or so, usually these only occur if we feel that we are in need or a certain class/role for a certain encounter. Though we try to keep these to a minimum even when Blizzard throws these kinda encounters at us where certain roles/classes make a fight a hell of a lot easier. (And anyone who is concerned about this point should not worry too much, as whenever this kinda thing does come up then this is where I always put my foot down to all the other Council and usually kick off a massive stink about "being fair to everyone")

• What is a sign-in and how do part-sign-ins work? and can it when can it be counted as a backup?

All teams are picked based on who is Signed in, and a "Sign in" is when someone is available for the full duration of a raid. If someone signs in and knows they are unable to do a full raid then this is a "Part-Sign-In", and anyone doing this must inform us before hand so we can try to organise it so that the raid is able to continue for the full night.

People that "Part-Sign-In" may find that they maybe left out of the raid if we have enough sign-ins available, as our main priority is to ensure that we have enough cover for the 3hrs of the raid duration. People who are pushed aside due to not being able to fill a full raid are NOT considered backup, as officially they are not available for the full raid.

With all raid teams there are always things that do not go to plan, and now and then people suddenly have to disappear half way through a raid (though were not aware that they were going to have to leave early prior to the raid) or not show at the start of the raid, In these cases, if a backup player is called in to fill in the missing spot to then the player pulled in is still considered to be on his/her "Backup" IF the raid has been in progress for more than 1 hour. If the player being is pulled in at the start of the raid (under 1 hour from the raid start) due to someone stepping out at the start does NOT count as that player being on "backup" as they are in the full duration of the raid.

Also, now and then people will volunteer spots to other players who are not in the raid team for certain bosses (due to not needing loot from a boss or something), this DOES NOT affect the backup assignments that were allocated by the council, though if the council feel that this the people swapping is not suitable for the raid encounter (due to role/class balance, etc) then the swap may be refused.

• Hardcore Socials

"Hardcore Social" is a rank that we have given a few of the players that raid with us, these players are players that either (i) do not wish to be tied to the Raider rank (due to various reasons) or (ii) due to real life reasons are not able to maintain the 2/3 raids per week required to be a raider. These people that have been given this rank are people we feel have helped (and continue to help) the guild massively in raids, and we felt that they should be rewarded by being allowed the same level of reward as a raider (as far as priority on loot drops).
Hardcore Socials will follow a similar pattern to the Raider for backups, though may find themselves on backup more often than Raiders will be, especially in times of heavy sign-ins.

Anyhow, I hope this clears up any questions that people may have had about backups, and I hope people understand that we do try our best to be fair to everyone.


ElGringø
On Behalf of the Council