The things I have learned about raid leading seem like common sense, at least to some.
One of the most important things is that you need to adjust your style to the guild, and let them adjust to you as well. If you’re guilded with a bunch of people who want to crack jokes at each other, you can’t expect them all to keep vent clear and focus at all times. Just the same, if all your raiders are serious people who can take 400 wipes in a row without complaining, there’s no need to start making jokes to lighten up the mood.
Downtime is the biggest time waster. A simple addon like DownTimer will show you how much time you spend out of combat over the duration of the 3 or 4 hours you raid. Rebuffing after wipes is a simple enough activity, but it takes up to 10 minutes on occasion. Reduce the time you spend out of combat, and your raids will only benefit from it. More time to learn the fight, more tries on the boss, faster progress. At least, that’s the plan.
Always, always make sure that there is somebody in the guild who’s capable of raid leading, because, even if you are 100% attendance and have never ever missed a raid night, once in a blue moon, your kid/wife/mother/significant other/best friend/job will need you, and you’ll have to go. Having a backup, and even a backup’s backup means the guild as a whole can still raid, and no time is wasted.
Don’t be a jerk. I read somewhere that the best way to manage people is to scold them privately, and to praise them in raid chat or over vent. I agree, however I’d like to make an addition. Never, ever, call somebody out for making a mistake or not healing/dpsing enough unless you’ve seen them commit that particular mistake, or it’s showing clearly in a death log. Criticising people for mistakes they have not done makes their stress levels rise, causes friction, and makes you sound like a bit of a jerk, which causes them to want to argue and talk back even when you are in the right. I’d like to think that people enjoyed being part of my raids because they knew that whenever I said they’d done something wrong, I had actually seen them do it, and was just trying to improve the quality of raiding. Throwing blame all around is bad management.
Alternatively, you can just find what works for your guild, and be the next Dives:
That’s it for now. I’ll return later with some more advice full of wisdom that everyone knows already©
