How to get more people to raid?

[Riistov]

Well, for starters, lose the condescending attitude with your 'LFR heroes'. That is the main reason people don't raid higher then LFR; people who think they are better because they raid normal+ and feel the need to be all elitist about it. Another reason is scheduling. Being forced to play at certain times just doesn't work for many people. And guilds forcing their members to grind till their ears bleed for one more artifact level, while they are still at 3/7 mythic because they simply suck in executing strategies ánd a rotation at the same time.

So. Be open. Be welcoming. Lose the attitude. Have a generous schedule and don't enforce 90-100% attendance. Help new people gear up in mythic+. Teach them how to play, offer advice and training. Well, plenty more options, but start here.

Beautifully put!

This would go a long way to solving raider attrition problems in many guilds.

[Aeriedk]

So. Be open. Be welcoming. Lose the attitude. Have a generous schedule and don't enforce 90-100% attendance. Help new people gear up in mythic+. Teach them how to play, offer advice and training. Well, plenty more options, but start here.

All of that sounds good. Although I don't think you can convince LFR heroes to come and raid. Generally a lot of people that do LFR do so for a reason. They enjoy how easy it is, they don't have a set schedule, are intimidated by normal and heroic, are antisocial and don't want to raid with a set group. That's not to say that you can't convince some, but I think it would be very difficult to target LFR raiders.

Ultimately you need to have something to offer people that are looking for raiding guilds. Back when I was a GM in Wrath a lot of people joined my guild because they "saw progression weekly". So if you are just constantly saying "we have H EN on farm!" without every doing mythic then a lot of people won't consider your guild. People need to have something to play for...its why so many mythic guilds take breaks between raids once they have mythic on farm and are BiS.

Just a few thoughts.

[CaptainV]

Me and the guild I am in have been having a problem. We cleared EN HC ages ago but just can't find people to actually join the guild. How can we get LFR heroes to actually give high tier raiding a go? All player can improve and atleast on my server loads of guilds need new blood.

Step 1:

Dont be elitist, be patient, Heroic isnt Mythic, its entry tier to Mythic, thus its challenging, but not impossible, help people grow, instead of pushing away potentially amazing raiders.

Step 2:

Pray that blizzard removes Mythic as a difficulty, and Ahead of the Curve as an achievement requirement, so that less elitist groups are formed and more people take an active interest *in* raiding.

[Deleted]

the problem i have is most guilds seem to operate on a strict schedule, and for myself at least, i cant always keep to those schedules, or if i can, i don't want to commit every wednesday night to raiding, if i could find a casual raid guild, that wasn't so strict with attendance and schedules, that would be great. i feel forced into lfr or pugging because i cant always log on the same time every week, i have no idea if im going to be free thursday evening to spend 3 hours raiding, i could be busy.
when you cant commit to a schedule, there are very few proper raiding guilds that will take you on. at least this is true for my low pop server, theres not really a solution though as far as i can see, and i totally understand why guild/raid leaders enforce and stick to their schedule, it just sucks for people that cannot commit to that.
i was in a guild recently that called it self a casual raid guild, but i got kicked for missing a few raids, they just happened to hold them on nights when i was busy the lfg tool helps a lot with finding pugs though, or the occasional guild thats a few people short and taking other people on their run with them

Yeah, sadly that's a problem for a lot of people, especially if you're on a low pop realm. Some guilds have a very fluid schedule, but they're mostly on high pop realms since in order to get that working you need quite a few people in the guild.

[Deleted]

For me the sole reason is my work. Don't get me wrong. I work normal hours and have plenty of free time after work, but my position in management requires me to travel all over the fucking planet ~7 times a year for ~5 days each. And i can only plan 50% of this appointments ahead of time.
No serious rading guild would want a player in their roster who misses roughly 1,5 raid nights a month.
Even though pug raiding would be an option, i realy hate the gamble of getting a good group or not.
Other than that i would realy enjoy getting back into raiding. Clearing EN HC would be more than enough for me. Just for the fun of playing the raid an getting some reasonable loot in the process.
But right now i don't see any guild on my server willing to take a player like me (Frostwolf (EU)(DE)).
So thats why i stick to grinding Kara and M+ with my friends (working on getting to +10 in time right now). That is also plenty of fun and rewarding (ilvl 863 Enhancement Shaman) but m+ runs more often than not feel like the trash is the actual boss.
Real bossfights seam like something only a raid can provide.

[kamuimac]

First and foremost what our actual raiders want to do? Go for mythic? Remain Heroic? Scale down to normal? depending on what you want to do lfr raiders may not be the right peoples to target a merge with a similar guild is better idea.

Keep in mind that lfr has some perk that a guild unless a supersocial one cannot offer:

-fair and square system
-freedom from any form of schedule
-not being subject to the judgement of other peoples
-queue and teleport system that doesn't impede other activities
-personal loots or fair loot

what organized raid can offer

-superior gear
-special rewards

what you need to do to steal peoples from lfr is not aiming to build a roster you need to aim building a community where peoples is happy to log and do shit together be it going to kill Xavius hero or going to hold a pvp tower etc.

i would add 1 more thing - lfr offer nearly wipe-free enviroment - something what a whole looooooooot of people want because they play game for fun not for progress - thats why hc/mythic will never be popular as people simply dont liek to fail and die in computer games.

[Number1gentleman]

I dont see any reason to commit to a raid guild when I can pug normal and heroic every week and have 0 interest in doing mythic. My friends and I would rather do m+ anyways on our own time and not be locked into a 3-4 night a week raid guild.

Same here. I'm having this issue right now.

I just cleared 7/7 heroic EN, and the guild wants to move forward to Mythic raiding while I just wanna be semi casual raider (clearing heroic is enough for me btw) They're forcing me to continue to raid to higher difficulty; Mythic which I'm not interested.

It's just a 6 hours / week raiding guild but sometimes I just wanna get online, do my things and have some fun with friends (mythic+, karazhan). I'm losing my interests to get online because it's starting to feel like my 2nd part time job for a video game. Not mention that I main a warlock since forever and I'm the only warlock in the raid team. I'm afraid that my WoW friends gonna hate me if I decided to stop at heroic raiding. It's been really awkward lately cus idk what to do. lol... I might just stop raiding completely.

[Faenskap]

How about you learn to play yourself, instead of demanding that others hold your hand. This mentality is cancer.

Because your mentaility is so much better...

I feel @Amerissis gave many good reasons as to why OP has issues recruiting. Were I to join a raiding guild, I'd like that to be a guild with friendly people, not some wannabe pros who think they're the shit (but in reality they're just shit).

I completely fail to understand this aversion towards helping people out, especially if it's within a guild. Isn't this how humans developed anyway, by passing on knowledge?

As for me, I could probably find a raiding guild, but I'm not sure I want to raid, and I'm not the only one. I don't like being bound to a schedule

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I personally don't like using consumables and don't really try to get that much better in game, so i would not be really good raider anyway. I'd say i was only a "decent normal mode raider" back then when i did raid with my old guild, years ago in WotLK. Also i hate schedules in game, and overall have no real competitive spirit and don't care about challenging myself. So, i just don't care about raiding.

I thought I was the only one! I'm such an underachiver

[Amerissis]

Same here. I'm having this issue right now.

I just cleared 7/7 heroic EN, and the guild wants to move forward to Mythic raiding while I just wanna be semi casual raider (clearing heroic is enough for me btw) They're forcing me to continue to raid to higher difficulty; Mythic which I'm not interested.

It's just a 6 hours / week raiding guild but sometimes I just wanna get online, do my things and have some fun with friends (mythic+, karazhan). I'm losing my interests to get online because it's starting to feel like my 2nd part time job for a video game. Not mention that I main a warlock since forever and I'm the only warlock in the raid team. I'm afraid that my WoW friends gonna hate me if I decided to stop at heroic raiding. It's been really awkward lately cus idk what to do. lol... I might just stop raiding completely.

Be honest. Tell them you don't aspire to raid higher then heroic. Tell them you are available to help out in heroic, but won't move on to mythic. If that costs you your raid spot, find another guild or pug it. If they are friends, they will stay friends, even when you don't raid with them. Usually it turns out they just wanted your character to help them get their gear and you never hear from them again, but who knows

Don't quit raiding because of this, if you still like raiding.

Also, if you're in the EU: http://eu.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/17613452300 .

[orca2425]

People just need to be nice..and remember this is just a game..this is suppose to be fun not a job..

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People just need to be nice..and remember this is just a game..this is suppose to be fun not a job..

[Binko]

Raiding just isnt fun, it feels like work while playing a game.

This!! Raiding is boring. Multiple repeated attempts to figure out how to dance your way through a scripted encounter is dull gameplay. And then, after your group has figured it out, you put it on "farm" and do it over and over again.

The only form of raiding I can endure is LFR because it's a big wild chaotic mess and is over relatively quickly. Back in MoP LFR was tuned just right and there were enough wipes and people leaving and joining that it stayed interesting.

In my opinion, the only way to bring more players to raiding would be to think of ways to make LFR a more fun and interesting experience. But Blizzard is locked into the mentality that LFR has to be a cut-down, de-tuned version of regular raiding and can't have any unique elements of it's own. Blizzard should be thinking of ways to make LFR really cool and exciting.

Guild centered progression raiding is doomed to a slow death. Fewer and fewer people are interested in investing a huge amount of time into something so fundamentally boring. It was only somewhat fun when done as a social adventure with a bunch of RL friends. But how many people these days have a core group of RL friends who all play MMOs together?

[Logwyn]

You've given me no reason to leave my current 1/7 one boss killed on normal guild for yours. Yeah normal is easy blah blah.. only 1 boss in normal blah blah...

I like the people. I enjoy just being there. That weighs over being what ever heroic and mythic you are offering from what you've posted.

Basically what are you offering me over the few thousand other guilds that need someone to fill a role in their raid?

I look at raiding like the pub/rec soccer team that I'm currently on. I've played on this team for close to 15 years now. We've won some championships. We've been last place. We've slaughtered teams and been slaughtered. But I keep playing with them people come and go. But they offer the friends and companionship after the games at the local bar and grill to talk the shit and what not. I can't play right now... broken foot but I still go to the games and watch and hang out after.

What I'm getting at you have to get people to stay and want to be there... Just saying hey we can kill bosses XYZ isn't enough.

[Axphism]

You've given me no reason to leave my current 1/7 one boss killed on normal guild for yours. Yeah normal is easy blah blah.. only 1 boss in normal blah blah...

I like the people. I enjoy just being there. That weighs over being what ever heroic and mythic you are offering from what you've posted.

Basically what are you offering me over the few thousand other guilds that need someone to fill a role in their raid?

I look at raiding like the pub/rec soccer team that I'm currently on. I've played on this team for close to 15 years now. We've won some championships. We've been last place. We've slaughtered teams and been slaughtered. But I keep playing with them people come and go. But they offer the friends and companionship after the games at the local bar and grill to talk the shit and what not. I can't play right now... broken foot but I still go to the games and watch and hang out after.

What I'm getting at you have to get people to stay and want to be there... Just saying hey we can kill bosses XYZ isn't enough.

This is all true and all false. It's an excellent point. For this guy here, these are the things that are important to him. For others, killing bosses XYZ is what is important. For someone else a healthy mix of the two is what is important.

You need to very clearly define your guild/raid team, and sell that openly and clearly. It will attract the people you want and need to be around, to achieve the goals of the guild/team.

[xpose]

Why would I join a guild that refers to people as "LFR Heroes". I can pug Normal and Heroic raids without needing to conform to any guild standards.

[spiritsurge]

Well just in general I think more players would raid if most of the items from EN didn't suck. It's really awkward that I want almost none of the gear from the first raid of the expansion.

[arisoh]

In addition to what's been said already, offering to help them gear is really key.

For people trying to catch up, many people get discouraged with the high standards to get accepted in mythic+ runs. Helping them gear up that way will not only get them up to par with raiding, but will also help you learn more about their attitudes and knowledge of their class. It's really an interview.

[Deleted]

This is all true and all false. It's an excellent point. For this guy here, these are the things that are important to him. For others, killing bosses XYZ is what is important. For someone else a healthy mix of the two is what is important.

You need to very clearly define your guild/raid team, and sell that openly and clearly. It will attract the people you want and need to be around, to achieve the goals of the guild/team.

I agree with this totally. Not only do you need clear goals, but you also need to advertise this when recruiting new people. In past experience, lying to people about your guild or just being rude and such will likely result in them leaving early (so you need to fill the spot again) or just not wanting to join at all.

When recruiting people just be honest and open and you will find that they will be more willing to do the same (not all of the time though). A person looking for a guild should know what they want and you should know what you are looking for - when this is apparent you will find it is a much easier job to recruit and maintain a stable team.

[delzao]

Last time I raided was in WotLK and I wont ever do it again.

[Traveler Voltin]

you dont be a douche bag.

[Axphism]

Last time I raided was in WotLK and I wont ever do it again.

Why's that?