The Ironsong Tribe

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Hi everyone,

The time has come to start figuring out our Mists normal-mode raid.

Originally, we had planned to run a 25-man normal-mode raid if there had been enough interest to fill one. Looking at our signup sheet, we do not have enough interest. We have 16 people signed up (down from 18), which is not enough for a 25-man, or for two 10-mans.

Therefore, since Blizzard has not designed a raid dungeon of intermediate size, we will be running one normal-mode 10-man raid on Thursday nights. We will continue to run the LFR raid on Tuesdays, with a goal of progressing to Heart of Fear as soon as possible.

I am sorry that we will not be able to give all 16 people who signed up a slot as a regular in this initial 10-man roster. I wish we could run a 16-person raid, but we can't.

I have therefore gone through our sign-up sheet and constructed a roster of 10 regulars. I considered the following criteria: history of reliable attendance, recent interest in joining this raid, depth of raid experience, whether that player has a level 90 character with raid-ready gear right now, and whether that player's main focus is our raid.

Here is the initial roster for this raid:

Tanks:
(1) Kaishen - main tank.
(2) Shantow - off tank. DPS Boomkin off-spec.

Healers:
(3) Oryx - off-spec Elemental DPS.
(4) Sbin - also #1 backup tank
(5) Eruadan - eventual #2 backup tank with Aruadan.

DPS
(6) Zlinka
(7) Anca
(8) Ryosaki - #1 backup healer. Ryosaki and Oryx can either heal or DPS, so will work this out between them. Eventual #3 backup tank, Hymnburger.
(9) Yohdah - #2 backup healer.
(10) Umu

These 10 characters will get invited first every week through the calendar. If they accept their invitations, they will have a guaranteed slot in the raid for that week. If a regular member declines a slot, I will extend an invitation to one alternate and will notify that person by in-game mail of the pending invitation. If the alternate accepts, that person has a guaranteed slot in the raid for that week, even if the regular decides that they can come after all. If the alternate declines, I will extend an invitation to another alternate, and so forth. They key here is that an accepted invitation to this raid guarantees a slot. This enables players to plan their week in advance.

I ask these 10 people to RSVP (with "accept" or "decline") through the calendar as SOON as they can every week, out of respect for me, and out of respect for our alternates. Please don't use "tentative" - I need to know if you're coming. I want to be able to invite alternates as soon as possible each week so they can plan their playtime accordingly. I want to avoid the last-minute scramble to fill slots every week.

For more details on how I handle the weekly construction of the roster, planned and unplanned absences, no-shows, leaves of absence, and so forth, please see our Mists Normal-mode Raid FAQ.

Our alternates are:
Strages - DPS and #3 backup healer.
Melikar - DPS warrior.
Soppon - DPS
Skrap - DPS, healer, tank.
Reynur - DPS
Avanarilla - DPS
Kretol (DPS) / Karthrok (tank) - Not available as a regular, but can be available as an alternate on some evenings.

I will contact our alternates through in-game mail and a calendar invite early each week if we have an absence. Alternates, please RSVP as soon as you can so that I know whether that slot is filled or not. If you cannot come, let me know, and I will extend the invitation to another alternate.

In my experience from running the raid in Cataslysm, we tend to have 1-2 absences per week that will need to be filled. So alternates will definitely be able to raid, but it will be on a less predictable and frequent basis than regulars.

Also realize that RL happens, and some regulars will need to withdraw from the raid for a variety of reasons. It happens. In that case I will offer that regular slot to someone from the alternate list, who will then become a regular.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

-Zlinka