Raiding With Paranoid

All are welcome to our raids but we are the guild of the anxious so for reassurance here are some loose ‘guides’ for what would be good.

What you need to know re: your character

We don’t have a hard cut off when it comes to gear/ilevel. If you are a couple of points lower than whatever I say, then please come anyway. Doing your best to gear up is encouraged, but Paranoid is a guild that raids, we are not a ‘raiding guild’. My primary goal is always that I want you guys to have fun. It’s not fun wiping all night, so we can help each other by trying to make our characters as strong as is reasonably possible.

If we’ve been raiding for a while and are into heroic, then you are still most welcome to join us!! But bump up the ‘starting’ ilevel a little. Normal raids drop Champion gear (as do the higher bountiful delves, and low mythic dungeons), so try and have your character in at least a few pieces of that.

Most important rule, if you aren’t sure if you are geared enough, don’t just decide not to come! We always have room for more friends. Reach out and I’ll do my best to support and help you.

Feasts and flasks are usually provided. Any donations to the gbank of mats are gratefully received but not necessary.

We don’t use voice comms as a group. I believe sometimes a small subset hop on when they feel like it, but as an example I (the Raid Leader) am never on voice so it’s really up to you.

I will go over tactics best I can in raid chat before the fight. Reading guides/watching videos might be advantageous but up to you. The default UI now has options for encounter timers/alerts, or you might prefer to download an addon for more visual customisation, that’s entirely your choice.

Generally enchants/gems are regarded as good etiquette for group play, and I would recommend getting what you can. However, nobody should have to enhance their gear more than they can afford. I would never ask anyone to do something, I wouldn’t do myself, and personally I don’t believe in, e.g. splashing out for a super expensive enchant on gear that’ll be replaced in two minutes. I won’t be inspecting for enchants/gems because I’m a fan of the honour system. I trust our team, and believe you guys won’t take the piss. That being said, don’t forget we support each other in this guild. If you need help sometimes there are consumables in the gbank, or you can always put up guild work orders. For instance, if you have the mats, I’ll craft anything I can for free, which might make it a little cheaper.

That’s great but can I, as the ‘player’ come?

“Paranoid is not a raiding guild, we are a guild of friends that raids.”

If you have kids, pets, if you are the emergency contact for something and have to ‘hop to it’ if the phone rings, or if you have a health condition that has sudden urgent needs – none of this is a barrier to raiding with us. Basically any scenario, if you are afraid of needing to AFK mid-encounter then don’t worry about it.

Real life always comes first. If you have 1 sec to type in chat e.g “kid needs me” (or whatever), then that would help, but if you can’t and you just have to vanish then we get it. The worst that might happen, is if you weren’t there for the ready check for the next pull, then you might get removed from the group because of the scaling, but the instant you said you were back (if you came back obviously) you’d get invited and summoned.

So in summary, if there’s ever a situation where you have to step away then you gotta step away. You won’t be judged or kicked, or barred from future events or any of that nonsense. If you are hesitating about joining events because you are afraid “what if I have to step away?” then please know there is no reason to be afraid. If you have to step away, then do so. It doesn’t affect your permanent welcome to our events. You are one of us, a Paranoid guildie and we support each other.

The same goes for if you can’t make the entire raid. We are lucky enough to have a warlock at the moment so have narnia. Whatever time you say in /g “hey can I get a raid invite” then you will get one, and we will summon the moment we are done with the current pull. If you have to dip, then just say something like “got to go guys, thanks for raid” and drop group. It’s all good.

Finally to complete the trifecta, though I’m sure you’d expect this to be the case by now, you can pop in and out as you can/want to attend. Can only make one raid a week? Fine. Can make raid once in a blue moon? Also fine. There’s no “be there every week or you can’t come” business. It’s very much a drop in, drop out as works for you.

Basically all guildies are always 100% welcome anytime 🙂 No matter what you always have a place in my events if you want one. Any questions, feedback etc. feel free to message me anytime either in-game, through the forum, or on discord. Here to help!

What about loot rules?

If you have raided with us then you’ll know, and if you haven’t then let me tell you Paranoid guildies are kind and generous, but just so we’re all on the same page here’s how we do things 🙂

The Basics

• Gear is on standard ‘tracks’ now so Adventurer -> Veteran -> Champion -> Hero etc.
• You can NEED on gear for an upgrade IF it is on a higher track e.g. you have veteran and the gear is champion.
• If you can hit transmog then feel free.
• NEVER use the GREED button.
• Always PASS on RECIPES (we roll these out separately)
• If it’s cosmetic (e.g. toy, decor, pure appearance etc.) and you can need then go right ahead if you want it.

So how does this work?

• The games loot system is actually pretty smart (hopefully not famous last words . . .)
• It knows if it’s main spec, or off-spec, so you can just need if you need it and that’s fine.
• The same with transmog it is supposed to give priority to folks that are on a class that can wear/use the item in question e.g. hunters with bows.
• Sometimes it hiccups and in those rare cases we either ask the winner to trade to the highest roll who should have been awarded the item, or we have another roll-off.

It’s that simple?
Well . . . unfortunately no. There are some exceptions and let’s talk about those:

• TIER PIECES
• Set bonuses are often quite powerful so even if you already have e.g. a champion chest piece, if it’s the champion chest tier token then you can need it BUT there is also the catalyst to keep in mind.
• So in theory right, if Person A has a champion chest, and Person B has a veteran chest. Person A could use the catalyst to turn their champion chest into tier, and Person B could take the champion tier token – two people would then have champion tier. (Obviously there’s more nuance to this because hero track is the limit we can get as a guild, and you might not want to spend charges on champion, or you might if you are close to the 4 set etc.)
• TLDR: You can need on tier absolutely, it is 100% allowed but just consider whether you need to. After all when the raid as a whole is better geared, then we all benefit.

• ALTS
• We generally ask that folks stick with a character for the season, because of what I just said ^^ “when the raid as a whole is better geared, we all benefit”. It doesn’t help the group if gear goes to various alts, as only one of them can ever be in the raid at a time.
• BUT this only really applies once we start getting into heroic raiding, as champion track gear drops from basically everywhere these days so it’s really not a huge deal.
• Also even when we are in heroic there are occasions e.g. we’re short healers and some kind soul swaps to an alt. In that case they can need roll as if it was their main character as they are helping the group out. It’s only fair then.

• BiS or SIDEGRADE?
• In the past there has been some confusion so I’m going to give the guild definition here 🙂
• BiS = the best item for that slot, you can get with the guild – so we raid up to heroic, so it’s the heroic track version of the item. A champion piece is never BiS.
• Sidegrade = an item that is on the same track but with more advantageous stats, or a gem socket etc.
• Trinkets are a little debatable because their effects can be powerful.
• If you type /loot then it brings up a window and you can see who has rolled. If you are shy about asking “hey does someone need X?” then you can peek and see. If people have needed and you think the item is just a sidegrade for you, then you have your answer.
• BUT the last thing I ever want is for folks to feel disgruntled if they generously passed, and they find the winner actually had the same gear circumstance but decided that for them it was an upgrade and so they needed. I would much rather folks spoke out in chat of “hey I have a champion trinket but it’s trash, that’s my BiS trinket (or it will be at hero track) does anyone need it?”. People always say yes, or no, or same, and it’s worked out in moments what the best thing is to roll.

To be honest I feel like these loot rules ^^ are pretty much common sense. We have a fantastic group in Paranoid, of very nice, very kind people. Basically as a TLDR: if you aren’t sure – ask. There are no bad/silly/stupid questions. I would much rather folks asked than feel unsure, or worried, or upset. Raiding is supposed to be fun.

If you ever have any questions about any of this before, after, or during a raid, then ask in /ra, or send an officer/the raid leader a private /w. Or I mean you can PM, or mail, through the website now, or ask on discord etc. if something doesn’t make sense or isn’t clear. I want to help you, I want everyone to enjoy themselves 🙂

Looking forward to raiding with you!