GDKP raids

This is a seldom mentioned system for raiding that I recently discovered that I think is a great answer to many guild or raiding issues.

What I mean by issues are:

1. You are geared up with all the heroic gear you can get from 5 mans and want to raid but no one will let you in a pug because your GS is to low.
2. You don’t have the achievements to prove you have been there.
3. Another issue is the constant turn over in guilds, for example, 25 man raiding guilds turning into 10 man guilds or guilds that have trouble getting a 10 man that is capable of clearing content.
4. Or if you have completely given up on pugs that fail at the first or second boss and you are locked out for the week to a 1 or 2 boss kill.

I find a lot of people in one or all of these issues I mentioned. Sometimes this will lead to people wanting to leave a guild of people they like but aren’t getting what they want out of the game. I have found myself as a guild leader completely stressed because when I finally recruit the base set of raiders to fill a 10 man, some of the recruits are not showing up or a raid fails with the group and the new recruits start to leave because they don’t have confidence that the guild will go far. Then when they leave, if the group is not filed up by the next scheduled raid you pug and it fails so more leave. This was a vicious cycle I have struggled with for most of the time being a guild leader.

Here is a little background history about my experiences as a guild leader.

We found ourselves in all of the issues above and couldn’t break the cycle so 4 of us decided we would try another server and see if we could get a better class of players or at least more people to chose from, so we loaded up Granny and the mules and moved to Area 52 horde side. We picked this server because of the unbelievable population ratios. On Area 52 there was 5:1 horde to alliance. Our logic was that we would have an easier time recruiting raiders if there were simply more of them to pick from. Sadly this was not the case. We decided to drop our expectations down from 25 man raiding guild to a 10 man then down to a social guild hoping that out of the barrens chat we were going to turn our quiet guild chat into that a few good raiders would rise to the top and we could progress.

That didn’t work. What do you do now???

 We were behind on content which gave possible recruits the impression we weren’t progressive enough to get skilled raiders. The raiders we could get had no experience at all and weren’t willing to put the time in to learn or show up. Now we were back to square one again…

Sitting in trade chat waiting for a random dungeon to que I noticed an advert…

[2. Trade] [SoandSo]: LFM ToC 25man GDKP run.

[2. Trade] [SoandSo]: Need carriers and bidders.

[2. Trade] [SoandSo]: Get paid to Raid. Alts welcome. PST me for an invite

I had no idea what it was but what the hell. I will try it out, I am so jaded to being saved or failing a run what did I have to lose? I sent a /whisper to the person advertizing and he asked me if I was bidder or carrier, I told him I needed gear from there. He said ok you are a bidder then. Then he sent me an invite. I got in the run and while he was filling out the group I was checking out the rest of the raiders that were standing in the entrance and noticed a bunch of people gear like me, some emblem gear, some new 5 man 232 gear and a lot of 5 man heroic level 200 epics. I also saw a few raiders in ICC 25 man gear and 264 crafted gear with <King Slayer> titles or <of the ashen verdict> titles by their names.

The run started and it went like a bat out of hell 45 minutes later I am looking at Anub’Arak . This boss had eluded me and my other guild mates for a long time and here I am.  This whole raid so far people that needed gear were bidding and buying it for 300–1200 gold. This was item level 245 stuff that were good upgrades. They were biding 500-1000 on Trophies to get the 245 Tier gear. Recipes for 245 ToC craftable gear were going for 100-200 gold. Bind on Equip gear to be resold or used was going for 40% of the Resale price on the AH. I didn’t have a lot of gold and wasn’t sure how it really worked so I shut up and just did my best to stay alive, there was vent and the strategies were limited to what DPS needed to do, where we were to stand, and other major things. No one is screaming on Ventrilo, no bitching, no posting recount to show how lousy someone’s dps was and no wiping on bosses. I died a few times but they just rezed me, healed me up and rebuffed me and pushed me back into the trenches. We killed Anub’Arak and the Raid Leader auctioned off the last few loot drops and hit a macro.

[Raid Leader] [Soandso]: Thank you for coming to our GDKP raid, Gather around X and when I open trade with you and give you your gold I will remove you from raid. We run this every Friday at 7:30 server time so if you want a calendar invite, send me an in-game mail.

[Raid Leader[ [Soandso] : Gold split is 724 gold per person.

Holy sheep shit!!! It was awesome, and I was hooked. I put this guy on my friends list and sent him an in-game mail every week to get an invite on my priest then sent him one to see if I could go on my paly tank. Before I knew it I was going to 2-25 man ToC runs then 2-25 man ICC runs a week. As my toons got better and better gear upgrades I went from being carried to being a carrier. My gear score on both toons went from 4.7k to 5.4 in a few weeks. Plus I was making about 2500 gold per run in ICC and 700 gold per run in ToC. On weeks I wasn’t buying gear I was making around 7000 gold. When I did buy gear I was getting every piece for my main spec I needed. When I was done gearing my main spec I geared my off spec. I had the money to bid so I would grab up piece when I could or wait until next week and I may get it for a lower price.

I am not going to say I didn’t pay out big time for some items like my 245 shield I got from 25 man ToC. I ended up paying 6k for it but I was banking money left and right. I got my officers to get in a few with me and the same happened with them the gear fast and made money and we became regulars in his GDKP runs.

We raided with them then I rolled a rogue and leveled him to 80 and started taking him to the 25 man ToC runs and he is gearing very fast I went from a new 80 with a 3k Gear Score to a 5.1k Gear Score in about 2 weeks. The majority of that jump was in 1 raid where no one else needed the gear so I got 5 pieces for the minimum bid of 300 gold.

Now this may sound too good to be true and this system can go horribly wrong with a bad raid leader. Believe me I have one horror story to every two good stories about this system. I have learned that reputation on the server is very important. I have also learned that if the Raid Leader runs you and 23 others on a 4/12 ICC 25 man and decides to just keep [Deathbringer’s Will] and log with the gold pot of 49k that was supposed to be split 25 ways that blizzard doesn’t give a shit and won’t do anything for you. It can go bad if the raid leader is an idiot and can’t lead a raid and you get nowhere.  The raid leader can be scared of how many carriers he needs and doesn’t invite the right mix of bidders and carries, what ends up happening is nothing is bid on because no one needs it so you make no money and get no gear.

All of this is avoidable for the most part. There is a network on your server of people who are good at this system and they stick together. It’s there you have to find it. They know who is a good Raid Leader and who is a ninja, and like anything else pay attention to which raid leaders they run with. Go out on a limb every once in a while and see for yourself who is good and who is bad. This is where I really put use to my friends list and my ignore list.

To close up my long story on how I got into these GDKP runs I will say that I am still trying to put together a good 10 man and we are almost there. I use the GDKP runs to test out new members and if they need gear then it is available to them in some form. I get to see if they can heal or can tank or can dps. I have recently started running my own 25 man ToC GDKP runs for practice with raid balance and raid build as well as boss strategy understanding and execution. I have learned a lot from the GDKP Raid Leader I am currently going for a full clear in 25 Man ICC with. He helps me with the addons and strategy and is one of the most skilled and pleasant people I have met in this game since I started playing.

I mainly wrote this post because one of the podcasts I listen to every week and enjoy is Hearthcast. The Host, Rewt, was talking about a decision he is facing since he now wants to start raiding. His guild does not share the same goal he does. I listened to the answer another podcast gave him in response to an email or call he sent. While it was ok advice, they are still facing the same recruiting issues, attendance issues and skill issues ALL guilds do. The only difference is their podcast gives them a deeper pond to fish in. Everything Rewt was thinking was very familiar to me and this may not be the answer for him but It was for me and I am enjoying the game more since I discovered it then I ever have.  

In my next few posts I am going to try and focus on my Progress with the Group I am running with as well as a few tips for people participating in GDKP and some for people running GDKP.

This is a solid gear list that will have you geared without the enchants or gems to get you Def and Hit Capped, depending on the combination you use you may need to do some figuring to get yourself to 540 (Raid defense cap) or the 535 (Heroic defense cap). The hit cap for us is 8% (264 HR). This gear list will put you in good enough gear to make it possible to off-tank 10 man Naxxramas, 10 man OS and any Heroic without getting you on the ignore list of every healer on your server.

I had someone in my guild, with his Death Knight, main tank 10 man Naxxramas and I off tanked it. Needless to say I cleaned up on loot and replaced a lot of it and was able to gem and enchant for strength and avoidance instead of hit and def to meet the caps.

In all with the way blizzard has made the fast track for people to catch up gear in 3.2.2, it shouldn’t take more than a few days to get your self geared to be ready to OT or MT most of the 10 man Raids expect H ToCr.

Head:
• Tempered Titansteel Helm – Crafted by a blacksmith.
• Helm of the Crestfallen Challenger – Heroic ToC.
• Conqueror’s Siegebreaker Greathelm – 58 Emblems of Conquest.

Neck:
• Titanium Earthguard Chain – Crafted by a Jewelcrafter.
• Shard of the Crystal Forest – 19 Emblems of Conquest.

Shoulders:
• Crusader’s Square Pauldrons – BoE drop in CoS (reg or heroic).
• Regal Aurous Shoulderplates – Heroic ToC.

Cloak:
• Cloak of Peaceful Resolutions – Honored with Wyrmrest Accord.
• Platinum Mesh Cloak – 25 Emblems of Valor.

Chest:
• Breastplate of the Solemn Council – Revered with Wyrmrest Accord.
• Conqueror’s Siegebreaker Breastplate – 58 Emblems of Conquest.

Wrist:
• Tempered Saronite Bracers – Crafted by a blacksmith.
• Bindings of Dark Will – Heroic CoS.
• Bracers of the Herald – Heroic OK.

Gloves:
• Mercy’s Hold – Regular ToC.
• Gauntlets of the Royal Watch – 28 Emblems of Conquest.

Waist:
• Waistguard of the Risen Knight – BoE drop in H DTK.
• Ancient Aligned Girdle – Heroic AN.
• Shieldwarder Girdle – 28 Emblems of Conquest.
• Indestructible Plate Girdle – Crafted by a blacksmith.

Legs:
• Legguards of Abandoned Fealty – Regular ToC.
• Wyrmguard Legplates – 39 Emblems of Conquest.

Feet:
• Boots of Heartfelt Repentance – Heroic ToC.
• Spiked Deathdealers – Crafted by a blacksmith.

Rings:
• Titanium Earthguard Ring – Crafted by a Jewelcrafter.
• Signet of the Accord – BoE drop in Obsidian Sanctum-10.
• Keystone Great-Ring – Heroic DTK.
• Mark of the Relentless – Heroic ToC.

Trinkets:
• Seal of the Pantheon – Regular HoL.
• The Black Heart – Regular ToC.

Main Hand:
• Red Sword of Courage – Heroic UP.
• Axe of the Sen’jin Protector or Teldrassil Protector – 25 Champion’s Seals.
• Peacekeeper Blade – Heroic ToC.

Shield:
• Titansteel Shield Wall – Crafted by a blacksmith.
• Royal Crest of Lordaeron – Heroic CoS.

Ranged:
• Armor Plated Combat Shotgun – Crafted by an engineer.

I am posting this as I learn so if I make any mistakes or assume something out of sheer noobness then I will go back and correct it. I plan to post a talent spec post and a glyphing post next. After that I will be posting some other thing that may help a new tank out so that you spend more time tanking and less time alt+tabbed out researching what to do next.

Read more »