I have a similar dilemma with my mates… we only make up 7/10 and I only play Friday nights (and have barely seen any of the WoLK content).

So I think we are just going to push hard to clear as much as possible most fridays, with the odd friday or other raids or heroics..

Good luck!

I am in a casual guild of Hordies, and we don’t have a lot of members who want to seriously raid, though we have been trying a bit more this year to see the endgame raids. Last week we had our very first one-night full clear of Naxx …. much to everyone’s surprise :D

Best part is running with good people, who make the experience fun and easy … quickly move on from mistakes, set master looter and roll for everything while clearing trash to the next boss.

And frankly I have seen both 10 and 25 versions of Naxx …. 10 man is more exacting and unforgiving …. twice I have seen Heigan killed by one lonely priest :P

My guild also tends to the two nights a week schedule, due to most of our folks being casual gamers… but we are planning on doing Ulduar – at least for Flame Leviathan (which we’ve already downed), and maybe XT-002 and Ignis. What I’d recommend in the “where do we go from here?” is what was mentioned above – at least give Flame Leviathan a shot and go from there. Razorscale is very RNG-heavy on how successful you are. Ignis’s trash is painful. We haven’t done XT-002, but plan to give it a shot our next foray in. But Flame Leviathan…. that encounter is just plain FUN.

GG to you and your guilde ! I got the same achievements this week ! (but with the Construct quarter). Since I joined the guilde a few weeks ago, I haven’t been in the successful runs. But this time I was there ! ^^

I thing everyone above gave good advice, so here is more an example than an advice.

We clear Naxx in two evenings, beginning the summoning at the stone at around 8:30 pm, pulling first trash at 8:45/9pm, and ending at midnight. We have spider and plague quarters on farm now, we need 1/2 to 3/4 hour for each roughly. We proceed this way :
First evening : DK, then Plague, then go as far as we can through spider wing until midnight.
Second evening : finishing of spiders, and Construct quarter, and spend the rest of the evening on Saph and KT until clear or midnight.

Our tactic is to begin the evening with the toughest wings for us. DK wing is great to begin with because of the trash : you have time to focus on the raid, to warm up (like sport) before the first boss but everyone is still awake for the 3 bosses. Plague and Spiders are quite easy to do afterward, and as everyone is tired, that’s better not to try a difficult boss. The second evening, we finish off easy wings, as a warm up. And we do Construct.

My advice to clear it in two nights is :

- Don’t lose time on bosses you know like the back of your hand. Don’t lose time on rebuff and regen : do it quickly before each boss while setting everyone’s role. On the contrary, take time with hard bosses before the pull to be sure everyone know what they have to do. (But I know you do that, you told us in your previous article ^_^ ).

- I find that having a good rythme while pulling trash help people to stay focused and it’s so quicker, and it’s more fun. That’s very important ! Tempo ! Have the MT listening to some punchy music :D (half-kidding).

- You will wipe on difficult bosses. Do them first because people are still well awake and not too tired and more attentive. Do the easy one went people are tired.

- If you have newbies (new raiders), don’t take more than 2 in your run, and never in the same role. The learning will be quicker. I had a run with 5 or 6 newbies, it was a nightmare. Have a veteran tank giving the tempo, pulling trash quickly and doing difficult pulls, tell the newbie to watch in case they will have to do it next time…

If you can’t have it in two nights, that means you need to know the fights better. No need to worry. As other said above, try other fights. The third night, do Sartharion, Archavon or Flame Leviathan.

You should really try Flame Leviathan, it’s a ton of fun (or rather several tons, the thing is a massive bulldozer…). Switch roles, so everyone will try every machine. Some people will want the achievement or just have fun being catapulted on the boss. This fight is not as difficult as the next bosses in Ulduar, and worth the time for fun and a few loot. Really, try it ! I’m sure you will write a great post afterward ! ;D
And you know what ? Druids keep their forms on the motorbikes… Our tree was so cool on it ! :D The only thing I feel sad about that boss : hunter’s pets are useless… :’( I feel naked without my pet…

GG again ! Keep on the good bloging !
Nef

Posolutely, has a great idea about loot distribution. That is what my Horde guild does. If my Horde GL is the tank a DPS (also an officer) is the Master Looter. The loot has always been distributed fairly, and the process makes things a lot easier since everyone isn’t hanging around but moving on to the next encounter. Buffing up is generally saved for the bosses too. Also as people began to do the fights repeatedly the need to explain was cut down considerably. That saved a lot of time.

Before long (after gearing up via Heroic and crafted items) I imagine I’ll be running some raids with Deimonia, my Affliction Warlock. She’s currently 71. I’ve had a blast running instances with others at my level (thanks to PUGs) as I’ve advanced. I’ve met some very great players who’ve turned into in-game buddies, but it will be nice running with the Devils as group.

Being a raid leader and watching my guild go through much the same that yours is, in both 10′s and our co-opted 25 man runs with another guild, a few things I can suggest:

1) Have a DPSer be master looter. The master looter can say things like… “Plate physical DPS bracers” or “Mail caster chest” to describe the loot on vent, so people know when to pay attention or /roll.

2) You should be pulling the next trash pack within 20 seconds of the boss being downed — this is the tanks main job, make the healers cry & train DPS to not care who tops the overall meters.

3) Raid leader should have a brief synopsis ready for the boss, then ask if there are questions… no point in spending 5 minutes explaining Anub’arak when everyone knows the fight already… simply: Tank 1, tank him, kite during swarm. Stay spread out in an arc, tank 2, pick up the add, and be ready to save the healers when the bugs spawn.

bam. ready to rock.

4) You don’t need buffs for trash. Seriously. Rebuff before bosses, but if people die on trash, they die, they get rezzed, everyone moves on while they drink/eat up.

Big congrats on the KT kill, Check out Flame Leviathon as a guild, its a lot of fun. Just make sure no one brings a BoA item and wears it in there. It kills your vehicle hit points.