As a returning guild from the days of Legion/BFA, we are still in the process of progression to a Cutting Edge achievement for our Mythic team and working into the Top 200 as an ultimate goal. We do want to get there, but we know that it will take several seasons to get a good solid group together. Thus, we have developed our own methodology for raiding that we apply equally to all members of ANY raiding team.
A little walk down memory lane…
Our journey with Mythic raiding in The War Within started on Dec 16th, 2024, so it was quite late in the season for us to really do any work. After having such a long break from the mid-point of Battle For Azeroth, returning to the game was a huge endeavor that definitely had it’s struggles.
Raid leading the Mythic team, our now Senior Officer Coffdrop (aka Humanpaladin) took over for our old Heroic raid leader, Wolfy as he decided to take an extended break after gaining AOTC with the team. So we had about ~15-16 of us ready to take on the challenge and needed to find 4 or 5 formidable players that could tackle the extent of what Mythic raiding could throw at us.
In this, we really struggled because for one, we are a Pacific Time zone based guild and there just doesn’t seem to be many players available during those times. That left us at the mercy of PUGs, which were not often the best crop to farm from. But in the end, we did triumph to a solid 3/8 bosses with 41% left on the 4th, Rasha’nan. Not bad for a returning guild that had to start from scratch.
On April 3rd, 2025, we took a team of 20 players in to Liberation of Undermine Mythic tier. Vexie was easy enough and we devoured her in under 5 pulls, but after that we spent a good 58 pulls on Cauldron of Carnage before downing the feuding Kings of the Amphitheater on May 6th. That was partly due to the fact that in Season 1 what we really had was a Heroic team that dabbled in Mythic, whereas now we really wanted to be a Mythic team. That caused us to drop from 20 to a solid 17-18 players and thus the dance with the Roster Boss began.
Pulling in folks from our AOTC team, we did manage to finally kill Rik Reverb 106 pulls later on May 29th. This has put us into a precarious situation because certain players in our team aren’t really Mythic capable. To really raid at this tier requires a certain level of commitment that you do not see from AOTC players. But we persevere and persist and with that have managed to get to a heartbreaking 1.84% on what is arguably the HARDEST boss in the entire Liberation of Undermine raid, Sprocketmonger Lockenstock. That boss will go down, even IF IT KILLS US!
And with a 4/8 end to the season, hopefully we can replace players that are just not up to the task with new players that are. And what we have learned in the process has been invaluable to us. First, we know what its going to take to get through bosses at this level; very different from Legion hey-days. Secondly, we have tightened up what we will require from members seeking to be part of the team. And third, we have developed a good way to assess players and provide feedback on what they need to improve, if they can.
We wanted to try to do things a bit more linear than last season with MFO, so we stuck it out to kill all of the Heroic bosses first before moving into the Mythic raid. This helped us get our 4 piece bonuses and really work on the mechanics. It did in fact take us one week less than last season to reach 8/8H with the Olympians team so we’re moving in the right direction. This season our hope is get to 5/8 or better, so that means that we must down the SOUL HUNTERS to reach our minimum goal. Of course, we will no doubt push as far as we can to get closer and closer to hitting “Cutting Edge”.
We’re excited for what is to come with the Midnight expansion and will be once again running through all the seasons that expansion has to offer; we always strive to stay as active as possible throughout all seasons. We’re really committed to the entirety of the World Soul Saga and hope to have CE by the end of Midnight! With housing coming in that expansion, guildies will look forward to TAVERN NIGHT at the guild house! Let the drinks, stories, and coin exchange flowwwwww….
From then on, continue our dominance as we re-clear every tier for CE getting faster and faster to achieve the top 200 Hall of Fame status we crave.
IMPROVEMENT ACTIONS
First, we took an assessment of what areas of a boss encounter are available for us to assess team members with. We came up with the following areas:
| IMPROVEMENTS | DEFINITION |
| Improve iLVL | Your iLvL may have fallen behind the curve of what is needed for the collective team iLvL requirement. This changes as we progress through a raid instance. |
| Improve DPS/HPS | Your DPS or HPS may have fallen below the average for your iLvL and spec against players of your same range on Warcraft Logs. This also includes the use of Tempered Potions, Power Infusion, damage increase cooldowns, etc. |
| Improve Mechanics | The execution of proper mechanics against a boss has fallen below the average. For example, a hunter executing the toy mechanic for Cauldron of Carnage. |
| Improve Defenses | Your use of defensives when it is necessary is a big part of getting to the end phase of an encounter without dying. This includes shields, damage dampeners, damage reduction, and other mitigation. |
| Improve Gear | All your gear should always be fully repaired before each raid and include all necessary gems and enchants. This also includes your use of food buffs, flasks, weapon buffs, etc. |
| Improve Communications | When you are handling specific tasks for an encounter it is imperative that you are able to communicate CONCISELY in regard to those events without excessive chatter. This also includes being able to communicate before and after a raid or when you’re going to be late or absent from a scheduled raid day. |
| Improve Awareness | Situational awareness is very important and most especially when things do not go as originally planned. The ability to pivot and adjust and recover during a boss fight is a key skill. |
| Improve Positioning | Boss fights have a cadence and flow to them usually. There are specific points where you are to stack tightly together or spread 6 spaces apart or be at a certain spot. Knowing where you are to be at all times during a boss fight will significantly improve your ability to reach the end phase without dying. |
| Improve Survivability | Surviving until the last phase of a boss, where it gets the most chaotic, requires the correct use and timing of health potions, healthstones, defensive cooldowns, etc. |
| Improve Utility | Classes come with a bunch of different and unique utility abilities like Lust/Hero, Power Infusion, etc. We rely on the right use and timing of these utilities and for players to know when & how best to use them. |
| Improve Attendance (includes presence) | Your attendance is marked by being on time at raid invites (7:45 PM Pacific at earliest) fully repaired and prepared is essential for us to quickly get to a boss. In addition, your PRESENCE is equally important, and by that we mean while you’re in the raid, your attention is focused, you come back on time from breaks, etc. etc. |
| Improve Aggro/Threat (tank specific) | For tanks, keeping aggro/threat on the boss is necessary for execution. All tanks have ways to balance and improve their aggro/threat. |
| Learn Boss Fights (not counted) | This is the baseline for any new member or trial that joins our raid teams. It’s cleared once we have seen you go through enough repetitions of a boss where you should “get it”. |
For here we now could quantify to members what areas they needed to improve on and how that correlates with a “encounter score” that they can see, apply improvements, and gauge how well they are doing within the team. We can equally apply that same methodology to all members of a team — not just Mythic either, but Heroic as well.
Its not automatic either, we only apply it when we’re struggling on a boss. Because that’s when it becomes relevant to shift your roster around to get through to a boss kill. So, for Mythic raiding, we want to see all members land at a 9-10 score, with a minimum of 7 to stay competitive. For Heroic raiding, those numbers may fall down to a 7-8 score, with a minimum of 5 to stay competitive. So our members know they get a certain number of weeks to improve and are clear on what they need to do to improve. DPS/HPS meters are NOT the end all, be all of raiding — certainly its a part of it, but there is a lot more than just pushing buttons.
ENCOUNTER SCORING SYSTEM
Here is what that looks like for us:
| SCORE | ASSESSMENT |
| 1 | 8 or more improvements are needed with no improvements made week after week for a period of 3 weeks on a majority of skills needed to raid at the Mythic or Heroic level. A demotion of the raid tier will be required for you to work on improvements and your ability to return to the higher tier may take a full season to complete. |
| 2 | 7 or more improvements are needed with no improvements made week after week for a period of 3 weeks on a majority of skills needed to raid at the Mythic or Heroic level. A demotion of the raid tier may be required for you to work on improvements. |
| 3 | 6 or more improvements are needed with no improvements made week after week for a period of 3 weeks and must practice in a previous tier for a few weeks before returning to the team. |
| 4 | 5 or more improvements are needed with minimal improvements made week after week for a period of 3 weeks and must practice in a previous tier for a few weeks in addition to continuing to participate in the current team. |
| 5 | 4 or more improvements are needed with minimal improvements made week after week for a period of 3 weeks and should practice in a previous tier to improve more. |
| 6 | 3 or more improvements are needed with slight improvements made week after week for a period of 3 weeks. |
| 7 | 2 or more improvements are needed with average improvements made week after week for a period of 3 weeks. |
| 8 | 1 or more improvements are needed with significant improvements made week after week for a period of 3 weeks.. |
| 9 | No real improvements are needed besides perhaps around survivability at the end phase of a boss. |
| 10 | You are a gold star champion and rarely ever make mistakes or die inconsequently. |