Team structures for raiding

Having been actively WoW-raiding in as many different ways as has been available to me lately I have been able to gather up some data on how raid teams are structured and how they perform and behave. I have earlier mentioned the differences in performance based on active positive communication and leadership compared to those loaded with negative rants and no leadership present, and I have been looking into how team structure also affects performance as well as how a group works together.

First out; small groups are more likely to communicate more than a large one. Add voice communication and this becomes even more noticeable. The social balance in a smaller group is also more fragile, and even small negative outbursts can completely demolish a teams success rate.

So a large group will talk less, and more often you will have people chatting only to ‘hear their own voice’. For random teams leadership is only functional as long as the raid succeeds, and for someone to take leadership after a collapse, or if none is present in the first place, the support of one or two other players is all that is needed to make this happen.

Having a plan always helps. If you have players new to an encounter your best option is to present the ‘short’ version. Focusing on what makes an encounter special or different is all most players need to pull through, and learning by failing seems to be a much better option than a 15 minutes walk-through.

Having one or more ‘heroes’ on your team boosts morale and increases the chance of success for an encounter. A ‘hero’ here being a character that performs noticeably better than the rest of the team. The presence of someone that is likely to increase the teams ability to succeed has an obvious positive effect on the team performance even if the actual contribution of such a player is not critical in any way to the end results.

So what does this mean for the structure of your raiding team? Help someone lead the group – or take the lead yourself if you feel confident handling this responsibility. Get rid of negative players. Make someone your ‘hero’; the illusion of someone awesome in the team that will ensure their success works. Chat – silence is not a team builder. Have a plan and make it visible, but make it a short one. In the end this might not ensure your success, but it will sure as hell give you the best possible place to start.