Guidelines for participating in VEA Raids.

- Raid schedules are posted on the website and signups are in the guild calendar.
Please sign up on the in-game calendar to guarantee a place in the raid. If you sign up for a raid, you are committing to being there.  If by some chance you can't make it, make every effort to let someone know.  The raid leader may choose to take a later sign up in place of an earlier one if the latter's class is severely lacking and the earlier's class has plenty of slots filled. This should only be done in order to give the raid a chance to be successful. Others will be on a waiting list and should be ready and available if they wish to go.

- Be on time.
You should be online and at the instance gate 15 minutes before the scheduled start time or you may lose your place in the raid. Running another instance immediately before a planned raid is highly discouraged. We will not wait for you to complete another raid. Invites will typically begin about 30 minutes before the raid.

- Be prepared.
Make sure you have all the necessary items you will need to have a successful run. Potions, ammo, food, water, pet items, etc should be obtained in advance. If their are quests to be obtained, please make sure to acquire these well in advance of being invited to the raid.

- Raid Chat and Emotes should be kept to a minimum.
While these are fine before the raid instructions start, they can be distracting to the raid overall. Feel free to use whispers to talk with those in the raid that you want to have conversations with. Party chat also should be kept for raid related discussions only. The Raid Leader or his designate should be the only one typing in the raid channel. If you have questions about your role or duty in a particular situation or if you have recommendations, please use whispers to contact a raid leader. In addition, please be sure to put away any vanity pets you may have.

- Know the dos and don'ts of your role.
There are few things more frustrating than characters who don't understand how to play their role and disrupt the instance for those who do. Purposely pulling mobs when you are not the designated puller, aggro'ing mobs because you are outside of where you are supposed to be, breaking sheep, shackles and sleep, and other actions that disrupt the flow of the raid are considered unacceptable behavior and could be cause for removal from the raid. We understand that accidents happen, but expect our guild members to act in a mature manner.

- Generally raids are more serious.
Raids are one of the few times where we are more serious about our play. Completing a successful raid in less than 2 hours is much more preferable than a 4 hour unsuccessful marathon. You can help by being attentive, disciplined and in control. Players who engage in disruptive activities may be removed from the raid.

- Ventrilo.
Although Ventrilo is not required, it is definitely preferred.  We have found that our most productive raids have been when we have been able to coordinate our efforts by voice as well as by typing. General Chatter should be kept to a minimum as the main tank, puller, crowd control and raid leader are likely to be communicating important information.

- Loot rules are announced at the beginning of each raid.
Make sure you understand what the loot rules are at the beginning and get all questions answered then. In cases where random rolls are required for loot, please roll promptly or you may lose your chance to receive that specific loot. If specific loot disqualifies you for later loot, please don't roll if you are not eligible for the loot.  We have standardized on a Ratio-based loot system.  This system helps to balance out how loot is distributed.  In general we often find the person who needs the loot the most, but if more than one party would like the item we will likely default to ratios.

- VEA members come first.
Whenever possible, raids will be solely manned by VEA members. When this is not possible, we will look to our affiliated guilds to fill open raid positions. If we cannot fill the raid, the raid leader will choose to a) proceed with the raid with the current number of participants, b) choose a smaller raid to go on (reduce from 20 to 15, or 15 to 10, etc), or c) with the concurrance of the group look to pickup players who happen to be on the server. Since VEA is really founded on a family atmosphere and doing things together, choosing option c should only be done in extreme circumstances.

- Raid Addons.
There are a number of suggested addons that can help you with your raid experience.  While none of these are required, we suggest you consider installing Omen (threat meter), Deadly Boss Mods (encounter information), and Decursive (Easy decurse/cleanse/remove). It is helpful both for the player and the raid leader. If at all possible, you will want to install these add-ons.

We want to be successful and we want to have fun. While these guidelines may seem overly serious, our goal is to have fun, but to have fun at the appropriate time and venue.

 Updated: 12/26/2008