Server Raid Progress — Projects — World of Warcraft
last changed 29 May 2007

Server Raid Progress

Every server has (at least) one; a nerd with too much time on his (or her) hands, who creates a guild ranking system and publishes it on the internet for all to see.

This is most appreciated by the hardcore raiding guilds with something to prove, but it can be a source of motivation for the casual raiding guilds as well.

I spend most of my gametime on Lothar, and the official unofficial nerd in our neighborhood is Sther. His system is simple and informative, and it works.

My aim here is not to patronize or replace Sther's work, but to offer an example of how to create a similar system with a little more pizazz.

Pick An Instance

The most successful strategy for tackling most large projects is to start with something small and work your way out. In this case, we'll focus on Karazhan.

There are smaller raid instances —Magtheridon's Lair, for example— but I need an instance with several bosses to illustrate the steps.

Identify Necessary Bosses

Begin by identifying the bosses which are necessary for advancement through the instance. In Karazhan, there are five: Moroes, the Opera Event, Curator, the Chess Event, and Prince Malchezaar. These bosses are assigned a value of 1; the other seven bosses, being less important, are assigned a smaller value— in this case 0.8.

The choice of the latter value is somewhat important, and I'll get back to that later.

Boss	Nec
Moroes	1.00
Opera Event	1.00
Curator	1.00
Chess Event	1.00
Malchezaar	1.00
Servants' Quarters	0.80
Attumen	0.80
Maiden	0.80
Terestian	0.80
Shade of Aran	0.80
Netherspite	0.80
Nightbane	0.80

Rank By Difficulty

Next, assign a value to each boss which represents the relative difficulty of that boss fight. This is subjective, but should weigh the complexity of the fight more heavily than the number of wipes your particular guild suffered while learning and executing the strategy. I gave Nightbane more weight than perhaps necessary, partly to simplify the numbers.

Boss	Diff
Servants' Quarters	0.25
Attumen	0.50
Chess Event	0.50
Maiden	0.75
Moroes	1.00
Terestian	1.00
Curator	1.25
Shade of Aran	1.25
Opera Event	1.50
Netherspite	1.50
Malchezaar	1.75
Nightbane	2.25

Total Modifier

When you have two numbers next to each boss (necessity and difficulty), multiply them to get a total modifier. You may also put the bosses in order of usual access in the instance.

Boss	Nec	Diff	Total
Servants' Quarters	0.80	0.25	0.20
Attumen	0.80	0.50	0.40
Moroes	1.00	1.00	1.00
Maiden	0.80	0.75	0.60
Opera Event	1.00	1.50	1.50
Curator	1.00	1.25	1.25
Terestian	0.80	1.00	0.80
Shade of Aran	0.80	1.25	1.00
Netherspite	0.80	1.50	1.20
Chess Event	1.00	0.50	0.50
Malchezaar	1.00	1.75	1.75
Nightbane	0.80	2.25	1.80
			12.00

Normalize

You'll notice that the sum of the modifiers in the previous step is probably an awkward number (12 in this case). So you'll multiply each product by a fraction (100/12 here) so that when you add them you get a total of 100 points for a full clear.

Boss	Points
Servants' Quarters	1.67
Attumen	3.33
Moroes	8.33
Maiden	5.00
Opera Event	12.50
Curator	10.40
Terestian	6.67
Shade of Aran	8.33
Netherspite	10.00
Chess Event	4.17
Malchezaar	14.60
Nightbane	15.00
	100.00

Plot Your Guilds

Now that you've assigned a value to each boss, it's time to list the guilds on your server and give credit where it's due. For this example, I'll only list Alliance guilds.

Also, points are awarded here for successfully defeating the boss or completing the event. Therefore, every guild that achieves victory in at least one of the three possible Opera events gets the points for the Opera.

Note that the kills listed on this page are taken from Sther's page. Since Sther's list doesn't include the Servants' Quarter bosses, this list assumes that any guild that can defeat either Attumen or Moroes can also survive the SQ encounter. For this reason, the SQ points are automatically awarded to all guilds listed.

Guild	SQ	At	Mo	MV	Op	Cu	Te	Ar	Ne	Ch	Ma	Ni	Total
Possible	1.67	3.33	8.33	5.00	12.50	10.40	6.67	8.33	10.00	4.17	14.60	15.00	100
Blessing	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	100
Darkwind	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	100
gDisband	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	100
Good Game	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	100
Kindred Chaos	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	100
Kyrie Eleison	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	100
Silent Lucidity	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	100
TAG	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	100
Underscore	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	100
Unified Order	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X		X	X	X	90
Peons For Hire	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X		85
Redefine	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X		85
Ominous	X	X	X	X	X	X		X	X	X	X		78
Ascend	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X		X	X		75
Enigma	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X		X	X		75
Sophos	X	X	X	X	X	X		X		X	X		68
The Bit Players	X	X	X	X	X	X		X		X	X		68
MoorDamage	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X		X			60
Resurgence	X	X	X	X	X	X		X					50
Helms Elite	X	X	X	X	X	X				X			45
Impulse	X	X	X	X	X	X				X			45
Legacy of the Forgotten	X	X	X	X	X	X				X			45
The Unbound	X	X	X	X	X	X				X			45
Pajova Elites	X	X	X	X	X	X							41
Windmasters	X	X	X	X	X	X							41
Z E N	X	X	X	X	X	X							41
Crimson Machine	X		X		X	X							33
Faith	X	X	X	X	X								31
Forthwen	X	X	X	X	X								31
Liberators of Lothar	X	X											5

Completing the Picture

So there's an idea of how the Alliance guilds of Lothar are doing in Karazhan, as of the last time this page was updated. A similar process can be employed for other instances, giving a more complete picture of server raid progress.

Consider carefully how you want to structure the overall list of guild accomplishments. Sther's list makes all bosses equal, and gives each guild a total number of points derived from adding together all bosses... well, the ones that count, anyway. This means that killing every boss in Karazhan is worth 11 points (the random boss denoted by SQ above isn't counted), while clearing The Eye is worth only 4 points despite the fact that The Eye is a lot more demanding. I think it's great to compare guilds within each instance, but it's unfair to equate Attumen and Kael'thas. You'll need to reach your own decision.

Reflect

This arrangement accomplishes a couple of important objectives.

Relative Difficulty: Bosses are valued according to their relative difficulty; overall, the later bosses are worth more than the early bosses. In this case, the "first" seven bosses are worth roughly 48 points, the last five accounting for 52 points.
Mathematical Control: By carefully selecting the multiplier for skippable bosses (0.8 in this case), we have ensured that the 5 necessary bosses account for exactly 50% of the possible points for a full clear. If you choose, you can adjust this to 75%, 13.24%, or whatever other number you like.

World of Warcraft™ and Blizzard Entertainment® are all trademarks
or registered trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment
in the United States and/or other countries.
These terms and all related materials, logos, and images are
copyright © Blizzard Entertainment.
This site is in no way associated with or endorsed by
Blizzard Entertainment®.