A Raid Leaders Perspective: Guild Raiding vs GDKP

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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It’s disappointing that GDKP raids are being banned on the Anniversary realms, as this decision will likely prevent me from fully investing in the game. I’ll probably play for a few weeks to months, but my enthusiasm will be limited by the ban.

Over my time in Classic, I’ve mostly been a raid leader. In The Burning Crusade (TBC), I started a guild with a small group of friends, and we successfully cleared all content in TBC and Wrath of the Lich King (up to Trial of the Grand Crusader). However, as the guild eventually collapsed, I lost touch with many of the people I had played with for years.

Toward the end of TBC, I began participating in and eventually hosting GDKP raids in Black Temple and Hyjal. These raids allowed me to play additional characters outside of my main guild’s raids and introduced me to a new community within Classic.

The reason I eventually stepped away from guild raiding can be traced to three main issues:

  1. Loot Dissatisfaction:
    Initially, we used Soft Reserves for loot distribution, but as players began gaming the system, we switched to a Soft Reserve + ThatsMyBIS (TMB) system, prioritizing the first 5. This worked when we had a consistent group, but inevitably, some members couldn’t attend each week, leading to the need for pugs. When pugs won big-ticket items, it often caused frustration and complaints from guild members who felt loot should stay within the guild.
  2. Scheduling Issues:
    When regular guild members couldn’t attend a raid, it became challenging to field a competent group. We tried rotating bench players, but it didn’t work well as many players were unwilling to rotate, and certain classes were always needed in the raid.
  3. Infighting and Poor Performance:
    Guilds often develop internal factions, particularly between friend groups, leading to personality clashes and drama. Managing this added stress to an already demanding role as raid leader, and it often felt like I was dealing with HR issues on top of everything else.

Why I prefer GDKP Raiding:

GDKP raiding solved all these problems. Loot expectations are clear from the start, so there are no surprises when items drop. Scheduling is more flexible since pugs or substitutes can easily fill in for absent players. If someone underperforms, they simply don’t get invited back, which maintains raid efficiency.

Since leaving guild leadership and transitioning to full-time GDKP raiding, I’ve completed some of the toughest content to date, including all but Firelands, where we’re currently 5/7 heroic. In Wrath, we ran four 12/12 heroic raids each week, organized into back-to-back 2-hour sessions.

While it’s true that GDKP has shifted the traditional guild structure, I don’t see this as a negative. I’ve joined a broader community of players, some from guilds, others without one, and most of our communication now happens in Discord rather than in-game. Despite the different guild affiliations, it’s still a close-knit community of familiar faces who raid together week after week, forming lasting friendships.

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If they could find a way to easily catch people doing RMT and ban them consistently I would be all for GDKP. The problem is they can’t, and the more people that use RMT to pay for items from GDKP the more the inflation on items goes up. And since they can’t consistently ban RMT abusing players. It is much easier to just outright ban GDKP.

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No. GDKP ruined Era servers.

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I had only positive experiences with GDKP in TBC Classic. I wasn’t made aware of them until Naxx P6 in 2019 Classic, but I was raiding with a guild at the time and felt I needed more information before attending one. So for me, I didn’t join one until TBC.

It was usually a PUG advertised in LFG. Expectations were set up front. Deposits were reasonable (never over 100g). I never observed RMT in the group, but I’m not a micro-managing Karen. I’m prone to mind my own business and do my character’s class job (back then it was tanking). I met a lot of really nice people that I ended up having more of a connection with than I did in the guild I was in, and wished I had met them sooner. And one of the more important interactions I observed is that no one tried to manipulate the RL’s to favor them to get the gear they wanted over other bidders (much like the HR issues you mentioned).

My personal experience with GDKP’s was positive and not a swipe-fest (observations made, and I’m a pretty detail-oriented person in-game).

As I will be making a guild in Classic Fresh, I hope to encounter and recruit the open mindsets like you have.

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It’s already banned. I don’t expect it to change. I’m simply sharing my perspective on it, as someone who has organized 3+ lockouts every tier since TBC.

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GDKP is the only reason era servers have lasted 5+ years actually…

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No its not.

Glad GDKP is banned!

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Era would have been completely dead 3 years ago without it. facts

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Not it wouldn’t.

Facts.

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you go to MC with your naxx geared characters with no incentive? no you dont.

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I went with my guild to help them because we play the game normally, yes I do.

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congrats, youre the exception, not the norm.

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No I’m not. You have zero data to back up what you say :slight_smile:

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old content falls off without incentive in every single release of the game. GDKP adds incentive to running old content which allows people to continue to find groups for content which they normally wouldnt. This has been and will be the experience of WoW releases in the past and wow releases in the future. The data is there for 20+ years if you just look with half a brain.

I’ve experienced this falloff first hand back in 2006 and many times after. GDKP keeps the game alive for longer than it would live without it. undisputable facts.

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I have no exp with GDKP, only what I’ve read on the forums, and the general understanding of ‘raid and get gold, bid if you want’. Thank you for the detailed and well thought out argument in favor of the system.

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I think most people agree GDKP is a good loot system. Unfortunately everyone also knows what it brings with it. Obviously it won’t stop RMT but it’s hard to argue GDKP is not a big motivating factor for a lot of gold buyers. It kinda sucks but probably for the best imo

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a new “community” … right, great community you had that allows pugs or subs to “easily” fill in
great community where if someone “underperforms” then they actually aren’t a part of the community, would you elaborate on what that means

a “broader” community sounds like it’s not a community at all and instead a rotating door of people who generally dont know each other and dont view any newcomer as anything but a potential bag, which is a negative in the extreme when referring to shifting the traditional guild structure. you may have a “close-knit” community of the 10 or 12 people you would take to a firelands raid, but that amount of people is not going to cut it for classic

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shutdown the auction house then if your true battle is with RMT, but its not. its just people who hate the idea of GDKP because they think others are getting ahead of them by swiping when most people are not. people that swipe quit very fast

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The perspective of someone who is actively supporting/encouraging the buying of gold.

Noted. Worthless perspective.

Don’t think anyone has a problem with GDKP as a system of winning loot, it’s the obvious issues that come with the need for gold. Like are we supposed to pretend 5k USD/198k gold for Gressil was totally fine?

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I personally like GDKPs and I agree it keeps people doing content they otherwise wouldn’t. I also understand it encourages gold buying. It’s unfortunate but just the reality