Am I in a World-class guild?  No.  Have I ever been?  No.  Can I raid more than 2 nights a week?  No.  Do I have any experience or expertise in building a guild, let alone a world class guild?  No.  Should you keep reading?  Probably not.

This is a series on how to create a world-class raiding guild.  I am a project manager IRL.  This is what I do- plan, organize, test, execute.  I really, really enjoy doing that in an IT environment, gaming environment- whatever.  It’s also my blog, and I think I can do this, so just quit QQing and read.

STEP 1:
Re-roll horde.

I’m serious.  Horde quests, characters, racial traits, cities, and characters are just better.  If you have someone who has a character above level 40 for the horde and alliance - I’m pretty sure about 99.8% of them will tell you Horde is better.  Let’s take a gander at the horde racial traits:

Cow: War Stomp/Endurance/Cultivation/Nature Resistance
War Stomp: Activate to stun up to 5 opponents within 8 yards - lasts 2 sec - 2 min cooldown
Endurance:  Max Health increased by 5%
Cultivation: 15 skill bonus to Herbalism
Nature Resistance:  All Tauren get +10 Nature Resistance

Classes:  Druid, Hunter, Shaman, Warrior, Death Knight
Thoughts:  The immediate thought would be to roll warrior here, and that’s ok- but there are other classes to look at as well.  Druid would be a decent choice, the extra health, the stomp, etc.  Hunter could be an option - again for the stomp to get some distance from a mob/player to kite.  Plus cows get to ride dinosaurs.


Undead:  Will of the Forsaken/Cannibalize/Underwater Breathing/Shadow Resistance
Will of the Forsaken:  Activate to become immune to Fear, Sleep, and Charm effects. Can also be used while already afflicted by Fear or Sleep - lasts 5 sec - 2 min cooldown
Cannibalize:  Activate to regenerate 7% of total health every 2 sec. by consuming Humanoid or Undead corpses within 5 yds - lasts 10 sec - 2 min cooldown
Underwater Breathing:  Underwater breath lasts 300% longer than normal
Shadow Resistance:  All Undead get +10 Shadow Resistance

Classes:  Mage, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior, Death Knight
Thoughts:  Undead is a cool class, but wow I think they kinda got screwed with racials.  Will of the Forsaken is nice- but I would argue everything else is kinda trivial.  Shadow resistance is OK.  Maybe priests and tanks?  If they were so cool- I would say maybe skip them.

Orc:  Blood Fury/Hardiness/Command/Axe Specialization
Blood Fury: Increases your damage and healing/AP (whatever) , but reduces healing effects on you by 50%. Lasts 15 sec.
Hardiness:  15% resistance to stun and knockout effects.
Command:  Pet melee damage increased by 5%.
Axe Specialization:  Expertise with Axes and Two-Handed Axes increased by 5.

Classes:  Hunter, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior, Death Knight
Thoughts:  Hunter.  Warlock.  Warrior.  Maybe Shaman.  Hunter.  Hunter.  Orcs are probably the best race in the game?  This race SCREAMS hunter.  And Warlock.  Death knight too.

Troll:  Berserking/Regenerating/Beast Slaying/Throwing specialization/Bow Specialization
Berserking:  Increases your casting and attack speed by 10% to 30%. At full health the speed increase is 10% with a greater effect up to 30% if you are badly hurt when you activate Berserking. Lasts 10 sec.
Regenerating:  10% health regen bonus, 10% active in combat
Beast Slaying:  5% damage bonus to Beasts
Throwing specialization:  Your chance to critically hit with Throwing Weapons is increased by 1%
Bow Specialization:  Your chance to critically hit with Bows is increased by 1%.

Classes:   Hunter, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warrior, Death Knight
Thoughts:  Trolls are underrated.  Berserking would be nice for a tank, I would think a Rogue would die to quick to get the full benefit in a fight.  Regenerating would be really nice for a tank.  The Bow specialization would be nice for hunters.  So tank.  Maybe hunter.

Blood Elves:  Arcane Affinity/Arcane Torrent/Magic Resistance/Mana Tap
Arcane Affinity: Enchanting +10
Arcane Torrent: Silences all enemies within 8 yards for 2 sec. In addition, you gain 5 + 1/Level Mana restored per Mana Tap charge currently affecting you - Instant - 2 min cooldown.
Magic Resistance: All resistances increased by 5.
Mana Tap:  Reduces target’s mana by 51 and charges you with Arcane energy for 10 min. This effect stacks up to 3 times. Amount of mana reduced is 50 + 1/Level - 30 yd range - Instant - 30 sec cooldown.

Classes:  Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Death Knight
Thoughts:  The arcane torrent/mana tap thing is nice, it’s a very quick stun - but the mana restore is another nice tool to get some mana back.  Any of the classes listed would be a decent choice if you didn’t like any of the other races.  Or you just wanted to be a BELF chick.

You have your options, start picking up roles.
Tank:  Cow, Troll, BELF*
Melee/DPS:  Orc, Troll, BELF, Undead(meh)
Healer:  Undead, BELF, Cow
*pally tanks

The point is- you want to be able to justify your race.  If someone wants to be a Blood Elf hunter - make them tell you why.  Because they want a “hawt toon” is not a good answer.  You are looking to match the best races up with the best roles.  Make sure these arguments you are getting are PvE centered.  Because I want to pwn stunned n00bs is again - not a good excuse for the BELF hunter.  We are creating a World Class PvE guild that will pwn BOSSES.  Always think “Will this help me in a boss fight?” and remember that some/most bosses are immune to stun effects.  Sure there will be a boss or two in the entire game where you could prove some moderate utility - but over the long haul using our example, an Orc hunter is probably the best race/class combo.

So - do you disagree with my thoughts on each race?  Which horde race is best for which class?  LET ME KNOW!