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We have just added a poll on which raids members are most interested in! Check it out and cast your vote The poll can also be found on the Raids main page!

As we're setting up for scheduling raids after the Community Week, we'd like to hear from our community members which raids you want to do, and at what level! Let us know! If there's anything else you'd like to add - feel free to comment in this poll's thread.

Update #1 - Announcing the Raid Team! We promised that we'd have some exciting stuff out before the Community Week, and we are pleased to announce the OC Raid Team! Check out the announcement by clicking on this link or go straight to the raids page and explore all the new features! Stay tuned for more updates coming this week!

I'd also like to extend a huge thank you to @Tubi and @AmarielSilme for completely self-organizing the previous "unofficial" training raids, which they generously opened to all members of the community and beyond! They really filled in the time that allowed us to develop the Raid Team functionality on the website & set up the foundations while learning from their experiences! Thanks so much to both of you and everyone else involved in the coordination of the training Raids!

24.4.2017 Update: Refreshed the list of people, and added our brand new Raid Team Manager!

We are pleased to announce that the OC Raid Team for GW2 is finally here! It's taken us a while, and we have had some of our wonderful commanders set up an unofficial raid training program in the meantime, but now we are finally ready to launch this new addition to our GW2 Team! The Raid Team will be scheduling and organizing official OC raids for new raiders and veterans alike, providing help, tips and information to anyone in need of them, and curating the Raider discord where members can find likeminded people to raid with, or discuss raids with their peers! So let's take a quick look at the overview of the Raid Team and what it has to offer, or if you want to begin exploring the new features yourself, you can go straight to the brand new Raids page! An OpenCommunity approach to raids The Raid Team features a team of Raid Leaders & Assistants held up to the OC standard of keeping a positive and inclusive approach to events that doesn't limit players to the meta, amount of LI or unnecessary gearchecks, while providing constructive feedback that helps raiders improve. Easy Signup Signing up to raids is easy, and after the initial raider sign up, it's a one step process! Don't waste time shuffling around various Google Docs or doodles - sign up, show up, and raid! Raider Discord Use the Raider Discord to stay in touch with announcements, be notified of newly scheduled raids or changes, chat directly with the Raid Team, discuss raid tactics, or find others to set up ad hoc raids with on the fly! Raider Resources Our brand new Raid Q&A forum allows members to browse or ask questions and get help from the Raid Team as well as other community members! Get answers to anything related to raids - builds, tactics, recommendations and more, or help other raiders by answering their questions! Raids will start being scheduled after the Community Week, giving everyone time to sign up as raiders, or join the Raid Team as Raid Leaders or Assistants! For any questions regarding raids, contact our Raid Team Manager - @Viridian

I'm interested in joining my first ever in forever raids, but I am worried I might not have the correct gear! What kind of gear do I need before I can sign up to an OC raid? Thanks

To Raids Main Page Note: This is the raiding etiquette which applies to OC-organized raids. Feel free to use any section of these guidelines in your personal raids as well for a more enjoyable raiding experience! ? Trust your Team! Trust your Commander! Focus on You! Be considerate! All community members are required to follow the Community Guidelines, however, raids are a team effort and require individual team members to work together. Once a raid team has gathered, the ten members usually spend several hours together, so it is very important that everyone within the team feels comfortable and can enjoy themselves. In order to ensure this, we have built additional raid-specific guidelines. Please take them seriously, even if they seem restrictive or unnecessary to you at first glance. It can be a terrible experience to be stuck for hours in a "tilted" raid team. Raiding Etiquette This is a short version of the guidelines, covering the main points we'd like everyone to always keep in mind: You are responsible for yourself and yourself only. Every member of a raid group has a specific task, and as your teammates trust you to do yours, you need to trust them to do theirs. There is never a need to check up on other members of the team! Please accept that you are not the raid leader. We assign one person to command a raid group, so that the other nine members have the possibility to focus on themselves, their own performance, and their improvement. More than you trying to assist them, commanders appreciate it if you use this opportunity. Keep any judgement of an encounter's or any of its aspects' difficulty or the difficulty of playing any profession or performing any special task in raid encounters to yourself. Remember that what might be easy for you is not necessarily easy for others. Other players have different circumstances or even handicaps that may make aspects of the game a lot harder for them. Our commanders will always strive to not criticize raiders during the run, especially during training runs, to create a positive environment (this is usually handled privately after the run). However, sometimes a commander needs to give some feedback to move things forward. Please understand that this is not about you personally, but for the benefit of the group. Please refrain from linking various content in TeamSpeak and try to keep communication in the squad chat during the raid. Most of your teammates do not have more than one screen and don't appreciate having to tab in and out of the game to read up on your TeamSpeak messages, let alone open a browser window to follow your links. Remember that etiquette is always about allowing everyone to feel as comfortable as possible. As static groups form, a group dynamic will also appear, and you will notice that some of these points apply to your group more than others - that's ok! As long as everyone within that static group is comfortable with how it's being run! Finally, note that these are not the same as pick-up-group (PUG) raids. The Raid Team strives for these runs to be structured in a streamlined fashion where the Commander has everything covered so that the other 9 raiders can focus on their own performance. Your experience with other raid groups may be different, but please respect the effort our Commanders are making by following these guidelines. Complete Guidelines This is a more extended version of the guidelines, for those avid readers who do want to take the time and go through everything and make sure they are prepared ! Mainly note that points I. and II. have a number of sub-articles, which we felt were important to stress. Points III.-V. are identical to the short version, but may be extended in the future if necessary. You are responsible for yourself and yourself only. Every member of a raid group has a specific task, and as your teammates trust you to do yours, you need to trust them to do theirs. There is never a need to check up on other members of the team! Do not give teammates advice on how to play their profession unless directly asked. We are sure you mean well, but not everyone appreciates it and you have to respect that. There is often more than one way to play a profession and what works for you does not necessarily work for someone else. Your teammates need to be given the opportunity to experiment and find their own way. Even if some choices don't make sense to you, you can be certain that your teammates have their reasons. Should there really be a serious problem, your commander noticed it and has either already solved it or is trying to. They most likely just chose to do so privately. If you want to make sure, send your commander a private message. Do not check on other team member's food and utility and do not call for food checks. We want to discourage the use of any third party addon to measure other party member's statistics, like DPS or boon uptime. It is not your job to measure other people's performance, and many raiders actually find themselves focusing too much on their damage output while under-performing overall in the raid. Please accept that you are not the raid leader. We assign one person to command a raid group, so that the other nine members have the possibility to focus on themselves, their own performance, and their improvement. More than you trying to assist them, commanders appreciate it if you use this opportunity. There is no need to explain or answer questions about the encounter, neither in TeamSpeak nor in chat. It is your commander's job to explain and it does not help anyone to have the same question answered multiple times in different ways and channels of communication. Most often that is more confusing or distracting than actually helpful. If you think your commander forgot something crucial, send them a private reminder. But don't be surprised if your commander has a different view on what is more and what is less important, or simply explains mechanics in a different order and planned on mentioning what you thought was missing at a later time. Do not call mechanics unless the commander asks you to do so. This often ends with several people calling the same thing and that is neither necessary nor helpful. Leave the decision about the team's tactical approach to an encounter to your commander. Our commanders are trained to know every encounter from several different tactics and perspectives. Every team is different and what works in one group does not necessarily work in another. You can always ask for their reasons for a decision, if you don't understand or disagree. Obviously commanders are not perfect and can make a mistake or misjudge and there is always room for discussion. But, although discussions about tactics and which skills and traits of which profession could be useful in what situation are certainly educational and fun, the commander makes the final decision and when he or she tells you to stop, stop. You always have the possibility to further discuss the matter after the raid. Do not call for ready checks. Your commander automatically claims to be ready when initiating the ready check - if they haven't initiated it yet, they might still be dealing with an issue you are not aware of, like answering a question in whisper chat. Commanders will do a ready check on their own once they are actually ready. Do not criticise your teammates or assign blame for your team's difficulties to another member of the team, neither publicly nor privately directly to the team member in any form. If you believe there to be a problem, send your commander a private message. Always use the commander as a proxy for feedback about other team members. Keep any judgement of an encounter's or any of its aspects' difficulty or the difficulty of playing any profession or performing any special task in raid encounters to yourself. Remember that what might be easy for you is not necessarily easy for others. Other players have different circumstances or even handicaps that may make aspects of the game a lot harder for them. Our commanders will always strive to not criticize raiders during the run, especially during training runs, to create a positive environment (this is usually handled privately after the run). However, sometimes a commander needs to give some feedback to move things forward. Please understand that this is not about you personally, but for the benefit of the group. Please refrain from linking various content in TeamSpeak and try to keep communication in the squad chat during the raid. Most of your teammates do not have more than one screen and don't appreciate having to tab in and out of the game to read up on your TeamSpeak messages, let alone open a browser window to follow your links.

Hey everyone! Every few months, the OC Teams come together to organize a massive event extravaganza to support a charitable cause, and this May, we are planning our largest event yet! OpenCommunity's Amazing Community Week Birthday Toga Party Extravaganza! Ok, that's not really its official title, but it's pretty descriptive So let's break it down! What is happening? On May 1st, OpenCommunity will be 2 years old! In celebration of that, we are throwing a 7-day party filled with as many events as we can cram in! On May 13th, we are also going to be one of the two official EU organizers for this year's MS Toga Party, a charity event raising money & awareness for multiple sclerosis research! We have decided to make the MS Toga Party fundraiser our sponsored charity for the entire 8 days of the Community Week! There will be prizes, there will be fun, and there will be lots of things to do! Note that some regular events might be cancelled for the duration of the Community Week event. Sat 6th - Community Birthday! Sun 7th - Community Birthday pt. 2! Mon 8th-Fri 12th - Community Week! Sat 13th - MS Toga Party! (more info at theopencommunity.org/mstoga) More details on specific events coming soon! So join us for 8 days of crazy, amazing events, great rewards, and raising money for charity! How do I join? The events will be organized on TeamSpeak, and all you need to do to join is drop in at any time! Once the detailed schedules are up you'll be able to see which events start when and make it to the ones you're interested in! Or just stick around for the whole thing! I want more details! If you click the "Follow" button located on the top right side of this thread, or click this link, you'll be notified of updates to this thread! There is a lot more info coming in the next few days and you wont want to miss it! But wait! There's more! In anticipation of OpenCommunity's birthday, we'll be bringing in some exciting new stuff to both our GW2 family as well as possibly some other parts of the community! Announcement #1 - The Raid Team Announcement #2 - OpenCommunity Minecraft server! Announcement #3 - Ascendant Supporter & Supporter Updates!