There is an old saying among martial artists that goes "Your body is only as strong as your weakest link." The mantra isn't just limited to disciples of the ancient arts, though - modern military doctrine teach the same principle, and every fire team in conflict is only as good as their slowest man.

That seems to be exactly what Gharuvy over at the WoW boards had in mind when he discusses his lamentations. According to his experiences, while it takes at least 25% of any current group in a raid/encounter to perform exceptionally well to get the job done, he's realized that it only takes one poorly performing member in every group to screw the whole thing up.

The raid leader's lament then is that they can never expect majority of the team members to perform extremely well, but at the same time, they can expect most of their members to at least perform reasonably well - there's just that gamble of a "weak link."

Interestingly enough, Mike Schramm over at WoW insider makes some remarks about this statement, adding his own personal experience of getting his rag-tag team across Deadmines, and how they barely survived their encounters there based on his own initiative - though he admits to making fumbles himself, ending up being the "weak link" on other occasions.

So, what's this all say? With the number of raiders per party now growing into the 40-man mark, we're hoping this little bit of wisdom gets itself passed on to the other raid leaders out there. We're not telling you guys to be suspicious of every noob that comes along - just be careful of the people you're drafting the next time you set your eyes on areas like Naxx, and make sure everybody receives clear orders before you march off.