Seemed vaguely appropriate... :D
When I first started this blog I made a promise: I wouldn't talk directly about my Guild. A lot of this is to do with the fact that I've never been a great fan of dirty laundry in public, and the rest is wrapped up in the fact that most of the people I play with are the same people I began my Warcraft career with, 'back in the day.' As a result, it would be like dissing friends in public, and as this isn't Facebook, that simply wouldn't do. However, this week's Guild activity has been interesting enough to warrant more than a mention in passing. Consider this a reflection on my job as GM, and some thoughts on that most thorny of issues: approaching that tricky boss fight.
Last week the Guild had a bit of bother with the second boss in Heart of Fear. The biggest single issue was the difficulty in accurately predicting how Unseen Strike's damage component would affect the raid, which would occasionally manage to wipe people who weren't standing in EXACTLY the right place. We spent a night faffing with positions and options: we made P2 once by which time the stacking debuff was enough to kill most of us, because we'd spent too long fighting beforehand. Faffing is exactly the right word too: lots of people giving an opinion on TS and (it was decided) no firm leadership voice to give the evening the sense of direction it needed. At the end of the night we were no further forward so something happened that doesn't normally: we simply threw the tactic we'd used since we began away and started again. As it transpires that gave us by far the smoothest and most manageable attempt of the evening, but it left the Raid exhausted and ultimately demoralised.
One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given was back in Karazhan by an ex-guildie who I still remember with fondness. Pick a strategy and stick with it until the boss is dead. This has always been the way I've viewed fights: the learning curve is so different for individuals that you need to try and get everyone first to simply to be able to replicate the same actions as a group. After that can come the finesse and the tweaking, but to begin with there must be a plan that everyone sticks to. Despite the issues with that fight (and the fact we were 0/6 to start with and 1/6 when we finished) we now have a solid plan of attack. The mechanics are doable, and tonight (I hope) we will have enough people a) to give it another go and b) to actually make P2 consistently. That, however, is not my real concern.
There's been a lot of muttering this week: I sense too much focus on individual accountability and not enough of a grasp of the major problem, that we have 10 people to teach a new strategy to. Ultimately some noses seem to have been put out of joint, and that's where (with my GM hat) I tend to get a tad frustrated. See, the thing is that I can guarantee if Person A has an issue with person B, F or Y I'll be the one who gets the arse-end of the conversations. As GM it is pretty much my door people pitch up on in such circumstances, and really I shouldn't have to remind people that this is a game. You play your own way, to a point, and when you allow individual prejudices to start colouring your outlook, it is never going to end well. In the end I know the people who'll suck it up and learn, those who'll get the hump that we're not doing it their way but go along for the kill, and those people who will not move fast enough when they get Unseen Strike and kill us. I'm really glad I'm not raid-leading progression as a result.
It is a precarious balance to strike in progression raiding, to keep momentum constant but at the same time not to allow individual issues to hold the whole back. It requires a level of selflessness that many people are simply unwilling to give, and often a grasp of technicalities that some simply can't attain. Having done a Heroic Run of Dragon Soul last night (bonus title ftw) I find myself again in awe of any team of 10 that did it when current and completed it without at least one major personnel fall out. There is so much that can still go wrong, even in content that is no longer considered a challenge. It's great to be able to cheese it now, but it does seem unfair to those who earned titles that they are devalued over time as older content becomes trivialised. I never really grasped the significance of that until this Expansion, but I think it matters, perhaps more than it has at any other point.
Ultimately, if you sign up for a progression raid, it is your task to come prepared, in every sense of the word. There are those who are happy to wait until content is on farm before throwing themselves into the picture, and although I have absolutely no problem with that, these people need to understand and accept the knowledge they owe an enormous debt to those who blaze the trails on their behalf. It's not a lot of fun sometimes at the sharp end, especially if your nights are spent with your face on the floor. Don't try and pretend you're anything that you're not, however, because that's just asking for trouble and ultimately will mean that things WILL end in tears. Come do a job and well, to the best of your ability, and the results truly can be glorious. Don't get stuck in the the middle of 10 disparate individuals: become part of a team.
Now if you'll excuse me I'll be off to LFR to practice not being eaten by Attenuation... ^^
There's been a lot of muttering this week: I sense too much focus on individual accountability and not enough of a grasp of the major problem, that we have 10 people to teach a new strategy to. Ultimately some noses seem to have been put out of joint, and that's where (with my GM hat) I tend to get a tad frustrated. See, the thing is that I can guarantee if Person A has an issue with person B, F or Y I'll be the one who gets the arse-end of the conversations. As GM it is pretty much my door people pitch up on in such circumstances, and really I shouldn't have to remind people that this is a game. You play your own way, to a point, and when you allow individual prejudices to start colouring your outlook, it is never going to end well. In the end I know the people who'll suck it up and learn, those who'll get the hump that we're not doing it their way but go along for the kill, and those people who will not move fast enough when they get Unseen Strike and kill us. I'm really glad I'm not raid-leading progression as a result.
It is a precarious balance to strike in progression raiding, to keep momentum constant but at the same time not to allow individual issues to hold the whole back. It requires a level of selflessness that many people are simply unwilling to give, and often a grasp of technicalities that some simply can't attain. Having done a Heroic Run of Dragon Soul last night (bonus title ftw) I find myself again in awe of any team of 10 that did it when current and completed it without at least one major personnel fall out. There is so much that can still go wrong, even in content that is no longer considered a challenge. It's great to be able to cheese it now, but it does seem unfair to those who earned titles that they are devalued over time as older content becomes trivialised. I never really grasped the significance of that until this Expansion, but I think it matters, perhaps more than it has at any other point.
Ultimately, if you sign up for a progression raid, it is your task to come prepared, in every sense of the word. There are those who are happy to wait until content is on farm before throwing themselves into the picture, and although I have absolutely no problem with that, these people need to understand and accept the knowledge they owe an enormous debt to those who blaze the trails on their behalf. It's not a lot of fun sometimes at the sharp end, especially if your nights are spent with your face on the floor. Don't try and pretend you're anything that you're not, however, because that's just asking for trouble and ultimately will mean that things WILL end in tears. Come do a job and well, to the best of your ability, and the results truly can be glorious. Don't get stuck in the the middle of 10 disparate individuals: become part of a team.
Now if you'll excuse me I'll be off to LFR to practice not being eaten by Attenuation... ^^
