Please Read!

This is article I found while searching for help on getting people motivated and in the right direction to get ready for kara. Its a bit of a long read, but its very good.






I’d like to start out by saying that I really don’t want to write the post that follows. Despite the fact that these ideas have been kicking around in my head for a long time, I’ve kept silent because I didn’t want to risk hurting anyone’s feelings.

Of course, I still don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, so what changed?

The answer is simple: the ongoing difficulties that plague some of our Karazhan groups have finally convinced me that it is necessary. To wit, we have a problem, it’s not going away on its own, and it is this:

Some guildies who are wonderful human beings, fine guildmembers, and valued friends, have not prepared themselves or their characters to be effective in raids. When they group with those who have prepared, the less-effective players drag the entire raid down to defeat. This is because raid bosses do not care that you are a warm, loving, generous, funny, special person, much beloved by your entire guild. The bastards respond only to damage, healing, debuff removal, and crowd control. That’s just the reality of the game, as Blizzard has presented it to us.

Of course, all of us here are keenly aware of the importance of kindness and politeness, and want to avoid potential drama; I sincerely applaud those sensitivities. However, even that can be taken too far. As a result, people have heretofore been very reluctant to turn to the folks who aren’t pulling their weight and say, “look, you have to really pick up your play. Adjust your spec, try different gear and/or enchantments, look at some new strategies, whatever it takes. Ask questions if you don’t know how to improve, but, if you won’t try, please step aside to let someone else fill your spot in the raid because we love you dearly, but we can’t carry you.”

Even writing it here, without directing it at anyone in particular, I’m damned uncomfortable. Yet, because it so desperately needed to be said, I gritted my teeth, squirmed in my seat, and there you have it.

This may come as a surprise to some people who were raiding successfully with this guild (or others) pre-Burning Crusade. However, raiding has, in my opinion, gotten slightly harder since the expansion. In part, this is just an adjustment by Blizzard, to which we must adapt.

However, the current difficulty is also partly occasioned by the fact that we no longer have “ringers." I mean, we don't have people with gear and knowledge from the instances we're in (and beyond) who can join our raids and make things run more smoothly the way folks with BWL/AQ40 gear used to help out on our Molten Core raids. Our most advanced raiders are still in the gearing-up-from-Karazhan phase now.

Finally, the effect of an undergeared player is greatly magnified in a smaller raid. If there were twenty-five dps-dealers in a 40 person raid, or a dozen healers, the fact that a few of those weren’t performing as well was easy to overcome (although it usually showed on the meters). However, especially in a 10-person raid, there is comparatively little redundancy in roles - if you aren’t doing your job it’s probably not getting done. Welcome to Wipesville, Population: 10.

Although I suppose it may upset people to hear that their performance might be affecting their groups negatively, I am hopeful that those folks will quickly get past that to realize that my statements here are intended constructively, and I’m going to try to offer suggestions that should improve matters for our collective benefit. To be absolutely clear, I do not want anyone leaving the guild over this, and I am not ushering anyone to the door. Rather, I’m trying to open a dialog among friends and offer some guidance so that the people I care for can become more successful, happy players within our shared community. While I refuse to care overmuch about performance because I like and value you all as human beings, it remains my objective to find ways for us all to have fun together, and that means trying to help all of us be more successful at the game we all play!

So, if you even suspect this post might be directed to you, please always remember that you got into this guild on the strength of your personal character, not your WoW character. Given a choice between being respected for my play or my personality, I’d prefer the latter. Wouldn’t you? If you need to elevate your level of play a bit before you are really ready for raiding post-TBC, that does not make you a bad person or guildmember. I wouldn’t trade anyone in this guild for the most “1337” hardcore raiders in the world because you are my friends. WoW is merely the backdrop against which we spend time together. However, I don’t see playing with my friends and enjoying success as mutually exclusive. I mean, while we’re here, enjoying each others’ company and all that good stuff, wouldn’t it be even more fun to win?

Happily for all of us, successful raiding in WoW doesn’t require the reflexes of a video game prodigy (although that doesn’t hurt), merely a touch of dedication. By dedication, I mean that if you want to pull your weight on a raid, you need to decide that you’re going to do what it takes to succeed. The demands aren’t unreasonable, but if you ignore them you are setting yourself, and your hapless teammates, on the road to failure.

So what are the requirements?

I admit that this is a subjective thing, and opinions may differ as to what belongs on this list, but here is what I, for one, believe:

Reliability
As Woody Allen famously said, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” Along the same lines, my father taught me “Punctuality demonstrates your respect for the time of those with whom you are meeting.” Unstated, but implied, “Tardiness, or complete failure to appear, displays your disrespect for the time of those you had agreed to meet.”

Show up. On time, even.
Joining a premade raid group requires its members to give up some personal freedom over their schedules. In return, they reap several benefits:

1) a stable group ensures that a sufficient number enough of keyed characters of the right classes and specs will be present and interested in running the same instance at the same time;

2) people who practice running an instance together become steadily more proficient and no longer require their roles to be explained to them before each fight, which speeds progress;

3) people who raid together tend to acquire gear upgrades at the same rate, so they are prepared, at least in terms of gear, to face the same challenges at approximately the same time.

If you join a premade, but then you don’t show up, the raid will either fail for the session or pick up a sub. Subs are great, if they can be found, and we all appreciate their willingness to step in. However, if subs are being recruited more than once in a while, the premade isn’t really getting the advantages listed above, and its progress will suffer as the raid leaders stop to explain the subs’ roles in each battle.

Look, I know we all have real-life issues that intrude, sometimes without warning. Family emergencies happen, computer equipment and internet connections fail. Those things have happened to all of us on occasion, and missing the occasional raid is not a big deal. In the past, we’ve even built premade groups that had more members than open spots so that people could take time off. However, if you’re in a 10-person group with no “extras” and you don’t show, especially without notice, it does affect your group, even if they get someone to sub for you, so please try to do it as infrequently as possible.

If you find that, despite your best intentions, you’re missing a lot of raids due to factors beyond your control, please be polite to your teammates. By that I mean, seriously consider offering to let someone with more consistent availability take your spot before the raid leader feels compelled to ask you to do so. Perhaps you might work out an “on call” sub arrangement with the raid leader. Trust me, by the time you get asked to leave a group, your teammates are probably at least a little miffed and your raid leader is feeling terrible about having to ask you.

Gear
We love you even if your gear sucks. Without any doubt: Personality > Almost Everything > Gear.

That having been said, if the best racecar driver in the world competed in the Indy 500 on a tricycle, he’d lose... by an embarrassing margin. Do you suppose Tiger Woods, despite his prodigious talent, would win any golf tournaments using only a bent putter lifted from a miniature golf course? Were I to show up for trial dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts I’d get tossed out of the courtroom, fired by my clients, and probably cited for contempt as well. We all need the right gear for our jobs, both in and out of game.

In WoW terms, you really should be clad mostly in level 70 blues (or better), enchanted and socketed, before you attempt Karazhan. Otherwise, you won’t be able to pull your weight, and subjecting your guildmates to the frustration of repeated wipes isn’t a nice thing to do. Granted, if you’re a strong player in a strong group you can get away with some greens, especially if you balance them out with some of the better crafted epics. Likewise, in a few months, once some groups have most of their Karazhan gear, you might be able to find a team that can make up for your lack of gear and carry you through the instance (although, where’s the fun in that?). However, at least for now, if you have too much green in your primary gear you might be a raid-crippling liability. Quality gear is especially important for tanks.

But gear is more than just color and level. What your gear does matters too. On my priest, for example, I primarily favor gear with +Spirit,+Mana/5, and +Healing. Secondarily, I look for Stamina and Intellect. Others have different priorities. As a tank, you should be aware of the critical defense breakpoints you need to meet to avoid being critted out of existence when tanking a raid boss, then go get gear to meet that requirement. Every player who hopes to be useful must understand, at least generally, how stats, spell and melee crit chance, spell and melee hit chance, various damage bonuses, resistances, mana regeneration, and healing gear affect his or her character’s performance. If you don’t have a viable strategy when you select your gear, you are setting yourself up to build a set that doesn’t work. If you don’t know enough about game stats to figure out what to wear, talk to people - ask questions!

The bottom line is that you’ll be a much bigger help to your group with better gear, so if you want to raid, get cracking on acquiring the tools you need for the job!

Consumables
The role of consumables has (thankfully) been reduced in a recent patch, but they still matter.

At the very minimum, you should have a couple of stacks of mana and/or healing potions (depending on which you tend to run out of first) with you when you start a raid. You should also try to carry oils, elixirs, flasks, and foods that provide buffs. Except possibly for food, I wouldn’t advocate using consumables in every fight, or even every boss; that would quickly become prohibitively expensive. However, when the fight is touch-and-go, the sum of such small advantages can make the difference between yet another wipe and looting a new boss! Remember: a super mana potion only seems expensive until you compare it to the cost of a 10-person wipe, with attendant repair bills, not to mention the loss of potential epic loot!

Spec
For me, this is the most frustrating thing to see people doing wrong, because it’s so quick and easy to get right if you’re just willing to take a little time and, perhaps, ask for help.

Research your spec. Everyone has exactly the same opportunity to build a viable spec at level 70; If you don’t eke as much advantage out of your talent points as you can, you’re just playing sub-optimally. That might be okay for 5-person instances, but running with a poorly-optimized spec is not bringing your A-Game, and it’s not going to cut it for raiding. Bear in mind that certain specs are perfectly viable for PvP or farming, yet not well-tuned for raids. If you want to raid, and be the best you can be at it, you really do need a raid spec.

So go out and see what people think. Peruse online sources of game information. Don’t believe everything you read, of course, but evaluate everything critically and see what you can learn and use to improve your character. If you want a shortcut, talk to friends who play the same class(es) you do. Especially seek out people who you think outperform you. If you’re too proud or shy to ask for advice from people who you think are stronger players than you are, you will not improve as quickly as you could, which is a wasted opportunity. Even so, you can still learn by browsing the Armory (or this site) to examine the specs used by folks you consider to be strong players.

Meters
Admittedly, meters don’t capture nearly all of what folks do to help a raid succeed, and they don’t precisely measure effectiveness. For example, just speaking about the meter with which I am most familiar, “effective healing,” I know that when I cast Prayer of Healing and catch two uninjured characters and an uninjured pet in the area of effect, or when I spam Holy Nova to burn down large groups of weak mobs, my overhealing can skyrocket, making it appear that I’ve played sloppily when I have not. Likewise, when I cast Prayer of Mending, my healing numbers suffer (because my target gets credit for the heal on the meter) even though it’s the right thing to do for raid success. Meters certainly don’t tell the whole story.

Nevertheless, if you think SW Stats doesn’t provide a wealth of relevant information concerning the relative performance of raid members, you’re only kidding yourself. Deciding that “since meters aren’t perfect I can’t learn anything from them” would be like deciding you’re not going to watch the weather report when planning your weekend because forecasts aren’t always 100% accurate. It’s an ostrich defense.

In particular, meters are useful to assess the performance of non-hybrid, non-tanking classes (i.e., those whose primary job is to heal or do damage). I say this because hybrids typically do a little of everything (some healing, some damage, some buffing and support) and tanks’ contributions are not readily captured by meters (although the “damage taken” stats can be telling).

My suggestion? If you aren’t running it already, install SW Stats and familiarize yourself with its many functions and reports. Did you know that you can track a multitude of stats besides just damage and healing? For example, SW Stats can tell you how many of which spells you cast on a run, your overhealing percentage in combat, your damage/healing efficiency (i.e., damage or healing per mana you spend) for each spell or ability you use, who is curing debuffs, and tons of other useful information! Tweaking your spec and gear without this addon is like trying to tune a piano while wearing earplugs. You need feedback to improve, and this tool will provide it, so don’t be afraid of it. The worse you’re doing on the meter, the more you probably need it so that you can see which changes work and which don’t.

Strategy
If you’re getting trounced on the meters by your similarly-geared teammates, figure out what they are doing differently. Are they using a different attack sequence or timing? Are they downranking spells when you’re not? Are they standing in a different location? Are they using different poisons, buffs, or abilities?

This is vitally important, but the topic covers too wide a range of possibilities for me to write it all down. Just don’t hesitate to ask your guildmates and friends for advice or help! We’re all WoW players here.

good stuff

I seen this before, makes sense ... I need to reread it

where do you get the legend mod thing????

I'm not too sure what you mean.

Here is a simple idea........

THE NEEDS OF THE MANY OUTWEIGH THE NEEDS OF THE FEW.
Anyone every learn anything from startrek???????