The Naked Fear

OK Guys,

I'd like to offer some free advice on what it's going to take for us to kill the Lich King. Please feel free to ignore or comment. Note that this isn't so much about strategy, but on working together as an effective team. Getting 25 people to do the right thing, every second, for ten minutes is hard. I'm not calling out our raid leaders here, who are doing a job I don't want to do - mainly, I'm putting on the black hat so they don't have to. We're going to have to do better.

BASIC FIGHT MECHANICS

Did you watch a video on the fight? Did you read up on it? Do you have DBM installed and working? If so, you should be able to keep up with the basic mechanics of the fight. Necrotic Plague means go to the back of the shamblers and wait for a dispell. You should be moving before the RL calls your name. You should stay away from the frozen orbs. You should run in on the quake. The RL will call these things, but he's getting the information at the same time you are. That means that by the time he calls it, you should already be moving.

SOME SPECIFIC ISSUES

Necrotic plague. It pops up on your screen. If you wait for the RL to call you, you've lost 1-2 seconds on a 5-second window. When the RL calls your name, you should be moving. Always be ready to be the next person to get the debuff. Know where the shamblers are and get behind them, wait for your dispell, get back to work.

In p2, when the RL calls to stack up on the LK, that means STACK UP. The valks will *always* go to the closest edge. If everyone is stacked up, they will all go together to the same place. If you are spread a little to the wrong side, and you get picked up, you're not only taking a shorter trip to the edge, but you're splitting the dps. How easy is AOE in WotLK? You wanna live, stack up so all three valks fly together and can be AOE'd down.

VENT

We want to have fun and be chatty in vent. It's hard to beat* a good "that's what she said". However, after the fight starts, if you're not a RL, zip it. The only time you should speak up during the fight is if you see something massively critical that you think the RL missed. Even then, probably zip it. There's usually 2-3 RLs who are coordinating the fight, and they'll cover it. Or we'll wipe and figure it out for next time.

Most importantly: shut up about anything that only pertains to you. No one wants to hear your explanation of why your healing target died, why you ran into a frozen orb, why you died, etc. Unless and until the RL calls a wipe, zip it. Seriously. We may still continue. You may get a brez (but don't call for one, the RL decides who gets them). Maybe you screwed up. Maybe someone else did. It doesn't matter. Save it for in between pulls.

For RLs: guys, after the pull, you need to call "clear vent". You also need to set the standard for not screwing around after the fight starts. When you do, others want to join in. Then vent gets clogged and we're missing stuff.

I ONLY SCREWED UP ONCE OR TWICE

There are 25 people in the raid. If your screw-up only wipes the raid once, and so does everyone else, that means we're looking at 25 wipes before we get through it. If you're allotted two major mistakes, and so is everyone else, now we're up to 50.

If you blow it and we wipe, you just cost 24 people 20 minutes - not just out of their life, but out of their "fun time". Mistakes do happen - learn from yours and keep doing better, but try to learn quickly. And again, save your apologies and excuses till after the wipe.

POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK

Yeah, I've been guilty of some of these things, too. However, the weeks of wipes on BQ, Sindy, and now LK are wearing on me. It's a game, but it's a way more fun game when the boss dies.

/end rant

* that's what she said

^

Also, just to preempt anyone who's going to bring it up, I'm really sorry for having to step out in the middle of the raid last night, and sorry for getting pissy in gchat after I got back. Real life is real, and when it's raining and my kid calls from soccer practice and his mom isn't there and he can't reach her - well, you know how it is. Last night, as I rolled up to her house, her bf was backing out of the driveway to go get him. 25 f***ing minutes after practice ended. So that's my excuse for my mood as well.

Can't say "it won't happen again", because my magic 8 ball said "ask again later". However, on raid nights I'm usually the only one in the house. It's about all I can do.

RL happens.

I was not a fan of the outburst after, but had my wife done something like that to my kid, I would have been in a pissy mood too. all in all, You make valid points in the 1st post.

Don't lay train sets during explanations or when people are asking questions, or pointing out mistakes.

#2952186 Unmatched wrote:

Don't lay train sets during explanations or when people are asking questions, or pointing out mistakes.

Amen. It's ok on some fights, but not during the explanations, and not on end icc content.

#2952186 Unmatched wrote:

Don't lay train sets during explanations or when people are asking questions, or pointing out mistakes.

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Buying more.

#2953684 Frostasaurus wrote:

Buying more.

Fortunately, they're unique. Unfortunately, so are the wreckers.