My Corner of the Interweb

Sometimes, it's not so good to be the King...

Mood: Pretty good, really.
Music: Since I've Been Loving You, Led Zeppelin.
Game: World of Warcraft, Wipeout Pure, Untold Legends, Metal Gear Acid
Book: America's Longest War, The US & Vietnam 1950-1975, George C. Herring.
Muffin: Raspberry-Peach.
Punchline: "Take me deep."

*WARNING* The following blog entry has potentially toxic levels of World of Warcraft geekdom.

On Saturday, the fellas from CE raided Black Rock Depths with the primary intent of getting Brutious his Repair Bot Plan. Secondarily was scooping some loot, and last, if we could, we would finish up some quests.

Before I continue, I should point out that, by the time we called it quits, Brutious got his plans (and a pimp breastplate to boot) and we all got a little something from the run. (Even if it was just a headache.)

We ended up with 7, which is kind of the worst number to have for a raid, because it's not really that much more firepower than 5, it forces you to run two groups, and it prevents you from finishing quests.

Two warlocks, two shamen, a rogue, and two hunters. About 2 minutes in, one of our hunters needed to take off to take care of his baby. No issue there, of course. Baby > Gaming. That took us down to 6, and that's when the fun began.

The following is an objective an assessment as I can provide, without getting personal. If you were one of the people involved, and you recognize your own behavior, and you feel I'm speaking negatively about you, chances are that I am trying to provide some insight on how to better increase our enjoyment and success the next time we run.

We had two shamen. You'd think that this would mean that there would be totems and healing galore, and everyone would be hardpressed to take any real damage for an extended period. This would be incorrect, as one of our shamen didn't heal all that much, and when he did, it was often too late. The other shaman did a good job of keeping the heals coming, and attempted to communicate often...especially when he was taking damage. The net effect is that we had one healer, and the false sense that we had two.

We had two warlocks. You'd figure this would mean that we had elemental control all over, a pair of pets, and excellent debuffs and general crowd control. Well, one of our warlocks was doing a pretty damned good job of mezzing, holding, slowing runners, and when necessary, laying down the AoE...all the things I hope my warlock is doing. The other one decided that it was more important to blast the hell out of whatever target he wanted as hard as he could. Absolutely no restraint at all. This inevitably resulted in whatever the tank was attacking turning around and charging straight at the warlock, forcing the healers to change targets often, and making the rogue, me, chase my targets all over the map, because the warlock doing the blasting would run in circles. If that weren't enough, said warlock often ended up breaking the mezz/stun/sap of one of the targets we were holding off. This simply added to the confusion. Since one of our shamen wasn't really healing, the other shaman was frantically trying to keep himself, the warlock, and the primary tank (myself) alive. Since I was chasing critters all over the place, I couldn't concentrate firepower, and because I couldn't do that, I couldn't keep the healer clear. This, of course, resulted in many miscues and rezzes.

The hunter, who is still trying to find his role in a mixed group did a pretty good job, overall...but still needs to work on his pet control. Especially in regards to making sure that it isn't attacking stunned/mezzed/sapped targets.

About a third of the way through, both myself and the warlock started snapping over voice chat that folks needed to /assist. Realizing that people might not know what that meant, I started to explain, whereupon one of the warlocks just disappeared, like he went linkdead or something. We waiting about 5-7 minutes, then decided he wasn't coming back. Now, we had a bullshit scenario. In raid mode, which meant we couldn't complete quests, but only had 5 people. We decided to back out, then reattack with 5, so we could complete some quests.

We detoured to try to get to Bael'Gar, but now, with two shamen, a warlock, a hunter, and myself, we were hard pressed to handle 5 elites at the same time...especially since one of the shamen wasn't really healing, and wasn't all that effective combatwise. We weren't concentrating firepower, and things got bad quickly. After getting wiped or close three times, I said screw it, and headed back into the city proper.

Once we did that, everything went VERY smoothly. We managed to kill the Golem Lord, get past the two triple elemental pulls to get into the tavern, and all the pulls went exactly as it was supposed to. By this time, nerves were a bit frayed, but everyone listened, communicated, and every fight went off the way it was supposed to...until the vault...but that vault is TOUGH. We wiped a few times, but finished the encounter, got Brutious a pimp breastplate, and left to go repair our gear.

It should be pointed out that in spite of several people mentioning that everyone should have been collecting BRD quests, not everyone did, and so we'll be doing that run again. No complaints...I actually think we're getting pretty good at BRD, and next time will go more smoothly, I'd think.

Takeaways:

Our fighter-shaman could use some training from our healer-specced shaman as to what he does and when. If one of them is primary healer, the other should be throwing down totems and making sure that the healer is clear and healed. Nothing else. The amount of damage the shaman provides combatwise is nothing compared to the defense and healing he can provide. I suppose we should look into using him as a tank...not sure how that would work.

It doesn't help that the fighter-shaman is also a tauren. While it doesn't make a bit of difference from a player's perspective, from a melee perspective, when the tauren is standing right behind me, I can't see a thing. His back blocks my entire camera. I'm constantly shifting to be able to see.

The group still needs to learn how to deal with a hunter. At one point, the healer snapped at the hunter because the hunter, completely surrounded by bad guys, feigned death, throwing off all his aggro, and dumping it onto the healer. While I am not sure as to what the right thing to do in that case, I do know that the situation itself indicates a breakdown in the group. The hunter shouldn't be in that situation. I believe that if the hunter /assists the main tank, that aggro won't build up that fast. Additionally, I think that the hunter's AoE isn't worth it, unless everyone goes AoE to balance the aggro. Hunters DO churn a lot of aggro fast, and the trick to any class in a group is to manage your own aggro relative to the group you're with. Our healer takes his job seriously, and when he can't heal, or someone dies, he gets edgy. Maybe not wrongly so, but snapping at the hunter, who is still finding his role, probably isn't constructive.

Our crowd-controlling warlock listens, knows what to do in a tough spot, and enjoys his support role. I'd like to find something to complain about...but I can't. It's easy to see why he keeps getting invited to join other Guilds. Glad he keeps saying no.

Our blaster warlock, as it turns out, felt like he was being yelled at, and walked out on us without a word. As of this writing, he still hasn't said a word to me. I can tolerate abuse, yelling, complaining. What I won't tolerate is someone walking out on a group of guildmates because they want to throw a tantrum...especially when we're trying to get everyone on the same page. I debated kicking him out of the guild...but decided that instead, I simply wasn't going to group with him again. He doesn't know how to play his own character, he jeopardizes whatever party he's in, and has no desire to learn how to play with others. When someone tries, he walks off. Consequently, he can play the way he likes...but not near me.

As for myself: I need to remember that just because I know something, doesn't mean that it translates to everyone else knowing it. It's hard to explain stuff to a group of people who have vary levels of experience...you don't want to annoy the people who know, you don't want to forget to tell the folks who don't, and you don't want to make the inexperienced players feel like they're stupid or make them afraid to ask questions.

Additionally, when I'm leading a group, I do have the mindset that people should listen to what I'm saying. They can disagree, they can suggest alternatives, they can provide insight as to how they can best help the situation. I am no expert on playing a warlock, or a shaman, or hunter...or any class, really. I'm learning the strengths and weaknesses of each class, and trying to provide some tactics.

I have been wrong before, and will be again. I expect feedback from the group I'm with...what I don't expect, however, is people randomly doing whatever they feel without speaking up. And, if the group decides to do something, we do the something...without deviation, if we can help it. If I say "Look, please don't blast like that...you're making it hard for me to keep things off you and the healer" I don't expect excuses. When I ask someone to keep healing, it means keep healing...not fight, and occasionally throw a heal. When someone mezzes a critter to break a group, I expect people NOT to target the mezzed critter.

Accidents happen, and in the middle of a rough fight, targetting gets dicey. No complaints. We all make mistakes. But using an AoE when we've held two things off of a group of four is just stupid. Expect to get snapped at when that happens. If people insist on doing whatever they feel like when they feel like it without thought of what that means to the rest of the group, expect people to not want to group with you.

I have to remember to be more specific with my direction, not snap so much when I'm jumping around, and remember that hunters edge past me to plant traps...not because they're not listening. :)

At the end of the day, we completed our stated mission, completed a few quests, got some loot, and learned a bit more about each other as characters. The big lesson was the whole /assist thing (as I found out that most of us didn't know about it...and it makes a huge difference.)

Being a group/guild leader is a lot of work. There's a bunch of egos to deal with...and a lot of us have been together for a long time. Once the group settled into a routine, got everyone on the same page, and went about it, things went VERY well. It took us a few hours to get to that point, and I blame myself for not getting folks there quicker...because by that time, folks were edgy. If we had started off that way, we'd have had a better time. Don't get me wrong...I had a really good time...and I'm really excited to see the repair bots that Brutious can now make.

Scholomance on Tuesday night should be amusing to say the least. I think I'll let someone else lead....

Posted by Glenn at April 11, 2005 09:25 AM