It's Monday and I have another case of it. :) Another day of walking all over town, swapping backup tapes. So in this case, I had to use an Office Space reference motivational image. When it comes to our raid, I do care and that's the whole point of this blog so lets get this party started.
Any night when we get raid bosses down, I call it a good night. It wasn't a great night by any means, but we did kick some ass. We had some highs and lows, some great teamwork, and some spastic minds at work. It was a crazy night to say the least. I have never seen a night where we started out so strong, rocked a boss better than any I have ever seen, only to fall apart at the end.
My Thoughts
Lets start off with the bad.
Communication
One of the things we need to work on is our communication. I myself am at fault just as anyone else. We need to start communicating consistantly and thorougly either through email or this blog. I'm always open to suggestions on how we all can do a better job of this. For the time being, be sure to check the blog, or your emails for any updates relating to our group. This way everyone is up to speed on whats going on, what instances/bosses are scheduled, and who's going to make it or not.
Outside Raids Affecting Ours.
This is a topic that I have been grappling with for a while. I came close to being apart of this problem last night. Unfortunately there isn't any easy way to say this, but when it comes to our raid team, the toons that are apart of our team belong with our team. With the exception of 25 man raids, all 10 man raids with these toons belong to our team. We will start doing a better job communicating the raid and boss schedule, but we must be sure to either check the schedule, or contact a raid leader to verify whether we are doing that instance or not for the week. If we aren't, raid to your hearts content my friends.
Vent Chatter
Last night, late in the game, we got overly chatty, and completely lost focus. This was painfully evident shortly after the Patchwerk fight. We absolutely fell apart at that point, especially during the Grobbulus fight. Granted we did some pretty decent communication during the fights, our focus leading up to and including that fight fell apart. Our minds were no longer into the game and focused else where.
Breaks
Breaks have always been one of my pride and joys about our raid group. We are always prepared, show up on time, and take only one break where at all possible. Last night was bad on breaks. People popping away for food, drinks etc, come on everyone, we should have that stuff at hand anyway. GK having to step away from his computer to fix a network issue, that was ok because there was a real life problem effecting him. Kids and other incidents all ok. Real life effects things and we accept it, but other trivial breaks need to stop. I know during the two hours, breaks will be needed, I understand that. That's why I try to give at least a five minute break near the half way mark. Sometimes we miss that five minute break, and it sucks to take a break when we have such a great momentum going. Lets come prepared, call for a break when you need one around the half way mark. We'll all break together. For other real life emergencies, we'll just have to live with and break then as well. Reason behind this problem, is last night we could have had the time to give Grobulus one last shot had we not taken so many personal breaks.
Following Strategies
I feel this has alot to do with us losing focus, but on Grobulus we completely fell apart and stopped following the strategie for that boss. We had people blowing up next to other players, blowing up in spots where they shouldn't have been. Then lastly, rarely did anyone focus on the adds when they came out. On numerous times, even after I called for assistance, no one but Kirathis and myself went after the adds. We have got to focus on the strategies at hand and be aware of your suroundings.
Looting
Looting was a problem last night. We're still standing around to get our loot done. No question about it, we have our work cut out for us to break this habit. We can do it, and please take no offense when I bark in the raid to keep moving. I'm going to be pushing harder to keep moving during those times. Something that may help is to create a random roll macro and put it on a key or actionbar. I know it can be a pain to attack/heal while typing out /random.
Now for the good!
The Four Horseman
What can I say, our time shined on this boss!!! This boss should be on a highlight reel. At no time in any point in this games history did I witness my raid team come together to take down a boss like last night. Everyone was focused, knew their role, adjusted to changes and misfortunes, and communicated clearly as a team. Each and every one of you rocked that boss, and is the reason why all of us stick together as a team. This is the kind of performance and teamwork that's going to get us into Ulduar sooner than later.
Trash Pulls
With the exception of waiting around for loot. We are doing a supperb job of reacting to the tanks chain pulls. Even when there were mistakes made by us, the tanks, we still managed to take them down with minimal effort. A few pulls were hairy, and one even wiped us. That wasn't the fault of the group, but how the group reacted as a whole on all the pulls was great, and just keeps getting better.
Final Word
Ok, so all that I have said, good news or bad. We have come really far in such a short amount of time and with all the headaches. Between people missing, cancelations, etc. We have gone quite far, and it wouldn't have happened with all of your hard work. Each and everyone of you has done a fantastic job and deserve a pat on the back.
Something I have noticed over the past few weeks, and I'm not exactly sure why it popped out at me now, is the fact that our own attention and focus is what makes a successful run. This was most obvious on Frazz's run. When the raid group, as a whole, maintains focus. The raid as a whole does much better. Then when things wound down, lots of talking is happening, and lengths of time increase between pulls, the less likely his raid was able to pull off the win. So it's our ability to focus, be alert and maintain our momentum through out our raid that helps make our runs a success.
Like I have said before, even though we have been making great strides, our work isn't over. We have three more bosses to take down for the first time, and 4 total bosses to get down strategicly on a regular basis. After last night's attack on the Four Horseman, yes we have the mad phat 1337 skills to pwn them all. Can't wait to see what we do tonight. See you there.
Grexis
Iif it hasn't been obvious over the past couple of weeks already, I'm pretty well burned out on WoW once again. Those of you that have been playing with me for a while know that this is not an uncommon thing for me at all. Every few months or so I get sick of WoW and stop playing for a period of anywhere from a week to a month or so.
