Dogbert’s Rule of Raiding Number One

BRK » 27 August 2007 » In Raids »

“Dear BRK, thanks for all of the advice and tips that you have available to Hunters. Before I got my own account I watched my brother-in-law play as a Paly and I was like sweet, Paly is the way to go. I started out as a Paly but one day re-rolled as a Hunter and have been loving it ever since. BM rules!

“I am pumped I just got King B (now Maximus) as my pet on Saturday. Just before I turned to level 43, I was practising a with chain trapping. I went over in Stranglethorn Vale to take out some Mo’Grosh elites, had set down the trap and started to take out the Ogres. Well, since I am a Newb I forgot to make sure I had Mend Pet going; my pet and I both died. I am so grateful that you mention to practice - yes it’s important. I am hopefully on my way to becoming a competent hunter.

“I am a Newb and have been reading about your raiding experiences and they sound sweet. Obviously I have a way to go but was wondering if you could tell me more about the raid - how they go and everything - are they similar to instances or how does the whole process work. Althoran and Maximus”

The only major difference between a Raid and a Party is the number of people involved. The biggest problem that arises with a large group is Communication. In a 5-man party, everybody can talk and discuss things; the overload from chatter is negligible. In a larger group, too many people talking will destroy the cohesiveness of the group and failure is practically guaranteed.

To prevent chat-overload, most guilds institute a “Speak When Spoken To” rule. The Raid Leader, Main Tank, Main Assist and Main Healer all have permission to discuss every pull and how things are going to flow while the rest of the raid shuts their pie-holes. This strategy of keeping quiet applies to raid-chat as well as Vent. Too many people with strategy ideas, goofballs, loud-mouths, epeeners, and “I didn’t hear that, too many people were talking!” complainers can ruin a raid faster than a Misdirection on your squishie healer.

Back in the 40-man days, we used to setup specific class-chat-channels so the hunters could discuss hunter-stuff, the mages could discuss mage-stuff, etc. While we see no need for this in our Kara raiding, the “keeping quiet” rule is still encouraged.

Now schenanigans are a must; raids aren’t supposed to be a Batann Death March. Funny emotes, mouthing-off in guild chat, talking smack during breaks and posting Damage Meters in private channels and whispers is highly encouraged. But this should all be done on a non-interference basis. The leaders of the raid have a hard enough time worrying about their class responsibilities and taking care of all the details, they don’t need to be raid-chat babysitters too.

The number-one way to help your raid succeed is to Listen. All it takes is one person not paying attention to guarantee a wipe. Has BRK wiped a raid because he wasn’t paying attention? Yup.

Now our guildies will remind you the BRK wiped our raid on Aran last night due to incompetence - that was bad enough - but we ALMOST wiped us on Prince due to our joking around. We were getting ready to engage Prince when we yelled, “Misdirecting on the Druid!” and cast Misdirection on the Boomkin GM. Hahaha, right? Well, when we went to clear the Misdirection, we missed the right-click on the Misdirection buff and then lined up a Steady Shot on Prince. We caught the mistake before the shot was fired and were able to clear the Misdirection quickly, but the raid would’ve been plenty pissed had we caused a wipe due to a joke.

Oh, our guild ran two raids last night, both groups downing Aran and BRK’s group getting Prince down too. Doomilias got another spiffy dagger, we lost the bidding for our Tier 4 helm token, and one of our guild’s druid who has had zero-luck with Kara-gear got her first purple. Her armory profile is cool; greenies and blues from quests and 5-mans, but on top of it all she now has a cloak from Prince.

Raids | August 27, 2007

Comments

3 Responses to “Dogbert’s Rule of Raiding Number One”

Anonymous on August 27th, 2007 7:02 pm

that about covers it.

Secndworst
bob the goat on August 27th, 2007 8:04 pm

I once assisted on a wipe. We were in MC, just learning Luci. The second time we had to clear our way back down after a run in, I was none too pleased. The problem is that everyone gave it their all 100% of the time. The did not understand that when the tanks are dead, Luci is at 80%…YOU ARE GOING TO DIE. If you just stand there and do anything you can to speed the process it makes it easier. No amount of luck in the world is going to save you. A 100% crit rate would not save you, BUT dieing and giving it another shot before the respawns CAN save you. Being a hunter, I am not usually the first to die. I had to keep saying JUST DIE, DON’T HEAL, DON’T POT, DON’T BANDAGE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD JUST DIE. I had enough. The next time the tanks went down because mages were slacking on decursing I ran back and pulled the pack of imps in, and feigned. That wipe went MUCH faster and better. The GM caught me, and laughed.
Anonymous on August 27th, 2007 8:59 pm

@ The Goat - This is 100% acurate, unfortionatly to make sure you’re not beating a boss via shenangins Bliz puts many “trash mobs” or the “usless crap that drops no loot” on timers. So if a boss fight is going bad its best to make a speedy wipe and get back in for more tries. A long 80% wipe is no better than a short 80% wipe.

To BRK’s talking this is right as well. The biggest thing to being a good raider is not having the best gear, but having the best mentality. Know your class to a T and accept suggestions. I mean if BRK tells you use your pet like this on aran do it He’s done it more than you have. Be ready to try what seems like a crazy strat to do something. My guild never killed the elementals on shade, we just fear/banish as much as possible and NUKE THE EVERLIVING PISS out of shade fast as hell. But it works for them so who’s to say boo to them. And the big thing is to not get discouraged, when you’re learning a new fight guess what that learning means. Death after Death after Death. But 70g in repairs is worth getting 25 people to work together and get something done, its about having fun. learn to love the GY run!

Shifttusk