Major Raid Changes in Cataclysm

Zoinks! In case you haven't heard Blizzard is making significant changes to progression raiding in Cataclysm. You can read Nethaera's full post here, but the short of it is this,

• 10 and 25-man raids will be of similar difficulty and share the same lockout timer.


• 10 and 25-man raids will drop the exact same loot.


• 25-man raids will drop more gold, loot and badges.


• There will be smaller raid instances, but more of them.

I have to say I'm somewhat surprised by these changes. This could all but mean the end of 25-man progression raiding. I was just in a guild that disbanded because they couldn't get 25 people on. The guild I'm in now was recruiting because they were having trouble getting 25 people on.

Ten man raids are a lot easier to organize and manage. You're less likely to have multiple players of the same class/spec in the raid so the chance of you having zero competition for your gear is high. Also, Blizzard seems to be trying to get as many, if not all, of the 25-man buff into a 10-man raid, so you might be able to better plan your 10-man team around more diverse class composition.

The key will be just how difficult 10-mans will be and how much more rewarding the 25-mans will be. Will that alt-group be able to get through the new 10-man raids, or will you need your A-team? How similar will the encounters be? Right now in ICC there are a lot of encounters that require the raid to spread out. This mechanic is trivial in 10-man, but needs to be carefully managed in 25.

25-man teams might be able to gear up faster and progress quicker, however, both 10 and 25-man will now be going from point A to point B. Will it really matter how fast you get there?

In the same expansion that Blizzard is implementing changes to make guild management and recruitment easier (guild leveling, talents and looking for guild), they are also reducing the incentive to run larger guilds and raids.

One final thought, raids are going to be smaller in scale. Instead of single 11 boss instances we'll see multiple five boss instances. I suspect this gives raiders the option to do more things during their raid week, and it probably keeps pugs alive giving them a chance to clear an instance in one night.

Like everything else, I'll want to see it in action before I make a final judgement, but we just might see 10-mans as the big thing in Cataclysm.

Multi-Shot - Ruh Roh!

In episode 21 of the Hunting Party Podcast we interviewed Kruf who was one of the hunters who got the world's first Lich King (25), and heroic Lich King (25) kills. In the interview he said the most important thing for hunters is to constantly be firing something and not sitting idle. I agreed with him whole heartedly - until today.

Before I start I'm going to give some benefit of doubt here and chalk this one up to transitioning from Survival to Marksman. Even with that there are some things here that are just plain ugly.

What you're looking at is a World of Logs timeline view from a recent Festergut (25) normal encounter. For more information on using World of Logs you can check out this post at OutDPS.com.

So where to begin? See the spell labeled speed? That's a haste potion. The hunter is pre-potting so he can use another one later in the fight. Good stuff, and something I don't do enough of.

Next we see an adjustment to his tracker. This is for the 5% damage boost from the Improved Tracking talent. The problem here is that this was entirely unnecessary since he was previously tracking undead. Tracking should already be in place when you enter the instance.

We also have Misdirection and Hunter's Mark. Both fine. When the fight starts he leads off with Serpent Sting, having macro'd Silencing Shot and Kill Command. Nothing bad about that.

Next we see Chimera Shot followed by Multi-Shot. Ruh Roh! Next we get Rapid Fire and Readiness, followed by Chimera and Multi-Shot. Ruh Roh! With Rapid Fire cooking the poor bastard gets hit by Vile Gas. Things move along and then we start to see some Serpent Sting casts - lots of them. Ruh Roh!

The second image is from end of the fight. Note, the two images do not comprise the entire timeline. What's notable in this second image is that only one Kill Shot was fired once the boss was in execute range, and there were no additional Rapid Fire/Readiness combinations. All at once, Ruh-Roh!

Let's talk a little bit about what's wrong here. First, Multi-Shot is not Aimed Shot; at least not for Marksman, and to some degree Survival. The following talents all affect Aimed Shot and not Multi-Shot,

• Marked for Death - Increases your damage done by your shots and the damage done by your pet's special abilities by 5% on marked targets, and increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot, Steady Shot, Kill Shot and Chimera Shot by 10%.
• Piercing Shots - Your critical Aimed, Steady and Chimera Shots cause the target to bleed for 30% of the damage dealt over 8 sec.
• Improves Steady Shot - Your Steady Shot hits have a 15% chance to increase the damage done by your next Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot or Chimera Shot by 15%, and reduce the mana cost of your next Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot or Chimera Shot by 20%.
• Master Marksman - Increases your critical strike chance by 5%, and reduces the Mana cost of your Steady Shot, Aimed Shot, and Chimera Shot by 25%.
• Sniper Training (SV only) - Increases the critical strike chance of your Kill Shot ability by 15%, and while standing still for 6 sec, you gain Sniper Training increasing the damage done by your Steady Shot, Aimed Shot, Black Arrow and Explosive Shot by 6% for 15 sec..

This is huge, especially Piercing Shots which is a big part of Marksman damage. Aimed Shot is second only to Chimera Shot in the MM rotation. It does more damage and costs less mana than Multi-Shot. That's not to say that Multi-Shot does not have it's place, it does. Single target boss fights are not one of them though.

I'm not going to go into the whole nuance of Readiness/Rapid Fire other than to say you need to monitor these closely and use them appropriately as the length of the fight dictates. In this fight you probably should have had at least three rapid fires if not four.

As for Serpent Sting, Marksman hunters should only have to recast this if it's fallen off (which shouldn't be an issue with Festergut), or you get a buff such as Exploit Weakness and want maintain a buffed Serpent Sting on the target. If you look at the end of the fight we see Serpent Sting followed by Serpent Sting, followed by Misdirection, followed by Serpent Sting. Doesn't make much sense to me.

Finally, Kill Shot is our biggest shot. It's priority should be greater than anything else we've got. This is true for Marksman, Survival and Beast Master. Once you get into execute range there's no reason not to be watching this and getting off as many as you can. Most fights I've seen, there is usually time to get off more than one.

So at the end of the day where does all of this shoddy huntering get you? Right smack dab in the middle of the pack. Almost 8K dps. Not the worst, but not nearly as good as it could've been. If you're on a progression fight and bumping up against an enrage timer, "not the worst" probably won't be good enough.

PS: Ruh Roh - Astro or Scooby-Doo? Debate!

Last Dwarf Standing Wins

"I'd rather have someone in here doing 1k less dps but able to move out of the fires." - My Raid Leader

The key to your raid getting a boss on farm is for you to get the boss on farm first. When I'm learning a new encounter, and it looks like there will be wiping, my goal is to die when all hell has broken loose; I want to be the last dwarf standing.

Wiping is a natural part of progression raiding. It happens. The fights in ICC have a lot of movement and require tons of raid awareness to get through them.

The biggest mistake that I see people make is they perceive their class function to be their primary job, and as such they prioritize this over everything else. And why not? It's the one thing that doesn't change from encounter to encounter. It's the one thing you already know how to do; it's easy.

The reality is survivability should be the number one priority and everything else should be secondary until the mechanics of each fight are second nature to you. Survivability is a responsibility of everyone in the raid. It is not about healers doing a better job of keeping you alive, it's about you avoiding as much damage as possible, even if it comes at the expense of your dps. It's about understanding the fight and reacting to events immediately. As Rilgon over at Stabilized Effort Scope writes, you should never hesitate.

How does one get better? How do you go about getting a boss on farm? You can start by putting away the meters. On these early attempts the meters are nothing but a distraction. If you can't bring yourself to disable the meters, at least keep them minimized and review the numbers after the fight.

Get familiar with your defensive capabilities and have them at the ready. Deterrence isn't a standard part of my rotation, but when learning fights such as the Blood Queen I find it to be an invaluable ability. Also, consider going with a speed enchant such as Tuskarr's Vitality. Some high-end guilds actually require all of their raiders to have some form of speed enhancement.

Actively use a boss addOn such as DBM or DXE. Don't just install and forget it. Take the time and familiarize yourself with the timers and alerts for each encounter. Since the first few attempts are likely to be wipes, try backing off the dps and watching these mods. The information they provide is incredible. Seriously they are like GPS for boss fights.

Evaluate what you did wrong after each attempt. If you died to a specific mechanic, make a point to not die by that same mechanic next attempt. Find a new way to die. :P

Finally, try setting a goal for yourself for getting the boss on farm. I'd like to think that I can figure out the mechanics of most encounters in six or so attempts. It doesn't always happen, but more often than not I find that I'm the last dwarf standing.

Good Hunting!

Things We're Not Writing About

We're busy today. Application deadline is looming and we've got a lot of coding to do. Therefore we're not going to write about last night's ICC (10) Sindragosa attempts.

We're not going to write about how nice it was to see our raid leader playing a ranged toon instead of a tank.

We're not going to write about how we enjoyed watching him fail at Icy Grip/Blistering Cold after chastising us about it a couple of nights earlier.

We're not going to write about how he busted our chops for failing to remove stacks of Mystic Buffet and then couldn't get them off himself.

And we're definitely not going to write about how he probably helped us turn a corner with strategy and that we expect to get her down next time we go back in.

Would've been a fun post though.

Giving Her All She's Got

Scotty: "I'm giving her all she's got, Captain!"

Kirk: "All she's got isn't good enough!  What else have you got?"

_

Last night our raid team attempted Festergut (25).  Nine attempts in all, and at the end of the night he was still standing. It wasn't a total waste of effort and we did reach the point where it was the enrage timer that was killing us. Two attempts had him at 7% and 6%.

I felt pretty good about how I was doing.  Nobody was complaining, and my dps was well within the range it needed to be, but the boss wasn't going down. The raid leader was also getting antsy, telling us we needed to step it up (naturally it was in that non-constructive way, like when a track coach tell his runners they need to run faster).

Now on Star Trek it's usually some dramatic, risky, untested, unconventional and highly theoretical solution that saves day.  In WoW those opportunities rarely present themselves.  Nope, we have to dig deep to find that extra bit of healing or dps that's needed to get the job done.  We have to keep doing what we're already doing, only we have to do it better.

Below are a couple of attempts both resulting in wipes due to the enrage timer.  I can't remember what percentage we had him to in the first attempt, but it wasn't one of the 6% or 7% attempts I mentioned in the beginning.  I do know that on the final one we got him to 6%.

Festergut Enrage Wipe I

Festergut Enrage Wipe II

As you can see my dps went up quite a bit in the second attempt.  Now there are many factors that can result in fluctuating DPS numbers. Procs, buffs, debuffs and the RNG will all lead to a variance.  Still though, adjustments (even tiny ones) also play a part.

After each attempt I try to evaluate my performance.  I sit back and ask myself questions such as,

• Am I economizing on my movement, firing instants and pausing for auto shots?
• Am I maximizing my GCDs? Perhaps I'm firing a Steady Shot when Chimera or Aimed are up (old BM habits die hard sometimes).
• Am I using Readiness and Rapid fire correctly?
• Am I recasting Serpent Sting the first time my T10 2-set bonus procs?
• Am I maximizing my cooldown stacking?
• Have I tried pre-potting a speed potion?
• I recently got some new gear, are my gems and enchants in order? Let's see I'm a JC and I'm using both of my allotted JC only gems. Both!? KHAAAANNNNNN!

Ultimately this is about attitude. It's very easy to sit back and blame the other guy saying, "My dps is fine, it's the lower half that needs to pick up their game." This may be true, but I can't play the other guy's toon.  I can only play mine, and I choose to be happy with how I play, but never satisfied. As the poet Robert Browning once wrote, "Ah but a man's reach should exceed his grasp..."

So my question to you is are you giving it all she's got, and is all she's got good enough, and if not, what else have you got?

Good Hunting! Live Long and Prosper!

MMQB: Starting Over

Happy Monday to you all.  I hope that everyone had an enjoyable holiday weekend and a fun week in Azeroth.  This week's theme is about starting over.  I joined a new guild, and I spent just about all my gold on a battered hilt.  I'm not sure which of these was the better choice.

First the new guild.  It's a 25-man progression raiding guild.  We do four nights of ICC (25) from 8-11 pm server time; 70% attendance required.

Ultimately I think this is the right move for me given that I really want to progress through ICC (25).  I also want to be part of a team where everybody pulls their weight.  I think I'm getting that here, but we'll see.

I have two good friends in the guild which was a big part of my decision to join.  Even though I have a regular raid spot, I once again find myself on the bottom of the totem poll.  They use DKP so I'm on the bottom in more ways than one.  It's nothing that showing up for every raid and performing at a high level can't fix, but It's still a climb.

Now onto Quel'Delar. Although I have virtually no gold, I have no regrets about buying the battered hilt. The quest chain was a lot of fun, and I like the challenge of seeing how long it will take to recoup the gold (I bought it for 15K).

I've started selling gems on the AH and I've managed to recoup a small portion of the cost. This is good because I've convinced myself not to roll need on the hilt if I should ever see it drop.  While I would love to the opportunity to instantly get my gold back, the quest chain is really cool and I'd hate to deny someone else the opportunity to run it.  This is all easy to write when you've never seen it drop though.

Ten Things I'm Thinking About

1. I ran ICC (10) with my new guild on Saturday.  I got to use the jet pack and fly to the enemy ship.  I like them already!
2. My new guild uses DKP which will help eliminate random distribution of loot.
3. I have zero DKP.  Getting drops early on will be tough if not impossible.
4. Now that I'm on a DKP system and have zero points, I need to plan out my gear strategy.
5. My new guild is working on Lady D in ICC 25.  This is the same progression point as the guild I just left.  Let's hope it's just holiday slow down.
6. I like having a guild web-site with forums again.  It even looks like the members use them too.
7. What's the point of having "friends" if they won't enchant your stuff for free.  Supply my own mats, really?
8. I may need to run Forge of Souls with a set group rather than randomly pug it.  Even the warrior tanks roll need on the Needle-Encrusted Scorpion. Stupid off-spec!
9. I wish people would just tell me the number of stacks, and send me exact number of mats they need for the new arrows. I'm tired of getting stacks of eternals with instructions to send them "a bunch of arrows".
10. My old guildies were very cool about my leaving.  They are a great group of people.  It's hard leaving friends behind.

Good Hunting!

MMQB: Island Edition

I'm on vacation in St. Thomas this week, so I won't being doing much blogging.  I was fortunate to squeeze in a TotC (25) run before I left for vacation.  I was even more fortunate to snag Talonstrike.  I still want the gun from Onyxia (25), but I certainly feel better now.

I ran TotC (25) with a guild I'm hoping to join.  You'd think topping their meters and out-dpsing their best geared hunter (who was better geared than me) would warrant an instant invitation regardless of spot availability.

It appears the Darkbrew effect is alive and well.  This works in one of two ways,

1. Groups that wipe several times on a boss and then pull me into the run usually one-shot the boss on my first attempt.  This has happened for Ony 10/25, Iron Council (25) and Hodir (25).  Probably some others too.
2. Raid teams I'm on that are unable to progress past a certain point will have breakthrough while I'm on vacation.  This has happened in Naxxramas and now TotC (25).  Congratulations on downing Anub, and you guys suck!

Ten Things I'm Thinking About

1. Failures on Anub (25) have cost me 24 badges, 8 chances at trophies, and opportunities to get Leggings of the Lurking Threat, Archon Glaive and Belt of Deathly Dominion.
2. I both love and hate that my guild got Anub down in TotC (25).
3. Other than badges there is no reason for me to run TotC (10), VoA (10), or Onyxia (10).
4. Patch 3.2 has been my favorite patch of this expansion.  I finally caught up to the Joneses.
5. I don't think patch 3.3 will drop this week, but it's safe to say we're officially on patch watch from here on out.
6. I'm looking forward to getting my Runed Band of the Kirin Tor.  Nice way to ring in patch 3.3.
7. My GM has asked me to tutor a couple of Hunters.  I told him okay, but only if they want to be tutored.
8. We recorded episode 15 of the Hunting Party Podcast.  No guest this week, just Euripides, Frostheim and I talking.  I missed the first half of the show because I was raiding.  It was, of course, the best half of the show.
9. My wife is a real pro at travel planning and packing.  I got to raid the night before our trip as a result of this.
10. Island internet is still better than no internet at all.  Not by much though.

The Hunting Party Podcast, Episode 11

This week, Darkbrew and Euripides talk about weekly raid quests, pet leveling speed, a new site for reporting ninjas to the public, and then answer a listener email about how to measure and report hunter DPS, for example when applying to a pug. Frostheim, from the Warcraft Hunters Union, then comes on and all heck breaks loose.

[audio http://outdps.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/huntingparty_011.mp3]

As always, here is the iTunes store link, the Hunting Party Podcast feed, and the direct XML feed. If you email us comments or questions, we’ll read them on the next show. Send an email to outdps@gmail.com or thebrewhall@gmail.com, and mention “podcast” in the subject.

If you don’t do syndicated podcasts, and just want to download this week’s MP3 and play it on your player of choice, click here.

Eight Simple Rules: #8 Attitude

Attitude. In the end we as a guild want to have fun, progress, see end game content and not fight about this person or that person, not fight about loot and who got it and who didn't. Be *respectful* to the other players. If a problem arises, please don't lose your temper, talk to one of the officers and if a decision has to be made it will be promptly. This isn't a baby sitting club. We're all here to enjoy the game, see new things and get new loot, not just you. We will try to do this fairly.

First of all to the one or two of you who have been waiting for me to continue my Eight Simple Rules series I apologize for the long delay (/sarcasm off).  Part of the reason for the delay is I've been very busy at work, I've been having a lot of fun playing the game, it's football season, and I'm having a blast with the Hunting Party Podcast.

Enough with the lame excuses and onto the conclusion.  Yes I'm skipping rules six and seven because in this 3.2 (and soon to be 3.3) world they don't really mean as much.  Rule six was about having appropriate gear, which as we all know is insanely easy to get.  Rule seven was about putting gems and enchants on your gear.  You can see my thoughts on that in my post Gems and Enchants and Why They Matter.

In episode seven of The Hunting Party we interviewed Munken from Ensidia.  He said that a big part of their success is that everyone in the guild has the same goal, and that is to down bosses.  If he has to play a support role or sit out of an encounter in order for the guild to succeed then he gladly does it.

No whining, fussing or crying, "Hey what about me?"  They take a team oriented approach and it works.

When I'm part of a successful encounter, and by successful I mean the boss goes down, I survived and was a high contributer, I'm happy.  If I get an upgrade great, if it goes to another guildie, I say "Gratz" (unless it's a ranged weapon and then I say, "I hope you shoot your eye out!")

Usually I get to go, but sometimes I have to sit out or wait on standby.  I'm okay with all of this because I'm playing with my friends.

If you start focusing on your personal achievements or find yourself staring at loot tables, you're setting yourself up for failure and all the drama that ensues.  Be patient, focus on getting an instance on farm, and loot and rewards will come naturally.

Now a gun, a gun, my kingdom for a gun (even a bow or xbow will do at this point).

Happy Hunting!

Eight Simple Rules: #5 Ventrilo and AddOns

Today I'm going to continue with my Eight Simple rules series, as I present to you rule #5 - Ventrilo and Addons.  We require all raid members to use Ventrilo during raids.  We also require that all raid members have certain addons installed, as well as require some role specific addons.

Ventrilo

All members need to have Ventrilo installed and properly configured before the raid.  The reason for this should be obvious.  Being able to verbally communicate during a boss encounter is huge.  This is a tool for raid leaders to bark out instructions and throw a conniption fit when things go wrong.

During an encounter you should try to keep Vent. clear, allowing the raid leader and other designated personnel to direct the action.  There is no need to call out for heals if you're not a tank.  The raid also does not need to hear things like "Sorry I couldn't get the heal off in time."  Your target is dead.  The raid already knows you couldn't get the heal off.

If you die you do not need to begin explaining why you died or what you did wrong.  Wait until the encounter ends before you start the debriefing and finger pointing.

If your guild does not have Ventrilo then you should be using the in-game voice chat.  We like to use Vent. because the quality is so much better.

Required AddOns

On the must have list for all raid members are Omen Threat Meter and Deadly Boss Mods (DBM).  Our raid leader listed the reason for needing these mods as follows,

Omen:  Keeps track of how much threat you are generating. You need to stay BELOW the current tank so that you do not pull aggro and kill yourself and possibly the raid. A perfect example of this is the Patchwerk fight, in which tanks must stay in a certain order on threat and all melee must stay below the third tank.

DBM: We require all raiding personnel to have Deadly Boss Mods installed and running at the time of the raid. Certain fights become very difficult without it (Thaddius is a perfect example) It gives various warnings for each fight that you may be required to pay attention to.

In addition to Omen and DBM we ask our Paladins to have Pally Power and all classes that can cleanse need to have Decursive.

Pally Power: (Paladins only) This is for pallies to assign specific buffs during the raid.

Decursive: (Mages, Priests, any class that can decurse, remove disease, etc) This addon allows you to quickly click a button to remove curses, diseases and the like.

Raiding is a team effort and these encounters can have a lot going on at once.  Communication and awareness are critical to getting these bosses down.  Ventrilo and addons are tools that can help you get the job done.

Good Hunting!

Eight Simple Rules: #4 AFK's Will Be Raid Wide

AFK's will be raid wide and not on an individual basis. During each raid at specific times it will be called out to take a 5 min afk for the entire raid. There are to be no other afk's (emergencies excluded) by individuals. The raid will not wait for an unscheduled afk. If you are caught afk when we move on or even start a boss fight, it will be started without you. If it happens more than once you will be removed from the raid and replaced. If it becomes a recurring theme with an individual, that person will not be invited back to raids. This is a very important rule, this allows the raid to run quickly, efficiently, and keeps everyone and everything on track. We will be able to maximize the 3 hours set out for raiding and everyone will be available for each and every fight. This includes running back when we wipe. Wiping is not a declaration for afk. If you die and it is a wipe, release, run back in and be ready to buff and go. Do not wait around for a rez, this wastes everyone's time and you won't be receiving it if everyone else is running back. If you have to have an afk for some reason, at the very least send the raid leader a tell as to why and how long.

Tell me if you've seen this before.  The raid leader has just gone through a lengthy explanation of the boss fight and issues the ready check.  Everyone responds but one person (a healer or tank of course).  The raid leader sends the player a tell and asks in Vent. if they're there.  Nothing but silence.  Someone has taken a ninja AFK.

Unnecessary AFKs waste time.  They demonstrate a lack of focus, and can stifle momentum.  They are also contagious, once one person requests an AFK more usually follow.  Before you know it you've wasted 20 minutes waiting for people to return.  While this is happening flasks are burning, buffs are running out and people are getting antsy.

Instead of focusing on a boss attempt trains sets are out, paper zeppelins are flying, and battle-bots are fighting.  When everyone does return you then have to spend time rebuffing, and going over assignments again.

Breaks are a necessary and important part of raiding.  If you look at all major sports, there is usually a half-time where the players get a small break.  I've seen raiders work harder on an attempt knowing that there was a few minutes break ahead.

Running a twenty-five man raid is like herding cats.  Organizing your breaks and making them a scheduled part of the raid really help keep things focused and moving along.

Emergencies happen, and there are times when you need to take an unscheduled break.  When this happens you need to let your raid leader know that you need to go AFK.  You're in your home and the raid leader is in their home.  You really can't be stopped from going AFK.  The least you can do though is be courteous and let people know.  Remember you are part of a team.

Now I need to go /AFK to do some work.

Good Hunting!

Eight Simple Rules: #3 Come Prepared

Come prepared. This means multiple things. It is extremely important that you have your potions (healing/mana), flasks (stonesblood, etc), any specific gear requirements (frost resist piece for saph), individual food buffs in case a fish feast is not available, reagents, etc. Do not rely on others to have these for you and do not rely on the raid to get you through without them. Mana potions mean we can get maximum usage out of you during a fight, health potions make the difference between you dying and giving a healer those extra few seconds to hit you with a heal, frost resist means healers are working much less on the entire raid... I can go on and on, but suffice to say, these things are a *requirement*. This also extends to meeting the requirements to make it to a raid. In other words, if to arrive at a raid requires a flying mount, you must have one. The raid will not be summoning you every time we wipe. Finally, this also branches out to knowing the fights. If we are going to be doing content that is new to you, PLEASE spend the fifteen minutes needed BEFORE the raid night to go to a site like bosskillers.com to view the fight strategies and how the fight works. Just this *basic* knowledge will help you when the raid leader explains the fight and will help the raid get going much quicker. Come prepared to each and every raid.

Eight Simple Rules: #2 Be On Time

Be on time. This is as simple as it gets. The invites start 15 minutes before the scheduled raid time. This means if the raid starts at 9pm, you need to be online for your invite at 8:45pm. Do not be in a heroic, do not be in Wintergrasp pvp'ing, be ready for the invite and ready to head to the instance.  The first pull is expected to be at the time listed for the raid start. This means everyone there, inside the instance and buffed by the raid start time. The raids will be scheduled for 3 hours, this is a strict 3 hours from start to finish. We will begin on time and end on time.

Today I bring you another post from my Captain Obvious collection.  The on-time start is about as rare as a hunter who has all three spirit beasts.

If there's one thing I plan to drive home in this series is that raiding is a team effort.  It's not unlike being on a softball team or tennis team.  Your attitude and behavior impacts the other players around you and their enjoyment of this game.

Now I don't know about you, but I play this game in my home.  This means that all it takes is my entering a password and secure ID number for me to be at my destination.

I used to play on summer league tennis teams.  We had matches scheduled every Saturday morning at 9:00 am.  Early in the week I'd let the captain know of my availability (see rule number one).  On game day I'd get up early and drive to the site of the match usually arriving about 15 minutes early.  If I knew I needed to be late, I'd let the captain know so he could make arrangements for a later start with the other team.

When it comes to raiding I accept/decline raid invitations as soon I know my availability.  I usually logon 15 minutes before first pull, and I let the raid leader know if I'm going to be late.

For some reason it seems that since we can play in the comfort of our own home versus having to "be" somewhere, there is a tendency to take things a bit more casually.

Just because you don't have to get in your car and drive somewhere, and just because you aren't meeting people face-to-face doesn't mean you should treat this any differently then if the raid were a tennis team match, or even a happy hour meet up.

The raid is an event that you have been invited to.  It has a meeting location, a start time, and your actions impact the nine or 24 other players who are also participating in the raid.

It's not just about you, although it is all hunter loot. ;)

Eight Simple Rules: #1- RSVP

You need to accept or decline your raid invites. If you do not accept or decline but you are waiting online at the time of the raid for an invite you are considered a pug and will only be invited if spots are available 5 minutes before raid start. This is the same time we begin pugging spots as well. Accepting and Declining allows us as officers to confirm people for the raids and know who and what type of raid makeup we are likely to have ahead of time.

Okay, this first rule is common sense 101.  I'm a little disappointed that it even has to be a rule, but c'est la vie.  According to Miss Manners RSVP most likely came about as a polite way to remind people to do something they should already know; if you receive an invitation you should reply.

You should treat a raid invite the same way you would treat a party or wedding invitation.  Are we really too lazy to open up the calendar when we log on and click Accept/Decline?  Apparently so.

Let me go ahead and tell you why it's a good idea to reply.

1. It lets the raid leaders know what type of raid composition they're going to have.
2. Raid leaders can make a go/no go decision before raid night.
3. If you accept it greatly increases your chance of actually getting to raid.
4. If you decline it lets the raid leaders know they won't have the big heals or big guns for that night.  They can plan accordingly.

Raiding is a team effort.  This is not just about you.  Your actions or in-actions impact your fellow friends and raiders.

I've seen people not respond to calendar invites and then get upset when we need players to fill spots and they're not chosen because we had too many volunteers at that point.

Accept or decline.  If you are unable to make a decision, let the raid leader know that you're a maybe for that week.  If you're good, they'll probably reserve a spot for you.

And finally, if you do accept and invitation, please show up.  Here is a recent guild message of the day.

Mythbusters: Rules = No Fun

"So relax! Let's have some fun out here! This game's fun, OK? Fun goddamnit."

- Crash Davis

I'm going to dive into my Eight Simple Rules series this week, but before I tackle the rules I wanted write about a comment to something I wrote on my guild forums.

In addition to writing on this blog I'll often re-post some of the same information on our guild website.  One such post was one titled Don't Just Raid, Be a Raider.

One of my guildies responded as follows,

"Well I guess we are just not as gung ho about a GAME as the rest of you.. :-(   Us inexperienced non serious types?????????????"

I'm going to assume that you've read the post or at least glanced at it. If not, I'll wait while you do that.  I'm humming the Jeopardy theme song now.  Okay time's up.

I'm sure that for those of you who raid the points I outlined fall into the realm of common sense, but for some the idea having rules for a GAME is unnecessary and serves to suck all the fun out of everything.

We put rules in-place and have raiding guidelines not to stifle fun, but to ensure that a good time will be had by all.  Loot, badges and achievements cannot be obtained if your lying on your back wondering what just happened.

Another of my guildies summed it up best when he wrote,

"The most fun part of this game is a well organized, prepared team taking down bosses.

One of the least fun things is wiping and waiting and talking about wiping and waiting and why we are waiting and why we are wiping and whose fault it is that we are wiping and waiting and what we should do about it and who should do something about the fact the we are wiping and then waiting to wipe."

All of our rules are designed to mitigate the wiping and the waiting.  The notion that rules and fun are mutually exclusive is utter garbage.

Fun comes from working together and defeating bosses.  Fun comes from getting badges and loot and seeing the team progress.  Fun comes from success and not failure.

It's time for fun!

Eight Simple Rules

Today's post comes from my "Miss Manners" collection.  I'm going to begin a series on raiding etiquette.  This will in part be an extended version of a post I made called Don't Just Raid, Be a Raider (and no, I'm not talking about the football team in Oakland).

Recently our guild got together and decided it was time to do some progression raiding.  We all sat down and came up with a list of rules that we felt everyone needed to follow if we wanted to succeed.  Below is a list of those rules.

In the coming days/weeks I'll go into detail regarding each of these rules and why I think they're necessary for successful progression raiding.  So without further ado, here are our eight simple rules.

1. Please RSVP for the raid.
2. Be on time.
3. Come prepared.
4. AFK's will be raid wide.
5. Use of Addons and Ventrillo.
6. Enchants and Gems.
7. Gear Requirements.
8. Attitude.