(WoW) Raid Reflection
I might wish we could get farther along. Downing Maloriak is somewhat less satisfying after having been unable to repeat that for a couple weeks. But overall, I'm still pretty proud of the guild's progress in Cataclysm raids. We're still fairly "casual," with only one raid night a week, and we're at 5/12 bosses for the current tier. That's still well ahead of our curve last expansion and, I think, perfectly respectable.
And defeating the Conclave of the Wind was a rush. I knew the coordination would be difficult, even though some people have claimed it an easy fight. The first several wipes were painful, as we didn't seem to be getting much of anywhere, but then we got cleanly past our first platform switch. And then we lasted longer. And longer. I think we hit the enrage once. And then we got all three bosses down, but missed the 1 minute window by probably a few seconds. That's where I really get into it - seeing progress. Feeling like we're getting somewhere, even if it ends in a wipe, is good for my morale. This mentality is the same reason I get frustrated by fights that involve heavy healing/rezzing on the part of the enemy - call it "realistic" if you want, it's annoying to me.
And then we got it right. One boss down, two... three! There are a moment of confusion I think, on the part of some, before it sunk in that they weren't rezzing or enraging, but had all just fallen. There's a moment of pride and awesomeness, knowing ten guildmates have pulled things together and went from "well this place looks neat" to "darn we died fast" to victory. Maybe it took a couple hours, or time scattered over multiple nights, but downing a new raid boss always feels like an accomplishment. Admittedly, this does fade some with time (Magmaw is starting to feel pretty routine at this point), but that shared moment of glory is what drives some of us to try.
Of course, there's also analysis that goes on mentally. If we struggle over an aspect of an encounter that videos seem to gloss over, I have to wonder if we're missing something.
Pardon the change in tone here, but I've considered sending this section to... uhh... someone for advice.
Okay, I freely acknowledge that guilds which make "how to" videos are generally going to be better than what I see in play. They've got more experience, are better coordinated, probably have better gear (though we're at a point where the difference there seems like it would be minimal), and they're simply made of people who have more time to spend toward raiding and like it that way. Naturally, these video/guides are made from successful attempts and we, the audience, don't see how long it took to get to that point (even if the voice-overs often make it sound fairly early in some cases when the narrator comments on uncertainty over some mechanics).
Yet sometimes it feels like those people are playing a totally different game.
Our guild's latest boss was a prime example of this. We took on the Conclave of the Wind for the first time, having spent most of our raid nights in Blackwing Descent. "It's easy" a lot of people had said, and the Conclave is one of the entry-level encounters, right? Certainly the Tankspot video made it looks straightforward enough. Oh, I knew there would be some complication in coordinating platform switches and getting the bosses down. Probably the biggest sticking point for us, however, proved to be Anshal's adds. "Kill them quick and return to the boss" sounds so simple on paper, and the videos make it look easy enough. Yet our DPS team seemed to have trouble with that. As a tank, I would come over from Nezir to find two or three of them still up more often than all of them down. And that was after switching to 4 DPS on Anshal and only one on Rohash, since we were having so much trouble there. We were eventually able to pull off a victory with this setup, but it probably took us twice as long as what was shown in the videos.
Frequently, I come out of these hard-won victories (as well as the losses against bosses we haven't beaten) wondering what we're doing "wrong." Are we just "too casual" to really be successful? We could probably stand to learn and practice more, sure, but I generally accept that everyone knows how to play their characters.
Personally, I know I occasionally slip up in my rotation, but not often. I keep up with a few blogs and sometimes read up on deeper theorycrafting. And still, I've seen logs showing a similarly-geared tankadin in a 25-man raid doing maybe 30% more damage than I. Does the additional buff coverage from the additional 15 people account for that? I wouldn't think it would be that big a difference, but I couldn't see what else was so different. I expect most of the others in our guild raids spend less time studying up, but still enough to know what they're doing.
So I find myself asking:
Can we do better without making raiding a chore/job that our guild doesn't have the time or dedication to pull off? If so, how?
Why do instructional videos on these encounters not cater more toward those who have difficulties and need the help more?
If there are heroic modes, why can't normal ones be a little more accessible?
Do I just need to lower my expectations in general?
And defeating the Conclave of the Wind was a rush. I knew the coordination would be difficult, even though some people have claimed it an easy fight. The first several wipes were painful, as we didn't seem to be getting much of anywhere, but then we got cleanly past our first platform switch. And then we lasted longer. And longer. I think we hit the enrage once. And then we got all three bosses down, but missed the 1 minute window by probably a few seconds. That's where I really get into it - seeing progress. Feeling like we're getting somewhere, even if it ends in a wipe, is good for my morale. This mentality is the same reason I get frustrated by fights that involve heavy healing/rezzing on the part of the enemy - call it "realistic" if you want, it's annoying to me.
And then we got it right. One boss down, two... three! There are a moment of confusion I think, on the part of some, before it sunk in that they weren't rezzing or enraging, but had all just fallen. There's a moment of pride and awesomeness, knowing ten guildmates have pulled things together and went from "well this place looks neat" to "darn we died fast" to victory. Maybe it took a couple hours, or time scattered over multiple nights, but downing a new raid boss always feels like an accomplishment. Admittedly, this does fade some with time (Magmaw is starting to feel pretty routine at this point), but that shared moment of glory is what drives some of us to try.
Of course, there's also analysis that goes on mentally. If we struggle over an aspect of an encounter that videos seem to gloss over, I have to wonder if we're missing something.
Pardon the change in tone here, but I've considered sending this section to... uhh... someone for advice.
Okay, I freely acknowledge that guilds which make "how to" videos are generally going to be better than what I see in play. They've got more experience, are better coordinated, probably have better gear (though we're at a point where the difference there seems like it would be minimal), and they're simply made of people who have more time to spend toward raiding and like it that way. Naturally, these video/guides are made from successful attempts and we, the audience, don't see how long it took to get to that point (even if the voice-overs often make it sound fairly early in some cases when the narrator comments on uncertainty over some mechanics).
Yet sometimes it feels like those people are playing a totally different game.
Our guild's latest boss was a prime example of this. We took on the Conclave of the Wind for the first time, having spent most of our raid nights in Blackwing Descent. "It's easy" a lot of people had said, and the Conclave is one of the entry-level encounters, right? Certainly the Tankspot video made it looks straightforward enough. Oh, I knew there would be some complication in coordinating platform switches and getting the bosses down. Probably the biggest sticking point for us, however, proved to be Anshal's adds. "Kill them quick and return to the boss" sounds so simple on paper, and the videos make it look easy enough. Yet our DPS team seemed to have trouble with that. As a tank, I would come over from Nezir to find two or three of them still up more often than all of them down. And that was after switching to 4 DPS on Anshal and only one on Rohash, since we were having so much trouble there. We were eventually able to pull off a victory with this setup, but it probably took us twice as long as what was shown in the videos.
Frequently, I come out of these hard-won victories (as well as the losses against bosses we haven't beaten) wondering what we're doing "wrong." Are we just "too casual" to really be successful? We could probably stand to learn and practice more, sure, but I generally accept that everyone knows how to play their characters.
Personally, I know I occasionally slip up in my rotation, but not often. I keep up with a few blogs and sometimes read up on deeper theorycrafting. And still, I've seen logs showing a similarly-geared tankadin in a 25-man raid doing maybe 30% more damage than I. Does the additional buff coverage from the additional 15 people account for that? I wouldn't think it would be that big a difference, but I couldn't see what else was so different. I expect most of the others in our guild raids spend less time studying up, but still enough to know what they're doing.
So I find myself asking:
Can we do better without making raiding a chore/job that our guild doesn't have the time or dedication to pull off? If so, how?
Why do instructional videos on these encounters not cater more toward those who have difficulties and need the help more?
If there are heroic modes, why can't normal ones be a little more accessible?
Do I just need to lower my expectations in general?
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