How do you deal with bad raiding environment.

Far too often for my own liking I am driving to rant out of game about the state of my raiding in the game. I raid as often as a I like, so the ability it certainly there. No, it really is the environment in which I raid. I came to my current group in BC as my hunter and still raid with them now as Zhavi. In that time we’ve seen some leadership change up and since Uld a major shift in the behavior of our raids. Looking back, certainly I am at fault in this as well. All too willing to bend until I break. Like Tuesday when having had enough I snapped in raid chat, healer chat, and then in my guild vent after the raid.

There is no excuse for letting a situation go this long. But ever there is a straw that breaks the camel’s back and Tuesday was it. Over the course of Uld and now ToC my raid group has gotten increasingly more hostile to eachother. It doesn’t matter if you are a tank, healer, or DPS we are going to yell at you. As I stated before we didn’t start out that way but really since Uld we have become that way. It isn’t always the leadership 9/10 it will be another member of the raid coming over vent to tell you how stupid you are for not doing X, Y, or Z.  No latitude for lag, disconnection, or anything else. No look at past performance to wonder why someone missed the charging yeti previously but caught this time. No, instead you will hear screaming over vent as at least 2 people, not the raid leads, rip into whoever did it.

Tuesday we raided VoA, ToC, and Ony. For VoA I ignored everything. I’ve been off almost 2 weeks from raiding because I knew this was grinding me down, I was tired of dealing with this crap. But a plea the night before that without healers the raid would be canceled saw myself signing up for a raid I knew I shouldn’t be in. Nothing confirmed this more when we wiped on Ony and my temper exploded. A tank invited me to a fight and I not only accepted, I backed up my argument and let it be known it was time to stop.

See our tank was given the wrong directions for Ony’s breath. As she flew over, not only was he out of range of us, he was in the middle of the fire. (The Shammy healer and I assigned to him not willing to stand in the fire to be close enough to heal him…go figure) A battle rez commences and the tank is back in the fray. However, the delicate tanking balance has changed. There are now 3 large dragonkin and the whelps. He has charged into the middle of them all to grab aggro. (See where this is going yet?) He has their aggro and only 2 healers, he hasn’t been fully buffed because on being rezzed he immediately charged back in. He died. Over vent I hear him telling the raid how he didn’t get any heals and that’s why he died and it is our fault. (that snapping sound you here is the last of my nerves after months of dealing with this coupled with the crappy way we have been treating each other)

I snap back that he was being healed and if he doesn’t know what happened not to say anything at all. All this is  said in raid chat as I don’t have my mic ( I ran it over and the hub spent time fixing it…don’t look at me like that I run over it all the time) Snapping in healer chat I tell the lead there and everyone else I’m done and tired of dealing with this BS. Because I really really am. I’m not the only healer to lose it in fact. Which tells me for sure I’m not the only healer tired of listening to this night after night. It isn’t that the tank talked out of his butt when I know I cast heals on him and saw two ticks of penance hit him before he died. No, I was tired of being in a raid environment where yelling at each other was accepted and condoned.

After the successful death of Ony and the raid was over my adrenaline and anger was amped up enough I walked over into my guild chat to talk to some other friends. Tank and the raid leader come in and I let it go. I really really am tired. Another healer in the chat stated “healers get blamed first every where whats the point?”

But do you? I know for a fact that until we started having problems with Hodir and Thorim the healers didn’t get yelled at this much. I know for a fact people didn’t come over vent and yell at each other. It wasn ‘t allowed it wasn’t accepted. So I put it to them Why are treating each other like crap now when we used to not? When I used to be glad to get on and raid with my friends instead of hate listening to the bickering and bitching all the time.

I say I am to blame because Tues never should’ve happened. I should have gone to my RL and explained what a sheer crappy experience raiding here has become and asked what is going on. I know he has a lot on his plate.

I put it to you in general. Is it acceptable to scream, yell, and treat people like crap? How do you handle it when your raids are ground down or demoralized?

How to Herd Wombats

The Illustrious Wild West Leads Emox and Woleca let me impose upon them for some suggestions and tips for prospective raid leaders. Congradualtions are in order for Rython, he has been promoted to tank lead! Woot!! *crowd goes wild*

Read on!

1) First things first, Why four raid leaders?

Emox: Arbitrary minimum set by Leftovers for 25-player charters. In reality we really only use 3 of the raid leaders.

2) How do you split raid responsiblities?

Emox:Ace handles slotting and overall raid lead stuff, Tayjor does most of the tactics. I handle most of the administrative stuff — Points, WWS reports, interaction with Leftovers lead community.

Woleca:Same as Emox. I am the overall lead, but this does not mean I am almighty. My job is to weigh all arguments and decide which works best for our group and convince all our leads to agree on the same plan

3) Veneratio on Tankspot recently made a post asserting his belief that a RL’s role affects how they make assignments etc. ie Tank leads give hearder assignments and heal leads tend to over stack healers etc. Would you say you agree/disagree with this assertion?

Woleca: I have raided under several leads feel that in most cases leads fall into these personalities:
Tank leads- are usually more strategic and orders are direct with little detail. Will try to push the pace.
Healer leads- explanations are too detailed, and raid pace is usually slower
DPS- They have the toughest time leading, cause tanks and healers usually do not like taking orders from a dps lead. This is my observation. Just a rough stereotype of the type of leads out there, but most have their own flavor

4)Coming into an already established raiding structure did you find there were still growing pain in the beginning? Bumps that had to be worked out?

Emox: Wow that was so long ago. I think the big change was getting people used to Leftovers Points system, when the prior standard for Eastwind was essentially a much looser ‘Be Cool’ system.

Woleca: Fine tuning the raid was challenging. Figuring out which combinations of players will make the raid enjoyable.

5)With the way Bliz has changed classes in LK with the hopes roles will be slotted not classes. Has this made slotting easier for you in actual practice?

Woleca: We try not let encounters dictate who or what we can slot. Slotting is never easy.

6)Dual Spec will be introduced with 3.10 do you anticipate it to have any impact on how you decide now?

Emox: (ditto) I intend to take advantage of Dual spec for both Meddic and Emox, to provide dps and/or healing as needed.

Woleca: The only problem I see is more loot will be taken and be rarely used. Dual specs will be interesting, especially raiding politics.

7) As a RL what do you do differently to prepare for a raid, than you did as raider?

Emox: Better collection of mods, to keep a good overview of the general status of the raid. Grid and/or ORA2 are a big help here. Macros to announce things like vent information and/or Leftovers Loot rules, etc.

Woleca: Raiders get to plan raids into their schedules, as a RL I plan around my raids =(

8)Having conquered current content. How did you avoid burn out on your progression runs?

Emox: Alts. Alts galore. Keeping the rest of the raid group motivated and avoiding drama is always a challenge.

Woleca: Pacing, raiding is a Marathon sport.

9)RL is said to be a stress filled time of herding players, how do you avoid burn out, yourselves?

Emox: A fair bit of solo play after every raid.

Woleca: Only deal with players you want to go. Give your raiders ample warning and let them decide if they can or want to go. Chasing raiders down is a fast way to burn a lead out. The only time I chase raiders is at invite time =)
10)What do you find is the most challenging aspect of your job?

Emox: Job? When’d this become a job? I think of it more as a role.

Woleca: The most challenging part for me is juggling all the gears that make our raid go.

11)Having asked that what do you find the most rewarding?

Emox: One nice benefit — and a curse — is regular attendance at raids.

Woleca: Good company and being able to see perfect executions of plans.

12)Do you have any advice you would give prospective or new raid leaders?

Emox: Keep everything in perspective. avoid drama where possible, keep the interest of every raider in mind.

Woleca: Don’t do it!

A very special Thank you to Emox and Woleca for contributing. <3