Taking the Blame

So last night was the first raid with She Who Speaks Horde with us and, with my blessing, running things with much tighter control, and better knowledge, than I ever would express. And it paid some nice rewards. While still not quite one shotting Marrowgar, the number of attempts was way, way down. She Who Speaks has good situational awareness and is really spot on. While we need the extra direction at the moment, I don't want to run the kind of raid where the raiders are just the marionettes of the raid leaders will.

I have been quite taken with Itay Talgam's conducting talk and I seem some strong links raiding. I do want my raiders to be their own agents, being force by the contours of the fight into action, not because they are following the absolute will of the raid lead. I want to hear from the when they feel that the way the fight goes suggests some action from them that we haven't thought of or covered.

This, of course, can occasionally lead to confusion. One of our Sourfang tries there was a great deal of confusion over which of the Blood Beasts we were supposed to be killing. We started with the hunter agroing the near beast, but were supposed to have switched to killing the far one and CCing the near.

After that wipe people were getting a bit frustrated and I was hearing 4 voices going in Vent at the same time, starting the play the blame game. It was one of the few times where I did my thing as a raid lead--it was /my/ fault that the instructions weren't clear. The blame, clearly, was mine. So lets res, make sure that my instructions are clear, and kill him.

What do you know, but it worked. Next week we are quite likely to be playing with Festergut.

Using the Stick

Another Monday, another ICC 10 run. And another test of my "talents" as a raid lead. I run a very open leadership style. If you have a suggestion of how to stomp a boss, I want to hear it. If you sign up, I want you to raid. If you see something I can do better, I want to know.

It can be a good way to raid--when it works. Sometimes, though, the raid lead needs to lay down the law. We were heading to another "special" night of wiping on Lord Marrowgar. I didn't have good sign ups at the time I was doing the slotting--and went with the raiders I had--not the ones I would have wanted. Proactively, and unusual for me, I sent out a private message to those who had signed up, saying why I had slotted as I had and hoped for some melee cancellations. It sounded a bit harsher in text after I read it, but it worked (at least so far, and I didn't get any flames in my mail box afterword).

In the end I did have to lay down the law--but not by ranting and raving but with a simple "Unless I see significant progress on this attempt I am going to stop wasting everyone's time and money here." That attempt was great until the RNG got us at about 20%--dead ranged DPS, spiked healer about a second before Bone Storm...

The next attempt got us Lord Marrowgar (who gave me his tanking weapon!), then a 1 shot on Lady Deathwhisper and the Gunship Battle. And a quality attempt on Sourfang.

So in the end, the threatened stop focused everyone tremendously, and netted much better results. We'll see if that carries to next week too, with good, early sign ups and focus next Monday.

Doh! Moment

I was reading Larisa on the PPI about her Saronite Slave when I went, WOW! That is a good idea!

I mean I have 3 80s, Guthammer, the instant queuing, i245 or so tanking warrior, Freydina the paladin (ret/holy--not that I have any clue how to pally heal) and Eirena the priest (holy/shadow atm, but I keep on hearing how fun Disc is from She Who Speaks Horde). Frey probably has enough Emblems of Frost to get a Primal Saronite right now. Eire--I am not entirely sure, but this weeks raid weekly (or maybe weakly, considering the target) is Noth which will certainly help.

Now I am quite dedicated to running one a day as a tank on Guthammer--but that is rarely more than 15 minutes. Then I usually run around doing the tournament dailies while queuing as DPS--that nets me a good 400G a day. But considering that I was just saying I have fallen really behind on with my knowledge as a raid lead, grinding a heroic or 2 on my 2 healers, while upgrading them from the finest of Naxx gear, while getting more Frost Emblem gear for my main is a solution made of win.

Now if only I had thought of it.

She Speaks Horde

There I am, busily tanking Marrowgar, trying to figure out why the OT keeps on falling over in the dramatic Draenei way, dancing around the ice-ground-thingie, making sure the DPS are staying bunched up when, at the start of one of the whirlwind phases my friend, watching over my shoulder, asks "Have you used Bloodlust?"

Whirl-wind is about over, I and my OT are getting into position, I am racking my brain to remember this Bloodlust buff she's asking about. I dance around more ground-ice-stuffs, calling left or right to make sure the Draenai and I break the same way, and wrack my brain for this "Bloodlust" thing--and am drawing a complete blank...

Back to the whirlwind, finding enough time to ask "Bloodlust? I don't know it..."

"You know, shaman buff."

"Oh! You mean Heroism!"