Random Acts of Uberness: A toast to LFR raid leaders who explain fights

"Thank you for doing your job" is my husband's favorite deadpan witticism when someone at his office puffs up in expectation of praise for something that's actually a basic job duty. It's true that anyone who signs up for a group activity such as an LFR raid should be prepared to meet certain bottom-line expectations for raiding -- but you know, there's a first time for everyone. A good raid leader knows how to make those times successful for the whole raid group.

"Last night in SoO LFR, the tank actually took time to describe the 'need to know' stuff for each of the fights and even answered questions," wrote ErikSetzer in last week's comments. "That's uber for a huge reason: We one-shot our way through those four bosses. But then when I did Pinnacle of Storms LFR, the tanks didn't even ask, and it got especially ugly on Lei Shen, with two or three wipes before someone finally asked, 'Okay, who doesn't know the fights?' One or two people admitted they hadn't been in there before. At least four people had the achievement ding when Lei Shen dropped. So yeah, it would have saved a lot of time and gold to just say what was needed. Sadly, they didn't try that in ToT. But the tank in SoO? Saved us all a lot of trouble. Kudos to that dude."

"My LFR last night went well because we had a leader who gave clear, simple directions instead of complaining that we didn't automatically know everything," agreed Pulcherrimus. "We one-shot everything except Sha of Pride, which we two-shot. That was pretty uber."

"@Pulcherrimus The same thing happened in my lfr last night," added sfreemanoh. "(I wonder if we were in the same one?) Every single boss went down smoothly except for Pride which took 2 shots, people explained the fights, everyone was courteous in instance chat...it was like a whole different game!"

Wonderful LFR raid leaders of Azeroth, the experienced and inexperienced alike salute you. Keep on 'splainin' like you do. Keep reading for more of this week's Random Acts of Uberness.

Caught being uber: Korkronelite, Kil'jaeden (US-Horde)
Hello, during my days of leveling a monk (few weeks ago) I was leveling up in Elwynn Forest and I was questing and this PvP-flagged orc death knight named Korkronelite from the server Kil'jaeden swooped down on me and did some emotes like "/follow /stop /wait." Which gave me the message to follow him. I used to play Ultima Online in which I knew not to randomly follow people I don't know, especially into the red gates. But it was okay to follow him at the time because I was in Elwynn and I wasn't PvP-flagged.

So I followed him around for a while and he brought me to all the available to kill rares. On the way over, he would kill every mob there except the rare and the pack the rare was in. He would do the point emote to tell me to kill that rare, and I would run in and aggro the pack and stay on the rare. If I was about to die, he would then step in and kill all the other mobs so I didn't die. After the first rare, I /thanked him and he would /wait and fly away to look for another rare for me to kill. I leveled from 9-10 this way and I was on my way to Westfall. While on my way to Westfall we had a /thank emote party then he guarded me when I was on my way down to the Eastvale Logging Camp so I could fly over to Westfall. I really am grateful of him/her helping me! -– Wenslly, Kil'Jaeden (US-Alliance)

Caught being uber: Thalasien, Zul'jin (US-Horde) Hey Lisa, I'd like to share something that happened today with me in the most unfriendly of places as of late: The Timeless Isle. In a place where everyone is hurrying to hit a mob before you do, clicking a shrine to finish your quest is nearly impossible and trying to get to a rare spawn before he is completely obliterated is a matter of sheer luck, this blood elf paladin from Zul'jin-US called Thalasien came to my rescue.

You see, I was in such a hurry to open ALL THE CHESTS in the isle that I may or may not have skipped a quest that called for ... you guessed it: opening a chest in the isle. Timeless Treasures requires you to open a chest, but the catch is that none of the weekly chests count for the quest. A GM instructed me to "group up with a friend and have him open the chest" to get credit for it.

After being made fun of in the general channel, of course, Thalasien whispered me and inquired further about my situation. Having opened all the chests himself, he then proceeded to try and find an alt that may have missed a chest. About 15 minutes, some alt logging and some Wowhead and MMO-Champion searches later, I had my quest credit!

All for a complete stranger, with no other benefit to himself other than to do something good for a fellow player, so here's my shout-out to Thalasien from Soloists Incorporated, Zul'jin. :) --
Delfeen, Zul'jin (US-Horde)

Caught being uber: Miko, Proudmoore (US-Alliance) I was on my warrior and buying quite a few stacks of Ghost Iron Ore from another player. I quickly ran out of room in my bags and bank so I shot off about 40 stacks to my alt. In my haste of doing so, I typed in the wrong name. My shammy is Mikô, and I missed the special character somehow and sent all my ghost iron ore to Miko instead. I didn't realize the error until hours later and I couldn't even remember which alt I had sent all my Ghost Iron Ore to. I figured best case scenario I would wait 30 days and it would bounce back from whatever random character got the ore. Worst case, the ore was gone and I was out a couple thousand gold.

As I wallowed in my despair later in the day, I got a whisper from Miko wondering if I was missing a bunch of ore. I couldn't believe it. They could have just taken the ore and posted it on the AH and I never would have known any better. It's these rare occasions that make me remember that not every WoW player is one of "those" players from LFR or the DF. -- Meatshyld, Proudmoore (US-Alliance)

Caught being uber: Everybody in this Celestial world boss raid This isn't really an individual act of awesomeness, but it was pretty cool to see: I had joined a Celestial group yesterday to get my world boss done, and we were all forming up on the stairs leading down, when a loot roll popped up. Someone had killed an elite on their way to the Celestial Court, and it had dropped some kind of item, I want to say the leather glove token.

The person said in chat, "Hey guys, I was the one who killed the elite, and I actually need that," and the entire 40-man raid either passed or hit greed on the item (except for the one guy who won it) -- I checked the roll counter.

I don't think I've ever seen 39 random strangers cooperate like that to not ninja an item before, not even in BC or vanilla, where ninjaing was considered to be the worst crime you could commit. –- Vyrianthor, WoW Insider commenter

Caught being uber: By special request I appreciate that this isn't strictly a WoW thing but it would be just lovely if you could mention it in Random Acts of Uberness on WoW Insider, even if only as an "and finally" paragraph. There is a UK charity called Special Effect which works to make gaming accessible for the disabled, and a guy from The Mature Gamer Podcast is doing a charity hike to raise funds and has even secured some gamer prizes to help raise funds. People like this need a shout-out for being awesome as does the charity itself. You can find out more on the fundraising hike at Mature Gamer Podcast and the charity itself at Special Effect. – Arli, Vile Thorn

Send us your tales of awesomeness

It's those times another player lights up your night with precise play, a wicked sense of humor, or unexpected generosity that you're a night spent in Azeroth becomes something to remember. Looking for a place to feel good about humanity again? You've come to the right place: WoW Insider's Random Acts of Uberness.

Send us your kudos and shout-outs for players who made your day! We know you can't always remember everyone's names or realms, and that's OK. Tell us what you do remember: what day of the week it was, what time of day, your own home realm, any details you recall about the other player, where you were and what you were doing in game. If the players involved read WoW Insider, we're betting they'll recognize your story!

Email your Random Acts of Uberness to lisa@wowinsider.com. Be sure to include your character's name, realm and faction if you'd like that to be published.