raidleader
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Guildwatch: It was my friend
Of course the issue is supposed to be fixed now, but after getting booted off their mains in Ulduar, Dark Haven on Baelgun had had enough, and made a dancing line of cows to display their displeasure. Pretty funny.Lots more guild shenigans in this week's Guildwatch as usual, including some drama (both good and bad), some downed news, and some recruiting posts. Tune in after the break below to see what's going on around the servers. And if you have a tip, from your guild or something you saw on the forums, send it along to us at guildwatch@wow.com. Thanks!
"More DoTs" cameo in F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin
ihatemostthings' friend found something fun in the new(ish) game F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. Apparently, wandering around in the game, you can come across a little terminal that has some familiar code to anyone who's ever raided with a more-than-enthusiastic raid leader (NSFW). You can click the picture above to see a closeup view of what the screen says.Pretty cute. Blizzard has seen fit to make nods to other games in Azeroth, so it's fun to see other game companies return the favor.
Calling the wipe... and what happens next
World of Matticus has an interesting piece up about a touchy subject in raidleading: calling the wipe. It's a tough job leading the raid. Everyone's there to down the boss, yes, but especially when learning a fight, a raidleader has to balance a lot of different priorities-- are potions used or not? Who rezzes after a wipe? How are the healers balanced? And when things go really bad, they have to decide, sometimes on a moment's notice, whether to call a wipe and reset the encounter, or try to push onward. Everyone knows what's possible-- everyone's seen a fight where the last Mage left is able to get one last fireball off and finish off the boss-- but the raidleader has to look at reality and make that call.Now, Matticus is actually pretty gung-ho about things-- he says not to wipe unless you're down to your last healer and you've only got one rez left. I agree that there are times when soulstones should be popped (if we have enough locks, we'll usually soulstone our main healer, and so if aggro ever gets lost, he pops right back up again), but if you're on the first attempt of the day, there's nothing wrong with saving a few rezzes and repair payments. Especially in a place like Gruul's Lair on High King Maulgar, where it's easy to get out when things go south, there's no reason to fight when two tanks drop on a bad pull. Just run, save the money, and come back when HKM has reset.But Matticus is dead on about what happens after a wipe is actually called.
Have You /hug'd your raid leader today?
Good raid leaders need to have a lot of tools in their tool basket. People skills, the ability to manage people and understand people is critical. Tactical skills, being able to study an encounter, look through a combat log and understand what went wrong, and being able to make the adjustments to complete an encounter more efficiently and more easily next time is critical. It's a political job, keeping groups happy and managing everyone's expectations. It requires time, effort, and a lot of knowledge. So give your raid leader a /hug.
"You guys suck at this game"
We've all heard the "50 DKP minus" guy (it's become nothing less than a WoW classic), but imagine if all of that took place inside a chat channel, and you've got this (a lot of the text is not safe for work, if you aren't supposed to read cursewords at work) A more stunning display of angry raidleading I have never seen. This guy has more ways to say "you suck" then there are to actually wipe a raid.And that's why it's so great. I think my favorites are "this is MC level sh*t," and "I don't care how you did it in your guild-- your guild sucked, that's why you're in my guild." Seriously, almost everything on this page is comedy gold: "Just pull and let god sort it out." Dives was funny, but I think Sebudai is my new favorite raidleader.
50 DKP Dives -- the new Leeroy
The words "50 DKP MINUS" are becoming somewhat legendary even in non-WoW circles, but have you ever wondered about the guy who originally uttered them? Wagner James Au has interviewed Dives, leader of the Wipe Club, and the interview contains some real insight into the life of this particular raid leader.Turns out that, for those following the Onyxia Wipe closely, Crushim didn't actually get -50 DKP once the situation was explained. Thank goodness for that then.
