I, Raid Leader.
This time, with fifty percent more togas than the I, Raider post.
Everyone who games with me or rp’s with me will, on the eventual, be invited to a ten man raid. It’s something I enjoy running, enjoy DOING, especially when RP is involved. A few hours invested and I get to watch my friends walk away with Teh Purlez lol. I will likely continue running ten man raids until that fateful day when I cancel my WoW subscription forever.
That being said, I’d like to talk about the hardest part of raid leading for me and that is group composition. I’m not talking stacking a group with ten warriors and figuring out after the first forty wipes that it’s a bad idea. I’m talking ratio of excellent players, to good players, to people who need work. Fact: some people push buttons better than others. Some people play the dickens out of WoW. They theorycraft on their class, gear with proper gems and enchants, adopt the best rotation and the best spec for optimal output for their particular function. What this means? Their threat/dps/healing is flat out better than other people.
I’d argue that there’s a right way to play a game. Honestly, it IS about fun, and if you like your spec I am not going to tell you your fun is wrong. However. What happens when you love your spec so much your output is fairly nonexistent and I’m relying upon you to do a particular job? Problem. Possibly the MOST uncomfortable problem for any raid leader. “I like you, I like your RP, I don’t like that you’re not willing to do your particular function in a raid environment, and at what point do I not take you because someone else will contribute to a successful run whereas you slow the pace down?” Terrible question, isn’t it? But the fact is, too many people not properly doing a job in one group means a raid fails horribly, and the people that ARE doing their jobs? Are stuck wiping on content because they have to pull their own weight plus someone else’s.
I have two ways I handle this problem. The first is to quietly approach someone of the same class as Problem Raider – someone who does a good job with the class – and have them talk to the individual. I don’t think anyone WANTS to be viewed as a raid liability, and I know a lot of gosh darned good folks who could be sensitive broaching this subject. “So I tried this spec, what do you think?” “I just realized that the hit cap is the most important initial stat for us. I’m sitting around __. It’s amazing how much of a difference it makes.” “I choose this method of healing a tank versus this, your thoughts?” Opening the lines of communication? Terribly important, and doing it in such a way that someone doesn’t feel like an epic failure? Even more important. These example questions usually segue into class discussions which will hopefully help Problem Raider improve their performance.
The second approach is not at all pro-active. If I know someone is not going to do great, and someone’s already talked to individual with no results, I will on occasion just take them and fill out the other nine spots in the raid with good to excellent players and suck it up. This means other mediocre players won’t be attending that week, but will be cycled in other weeks. Honestly, I don’t like judging my raid mates (especially when most of them are my friends), but I do have an obligation as a raid leader to ensure a smooth run. No one finds dying for hours fun, and if they do? Well . . . I probably shouldn’t talk to that person. It might make my head explode.
So I guess my question is, how do other people deal with this situation? I’m sure there are other approaches out there that I’m not thinking of. Discuss.
Filed in Raiding,Tips and Tricks,World of Warcraft 3 Comments so far
Itanya Blade on 24 Mar 2009 at 11:58 am #
Well, I don’t run 10 mans anymore and I have never been happier in allowing someone else to take care of those.
It is a lot harder to take a lesser capable/skilled player in a 10 man than in a 25 man, but many times it boils down to the same decision. Personally, I never felt comfortable with the stack the first nine and bring the not so good player. That is, unless the other nine are aware and accepting of the challenge.
Part of this has to do with my own feelings about being dragged along in content. (Admittedly, I manage to play gimped classes or gimp myself in spec. Nothing in the world is more frustrating that doing exactly what someone else does and not getting the same results.)
Mostly, we try and council people. Encourage them. Sometimes it works. Sometimes those people get to be better than they ever thought they could be.
Occasionally, you run into a wall and you have to make the choice between bringing them and sucking it up or just being flat out honest with them. I always advocate the honest part. I would prefer people being honest with me rather than just sucking it up.
But that’s me. I want to feel like I am contributing.
jezebelxiii on 24 Mar 2009 at 2:16 pm #
My failure as a raid leader is my presentation of Difficult Information, and I fully own that. I’m very very practical and to the point sometimes, so what I view as a fact (ie: You’re dps, and you’re 500 dps below one of the tanks, let’s look at why because something is wrong) will not necessarily jive with someone’s argument that “They like they’re spec and here’s why”. My personal thought is, if you want to raid, you owe it to the other people in said raid to contribute. If that means respeccing for a raid, you do it and then go back to your preferred spec later. The difficulty comes when the person in question not only doesn’t want to work with you, but still expects the raid spot anyway. Gets rather tricky then, and is Not a Good Time!
Itanya Blade on 24 Mar 2009 at 2:26 pm #
I am not such a fan of the rotating respec (Despite the fact that my priest respecs so often, I actually send her an allowance for it). But, if someone is coming to the raid in a particular role and they are not making the benchmark, whatever that is… Something has to give.
Admittedly, the Anvil is uber raid, but we do have benchmarks. We do talk to people. There are always going to be people who want to do what they want to do and expect you to just cover for them. But, once you are clear about why such a thing is not acceptable, the onus lies on them.
No, it may not be a good time, but it is necessary.