*Some of the last posts will be combined into one big post.

Pill

The moment she saw him, heard him, Pill turned her face away. Most of her gibbered with fear. Whispers and whispers of whispers crowded her. “Don’t look, Elena. Don’t you look.” She hissed to herself as she crept, low to the ground. “You don’t need to see.”

She had left Rashona some place in the snow and bodies. The druidess would be okay, the mage told herself. Rashona was a practical cow, stolid. She wasn’t Raga to turn to booze. She would be okay. Lies! Arguing with herself, she must be crazy.Coward, creeping off, scared.

“Course, I’m scared. You’re scared too!” And crazy. Crazy mage arguing with cowardly little girl. Cowardly little girl that wanted to go hide in a corner. But Pill wasn’t looking for a corner, even as she gave a whimper.

The blood and snow stained everything, would have chilled her skin had she still be alive. The battlefield had grown deathly still, with only HIS demanding, commanding voice to echo over it all. Despite it all, cowardly in her fear, she did not turn to look where she saw all the faces around her looking. She cowered, back to the one who stood outside his horrible gate. Instead she looked at the people who did not see her at all. All of them, eyes wide with horror.

I should be mocking them. Only now seeing what there really is there.

“Oh you hush, Elena. You was scared too. Scared when momma fell asleep, scared more when she woke up.” She passed by rider after rider, transfixed with horror, as they should be. She was scared with them, for them.

We should have looked for him harder in the army. Golden armor, shining ever in the sun, even in the dim sun of plagued lands. Stupid little girl dreams. She didn’t need them any more. She had let him go, let him slip back in with the living, with a blessing. A fond farewell. It was time to let that go. Papa, Jest she corrected herself ever so quickly, could not save her then, he would not have kept the fear away now. Look at all the shiny light wielders here. Faithful and not, brave and not. All were afraid. Darkness, she was afraid, hearing his voice, feeling his voice. Whispers, always.

She contined creeping, keep low and she would escape notice. No one paid attentionto Pill. Silly crazy little mage. No one important. She heard a voice, familiar in sound, though the sobs were not so familiar.

“No, we have who we need.”

Davien was right there in front of her, crying. Davien was scared too and that made it easier to bear. With a strangled cry, Pill curled herself around Davien’s legs. She still didn’t look , didn’t dare look. But she would hold Davien up. The smallest act of defiance against the dark, made out of pure cowardice.

Italics

It was almost a wonder no one heard the creaking and clanking of their slow-moving carts, packed in tight with barrels of liquid death. Liquid, of course, for a short time only. Once the catapults that lumbered behind the carts were in place, they’d let the vats fly, and the valley below would be filled with clouds of Putress’ plague as the fragile glass shattered and sent its contents splashing up and out.

Apothecary Seemah smiled to herself beneath her heavy mask. The glory of it! The sheer exultation! The choked-off screams of the dying would be the sweetest dirge.

And in the distance, beneath the chattering of the walking corpses and the screams of the dying, came the beating of leathery wings.

To be blunt, I’m horribly torn about the buff. On one hand I don’t wish the Naxxramas 40 disease on anyone. That dungeon was a piece of art back in vanilla WoW, but it was so tough that only a teeny tiny portion of the player base got to experience all of it. They brought it back for Northrend and scaled the difficulty way down, of course, but there was something to be said for the glory of Naxx 40′s initial difficulty. You needed precise execution in there – it wasn’t the “40 man zerg fest” of any of the previous vanilla content. In short, that dungeon is where people L2P’d.

I guess my problem is . . . I didn’t think ICC was/is THAT hard. Certain encounters were aggravating, to be sure – Rotface was a healer check and the debuff was ridiculous, Festergut was a DPS check – but otherwise there’s a lot of the same old mechanics. ICC’s rule of thumb is Don’t Stand In Shit, and if the standard WoW player hasn’t figured that out yet, they probably haven’t been paying attention for five years (or they’re dim).

I know, I know, in the long run five percent dps increase isn’t such a huge thing, but I was the type of kid that wasn’t keen on scaling papers either, so I think this feels a little bit like cheating. Honestly, it’s the knowledge that ICC will be given a ten percent buff at some point that’s sticking in my craw, with the possibility of it scaling even MORE later on if Bliz feels like it. Too much! Way too much! Oh, and please don’t bother pointing out that you can shut the dps bonus off to keep the content hard. I realize that, and if I had my way I’d probably not take the buff, but I’m odd and I know others will want to saunter in and cakewalk to their epics.

I’m just not one of ‘em.

From all the rumblings I’ve heard on Feathermoon, it seems that 3.3 dropped at just the right time. End game content, specifically the Tourney, had been played out. Thanks to Fall of the Lich King raiders–including RP-Radiers–have new content to throw themselves into. The patch is a booster shot: It is giving players enough content to get to Cataclysm. That is what Blizzard, as content providers, need to do. When the game gets stale they are supposed to add another level of content. Not everyone is going to see that content; however, not everyone needs to see it. There needs to be just enough new stuff–items, instance, battlegrounds, whatever–to keep people interested in the game, even if they may not be able to get there.

Blizzard is responsible for that layer of content. When WoW needs a booster, they provide it. RP is a different matter entirely. While it would be nice for Blizz to throw RPers a bone–player housing, phased bars that allowed bar-fights–it is not Blizzards responsibility to fix your RP. It is the RPer’s.

If your RP needs a shot in the arm, there are a number of solutions to fix it. Some are good, some are bad, but all of them depend on the context of the RP and your RP circle.  And while one could always just take a break from the game, breaks are not a shot in the arm. Breaks are a chance to rest and recuperate from RP.  This is an important, and over looked, tool for recharging your RP batters; however, I’m more interested in more active methods of fixing stale RP.

For instance, in July of this year our esteemed leader and metal head in chief, Tarquin, wanted to get out of his funk. We spent hours talking about what to do, what not to do and how to incorporate the rest of the guild. Currently, that plot line is on-going. In fact, we’ve blogged about them before.  I think this method is ideal. It gives the player a chance to work out the “RP Funk” with friends AND it provides more RP threads for newer characters/players. The downside to this method–and there is a substantial one–is that it takes a long time to do. Not everyone wants to spend three hours with people chatting about RP. Not everyone is going to be able to invest the six months–or more–it will take to revitalize the RP. While the RP would see an initial boost, that is a short term effect. Dissecting the RP and plotting the future takes more than just one night of feeling good about the RP’s direction.

Another method, one that does not require a  a full on group discussion, is to change the method of RP. If you are a forum writer or a Ficcer, trying to RP during an RP night can give you the real interactions your character needs. If you prefer the raucous and chat spamming RP night, a little fic or forum RP can help you find your way. Changing a method, however, is daunting. Breaking into an RP night isn’t always easy. Writing, especially if you think you are not a writer*, is also terribly scary.

A little adversity doesn’t hurt anyone. In fact, a little adversity forces one to grow and change.  Doing something that scares you is good for you.  To quote Elenaor Roosevelt,”You must do the things you think you cannot do.”  Changing up the method, while scary, can really boost the RP when you need to.

If a mass meeting, fic or an RP night is not your thing, it maybe time to roll an alt. Personally, I cannot speak to this method. Others–including my brilliant and esteemed collaborators–have a few alts. I rolled Bricu a few weeks after Launch and I’ve been playing him ever since. I don’t have an Alt with a story that I care about. I can see the appeal. If one characters story is stale, needs a push or is just too much to handle, hopping over to an entirely different persona can also provide a boost for both toons. Tired of the Alliance? Go Horde. Tired of not having chairs? Go Alliance.

Even the most richly developed characters, with years of untapped potential, can hit a snag. While Blizzard can give RPers a few new bells and whistles, in the end, it is the players responsibility to fix their own snags. I’ve only touched on a few of the ways to give your RP a shot in the arm: Please share your methods with the rest of us!

“Roll for fashion.”

There are plenty of items in the game that just plain look cool, but their stats are wrong for your spec, or they’re the wrong armor type — a tank in a dress isn’t going to be able to take too many hits when facing Yogg-Saron.

Threnn is, ICly, a swordsmith.  She’s always preferred the weight of a blad to that of a mace, and yet, in-game, there are very few healy swords for holy paladins.  (The first I heard of was a drop off of 25-man Kel’Thuzad.  It appears that there’s also one at the end of the 25-man Trial of the Crusader, in heroic mode.  But for the most part?  Maces, maces, maces.)  So whenever we’re running around ICly, it’s not her shiny mace of shininess at her side, but ye olde Lightforged Blade from way back at level 50 that she carries around.

Davien also did a brief stint running around in pants rather than a skirt for a while, and it brought to mind the thing that’s made me grit my teeth for 80 levels now:  She’s a tailor.  You’d think she’d be able to keep her knees from showing through every pair of pants she wore.  Believe me, I get it: the Forsaken are all corpsified and gross.  But good lord, let them at least be able to not rot through every item of clothing they don.

What crafted or endgame items (or level-appropriate ones, if you’re like our beloved Fellsie and not levelling nosirnohow) do you wish worked with your characters’ RP?

As WoW years went on, I always somehow ended up in some position of mouth-piece, whether it was healing lead, an officer, a raid administrator, or something. My lowest point was about 3 years ago, and I was a nightmare to deal with. I feel a bit badly for Chaos because they recruited me into the fold right around then. Somehow I still have friends there, but that might be because they’re all unhinged (said with love, mind you). They didn’t mind a hostile person because they catered to a hostile environment in a lot of ways. I think that’s true of a lot of high pressure raiding guilds – the morale of the group is overshadowed by the accomplishments. Purples meant people were willing to deal with a lot that, really? They shouldn’t have to deal with at all, but if someone pressed 2 really well and topped charts, who cares if they treated others like shit. We were still killing bosses. Seems a little unhealthy, yeah? It was. And this is how I lived for far too long. I was unemployed because (LOL) I’d gotten a decent job through a friend and screwed it up because I was up so late online, I couldn’t make it into work on time the next day. My relationship was suffering because my significant other and I had things going on that weren’t pretty – we’d broken up in fact, and all because of a lack of ability to communicate. That wasn’t all me, mind you, but my inaccessibility to him WAS. We couldn’t talk things out or make things better because I was too intent on the game and my raid. Game-side, my relationships were stressed/unhealthy because I was unhappy outside of game, AND I’d surrounded myself with people who swallowed my fits of angry psychosis because I was a decent healer and we were winning the game, so clearly EVERYTHING WAS FINE.

Then my grandmother died.

My grandmother was a great person, I adored her and miss her every day – even now. I was as close to her as my own mother, and her death was very sudden and very unexpected. So, take a person who’s toiling at a very low level of life already (and acting out in WoW to people who didn’t deserve it), and take away her best friend. Very, VERY bad. My health took a nosedive, I was vomiting every day thanks to the strain, I got ulcers and a nice little thing called panic attacks. All the while I still played WoW. I was in a raiding guild making everyone else’s life miserable.

Healthwise, it got to the point that I actually HAD to start seeing a therapist, because regular doctors could help with the stomach problems, but they couldn’t do squat about the panic attacks. And so, like a good little monkey, every week I started going to see someone. Over months and months and months, my eyes opened up to exactly how I’d been living, how bad I’d been to myself, and how that really affected everyone around me: real life friends, my boyfriend, my family . . . and my online relationships. I am not, at my core, a mean nasty person. I’m actually a pretty good person I like to think, and I’d do a lot for someone I cared about, yet here were people I called my “friends” and I was nigh-abusive to them if they screwed up while pushing a button in a video game. It wasn’t okay. I was a morale killer in what should be a fun, leisure time activity for the rest of my raid/guild/circle of friends.

Enter the point of this post: the burden of morale. When you go into a raid, whether it be as dps number six, an officer, a raid leader, the loot master, you are accepting a portion of responsibilty for that raid’s success. More than that, more IMPORTANTLY than that, you are contributing to the enjoyment of twenty four other people. Everything you say in raid, whispers, channels, or over ventrilo, affects other people. As someone who lost sight of that not just for months, but for years, I like to think I truly grok how big of a responsiblity that is. I’m not perfect now, not even close, but I’m a lot more cognizant of how my actions affect others these days, especially when I’m running a raid. When I’m wrong, I apologize and I mean it, there are no “but you DID screw up” addendums to make the apology meaningless. I don’t get as nearly as angry about the game because I remember that it IS supposed to be fun, and even at its most stressful, I’m still around a bunch of my friends who shouldn’t have to deal with my crap. I understand that sometimes, yes, a raid needs a kick in the pants, but they don’t need to be bludgeoned with their failures.

If anyone takes anything away from this post today, it’s to please try and remember that the people you raid with, surround yourself with, are not there to convenience you, to suffer through your bad day, or to shoulder your personal struggles. If you are at the point you don’t think you can treat someone with the due respect they deserve (online OR in that scary real life place), it may be time to mute yourself, not type in party, or to walk away from your machine. If you can do that, if you can remember those things? People will forgive and forget, they will excuse the occassional incident of snarkiness because it’s evident you’re working on being the type of person they want to be around. I am living proof that if you make the changes you need to make, if you are willing to relearn how to communicate effectively with your friends and raidmates – WoW folks are an amazingly forgiving lot.

Mostly? Because nerds rule.

At the time of my rebirth into Alliance society, I joined yet another RP raid, had some great fun at it, but I wanted to try something different.  I went HARD CORE.  I subbed for a guild named Catalyst back when Naxxramas was still a 40 man vanilla raid.  We killed KT, it was neat, I liked the experience.  When Caty had to pare down their roster to 25 for BC, it was very likely they would be taking their veterans, not some newbie priest sub, and so I jumped to Chaos.  Over the next few years, I acted as a healer and an officer for them.  It was, if nothing else, an enlightening experience.  I made some great friends, learned a lot about myself, and learned a lot about raid dynamics, the problems therein, and what it takes to keep a herd of cats pointed in the right direction.

All during this time, I maintained my friendships with the RP’ers.  I was in IC and OOC channels, I ran ten mans and heroics with them, and I generally immersed myself in their culture every moment I was online and NOT raiding.  Lately – Wrath specifically – I realized that the friendly banter I had with these people was missed during my 25 man raiding.  Chaos is a great group of people, don’t get me wrong.  I have some fabulous friends there, but their approach to raiding is a little bit more intense than I think I need right now, and so I’ve nearly gone full circle.  I’m raiding with the RP’ers in an RP centric raid again.  I’m having a great time. 

It was a good decision.

I’ll say that it’s not easy leaving one group of friends behind for another group.  Part of me felt guilty, especially considering I was an officer for Chaos and leaving meant abandoning duties.  I’m comforted knowing that Hurrig, Chaos’s Resident Viking, took up the healing officer mantle and will honestly do a better job than I did.  I wasn’t around for the guild outside of 25 man Ulduar.  Hurrig does everything with them.  That kind of visibility is important, I think.  It fosters better guild relationships.  It’s hard admitting that I might not have been the best for that job, but I think it’s accurate. I always felt like an Yva divided – I wanted my cake and I wanted to eat it to.  For a while, I succeeded.  Eventually, though, it wore me out and I had to make a choice. 

I’m not sure why I’m putting this up here.  This is not my personal blog by any stretch of the imagination, but perhaps it’s because raid hopping happens, it’s actually pretty emotionally draining, and I needed to exorcise my demons.  Of course I have doubts – after investing in a guild and a raid for so long, everyone is bound to have doubts when you leave them behind.  Chaos was my focus for two years – A Long Damn Time!  I can’t think of many groups I’ve stayed around for years at a stretch, especially online, so the worries are natural.  It doesn’t mean they’re easy to digest, though.

In closing, I look forward to progressing with my new raid.  I look forward to logging onto their ventrilo and goofing around, even if the officers want to strangle me for shouting offensive words in a joking manner (that only happens sometimes, I swear).   I think going back to an RP atmosphere is going to enrich the Wrath experience for me, and that is something I truly look forward to pursuing. 

Ta!

HOWEVER. I still log on to raid and get my rp on, so lemme get something out there that’s been on my mind lately: raid morale. Have you ever thought exactly how contagious one bad apple is? There you are, twenty five of you gathered to kill mans and get epix, and then someone cops attitude on vent. The target of said attitude defends himself or herself, others jump in or comment. Officers are now involved, doing their best to defuse the situation. Next thing you know, your raid has become dark and gloomy and everyone gets pissy. Anger makes people mess up, and the night could very well be shot over ONE PERSON’S ANGST. It’s a domino effect more times than not.

Man, I hate that.

I’ve seen it twice in so many weeks lately, and I’m noticing a lot more rampant crabbiness in general. Maybe folks are stressed out over finals? Maybe the content isn’t as satisfying to the player base? Maybe I should stop inviting Charlie Manson to my raids so everyone is comfortable? Who knows what’s sparking it. I’m mostly interested in ending it.

I hate to be patronizing, but I’ve found that using my “calm and soothing mommy voice” is one of the things that makes this particular scenario fizzle out. Greeting anger with anger only encourages people to grow more hostile, so I tend to do the opposite: fluffy bunnies and gumdrop rainbows. It’s a little revolting, to be honest, because I’m not that type of person AT ALL, but I’ve made the mistake of using logic before. Sometimes, angry people resent logic, as they’re pissed about something fairly inconsequential anyway. I mean, really, this isn’t brain surgery. It’s a video game, so why do people get homicidally stressed about pixels? We all do it, of course, but when we get to That Point, logic’s probably gone out the window. But, BUT! How can you be mad at someone who sounds supportive and understanding? It’s akin to kicking a puppy in the teeth, and you just don’t DO that.

At any rate, enough blather from me. I’d love to hear other leadership techniques used to keep the crab apple from infecting your raid with The Suck. The Suck spreads fast, it makes everyone have a terrible night, and it results in flouncing, poor gameplay, and hurt feelings which are incredibly hard to get past.

So, comment away!

Ta!

The Lovely Anna has already published her paladin’s role in Wrathgate, but there are more Riders and more stories. Here’s where the story begins. Wrathgate Wednesday is for WTT:RP’s readers to share their own Wrathgate stories.

This first post, one of our first “italic” posts, helps set the mood and the context for the rest of the writing assignments. It was written by our guild leader, Tarquin.

“Absolutely not,” snapped Commander Fyodor Galliwick, the cords of his patience wearing thin. He glared daggers at the trio in front of him, summoned up the full weight of his station and experience. “It’s out of the Light-damned question and you should well know that.”

“Hnh.” Nobody was really sure what that meant; a man with a beard like Bolvar Fordragon’s could keep a very impressive poker face. “Take me to them, then. Commander Galliwick, attend me.” Fyodor saluted automatically and fell into line as quickly as his well-trained feet could carry him, his mind whirling with possibilities – gallows on the front? Treachery in the heat of battle? Pardons for the gallery of murderers? It seemed, as he trudged off to the outskirts of Fordragon Hold with the Highlord of Stormwind, the great man’s guard, and three notoriously proscribed mercenaries, that damn near anything was possible.

So last night I ran a ten man Ulduar which was, in retrospect, a smashing success even though we only dropped three bosses.  Most of the group had done said bosses on twenty five man, but I had found very little information about the pared down versions so we kind of had to wing it.  Thank god no one wanted to kill me.

One of my pet peeves is a poorly informed raid leader.  I don’t like someone calling the shots that has no business calling the shots, and I try to not be that person by being open to raider input.  Like, did you know the person at the direct center of the platform will tank Razorscale blue fire patches?  I didn’t. 

MY BAD GUYS.

At any rate, it’s really neat to experience this content as a healer and then as dps, because you really do get a much better understanding of mechanics.  I’m quasi-hoping I can get this same group together each week because we did well and I think everyone had a good time.  Anna at least did.  That’s good, since the poor thing was healing it and healing in there is an absolute nightmare.

This all leads into the meat of my post, by the by.  There was a discussion in my living room the other night about raid tactics and how “raider input” can be a bad thing when there’s too much of it.  I’m not of this school (simply because I ran with a raid leader who had horrible ADD in the past and raider input bailed us out), but I understand the mentality.  Someone has to lead, twenty five people cannot.  Some people have a horrible time adjusting to change and switching tactics will utterly confuse them if it’s done too quickly.  The tough part about boss strategies is there are usually five or six good ones out there, and you have to balance those tactics with the strengths of your raid.  Example:  crowd control on Razorscale versus no crowd control (which was what started this conversation in the first place).  If you have a bunch of multi-shotting crazy hunters and someone with a felguard?  Yeah, CC might not be such a great thing.  If you have superior dps in general, though?  Nuke ‘em and nuke ‘em hard.   Will a raid leader always have the best strategy up front? No, or at least, not in your opinion.

So how do you communicate that well?

First off, if you don’t agree with your raid leader, keep in mind your raid leader likely spent a lot of time outside of game putting things together – especially if this is new content.  Raid leading is a rewarding thing, yes, but it can also be incredibly stressful.  You’re watching pulls, giving out directions, doling out loot, listening to what people have to say, and in general trying to keep chaos from winning the day.  The last thing any raid leader needs is attitude from a raider who doesn’t agree with your call.  I’m not suggesting that you can’t disagree with your raid leader or can’t bring up a concern.  I’m suggesting you should think twice before you verbally eviscerate them.  They likely worked a lot harder to get this raid working than you’re giving them credit for.

Secondly, if you think your idea still holds more weight than one implemented, wait until after the raid to bring it up if you can. Why?  You’ll find a raid leader a whole lot less distracted post-raid which in turn means they’ll give your opinions a lot more attention.   I don’t know many raid leaders who out and out ignore their folks.  That’s how raids fall apart and lose people.  The problem is, if they’re too busy managing healing, positioning, and every other crazy thing that comes up during raids, there is the distinct possibility the brilliance of your suggestion will be lost in the shuffle of Raid Madness.

Lastly, if you feel you have to get your information out there RIGHT AWAY, try a whisper first.  There is absolutely nothing more aggravating than trying to give directions during an encounter and having people interrupt you.  You may think what you have to say is positively imperative, but you are very likely adversely affecting someone else who is paying attention to the raid leader for an instruction.   Unless what the raid leader is saying is point-blank wrong (which hey, it happens, I understand that) . . . don’t mess up your raidmates by cutting the instruction-giving person off.  They might end up jumping back into their instructions at a different point than where they were when you cut them off.  Their flow might be disrupted.  You may actually knock the leadership off-kilter, and if the leadership is off-kilter, your raid is likely borked.  Someone has to hold the group together.

That’s all for me today.  I’m sure people have thoughts or comments about this, so feel free to add on.  Good luck in Ulduar, guys!  Ta.

But then there’s the other 90 percent of the time.

Chaos has historically had issues with couples in the raid. The most common problem is one person in said couple being well liked, well respected, and a joy to be around, and then they sell us on how great and shiny their significant other is, and we end up Hating Them. Why? Usually because New Significant Other Raider doesn’t take raiding as seriously as their counterpart. Inevitably, one person in said couple takes their Warcraft time more seriously than the other and it shows in performance. It then presents a problem for the officers: how do you talk to the under-producer and somehow manage to not infuriate their spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend/loveslave. It’s a delicate balancing act, that.

Because we’ve had such poor luck with this issue in the past (I won’t even get started on the What Happens When They Break Up thing), I’ve implemented a few rules that have helped me get through The Couple Gauntlet.

• When you recruit a couple, explain that there are no guarantees right off the bat. Package deals are fine in theory, but if we have to sub someone on any given night, it may in fact be your wife/husband/loveslave. You can – if you’re not an utter dink – try to sub both of them on those evenings, but if one plays an integral role and the other doesn’t, there are no promises. Setting that expectation will defunct a lot of arguments later on.
• When talking to a raider about performance, allow them to decide if they want their counterpart there for the discussion. Look, if they both raid together, and they live together, the likelihood is whatever you say to your raider is going to get filtered back to their partner anyway. Cutting the middle man out, allowing both people in the relationship to give feedback right up front eliminates details being misrepresented in a retelling.
• Should the raider decide they do NOT want their significant other taking part in the discussion, be a good enough person to not talk about their performance with the spouse behind their back. If the spouse approaches you, tell them you’d be happy to discuss it when both parties are present. Respect your raiders boundaries.
• Keeping conversations about performance to facts – ie WWS reports – works much better than subjective opinion. It’s hard to dispute numbers. Mary might love Tom a lot, but when she sees that Tom does ¼ the DPS of the rest of the raid, she might catch on that your problem with Tom is not a personal one.
• Advise that relationship drama is to be kept outside of the game, and indicators that it’s carrying over into the raid will result in a conversation at the least, discipline at the most.  I advise a zero tolerance policy for this.  Setting the precedent that it’s okay to take real life angst out during raid hours adversely affects twenty three other people, and that’s not fair.

I’m tossing these rules/tips out there in case anyone else gets to deal with this particular flavor of annoyance, and as always, would love to hear feedback from other folks. I’m sure everyone deals with this issue differently.  Ta!