First let me apologize for the lack of the new post on Friday.  I had been trying really hard to keep something fresh coming up every day.  However for lack of a better term I was overwhelmed.  Friday was a very busy day, I had been fighting with a bit of video at work trying to get it ripped and encoded and onto our webpage.  So from the start my blog post was going to be coming later that afternoon.

However around 2:30 that afternoon, my “keyboard turning” post was featured on WoW Insider.  My highest readership shot from 60 unique users to 6000+ unique users in a single day.  I was deluged with comments and did not get a chance to put up any new content.  Then the weekend happened and with it came a wedding, all the mothers day festivities and a night out with friends.  And while I had the cultural awakening of experiencing a “biker” wedding, it was not necessarily proper fodder for my blog.  I am hoping with the new week that things return to normal, but maybe with a bit of an increased readership.

Dirty Jobs

Where is Mike Rowe when you need him.  Of all of the jobs that falls upon the raid leadership, the most distasteful is pulling a member aside and talking to someone who has been underperforming.  You can look at the meters and see that something is drastically wrong… but I personally have no clue why.  Were it a warrior, rogue, paladin, or even a boomkin I would be able to look at their ability rotation and glean some basic understanding of the thought process they are going through to piece together their attacks.  However, I am presented with our present under performers being classes I have never played for any amount of time.

So I am forced to go into the battle under informed, and tackle issues that face “finger wigglers” when I have often had a disdain for actually playing a dps caster myself.  I am slowly adjusting to them myself, since I am trying my best to play as good of a Boomkin as I can.  I am trying to rely on players who seem to be doing a phenomenal job playing that class as a basis of comparison and a resource for suggestions.  However I still feel completely blind rushing into battle with someone who honestly feels like they are doing everything right.  I am hoping this gets easier with time.

In Naxxramas, we needed 15 players who were performing exceptionally, and could drag along 10 players who were under performing their classes either due to lack of gear or skill.  As we have moved into Ulduar this is not the case.  During many of the fights like Ignis we are literally 2 or so players away from a successful kill.  So I have taken it upon myself in a few cases, the uninformed habitual melee, to try and work with players and find out exactly what the issue is. 

I try and take the meters with a grain of salt, but at the same time feel that DPS should been fairly tightly clumped.  When there are outliers to the negative side, I feel those players are underperforming their abilities.  Someone has to be dead last, its a given, but when there is a wide gap between the DPS haves and have-nots, I feel there are other issues at work that can be adjusted.  We have actually managed to increase a few of these players performance through this process of talking to them…  so here is hoping that the latest crop can be effected the same.

300

I am still very much licking my wounds from our last trip into Ulduar.  Thursday night, our various attempts on Ignis ended up costing me around 300 gold for the night.  I am not really sure how much it was, all I know is I went in with 1600 something gold, and came out with 1300 something.  Granted many of those attempts included me getting battle-rezzed mid fight, so I took far more deaths than I would in a normal run.  But when each repair costs between 20-30g it adds up quickly.

Ulduar is giving us a much needed scrying stone that we’ve have never had before.  Considering the ease at which we moved through Naxxramas content, it was difficult to sort out the players that were doing well and the players that needed lots of work.  In truth it was more that so long as we were progressing smoothly we had more important “fish to fry” than to figure out why certain players never seemed to perform the way they should.  We should have taken time back then, but when the raid has been held up on the shoulders of two people for months…  we just did not have the bandwidth.

So now we have set in front of us a path that is going to force us to deal with the little issues standing in the way of success, and as a result force us to make significant efforts to recruit and replace those members who are not currently performing.  In the coming weeks I am sure there will be many feelings hurt, and many players who cannot see the big picture.  Players who won’t be able to separate the fact that anything I do, I do for the good of the raid, and not because of personal agenda. 

I have seen comments brought up already, that people want to play this game for fun and not like a job.  I agree this game should be fun, but fun for everyone.  Let me tell you, playing 300 gold for 2 1/2 hours worth of repairs is in no way fun, especially when it was caused by the fact that not all of the players were giving their full measure of devotion to the effort.  Wiping is not fun when there are many players fighting harder than they should to try and even out the effort.

The Hard Path

As a raid we have to accomplish in 5 hours a week what most raids do in 15.  The only way we will do this, is through the hard work of the entire raid.  This is going to take research on the part of each player in order to make sure they are doing everything they reasonably can.  Raiding is a team sport, and we can either allow ourselves to be beaten by it, or all rise to the occasion and get past our difficulties.

We’ve never been a hardcore raid, and I hope that we can continue approaching content in a casual but serious fashion.  However as a part of this, we as a raid with have to arrive at some form of a cultural ethics, and an agreed upon level of effort expected by every member.  The path ahead of us for the next few weeks I feel will not be our most enjoyable.

We are better than we have been

I realize this is a very bold statement. I believe, however, it is as clearly as I can possibly state it.  The latent “keyboard turners”, are I am sure, offended, but there are times you have to be blunt.  It still seems astonishing the sheer number of players that use the inefficient method of turning with the keyboard alone.  This is an issue touted amongst the PVP circles, but in truth it is effecting your raid as well.

The act of rotating your character with the keyboard is physically slower than methods you can employ to turn with a mouse.  When you combine this with the fact that many fights in Warcraft require split second movement and decision making, this choice of turning means your reaction speed is greatly slowed.  Players who habitually move with the keyboard often have issues running out of area effect spells, staying out of the frontal cone of bosses, and can take as many as 2 extra ticks from environmental damage.  Standing in the “fire” for more than one tick means death for most classes. So quite literally keyboard turning might be killing your raid.

What caused the cultural divide?

The World of Warcraft engine was rather unique at the time of it’s release.  It combined the fast reaction time of a first person shooter, with the core of a role-playing game, creating a new paradigm appealing to proponents of both genres.  For players who cut their teeth on FPS games like Doom or Quake, the concept of using a mouse to turn is so ingrained that it is unimaginable to use any other method. 

However the large bulk of WoW players came from the older MMO genre.  These titles were for mostly designed around the concept of using the keyboard to turn.  Prior to Warcraft none of the MMO genre titles required fast paced reactionary movements, so this construct worked fine.  As players have moved from other titles to WoW, they have carried with them their game play habits and the game engine has done an amazing job of accommodating different play styles.  However in the case of keyboard turning it has simply reinforced bad habits.

How can I change my ways?

I’ve heard from the PVP circles that the single greatest thing you can do to improve your success is to abandon using the keyboard to turn.  This might be overstated but I believe that the transition is one that can benefit any player.  Using the keys to turn often means you are working harder than players for a less successful result.  There is an excellent guide to mouse movement on Allakhazams, but I will cover some of the finer points below. 

 

Above is a basic diagram of the default key binds WoW uses for mouse movement.  The W and S keys are used to control Forwards and Backwards movement of your character.  However soon you will have picked up several tricks that make using the “Back key” in almost all situations obsolete.  So for optimal motion your left hand should be centered over the Q W E keys, with your middle finger resting on the W key, considering which will be depressed when you are in motion.  Your mouse should be held in a way that it is comfortable for your right mouse button to be depressed at almost all times. 

Holding the right mouse button while moving the mouse allows you to spin your character easily in an arc by pushing out or pulling in on the lower half of the mouse turning it sideways on your mousing surface.  The effectiveness of this can be increased by employing the Q or E keys to “Strafe”.  Strafing is the act of moving your character to either side, and when combined with mouse movement allows you to rotate your character in a much more subtle manner.  After awhile it becomes instinctual but this is after lots of practice.

Advanced tips and tricks

Using strafing in combination with with mouse movement allows you to do a number of “special” maneuvers that can be valuable in certain situations.

The Circle Strafe

The “Circle Strafe” is a maneuver that allows you to orbit a single point in space.  This is extremely useful when you need to quickly circle a mob.  Normally this is used by melee or PVPers in order to land attacks on the backside of an opponent, which negates certain defense mechanics.  However as a tank I often use this tactic in order to spin certain mobs like Maexxna that I wish to place in a certain way.  This tactic is achieved by sliding the base of your mouse in the opposite direction you are strafing giving your movement a nice wide arc.  One of the best ways to practice this is to target a player and spin around them in a public area.  If done correctly you should be able to easily “orbit” them with minimal effort.

The Instant Turn

The next trick uses two features of the game that I have not covered: camera movement and moving forward with only the mouse.  If you hold down the left mouse button while sliding your mouse to the left or right you are able to rotate the camera around your character model.  As a tank I use this functionality during almost every fight, since I need to keep aware of my surroundings and the positioning of the individual mobs.  The next feature of the movement system is the fact that if you press down both mouse buttons at the same time, it causes you to move in the direction the camera is facing.  When you combine the two of these together, you can rotate the camera in any direction and simply by pressing the right mouse button while the left is held down you turn instantly in that direction.  This is especially useful on fights like Loken and Murmur that require the player to run out of a point blank blast effect.  Using this trick to instantly run away from a mob allows you to shave a good 2 seconds off of the process and allows you to move out of these effects with plenty of time to spare.

The Jump Spin

Using this trick properly allows you to quickly shift the position of your player while continuing motion in a forward direction.  This functions through a quirk in the WoW movement engine which allows you to rotate your character model completely while jumping.  This maneuver is performed while moving in a specific direction, most often while moving forward with the W key.  While moving forward you press your jump key, which is by default bound to the spacebar.  As your character model leaves the ground you slide your mouse to the left or right while holding down the right mouse button.  This will cause your player model to spin freely while in the air.  As you land, you will be facing in the direction that your model now is.  Hunters who are extremely quick about it, can jump, rotate, fire an instant shot, rotate back, and land without ever losing forward momentum.  Personally as a tank I use this trick often to run through a mob without ever exposing my backside to harmful attacks.

Pulling it all together

Shifting from keyboard turning to mouse movement will not cure all problems.  These tricks will not replace good situational awareness, but they will buy you much needed time to react to changes in the various fights of the game.  A player who simply does not pay attention will still “die in the fire” each and every time.  However a player with good reaction times and a high degree of movement skills will be able to move in and out of fights more freely.  For casters this means more time to land your attacks.  For melee players this can often mean the difference between life or death.

You should realize going into a major shift like this that it is not going to come immediately or easily.  However changing your movement style will make you a more efficient player.  One of the best means to practice this is by playing First Person shooters in your downtime.  A great free to play shooter is Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory.  It runs on the Quake3 engine but offers all of the basic constructs of game play driven by mouse movement and it is playable on both the PC and Mac platforms.  Another great resource is the positioning and movement video provided by Ciderhelm at Tankspot.

A Primer on breaking into an existing raid

It is yet another Wednesday, and as is often the case with the morning after a raid I begin thinking about the various issues of the night before.  Last night was one of those rare concordance of the planets that served to get us an unusual drought of players.  It is something that happens in every raid, and this is the time that players who have been standing on the outskirts of the core are given a rare and special opportunity.  The opportunity to take a step up and get noticed, saving the day for the raid and as such improving their personal capital.

Too often however players prefer to wait for a “sure thing” before committing to showing up on a regular basis.  Being a raid leader I assure you, we notice the players who wait in the wings patiently for their turn at bat.  We also however notice the players who ask for special treatment, but are not there when the raid needs the additional support.  This is my attempt to put down on paper a good approach at how to carve out a niche for yourself in a well established raid.

Be Patient

One of the negatives of running a raid is the fact that you need a much larger pool of available players than you have spots on any given night.  As a result when a player is brought into the pool of available players it does not mean they are necessarily filling a permanent vacancy.  Each leader and raid has a different way of managing this, but as I stated in an earlier post our system basically has newer members vying for spots that we are not able to fill through more seasoned players.  This means until a player gains a foothold, and proves their abilities against existing members they will be relegated to the role of “fill ins”.

One of the best traits you can have is being patient with the raid.  Asking for repeated updates as to whether or not there will be room for you that evening only serves to frustrate and annoy raid leadership.  If it is a raid worth joining, then you have assume that the leaders will take into account all available resources and choose the team that best suits each evening.  As a junior member of the raid, you should expect that there are going to be many nights where you will not make the cut.  However with time, openings appear and if you have a proven track record you will be able to slide into one of them more easily.

Be Ethical

I think it’s human nature to try and work whatever advantages you have available to you in order to achieve your own goals.  When it comes to getting into a raid this is a slipper slope.  If you truly want to become a lasting fixture in the raid structure, it is important for you to get in on your own merits.  Having another player acting as your arbitrator shows the leadership that you either lack the self confidence to stand on your own, or that you don’t respect the process.  When a player consistently tries to “pull the strings” it gets noticed quickly.

When you do finally get into a raid regularly its important for you to remember this as well.  The players who flit from officer to officer until they get the answer they were looking for are also noticed.  Players who consistently try and work the system earn a special disdain.  If you are honest and straightforward in all your dealings it gets noticed and you will develop a good reputation as a result.  It is important not to abuse your friendships, if you want them to last.

Be Available

It is important for you the prospective raider to be online, in the appropriate channels and ready for invites at the specified time.  Nothing frustrates a raid leader more than trying to chase down players when there is a shortage.  The players who show up every week regardless if they are “guaranteed” an invite stand out, and are the players who get into the raid.  Some raids have formal rules about being on “standby”, but even if the prospective raid does not, it is important to make every effort you can to be available.

Not being available when the invites for that night go out, is the surest way to get yourself skipped over.  It is a sign of disrespect for the member of the raid as a whole.  It is understandable that from time to time players will not be available, but when it is the rule not the exception you lower your value to the group effort.  Having a spotty attendance record before you have entered the raid fully, tends to almost guarantee that you will never be looked at as anything but a last minute fill-in. 

Be Humble

When entering a raid, it is important that you leave your ego at the door.  Each raid has its own rules, strategies and procedures.  It does not matter how many times you have done an encounter before, when you are applying for a raid the burden lies on you to prove yourself.  Be willing to adapt to new methods and accept the way things are being done currently.  The last thing a leader wants to do is bring in someone who will upset the existing balance.

Players with an overdeveloped sense of bravado tend to have an underlying tapestry of insecurities.  The players who are humble and prove their worth through actions instead of words are the ones who stand out in the long run.  Accept advice and criticism graciously even when you feel it is unwarranted.  It is often the player who can meld the most seamlessly into a group that gets invited back the most often.  The players however who constantly subvert the natural progression of the raid, get left out.

Be Prepared

The number one thing you can do to impress a raid leader is to be fully prepared for all encounters.  The backbone of any raid is the player that shows up knowing the fights, geared properly, with all necessary consumables for the situation at hand.  These are the players who not only get invited back every week, but are the players who become the core of the raid.  If you integrate into the existing strategy, know your role, and execute it flawlessly it is almost guaranteed that you will get invited back often.

However if you show up to the event unprepared, unable to understand the basics of the fights at hand and do a half hearted job executing your duties there is no reason why a sane and rational leader would offer you a second chance.  There are simple cardinal rules of raiding, like don’t stand in shit unless otherwise told to, that when ignored immediately flags a player as not being “up to snuff”.  The “doing stupid stuff” quotient, already occurs amongst the active raiding population, but the surest way to pull yourself from contention for a regular invite is to be the guy that is always in the wrong place at the wrong time.  A few hours of your own time spent can often mean the difference between looking like a seasoned veteran, and looking like a complete failure

Be Reliable

Every raid leader is looking for players that they can count on.  Everyone has their on days and off days, but it is important that each player provides consistent performance.  You need to make yourself the kind of player that the rest of the raid can depend on.  Often times this means showing up and doing each of the above topics, every chance you are presented.  You are the player applying to this raid, and no matter how you found yourself filling out that application, it is up to you to prove yourself to the entire group.

A player who gives an unreliable performance will find themselves passed over or even replaced by players who show up and give the same stable effort each week.  Accept the fact that you are the “low man on the totem pole”, and even embrace it.  Use it as a chance to prove yourself every single outing.  Excelling at the jobs that no one else in the raid wants, shows a willingness to work and adapt and before long you will find yourself one of those raid cornerstones.

Be Resilient

In life, sometimes things just don’t work out quite the way you want them to.  Sometimes you do everything right and simply not get into the group.  When this happens, try not to take it personally.  Often times there are issues at work behind the scenes that you are not necessarily privy to.  If you consistently follow the theory of this post, and not starting to get invites then it may very well be time for you to move on.  Every raid has its own structure, tenants and style.  Not everyone is a fit for every environment, and when this happens be gracious and move to your next opportunity.

Following this approach will in most cases pull you from being an outsider to being a valued member in no time.  When you do finally get that coveted “Perm Spot”, realize all of the reasons that lead you to it.  It is important that you continue to strive to

• Be Patient:     Not everything is going to go your way
• Be Ethical:      Don’t abuse your relationship
• Be Available:  Report on time ready to perform
• Be Prepared:  Know your encounters and how your class fits in them
• Be Reliable:    Deliver consistent performance
• Be Resilient:   Be Gracious when things don’t go as expected

Be Exceptional

Getting up at 5:30 each morning is one of those facts of life I have come to accept.  I’ve never been known as a morning person, in fact I am barely verbal before 9 am.  However I have managed to adapt to normal society with only the occasional brutal mauling.  As a result, I have had to force myself to keep a hard cut-off time of midnight in order to retain any semblance of functionality.

Most nights this is no big deal, as generally everyone is shuffling off to their own warm beds around that time period.  Last night however, was one of those nights where I wish I could have had one more hour.  As I sit there, staring down the barrel of 12:01, I am standing in Storm Peaks only 4% away from level 80.  Pulling the plug was something I had to do, but god it was annoying to not be able to just push through and finish the level off that night.

Tree Huggers Unite

I can’t really say what made me start leveling my druid, but over the last few months it has become my growing obsession.  There is a pattern in my alting habits.  When I reach a point where I can no longer progress my main, I start spending more and more time playing other characters.  After essentially maxing out my Warrior, and Paladin both of which have full epic main and off-spec sets, my attention rolled to another character.

I think my grand intention was to run my druid up to be a healer.  Considering at the time Druid healing seemed so ridiculously overpowered as a whole.  However this naive ideal was quickly destroyed by the fact that leveling Resto is as enjoyable as being repeatedly kicked in “the junk” rapid-fire, by a hyperactive 6 year old on a sugar rush.  That was the king of all run-on sentences, but it was required to relay exactly how horrid that notion was.  Having geared for spellpower already, and finding myself feeling retarded in cat and bear forms, the only option left was that of the noble chicken-man.

Decent into Madness

So over the last few months I have been grinding away at leveling my Boomkin with the grand notion of having 3 raid lockouts.  Throughout the week I get a truly silly number of raid invites from friends and former raid members, all of which I want to be able to help out as much as I can.  However most of the time I am cautiously guarding my raid lockouts to help with official and un-official Duranub content.  Having a “throw away” raid lockout like I did in Burning Crusade with my rogue Renjihara was awesome.  I could help out the “friends of stalwart” groups who just needed a warm body that was not going to screw things up.

The problem with this proposal is that I detest questing with a passion.  However in wow, “quest grinding” is still the most efficient means of leveling.  So with my trusty Carbonite in hand, I set out to start burning through quests as fast as possible.  This for the most part works, but I am a dungeon runner, it’s in my blood.  I leveled Belghast through the outland almost exclusively by tanking instances, so I feel completely out of my element when not in the murky bowels of a dungeon.  This however presents a problem.

I am known for NOT pugging.  Being a fairly well respected tank with a good network of friends on the server, I have never really HAD to.  I can pretty reliably pull together a group of “known good” players from guild, raid, friends, and any of the numerous social channels.  Prior to playing up my druid, I have honestly NEVER used the Looking For Group tool.  After hearing horror stories from members of my guild, I avoided PUGs like the plague.  I figured why subject myself to the frustration when I didn’t actually HAVE to do it.

This issue with the concept was the fact that I chose to level my druid, during a period of “alt drought”.  So without a good pool of sub-80 players I was forced to do the unthinkable.  I hit “I”, chose a few dungeons and then went about my merry way.  Around 45 minutes later the first of many group invites came in, and I was running Utgarde Keep with the unwashed masses.  The shocking thing…  it was NOT a bad group.  We had a few issues with the fact that we were all under geared, but across the board the players were not the “horribad” troglodytes that our mothers warned us about.

Changing Instances, Gear…   Attitudes

So as I sit at almost level 80, I have run more than my share of PUGs as a boomkin.  And while I have encountered a few horrible players, for the most part they all seem to be seasoned players being forced to level their alternates via pick up grouping.  I would have to say the state of pugs at least in the sub-80 range is pretty good on Argent Dawn, and 4 out of 5 groups I have been in have been a rousing success. 

Granted, when I ding 80 and can start DPSing Heroics I will probably fall back into my anti-PUG habits, but for the time being I no longer fear the reaper.  Along the way I have even managed to add a few names to my friends list, and our guild gained a good Quebecois Warrior/Priest team.  When it comes time to level my next character, I don’t think I will shy away from the LFG tool quite as much as I have in the past.  I should be able to finish off 80 before the raid tonight, and over the next few days I will start frantically gearing Loamis. 

Now I just have to learn how to Tree…