On Tuesday, Kaleri (an Apotheosis raider and author of Power Word: What?) wrote an amazing blog post. Her posts are usually few and far between (unfortunately!) but when she posts, she generally has something important to say.
Such was Tuesday’s post entitled “Dear SundayRaidKaleri“. In it, Kal looks over her various failures on our three hours of Ragnaros attempts and, well, berates herself for them, believing them to largely be due to the end of our raid week. So she wrote a letter to her past self, from her self on Tuesday, reminding her to watch her feet and such, culminating in:
Final thoughts to you from your Tuesday self; just because it’s the end of a raid week doesn’t mean you should give any less of a damn than you do at the start of a raid week.
— Kaleri, Power Word: What, “Dear SundayRaidKaleri“
Brilliant post.
So, I’m going to attempt to do something a bit similar. Instead of looking at where I could have improved on Sunday, though, I’m looking forward to NEXT Sunday, because it will be the end of the raid week and I always feel a bit tired on Sundays because that is my Do Guild Stuff Day.
Dear Sunday Raid Kurn,
Hi! This is your Tuesday night/Wednesday morning self writing to you. You’re through the first raid of the week with Apotheosis. I want to talk to you about how you’ll probably feel on Sunday, when you look back over this week.
Tuesday wasn’t a fantastic night. There were issues with Alysrazor and there were a couple hiccups with the whole legendary staff encounter. But remember, Majik’s got his first staff and is collecting Seething Cinders. Remember, we killed four bosses very cleanly, all told, including Baleroc, on just the second attempt, and this while Majik was combining his fragments and charging the foci.
So Tuesday wasn’t wholly productive, but it wasn’t a complete loss. I know you’re a bit disappointed about people dying to Alysrazor mechanics, but try to go back to doing it slightly earlier in the evening. Doing so might mean people are fresher, less sleepy or tired and more alert.
I’m not sure how Thursday’s going to go. It’s a crapshoot. You’re missing two of your healers, one of your tanks and one of your DPS — three of them being officers. But this is a group of people that are resilient, who want to push and progress. Don’t sell them short. They are capable of amazing things. Challenge them.
Similarly, Sunday could be rough, because it’ll probably be Ragnaros work. You’re close. You’re so close. The raid WILL learn to stay out of lava waves and WILL learn to stack appropriately. Last Sunday, you five-healed it all night long without any issues, except that people couldn’t be healed through bad. Guess what? That’s not your fault as a healer and that’s not your fault as a raid leader. Things can only improve from that point.
So go into Sunday’s raid knowing that the week, even if Rag doesn’t die, wasn’t terrible. Go in being positive, assertive and firm. Don’t worry about things so much — you do just fine calling out BRs on Rag and you’ve done a great job at calling out stacks on Staghelm and you’re just going to improve and hopefully the raid will improve so you don’t have to call out BRs on Rag!
Keep your chin up. This is Ragnaros. This is Apotheosis. These are your people. Find that nugget of excitement inside of you that made your stomach flip, once upon a time, when you first saw Majordomo Executus get smashed by Ragnaros. You have waited a long, long time to take him down on your terms, with your group of people.
That time is at hand.
Love,
Tuesday night/Wednesday morning Kurn
PS: awesome heals last Sunday on Rag. Keep it up.
Dear Sunday raid Rarity,
Keep up the good work.
Love, Every Rarity.
Nerd time: You need to set yourself some parameters for Brezzes so it’s never a game time decision. Did x, y and z happen? Brez. Missing y? No brez. Are a, b and c still alive? Brez d. If not, don’t. etc etc. Maybe you already do this but just trying to make things easier! You can even write them down in your notebook! :P
X – You were middle of the pack on Lava Waves, although that could be wipes. :P
Sara – Oh, I’m generally pretty good at knowing who to get up and when. But cycling through ALL OF OUR REZZERS and trying to remember who’s in range of whom at any given time? THAT sucks. I rarely use the DK/warlock rezzes if I can help it because of the non-full-health thing. Oh, and asking shammies to pop up, too? oof.
I almost want unlimited battle rezzes, but that would suck even MORE to figure out.
“Okay, so-and-so is dead. They are melee. Let’s see… Jay’s BR is on CD. We have a DK’s Raise Ally, though, right? But is there a druid… OH HEY, Jasyla’s over there!” “Jasyla, get him/her up, please!”
That’s what’s tiring.
I think we need less deaths rather than anything else there. :P
… or is that FEWER deaths? ;D
If I recall, I ate one lava wave (maybe two, the situation is fuzzy in my memory) before a wipe was called. The death via Sulfuron Smash or whatever it’s called was personal latency; I saw the fire wall go down late, so I ran late and ate the hammer.
No, not THAT hammer.
“The hammer is my penis.” – Captain Hammer of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
Good luck with Rag! You guys will have him soon! He’s so much fun to play… really brings out player responsibility. I wish I had a method of delivering cookies to my raiders as rewards for not getting hit by Lava Waves and Engulfing. I have a feeling they’d make it more a priority to not be hit if they were rewarded with a cookie.