The Role of Morale in Raid Progression  

Posted by Dristanel in ,

I need to tell you guys a secret. Sometimes, when things aren't going too well and we spend four hours in an endless wipefest, I get a little cranky. I know. Hard to believe. But it happens. And since we've been banging our heads against Blood Wing (10) and Festergut/Rotface (25), I'd begun to dread the weekend and its jam-packed ICC schedule.

Let me bring it back a little bit; break it on down for you folks, old school. Well. Not that old school, just back to Ulduar when my tank was my main raid character. See, once upon a time there was this girl who had never really raided before. She'd done Molten Core - 5 minute blessing and cleanse bot for 40 people, no less - and Karazhan, even some Zul'Gurub back in the day. But not much else beyond that. Then when WotLK released, she got into some Naxx 10 runs and had a blast. When Ulduar came out, she was recruited into a second ten-man to work on the content. But it was slow going, and while she liked tanking, it was hella stressful. She started to get super bitchy - a real downer for her team - when everything just kept going to hell. She didn't have much faith in her team. Really, not much faith in herself. Didn't really help that she had someone echoing those feelings every Friday and Saturday night, as well.

So she took a break from raiding. Got her paladin to 80, geared him for holy. Rejoined her team in ToC, which in and of itself was a huge morale boost. She started making an impression, and felt better about herself and her approach to raiding. By the time ICC came out, she was feeling great, finally gaining some confidence in her abilities and her usefulness to the team. But then said team lost a tank. And a DPS. And someone else every other week. Things got rocky. She considered joining another team, but she stayed, determined to make it work. With every night of silly mistakes, though, she felt herself getting more and more frustrated.

That brings us to present day, more or less. I've admitted before that I can be a control freak. I have a tendency to try and lead things when I don't have any business doing so. And I'm sure my personality clashes with several others. Also, I can just be a bitch. But I don't like wiping over and over and feeling like I am one of the few putting in an effort. I know that's not true, even if my teammates are easily distracted. But it sure does feel like it sometimes.

A few people have been talking about the 5% buff, calling it a pity buff. In some ways, I agree. I see where folks are coming from. But... I'm never going to be a hardcore raider. I come from a 'carebear RPer lolololol' background. The only reason I'm raiding now is because WotLK has made it accessible and my guild has made it fun. I enjoy the accomplishment. The teamwork reminds me of my days playing youth sports. But boy howdy is it frustrating sometimes.

So I don't mind getting a nudge to compensate for the fact that folks like to stand in fire or yammer on in Vent when they should be paying attention. I'd like to get the Lich King down while we still have the 10% buff, at most. But other than that? I'm good. Because on Friday night we blew through Lower Spire and Plague, getting our third ever 10-man kill of Putricide almost flawlessly, then Saturday we beat down the Blood Council and Queen Lana'thel, a fight none of us had seen prior to that night. I still felt like I worked for it, because we had to make a good many adjustments. And it was still satisfying to see the achievement spam at the end.

On Sunday, after a good month plus of trying, we hammered both Rotface and Festergut down on 25, getting our ret paladin her Shadow's Edge, and 5 more frost emblems from the weekly which we... inadvertently cheesed. Apparently if someone is outside the door during Rotface and happens to be targeted with Mutated Infection, he will despawn, allowing folks to have the Rotface and Festergut residue, thus completing the quest. <.<

This weekend, I plan to kick Valithria in the teeth. Or heal her in the teeth. Whatever. Maybe even get some solid attempts on Sindragosa. Hell, maybe even get Putricide down on 25. We got him to Phase 3 last week, which was great! And I feel better about raiding than I have in a long while. I'm actually looking forward to this weekend, rather than counting the hours before I can go back to RPing.

So, yeah. It may be a pity buff for some. For me, it's a little nudge in the right direction. A morale boost that will help me enjoy PvE again and make me less of a bitch. And I'm okay with that.

On a side note, the Rotface video will have to wait for a bit, I'm afraid. Not everyone was comfortable with it and I have to respect that. However, I am open to suggestions for other videos that may help folks!

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 11, 2010 at Thursday, March 11, 2010 and is filed under , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

3 comments

Ophelie  

I, for one, love the 5% buff. It's not a huge difference, but it takes an edge off the fight, allows more room for error and lets you go faster. I'm soooo sick of the first 6 bosses or so, I'm thrilled to get a buff that lets me get through them faster.

Good luck on your raids this week!

March 11, 2010 at 6:33 PM
Adgamorix  

Hey man - just stumbled on your blog, and I wanted to say I'm loving the writing so far (and your color scheme).

I noticed in one of your UI shots that it's the same kind of gold/brown. Is that your actual UI, or is that just coloring to make it look like the rest of the blog?

Thanks for the parsing on Trauma btw. As I'm still rocking the mace from ToC25 I'm noticing upgrades in ICC are few and far between. Really wish I could have completed my Val'anyr.

Keep up the writing - good stuff.

March 12, 2010 at 6:53 PM
Unknown  

I agree with your post, but the situation you describe will only repeat itself when ''lesser'' guilds finally manage to beat LK on 25 normal, unlocking heroic. There are no new buffs (even 30% wont cut it for heroic), no new places to get better gear from so i'm curious what will happen then?

March 16, 2010 at 11:18 PM

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