How to Fix Hamfist Raiding
Shihli — Tue, 04/01/2008 - 11:21
This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately, Garreth -
I don't think adding more days to the raiding calendar is going to help, not in the way one might think anyway. Instead of adding more days, we need to begin asking for more from our raiders.
Hear me out.
We have it set up so that under ideal circumstances, everyone is in raid and at BT at 7pm *sharp* for first pulls. Invites start going out at 6:30. However, many nights invites aren't out until 6:40 and people start getting la-dee-da on us, asking us to wait for them to finish dailies, they need something crafted, etc etc. While this is all well and good, it delays the start of the raid even further than normal. Eventually enough people trickle in to raid at 7:30 for us to actually START raid - now a half our late.
Once we do start raiding, people aren't paying attention during trash or on "easy" boss fights (Supremus, for example) and so they die in silly ways that end up costing us MORE time. Then a number of people have to go afk because of god-knows-what (for the record, going afk to vomit or what not is totally fine). THEN someone d/c's and we have to wait for them (even if just for trash).
In short, we've gotten really relaxed. Which is fine, from the standpoint that a lot of us just got off work and would rather be chill and groovy than uptight. However, from the standpoint of wanting to kill bosses and *progress*, this isn't working.
What I propose is this:
1) When we say invites go out at 6:30, they go out at 6:30. Finish your dailies before raid starts, or after raid is done. Get your pots/stuff made before raid starts, or after it is done. Don't ask the raid to wait for your health pots.
2) When we say pulls start at 7:00, they start at 7:00. We won't wait for you. If you missed your summon, too bad - get here faster.
3) If you KNOW something is going to force you to go afk mid-raid (such as walking your dog, which I have seen frequently), do your damned best to do it BEFORE raid. If you can't do it before, well, do it quickly during a trash pull.
4) Even though Naj'entus and Supremus and so on are "trivial" fights, take them seriously because stupid wipes have happened as a result of a lazy approach (I remember a 4% supremus wipe last week).
There's bound to be more, but the point is this:
Approach BT like you would a ZA mount run. In a ZA mount run you have 45 minutes to down 4 bosses (and all required trash between them) to get the "best" loot in the instance - the bear mount.
In our BT "mount run", tonite for example, we will have 3 hours to down 6 bosses (Naj'entus, Supremus, Akama, Gorefiend, Bloodboil, Reliquary). Wednesday we would have 3 hours to down two bosses (Shahraz and Council) and take shots on Illidan.
Basically, we shouldn't be asking for more time from our already-super-busy raiders ... I figure we should be asking for more skill/seriousness/focus from everyone. Leave drama at the door, come in with your game face.
I think the idea here is
Karli — Sun, 04/06/2008 - 17:45I think the idea here is "Raid smarter, not harder."
We have to ask ourselves why we are feeling pressed for time, and unfortunately (and I am NOT excluding myself from this statement, especially recently) I think it's because Hamfist has gotten cozy with lots of extra "dicking around" time.
Having to stall a raid because someone needs to walk their dog, throw up (ha ha ha), they forgot their ahnks, they forgot shadow resist gear, etc. etc. all adds up to lots of extra wait time. With raid getting started so much later these days, we're losing about a full hour each night from what the norm used to be. Almost a year ago we had established a pretty good "GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER AND GET MOVING NOW!!!" mentality that allowed pulls to start right at 6:30. And now that Garreth gets off work later, that time has slowly been pushed back to closer to 7:30.
I for one promise to do a better job of at least having enough gold and reagents before invite time (usually my biggest problem is needing money to buy stuff and therefore having to squeeze in a few2 dailies). With the new patch, earning money is easier than ever, and with the exception of Garreth, no one should balk at being better about getting organized and starting a bit earlier each night.
i agree w/ shi and i am
Frollo — Tue, 04/01/2008 - 13:23i agree w/ shi and i am sorry to say that i don't find it unreasonable to atleast be there and ready for an invite right in the beginning. it isn't that hard you can finish your stuff up in the 20 minutes untill you need to be there getting ready and buffed up. i can vouch for shi doing this as i needed a scope made i sent him all my stuff had it all ready however he was going to raid and not making people wait was more important then me not getting him the stuff in a timely mannor so he mailed it to me once he finished.
again it isn't 2 much to ask for people to BE PREPARRED (good oll illidan) to raid at the said time. What is more annoying starting on time, or not beating a boss because you got started an hour late?
frollo
"I'm gettn hitched Bitch!"
So umm, wtf is smartrez?
Enixa — Tue, 04/01/2008 - 13:07So umm, wtf is smartrez?
Since I may come across as a
garreth — Tue, 04/01/2008 - 12:45Since I may come across as a little negative, let me state adamantly:
GREAT FUCKING JOB THESE LAST FEW WEEKS! All these suggestions are just how we can squeeze out a little bit more performance from an otherwise high performing raid. Keep it up, you're all doing awesome.
We've made huge progress on Illidan, can't wait to get back there with yall.
Given my tighter schedule
garreth — Tue, 04/01/2008 - 11:46Given my tighter schedule (home from work at about 6:30pm), I've gotten quite good at repairing, restocking reagents and buying consumables at the end of the previous night's raiding.
I think a lot of people have a hard time with the fact that they may have to spend 10 minutes waiting in raid when they could be doing their dailies or other stuff. The problem with this line of logic is that no-one wants to be the first person in a raid because they'd have to "wait around" so people keep doing other things "until it fills more" but the circular problem here is that raid keeps NOT FILLING due to people waiting for SOMEONE ELSE to join the raid. I had to wait until 7:10 last night to get a group of dailies raiders into BT.
Yes, you need repair money. (God, don't we all lately...) Yes, I know you got home late too. But hear me out:
If we're moving faster, we're finishing sooner. I PROMISE not to push to Shahraz if we've downed RoS on Tuesday nights. If Ros dies at 9:30 WE'RE DONE FOR THE NIGHT. The goal here is to get done sooner so that all those things people are trying to do before raid get done within a reasonable time frame after raid.
The goal is faster, faster, faster. In a way it could make our raids much more fun. And it definitely leads to shorter raids. Let's rock.
Here's some more tips for super fast raiding:
spend upwards of half an hour each night running around trying to find
that one gnome/dwarf that died in the bushes across the room that
released so now we're frantically waving an active res cursor around
until it turns blue. There are people that ALWAYS release thus
consistently causing us to waste time.
SmartRes and WILL use it when getting people off the floor. YES, DPS
REZZES. I've res'd 5 people IN A FUCKING ROW with the entire raid
standing around me.
don't know why a certain boss does what at what time. "I just hit
shit" or "I just heal" are things I hear all the time. Please, extend
your raid usefullness and learn trash and bosses.
DRINK. You can generally get all your groups with half a mana pool.
Then you're only drinking one time, to full.
But, when it's time to tone it down, please be professional enough to
do so. Also, I will be asking Star to Vent mute anyone with feedback.
NOTHING is worse in wow than 3 people talking, all who have 100%
feedback. It's not tough to fix. Most of us have figured it out.
And for the record, my
Shihli — Tue, 04/01/2008 - 11:24And for the record, my pre-raid routine for the past week:
1) Get home ~5:15pm
2) Grab a little snack
3) RUN WAU
4) Pop onto WoW, do my SSO dailies (usually done before 6:30 ... if not, I stop and head to BT)
5) Get into raid at 1st invites, wait for everyone to finish their shit
Then we actually start raiding ... after raid:
1) Finish SSO dailies
2) Get stuff crafted that I may need for tomorrow night's raid
3) Go to bed
Everything that "needs" to be done before raid can be done AFTER raid. That is, need pots/flasks made? Get them done AFTER raid for the NEXT day. Need food cooked in-game? Get it done AFTER raid. Need weapons/armor enchanted? AFTER raid.