The Ironsong Tribe - Burning Crusade Era

Apologies to those....

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:43:52 -0800

I just want to apologize to the people I sorta bailed on last night in Karazhan. I have been having late nights lately and I really needed the sleep. I hope that you were able to continue on and defeat the prince yet again.

Again, I apologize...

Kael'Thas Nov. 7, 700p Server

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:41:36 -0800

This will most likely be our last 25-man raid in the BC. We will down Alar, and then, proceed to Kael'Thas.

Try to take a look at a strategy guide beforehand.

-Jaba

Raid Friday Oct. 31

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:19:59 -0700

Initial plan is to attemt Kael'Thas. It is Halloween night, which might affect our numbers and ability to do this. If you could give me some idea here about your availability, that would help.

The back-up plan is ZA if numbers are not there.

-Jaba

Raid Tonight Oct. 24

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 07:21:24 -0700

I am unavailable tonight, but I believe Kosath and other officers will organize in my stead.

-Jaba

Mt. Hyjal

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 23:37:48 -0700

Since we only have two bosses left in Hyjal, I will try to organize a raid at 700p Sunday night to see the rest of the content. The last boss is Archimonde and a wicked fight, but it has its moments. This might be our last chance to see the tree and the big demon.

I am hanging onto the Hearts. If you need them, let me know. I am distributing on first come first serve basis.

Krell has the gems. I would prefer to give them out to raid members to gem loot they have won during our raids.

-Jaba

ZA Monday 10/20

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 23:14:09 -0700

Since we managed to completely clear out Karazhan on Wednesday evening, I figured it might be a fun idea to try our hand at a ZA run. No pressure, no craziness. I know many of us haven't even been through much of it yet. I'll be starting invites around 6:30-6:45 server time, with the goal of starting by 7.

Raid Friday Oct. 17 700p Server

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 08:57:03 -0700

Kosath will be gone, so I will need a new main tank.

Given the nerf to the raiding instances in TBC, I think we can make attempts into whatever we want before the expansion. We have 4 weeks until then, so I am doing a poll to see where interest may lie in our remaining attempts.

We will make some attempts on Kael'Thas, beyond that things are open, provided we get the attendance.

-Jaba

Patch 3.0.2 Changes We Can Use !

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 11:33:49 -0700

* Raids buffs, debuffs, and auras stacking have been revamped, please check this post for more information and our raid composition simulation tool to see how it works now.
* All TBC raid monsters will have their health reduced by about 30%. (see this post)
* The standard melee damage output will be reduced as well.
* Boss abilities remain unchanged, except for Illidan who won't use Shear anymore.

Should make our Friday raids more interesting !

TK Friday Oct. 10

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 06:18:29 -0700

We will work on Alar, and go to Void Reaver afterward.

I am thinking of modifying our strategy a bit. Please loot at http://www.worldofstrats.com/Alar/tabid/64/Default.aspx

For this to work we will need 4 tanks, a holy paladin, a warlock or two, and a couple of mages. We are certainly capable of fielding this lineup, depending on who shows. If you are one of those classes mentioned, please try to let me know if you can make it.

-Jaba

WoW Web Stats

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 23:53:34 -0700

TK Oct. 3: http://wowwebstats.com/gaoqozbk2bnes

Raid Friday Oct. 3 700p Server

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 09:55:11 -0700

As I calculate it, we have 6 weeks to the expansion, and after Wrath comes out, this raid will cease to be a regular thing. For the next couple of weeks, and perhaps until the expansion, I would like us to switch our focus to Tempest Keep. There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that it is pretty new content for us as a whole. Second is that for RP reasons, an attempt at Kael make some sense for the tribe. Third, is that I think while more difficult, that Kael is a funner fight than Vashj. Mabye Dipsaya could fill us in on RP. Therefore, we will try Alar and Void Reaver this week, moving toward a possible attempt on Kael before Wrath. This is the plan, but I am playing it by ear.

-Jaba

This is why I raid

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 11:24:37 -0700

Illidan Stormrage, the Betrayer

Warning: there are a few obscenities said in the very beginning, and at the very end when ventrilo is opened in the video. This is one of my favorite fights in the game, up there with Ragnaros.

Some Outside Advice

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:52:51 -0700

Reading Dispaya's post really got me thinking about Ironsong and the state of things. Obviously, my perspective is an outside one, but sometimes that kind of perspective is good to have. There are a lot of good points in Dispaya's post, particularly in analysing the state of "flow" that everyone wants to be in. The diagram gets a lot more complicated when you have a group of 30 active players, instead of one, and there are a few approaches to handling this.

The raiding guild strives to maintain flow by recruiting based on skill and commitment. This is the easiest way, in my opinion, because so long as your players share these things in common, they will be challenged, frustrated, or bored at the same time. They will spend similar amounts of time working to achieve common goals, and while there will always be people who work harder or play better than others, the spread is narrow.

Ironsong, obviously, is not a raiding guild and does not consider a player's skill or commitment to the game to be important factors during recruitment, compared to personality and roleplaying characteristics. Among the people who match these characteristics, there will be people who are bad at the game, okay at the game, and fantastic at the game. There will be people who play WoW a few times a month, and people who play every day. Maintaining flow for this diverse group is a far more challenging task, but not impossible.

Dispaya already mentioned that WoW is a game. It is a game that is played in a large virtual space, which can also be used for socialization. But the game is the part where you are challenged by the mechanics, and where you can succeed or fail based on your performance. Roleplaying is entertaining, but it is not a game. You can't win or lose roleplaying. You can win or lose a boss battle in a raid. The same with tabletop RPGs, you can spend a lot of time roleplaying, but ultimately there is a problem to be solved using the abilities of the characters at your disposal.

Gear spread was mentioned as a primary source of the disparity between flow, but gear spread is a symptom, not a cause. A raid is a team of players that depends on everyone to do their part, and gear access has very little to do with that. What I do observe, in IST raids, is a small group of players doing everything they can to make the raid succeed, while a larger group of players do very little, by comparison. This is not meant to be insulting, or judgmental, it is an observation. A few examples of this observation:

DPS in SSC
If your class is a damage dealing class, your job in a raid is to deal damage. You should be prepared to deal as much damage as possible with the tools at your disposal and with the skill you have, as a player. Often, that will mean you won't be the best damage dealer in the raid (someone's going to better than you, or better geared than you), but so long as you did your best, you did your job. In a raiding guild, your best might not have been good enough, and you STILL might get kicked out of the raid, or waitlisted, because you didn't do enough. This is analogous to most professional sports teams, where absolute performance is the only measure worth anything. In IST, of course, that isn't the case.

That doesn't mean that not doing your best should be acceptable, anywhere. Even in little leagues, not trying will get you kicked off the team. In SSC, for anyone who pays attention to the damage output of various players, the top ten looks something like:

15.2% Player in T6 gear
14.5% Player in T4 gear
14.3% Player in T4/5 gear
14.1% Player in T5 gear
12.8% Player in T4/5 gear
7.2% Player in T4 gear
7.2% Player in T5 gear
5.8% Player in T4/5 gear
5.4% Player in greens
5.4% Player in T4 gear

Right. So the player in T6 gear dominates the meter, no surprise. Look at player #2 in T4 gear, however, and the spread between the next 3 players. Their gear is barely out of Karazhan, yet they're nipping at the heels of this T6 player who has cleared BT. Is it because the T6 player is bad? Maybe. But more likely, its because the differences between T4 and T6, while significant, are not orders of magnitude. Gear does not dominate your raid performance.

The next group, players 6+, are lagging. Maybe they had an off night, or maybe they haven't quite figured out how to best play their class. Regardless, these players should be thinking to themselves, "what could I do, to be better?" They could be doing more for their team. They should be asking the players who perform better than them, what they're doing differently.

For some, like player 9, its just a question of being unprepared. They aren't wearing the basic gear that is necessary for the instance, so they can't hope to compete. They are often killed by a stray boss ability due to lack of stamina, their abilities are resisted or missed due to lack of hit. The question a raid leader should ask, however, is why there are properly equipped players who are performing as poorly as the unprepared member.

You're never going to have everyone be part of the top group. Every raid has a few people who just don't get it, despite their best efforts, and just can't seem to squeeze out the same damage as the top group. That's fine, but that group should be the minority. Certainly, the top 10 damage dealers in a 25-man raid should all be within a few percent of one another. The majority of a raid needs to be working, properly, or figuring out what they're not doing.

Healing in SSC
If your class is a healing class, your job is to keep people alive. You should be healing the targets you are assigned, as best you are able. Healing meters aren't as informative, in that healers will often segregate into percentage groups based on their assigned roles, rather than their gear or actual performance, but large disparities in healing meters are telling. Take a representative SSC log:

18.3% Circle of Healing Priest #1, in T6 gear
18.1% Circle of Healing Priest #2, in T4 gear
17.3% Tree of Life druid, in T6 gear
16.2% Restoration shaman, in T5 gear
8.3% Holy Paladin, in T5 gear
7.5% Restoration shaman, in T4 gear
7.2% Discipline priest, in T4 gear
6.0% Shadow priest, in badge reward gear

An immediate observation that holds true here, just like with DPS classes, is that gear does not dominate your raid performance. There's a priest with barely T4 gear who can keep up with a priest decked out in BT/Hyjal gear. That priest is just good at what they do, and it has nothing to do with their gear.

Just like with the DPS meters, there are players who are underperforming, as well. Players who might not know how to play their class, correctly, or who might not be paying attention. These players should be seeking out advice on how to do better. A shadow priest should not be within the spread of a main healer, ever, even with T6 gear. If you're a healer in the lower half, sure, maybe you can't hope to be 18% of the raid's healing, but you should definitely expect more of yourself than doing less than half of another healer.

The predominating view I've encountered in IST raids, from the folks in the lower half of these meters, is "I'm doing my part, I don't need to do better! The boss died, didn't he? Its just raiding elitism to say I'm not doing my part." Well, every time the raid wipes on Leotheras because of an enrage timer, or every time a main tank dies because he didn't get enough healing, those same people should be asking themselves "what if I actually WAS doing my fair share?" These mechanics aren't going away in Wrath, but the access to a bunch of players who are wearing gear a whole tier above the instance is. So what happens then?

The bottom line is something that Dispaya mentioned, though perhaps she hadn't intended it, in this context. If you're a player in those lower halves, and you don't feel compelled to do better, to improve yourself, to figure out how to contribute your fair share, then please do not use your tribe mates. They're doing their damndest to do their job as part of the team, and you shouldn't try to drag them down by taking a position you aren't willing to fill properly. Everyone is able to fill these roles, its just a question of caring enough to learn how to play the game. Especially with a tribe like IST that has the skilled players practically begging to teach.

Raid Friday Sept. 26 700p Server

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 08:21:20 -0700

I would like to try Leo again this week. We won't be seeing him to many more times, as I want to move on to new content soon.

This week I know we will be down a tank and healer (Amato and Coranda). Also, Melikar and Sreng may be slightly late. I will get things going around 700p Server.

-Jaba

Karazhan 9/24

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 05:13:05 -0700

I had forgotten to post sooner, but I will be missing Karazhan tonight due to having company. Amato will be covering things for me. Best of luck.