I Think I Started Raiding Again...

Our guild (like many others I am sure) has had problems keeping members, especially during the pre-patch lull everyone was experiencing. With this we've had players come and go in every which way. Some people went to different guilds, some quit the game, some did both, some just stopped raiding, or any other number of things. I quit playing before WotLK came out and probably started again about 6 months or so ago, but did not get back into raiding as I don't usually enjoy using the limited evening time I have at home in one instance regardless of what it is. As Raithen or Naughty will let you know, I ADD out quickly. For the past month or so I've come to a few raids the guild did if they were short a healer. For the most part healing in full PvP gear, I wasn't great at it, I won't lie. But they weren't expecting too much from me and were great about offering tips/suggestions as opposed to telling me I suck and that my furious gear has resil gems in it instead of SP. So that was enjoyable.

So Naughty got promoted to officer the other day and IMed me yesterday asking if I would raid that night. Well he'll be raiding all night, as would Raithen, so I figured I might as well go with them as they're two of the main reasons I play this game. I went, messed up on first boss (stood in the fire...awkward.) As someone pointed out, there's been fire you shouldn't stand in since vanilla. Touche sir, but this fire was MOVING! And it blends in the with the floor and stuff. Anyways, Mr Marrow goes all bone tornado and I swear decides he will follow me forever. So I finally juke him and am dutifully about to nourish someone who I had cleverly pre-hotted...Why am I standing next to a bear? Wait...that means.. Naughty informs me about this time on vent that where I am currently is not the place he'd prefer me to be. "Yessir, just let me finish casti..." *Dead*

Oh you meant right meow.

After a wipe or two we had a nice little bit of drama/emorage from some people and an ensuing gquit. We refilled the raid (we had more than 25 people willing to raid!?!!?) I think we called in some favors, not sure. On at least one attempt we had some chain battle rezzes going on. (I think at one point we had..7? druids in the raid) *shrug* was fun. Anyways, we killed that guy, got some neat loots and went on our way. As we made some attempts on Miss Deathwhisper people were getting antsy I believe.

Which brings me to a problem we began to experience which as I read through others blogs I notice a LOT of people posting about.

Advice.

There's a time and a place for advice/ideas. New content is cool, and usually challenging, and unfamiliar. This means there is probably more than one way to do something. With 25 people in a raid you've got a lot of different personality's/experiences. Some people had tried these fights on the PTR, some had tried it since it had gone live on different toons. Some have absolutely no idea what's going on, but will still give you their opinion. I'm guilty of some of this as well. I make jokes in vent during fights, I have given my opinions on things to try. After reading a lot of these posts I found myself last night saying less in vent, and giving my opinions/thoughts to an officer and letting them decide if they want to voice that to the rest of the raid or not. I think a problem a lot of people run into is the too many chiefs not enough indians issue. Maybe you think you know better than the raid leader what's going on. Maybe you DO know what's going on better than the raid leader. Either way, as Ky said in his post, unless you're the raid leader it's not your job to decide the strategy. Make suggestions sure, but maybe in a tell, or only when asked for your opinion.

All in all a fairly fun night of raiding. We ran some heroics afterwards that were pretty funny. I enjoy heroics with a group I know well because we don't usually take it seriously. Any instance I'm playing where I feel my innervate is best used on the pally tank is usually pretty enjoyable. I think these groups teach me to be bad. All 5 of us are hunkered down in the soup and just healing/dpsing through it.