May 6, 2010

Wipes happen

Bad is never good until worse happens. ~Danish Proverb

Inevitably it’s going to happen. At some point down the road you are going to wipe on a five-man instance that you’ve run multitudes of times before sans incident. It could happen due to a number of factors: some controllable, some not. As in most things in life, it’s how you react to such adversity that often determines the outcome.

Last night I ran into a situation that I’m sure we’ll all find familiar. PuG run and the tank pulls a big group, gets spotty heals, and dies. The substantial remaining mobs then run rampant over the group and full wipe ensues. Again, I think we’ll all find familiarity in this sequence.

The Example:

Trollgore room in DTK.  Mass pull leads to wipe.
• Tank: “So heals just stopped.”
• Healer:"I lagged."

So far so good. What happened + explanation = solved? Time to move on? Not so much.

• Healer: “ I also wasn’t in the room before you pulled. It’s called situational awareness.”
• (Insert simultaneous DPS "uh-ohs" here)
• Tank : (insert derogatory, accusatory “fail” comment here)
• Healer: (insert derogatory, accusatory “no-u-fail” comment here)
• Jarr: “Let’s just regroup and move on.”
• Tank has left the group.
• Healer: “What a fail tank baby.”
• Requeued to find a Tank

Let’s pick this apart and get into the Jarr zen mentality. Let’s avoid the FPB and do the right thing.

Keep your mouth shut!
In most wipe cases it’s evident what caused it. Tank pulls too much. Healer didn’t keep up. DPS pulled agro. Disconnects. Lag. You name it. There is no need to point it out. Sit quietly take your rez or walk-back and move on.

However if you’re one of those folks that must open your pie hole (though I’d strongly advise against it), then …

Consider how you say what you need to say
In our example, Mr. Tank set the completely negative tone with the opening salvo. Automatically the healer is in a defensive position. Keep your comments positive or at least neutral. Here are some examples.

“Why didn’t you heal me?” vs “Ouch! What happened?”

“Didn’t know you were pulling the whole damn room!” vs “Sorry, I wasn’t prepared for that. If you’re going to pull big, just let me know.”

Suck it up and fess up
We’re human (despite someone’s accusations of cyborg infiltration). We make mistakes sometimes. If you mess up, then say so. Apologize if something went awry, even if it wasn’t entirely your fault. Again some examples for roles:

• Tank: “Sorry guys. I lost that dude somehow.”
• Healer: “Whoops! Sorry ‘bout that. Rez incoming.”
• DPS: “You guys suck! Scrape me up!”
Whoa! Get outta here you dime a dozen deeps! /kick

• DPS: “Ouchie! That hurt. Sorry ‘bout that. Can I get a rez please.”
Much better.

Intent & Tone
Again, before you open your mouth. Think!  Then perhaps think again.  What are you trying to accomplish or gain by speaking? Are you after knowledge to prevent or remedy problems going forward or simply trying to assign blame? If it’s the later then follow my advice and just STFU. If it’s the former, then move on to your tone.

Consider what you say and perhaps even to whom (party vs. whisper) before you say it. Think about how you would react if your question/statement/accusation were tossed at you.

I’m again focusing on five-man content here (because it’s largely all I do currently), but these same attitudes, mentalities, and approaches can be applied to larger raids or even (GASP!) real life.

Seewhutididthere? Sensei Jarr has just taken you down the path of enlightment without you realizing it. You’re welcome, Grasshopper. /bow

1 comment:

  1. Last night, we had a well geared pally tank with our group of not geared that well dps and a healer who is working on her healing skills. Well, the pally tank says nothing about the whole time, running like a mad man thru Occulus, us behind him worn out like running a mile at fat camp. As we get to the last boss, he speaks up and says "your dps has been epic fail this whole time, I hope we can finish this last boss with all this fail dps." I about fell out of my seat. We did the last boss with no wipes and he left as soon as loot was distributed. I am not a fan at all of impatient or rude people as such, considering the pace he was going at was quite rude.

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