Matt’s Notebook: Welcome to Season 3!

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It’s been quiet here over the past few weeks. I’ve been doing everything I can to prepare both raid teams for Season 3. I’ll share a few updates on our progression along with some of my thoughts on the Gamescom information that came out earlier.

  • As expected, Death Jesters completely cleared all of Normal and Heroic in week 1. Dimensius took us about 17 tries before we finally got him down. Phase 1 wasn’t bad at all, but phase 2 platforms was where we were trying to figure things out the most with the movement patterns. That is a part of the encounter that will require people to take reps to experience so they can understand what they need to do. We did end the second night with some pulls on Mythic Plexus but we just fell short. Lots of key activity has been happening as everyone’s trying to get equipped. I made one error on Nexus King where I stacked my debuff circle in the wrong spot causing two stars to rotate in directions that they should not have. Whoops. Managed to assemble 2 piece on the Priest and I’m hopeful I can finish it off this week with my remaining catalyst charge.
  • On the other team, Last Call only managed to get to 6/8 Heroic with a normal clear. We were quite a few ways away from getting Nexus King down. The percentages entering the final phase were too high for us to overcome. We have a lot of work to do on the bottom end of our roster to help raise the floor.
  • Last Call is still in a bit of a rocky shape to start the season. I’ve invited some of my friends to join the team who have previously raided with me in my time from my old guild Conquest and Proper Villains (as well as a friend from another casual raid team). They’ve all acclimated well and performed as I expected them to. However, all of the Priests have been challenging just trying to get them to get along or at least be civil at times. It’s been enough to give me a headache, and we almost had a situation before our raid was supposed to start. So I had to do my best to smooth things over. But really, sometimes people just need to take a step back and keep their thoughts inside. Not every opinion needs to be voiced. Not every point of feedback needs to be delivered. Not every question needs to be asked. Newer players that come in may not be aware of the atmosphere or the social dynamics of everyone, so there’s no need to antagonize or troll because everyone has different tolerance levels of bullshit (mine is actually quite low, and I just don’t react to it or I ignore and dismiss it). Some of my favourite keys are the quietest ones where we’re enjoying each others company and only calling out kicks or cooldowns with lots of silence in between.
  • We also have a fresh Loot Council in Last Call that’s working together for the first time. Even though we’ve had a blunder, I’m sure they’ll learn from it and move on. The Reshii Wraps boots were awarded to the same person twice (Normal, then a Heroic upgrade). It was missed due to time pressures. I’ve made a note to remind the team to review gear, but also to convey the option that we can always defer loot decisions till later when there is more time to breathe. Things like bracers or lower ticket items can be handed out right away since there’s not much interest in them. But bigger items like weapons, trinkets, and other cantrip items can always be held for more discussion and distributed later in the night. We’re not really coming up on any bosses where the DPS check requires that one specific item to get equipped. Plus we can always end the night a few minutes early to help distribute the remaining loot. In DJs, on the first night, we finished our pulls 30 minutes before the night ended and it took us that long to go through and hand out 8 normal and 6 heroic bosses worth of loot and tier tokens. I wanted to implement a similar system here but faced resistance. My worry is I’m going to burn out and exhaust my current loot master. I’ll either have to find another one, or potentially take it over myself.
  • Gamescom presentation was fun to watch. The Warcraft Youtube channel has some new gameplay reveal here. I was not expecting multiple raids to start the opening tier. It’ll be fun to back and revisit a refreshed and updated Quel’thalas and Zul’aman. Demon Hunters get a new spec (and I’ll play it for Legion Remix, if it’s an option – I hope). I don’t know enough about the new Harandir allied race since it seems like we haven’t interacted with them that often except for the Azj’kahet zone.
  • Last Call is still recruiting a strong healer and assorted DPS to help us move forward in the tier. Check us out and apply! If you’re looking for something more at the top, there’s also Death Jesters! We’ve got an opening for a stellar DPS player (no specific class), and you can also apply here.

Have a great week 2 everyone! I’ll share some more posts throughout the week. I want to put together some Dimensius pointers for Heroic because it can be quite difficult.

Matt’s Notebook: Bumpy Reclears

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Why are reclears so damn hard? Mug’zee took us all night!

We switched to a 3 minute Mug’zee strategy. We had enough firepower to overwhelm and skip the 3 Gaol set altogether.

We had to bring in a DJ’s alt because of some absences and technical difficulties. One player whose power went out earlier than our tank’s internet went down. We ended up killing Mug’zee on the last pull. I felt it shouldn’t’ve taken that long. We were still making some questionable mistakes, and these are mistakes I don’t want to see. These are things like hitting the wrong button, or being out of position, or not knowing where front left and front right are on the 4 Gaolset despite having the diagrams shared ahead of time. It’s people panicking and not understanding their assignments. We had a Paladin who hadn’t done the mine pops before, so that took some learning with the cadence of the bomb pops.

Healing wasn’t ideal as I didn’t have enough externals for the second rocket target, so sometimes they would die if they didn’t have a personal defence available. I know we ended up killing it in the last pull of the night, but we have to be better. Even some of our veteran players who did kill it with us the first time made some mistakes too. It’s a struggle for me to get things through and get them to stick in people’s minds. There’s a lot of stuff going on everywhere, but I try to keep it simple, even if it isn’t easy. The reclear nights have really exposed the inconsistency and the overall skill ceiling that players have.

This made me worried about how our Gallywix reclear is going to be like. Thankfully, yesterday night we were able to get cleared within 15 pulls. We had some new people who hadn’t killed it with us but learned alongside us as well. Had to get a new bomber assigned, which meant a lot of new and unfamiliar roles for a few players.

We’re still in the process of finalizing our roster and the last few pieces I need are a strong healer and a DPS Death Knight to round out our roster for next season.

Raids Fail When Leaders Don’t Explain the Why

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We had been deep in the trenches on Gallywix before we finally defeated him, and let me tell you, this boss is no joke. As with most late-tier Mythic fights, we hit that phase of progression where execution hinges on precision, coordination, and everyone knowing exactly what they’re doing. Sounds familiar, right?

What’s been interesting this time around is how much work has gone into our Raid Plan. I’m up to nearly 20 slides now. And yeah, I can already hear some of you groaning. But every revision, every screenshot, every zone marker has a purpose. Or at least I thought it did.

Let me walk you through a key moment that perfectly illustrates something raid leaders (myself included) often get wrong.

The Warlock Gate Wipefest

There’s a point in the Gallywix encounter where we drop a Warlock gate from the back of the room to the center. That’s nothing unusual on the surface, right? This one occurs right before the third coil needs to get neutralized (or using the third bomb).

However, this specific gate serves a layered purpose. It’s timed around canister soaks, or the healer soaks, specifically. The expectation is that the healers will gate into the center to meet up with DPS who are already soaking their assigned canisters, so they can get help fulfilling their mechanic. Sounds simple.

Before this, our healers were stacking with tanks. This change required them to re-learn their movement entirely.

So what happened?

  • Some players took the gate too early.
  • Others too late.
  • A few sidestepped into beams they weren’t supposed to bait.
  • The rest just stood around trying to figure out where they were even supposed to go.

For hours.

The Missing Link: The Why

I gave the callouts. I gave the slide. I even drew the lines. What I didn’t do? Explain the why.

Once I actually walked the team through the reasoning behind the gate timing and placement — how it allowed for quicker healing support, why baiting mattered in that moment, and what the positional advantages were — things just clicked. Execution became consistently cleaner. The team died less. We made real progress.

It hit me: as raid leaders, we assume that giving instructions is enough.

But if your team doesn’t understand why they’re doing something, it’s never going to land with the precision it needs. You’ll get compliance, not necessarily the buy-in. And there’s a difference.

Overexplaining vs. Clarity

I hesitated to explain too much because I didn’t want to overload people with information. I thought, “They’re smart. They’ll figure it out.” But I’ve learned the hard way that clarity supercedes brevity when it comes to raid strategy.

Some things are intuitive to me because I’ve spent hours in logs, watching replays, tweaking plans, and seeing it in action in DJs. That’s not true for the average raider. If I don’t walk them through the mental model I’m using, how can I expect them to follow it perfectly?

Ownership Starts at the Top

This ties in perfectly with a concept from Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. There’s a chapter where the leadership team makes an unpopular call, and the people under them get frustrated — all because no one stops to ask, “Why are we doing it this way?”

If I tolerate confusion or silence, that’s on me. If I don’t create space for questions or curiosity, I’m building a raid culture where people are afraid to raise their hand and say, “I don’t get it.”

And to be clear, there are no bad players, only bad coaches. That includes me. I want to be better.

Next Steps for Us

We’re going to start encouraging more midweek questions in Discord. If someone doesn’t understand something, they should never feel like the only time to ask is in the middle of a pull. That’s already too late. Alas, sometimes it doesn’t always happen though because they don’t know what to ask until they’re actually there.

This happened again yesterday night during our Mug’zee reclear. We had a Holy Paladin in who missed out on progression kill the first time. He did not stack with the group on the second rocket soak and unfortunately he got selected for the third rocket (with the four Gaol set) and it led to him being unsure what to do or where to place it.

Normally, we have five designated players soak the first rocket, then avoid the second rocket. Anyone who gets hit by the rocket receives a debuff so that they won’t be targeted again. By the time the third rocket comes around, the first five players who took the first rocket are now eligible targets for the third one, and it allows us to add consistency to where that third rocket should be positioned, and immunities can be used.

I’m also looking at bringing in a few more CE-level veterans during the offseason — people with leadership chops who can help reinforce strategy across multiple roles and add another layer of mentorship to the team. People who raid week days and are looking for something to do towards the end of the week are also encouraged, so check us out and come apply!

Final Thoughts

Raid leadership isn’t about barking orders. It’s about helping your team buy in, understand the vision, and execute with confidence. Don’t assume they know why you’re doing what you’re doing. Spell it out. Walk it through. And most of all, listen when they tell you they’re confused — even if they don’t say it directly.

Because once they understand the “why,” you’ll be amazed how much faster the “what” falls into place.

Matt’s Notebook: CE Number Two!

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Well, we did it! Last Call finally clearly Mythic Gallywix and the team get it’s first CE after the second tier of its inception. Oddly enough, our kill pull was the smoothest attempt we had. I ended up being the only death (as is tradition) really early on in the fight, trying to bait one of Gally’s blue beams, and I just wasn’t able to Gust of Wind out of the way early enough. We ended up with a 90 execution rating and managed to get Gallywix down before the final 4 set of ads at the end. It was great because the final set of those energy balls was pointed away from our Druid tank, who was carrying the bomb, and would have had a hard time getting to it because it was in the electric field.

Unofficially, Last Call finishes at US 582. It’s not going to show up on the official stat sheet.

  • Over in DJs, we said goodbye to one of our long time Warlock players due to a scheduling change. While we’re not looking to actively recruit any class at the moment, we’re still open to anyone interested in joining the team for Season 3. We’ve started selling mounts and last boss kills on Mythic. Our guild bank has already been replenished, and now we’re doing cuts for the team to resupply going into next season.
  • The new patch and raid schedule have been announced. It appears that all difficulties will be available starting August 12th. It’s right around what the public expectations were. I had hoped it would be delayed to later in August, because I don’t think we can get everyone on the team mounts before the end of the season.
  • Does it feel like a shorter PTR test cycle to anyone else? It certainly feels that way to me.
  • Next steps for Last Call is reopening our recruiting again for the next season. We’ve already started our end-of-season feedback form for class and spec change or reroll requests. We’re standing pat on tanks, but we’re open to DPS and healers, so come join! We’ll have some vacancies open as some of our players have opted to move on from us, and we’re truly grateful for their contributions in helping the team get to where they are. We wouldn’t have made it here without their efforts.
  • Now that we’ve established a baseline for where we finished in US ranks, we’re already making plans to see what we can do next season and climb up that ladder. The goal here is to try to break into the US 400s.
  • One of the things I wasn’t satisfied with was our knowledge management. Many boss changes and discussions will happen on Discord, and sometimes stuff gets lost. I’ve invested some time in having a Playbook put together using Coda as a single source of truth. It’ll have our raid plan maps, cooldowns, pre-set MRT notes, and other important boss information so players can reference it instead of getting lost in Discord threads. Any strategy changes can be discussed before it gets committed and saved into the Playbook.
  • Week one of mount farming and I basically struck out. I sent something like 12 characters into Tempest Keep, and Ashes of Al’ar did not drop.

That’s all for our team updates.

It’s Not What You Preach, It’s What You Tolerate

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We had a raider recently who didn’t even realize we’ve been using raid plans the entire season.

Slide numbers were being called out, cooldown assignments had been posted, and key positioning diagrams had been up for every major encounter. Yet somehow, this person (who had been with us for multiple weeks) acted like it was brand new information.

Look, mistakes happen. Miscommunication happens. But this wasn’t a one-off moment of confusion. It was part of a larger pattern.

And it reminded me of a concept from the book Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin: the “tortured genius.”

The Problem with “Tortured Geniuses”

This isn’t about someone dealing with mental health challenges or emotional instability. In the context of leadership, a “tortured genius” is the person who’s talented but toxic.

  • They never accept responsibility.
  • They always have an excuse.
  • They point fingers the moment something goes wrong.
  • They’re too good to follow instructions, but never at fault when things break down.
  • And they assume their DPS or logs are enough to justify any lack of accountability.

These players are a trap. They often look good on paper, and they might even be “top performers.” But they are absolutely corrosive to your team if left unchecked.

What You Tolerate Becomes the Standard

One of the most powerful lines in Extreme Ownership is this:

“It’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.”

You can talk about standards all day. You can write raid plans, post cooldown assignments, link guides, and review logs. But none of it means a damn thing if your actions don’t match your words.

If you let someone show up unprepared, ignore instructions, dodge feedback, and stay in the raid team week after week, then that becomes your standard.

The rest of your team sees it. And whether they say something or not, they’re thinking:

Why should I bother putting in the effort if that guy doesn’t have to?

Red Flags: How to Spot the Behaviour Early

Sometimes you don’t realize what’s happening until the damage is done. Here’s what to look for before it gets to that point:

  • They aren’t in Discord for strategy discussions.
  • They never reference or acknowledge raid plans.
  • They need constant reminding of their assignments.
  • They respond to feedback with sarcasm, excuses, or silence.
  • They do well on meters, but that’s where their contribution ends.

If you’re seeing this, you’ve got a “tortured genius” on your hands. And it’s time to deal with it.

How to Handle It (Without Nuking Morale)

Start with a direct 1:1 conversation. Be clear, but not confrontational.

“We’ve noticed a consistent pattern of missed prep and dodged feedback. That’s not going to fly on this team.”

Lay out your expectations: reading plans, owning mistakes, showing up to strategy sessions, and staying engaged with the team. These aren’t optional, they’re the baseline.

If they want to improve, give them the tools. Offer a second chance. Track their behaviour over a week or two. But if nothing changes?

You already know what needs to happen.

Removing a high-output player who’s dragging down team culture is addition by subtraction. You don’t build a CE-calibre team by tolerating passengers with attitudes.

Culture Over Numbers

Cutting someone isn’t about drama or proving a point. It’s about setting the tone.

If you want your team to value preparation, ownership, and collaboration, you have to reinforce that with actions. That means cutting loose the ones who refuse to buy in (even if they can crush a target dummy).

Culture on a team can be fragile. If you let one person ignore the standard, that standard crumbles.

It’s not what you preach. It’s what you tolerate.

Ask yourself the hard question. What are you tolerating right now?