Matticus

Matticus is the founder of World of Matticus, a World of Warcraft blog.

How to Successfully Pick up a GM

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Image courtesy of dbking

Making the first move and first impression counts when you’re looking to join a Guild. Excellent Guildmasters (I prefer General Managers) have a way of cutting through the random crap that applicants throw at them. They’re able to translate what applicants say and interpret them in a more precise way. As my Guild’s first line of defense against “R-Tards”, I’ve seen my share of bad opening introductions from players that were interested. Here’s 10:

  1. You say: “I can maintain 100% attendance.” GM thinks: “Even if he does make 100% of the raids, he’ll probably afk for a good portion of them.”
  2. You say: “I am willing to listen and pay attention all the time.” GM thinks: “Good, because my guild is full of players who do whatever the heck it is that they want at will.”
  3. You say: “I’m not quite sure what level your Guild is at in terms of progression, but… ” GM thinks: “No homework or research done and you’re applying for our Guild blindly? If you can’t research Guilds then we can’t expect you to research boss strategies.”
  4. You say: “I can lead PvP battlegrounds and form a top notch arena team within the Guild.” GM thinks: “We’re a frackin’ progression guild, not a PvP guild! Besides, this Guild can’t handle more than 1 emo BG leader.”
  5. You say: “I’d like to see end game raiding and experience it.” GM thinks: “You willing to die for it?”
  6. You say: “I don’t think my gear is good enough, however…” GM thinks: “Nope, probably not.”
  7. You say: “There’s not much time left before the expansion comes out, so…” GM thinks: “We’re not a sightseeing operation.”
  8. You say: “I’m willing to sit on the bench for a while and stay as a trial if you’re full.” GM thinks: “Great, someone whose not even going to try and compete for a raid spot.”
  9. You say: “You’ve made these mods mandatory for use in the Guild, but I don’t think I need them because…” GM thinks: “You can’t even pass a simple test of just downloading and installing mods. How will I know you will do as I instruct during a raid?”
  10. You say: “The only way for me to get better as a player is to get better gear.” GM thinks: “A million dollars to anyone who invents a device that allows for strangulation across the internet

The best opening lines to make to a GM or their representative is to say something similar to:

Hi, my name is __________, I would like to raid as a __________ spec and I have experience up to this encounter in the game.

For a much better insight into the application and mental thought processes of GMs, I strongly advise you read Chick GM’s post about the very same subject in more detail.

Post inspired by Guy Kawasaki

Addon: Instant Health is Pants Crappingly Awesome

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During this weeks Twisted Nether blogcast, one of the questions posed by Fimlys was what addons I currently favor the most. I said to him that I favoured Pitbull the most but there was another addon called Instant Health that was beginning to grow on me. I touched about it in some details on the blogcast and promised a blog post specifically on the addon and here it is.

The problem

WoW servers don’t update health bars instantaneously. The information is sent from a player to the server, then from the server to your UI. There are two interaction points where lag due to hardware or ISP issues can cause problems, and although this typically happens in regular intervals, it can take as long as 3 seconds to complete.

All healers have been in situations where their heals have gone off, yet the target still died. Cooldowns and trinkets were blown at the last possible moment to add more “oomph” to their heals. Our efforts were futile because even though it showed that we did cast our instants, it did not appear to have been tracked or anything.

The solution

I acted on a tip from Aylii and Lang, my main tank. They both advised me to take a hard look at an addon called Instant Health. The beta was released a little over a week ago. So what’s it about?

This addon updates the health of player/party/raid members and pets much faster than normal by using your local combat log data rather than waiting for the server to send updated health information to you.

It works with Blizzard’s default UI as well as ANY custom addon you might have installed. All you need to do is put it in your addons folder and enable it!
Notice, this addon only speeds up health updates for player/party/raid members and pets. (People that are recorded in your combat log.) Players/mobs that are not in your group will have their health updated normally.

The trial

Intrigued, I had to get a copy of the addon quickly and stress-test the sucker. I forwarded a copy to Wynthea as well, so we could compare notes afterward. So how did Instant Health stack up to our combined play?

In a word, scary. This mod updates health lightning fast. You’ll get a better idea by observing a protection Paladin tanking waves of trash in Mount Hyjal. By updating health on a much faster scale, I’ve found that I’ve been able to make decisions even quicker. Information is life for healers and the faster we get it the faster we can make choices. It’s an awesome addon for us twitch healers that rely on quick reactions. Non healers might think that it’s redundant for an addon that updates heath only a fraction of a second sooner than server updates but they wouldn’t understand. 9 out of 10 Matts agree that this addon is an absolute must have for any raiding healer (the other Matt passed out in shock and stress of watching health bars drop too fast).

-Matticus

I’m very impressed with the potential of this add-on. Personally, I heal less Whack-a-mole style, and more proactively – paying attention primarily to those with aggro – so the benefit to my reaction time on MT healing is negligible. Where this mod really shines is with tough decision-making: you can see which player’s health is dropping fastest and react with better information. The biggest drawback to Instant Health is that when it acesses the information, it somehow changes what is reported to any other combat log parser you may use. Recount, SWstats, WWS, and Recap will all be so dramatically skewed that they become unusable. If you feel like rolling up your sleeves, you CAN fix it yourself – rename the addon’s directory, LUA file, and TOC to ZZZ_Instant_Health, so that the order-of-access is properly aligned. (If you don’t feel completely comfortable doing this, DON’T!) There is also a minor issue affecting default UI Target-of-Target frames that cannot be corrected. Other raid-frames do not have this problem. These relatively minor issues aside, I think this is a great tool. Spell Haste is becoming more and more important as a stat, and anything else that can decrease the time it takes to get a heal on someone that needs it is huge.

-Wyn

The Voice Behind the Pen: Matt’s Podcasts Available for Download

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If for whatever reason you’re interested in hearing what sick Canadians sound like, be sure to check out the following two podcasts which I’ve participated in over the weekend:

I felt more relaxed on TN then the WI show, to be honest heh. When I first started blogging, I never expected of doing any kind of podcasting all with other people and players and I had a lot of fun doing it! Maybe I’ll do it again at some point in the future!

I completely missed the shoutouts on both podcasts. Ugh. I feel so terrible. If you listen carefully enough to the WI show early on, you might catch the sounds of GMail in the background. You can blame Wyn for embarrassing me live on the air =).

One more thing, on Twisted Nether I said something about there being snow at the end of May. I might’ve forgot to mention that my University is on top of a mountain and my sarcasm/jokingness may not have transmitted properly.

It’s my first foray into podcasting. With that in mind, I’d love to get some feedback and some grades on my performance. How did I do?

Saturday Random Thoughts

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  • Always stretch before working out on the Wii Fit or engaging in any kind of physical activity. My abs cramped up trying to do some of them plank exercises.
  • Halls: The official cough drop of World of Matticus. Helped reduce my cough on the WI show.
  • Close GMail when podcasting.
  • Note to self to ask for feedback on podcast (both WI and Twisted Nether) when they’re mp3’d.
  • Relax more. Too jittery. Too nervous. Think happy thoughts. Stare at Jessica Alba posters more.
  • Publicly give a shout out to Wyn the next time I go on the air.
  • Epic gem vendor in Shattrath City, too.

epic-gem-vendor-shat

  • Acquiring Thorium Brotherhood reputation is a royal pain in the derriere.
  • But it can be worth it for a straight up mana regen staff:

 

  • Saying yes to friends is hard. Saying no to friends is even harder.
  • Clearly people aren’t aware of the rules. What is said in BA chat stays in BA chat ;).
  • In need of a new banner. Need to shop around for a design service.

Dear Matt, I Have a Huntard Problem

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Hey Matt,

I’ve got a good one for you, and I know it’s one you’ve covered before – but a slightly different perspective.

I’m a Hunter Class Leader for my guild, and there’s a pack of Hunters who just came back. They’re very enthusiastic about what they’re doing, but one of them really needs help… he’s just not making the most out of his spec, or his gear, and he’s convinced he’s doing the right thing.

To be perfectly honest, I’ve got a huge problem with this. The guy wants help, but is of resolute mind that running Karazhan will solve all of his loot woes, and that the PVP gear he’s got will be great for PvE. His spec can do well in PVP, sure, but he doesn’t get that it’s not same as PVE, particularly in emphasis on stats… and what worries me is that he wants to raid with us. Not just Karazhan, he wants to come to Gruul’s, Mag’s, ZA, and whatever we do after that.

If he had half a mind about the way he was gearing, I’d be fine… but this guy is even wearing Shaman mail with his PVP gear. No, not +strength or +agility and +crit, anything that’d be useful to Hunters… plus HEALING Shaman mail!

What’s worse is that his DPS has a long way to go before he should even think of raiding. It’s merely OK for Karazhan, and I wouldn’t have issues with him in heroics, but I wouldn’t take him to anything past that.

The Guild Leader’s asked me to offer some helpful suggestions on our forum, and I have. The immediate response from this hunter was that, as helpful as I intended it to be and as nice as I put it, that I have a holier-than-thou attitude, and I’m just trying to make his life difficult, and he’s worked so hard for his PVP gear, that spec is what works for him, that the shaman gear’s the best he can get, blah blah blah.

I’m trying to be patient, understanding, and all of those good characteristics; but this guy makes me want to take the kiddie gloves off. My job is to help, not to coddle, and the person in question is a grown adult, who has no license to be acting this way. What makes things worse is that he feels since he’s been in the guild longer than I have, he doesn’t have to listen to me if he doesn’t want to.

If you have any advice whatsoever, I’d greatly appreciate it. I’m at my wit’s end here.

– Can’t Disregard the Huntard

Dear Can’t Disregard,

That’s a sticky situation. By broadly addressing the subject, and maintaining a respectful tone, you’ve done your job perfectly. Since the Huntard’s excuse for his laziness is to question your authority, It’s time for your GM to stop delegating this task fully to you. The message that needs to be passed on is this:

“For our guild to progress, those we regularly field for raids must be in top condition. To achieve this, our class-leaders have been asked to review the gear and spec of prospective raiders. Those who choose to disregard the advice of their class leads should expect few, if any, invites to raids above Kara-level. I (The GM) will have the final say on whether a raider is acceptable.”

This clearly explains the situation, establishes your authority as a class-lead, defines the choices open to the prospective raiders (comply, or don’t), defines the resulting consequences, and describes the appeals process all in a concise manner.

Since your GM obviously knows this guy has no clue what he’s doing, it should be easy to make sure your raid leaders and anyone else doing invites is aware, too. Then, when he asks for an invite, they can let him know that they can’t make an exception to the policy just for him, and when he implements X of your suggestions, he may ask for another invite. (2 things are important here. You MUST NOT make exceptions for other idiotic raiders, and you have explicitly tell him that he’s welcome back IF he complies with the rules. That keeps it from being personal.)

Alternatively, to save LOTS of time remember my personal staffing mantra:

95% of all guild problems can be solved with a good Gkick. The other 5% can be solved by recruiting.

– From Wynthea

Dear Can’t Disregard,

You should listen to Wyn because she is full of win. She gave you the long answer to a short answer problem. I believe the problem can be solved quite easily. You’re a Hunter, are you not? If only Hunters had abilities that could misdirect additional threat to other players…

– From Evil Matt

Problems in your guild? Need some help and advice? Not quite sure who to turn to for those relationship problems in WoW? Feel free to contact us!