Matticus

“I can accept failure, but I can’t accept not trying.”
Michael Jordan

Does this sound familiar to you? You spend some time cutting through progression content. After a couple of extra shots, those bosses are considered farm content. But here’s the kicker and I guarantee you that it’s happened to every guild at one point or another.

One week, you find yourself wiping on a farm boss repeatedly.

Dealing with raid hangover is crucial because if it is not dealt with, the confidence your Guild has in it’s own ability is going to waiver. If it continues, it’s going to lead to Guild members questioning the Guild itself. The worse case scenario would be those same members leaving the Guild altogether.

And no one wants to lose players because of something that could’ve been prevented.

Step 1: Go back to the basics

Some players take shortcuts during the encounter. They do things that they would not have done if it was a progression boss. On Netherspite, for instance, we’d find ourselves wiping after a couple of phase 2’s because of badly timed netherbreaths. They would wreck our raid and we would give up after 2 attempts and move on to Chess and Prince. Keep in mind that this is just an alt Karazhan run supported by a few T6 players. Naturally most of us were upset because this was a boss that we should not have any trouble with in terms of execution. We eventually changed up our play by running to the far side of the room during phase 2 instead of staying in for his breaths because it was clear that we could not handle it for whatever reason.

We fell back to a strategy that we used the first time we learned the fight many months ago. Even though it took longer to kill Netherspite, we still got the job done.

Step 2: Reassurance and motivation

Supportive words can go a long way in a raid that’s pushing the limit. Your raid leader should be emotionally in tune with the raid to be able to detect the frustration they have and the words to say in order to help encourage the raid to keep going. Simple words like:

• We did this once, we can do it again
• Keep your chin up
• Remember all the phat loot that drops off this guy *links random loot*

On the other hand, I tend to rely on other methods of motivation. If you can push the right buttons, you never know what kind of results you get. In my case, I get super annoyed when my healing ability is called into question. But that’s when I curse loudly and shut up the rest of the raid by being clutch. Coaches use this all the time to stir up their team in order to get them going. The same can be said true of raids. But you can only berate a couple of players so far before they get outright annoyed and leave the raid saying that it’s not worth their time to wipe AND get criticized. I suggest using that sparingly and even then only on players you’ve known for a while.

Step 3: Be like Nike and just do it

You know what you have to do on this boss. You’ve gone over your roles a dozen times with other players and leaders. You’ve killed the boss already and you know it’s no fluke. You have the tools to get through the encounter successfully. Whether or not the boss dies in style is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter if the raid is down to 15 players or 5 players. The perception of a raiding Guild lies in their ability to kill bosses. No one’s going to care that it took three healers, a main tank, and that geared Shadow Priest who doesn’t speak an ounce of English to kill Kael. The only thing other players will remember is the fact that you downed a boss.

So what are you waiting for?

A number of bloggers (RE: YOU GUYS IN THE BLOG AZEROTH CHATROOM) seem to have hit a wall recently in blogging. I count myself extremely lucky that I’m able to come up with stuff that’s fresh, relevant, and original as much as I possibly can. But that doesn’t mean I don’t hit a patch of ice once in a while and go skidding. WoW bloggers want to get that kick ass post out and attract attention but nothing seems to be working and they’re stuck with almost no good ideas!
In school, we are taught to write our thesis statement first as it helps direct the focus of our paper. Blogging is no different other then the fact that we don’t really have a thesis.

But we have a headline.

And the heading is the first thing that everyone reads whether they go to your blog or read from a reader.

One method that could work for you (and has worked for me) comes from a little well known women’s magazine called Cosmopolitan. Like a thesis, it can be difficult to write a headline first before your actual post. The premise here is that your headline looks intriguing enough to attract attention. Anyway, by looking at headlines of other publications you might be able to take those headlines and apply it to your area.

Obviously, any other magazine can work as well. THe next time you’re at the check out counter at your local super market, instead of staring ahead at the guy in front of you or contemplating all those chocolate bars on the side, direct your eyes to the magazine stands instead and see what jumps out at you and catches your attention.

So just for kicks and giggles, I’m going to take the page of the April 2007 edition of Cosmopolitan and “encourage” WoW bloggers to see if they can come up with the corresponding post. It’ll be fun to see if I actually get taken up on my offer =).

Cosmo’s Headline: 50 Things Guys Wish You Knew

Siha, I’m looking right at you as you’re one of the few GM’ing bloggers I know.

“50 Things Guildmasters Wish You Knew”

By all means, the number there is arbitrary. Use whatever value you like, although I have a sneaking suspicion that you can come up with 50 in no time.

Cosmo’s Headline: The “Friendly” Health Advice You Should Never Take

I know Megan’s a big time PvP enthusiast. You willing to try your hand on this one?

“The ‘Friendly’ Arena Advice You Should Never Take”

I know I’ve heard all manners of bad arena tips that were made with good intentions.

Cosmo’s Headline: The Silent Way He Shows He’s Whipped

Okay, Kestrel. I know you’re also a GM with your own flock of geese. How’s this?

“The Silent Way Guildies Show They’re Whipped”

We want raiders to be whipped, don’t we? Who wants a bunch of uncontrollable DPSing players anyway? Surely there must be some obvious signs.

Cosmo’s Headline: Be a Sex Genius!

Oh Anna, this one has your name written all over it.

“Be A Shamanistic Genius”

Surely there must be some tips, tricks, and techniques that you might know of that new, budding Shamans might not. I only found out the other day that Ghost Wolf Shamans can’t be sapped. Or perhaps some quick thoughts on attributes to push for gearwise in Elemental, Enhancement, and Resto as a part of the ingenuity?

Cosmo’s Headline: 16 New and Sexy Hairstyles

Big Bear Butt, I think we could all benefit from your thoughts on this.

16 New and Sexy Additions in 2.4

This is the last patch before Wrath, supposedly. There’s obviously a ton of good things coming out. Let’s narrow it down some and make it interesting, shall we?

Challenge Yourself

What about the rest of you WoW bloggers? Can you borrow one of these headlines courtesy of Cosmo and use them for your own blog? If you can, post it here and I’ll see if I can do a follow up post with links later on in the month.