It’s time for a good, old fashioned rant.
“It doesn’t matter, as long as the boss dies.”
Oh, but it does matter. It matters a lot.
It matters if you AFK trash.
It matters if you wipe on a farm-content boss.
It matters if people die unnecessarily.
It matters if the fight drags on for double its usual length.
And it matters because “as long as the boss dies” is the dumbest quote EVER.
Think about it. I understand the need for bio breaks, and taking an announced absence is a perfectly legitimate way to get a drink of water, relieve yourself, and be that much more focused when you return. But when you have a couple of raiders who consistently AFK their way through everything that doesn’t drop loot, it adds stress and resentment to the pressure cooker that is a raid. It’s lazy and inconsiderate. Worse, it sets a terrible example for not just new recruits but everyone else in the guild.
Anyone who’s ever wiped on a “Farm” boss can tell you that it is infinitely frustrating when that happens due to sloppy mistakes and lack of attention. It wastes valuable time, leads to full-on burnout, and can make a guild feel stunted and unsuccessful. Slacking off here can cause major problems, and even if the boss dies on the third try, that’s 30 minutes to an hour of 25 people’s time. Not to mention repair bills, wasted consumables, and loss of morale and momentum.
Okay, so say you didn’t wipe. Say the fight just lasted 12 minutes instead of 7. That’s only 5 minutes extra (Nevermind that it’s really 5×25.) Wrong. When fights double in length, the impact is the same as a wipe, just on a smaller scale. Consumables, cooldowns, and resources are STILL wasted, and more likely than not, players will die needlessly. Not to mention that’s 5 minutes worth of Arrows and Bullets. And you now have a raid-mentality that knows it’s in for a rough night, since the bosses aren’t dying smoothly. Beyond that, if you’re a guild in the position of both farming content AND making progression runs, the sooner you can get the old content finished the more time you can spend on the new stuff. Eating up minutes and hours when you have 14 bosses to get through before you can even get to the fun stuff is “srs biz”.
More than anything, I hate that this quote as it seems to embody the ultimate in epic-greedy laziness. As if there’s no difference between the boss dying in an unspectacular way vs. dying efficiently, with everyone putting out 100%. The reality is at the other extreme – the only thing the two events have in common is the dropping of loot. And if loot, rather than progression and improvement is your focus, I want you the hell out of my raid, out of my guild, off my server, and away from my game. Go play EverQuest with Jimmy.
Luv,
Wyn
We wiped on chess.
Hear, hear! Nicely said, that hits home. 🙂
Avonars last blog post..Blog Azeroth – and me?
Have to agree, its inconsiderate and in my mind almost a /raidkick to do so if you are replaceable (if you aren’t replaceable we need to recruit more). People come to raid, if you can’t make the 1-1.5hrs before a bathroom break, tv break, just want to slack break, why are you in the run, emergencies happen, stuff happens, but stuff you can work around and know will happen is a major issue.
We had a healer hearth out as she disliked the group setup last night, I removed her without remorse, later someone went afk for 10 mins while we were ressing up and getting ready to pull the boss again (should have been farmable), again removed from the raid and replaced. If you won’t respect the 24 other people in the raid, and we have reserves (we often have 4-5 people sitting wanting a spot to raid), then I am going to replace you without remorse or regret, I am happy to wipe and learn, but not trying is a reason to not turn up, not to wipe 24 others.
Maybe I am too harsh, but its like people not releasing when 100% of the raid should (no DI, early part of instance etc), when its called, its called for everyone bar those that have issues, if we call a fast try again we don’t mean go afk. Wipe recovery can take longer than the boss fight itself, and thats just silly. I got /w’d by a raider after I told everyone to run in, saying I hadn’t done it (despite standing inside the instance at this point having run in), pointing out others flaws doesn’t help either, analyse objectively and go from that, but never jump on anyone, that just kills the raid more than the wipe ever did.
2ndNins last blog post..On The main tank, or why talking matters
Our first (and so far, only) encounter with Rage Winterchill: We’re ready for a pull after a wipe. A 5-min afk break had been called and stretched to 8 or 10. Ready Check went up. We waited for a mage for another couple minutes. The GM had had enough: booted from the raid and replaced. This mage consistently tops the damage charts. (He also doesn’t do things like sheep adds but that’s another story.)
Everyone in the guild got that message loud and clear.
We’re all expendable.
I agree with you for the most part but on the other hand I’ve seen raid leaders act like it was the end of the world because we wiped on a farm boss. That didn’t motivate anyone to their “A game”.
Tankettes last blog post..36 Dailies a day, ughh
We had a night like that last night. I don’t consider Hyjal “farm status” for my guild, but we one-shotted Rage, then farted around for the next two hours or so with Anetheron. We got one try in, then our pally trash tank started having internet issues, and it was upwards of half an hour before we were able to start working again.
We’ve been having burnout issues and this was our first night raiding in like a week. Not the most auspicious return, and on top of the mess with keeping the raid group together, people were goofing off more than they usually would, joking around, and not paying attention.
Yeah, we’re raiding, but we might as well have just gone to ZG for all the effort people were putting into what we were doing, and it was a disappointment. You can’t win ’em all, but it would’ve been nice to have downed more than one boss in four hours, when we’ve successfully done 3 in there in one raid night before.
Asaras last blog post..Ahoy, Muffin Down!
Spot on, Wyn.
And wiping or failing is no shame, but not giving the best you can is.
Gonna link this on FP forums 🙂
Shyraia – Icecrowns last blog post..Re: Even more NWS Kit art 🙂
It doesn’t matter, as long as everyone had fun. = Good
It doesn’t matter, as long as everyone tried and did their best = Good
It doesn’t matter, as long as everyone respected one-another. = Good.
excessive afkers bug me the most
I don’t mind people afking for a pull or 2 during trash but its the ones that afk for Supremus entire room and do it week after week
our guild is pretty good at not having people do this but I have seen it happen
I have been considering writing a post like this on my guild’s website, but now I can just provide them with a link! Thanks for doing the ranting for me!