Coping with RL

In RL, I've been really sick...living on the couch and getting my WoW fix by reading the forums on my ancient laptop. I've not had the energy to work on writing up my UI updates or to even log on to do dailies. Then it hit me, there's something blog-worthy here and I don't have to strain my medication-hazed brain to write about it. What am I talking about? Coping with real life in a raiding guild.

In order to survive, serious raiding guilds have to create requirements. Our business is downing bosses and it requires a full complement of employees. Guilds tackle this problem differently. At one extreme we have ultra hard-core guilds who require players to devote all of their free-time to WoW. How extreme can these guilds be? I have a friend who was once kicked from a raid because his latency was too high. In these guilds, joy is derived only from conquest. Kang, that time-traveling warlord from Marvel Comics, would be proud. At the other extreme, we have the casual guild that raids. I was in one of those once, I'm not sure they've ever downed Gruul. That's not good business. Kang would recommend wiping them from the face of Outland!

My guild takes a different approach. Leadership stuffs the roster with WoW-addicts (like myself) who have RL issues that keep them from being able to play night after night. We are all, deep-down, hard-core players, but we have jobs, children, health issues, pending nuptials....You get the idea.

This enables members to go on week-long business conferences or take their S.O. out for dinner without jeopardizing their membership or the balance of the raid. As a guild, we still have requirements about raiding 2 nights a week. We still expect members to show up, but understands and accepts real-life. That's not to say that folks can make excuses night after night and expect to retain membership. And they certainly can't disappear for several weeks and expect to come back as if nothing has happened. Communication and dedication to the guild are still required.

This is the perfect kind of place for me and for many of our members. I couldn't stand the lackadaisical approach to raiding from my previous guild, but RL keeps me from being able to commit to the hard-core standards of a 4-5 night a week raiding guild. Simply-put, QSS represents a welcome and needed balance that keeps the game fresh and enjoyable for me.

On a personal note: I have a RL philosophy of "in all things balance" and I strive to obtain it throughout my life.

There are, of course, downsides to this approach. I have identified two connected issues as the biggest.

Progression & Gear: At our core, our most dedicated and regular members are geared higher than our actual progression. I've got my "all purple" set with 2-pieces of T5, crafted belt, and 70% of the best gear available before Black Temple and Mount Hyjal. From a gear standpoint, I should have been downing stuff in Mount Hyjal 2 months ago. The problem here is the ever-shifting make-up of the raid and the significant amount of drops needed to gear up and teach everybody the bosses. This was felt most on Vashj and is no doubt the #1 reason why we didn't down Kael before 2.4 hit. And when a regular, like myself, who has been involved in the first-time kills of 8/9 of our last bosses out of the mix for 3 weeks, it hurts the dynamics of the guild. (And makes Beroth a frustrated hunter!)

Organizing & Managing Raiders: Because of our structure, we are forever needing new recruits (who are not under-geared n00bs), we are forever planning raids based on the dynamic of the sign-ups and we are forever being nagged by our raid coordinator about light sign-ups for this night or that. It's painful on our leadership. It's painful on our members when we have to "indoctrinate" a new recruit or show a regular an old boss for the first time because she doesn't usually play on a Tuesday.

To manage these two issues, a really smart leadership structure was developed. We have what I like to call "the One" structure (this is a Babylon 5 reference.) We have the "one" who is the guild leader. She manages the day-to-day and keeps everyone in line. We have the "one" who is raid coordinator. He is in charge of personnel planning and deciding where we are going. We have the "one" who is raid leader. He's the field general. Each of them have very different personalities.

The other coping mechanism is our forums. We have regularly updated kill threads and strategy guides posted by our raid leader. These guides include links to videos and boss guides, but they also include details about how "we" do it. This helps our players a lot. No two guilds are alike and as a guild we learned we had to think outside the box to achieve.

The final coping mechanism is class rotation. Leadership has a preferred mix of players. Ours likes to have 2-3 hunters in the raids. We have 4 active hunters. We've worked out a rotation of "preferred" nights. Each class does this and it helps immensely when the nightly draft happens. If I sign up for Wednesdays, I expect to be drafter because it's my preferred night. BUT, if I sign up for Tuesday, I expect to be wait-listed.

Well, there you have it. Not my best piece of writing and it took longer than usual to do. I hope it gives you some ideas about your guild dynamics. No, QSS is far from perfect. But for me it's home. I can't wait to get back!

Out Sick

Sorry for the lack of posts. I keep promising this detailed analysis of my gear and UI changes, but I've been under the weather. As soon as I'm 100% back and caught up on other stuff, I'll finish up.

The Guild-Breaker Dies

Another Dead Boss on the Landing

Last night, we 3-pulled Vashj. She's dead. We felt good. It felt right. It's been a nervous few weeks. I've always felt that the guild was good enough, but I've read and heard so many horror stories about guilds dying because they couldn't beat Vashj. That monkey is off our backs. We still need to drop her a few more times, but now we've done it.

I've been working on some theory-craft on the way I play Beroth. I need to organize my notes and write it up. Expect those posts soon.

Hold the Line

Beroth & Tribalrog on the South Stairs

Vashj attempts continue and are getting better all the time. I've slowly migrated to working the South Stairs with help from Shallas (rogue who floats across the South & East zones) and a healer. Tonight, it was our Resto-Shaman's turn. He admitted to being nervous, but I only had to pop one health stone in phase 2 all night.

I'm proud to say that in two nights of working the zone, I don't think a single elemental has gotten past us. This isn't all about me. I'm "alone" for 60-70% of the time, but Shallas sweeps every now and then to take some pressure off me and people up top help out when the tainted spawns in my zone. Slowly the guild is learning the whole fight. We had several pulls into phase 3 over the last 2 nights.

Sure, I wish she was dead already. But man it'll feel like we accomplished something when she finally drops.

Weapon of Choice

The other week, the Boots of the Crimson Hawk pattern dropped. I int'ed for them and got them. The boots looked awesome and are ranked higher in the Armory. I wasted my last 2 Primal Nethers making them and Poortyr donated mats for me. When I did the final tally on my dps potential, I lost over 30 dps by swapping boots. It was a harsh lesson in trusting the Armory ranking system. My guild lost out on being able to sell the pattern & I wasted an int. Needless to say, I'm back to the Fiend Slayer Boots until I can int on the Cobra-Lash Boots from Vashj.

I don't like making the same mistake twice, but I hate doing theory-craft math on my own. I can't trust the Armory to know everything. (Remember, the Armory & similar databases look at gear as a whole for your class.) The trick is to find a good calculator to help and to invest the time to plug in gear and tweak numbers.

I've been using Cheeky's Spreadsheet on Elitist Jerks for a hunter calculator. To use the spreadsheet, you must enable macros. In other words, use at your own risk. The spreadsheet itself can take time to get used to. The good news is that you will learn about your gear no matter how much work you put into it. The big thing to understand is that the numbers are still theoretical. It's up to you to maximize your potential.

But Beroth, that sounds like a lot of work. Why can't I just trust the Armory and read the forums? If you aren't serious about endgame or don't mind the occasional downgrade, then by all means, do so. But let me show you what I'm talking about.

I plugged my gear into the spreadsheet and got approximately 900 dps unbuffed (including Pet.) That translates into roughly 1050 dps w/ raid buffs & food. (Again, these numbers only hold up in theoretical situations. My actual numbers will vary.)

Once you've gotten all your gear organized, you can play with gem options & pets to find your best combination. Simply changing a few gems can add 10-20 dps. Swapping pets can make a huge difference. Sometimes you may want one pet, but your gear/build dictates than another is better. The first time I used the spreadsheet, I swapped pets, changed my food & spent nearly 400 gold on gems to add over 50 dps. I have the raid stats to back it up!

Putting the Spreadsheet to the test

You may have read that Beastmasters prefer the Wolfslayer or the Barrel-Blade guns over all other ranged weapons. But have you ever tested it? I have.

I currently use the Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle. The armory ranks it as 9th with an item level of 115. Whole threads have been devoted to the Wolfslayer being the 2nd best Beast Master weapon in the game. Let's take a moment to compare it to the highest ranked weapon in the Armory and see what happens.

Weapon - Hunter DPS - Total DPS - Buff'ed DPS (Aspect of Viper)
Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle - 655.52 - 914.11 - 1084.06
Serpent Spine Longbow - 647.73 - 903.85 - 1068.91

Let's now add the 13th ranked weapon
Barrel-Blade Longrifle - 668.37 - 926.81 - 1098.72

What gives? The Beast Master talent, Serpent Swiftness makes the statistically worse gun becomes better because of it's faster base speed. This is the prime example of why you can't just trust the Armory. You've got to take time to understand your gear, your talents and how they all work together. A good spreadsheet will help.

PS. My theoretical DPS w/ Aspect of the Hawk is over 1200! If only I could sustain that w/out running out of mana! Imagine if I had my own dedicated Shadow Priest! My numbers also don't include short-term buffs such as rapid fire or effects like shaman heroism.