Casual Healin'

Our 10 man this week saw me healing again… which I prefer as I am actually good at it, compared to my fairly ordinary lock DPS… Sunday night we romped through 10 bosses… 1 shot on all. I think we can safely say they are on farm now. We had two wipes on Sindragosa before calling it alightly after 11.

Monday night was straight into Sindragosa (obviously) and after another six or seven wipes we finally pieced it together to own her bony butt. I am not sure that this time the RNG God’s didn’t just smile on us, but I’ll take a kill where I can find it at the moment. We moved on to LK, fiddled about a while and talked strategy, then I called it a night as RL is interfering with playtime again. At this stage I haven’t seen the LK fight yet, however I am expecting to next week!

In other WoW related news, my little priesty is almost all growed up. I am 60% through 72 now, and bashing Dragonblight for what I hope will be the last time (hah right!) When I ding this toon I might faction transfer over to horde as my SO plays a Tauren Warrior, so I would like a toon to play with her occasionally… however I am so enamoured with Discipline healing that I may also play through cataclysm with Badaji as my main. Time will tell on this one. I have also been enjoying doing BC Heroics. I get less xp per hour from them, but its new content to me, so I’ll probably keep doing one or two a level until I can’t any more!

I was reading BBB today, where he talked about being done with the game. I sympathise… I was there a few months back, and I’m not completely enamoured at the moment. WoW is my diversion from real life, but ultimately I need to be able to fit it in around work, home, play etc. rather than fitting life around WoW. My WoW mojo returned somewhat by joining a new guild and taking a backseat in regards to leading or organisation. My plan for the future, if the problem reoccurs, is to server/faction change, or level a toon that none of my old friends knows about. I truly do enjoy WoW. I enjoy the fact that whatever is going on IRL can disappear while I’m fragging murlocs. While I’m not an achievement junky (I just hit 3k the other night on my main, which I am assured is not really trying) I do enjoy seeing that message come up to tell me I’ve done something that is slightly noteworthy. I can see my pursuing those more once I get bored in the interim between LK dying and Cataclysm arriving. So to you BBB I say… a change can be as good as a holiday. If you still enjoy the game, and feel torn by the decision to stop playing, then change how you play!

In an RL discussion this week, I wondered why players put up with bad Raid Leaders. I look at it like this – if my manager at work treated me like I’ve had some RL’s behave, at best I would find work elsewhere, at worst I would be consulting a work-place lawyer about suing the company. RL’s need to be people managers. Screaming at people over vent when a wipe occurs is UNACCEPTABLE. Singling a player out for making a mistake is UNACCEPTABLE. Telling the raid that everyone else caused a wipe (everyone but me) is UNACCEPTABLE. If you want to raid lead, remember, there are 9 or 24 real people out there you are leading. If you don’t know how to encourage them, and use constructive criticism, if you don’t know what to do when things go wrong, if you ever scream, shout, swear, insult or otherwise behave inappropriately with guildies, then you shouldn’t be leading… or at least, be prepared for your raiders to take it out on you.

I know RL’ing is hard work. I’ve done it. I’ve also captained and coached sports teams, and in reality the experience is very similar. I would suggest to all RL’s to sit back and consider how they run a raid. If anything I’ve said above applies to you, then have a think how you would feel if someone did it to you, then change your behaviour.

Real Life Moment: I keep meaning to add a little something for the few friends I have who follow my blog, but who are not WoW players. Finally here is one! I had lunch today at Satang Thai, in Quay St. Sydney. This place probably qualifies as one of my all time favourite Thai restaurants – the food is top quality, its quite cheap, and the ambiance is reasonable – it’s a place for a quick lunch with friends, not a business meal or romantic dinner though!