Raid nights, raid fears and site changes
Posted by: Nightravyn in Serpentshrine Cavern, administration, raidsFirst off, let me apologize if anything breaks, looks odd, or otherwise blows up here. I’m doing some experimenting, and while the majority of my changes are taking place in a safe location, some changes I test here. Usually it turns into a “GAH! BAD! GO AWAY BAD THING!” moment, and quickly vanishes, but just in case, you’ve been warned. 
Last night, we proved that we have the Tidewalker fight down. As long as The Boyfriend stays alive, the whole thing is pretty much a cakewalk for us. I have to give major kudos to the healers, as they were on top of things last night. A couple of healers got sent to the Watery Graves right when it could have gotten bad, but quick communication and even faster reflexes kept the tanks alive with barely a bobble. Go team! 
The Leo fight still is being learned. Last night was my first night there after our very first single attempt at him. Last week while I was out of town, they got a good couple of hours worth of work in on him. We get to work on him this weekend more for I think a good 3 hour stretch, which will either let us get into the groove of the fight and really learn it, or actually see him downed.
I really regret missing out on those learning nights, because I always feel like I missed out on the process, that I’m somehow behind in “getting” the fight, no matter how much I read up on it or watch other people’s movies. It just takes me back to when I first started raiding with these guys, and they’d been doing the instances for weeks. Then me and my total noob-to-raiding self wandered in with an absolute paranoid fear that I will Screw Things Up and kept muttering to myself “oh pleasepleasepleasedon’tkickmeIswearI’mtryingtolearn.” My Class Leader still laughs at me over those memories, and thank heavens she didn’t think that me asking 500 questions over the night was a bad thing (okay it felt like 500, but was probably more like 10-15). I told her later that I’d tried to keep them as intelligent as I could. Apparently, they were reasonable questions, cos they kept inviting me back.
But it kinda makes me wonder: how many people out there have this problem? That tiny niggling fear in the back of your head that says “Omg wth am I doing here? Please don’t let me get everyone killed.” Or is it just me and my paranoia? (Which is highly possible.)
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I’d say it’s more like who DOESN’T think like that… on the healing end, I’m in a constant state of, “Oh, can I keep him up, am I good enough to keep up with the damage he’s taking, am I playing my druid the most effective way I can and for heaven’s sake, WATCH YOUR MANA USE!”
So know, you are most definitely not alone, in fact, I’d not be surprised if you were in the majority…
Personally, my only fear is in letting down the raid group due to my undergearing. I *know* how to do my job, and have sat with some of the best hunters I know to practice it. Sadly, due to limitations, my gear is meh, and my trap resist is laughable– but that’ll change as I gear up.
I deeply trust my class leader, the people who I turn to for advice, and adore raiding with a certain MT and RL because he always pauses before a fight and calmly explains what he is expecting, and how he;d like it done. Is he perfect? NOPE, but see– this is why I love my guild– he, and everyone in the group laugh off when we wipe… even when it is done by stupidity. And yeah, I have been the stupid, and while *I* was being hard as hell on myself, I got poked to stop being an asshat by others around me.
Now, I’m kinda fascinated in trying ZA and SSC… but think I need a bit more experience OUTSIDE the progression zone the guild is in, where my going “oops!” won;t stop a good run. ;D
[...] Raid nights, raid fears and site changes: “First off, let me apologize if anything breaks, looks odd, or otherwise blows up here. I’m doing some experimenting, and while the majority of my changes are taking place in a safe location, some changes I test here. Usually it turns into a ‘GAH! BAD! GO AWAY BAD THING!’ moment, and quickly vanishes, but just in case, you’ve been warned. [...]
Ah, ‘the fear’. Totally, truly and utterly with you on that. I went from n00b-to-raider very quickly and had the same less equipped problem as Aerye. My first night at any new raid instance / boss fight has my hands shaking to the point I can barely click my mouse. I’m a big softie and take it to heart if I ‘do something stupid’ so despite reading and watching every guide I can get my grubby little mitts on I still go into a raid feeling unprepared / unconfident / sure I’m going to kill us all.
As for asking questions, though, if you can find someone who’s happy to listen and answer (In my case a wonderful gnome rogue who’d done all of the content way before I dreamed of even doing it) then the fear diminishes a little bit. I find this especially so when your guild has slightly different ways to deal with a boss than the guides suggest due to setup and the like.
I do find, however, that after a raid or two when I start to get to ‘know’ a fight I relax a bit though
/hug
/vanish
@Aurik
Yep! Pestering those that actually will help (and actually listening to them!) proves to be a wonderful method to learn by. I know our guild has a tendency to do boss fights ever so slightly differently than Normal Accepted Strats. Nothing major, just those little tweaks that make the run work for us. At least I had the Class Leader and The Boyfriend that I could ask what to me seemed like an embarressing amount of questions. I don’t have “New Shiny Raider” on me anymore, not after a year and a half of raiding, but I still cringe whenever something bad happens and have to resist the reflexive check to make sure I didn’t bork the raid.