I don't mean for anyone to take offense to this, but I'm just flat out disappointed in our guild runs. We've got a decent amount of people who know what they're doing, but we've got a lot of people who don't, and aren't listening to the people who do.

First things first, if people who've been playing the game for a long time are trying to tell you things, please, please, please, listen to them. There are people in this guild who can teach you a lot, but most of us aren't really in the mood to cram shit down your throat, we just hope you hear what we have to say, and recognize the benefits and go with it. If you're as hungry to be good at this game as most of us are, we don't expect to have to keep repeating things.

Outside of people listening and paying attention, I think a big thing as well is people playing their role. I, nor anyone else in this guild will EVER tell you to respec a certain way and play a certain way all the time. But when we are in an instance, and depending on who is in the group, sometimes you may get a role or a task that isn't your favorite, but it's the one that you HAVE to do to make the instance run quickly and smoothly. So do it. We won't make you do that all the time, but if we need it, you need to do it for us. If you have any questions about what you should be doing or who's doing what, just ask, and then *listen* to the answers.

Ok... and the NUMBER ONE PROBLEM that we're having that's kicking the crap out of our runs, causing wipes, causing delays, making them take a long ass time -- is people not understanding aggro management, or just being so selfish that they won't settle down and play for the good of the group.

In an instance, you have tanks, you have healers, you have dps'ers. In this game, and in the non 40man raid instances, those are about the only roles that exist, and in the raid instances, any other roles are merely sub-categories of those.

Here's the thing, the reason tanks play tank position, is mostly because they have higher armor ratings. Higher armor ratings mitigate physical damage. I, as a mail wearing shaman with a shield equipped mitigate (negate) about 45-49% of all physical damage that comes my way. A warrior with plate is in the 60% range I think, and a bear form druid with the right gear is near that range as well.

Tanks also have mob-hate generating skills. Warriors have great ones, shaman have OK ones, but no real AoE ones, and druids have slightly worse ones than shaman, but an AoE taunt.

ESPECIALLY if it's an instance where we're running it with an odd setup, and we have a shaman or druid at main tank, you REALLY need to tone down the dps and damage spiking. And even when it's a warrior, it's the same deal.

Here's the thing. The only time you need to stop in between pulls if no one dies is while you wait for your mana. Your mages/locks can keep drinking while you start the next pull and the tank gains aggro, etc, unless you need crowd control moves. The only person who's mana REALLY matters, and who's should really even get low, is the healer.

The speed of your runs is dependent on the healer's mana pool when you boil it all down. Entirely. Toning back your damage as a mage/warlock/rogue (kind of as a hunter, but a) we don't have any, and b) they have feign death to get out of trouble and healers dont' have to worry about them really) But anyways, toning back your damage as a dps class allows the healer to ONLY have to focus on the tank, and the vast majority of the damage to go through the tank, at which point more of it is taken away from the higher armor rating.

Less damage taken=less healing done=less downtime. Also not spiking your damage and going with the lower spam spells, like spamming scorch/frostbolt as a mage, only doing sinister strike to rupture as a rogue, and doing mostly dots as a warlock keeps everything on the tank. If you cast big fireballs and shadowbolts or use eviscerates, you're going to get crits every now and then that spike your damage and steal aggro from the tank, in which case the tank has to work harder to get it back, most people who steal aggro panic and run away from the mob, leading to placement problems, line of sight issues for the healers, problems with aoe from mobs that use sweeping strikes, trample, etc. And even if they don't run, they start taking big damage from the mob, and the healer needs to switch targets and burn more mana on someone other than the tank.

Using those smaller spells makes the healers job vastly easier. It ALSO keeps side mobs from coming off of the tank, and makes multi-mob pulls easier if you stick to good focus fire on the main assist or just the tank's target.

Another key factor of using the smaller spells as a dps caster, is that your mana efficiency is INCREDIBLY higher, to the point that you will go through probably half the water you're going through now in a run. Also for mages, spamming the short cast spells gets you more clearcast procs, and more free damage. (And after a free clearcast, always go with arcane missle, it's about the most mana inefficient spell out there, but when it's free, it's nice even damage without spikes to pull aggro) This does a couple of things, a) you're stopping to drink less (and the whole group becomes dependent on just the priest/druid's mana pool, and priests and druids generally run higher spirit with faster regen), and b) the mage doesn't have to do as much water summoning, so it's keeping the prep time down as well, and it's less hassle for him/her.

I know everyone is a big fan of seeing big numbers over their target, I am just as much as the next guy. Everyone likes a "OMG I just crit for XXXX, wow!" But the fact of the matter is, when your role is to sit back and pour on a constant dps into a target and keep the run moving, you just can't really be doing that.

IF we can get people away from that OMG CRITZ mentality in instances, we're going to do a HELL of a lot better on guild runs, and actually get this guild groomed up to try some of the higher level instances.

We've got enough high levels to run UBRS in guild right now, but with the way people follow directions, cast spells, run in circles and just cause general chaos, we aren't going to be doing it without wipes for a while yet, and UBRS is seriously not a hard instance to run wipe-free once people learn their role in the group and listen to directions.

And once we get people paying attention and listening and everything worked out, along with a few more 60s, we can graduate to trying out ZG, and better domination in PvP as well.

PvP has the same problem with listening. We yell out on Teamspeak for everyone to group back up, rally back to such and such point, and there are always still one or two people chasing a straggler a third of the way across the zone, only to get cut off from the group by the alliance that rezzed between our straggler and our main group, which is the reason we were calling for a rally again anyways.

Chasing that ONE straggler just isn't that important. If we work as a group, that's where we start owning the SHIT out of people. Running around scattered doesn't do shit for anyone, besides cut down the strength that playing as an organized group gives you.

Anyways, that's my rant. I'm not naming any names, and I'm not trying to make any specific accusations against any people here, just pointing out some things that really just make me grind my teeth and long for the days of my old guild dominating the shit out of everything. We can do that just as well here, but not if people aren't listening -- and I'd really like to start working like a well oiled machine sometime really soon here. It honestly won't even take all that much work, just a lot of people being open minded about changing up their playstyle a little for instances, and being willing to follow orders. Bout it.

GG Kargat

-- Khatib