The issue isn’t the system, but players’ attitude toward the system.

Players have been complaining about the forced AP grind for a few weeks now.  The sky is falling once again. But is it really a grind? Is it forced? Perhaps it’s a problem of perception.

Convincing yourself that you MUST clear the map of all artifact
power quests every single time they come up is just insane. How many pet battles can one do in one day?! Why would you want to pvp so much?!

Kidding aside, people confuse ‘there is always something to do’ with ‘all of this must be done.’

Convincing yourself that you have to clear that entire map all the time is insanity. Most mythic players do not do that. Those quests just keep coming, they will always be there. And they are nowhere close to the most efficient way of gaining AP. They are an option for anyone that wants to complete solo content.

People need to take responsibility for their own time management. You are in control of how much time you spend doing content or ‘grinding AP.’ Is the time invested worth the miniscule AP gain? Probably not. What is your time worth in terms of AP, or gold? It’s a problem players have created for themselves (like split raids) and continue to complain about.

Finally there is a system that allows continuous progression. And people naturally complain about it. If we had a weekly cap, or no such system, players would complain there was nothing to do outside of raids like in WoD (False, there was plenty to do). Players would complain that we’d be back to the style of “log in 2-3 times a week and do nothing in between” and there was a “lack of content.”

And if you are of the mindset that you do need to grind that AP, and you subject yourself to inefficient ways of AP grinds: pugging dungeons, LFR, pet battle WQs, then the problem definitely isn’t the system.

Is there any sensible way to give players what you want? Would you be able to come up with a system that would not leave players unsatisfied and frustrated?

And don’t think for a second that you are forced by your guild, your raid leader, and your friends to grind out AP. It’s your choice.

Welcome back to Tales from the Front! Its been far too long!

I’m hoping to have a proper weekly blog for you guys again! But I want to start this off with a story.

Many years ago my guild was raiding Black Temple and farming Illidan. We had a rogue raid leader by the name of Rootleaf who was one of the best raid leads we’d ever had. He was the good cop, always calm, collected, like a NASA operator. He was a fantastic player, with us since Zul’Gurub went on the PTR in mid-Vanilla. And he would continue to raid lead for us through Sunwell, become a close friend and attend my wedding last weekend.

So we’re farming Black Temple every week, killing bosses, collecting loot, trialing apps and having a good time. When the inevitable happens: one of the Warglaives drops. Except that our daddy raid leader was absent this one particular raid.  Everyone(almost) in the guild knew and wanted the first set of warglaives to go to Rootleaf.  Well we had to give it to our second choice, a young Rogue by the name of Aloris. He was a younger kid, lacking a bit of life maturity but a good player for the most part. The loot council determined that was the only logical choice since Rootleaf was not around.

A couple months later, as Sunwell was close approaching, we had tested a number of the encounters on PTR and knew how demanding the dps requirements would be, especially on a fight like Brutallus aka Patchwerk 2.0. And as the universe sometimes likes to screw with you, a few weeks later we had a second warglaive drop, the opposite to the first warglaive.

I want you readers to put yourselves in my loot council. Who do you give the second warglaive to? Do you award it to Aloris, the rogue to complete his set and potentially help the guild with progression? Warglaives were pretty overpowered. Or do you give it to Rootleaf, the tireless, highly respected raid leader? The one who has shown loyalty throughout, commitment, and was by all accounts the deserving choice?

Well given that we had a couple years of experience under our belt, we wanted to give it to Rootleaf. But Rootleaf in his soft spoken voice said ‘no, give it to Aloris. While I appreciate the gesture, its best for the guild and our progression in Sunwell to complete his set.’ So we decided to follow his wishes and completed Aloris’ set. Aloris would then go on to absolutely destroy the damage meters on every single boss fight with the glaives and would be a reason we would kill Brutallus and a number of Sunwell bosses. It looked like Rootleaf had made the right choice.

Fast forward once more to progression on M’uru the Guild Destroyer. This was a boss that required perfection from your raiders for two long phases, high dps, good communication, and was an encounter I tanked. And once you did everything perfectly, there was an aspect of RNG that could screw you over. So many guilds fell apart on this wall of a boss, stuck on him for months. And as morale in many guilds waned, my core players were content wiping, trying again, bashing our heads against it until we’d kill it. But a couple of our younger players weren’t content. Maybe it was the millennial in them, the short attention span, or simply the lack of maturity, they cowardly quit and jumped ship to the one guild ahead of us on progression. And with those players, our warglaives went.

While there was some anger towards these disloyal players, and in particular our warglaives carrier who had been with us since AQ40, Rootleaf said one thing that resonated with all of us: In a game where weapons are pixels, rankings won’t matter in years to come, what matters is who you can trust.

And this is the point I want to get across. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you’re killing Bosses on US 30^th, or 50^th. It doesn’t matter if you get a weapon or trinket the first time it drops, or the second. What matters is who you spend your time with, whether you enjoy playing with them, them being part of your team, and who you can trust. That is a life lesson that many haven’t learned yet. And that is a life lesson I’m giving you after 14 years of MMOs and being at the helm of higher echelon guilds.

So onto the blog! When do you get rid of a player that isn’t fitting in with your guild? How do you deal with a player/raider that is for the most part awesome, but turning into a cancer that is killing morale and hurting the raid atmosphere?

The short answer: when it suits your guild. And I realize that is a little pragmatic but the survival of your guild is the most important thing. It transcends friendships, raiding, loot, everything. Your guild is the reason these friendships have been formed and nothing is more important than the continuity of your team, your family.

The long answer is it depends and it is difficult to juggle the progression of your guild with the morale of the raid. If you cut a player loose, it will hurt your raid. You might even lose their best butt buddy in the process, hurting your raid further. It might set you back on Archimonde progress, potentially lowering morale because after 150 attempts, people are getting a little tired. But if you cut them loose, raid morale may improve because people are enjoying themselves more and progression will pick up again.

You may need to keep players around until you find a replacement for them. And its extremely tough to be walking on eggshells around a player you know will be cut loose for the sake of progression. Simply put, after doing this for a decade, its not worth it. Your own sanity as an officer, raid leader, GM, is not worth dealing with disloyal players, or players that hurt the guild/raid atmosphere, or make your job more difficult. Your thankless job in leadership is difficult enough without unique snowflakes thinking they are special.

Unless you’re being sponsored or playing for money, does it really matter if you kill a boss a week later? After years of doing this job, no it is not important. While realm firsts, world ranks are awesome, and my guild has achieved plenty of them, when you mature you realize what is important, and that is the people around you.

I’ve let people go that were applicants and full members in my guild because they didn’t have the core values that I want of my Death Jesters. Whether it was top ferals, warlocks, hunters, rets, or windwalkers, I’ve had to let them go because they were not good for the health of my guild. While some of them were world class players, no player, no matter how skillful, is worth hurting the health of your guild.

And one hard lesson I’ve learned after dealing with a handful of these types of players is don’t keep them around for long. If you have an applicant that is a world class dps, but a selfish person, cut them loose asap. If you have a player that has been around for a while but no longer fits with your guild’s ideals, replace them asap. My one mistake while dealing with this issue has been keeping bad apples around for too long and them poisoning more. Cut those weeds as quick as you can because they’ll come back and infect more. Don’t make the same mistake I have.

Players can be taught to raid, to mash their buttons. People cannot be taught personality or loyalty.

Keep your guild, your team, your family strong.

It doesn’t matter if you’re Method, Blood Legion, Death Jesters, or Cobra Kai Dojo. You will have bad raid nights. I can guarantee that much.

You will have nights where everything goes according to plan, and you clear your farm content with ease. The loots will be plentiful and everyone will be in a good mood, joking around, having fun. Everything clicks! This is what raiding should be like all the time!

Unfortunately that isn’t the case and your guild will have bad raid nights. People are going to show up late or not at all. You’ll have a short roster, some people in a crappy mood, and the bosses will not die. You’ll be wiping multiple times to Operator Thogar despite people having a raid leader that is announcing trains and an ADDON that is showing you. The urge to play with Thomas the Train Engine will just be too great for some people. You’ll be wiping to Gruul because people are insisting on standing in the cave-ins. Players will be tunneling their heals or dps and just not be making the best decisions. You’ll be playing like crap as well. You’ll be dying to things you normally don’t ever get hit by. You’ll be getting pinned down on Beastlord Darmac you’ll run into Slag mines on Blackhand.

Well guess what, you’re human. You’re not perfect. You will not be the best player in the raid every single raid at every moment. You will make mistakes. You will wipe the raid. Don’t you think some of the best players in the world have made similar mistakes?

Tiger Woods recently had the worst round of his career. Bettman doesn’t rig the LA Kings to win the Stanley Cup every single year. Sometimes you play like the Toronto Maple Leafs and your shitty fans throw jerseys on the ice. Sometimes you are right about to win a Superbowl but decide to be the Seahawks.

Your dog died, your girlfriend left you, Steel Panther broke up and you got a flat tire on the way home. These types of things will affect the state of your mind when you play and are distractions.

You, as raiders and players, need to realize this happens to everyone. You can’t have the best game of your life, every game. What is important is that you know how to recover from these bad nights. That applies to both the guild as well as the player.

Making Mistakes:

I know I could go on this topic forever. If you make a mistake, own it, you’re human. Know what you did and how you died. Every small mistake, positional change, miss in a rotation, can make a huge difference. You need to realize that.

When I ask someone how they died, I already know how they died. I could look at logs or Skada and check for myself. I don’t ask for my own benefit. I want to be certain this player knows why they died. What led to the set of circumstances that caused you to die? How could it have been avoided? Every single death is avoidable. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Each mistake is preventable. Things don’t randomly Death Touch you like they did in Everquest.

Example: By being out of position, you caused uncessary movement to yourself or the raid. By spawning a Massive Demolition(Blackhand) in the wrong spot, you cause silly damage to the rest of the raid as well as more potential movement for them.  By moving more, they are healing less and dpsing less. With less dps, the phase is extended longer, causing more impales, and potentially more demolitions or bombs. For every second that any boss fight is going on, there is a potential for catastrophe – Tank Deaths, mine explosions, disconnects, mistakes. So naturally you want to play as efficiently as you can, and make the fight easier for the rest of your teammates.

So what could you have done better? Could it have been better positioning? Could we have used better cooldowns to survive? Did you use your Health Potions? Your raid leader is not here to babysit you and tell you what you need to do to not repeat mistakes. You as good players are capable of that.

I’ve said this many times, a good raider will make a mistake, realize it, and know what they need to do next time to make sure it doesn’t happen again. A great raider will see someone else make a mistake and know what they need to do themselves to not repeat that mistake. That’s progression.

So you had your crappy raid night where everything went wrong and even you, the awesome player you are, were dying to silly things. You need to know how you can improve for the next day. Look through logs, look through your videos and see where to improve. Because that is what progression raiding is about – making mistakes and seeing those constant and small improvements.

You’re not a bad player, you just had a bad night. Tomorrow will be a better raid night and tomorrow you’ll be a better player.