Attitudinal Adjustment: How to be a Good Raider
July 9th, 2008 Posted in UncategorizedRaiding, at whatever level you do it, whether it be starting out Kara in all blues, or taking on the near-impossible challenges in the Sunwell, is all about having a can-do attitude to the content. This starts long before you set foot in the instance – anyone who turns up to a raid without food, potions, elixirs / flasks, bandages, etc, is already letting their side down. Enchants are pretty damn essential, too, as is gemming your gear appropriately. Doing these things, and turning up prepared is the first stage in downing the boss – be he Attumen the Huntsman, or Kil’jaeden himself. The extra dps or healing boost or the addition to the tank’s longevity is very often the tiny difference that results in a positive result. Even if you’re only there for the purplez, having your current gear as good as it can be makes all the difference. We’ll get into why that’s not a good attitude to have, later, though.
The main thing to bring, though, is a positive mental attitude. Yeah, yeah, I know the phrase has been done to death in sports, but what it stands for stil very much applies. Walk in expecting to fail and, more than likely, you will. Of course, expecting to succeed does not mean for a second that you will. When you do fail, make a note of where you went wrong (and you did, everyone does something wrong on almost every boss attempt, even if it doesn’t cause a wipe). Make a mental note of it and try to improve next time, even if it wasn’t such a big deal that it got noticed by anyone else.
Going along with this is a mantra that is one that I try to follow – which is to admit your mistakes up front and without prompting. It encourages faith in your abilities and shows you’re willing to analyse what you’re doing wrong and you’re likely to improve. If you’re man (or woman) enough to stand up and say “That was my fault” then you’ll gain respect for it. Of course, this doesn’t apply if you’re causing more wipes than anyone else put together. I can’t imagine that would be the case for many people, though.
In our guild, we have a phrase: “Bring your wiping hat.” It’s a good summation of the above. Remember, no matter how much progress seems at times to be moving backwards, that you’re there to have fun and you’re far more likely to enjoy yourself.
Coming soon: Attitudinal Adjustment, Part 2: How to be a good Raid Leader. Tune in next time…
One Response to “Attitudinal Adjustment: How to be a Good Raider”
By Kadomi on Jul 10, 2008
Strangely enough, in my guild we have too many people eager to say that a wipe was their fault, me included. People will just jump out and say that they made a mistake and caused a wipe. Sometimes even if they didn’t. In a way it’s amusing.
I have to admit that sometimes I fail in the positive attitude department, I get rather discouraged easily. But I am working on that.