Stop Dragon My Heart Around
This week saw the intrepid Pods face Onyxia for the first time. Holy cow, this beast is huge. Doing our usual routine, we had very low expectations for ourselves, and were promptly surprised by how well we did, considering. 50% on the very first attempt, with only about half a dozen of us having faced her before. Phase 2 proved to be a bit tricky, particularly when it seems that the Deep Breath she does is totally dependent on how much particular individuals clump up (or refrain from doing so). Subsequent attempts found that it's possible to get her out of the air without so much as a single deep breath. Napalm Death from above notwithstanding, I'm very pleased with our efforts. Virtually every guide you've ever read is correct: the transition from her being airborne in phase 2, to the MT getting control of her and bringing her back to 12 o'clock in the lair and having sufficient aggro so that the rest of the raid can commence pwnage is so far looking to be one of the most difficult gear shifts in the game.
Through the course of discussion pre-Ony, Thayala, Vespasian, myself, and a number of other high-mileage Pods had determined that our choice of MT was going to be crucial for our success. Much like our first half dozen trips into Molten Core, we were primarily concerned with stacking the odds in our favor. That being the case, there were a number of factors that were involved:
The number of times that we've actually done this are very, very few. I imagine that headed into BWL for the first time, or for Ragnaros, that we will do the same thing. The results may be the same, or they might be different. I've a fairly confident notion that I'll be involved in tanking Rag, but you never know. I think that the MC boss fights are a bit less complicated than anything that came forward from the introduction of Onyxia. Should the opportunity arise to examine designating a MT for a particular fight, I think that I'll work to steer the group into a more open discussion in the forums in advance, that way everyone's on the same page and nobody gets all menstrual and has to /leave TPPTanks.
There can be much room for pain and anguish for someone that is of the mindset that we are a traditional raiding guild with traditional roles that are filled by a handful of people. We don't have a single MT that gets preference for tanking/FR/1H drops. More often than not, we've never given deference to someone on an item, purely based upon seniority in the guild, or their raid attendance alone. By and large, someone's status in the guild as an officer is totally irrelevant with the way that our classes manage themselves.
(Note that I said that the classes manage themselves. It has been our experience that we have gotten along nicely without resorting to the appointed figurehead of class leader, with there not being any room for discussion among the rank & file members of the class. Back in the ancient history of TPP, we have had a number of experiences where a single person has made unilateral decisions on MT and class leadership roles, and to say that it was unpopular is to throw your name in the hat for the Understatement of the Year award. That's just not how we roll).
Among TPPTanks, are there those of us who have worked to earn the trust and respect of the other class members? Absolutely. I will be right up front that I say that any time one of our own has come to me with a particular situation asking my advice, or requesting my assistance to speak for them or the tank column in general, I am terribly humbled by the fact that they trust me enough to do so. I've never gone to the officers on behalf of our warriors when I was not asked to do so. I suppose that makes me one of several "class leaders" among our warriors, but if that is so, it's never come without the support and endorsement of the group as a whole. If we have warriors that choose not to participate in the social network that we have established, then I suppose that their silence gives assent. (This is, of course, the exact opposite of what they might intend to have happen, but like they say every other November "If you don't vote, you can't complain." And more often than not, those individuals end up complaining still, but there's likely no stopping that, anyway). What must be said, though, is that collective decisions and such never come without the groundwork having been laid to earn the trust necessary to have input.
What folks don't always understand, though, is that whenever someone tries to inject themselves into a situation of "power" without the support of those alongside whom you must work, it invariably doesn't stick, because there is no relationships built among everyone else. At that point, if you happen to co-exist as an officer in the guild and play a particular class, that does not entitle you to a position of leadership within the class. It's like herding cats, at that point. No one is going to listen to you, and even when they do, they're going to be rolling their eyes behind their monitors, and they sure as hell aren't going to take you seriously.
Not unlike the designation of a lvl 2 UD RP character as our Guild Mistress, we try our best to ensure that people understand that titles often are meaningless, and that our grand experiment with handling many things differently than most guilds can go smoothly. As a bottom line, many people just can't handle that. They need to know that things ARE, and for better or worse, they will not change. Better you than me. Follow your bliss and dance if you dig that song.
/target Majordomo Executus
/chicken
Through the course of discussion pre-Ony, Thayala, Vespasian, myself, and a number of other high-mileage Pods had determined that our choice of MT was going to be crucial for our success. Much like our first half dozen trips into Molten Core, we were primarily concerned with stacking the odds in our favor. That being the case, there were a number of factors that were involved:
- Although this heinous bitch has nothing but fire damage, it is not an exclusively FR-dependent fight. More than anything, it's a +Stam fight. While I have worked to limit the severity of the Stamina advantage that our Tauren warriors have over Yours Truly, for this fight 5% of 6K is still significant.
- Familiarity with this encounter was paramount. With only a handful of us having seen the fight before in ANY capacity, (and I was not one of them), I was more than willing to play a support role if it came down to it and we needed somebody that has actually had eyeballs on this fight, again, in the interest of maximizing our chances.
- Ves really, really wanted to be able to tank this fight. More than that, he spoke up and asked if he could. Chew on this:
- Vespasian is a Tauren.
- Vespasian is a warrior.
- Vespasian has seen this fight a countless number of times on his human priest, and therefore has a superior familiarity with each phase, positioning, etc.
- Much like the Thunderfury discussion in our Warrior forums, I knew how much he wanted to be able to tank this fight.
- More than all this, he's a good friend, and a damned-fine warrior. We'd be in good hands.
The number of times that we've actually done this are very, very few. I imagine that headed into BWL for the first time, or for Ragnaros, that we will do the same thing. The results may be the same, or they might be different. I've a fairly confident notion that I'll be involved in tanking Rag, but you never know. I think that the MC boss fights are a bit less complicated than anything that came forward from the introduction of Onyxia. Should the opportunity arise to examine designating a MT for a particular fight, I think that I'll work to steer the group into a more open discussion in the forums in advance, that way everyone's on the same page and nobody gets all menstrual and has to /leave TPPTanks.
There can be much room for pain and anguish for someone that is of the mindset that we are a traditional raiding guild with traditional roles that are filled by a handful of people. We don't have a single MT that gets preference for tanking/FR/1H drops. More often than not, we've never given deference to someone on an item, purely based upon seniority in the guild, or their raid attendance alone. By and large, someone's status in the guild as an officer is totally irrelevant with the way that our classes manage themselves.
(Note that I said that the classes manage themselves. It has been our experience that we have gotten along nicely without resorting to the appointed figurehead of class leader, with there not being any room for discussion among the rank & file members of the class. Back in the ancient history of TPP, we have had a number of experiences where a single person has made unilateral decisions on MT and class leadership roles, and to say that it was unpopular is to throw your name in the hat for the Understatement of the Year award. That's just not how we roll).
Among TPPTanks, are there those of us who have worked to earn the trust and respect of the other class members? Absolutely. I will be right up front that I say that any time one of our own has come to me with a particular situation asking my advice, or requesting my assistance to speak for them or the tank column in general, I am terribly humbled by the fact that they trust me enough to do so. I've never gone to the officers on behalf of our warriors when I was not asked to do so. I suppose that makes me one of several "class leaders" among our warriors, but if that is so, it's never come without the support and endorsement of the group as a whole. If we have warriors that choose not to participate in the social network that we have established, then I suppose that their silence gives assent. (This is, of course, the exact opposite of what they might intend to have happen, but like they say every other November "If you don't vote, you can't complain." And more often than not, those individuals end up complaining still, but there's likely no stopping that, anyway). What must be said, though, is that collective decisions and such never come without the groundwork having been laid to earn the trust necessary to have input.
What folks don't always understand, though, is that whenever someone tries to inject themselves into a situation of "power" without the support of those alongside whom you must work, it invariably doesn't stick, because there is no relationships built among everyone else. At that point, if you happen to co-exist as an officer in the guild and play a particular class, that does not entitle you to a position of leadership within the class. It's like herding cats, at that point. No one is going to listen to you, and even when they do, they're going to be rolling their eyes behind their monitors, and they sure as hell aren't going to take you seriously.
Not unlike the designation of a lvl 2 UD RP character as our Guild Mistress, we try our best to ensure that people understand that titles often are meaningless, and that our grand experiment with handling many things differently than most guilds can go smoothly. As a bottom line, many people just can't handle that. They need to know that things ARE, and for better or worse, they will not change. Better you than me. Follow your bliss and dance if you dig that song.
/target Majordomo Executus
/chicken
posted by Voice by Ben at 11:24 AM
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