The DPS side of things
Recently I was surprised at the amount of DPS we’ve gotten in our raids. Specifically what one Demonology Warlock did. A little about the player.
Teenager with a limited playing schedule who can only join us sporadically. I like him, I mentored him a little when I first ran with him and gave him a few tips. This was back when we were both with the Destruction spec. Since then he has switched over to Demonology, geared himself amazingly with a lot of hard work (surpassing my own little warlock) and has blown his DPS off the chart. Amazing and I have a lot of respect for him.
This has changed my opinion of some people who have more time to raid (or just generally more time spent in-game) who struggle to break out their DPS above the tanks. My previous blog post touches on this a little, but how can I approach someone about their lackluster performance week after week? We are in no way a hardcore raiding guild, but we do take it seriously. It is very disparaging to see someone with top (or near top) tier gear with a class that has a lot of DPS output struggling to break 3000DPS on a fight that does not require movement.
Here I think of fights like Saurfang for example. Mobility is not really required here unless it’s called for a single element (Blood Beasts to be precise, but they’re handled easily by ranged) and yet they struggle. How do I go and tell them they need to work out their class so it does what it can do with all that shiny purple gear and make sure they don’t take offense? I know some would take constructive criticism well, but you never know.
What are your ideas on this?
April 27, 2010 at 11:20 am
At some point you have to make a choice as a GM. You either ignore it an allow it to hold you back, possibly loosing better players to lack of progress, or say something.
At the end of the day you gotta decide, do i risk loosing my good player over it or my bad player. That’s essentially the issue if no progress is being mad due to some holding you back. If your not being held back then it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day.
April 30, 2010 at 3:15 pm
First thing: designate someone else to approach folks about things they could do to better themselves. You are a blunt guy, and I think if you’re trying to tell someone “you need to suck less, here’s how”, you’d say it well…in a way that may rub them the wrong way.
Second: Not sure if this would work, but perhaps someone (if not an officer themselves) who has a fairly good grasp of their class could be tapped to approach the person one on one. Though having recently talked with a guildie (on my other server) who was approached about having ‘low’ healing numbers as a priest…this is a slippery slope. It’s got to be done in a non-confrontational, non-jerky way. This guildie was subjected to 2 hours of glyph, talent point, spell rotation examination, time spent on dummies to see what she could do better and at the end of it felt like worthless crap. Some people may not be aware of simple things and facts that could help them be a better player. We don’t all have time to do the same amount of research into being the best you can be. Some are too lazy.
Third: Maybe there could be a “Class Advice” section in the guild forums, where folks could post tips and macros and knowledge they may feel like sharing. That way it’s not confronting a specific person, and it’s stuff all of us in the guild can read and be smarter-er for it. People can be encouraged to post links to sites they’ve found useful, or ask questions they may have.
May 2, 2010 at 2:08 am
Do I ever say anything that doesn’t rub everyone the wrong way?
May 4, 2010 at 2:13 pm
Sure you do! Just last night when you popped in our 10 man channel while we were in ICC to ask if we were all good and wishing us well in our Rotface attempt (which we got the first try, with no deaths!). That was rather nice of you.
Other than that….um….lemme get back to you on that.
May 15, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Some people just don’t dream about topping DPS charts, they just want to be helpful and raid a little…
Class officers, maybe? I’m just trying to not steal Endy’s idea