Since we usually hear stories about how terrible Looking For Raid is, I thought I'd mention a good experience I had last Sunday. We were on Amber-Shaper Un'sok. Both tanks were new to the fight, as were several other people.
And we wiped.
But people didn't start whining and complaining. Instead the fight was explained, especially the mechanics of the construct. Some people cycled in and out, but by and large the raid stayed together.
And we wiped again. But we did better.
The fight was re-explained, and the specific thing we were failing on was pointed out. Again, no raging.
And we wiped again, but came fairly close to finishing.
Still no complaints, and we tried again.
This time the boss died. And we finished the instance. Four attempts on the boss, each time getting better and better, until we got a kill. No whining and complaining, just explaining the strategy.
I think a great deal of this is due to the first person who spoke up after the wipes. He or she was very positive, focusing on mechanics, and the things that need to improve. Without insulting or denigrating the others in the raid.
I think the first person to be vocal sets a lot of the tone for the group. If that person is hateful and elitist then others feel like they have permission to be hateful and elitist. So the lesson here is not to stay quiet. If you want a pleasant experience, you should speak up first, and set the example for the group.
Then of course I ran into my standard loot luck. The only non-epic I have is my i450 weapon. I was hoping to get the Sha-Touched mace from Empress. Instead, I got a tier chest, which I already have. I popped a Greater Charm and got ... another tier chest!
Lady Fortune mocks me.
That is quite an unusual LFR you were in. As you say, the first talker sets the tone for future comments, and we should strive to be that talker. In my experience, the first commenters are usually whiners who are about to drop group. Generally once they're gone and replaced, things get better anyway, as the remaining adventurers set about fixing problems.
ReplyDeleteI experienced that even a small and easy good evening at the start of the run can set the tone to friendly and reduces the chance of hatespewing...
ReplyDeleteThat's really interesting. I'll definitely try starting a positive dialogue the next Raid Finder group I'm in. I guess it's like the broken windows theory-- people extrapolate from what they see and act according to what they see as appropriate for the situation.
ReplyDeleteIt's worth noting that wiping three times and then succeeding shows that the difficulty was really well-tuned for your group-- people learned the mechanics through failing and improved enough to succeed. Overcoming challenge is the definition of enjoyment in a video game.
That gives me hope about LFR. Maybe the "early" ones (ilevel 460) are more filled with upset badgers than the "later" ones. I haven't had the chance to see the later ones, though, since I'm still noobgeared.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the story!
Stubborn
I find that simply sticking with a group means that eventually enough people will drop out and come in that it will mean inevitable success.
ReplyDeleteI also find that out of every 10 LFR wipes I have, about 7 of them are on Garalon.
@Anonymous, I think that's because there's always someone impatient enough to start it while people are still corpse running. I don't think any other bosses have a mechanic that can kill you before the encounter starts.
ReplyDeleteI usually find the groups wiping on the first boss I join for and progressively getting better, not any boss in particular. (I observed the players who were more likely to cause wipes often quitting after a couple of wipes too.)
You probably have replaced the weapon by now, but I wanted to say that ilvl 463 weapons drop fairly frequently in the boxes from random scenarios.
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