Ah, it’s that time again. Raid attendence drops, people stop paying attention, and all of a sudden we’re wiping on farm content.
Freya defeated us again last night, which has me wanting to cry in both sadness and anger. It’s Freya, for fuck’s sake. In Ulduar. She’s a keeper that we used to be able to down regularly. I don’t know where everyone’s head was, but if the trash wipes didn’t clue me in, a Freya pull by someone distracted by the TV should have. I want to kill Yoggy, people. :(
It’s a struggle for me, internally. I’m telling myself that it’s just a natural lull, the kind that BoO has survived over and over. Then there’s the part of my brain that is screaming YOU ARE THE MOST TERRIBLE GM EVER, and I hate that part. I’m flailing at my support network on a regular basis (I love you guys).
I GM’d once before, in BC. We had a cozy little group of friends, barely enough to scrape together a Kara. Then one day my co-GM and one of our precious healers transferred off server without warning, and I’m afraid I was rather gutted after that and the guild slowly dwindled away. Gwuh. Will not repeat.
I’ve got an officer who is perpetually MIA…no, actually, two officers who are perpeutally MIA, though one of them at least occassionaly shows up and leads an off night raid. Cranky Tank is on that wavering age of burn out and /game quit…again. Of the other three officers, one is the former GM and lord knows where his mind is…and the other two are also sort of wavering uncertainly in burn out/bored land. In other words, I’m really afraid to lean on anybody, and the number of people I feel I can count on is smaller than our number of officers.
Of course this just means that I’ll actually be leaning on the people who currently keep me raiding, officer or not. Myss. Oasic. Celaeno. Pyxy. Kyr. Rivyn. Atropus. Frost. All of you who joke around and generally make my nights amusing.
I have a couple of angry rants saved up, but I’m almost afraid to voice them. Perhaps tomorrow will be Pull Your Head Out Of Your Asses Lecture Day, where I talk about things like continuing to stare at the TV and not the computer when your GM on vent is going “EVERYONE BACK UP BACK UP BACK OH GOD THE BOSS PULLED” is pretty damn fail.
To cap the fail, I missed taming Loque by like…a minute. Then I hopped on my warrior and found Skoll’s corpse. Bwuh. Sad BM hunter is sad. /pokemons
I Like Bubbles 
#1 by Psynister on November 20, 2009 - 10:40 am
Just a suggestion, but you might consider throwing an old raid into the mix just to liven things up a bit. Have everyone do something just to the fun of doing it and see if that peaks some interest again.
#2 by shieldbreakr on November 20, 2009 - 10:56 am
I have to say it: you’re a way better GM than I have ever been. I don’t think I could analyze my officers quite so fast off the cuff like this and knowing that you have weaknesses means you have time to work around them. Psynister has some good advice.
It’s a risk, but you might try taking a week off. Nothing like seven days of nothing cleans out the cobwebs and pushes the anticipation of the next raid up. Next week being Thanksgiving (here in the US), it coincides well with a normal drop in attendance.
#3 by kyrilean on November 20, 2009 - 11:30 am
“Pull Your Head Out Of Your Asses Lecture Day”
Can I get a flowchart with this? :D
#4 by Askevar on November 20, 2009 - 11:42 am
We tried the old raid thing. All we got was whining about “why aren’t we doing something we can get gear from?”
We’re trying a guild raiding alliance… but already the people we’re allied with are being jerks to some of our members. We won’t tolerate that behavior in 25 mans [we’re the RLs] so we could end up with stressful raid leading this weekend… gah
#5 by Susannah on November 20, 2009 - 12:13 pm
Lurker poking her head out just to say–lordy, I hear you. I’m GM of my guild, we’re at the point where we’re clearing ToC 25/Ony 25/VoA 25 in 2 hours on Tuesday night…and then suddenly everyone has to leave, and they don’t show up again until next Tuesday. Never mind that we still haven’t killed Yogg on 25-man, and at some point I really would like to try ToC 25 hardmodes (if only to say that we tried it, personally I hate hardmodes with a blinding white burning hatred of hate).
At this point I’m just gritting my teeth and praying we make it to the next patch. Recruiting is dead on my server, so if people don’t come back for the new shinies in 3.3 I don’t know what I’m going to do….
::fist-bump of solidarity::
#6 by Myssidia on November 20, 2009 - 1:13 pm
=X If I could be there more nights a week for you, I totally would. And don’t worry about it, you’re an excellent GM. The problems with the officers will work itself out in one way or another. The same with the people who aren’t showing up, paying attention, or bringing mental capabilities to the raid. You’re right, it’s pre-patch lull, and when 3.3 hits, those that aren’t playing 100% in Uld or ToC right now will be begging for raid nights so that they can get geared enough to not fail at ICC. Personally, I’ve been waiting for that raid since I *started* playing WoW, so I know that I’ll be doing as much as I can (on my limited schedule) to be ready for it.
TL;DR Be patient =] Everything will work out in the end.
#7 by theerivs on November 20, 2009 - 3:01 pm
Where else are you going to get naked gay superheroes falling to their death.
#8 by shadowtycho on November 20, 2009 - 3:43 pm
i find that the prepatch time is the best time to stock up on flasks and get that repair money going, put out a checklist for your raiders to give them something to do. if anything it will make the people who care about raiding and doing their best stand out.
#9 by evisceratespam on November 20, 2009 - 3:49 pm
Oh you silly hunter, you should camp the spawn after the server resets :P
Anywho…. you are a good GM, much better than I was back in BC leading a guild through SSC and TK. I swear to god if they make a kaelthas raid clone in ICC or in Cata I will gut someones wrists and shove them up some arses.
We just need to take people into old content that actually want to be there, I for one have never personally seen all of ulduar, have always had a passion for PvE raid content so if I’m on you know I’m game.
#10 by Joe Ego on November 20, 2009 - 3:54 pm
Random fun stuff. Run 1 healer for Archavon 10, maybe even Emalon 10 too. Run 1 healer for Archavon 25 and limit your 2nd healer (priest) to Holy Nova spam. Work those dual specs.
Speed Naxx. Master Looter grabs everything and rolls are done on trash or after KT if it can be done fast enough. Not enough for a full raid? Go shorthanded just for the achievement.
VoA rotation not working well with your raid schedule? Take the raid to attack or defend WG. Just this week we had WG defense as invites were completing. So most of the raid (20+ of us) and several randoms destroyed the Horde’s southern towers and workshops. Tons of fun and we didn’t have to wait for VoA to become available later.
People bringing alts & crap performance to VoA? Setup for Earth Wind & Fire.
Nobody wants to go to Ulduar even though half the raid can find an upgrade there? Save the Raid ID and down 2 or 3 bosses per week with the expressed purpose of getting to and downing Yogg.
#11 by Forreststump on November 20, 2009 - 4:14 pm
Looking at the possibly of ICC not coming until after the holidays (see Honor’s Code blog) = bad news for GMs everywhere.
#12 by Mach on November 20, 2009 - 4:24 pm
Former BoO GM here. My gear us right where yours is. Take it from me and I am sure others will agree if you’ve been GM fir a long time you can’t turn it off like a switch. You shouldn’t be afraid to lean in me or ask me to help. There is a reason why I stepped down to officer rather than core raider. Sure I may poke fun and joke but know that I’m still here to get the job done. While GM I didn’t allow myself to have fun. As officer I am trying to enjoy the game again but I will still perform my officer duties happily.
#13 by Oasic on November 20, 2009 - 4:28 pm
Pre-patch is taking its toll on me too, guh. Pretty much I only come online for raid nights nowadays so keep those up on the wrm! :-)
For the Ulduar raid: its probably a good idea to only take people who either learned about the fights or have done them before. I have a feeling the recent troubles are just inexperience; some research might help.
As for old raids…Undying Naxx10 with our best!! It would be pretty fun to get a weekly attempt in and just stop if someone dies. That title is cool.
Also, omgz where is my tag. ;-)
#14 by Christian on November 20, 2009 - 6:08 pm
Just remember that not leaning on anyone because you are afraid of their burnout leads to GM Amber burnout, and blog readers who will be sad pandas :(
#15 by hedwann on November 21, 2009 - 10:35 am
Feelin the prepatch burnout here. My guilds tryin like mad to get twin Valks hard mode down before it hits, and its making for some grumpy people.
Personally, I have next week off raiding….darn you work and having to pay billS, so I hope to come back refreshed and ready to kick some flying chick tail.
#16 by hallo on November 21, 2009 - 1:24 pm
@Susannah
I hate, hate, hate people that do that. For a while we were running ToC on our first night and then running short handed our last two.
Easy fix, change the night up on them. I took Ciderhelm’s advice from one of his podcasts and don’t choose the content until I know what tools I have in the raid.
Its worked wonders for our attendance. Also convinving them that a fight like Yogg will prepare them better for ICC than the loot pinata ToC has become will do wonders.
It is also a good time to keep them on their toes by changing up strats and pushing the pace of your raid. No one wants to sit around and wait all noght.
For examplr, this week on our first 2 hour night I layed out the expectation that we would do Ulduar from the beginning through thorim. They ended up exceeding them by getting Mimi as well. Not bad for 2 hours. Keep them challenged and they will respond. If you treat it like routine they will as well and won’t consider it to be important.
#17 by awesome internet dude on November 21, 2009 - 5:07 pm
I supposse they would respond better to some visual stimulation, such as nudes or at least boobs.
#18 by Michael on November 21, 2009 - 6:41 pm
I wish i had your problem. I am in a guild with people getting burnt out and the raid leader seeming not to care. But for the 25 raid me and my wife are not among the static list. We have been going with them for about 4 weeks. This past week I have tried asking how to become static couple of times only to be brushed off. The first time being told that he (the raid leader) wasn’t sure if they were continuing. The second time getting the cold shoulder. The funny thing is I am a holy paladin and the wife is a resto shaman. We always come fully prepared and do our homework before the fight. You would think a rl who is short players would want people wanting to be static. Oh wells.