School of Hard Knocks

So, this week heralded the first real Guild Drama I've dealt with since becoming an officer. This was a valuable learning experience. I feel as if I could have done better in how I reacted internally. I took it personally. I felt sick with stress and hurt feelings. My guildies are my friends, and I felt as if the issue at hand was directly related to me.

Still, I also could have handled this with far less grace than I did. I didn't do too badly, and I did manage to salvage the situation. I also took some valuable information out of the experience.

The Situation

To put this succinctly, a thread was started on our forums about the overabundance of heavy, drama laden RP, and how the sheer numbers of stories and amount of drama is making it difficult to do anything. Now for me, this is a touchy subject; I'm guilty of being the center of much of this. I never intended to be, but my stories become more and more expansive. I let myself get carried away for a while, but I've been working on reducing it, with at least a little success.

This thread was initially a constructive thing, but one of our members- a friend from the guild before this one, and someone whom I have spoken with before about personal Life Stuff- wrote a very long, very scathing post talking about how there's a just a few 'showboats' who steal all the spotlight, and good luck to anyone else trying to get involved. She said that no one gets any help. She said that the stories were ridiculous and unrealistic. She said a lot of things, and I felt as if many of them were pointed directly at me.

My response was to read that post, and immediately feel sick. Am I an attention whore? Am I a shitty officer? Did this person, whom I considered a friend, not consider me a friend any more? Are my stories shit?

I did well at reigning in my knee-jerk reaction to blast her, and instead made a rather long post addressing each of her points in turn. I ignored what I perceived to be personal jabs at me, and moved straight to the issue, only briefly mentioning that my feelings were hurt. I also sent her a private message addressing my feelings, because I didn't want to just let this hang between us.
Everything was pretty mildly stated, and I focused on the problems she'd brought to light- that she 'and others' felt left out, that there were many level-centric RP qualms, that no one was getting any help, and that she'd had some in character interpersonal difficulties.

Still, though my post was pretty calm, I felt like I was going to cry. Her post touched many of my personal insecurities. I often worry about becoming everything that I hate in people- attention whores irritate me to no end, shitty writers who they're good, etc.

I spent most of the day and evening feeling sick to my stomach, and alternating between really disliking her for making such an inflammatory post- after all, if I was right, she could have said all that much less horribly- and hating myself for possessing those qualities which she was raging against in the first place.

What I Did Wrong

I took it personally.
I was too willing to assume that the problem was me, and that I was to blame for my guildie's blowup. I allowed my guildie's frustration to play upon my own insecurities, and made shitty assumptions in order to lambaste myself. These are old, old urges that I thought I'd outgrown when I gained the self confidence to be an adult. I need to be stronger, and have more faith in myself. Sometimes, I might not be able to resolve the problem, and I WILL be blamed for what goes on. I cannot please everyone, and I cannot allow myself to get ripped apart over someone else's issues.

I blamed the source.
I went between blaming myself, and blaming the guildie, for the surge of drama. I felt inclined to turn the guildie in question into the enemy, which does nothing to open communication and address the actual problem. Yes, my guildie could have done much better at articulating the situation; she could have brought this problem to us before, instead of letting it stew and getting angrier. But most people WON'T come to you with their problems, and you just have to be able to work with them. Not everyone is a good communicator, and these situations are GOING to happen. That doesn't mean that the poor communicator is a bad person, or even a bad fit. No one is perfect, and we have to remember why they're a part of our guild- we have to focus on the retention of valuable members, and analyze whether the person is the source of the drama, or if the situation has merely broken them.

What I Did Right

I responded calmly.
Even though I felt personally attacked, I did not allow any of my rage and alternating depression to come through in my post. I focused on the issues at hand, and not the inflammatory way they were brought to me.

I was compassionate.
I considered her point of view, and tried my best to understand the problems from her perspective. I DID address the problems she brought up, and tried to come up with solutions that would help.

The Solution

She responded to my forum message by saying we should probably talk in game, and I agreed. Before talking to her, I spoke with my fellow officers, who were very supportive of this plan. They were also there for emotional support, and one in particular kept whispering me throughout my conversation, making sure I was okay and things were going alright. Have I mentioned I love my guild, and that I love my fellow officers?

I felt that I was going to be the best person to talk to her about this issue. Although many of her points did seem to pertain to me in particular, I knew that I was willing to step into her shoes, and be compassionate. Empathy is one of my strengths. In addition, I had the nagging suspicion that her wrathful post wasn't just what she was saying it was. I felt as if there were many contributing factors to the boil over, and that I had a better idea of what might be going on than others would.

So, she whispered me, and asked if 'now would be a good time to talk'. I said yes, and invited her to group. I waited for her to make contact because I was frankly quite apprehensive, and there was also a large RP event going on, and I didn't want to interrupt her. (In the future, it would probably be better for me to take initiative here.)

She admitted right away that she was horrible at conflict resolution, and that she had made that post out of anger. I told her I considered her a friend, and wanted to understand what was going on, and how I could help. I let her vent. And, at first I was inclined to play the blame game- 'well, that couldn't possibly be our fault because...' Then, I caught myself. This wasn't about blame. Who cared who was 'at fault'? Honestly, looking at it, it was just a series of unfortunate situations.

It boiled down the fact that she, personally, had felt left out by the guild. We have many level eighty characters. Every time she logged on, she would try to get a group for something, but everyone was in heroics, or Naxx, or whatever. She would try to get involved in RP, but the plots moved too quickly, and she was left behind and lost. Her character was ostracized and spurned. No one said 'hello' when she logged on. She felt lonely, and isolated, and was -this- close to just up and transferring servers.

She needed more than she was getting. And honestly, that's what our guild is about- we are helpful and friendly to one another, and she should have been able to get the interaction she was wanting. I don't blame anyone; I know that I get tunnel vision when I'm focused on something. I honestly feel it was more chance than anyone particularly shunning her.

Still, it IS a problem. Our guild is very close, and I'd say most of us play to play with one another. I can see where she was coming from, and I took steps to remedy it.

Her character is a discipline priest. I've mentioned in previous posts about the Apprenticeship program, which is actually designed to prevent this sort of thing; I went ahead and apprenticed her single target healer to my single target Holy Paladin. There aren't any other up and coming healers, so why not? I enjoy RPing with this person, and she was incredibly relieved just to be a part of SOMETHING. I get that.

In addition, I'm going to be more attentive to saying 'hello' when people log on. I know it always makes me feel fantastic when I get the requisite six people jumping on me with a 'Hi!' and 'DYNA! *pounce*' I like being greeted, and I know others do too- so I'm going to try to be more on that.

Also, I'm going to try and avoid that tunnel vision that I get when I'm 'doing something'. What's more important? 'Doing something', or spending time with my guildies?

I've also told her to please, please, please come to me- or another officer- if she begins to feel left out or lonely again. I made the point that we CANNOT POSSIBLY know that there's a problem, unless someone tells us. The fact that she nearly transferred without saying anything, honestly speaks poorly of her. Still, that's her issue, and she knows it. I think she'll be more inclined to talk to me in the future, because I handled her problem with compassion and kindness. I feel like I did good with this situation, ultimately.

New Favorite Picture

Links!

Okay, folks. RL stuff has me bored to tears all day long as I sit in training, reviewing things we've already been over seventy million times before for hours and hours on end. So, as a result, I've found myself studying up as best I can, and I've found some new articles that I've found really interesting!

Wendy Tanks The World: DK Tanking 101
(http://wendytankstheworld.blogspot.com/2009/05/dk-tanking-101-pulling-with-confidence.html)

• This is an extremely well written article, and I'm not just saying it because Wendy is awesome. Clever use of analogy and humor will keep you laughing, while at the same time she selflessly divulges her super secret DK tanking tricks. Some of these strategies could be applied to prot paladin tanking, as well; just substitute Hand of Reckoning for Dark Command, and consecrate for Death and Decay; to a certain extent, Righteous Defense could replace Death Grip, although that is not a perfect substitution by any stretch of the imagination.

Blessing of Kings: Regenerating Mana and Healing (http://blessingofkings.blogspot.com/2009/05/regenerating-mana-and-healing.html)

• I found this to be an interesting read, and it got me thinking more about the challenges of Ulduar, and of the changes the game has gone through. Now, personally, I haven't been around since Vanilla WoW, and I can't really relate; as far as I recall, mana regen has been a priority for me, preferably not at the expense of throughput. Overall an interesting read.
  

Greedy Goblin: Server Transfer Complete
(http://greedygoblin.blogspot.com/2009/05/transfer-complete.html)

• For those following Gevlon and his Goblin Philosophy, this has been a fascinating series on WoW economics. The long and short of it is that Gevlon has changed servers, having joined a guild with some terms and stipulations applied. He turns the whole WoW raiding process into a series of agreements and interactions. I find it fascinating. My own playstyle is what he would refer to as a 'social', but even though we game in a completely different way, I find the Goblin Philosophy to be a fascinating read regardless.

Penance Priest
(http://penancepriest.blogspot.com/)

• Alright, I don't have any specific post I'm linking to, but I just discovered this one earlier this morning, and I find it to be a very useful insight into the life and playstyle of a discipline priest. There's also useful information about macros, and discpriest abilities. This makes me want to level Kestrell as disc/shadow, and leave my shaman to be a group healer- but... I have single target heals covered by Ody, do I really need another single target healer? Yes. Yes I do.

Holy Discipline: Fresh Food
(http://holydiscipline.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/fresh-food/)

• This was a cute idea, and would make cooking/gathering for cooking a total bitch. But again, an interesting read, and a neat idea! Plus, Anea is an awesomesauce writer, and Holy Discipline is worth following regardless.

I Like Bubbles
(http://forthebubbles.wordpress.com/)

• This is definitely one of my personal favorite reads. Ambrosyne is a holy paladin gone disc priest, and has a really fun writing style. I love reading her blog, and went into a spazztastic hopping puddle of joy when I saw that my little, tiny blog is on her Blogroll! It also makes me want to implement my own blogroll...

Mentor Dyna

This is what I have for my program so far. Thoughts? Please feel free to share!

To be posted on our guild forums:

...

My friends,

It has come to my attention that there are those in our number who could use guidance.

We pit ourselves against the great floating Citadel of Naxxramas, against the might of Sartharion and his drakes, and, more recently, the titan prison of Ulduar. We must rely upon one another to stay alive.

Many of us have become masters at our chosen paths.

It is my belief that we can help each other, and that we may share the benefits of our experiences with one another.

I ask each of you to step forward, and to come to me if you would learn. Young, old, experienced or new, we all have something to learn from one another.

Step forward, friends, and tell me what you would know. Step forward, and share your knowledge.

-Dyna

OOC INFO: Alright, folks. That's the IC "hook" to the apprenticeship program. Please, please feel welcome to participate in this role play!

The end goal here is to involve more people in more role play, to find ways to involve ourselves in RP with more varied groups! In addition, we can bring new members more closely into the fold- and not just as apprentcies, either.

The whole deal is in character. We would prefer that mentor types show gameplay mastery of what they are masters of.

Apprenticeship/Mentoring can be a chain of knowledge, or it can simply be two characters and no more. It would be preferable to chain down the guild, so that we get more varied RP, but this will not be required by any means. This is going to depend on IC personalities, and the availability of that class/role.

For anyone who wants further (ooc) information on the class/role they are mentoring for, I can help! I know many, many resources to point you to- so even though I know nothing about DPS, for example, I know where to find information you want and can use!

Leadership, role play, and raiding

This week has seen some interesting changes. It's my first week of officership, and so far, I am finding myself really enthused and energized about the whole process- although I feel marginally intimidated by the project that I have set myself to, which is setting up a role play apprenticeship system so that we can have more character interaction, and perhaps bring an element of warfare to the guild RP.

Our guild has changed since I first joined. Originally, there was no raid team, only a few max levels who joined something called the Small Guild Kara Alliance. I was in a different guild at the time, a guild that had a raid team, but that was also small and role play oriented. We brought in some of our friends from my current guild, and it was good.

Then that guild fell apart, and with it, the raid team. I joined our ally guild, which is my current guild, and three of us paladins planned. We were going to have a raiding team, dang it! After all, we had enough people who make max level- it was going to be awesome.

So we brought raiding into the guild, and ever since, it has stuck.

However, this has left a bit of a rift between raiding and role play, as the raiding was never really mixed with the role play aspects. Back in my original guild, we would actively role play during the raid; but in Naxx, and now in Ulduar, we don't really do that. The feel of the RP is different in this guild than it was in my last one. That isn't to say bad, mind- but this isn't my last guild, and I'm happy with that.

Still, it has been noted that we really are still primarily an RP guild, and it could be fun to incorporate our weekly ventures into Naxxramas, Obsidian Sanctum, and Ulduar into our guild role play, since so many of us have become so entrenched in raiding.

We also seem to be developing more and more max level characters, ones who haven't necessarily raided before.

So, to work on the PVE skillsets of those characters, my thought is that we can create an role play system where characters of similar class and mindset can provide instruction to their 'apprentices'; this would include in character discussion of ability rotations, gearing, and actual raid strategy. For characters who are not max level, this would still allow role play interaction, as a character could take on a lower level apprentice, and slowly guide them through the process of leveling up and learning their class, from an IC perspective.

This in character learning could also apply to dual specs, and to professions, for those who aren't as interested in the raiding aspect.

My hope is that this would draw together these two very important, very wonderful aspects of my incredible guild- mesh the PvE progression with the role play that our guild is founded on and continues to be focused on.

However, this project is slightly intimidating to me. Generally, our guild is very relaxed, and easy going. People are willing to take advice and criticism. But I'm not sure how to set this up.

(If anyone has any suggestions on that, I'd love to hear them!)

As for the rest of my WoW experience, aside from the new tasks of officership, I've also been RPing. (Who is surprised? Oh, that's right, no one.) I've managed to bring Kestrell into role play more, which pleases me, and I brought Odynae, my main, back from her jaunt in Ice Crown. She is no longer with Leonu, and has turned into a bitter, hardened warrior- which I believe will leave her in a good position to organize the apprentice/training endeavor. Before, she was rather wiffly and ineffective. I think she'll make a better leader this way.

In addition, I have utterly failed at doing my dailies, or leveling my death knight. I have, however, been working on Rhainn (said DK)'s herbalism and alchemy. She's at 250, and 259, respectively. I'm proud of this. Soon, soon, I shall have flasks and mana potions for my main! Muahahaa!

I'm also trying to get together the materials to make two of our new eighties, both ret paladins (one of whom is off-speccing holy!) their titansteel destroyers. But oh god I hate farming Titanium nodes on my stupid slow flying mount.

Which leads me back to the fact that I NEED TO DO MY DAMN DAILIES. Arrrghhhh.

Ever since I hit Revered with Hodir, I've felt absolutely no motivation. Not even being poor, poor, poor has caused me to stir my lazy butt.

Ah well.

This weekend, we will be taking on Malygos once again, and downing OS. Sunday we will be running Naxx, but I doubt I'll get to go; two of our healers just returned from long absences, and I don't really need much out of there, other than Maexxna's cursed shield. I've pretty much accepted that it will ONLY drop if I am not there. Or it will drop the day after I get the shield off of XT in Ulduar. Argh.

However, despite probably not going to Naxx, I will be attending one of (sort of) ally guilds' Ulduar run, since my guild is not doing Ulduar this weekend due to our fresh eighties and our desire to include them! So, YAY Ulduar with SSB! I'm excited, folks!

Ulduar!

My guild made it's second venture into Ulduar this weekend.

Boy, that instance KICKS. ASS.

This weekend was much better than last weekend. Last weekend we had to PuG three people. Yes, three people we had not run with before. That SUCKED. But this last weekend, we actually had three extra.

Our raid leader had to make the difficult decision as to who would sit, and who would run. It was sad; a few people who don't routinely show up were asked to sit out, after doing lots of research... but we needed the best geared, most teamwork oriented people in our group to go. I was especially sad that my PocketPriestess didn't get to go, but she was the last geared of the three asked to sit.

Our UberMage was asked to sit, because while he is geared, he hasn't had the same experience as the rest of us, due to his sporadic raid attendance. This can't be helped; RL comes first, and we are not a hardcore raiding guild, but he does his research... I was sad that we didn't have the raidslot for him. And our awesome DK tank- Wendy (who also Tanks The World)- was also unable to go, due to gear constraints and schedule constraints that keep her from being able to go with us to Naxx routinely, thereby getting gear and raid experience.

Anyhow, we had two feral druids- Zenkitteh and Shinkitteh- our enhance shammy of doom who I fight over the kitties with, our pew pew spriest, and our ele shammy of fantastic (I LOVE WRATH OF AIR TOTEM RAWR). For tanks, we had Leodude, pally crazytank who was my favorite tank to run with forever, and Thanebane, our raid leader. For group healers, we had myself (yes, the holy paladin..) and Feyfey, our resto druid, then Wys the discpriest on MT.

We took down Flame Lev after the people who were new to this week learned the fight. It took a few wipes, sadly enough; we had some difficulties in launching the kitty druids ONTO Flame Lev without letting them go splat. You know, I hate to admit I was wrong, but I was wrong- that fight is a lot of fun. I take back all the nasty fearful things I said about hating vehicles. It was a blast!

Instead of Razorscale, we moved ahead to XT Deconstructor. He has a shield that I want, anyway, and I really hoped we'd get him down.

We wiped about 7 times before calling it, but on one try, we got him down to 7% before hitting the enrage timer! We worked on our strategy, and I think healing went pretty well- I swapped out a few crit pieces for haste pieces, so as to be a more effective group healer, since the disc priest really isn't too good at group healing and I'm used to it anyway. I'm a little disheartened, because once my PocketPriestess gets geared, it just doesn't make sense to bring both me and the disc priest; it would be easier on the group to have two group healers, instead of me, and the disc priest doesn't spec holy.

Still, I am very proud of myself; I kept my assigned targets up. But the problem was that those who got hit with the Light Bomb occasionally did NOT get the heals they needed; I would kill to be a resto druid right now!

Light bomb + Tantrum = Dead target. That sucked; we NEED our ele shammy to not be shammysmear on the ground!

But this fight was HELLA fun, and I'm very pleased with the performance of the entire healing team. We really got this down. My faith in the disc priest has grown immensely. I do admit, I occasionally chucked a heal at the tank; I can't help it, it's in my nature! But she did a great job at keeping her targets up, and I can't complain in the slightest.

The tree druid and I need to work a bit more, but I think we were really getting it down, so woot!

Really, what needs to happen this fight is that the DPS needs to step it up yet another notch, or maybe healers need to DPS during the heart phase; I helped DPS the heart (popped wings and everything) on the attempt we got him down to 7%... so I'm going to encourage my healers to do what they can. Disc priest DPS = yummy anyway.

I can't wait to go back next weekend!

In others news, I was promoted to an officer this weekend, as was the lovely miss Wendy (Mandatory plug here.)

We have lots of ideas, including starting a second raid, and integrating raid stuff into RP stuff. Our guild is primarily an RP guild; it is only our members' interest in raiding which makes us so successful as a raiding team. It has been a concern that raiding interferes with RP, but if we work integrate more RP into the raid, and into our raiding experience itself, this may help to combine the two things we seem to be doing.

Dyna's Pre-Raid Preplist

Anything worth doing is worth doing well and thoroughly. We raid because we love it; our friends are there, the game is there, and we each fulfill an integral role. We raid because there is skill there. We are a team, all working towards one goal. Sure, there may be pretty purple pixels on the screen as an in-game incentive or reward for our efforts, but at the end of the day, we’re there for our friends, for our team. We raid, because we love to raid.

Here at Holy Protadin!, I have gone… for two weeks… with no raiding. None. N-o-n-e. And let me tell you, folks, I’m starting to feel a little stir crazy!

What follows is a list of things that have gone through my head, since I woke up three hours early. (Note: Our raid starts at 9AM. Yes, folks, I woke up at 6AM. On a Saturday. I am aware that there is something severely wrong with me, yes.)

-Anything worth doing, is worth doing while looking PRETTY.
Shower. Attend to your hygiene. Put on your best dress, gussy up, tuck those earrings in and look like you’re ready to go out on the town! You’ll feel great, and the physical boost to confidence is notable. Look your best!

-Eat a good breakfast.
Make sure to eat before raiding. I can’t tell you how many times this has been an issue for me; mid-raid, I realize I’m queasy and light-headed from, oh, hunger. That thing. And who wants to wait for your lazy butt to eat food? Not me, that’s for certain!

-Get what needs to be done, done, beforehand.
Likewise, no one wants to wait for you to finish some task or chore that should have been done beforehand. Let the dog out to take a crap, feed your fish, run that load of dishes, switch your laundry- before the raid, please! Argh!

-Check your toon.
Make sure you’re at full repairs, that you have a good-sized stack of food, that you have scrolls and flasks. Double-check that you’re in your raid gear. As an RPer, this can be a very real concern, people! Double-check your gemming and enchantments, and make sure you have the appropriate water/reagents and potions.

-Set up your desk space
Make sure you have water, that your chair is comfy, that the mess-level is tolerable. If you want to be super awesome, you could even make sure you have vegetables close at hand to munch on in case you get hungry during the raid. Or if you want to be super horrid, make sure you have booze to play the ‘who wipes on Frogger?’ drinking game. Everyone loves a drunken tank!

-… chill.

-Who am I kidding? Spazz out like a ninja!
Get that energy out BEFORE you get on Vent, folks! Don’t be like me! Run around in circles outside, enjoy the fresh air and sunlight before sequestering yourself away in your dark nest for the rest of the day!