Temerity Jane

Wintersaber: The Epic Version, Part 2.

Read Part 1 here.

Right, so, I decided I was going to get back into raiding, and BRK, Doom, Cay and Fio had already gone to extensive effort on my part, with helping to ease the way, gear, and other help.

For the sake of honesty, the first few raids were pretty bumpy. Everyone was trying very hard, but no one was quite sure what exactly would need to be done. There was a lot of trial and error. Doom was concerned I felt like I was forced to be there, Cay & Fio just didn’t know what to think quite yet, BRK alternated between silence and overloading me with information.

However, as time went on, things definitely started to improve. I’ve almost got Gruul down now, to the point that I’m comfortable enough that my performance is actually starting to be worthwhile. Did I mention that in taking me along on these raids, Celliana, our RL and MT, was essentially dragging my deadweight? In Kara, he still is, in fact. But he’s done so completely willingly, without ever a single complaint that I’ve heard.

As time has gone on, and I’ve been spending time in Gruul’s Lair and Kara every week, we’ve settled into a pretty workable situation. It’s not all easy – in fact, it’s not at ALL easy. In Kara this weekend, I had an incredibly rough start, confused and bewildered from the get go, as I had switched in with someone else, had never been to that part of the instance before, and Celli was a bit gung-ho to keep moving, moving, moving. As far as my raiding has gone so far, it was definitely the most epic example of what a problem raiding could be for me. I was called upon to banish targets, but was so overwhelmed by that point that I had burst into tears (over a game, yes, but not really, if you read the earlier entry – these things in game have real life effects and ramifications for me, as far as my personal state goes), but BRK and Cay, who were along on the run, managed things so smoothly that by the time we got to Aran, it was all good again.

As far as what needs to be done in the instance, for me – one, it can’t be assumed that I know anything. Not even trash. It’s very possible that I DO know, but I rely on people like Cay, Fio, Doom and BRK to keep me apprised of what’s going on, so that I can focus my attention on the actual actions I need to take. Remember what I said earlier, about being unable to pick out the important pieces of information – they all listen to what Celli explains, and then send me tells, repeatedly, 2 or 3 of them at a time, explaining what exactly I should have gotten from that speech, just to make sure I am completely clear on what’s expected of me. They let me know what’s going to happen, when something is going to be hectic, what to look out for, when to move. It’s done through tells, over vent, with raid symbols, even, in one notable case, with Doom (not even in the raid at the time) on the phone with me explaining the Aran fight while I read tells from Cay explaining to “Stay to the right of the blue square, always!.” She was the blue square, see. Of course, you’ve got to be a bit more specific – once she died, I just hopped up and down on her body and said “Oh no, oh no!” That’s another thing that needs to be considered, often – specific instructions are great, and I will follow them. Absolutely. When we come across a Lair Brute in Gruul’s, and I’m told to 1, get behind it, and 2, kill it, if the target is moving and moving, I will not be able to adjust my game plan mid-battle. I will spend the entire kill running in circles, attempting to complete step 1 in order to move on to step 2. So yeah, it’s been a learning experience for everyone.

However – while I think it has been tough on everyone, and while, no matter what anyone says, I DO think I’m asking a lot – there’s never been any kind of begrudging behavior that I’ve seen. Everyone involved in the guild has not only done everything willingly, but with no complaining, tantrums, entreaties for me to just hurry up and GET it already.

BRK – has developed a really good sense of pacing, and always goes to bat for me in officer chat, without me having to say a word, to reign Celli in, tell him he’s moving a bit to quickly for me to comfortably keep up. I don’t have to say anything when a pull is done without warning, BRK is on top of it before the pull is done. He is basically the one in the background making sure that the environment stays as comfortable and as workable as possible for me. Though he DID kill me in Kara last weekend. Seriously.

Fio – makes all the raid groups and is always sure to put me where he thinks I’ll have the opportunity to do the best, with no mind toward progression where I’m concerned. There are far better DPSers, far better locks than me, and he could easily move me around based on loading groups for faster progression, but that’s just not how he works at all. When he’s listed the groups and I’ve had to ask him to, if at all possible, could he please, if he happens to need to rotate people in and out, please please switch me in or out so I don’t have to do more than 3 bosses in a night (the seeming breaking point right now), it’s done within a couple of minutes with no issues at all. On top of that, within a raid, Fio’s developed this awesome innate sense of knowing exactly when to send me a tell, with the exact right information, without ever being overbearing or too hands off.

Celli – has accepted absolutely everything without complaint. I know when Cay or BRK has called something out in officer chat, because he can’t read and talk at the same time. He stops mid-sentence, reads, and then changes tactics as needed to accommodate me – putting me last in rotation for banishing fel stalkers in Gruul’s, for example. He always makes an effort to call out pulls, even though sometimes he gets excited and forgets, and even though everyone really -should- be comfortable with trash by now. After the first couple of raids with me, he made a solid and impressive effort to be much more clear and concise with his explanations of boss fights, and never assumes anything. When someone tells him something with regards to me, and he needs to make an adjustment or call a break, he never says anything about the fact that the change is being made for me. He’s incredibly discreet about it, and I really appreciate that.

Doom – checks on me in every single raid. He explains every single fight to me whenever I need it, even if Celli just explained it, or even if he himself just finished explaining it. It sounds like what everyone else does, except for the fact that he does this when he’s not even in the raid. If I’m raiding on a night Doom isn’t, he makes sure he’s in the vent channel with the raid, and checks on my status throughout the night. He listens to the progress of the raid, and communicates with me through the whole thing. He’s very nearly running everything twice a week, what with the time he dedicates to MY raids on top of his own.

Cay – checks in with me at the beginning of every raid, to measure my excitement level to make sure I am just! as! thrilled! as! her! that Gruul is going down. She also sends me tells through the whole raid, reiterating kill order, breaking boss fight instructions down to extremely simple basics for me, and on top of that, keeps an eye on me through the actual fights and verbally directs me as well, which has been HUGE in keeping me alive and keeping my DPS (as weenie as it is so far) up – come to me, run to the side, stay to my right, etc, environmental stuff I have a hard time focusing on – all of that, on top of healing. And then, after every single raid:

Cay: Did you have fun!

TJ: Ask me tomorrow.

On top of all of these things, the guild as a whole is amazing. Not only have I never heard anyone complain about a suddenly slowed pace, or a brief hold up while I refuse to click ‘ready’ because Doom is explaining something, with the patience of Job, yet again. And on top of that, while my specific needs have not been made public to the guild, and are only freely discussed in officer chat (which I’m perfectly fine with), there have always been a couple of people in the raid who maybe notice I’m a little slow, or maybe notice a little extra care being taken, or are maybe just really freaking nice! Who, on their own, go out of their way to help as well – checking in to see if I need anything, showing me positioning when I seem a little confused, and all around just being awesome.

SO. How does all of this relate to Wintersaber? Well, these people have done a lot for me, and put in a lot of work for me, and it’s only fair, I think, that I dedicate the same amount of effort back to them. If I’m going to raid, and I’m going to be good at it, and count on all these people to do so much for me, I’m not going to half-ass it. By the time I started to raid, there was one month left in the bet. There would not have been time to both raid AND complete the bet on time, not if I wanted to keep sleeping and keep my job. And I wasn’t going to half-ass Winterspring, either.

When I started the bet with BRK, I hadn’t really gotten too involved with the guild yet – I didn’t want to do anything group-y, because I couldn’t count on myself not to stink it up horribly. I didn’t really talk to anyone, didn’t really get to know anyone, because I never ran anything. Since I stopped with Winterspring, I’ve gotten involved with raiding, gotten involved a lot more with the guild in general, and honestly, playing with all these people is WAY more awesome than beating BRK could ever be.

Even though that is pretty awesome, I admit it.

So, BRK will get his dollar, declaring him the winner. I am beaten, I totally admit it. Is it the last TJ v BRK bet? I don’t know for sure, but I can tell you I won’t be taking on another one of that magnitude.

And as far as all of you – I’m sorry to those I disappointed, and I’m sorry to those people who expected better of me, and those of you who left nice comments – do me a favor and go spread some of that appreciation around to Cay, Fio, BRK, Doom and hey, Celli, too, if you happen to… I don’t know, be in Canada. Go, now, to all those pages, and remind them of what excellent stuff they are made of.