For me at least the biggest part of the “clicking” is the feeling that we’re close. I’ve been leading 25 mans since Naxx and after a while you get an feeling for your raid and how they progress. I like to communicate that to my team to A) Let them know that I see the big picture that maybe they do not in their individual roles and B) Have confidence they can pull it off.

More than once on a progression kill you’ve heard these words come out of my mouth, “Guys, we’re close. We’ll get this in maybe one or two attempts, all we need is for everything to go right together.”

More often thatn not, I’m correct and the boss goes down on my predicted attempt. It’s just a little reminder to them that if they refocus and execute that they can accomplish what they’re trying to do no matter how long they’ve been wiping on it.

Now you can’t go to that well too often, but when it works they’ll follow you to the ends of the earth as long as you are honest with them. In the long term the other thing you can do is walk away from a boss. If you don’t feel like it’s going to happen don’t be afraid to give them a “last attempt” and then take them elsewhere. What that lets them know is that if you’re still sticking it out you feel like they’re progressing and can finish the task.

That and occasionally that last attempt ends up with a kill.

yessir, and I think some of it was just me being crunchy, and posting after having one of those “wtf pay attention nights”. apologys.

Usually its hard mode content. could be as stupid as people dropping gravity bombs in raid, or as bad as no one but two healers decursing in One Light.

Those are the times, that it gets really frustrating, especially in progressional hard mode raiding. We all know the fights, hell we know the fights before we try them often, just from PTR testing and reading. after a few weeks of farming… or attempts at downing even one we are capable of downing, getting everyone on the same page, focused and at 100 percent is the biggest challenge. Yelling and breaks happen. and then for no reason it just all friggin clicks. This is beyond my understanding, its like they all decided at one time to quit sucking. lol

what do you do or say prior to it all clicking?

Nice. I’m stealing that for my next raid run

Simbaria – Yes, yes, yes, yes! Maybe Mimetir’s next column should be “5 golden rules for not making your raid leader hate you?”

@smeedsc – Yes, clarity and focus are king, along with a few other key factors such as a good balance of fun and challenge. Imo these rules lead on naturally from the last ones – I remember we had a difference of opinion in the last post. How often (and at what difficulty level) do you have trouble with those things such as lack of attenion or over-complacency hitting your raid groups? Do you think these are more common problems in easier or harder runs?

@Simbaria – an excellent point well illustrated. If someone thinks they have something to add to the raid leading then it’s more helpful for the whole group if they add it as an option to the raid leader’s organisation rather than jump into his shoes.

@Hallo and vogie – firmness and humour both have their places in raids; they let your raiders feel that your team – and leading – is solid, but that they don’t have to be at a constant high level of stress to perform.

Keep the comments coming folks! Good to hear that you agree with these rules but feel free to dispute them, or add any that you do/wish raid leaders did – I’m curious to hear how it goes in other groups.
Mimetir´s last blog ..Juddr: Today’s song-stuck-in-head for me is Who by Fire (Leonard Cohen). How about you guys?

Leadership is about setting a course and having your crew take you there.

If you follow the rules in these posts your team will respect you and want to perform for you.

A corollary to this one, for people not leading the raid, who think they have a better grasp of tactics:

Try to support the raid leader. Make your tactical sugestions as questions, so that the raid leader can say yes, or no, to them.
Eg:
“Maybe some of the ranged attackers should help with the big adds?”
instead of
“Ranged attackers should help kill the big adds too”

This way people will not see them as instructions to follow (possibly contradicting other instructions other people have said), unless the raid leader says yes to them.

setting a tone and keeping people focused, and clarifying jobs and most of all making sure you “capitalize on the highs” and realize “lows happen” in both performance and concentration happen.

if one person is continually afk, not careing, not hearing the strat. and that one person is gumming up the works, that person needs to go. IMO.

we’ve hit our highs when shit was clear, people relized meters dont mean shit, and different jobs are done raid wide.

fail happens when lack of attention, or complaceny hits.

clarity and focus = king.