Just another relatively uneventful week of raiding over in my corner. Death Jesters is still working on Middnight Falls. We did end up seeing intermission a few times. The sheer scale and scope of just the planning required down to the interrupt rotation, crystal assignments (even grips), intermission positioning, and all that is sheer insanity. I think I’ve spent more time planning this one encounter than I have for all of the other encounters combined.
How about the Last Call team?
In my first major blunder of the season, I messed up the composition for Crown of the Cosmos. I ran two Priests (none of which are a Goblin or a Dracthyr). It was fortunate that one of our trial warriors had an Evoker lying around, and he offered to switch to playing it. Now I have to set up these inefficient grip assignments where our Evoker carries one, and the first Priest grips the second Priest. There’s also the Wyrmstone option that allows the Priest to teleport to the Evoker. What’s awful is if we lose the Evoker, it’s an automatic wipe since two of our healer Priests don’t have a natural way to get across. I gripe about the Mythic requirements, but I also understand that this is an exclusive part of the game, and the tools required are going to be strict. Some of my players have complained about it and lamented how it’s not fair, and blah blah blah. But I get it, the game has evolved to a point for Mythic where roster composition does play a part in the challenge.
I also wish I had trimmed the number of melee down further and stuck to ranged. Some of our melee guys appear to be fat and getting hit by things they shouldn’t be or there’s too much melee clutter and they’re tripping over each other, I’m not sure. We’ve been getting better at getting to 40% and trigger phase 3 on Crown ahead of schedule. Now we’re just trying to get more reps and solve the final phase. We’ve seen the final 3 platforms but are having some trouble maintaining health on the fifth set of tethers but I think we’ll get it this weekend.
DJs is still looking to recruit some healers. I can temporarily play as a Holy Priest or an Evoker myself since we’re going to be lacking a Priest buff (and Evoker utility). But we could also use another healer (any class). Come check us out!
Stuff gets harder now as we enter the final stretch. This past week was busier than normal with the new upgrade currency for weapons and trinkets. Although it was a big help, it felt like a big chore just getting all of that content done. I didn’t even get a chance to run keys on some of my alts. This season has felt like I didn’t get much of a chance to breathe because there was so much that I felt I had to do in order to maintain progress on my raiding characters. I’m hoping things can slow down a bit. My LC Shaman has all Mythic gear now, and I just need a few more Myth crests to upgrade the rest of my gear to max, then I don’t feel as compelled to max out my Mythic vaults anymore. I’ve got the Myth Crest upgrade discount achievement finally.
Let’s get to it, shall we?
In Death Jesters, I got the call up to come in on my Shaman as our principal Shaman was away on day 2. I got some reps in on Bel’oren. I hate that fight. The first phase 1 is conceptually easy, the second phase 1 has a lot of stuff going on in there. As we come out of the first egg phase, we either go to the entrance of the room (south) or we move to the west end of the room. I have not quite figured out the pattern in determining which way to go, and I am relying on our raid leader to make that call. We did limp into the second egg phase a few times (about 30% there). I think we can get it down this upcoming weekend.
Meanwhile, in Last Call, we’re able to clear and get Paladins down. Turns out the solution was just spacing out the Execution Sentences further than what we had. We kept about one Execution Sentence space between each one, and that allowed each group to not worry about hammers as much and focus on dodging Divine Tolls flying into the raid.
Crown of the Cosmos progression started, and we had a full day on it. Most of the time was spent on the first phase as we were tweaking our damage, adjusting Silverstrike arrow times, and generally working on the ooze control. Two Death Knights helped in pulling them in. I did my best by Thunderstorming the adds in. We did end up being more consistent getting into phase 2, except we spawned the add into the wrong platform a few times, and we lost a few players during intermission. With two Shamans, we can do a better job staggering our Wind Rush Totems and using totem projection to throw them just ahead of us as we traverse around it.
I did have a dumb pull where I got an Obelisk and just… backed off the platform, sigh.
On the recruiting side of things, Death Jesters is looking at some upcoming departures, and we’re opening up our recruiting. We’re looking to add another healer (any class), and another Disc Priest. The temporary measure is that I would play my Priest for now just to help with a Fortitude buff. My Shaman just can’t seem to maintain consistent damage throughout the raid. I think I’m hitting my spells too quick and am misfiring procs without buffing them accordingly. Too used to “always be casting” that I’m not taking the time to actually look and see what spells I have available, while dealing with all the boss mechanics being sent my way.
Here I am in the middle of a week, watching Max undergo another reclear before the Diablo 4 expansion was slated to launch. He gets to a part where he’s watching another guild go through their kill of Midnight Falls. But take a listen and watch what happens.
This raid just cleared the entire tier and secured their CE.
Instead of celebrating, players immediately started defending themselves about misplays or other errors.
“Yeah I died there because…” “That wasn’t my fault…” “I got screwed by…”
No one really paused to acknowledge the kill. That positive moment just seemed to dissipate and fade out.
The raid went straight into deflection. If you’re seeing this in your raid, it’s not just a one-off behavior. It’s now a team-wide cultural issue.
The Instinct to Defend
This type of behaviour doesn’t come out of nowhere. Players don’t wake up one day and decide to deflect responsibility after a kill. It usually builds up over time for a variety of reasons:
Fear of being called out: No one likes to be criticized in front of everyone else.
Fear of losing a raid spot: No one wants to get permanently benched.
Past experiences with harsh criticism: We’re talking harsh, toxic environments, making the game generally unfun.
A culture where mistakes are punished instead of being learned from: This can range from being made fun of or teased mercilessly.
So what happens?
Players get conditioned to protect themselves first by justifying what happened or blaming things beyond their control. It happens even in moments where it doesn’t matter anymore (like killing the final boss).
Why This Is a Bigger Problem Than It Looks
At first glance, it might seem harmless. Who cares if someone explains why they died after a kill? We need to take a step back though and re-examine this.
If your team feel the need to immediately justify themselves, it means:
They don’t feel safe making mistakes
They assume blame is coming
They prioritize self-preservation over team success
They’re mentally stuck in “defense mode” instead of “growth mode”
That has consequences. Teams that operate like this will end with one (or all) of the following:
They learn slower
They communicate worse
They take feedback personally
They spend more time assigning blame than solving problems
You can’t build a high-performing raid like that, and you end up with a raid team that’s stuck in early or mid mythic without the tools needed to progress past that.
The Missed Opportunity After a Kill
Post-kill moments are important.
They’re when you:
Reinforce good habits. Highlight positive game play from people and recognize them when they’re correctly done.
Identify real learning points. Show where people “got it” and spread it to the rest of the team.
Celebrate progress. The team got a new best (even if it’s a new phase or a lower percentage).
Reset the team mentally. From despair to excitement.
If your raid immediately turns into a courtroom, you lose all of that.
Instead of:
“Nice job, clean that up the adds next pull, and we can see more.”
You get:
“Let me explain why that wasn’t my fault.”
Now you’ve wasted everyone’s time.
Freedom to Fail Is a Competitive Advantage
One of the things Max mentioned is that they had to actively correct this behaviour early in their guild’s history.
They made it clear:
It’s okay to die
It’s okay to mess up
Not every mistake needs a full breakdown
If it’s not new or useful, move on
That’s the key. Say it with me!
Not every mistake deserves airtime.
If the team already understands the mechanic and what went wrong, rehashing it doesn’t help. It just slows you down and creates tension. High-end teams don’t obsess over every individual mistake. They focus on patterns and meaningful improvements. I don’t know how long your team raids for, but both of mine only go for six hours a week.
What Your Team Should Actually Be Doing Instead
After a kill, your raid should look more like this:
Quick acknowledgment of the kill
Identify one or two real issues if needed (or flag it for next week)
Move on
That’s it.
Not every death needs a speech, and not every mistake needs a defence.
If it’s something new, sure, call it out and learn from it. Absolutely make it a learning lesson for everyone, especially if someone died in a completely new way or missed a mechanic that’s crucial the first time. Go over it once, and talk about it as a team so they know what to expect and how to handle it if it ultimately does happen again. Certain things are worth drilling and repeating until the team gets it, but that doesn’t apply to all mistakes.
If it is already understood, it is wasting precious raid time.
How to Fix It in Your Own Raid
If you’re seeing this behaviour, it needs to be addressed directly.
1. Set the Expectation
Tell your team clearly:
You don’t need to defend every mistake
Not every death needs an explanation
Focus on team improvement, not individual justification
2. Change What You Reinforce
If you constantly call out individuals harshly, players will naturally start defending themselves.
Instead:
Focus on solutions
Keep feedback concise
Avoid turning every mistake into a lecture
Actually, call out the positives. Talk about what you liked. Name players individually who did something good (even if it’s during the pull), and recognize their effort or moves.
3. Protect the Post-Kill Moment
Don’t let it spiral.
If someone starts going into a long defense after a kill, cut ’em off.
“Doesn’t matter. Boss is dead. We’ll clean it up next time.”
We use Warcraft Recorder to capture our game play. It’s not something that needs to be immediately reviewed and it can be looked at after the raid is over. Celebrate the wins, since that’s the tone you want.
4. Normalize Mistakes
Make it clear that mistakes are expected and understood especially in progression. If players feel like every error is being judged, they’ll always be on edge. The team needs to relax and play loosely when starting out.
And that leads right back to defensive behavior.
If your team kills a boss and the first reaction is panic and justification instead of celebration, something is off. That doesn’t mean your players are bad. It means that the raid culture needs adjustment. The best teams aren’t the ones that never make mistakes. They’re the ones that don’t waste time pretending they didn’t.
I’m fortunate enough that this hasn’t happened in my raids yet. But if my team starts pre-emptively defending themselves before I ask questions, I’ve got my lecture in the back pocket ready to come out. If I were to put money on it, I expect it’d be one of my healers trying to present themselves in a positive light but addressing their own shortcomings right away. My first response is going to be, “I didn’t ask! Simmer down! You goofed, that’s okay, this isn’t a deposition!”
I can’t believe it’s May already. This last week just flew right by. Between the Diablo 4 expansion and Heroes of Might and Magic early access, there was so much for me to do. I didn’t even play any Battlefield this past week. It was another solid progression week, though. Let’s dive into it, shall we?
Death Jesters just started working on Crown of the Cosmos this week. We had one look into phase 3, which is the furthest we’ve gotten. There are a few scary overlaps, but with the upcoming nerf this week, we’ll most likely defeat it and start work on the big firebird soon.
Last Call makes some big strides this week and overcomes the dragons, putting us officially at 5/9 Mythic, and we’re over halfway to our goal of getting that CE for this opening tier. I felt that we should’ve killed it earlier. We came close to it a few times on Sunday night, but had some consistency issues. There are a few players who need to work on just general game sense and survivability. Having the awareness that not only is a fear breath coming and they have to get it out of the raid, but they have to find a spot to safely get to where they can be dispelled within range of healers. Our gloom positionings were great, and even if we had players go down, we were able to audible with backup players stepping in to help with those soaks.
We’re on to Paladins now, and we spent the better part of our second raid night just working on taunt swaps, positioning, and getting a feel for dispels. Our best pull was about 40%. Logs are showing that about a third of the kills here use six healers, while the rest are done with five healers. I’m a bit torn as to which way to go. We don’t have a dedicated sixth healer, and if we were to do that, I would have to step in and switch specs on my Shaman (who doesn’t have the stats or the trinkets to really go healing). My damage is fairly low here, so I’m just thinking about it. I don’t need to play at the absolute best, but if I can manage to help stay on top of dispels while contributing healing, that might be enough. I also wanted to give some well-deserved flowers to our bait team. They did a commendable job baiting out the charges once they got into a rhythm. There were a few charges that were missed, but they got the idea.
Now, the next question is at what point should we start considering raid extensions? I don’t know if we’re quite there yet. There’s still some lucrative gear. We didn’t even get any trinkets from Dragons today, even with all the bonus rolls that were used, which was disappointing. Maybe once we clear Paladins, we can start doing lockout extensions.
In Diablo 4, I made a Spiritborn. Campaign was great, probably one of the better storylines I’ve played in a long time. The end game is much more enjoyable. My only struggle is in finding a build that I like playing. I might switch classes and reroll to a Paladin or something instead.
Last thing I want to touch upon is Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era. Reminds me of when I was a kid again playing Heroes 3. Such a fun game and this new version is a lot of fun. Highly recommend it if you’ve played it before. The early access grants six factions.
I’m still looking to add some Aug Evokers to the team!
It’s really hard to lead and call a raid when you’re sick, you know? I’ve been coughing non-stop for over a week on a diet of lozanges, tea, and Buckley’s. Not sure if people outside of Canada are aware of it, but it’s a cough syrup that tastes really awful, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t effective and relieves symptoms for a while. Alright, lets get to it shall we?
Death Jesters clears Vanguard. I was in for progression as relief a few times. This is a boss where it’s more ideal to play Farseer instead of Stormbringer. Ultimately, I wasn’t in on the kill but I did gain some first hand experience on it.
Last Call crushes Midnight Falls on heroic, and we get that coveted Ahead of the Curve achievement. We’re basically done with Heroic for the tier and can now strictly focus on Mythic from here on out.
After Midnight Falls, we popped back over to Voidspire Mythic to start working on Dragons. It’s much simpler than I expected it to be. Our best pull so dragons go down to about 23%. DJs killed it the first time within 13 pulls. I didn’t think we’d be as fortunate.
We had a spirited discussion on dispels on Imperator. I didn’t think they were a problem, but one of my healers was disgruntled about it. I looked into it further. We get six debuffs, but only four need to be cleared (two on the first add, and two on the second add). I can’t see any consequence to leaving up the final two or even delaying removing them. Whenever the player gets dispelled, there’s a 10-second dot debuff that gets applied anyway. In my mind, it’s okay to leave the final 2 dispels up and stagger them a bit to spread out the incoming damage anyway. No real resolution here, and it only came up because I was trying to trim from 4 healers to 3 healers in order to accelerate out of that fight quicker. The next dispel heavy fight with Paladins at least has a Weakaura (or M33kauras) that can assign and dictate dispels accordingly for people, thank goodness for that. But if this discussion keeps up, a definite attitude check is going to be in order here.
We’re going to need a second healing Monk for Vanguard. We’re fortunate that one of our healers is also quite alt-driven and happens to have a 280+ Monk lying around just waiting.
This is going to be a rough week for me. The new Diablo 4 expansion just came out last night. Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era debuts later this week. Not only that, there’s a new Two Point Museum DLC that’s releasing soon! There goes my time!!