Beygir's Blog

INTRODUCTION

Greetings everyone!

This (or these) will be a long read, so I hope I won't be boring anyone too much :) I could have just tried to deliver these over discord, in voice, but that would require everyone to spare their time at that exact duration, and also manage to keep their focus on whatever is being said and consume them all at once. I thought, instead, if I can put those thoughts into text, everyone can read it in their own free time, whenever they can actually focus on it, in as little or big chunks as they can consume it. Though none of it is in fact mandatory to read, I hope it will make it possible for all us to get to the same point of mindset and understand each other better during our raiding experience.

This first part will be about what the team is all about, what we are aiming to be doing, what you can expect from the team, what you can expect from me and Chey, and what we expect from you. The questions I imagine that might be in everyone's heads. I will try to go as structured as I can, for the sake of keeping it easier to split and consume it in chunks. But most of it will be a river of thoughts, so I might be jumping from subject to subject every so often. And I am hoping to keep these posts coming in the future as well, like a diary on our raiding experience, but that part yet remains to be seen... :)

INDEX

1. What is Journey Crew?

⠀⠀a. Strict vs Harsh

⠀⠀b. Team goals

2. Raiding as I see it

⠀⠀a. Progression

3. Raid preparation

⠀⠀a. Knowledge

⠀⠀b. Mechanics vs Tactics

⠀⠀c. Character power

⠀⠀d. Consumables

4. During the raid

⠀⠀a. Responsibility

⠀⠀b. Communication

⠀⠀c. Suggestions

5. After the raid

⠀⠀a. Suggestions

⠀⠀b. External sources

⠀⠀c. Recording

⠀⠀d. Coaching

1. WHAT IS JOURNEY CREW?

I would not claim the idea of the team is unique. I believe there would be some teams out there with similar values. But I know for a fact that it's not the standard approach, and is actually quite rare, to not have a push oriented mindset, and also not be casual. So the concept might feel alien for some of us. But the more we play and experience, I think everyone will have a better understanding of what we are trying to achieve.

a. Strict vs Harsh

Both myself and Chey are very strict people, and that is how we want to treat our rules as well. But I need to open some parentheses here and emphasize what I mean by strict, as this is a very important subject and too many people confuse it harsh. And no, we will not be treating anyone harshly. Every person in this will be treated with respect and support. Every single person will be seen as a friend that we play the game together with. We may have our agreements, we may have our disagreements. We may have limits on what we can allow, and what we cannot allow. If it's a no, it's a no. But that will never go out of the way of respect. That's exactly what I mean by strict.

To put into a real life example; if you have set a rule for a child that they are not allowed to eat more than one sweet per day, and the child is asking with big puppy eyes for just one more:

- If you go "Awww, fine, you can have one more, but no more than that!", this is far from strict and disciplined. It teaches the child that the rules are there just as a suggestion, and can be stretched if you barter for it long and good enough. You should be prepared for more exceptions thrown at you like this, not only on this subject, but on every other subject, and have to deal with all of them and their consequences. And refusal will only make the child revolt and try harder and louder if needed, because they now know that it can be stretched, but they just need try harder... It may look like a cute decision of love to let the child have what they ask for with their puppy eyes, but the consequences will build out to get catastrophic in time.

- If you get angry at the child, and scold them for even asking, or punish them, this is strict AND harsh. It will teach the child that they shouldn't even try to communicate with you, that they are just supposed to obey and follow, until they get a chance to get away from your despotism.

- If you tell them the reason why they can't have more, and that you can't change the rule when they ask for it, otherwise the rule won't have any point and won't be able to protect them, etc, then this is strict but NOT harsh. There is a bigger chance the child learn to understand the reason in time, and follow the rule, because they know why it's there. You can even get more friendly if you want, and not just end with what you can't do, but end it with something else you can do instead, like "But if you want, we can play this game together instead!", etc, and expect to have happy child that follows the rules.

The reason I have given the example of a child is, that is basically how we all learn until we learn to put on our personas, and actually, even after, deep within... That's why we can't make exceptions on rules, even if it's just a small step, because that will only teach the next person that you can create exceptions, as long as you keep the steps from the previous exception small enough. But we will not be harsh either. We will always approach everyone with respect and support, while remaining strict about our rules.

b. Team goals

And I will be expecting the same respect from everyone in the team as well. Not only towards us or your team mates, but towards everyone in the guild, including other team players. I do not aim to have this team as the team with the highest progression, or the team that is parsing the highest or anything of the sort. But I do want to have this team to become the example for others to follow, in terms of behaviour and attitude. I aim this team to be purely without any ego issues and drama.

We are a new team, with many people that we already know, and many people who are completely new. And we have a raid leader who hasn't been raid leading since 10+ years ago... :D As surely as the team will need time to settle, I will need time to find my footing once again as a raid leader, and do all that in a tank spot! I will do my absolute best to not disappoint anyone, and to deserve my leader spot in the team. We will face a lot of obstacles on our journey, and we will overcome all of them in time :) And to overcome them, we should have the right attitude and expectations, so we can keep our spirits up while we push through any and all obstacles.

We will have discipline, yet joke and laugh during our raid evenings. We will wipe, yet focus on solutions instead of blames. Instead of getting tired and disappointed in them, we will see every wipe as an opportunity to learn more about where we can improve and perfect it. I would never say "We won't make mistakes", but I will say "We will learn out of them". We won't be killing bosses, we will be perfecting mechanics and tactics. Sometimes we will be hitting our heads against the wall, but get the hits so perfect, that the bosses will die out of envy! :)

It may all sound utopic and dreamy, but those are the goals we have. This is the base on which we place the Journey Crew. A long raiding journey, where we enjoy every moment of raiding, including the wipes, not only the kill...

2. RAIDING AS I SEE IT

I see, or think of raiding as some sort of dance choreography. We need to study it, discuss it, learn it, and try to perform it. There will be a rhythm to it, and we will all follow the same rhythm. The same mechanics will happen with the same rhythm, and we will know how to react to that and react with the same rhythm. Sometimes we will be stepping on each other's toes while trying to learn it, but we'll keep practicing. As long as we all do the same dance, we will get the pace and perform it almost flawlessly, as a single unit of many. If someone decides that the dance we are doing is not good enough and decides to do a different dance, then the whole choreography will fail and the dance will not work for anyone and the show will be ruined.

a. Progression

To get to that level of united precision, we need to get through some processes, which I will call "progression". If you ask most people about progression, they will point to boss health percentage, or at the best case, the phase which they can keep pushing the boss health until they wipe. For me, the progression means something with more steps to it. The steps are:

Mechanical progress > Output progress > Boss health (happens automatically at this stage)

I see no point in trying to push on the next step, because you actually have progressed in the previous step. Otherwise, it will mostly feel like repetitive wiping without any improvement. That is the main thing creating the "hitting head on the wall" feeling. If you are still making mechanical errors and trying to time your cds or perfecting your rotation, you are mostly wasting your effort, because the timings on cds or your rotation will change as you perfect the mechanics anyway.

So we first make sure that we are doing the dance moves correctly. You can even in most cases just completely ignore any damage output at this stage. Though it will not be possible for healers to completely ignore their output, they can at least ignore using damage abilities. Once we make sure that we got the moves going fine, and fall behind on damage requirements to take the fight into further stages, that is when we start pushing and min maxing our outputs. If we get into a new phase, we go back to once again progressing our dance moves first, before we keep progressing on our output. As we keep repeating this progression process, the boss health percentage naturally progresses, and the final "progress" step advances automatically.

3. RAID PREPARATION

a. Knowledge

The first part of raiding is knowledge. To study, learn and know the how the game works, how your class works, how the boss fight works... Without knowing even one of those, you can't expect any sort of success. Just a single missing information can make the difference between making the right call or causing wipe, when you face a mechanic or situation during the raid and you need to decide immediately on how to deal with it. Just think about how many people there are on the mythic plus scene, that doesn't interrupt the important casts, use no CCs, or don't bother with dispels, and then blame the healer. When you don't care about how your class works, how the boss abilities themselves work, and how your class can interact with the boss abilities, and just try to nuke and parse, you become one of those mythic plus players, but on the raiding scene instead. Be knowledgeable and solution oriented enough to not expect, but deliver.

b. Mechanics vs tactics

While studying, one of the most common mistakes is to watch a video guide, and think that is good enough to claim that you have studied the fight and know it. Yes, there are also some short explanations on mechanics, but most of what you are watching is how people are (or almost always a certain guild is) dealing with the boss mechanics, also known as "tactics". We may or may not be choosing to deal with the mechanics the same way the people in the video did. And when we are using different tactics to deal with the same mechanics, or something somehow just goes wrong and ends up different than the tactic you watched in the video, if you don't know the full details of the mechanics, there is a very good chance you won't be able to make sense of the tactics that we are trying to use, or take the right decisions in a moment of panic. And by making sense, I mean understanding the tactics as in, why are we doing this and that, why do we need to move in a certain way, why do we need to time something on a specific moment... And you will just be trying to memorize it instead, without fully understanding it. And when it slightly alternates, you won't be able to adapt on your own, and most likely cause a wipe, and then the raid leader will have to look at what you are doing wrong, and try to min max your timings, abilities, movement, etc... Imagine the raid leader having to do that for 19 people every boss. What a loss of time would that be... Time which we could instead utilize practicing properly, or switch to the next boss, or even just resting so we don't get tired and perform badly.

Instead, go and read the mechanics. Learn what they are, and what they do. There are many sources for that. You can find the info on ingame boss abilities journal, on wowhead boss guides, on mythictrap.com... Even warcraftlogs now have a boss guides tab, which also reflects the same info as on mythictrap.com. And then, once you know everything about the mechanics, then you can watch a video to see what sort of tactics people have come up with, to deal with them.

Does it take a longer time than just watching a video? Yes. But it saves a LOT of more time on wipes than it consumes getting the knowledge.

c. Character power

And now that you know all you need to know, it's time to get onto the boss and smack it, right? But unfortunately, sticks and stones are as effective as words on breaking the bones of the boss. We need to make sure that we are coming prepared by all means. Some people will have more time to do that than others, creating a bigger gap between people's item levels especially on the first week's raids. Our raids being on the first two days of the reset also doesn't help that... But that is all completely fine. If you are among the people that have the extra time for the extra push, do it for the sake of helping your team, not for the sake of judging others who couldn't have the same chance. And if you are among the people that unfortunately don't have the time to be able to push during the day on Wednesday and Thursday, yes, you may be lagging behind on those days on item level. But you should definitely do your best to catch up with the others on the remaining days. Just do your best, don't slack, and don't worry about the rest. Just because someone does 40+ keys on the first week, doesn't mean that everyone else also should or they're slacking. But this is a time consuming game, and raiding is the most time consuming activity in it. Don't expect to just do 4 keys during the whole week, and nothing else, and hope that it will all be fine. You won't even have enough crests to upgrade your gear. You will be lagging far behind everyone else.

With the recent changes the new season is bringing, you don't even need to do m+ anymore, maybe except for the first couple weeks. But you need to stay active in the game. You need to do some sort of activity to keep getting your crests and upgrade your gear. No matter what activity you will choose to be doing, you should at a very minimum aim to:

- Fill at least 3 vault choices with any level activity, to be able to get the bonus roll option

- Hit the crest caps on at least heroic crests and myth crests

That way, you will not be lagging behind anyone, not for long at least. And don't do it for the fear of getting demoted or punished in any other way. Do it for the respect you have for the efforts of your other team members. Let's make each other proud, and be proud of each other.

d. Consumables

And the last part of the preparation for raid, consumables, is often both underestimated and overestimated. The sum of all the consumables, including gems, enchants, food, potions, make a very big difference. They can easily make difference between having to use a cd, or saving it for a more important phase. Dying, or barely surviving. Getting a kill, or wiping. And at the same time, some consumables can be an overkill in some situations. Using augment runes for 0.3% gain, or combat potions, while we are still practicing on dealing with mechanics, is a waste in most cases, and barely serves any purpose except for keeping their crafters happy and well fed :P If you have too much gold or would just like to use them anyway, no one will be stopping you :) But you don't have to... Just focus on what you are progressing on at that moment. And when we are actually going for the kill, you will be reminded to start using them. We really don't want anyone to spend more money than needed, or the game to turn into more of a farm-fest than it needs to be, or constant wow token purchase. But all the other gems, enchants, food, flasks... Those are not things that we should be omitting. Worst case, if it's a slot that you expect to be replacing any time now, like waiting on crests, or the weekly reset, to replace it, then yes, you can go for a lower rank enchant. But in all other cases, best rank enchants and best rank on all other consumables is totally worth it and should be mandatory for any serious raiding team.

4. DURING THE RAID

a. Responsibility

When we get into raid and boss encounters themselves, it is important that we all do the same dance in sync, and work like the gears of a perfect clockwork machine. Every gear will have responsibilities, and missing one single gear will cause the whole machine to malfunction. Your responsibilities are not limited to dpsing or healing, or only knowing your assignments. They also include knowing the fight around you, what is going that doesn't sound like it directly affects you, how can you help other people. Have they just been ressed? Then you should rebuff them immediately. Is someone running too slow to make it in time for a mechanic? Throw them a speed buffing ability. Is someone about to get crushed by a mechanic? Throw them an external defensive. It is impossible for raid leaders to notice or foresee every single thing around them and announce them all in time to save the day. Take personal responsibility, every little bit helps a huge deal.

Also, be responsible for what YOU can do, not for what others can or cannot do. Is someone moving wrong and causing you to get damage or a debuff as well? Instead of blaming the person, first think what you can do to counteract that mistake without going out of the current tactics. Can you not figure anything out? You can ask the person or the raid leader, "I am having difficulties with the placement, we seem to be too close to each other. Are we standing at correct spots, or how should it be?". Simple, clear, easy... No need for any blames, just making everything clear for everyone, so there is no confusion or mistakes and we can act as a single unit. It is everyone's responsibility to build up on the cooperation. It is not the guild master's duty to deal with a kindergarten full of kids that keep whining "Michael hit me!", "Yes, because Kevin took my toy!", "You took it first!". I believe and hope we have all grown up past that point.

It also falls under the responsibility subject for everyone to come to the raid to perform at their best. Sometimes life likes to make things difficult for us. We can all have a bad day which will affect our performance outside our control. But we should at least have the responsibility to control the parts that we can. Don't come to the raid intoxicated and unable to function properly, or to blast out music at full volume and miss all the communication.

b. Communications

Another responsibility that belongs to everyone is keeping the communication accessible. Communication is one of our biggest tools that enable us to move as a single machine. If we sabotage or misuse it, it will have a huge effect on our ability to progress. We will no doubt make a lot of jokes, laugh a lot and all that outside the actual pulls. But during the pulls, keeping comms limited to only bare necessities is important. Even an unfortunately timed small joke can block out a much needed communication at that moment, and cause a wipe. Even when you think you are helping by calling out stuff that you weren't assigned to call out, it might end up being wrong, or can cause the actual person assigned to make that call to stay silent next time, thinking that it's already being called anyway. So just stick to calling out only what you are supposed to be calling out and maybe emergency communication.

There is also the case of making the communication clear. Yes, you are communicating about what you are supposed to, but is it clear and compact enough? To demonstrate some examples:

- "Dispel me!"

Who are you? I can't see your face clearly through the microphone! We would be safely able to enable guild repairs if we would receive a gold coin every time someone just said that. Be clear and precise. The correct way would be "Dispel Beygir".

- "I HAVE THE CIRCLE! I HAVE THE CIRCLE! I REPEAT, I HAVE THE CIRCLE!"

First of all, calm down, we are all excited for you that you have the circle, but your message has been received already. You don't need to take more than three times the space you need on the voice comms, and to make sure you overwrite every other call that needs to be done by yelling your heart out... Just one "I have the circle" is good enough.

- "Oh sorry, I thought I was going to make it in time to take it, but because of ....."

Similar to the above. I'm happy for you, or sorry that happened. We are all trying to focus on the fight and communicate about important stuff that still going on. You can keep all those explanations until after the combat is over. Don't keep the line busy for chatter. This one doesn't even have a correct version. The right to do is to just stay silent and wait.

- "Oh my god! Dude, move!"

No information included. Which god? Who is the dude? Move where? Too many questions, too few answers... If your communication won't even include any info and clear directions, don't even clutter the comms. If you really need to communicate about something, you can say something like "Beygir move to green". No need to include requests for divine intervention for abstract targets and directions...

Combat is sometimes full of adrenaline, and considering all of those things at the moment can be prove to be really difficult sometimes. Even I can make such mistakes. But what matters is that all of us should keep trying to fix those habits, and reach pure communication heaven.

c. Suggestions

Once the combat is over, you can share anything extra that you needed to share, or come up with suggestions. One of the common pitfalls on suggestions is, sometimes people confuse suggestions and demands. They claim to "suggest" something, and get annoyed or pissed when it's not implemented. That is a demand. A suggestion works in a way that you suggest it, and the leader listens to that suggestion, considers it, and decides whether they want to go with or without the suggestion. And both options are valid choices. It may or may not be the right choice, but the leader needs to decide on something, and move on with it, because the clock is ticking. We only have 3 hours to raid. We can't waste that with long discussions and debates. Quick suggestion, quick consideration, quick decision, and we move on. Even if it is the wrong decision at the moment, we move on, and we can discuss it in more detail outside the raiding time if needed.

5. AFTER THE RAID

a. Suggestions

Outside the raiding hours, we will have a much wider, undisturbed and relaxed atmosphere to be discussing things. So it is the perfect time to be bringing suggestions. We can look at logs, replays, any other sources, and discuss in length, take proper decisions, and communicate it to everyone in time, so we will be all prepared to make the changes during the raid.

b. External sources

And you can, and should, use all the external sources to review your raiding performance after the raid. Which mechanics have you failed mostly? How could you have avoided that? How do other people playing the same class as you avoid it? Where does your output stand compared to the others playing the same spec as you? Are they also doing the same tactics? Or is there another tactics possible and worth discussing that can increase your, and maybe the whole raid's output? You can check for all of that after the raids, and find a lot of points to improve. And the more we improve, the stronger our raids will become.

c. Recording

The external tools are really great and work wonders most of the time. But sometimes, all you need to do is to rewatch what you have been doing. What you saw and didn't see on the screen at that moment. Alternative actions you can see now without all the stress of the combat. What keys you pressed or were trying to press at the moment. You can see all of those by recording your gameplay and rewatching it. It is an often ignored, but priceless tool. I do believe everyone should be recording their gameplay during raids. Not only for improving themselves, but also for sharing what you exactly mean while discussing tactics or mistakes.

d. Coaching

At the end of the day, not all of us are used to doing all that, and it may all sound too complicated, too alien, too confusing. You may not even figure out where to start. Or you may fail to find out where you are going wrong, how to read all of that, etc... When you are stuck, when you need help, never hesitate to reach out. We will be happy to do our best to coach you, and teach you how to do all of it.

But don't think that you will be hand fed info, and then you can just slack until the raid, try whatever you can remember out of what you were told, and then ask for help, only to do nothing until the next raid again... We can't get anywhere like that. You need to put at least as much effort into it as we do. We can give you a head start, teach you the ropes, and keep supporting you, but we can't walk the mile for you. You will only ever be as good as the amount of effort you put into improving yourself. No one else can improve you for you. We can only teach you how to do it...

With all of that said, I want to wish everyone a great season! Thank you for reading it up to this point, which is already a great effort on its own :) I appreciate it <3 I hope this "little booklet" has made it possible to get us to the same mindset and same point, that we will be in full sync in everything we do together, and have lots of free time to enjoy our gaming time and laugh together, with as few as possible obstacles and issues on our path!