Ode to Hellfire Ramparts

You know, I used to love instances. Getting a decent group for a five-man run that saw everyone getting involved in the battle plan was something I used to love doing during the Burning Crusade, and it's one of the reasons why I preferred that expansion to Wrath of the Lich King. Clearing a heroic was never a done deal simply by walking into it, and your group composition mattered to a point where you actually spoke to people to figure out what they could do for you.

This is my "top five" list of favourite five-man instances from the bottom up, and in no particular order:

The Scarlet Monastery

I particularly liked the armoury, but the real magic in this instance was the fact it was all connected and you could practically sense the link between all of the major protagonists; playing as undead made it slightly more poignant. Visiting Southshore during the Old Hillsbrad event just made me love it even more (I won't spoil it for those who don't know why).

Razorfen Downs

The notion of undead quillboar appealed to me for some reason because I thought it was quite a nice twist, but I just loved the make up of the bosses and the loot that dropped from this instance was awesome. The mechanic for summoning Tuten'kash was also the first of its kind that I came across, and I've never stopped thinking that it was cool ever since the first pull.

The Scholomance

Holy crap, the first room was rough in quest greens; that room, more than anything else in this game, taught me how to manage line of sight pulls (painfully, I might add) and the incredible value of them. Plus, I just loved the atmosphere of the place and was always intrigued by the real life Transylvanian version of the Scholomance and the "family" that may have started it.

Hellfire Ramparts

An early instance, but one that really saw the magic of well-performed crowd control; particularly on heroic mode. Also, it was quite short but took a reasonable amount of time to clear safely in an appropriately geared group. I also loved the speech of Vazruden the Herald when pulled, purely for aesthetic purposes - but the bosses, generally, were well staggered in terms of difficulty.

The Arcatraz

Not only did you have to work through the rest of Tempest Keep's sections to get the key to the Arcatraz, it was an instance that didn't see heroic groups default to a Protection paladin - warriors were better for it. My main reason for loving this instance, though, was Dalliah Doomsayer and her Eredar "husband", Soccothrates. The madness of Warden Mellichar comes close... But I'm gonna light you up, sweet cheeks!

At the end of the day, all of these instances had fundamental things in common. The first, was compelling bosses; they were all different from a mechanical point of view, but you felt they were all linked to each other in the instance and were an integral part of its completion. The second was the management of pulls; bluntly, you had to manage them. It was unwise to simply saunter in and try and tank everything in sight, so you used your team mates to control and clear the pulls. This in infinitely preferable to what we have in heroics now, because you worked with people instead of working regardless of them. This promotion of the "team effort" is potentially a bit over-romantic, but it's really something that I miss.

Lastly, I loved the fact that you could still wipe in these instances if you got them wrong, regardless of the gear you were in. Fancy taking a bath in the Wrath-Scryer's flame wave? You're going to die.

Personally, I find instances a chore these days. I run the random every day because I still need the emblems, but the fact is that I find them a minor annoyance as opposed to something I want to be doing. I used to enjoy learning to work with people in a short window because I generally felt people wanted to complete an instance and were happy with any responsibility assigned to them. Every instance was exploratory for that reason. Now, I will do exactly the same thing in every instance I run into, irrespective of what the group is made up of. My only decision is who to put Vigilance on, but I often don't even bother doing it at all. Embarrasingly, I will rarely say anything in these groups beyond the original hello because people just want in and out with their emblems.

Please, Blizzard - in Cataclysm, give us some difficulty and depth in the five man instances. I'm not asking for every room to be like the first in the Scholomance, but let our damage dealers have something to control or interrupt, let our tanks pick their targets more carefully instead of blandly tabbing through everything and let our healers decide whether or not they're going to try saving that scrub player who likes the pretty lights. This should also be standardised across the board to make sure that, no matter what dungeon you get when doing your daily, your team-mates will want to get involved instead of merely pressing their buttons when they light up.

Either that, or give us the heroic heroic switch.

Please.

Getting the right raiders to raid

Getting a strong raiding team isn't as easy as you might think. In fact, despite us approaching the end of the expansion, I still haven't figured out exactly who should be grabbing the rights to the spots when we first start fighting Arthas; and this causes me concern every time I log in. When I look over our main raiding group throughout the expansion, I see very few similarities - our team that first cleared Naxxramas was very different to the team that did the job in Ulduar and Trial of the Crusader, and there has been more large changes moving into Icecrown. This very fact shows just how rough it is finding a strong, enduring and appropriate raiding team. So, why on earth is it so difficult?

Well, first of all, it's difficult to classify what a "good" raider actually is. Then, you need to consider the personalities involved and how they actually fit into the roles they hold within a raid. It should be simple. It's not. In fact, getting the right personalities into the right roles is probably the biggest tick in the box you can manage. But, generally, what should you be looking for in the ideal raider?

Skill, output and class knowledge.
Sensible gearing and itemizing.
Positivity.
Resilience.
Team-led ethics.
Comprehension of encounters.
Prior preparation.
Responsibility.

All of these particular boxes would be ticked in the ideal raider, but it's a fact that not everyone can bring every quality and not all at the same time. As a leader, you have to try and prioritise what qualities you want the most and try to limit those that people maybe don't have. Of course, you also have to try and appreciate that everyone is different and will react differently depending on what's going on. It's also worth remembering that not every day is "their day", and a certain amount of sympathy has to go along with that, too.

Then, after you've gotten all that worked out, you have to look at what roles people are filling and if they have the qualities for that role. Your main tank and raid leader needs to be a good figurehead, capable of getting his point across and simply taking charge when things aren't going right. Your healers, essentially, have to be incisive decision makers, taking the best course of action at the right times. Your damage dealers are the ones that need to know the encounters, as they will usually be the ones dealing with rare mechanics for you.

Alas, it's story time.

The three major raids of this expansion have seen me with a different off tank. For Naxxramas it was a death knight, for Ulduar it was a paladin and for Icecrown it's another (though, different) paladin. I will discount the initial death knight as he essentially left the game prior to 3.1 (and death knights were overpowered at the time), and will compare the paladins. First and foremost, there is very little difference in their output - both perform similarly in most circumstances and they produce similar results. However, the main difference is in their attitudes and how they view their part in the raid.

The first paladin was very much a supportive type, happy to take the back seat and simply do what was asked of him with minimal fuss. He didn't like making decisions and would rarely, if ever, deviate from a plan that was going wrong. The second paladin is on the other end of the scale; he has a very clear view of how he thinks things should be working, and will frequently do what he considers best regardless of what was requested. The first paladin viewed himself very much as the off tank, while the second clearly looks at himself as the main tank.

Neither is wrong. Neither is right.

However, the way they fit in with the raid as a whole makes for a very different result when things are not quite going as well as they might. Our first paladin suited me perfectly, because he fitted in with what I wanted in an off tank, let me do my job and didn't push me. The second makes my life difficult often, because he believes he should be taking charge of the raid instead of merely following my lead, but he is comfortable voicing his opinion and taking responsibility.
The comparison should be clear - capability is shared, but one simply "fitted" with me, as a personality and as a role, better than the other tends to.

So, out of the list above, what do I prize above anything else?

1) Skill, output and class knowledge.
2) Resilience.
3) Responsibility.

I cannot learn or play a class for someone else, hence my reliance that they know what they're doing and can bring it to a raid group. It's number one on my list because of that. Resilience is an absolute requirement for me, too, as you are going to spend a lot of time wiping when you're spending evenings on progression content; people have to be able to pick themselves up, particularly in an intermediate guild like ours. Finally, I like players who can accept responsibility and, naturally, live with the consequences of personal failure - there is nothing worse than someone not doing their job and then listing ten excuses as to why they didn't. Accept the mistake, apologise for it, strive to do better.

In the end, you will earn more respect if you can bring those three points than any of the others, in my opinion (and experience).

But what of the other points?

I consider them desireable as opposed to "must haves".

You can help people to gear up and assist in their decision making depending on raid synergy. Positivity isn't always required, as I can guarantee belief and positivity will be installed by some members of our raid (thanks to Jernau, particularly). Being part of a team is important, but not a huge pre-requisite as it's something that is nurtured over a period of time and comes naturally. Lastly, prior preparation and knowledge of encounters isn't a necessity because I will always spell out exactly what I want from people before every pull and give them time to ask questions before we get to the killing.

Anyway, sorry for the WoT crushing blow. It wasn't intended as one, but I felt the need to get this off my chest. Hopefully some of my raiders will read it and appreciate where I'm coming from.

Here's hoping.