Using Raid Time Wisely

When there are only 6hrs a week spent raiding, every minute from 7-10p counts.  Since we don't promote an environment where raging is acceptable when time is being wasted we try to move it along without calling anyone out by name. Consider this my way of calling everyone out since almost everyone, myself included, is guilty of stalling a raid. When you do something that takes away from the goal of the raid you are saying to the 9 other people, "Your time is not important to me" and I find that pretty disrespectful to the people who have set aside time to spend with you.

Some things are unavoidable and completely out of our control, but the things we can control are what we all need to stop.  Let's look at a few of the big ones and I'm going to break them down in manhours(a term that refers to the total hours put in by the entire group)

Problem- Lack of Preparation

It almost never fails. 7pm and we're waiting on people to finish Ordos or a Celestial, and if they get a drop then there's the reforging process. Then we get into raid and someone forgot their bonus roll tokens. That person gets back and another chimes in that they didn't have 15 minutes from Thurs-Tues to watch a video on the boss. Next thing you know it's 7:35p and we're doing our first ready check...that gets delayed because someone needed a drink. So at 7:40p the boss is pulled and the person who didn't watch the video misses a mechanic, we wipe and spend until 8:00p going over strategy and hearing random comments or stories throughout that slow the process.  We've now used 10 manhours on ONE pull. One hour each of us will never get back because of 4 people not being prepared.

Solution

This is such an easy fix. Kill world bosses AFTER raid if you can't be on early.  6:50pm isn't the time to form/join a group for those kills, you should instead be grabbing your bonus roll tokens, a quick reforge or grabbing a drink and getting over to the instance. A warlock portal is there to make things go quicker, not for your personal taxi so be ready to raid at the entrance(Set your hearthstone to the Shrine if needed).  We should have 10 people clearing trash at 7pm and no later.  For boss strategy videos, take away the 6hrs we raid, an average 40hr work week and a generous 8hrs of sleep per night there are 62hrs left each week. If you can't be bothered to spend a small fraction of that to watch a video or read a guide then why should 9 other people be bothered to raid with you? If you see 3 bosses in a night and a total of 30 minutes is spent discussing strategy that's 90min or 15 manhours of raid time!  Last point, wedo have a 5min break, far too often these become 10-15min(50manminutes? To 1.7manhours) breaks, in 5min you can stretch, grab a drink and hit the bathroom unless you live in a castle.

Problem- Attendance

Being late, leaving early, no shows all cost the raid wasted time. We all know and understand things come up, work, traffic, connection issues, or emergencies can all contribute to attendance issues for the raid. It becomes a problem when it is a consistent thing where the same person is late one night, missing the next, then leaving early the next. The other 9 people are then trying to replace you and if it's someone who's inexperienced we are spending time teaching and wiping. Consistent attendance is one of the keys to success for a raid team.  To reiterate, everyone has something come up from time to time, it's only a problem when it's a constant thing.

Solution

Step down if real life is getting in the way. Simple as that. Stephen gave us all a good example of how to go about this in July. He got a job and raiding messed with his sleep schedule so until he adjusted he removed himself from raiding. Doing it yourself saves officers from the uncomfortable conversation where we tell you that you're going to be replaced. We don't like it, but at a certain point it has to be done. You are on a team with 9 REAL people, not NPC's.  If you're running late or not going to be on you can post on Facebook, here on the forums, or get the armory app on your phone for free.  If you need to leave early you need to let us know at the start of raid instead of while you are logging off.

Problem- Off topic chat

This is a tough topic.While no off topic chat makes raiding feel like a job, too much takes focus off of the nights goal. It especially becomes an issue when someone interrupts a discussion about strategy changes or mid boss fight(when vent should be clear for vital info) to talk about what they had for dinner or their latest class hotfixes.

Solution

Limit off topic chat to trash clearing and run backs and then only if strategy talk isn't happening. Once we are at the pull spot we need to get food buff and prepare for the pull, and after a ready check save off topic chat for later. Realize the time for BSing and the time for focus.  When we're struggling on a boss a well placed joke can ease tensions, when we're mid fight, an off topic comment can cover up vital info and cause a wipe and that is something that should never happen.


To TL/DR this post: Be outside SoO and ready to go at 6:55pm, watch videos sometime in your 62hrs you have not raiding, working, or sleeping, missing Ready Checks because you're AFK is bad, consistently bad attendance will cost you a raid spot, and off topic chat has to stop from Ready Check until loot(or wipe).  If we all control the things that cost us raid time we get more boss attempts, more kills & more loot.