Sunday, July 5, 2009

Is It Still A Mistake If You Didn't Know Until You Were Dead?

Well of course it damn well is. An avoidable death is an avoidable death no matter what. I should know I've died in almost every way imaginable on a boss fight. I've died form over aggroing. Died from aggro dumps. Died from standing in the wrong spot. Died from standing in the right spot, but standing there too long. Died from standing too close to someone. Died from standing too far away from someone. Died from moving at the wrong time. Died from not moving at the wrong time. Died from mind control. Died from AoE. Died from big, glowy, spiny, damn obvious AoE. Died from moving in the wrong direction. Died from moving in the right direction, but too far. Hell, if there was a boss where you could only die by standing on your head whilst reciting nursery rhymes I'm sure I'd manage that too somehow.

What does all this rambling about me failing have to do with anything?

Well I like to think of it as a list of credentials as to why I'm specifically qualified to talk about this subject. It may not always be as obvious as those I listed but a mistake is a mistake, no matter the situation.

Let me tell you a story.

Our raid leader did me a favour, for which I promised him that I would worship the ground he walked on and not die for the next 10 bosses we downed. I was in luck as it was the beginning of the raiding week and that the first 11 bosses in Ulduar can be classes as on farm for us. I survived the Flame Leviathan with ease. I survived Razorscales adds and flame patch's. I survived being put into Ignis The Furnace Masters pocket twice in a row. I avoided being deconstructed by XT-002 Deconstructor. I survived being DC'd twice on the Assembly of Iron. I survived the AoE of Kologarn. I survived the adds and void zones of Auriaya, even the death of our main tank on that fight didn't stop us or cause my death. I survived 800-900+ lag on Hodir.

(As a side note I had asked to be replaced because of the lag and DC's that had been plaguing me but there was realistically nobody online to replace me)

I did all this by doing my utmost to minimise my damage taken and maximise my positioning and self healing. Then however it was time for Thorim and I got sloppy.

The first attempt I was in the gauntlet and did everything I could to stay alive, but the arena team died from being overrun by adds and the big sparkly ball of death came for me. Our raid leader kindly said that one didn't count. The next attempt I was put in the arena so that our raid leader could "keep an eye on me", and for extra dps on the adds. I kept a damn close eye on my health and my aggro and survived long enough for Thorim to join the fight. We finished of the adds that were left and started on the big man himself.

This is the point where I make my mistake. I know that he does chain lightning, and I know that it gets stronger as the fight progresses. So why in gods name did I stand so close to two other melee? Ok so it's hard to judge how hard the lightning is hitting unless your keeping a close eye on raid damage. And yes the other melee should have been spreading out as well. And yes we do get forced closer together by that ground level lightning stuff he does. All this however in no way excuses me from just standing there and face rolling my way to the floor. Even if the others were not, I at least should have been maximising my distance from the rest of the melee group. I did not, I paid the price and broke my promise. It was a hand up, my bad, mistake with no excuses allowed.

What's the point of all this nattering?

Well the point is that a whole lot of death's are avoidable and next time you die take a good long look at your combat log and the sequence of events that lead up to your death and see if there was any possible way to avoid it, or even to just reduce the chances of you dieing. I'm not saying you have to play perfectly, god knows I don't. All I'm saying is realise you made a mistake and try to learn from it.

So until next time this is Stuntyone the Incompetent Warrior signing off.

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