Grade A Raiding

I'm beginning to think there's a problem with what the term "raiding" means. Perhaps the problem is mine... but, since this is my blog, we're going to assume the opposite is true.

It seems that, to many of the folks I raid with, raiding means "to go to a 10- or 25-man instance".

WRONG

Raiding is a mindset, people. It means you're trying to do things at the top level of your game. You're hyper-aware, ultra-sensitive. You are challenging yourself to, well... be all that you can be. The raiding mindset should manifest itself in several ways.

In combat, you are aware of a much larger portion of your surroundings than normal. You aware of not just a boss, but its adds. You are anticipating boss special abilities. You realize that you need to be in range of heals... need to check to see if someone needs Innervate... pick up CC on someone else's mob... tank additional mobs when the other tank goes down... know where and WHERE NOT to leave flame trails... etc. etc. etc.

Now, many of these things need to be learned, and that comes with practice. And we all make mistakes from time to time, and can learn from each experience. But there are some things that ought to be automatic. These are things specific to your class: having soul shards, poisons, flasks, reagents, pots, food -- all the things needed to raid. And they include basic actions like providing health/soul stones, feasts, buffs, etc. without being asked. If you're really of the mindset to raid, then these things are more habit than anything else.

Successful raids -- not to mention raid progression -- REQUIRE a higher investment of attention and interest. Successful raids have healers picking up heals for another healer that's stun-locked or OOM. Successful raids have hunter's CC'ing mobs that escape the tank to give him/her time to re-aggro. Successful raids have classes respec'ing for bosses that require it. Successful raids have battle rezzes given to the right class for that fight. Successful raids don't waste everyone's time going to get mats and resummoning. If we can't remember the basics, we're certainly not prepared to take on bigger challenges.

I'd like to see some junior- and senior-level raids... let's shoot for an A in Raiding 101.

How to Make Enemies and Alienate People

So, over the last week or so I have managed to g-kick someone and get three others to spend several minutes bad-mouthing me. I don't set out with this as my intended goal, but it seems to happen enough that I thought I'd share these things with you and let you decide and/or comment.

1. I need to get a gem cut. The guild JCs aren't around, so I go into trade chat. I've got the gem, will tip... can anyone help me out? I wish I could remember this guy's name, but EOA (early onset alzheimer's) has struck me in my young, handsome years and I just don't recall. So we arrange to meet in the bank, I give him the gem, he cuts it, trades it back and I put 10g in the trade window. He pst's me "Its' 20g." I give him 20g, and we make the trade, but I tell him that he really needs to make that known before he agrees to the deal. I mean, what if he holds me hostage for 50g? C'mon... you set the deal down before you do it, or you take what you get. He proceeds to call me a cheap so-and-so, and blah blah blah. Really? It's me that's effed up?
2. Running around on my hunter, and a guildy puts out a call for a healer for H ToC. My holy pally doesn't need it, but I agree to go to help out the guildy. Another guildy jumps in to help as DPS. I get to the dungeon and equip my lance as I'm running in. Once in, however, I see that the jousting phase is over and the three champs are awaiting us. I swap out my gear with the gear manager and get an error like something didn't swap right. I say in party chat "just a sec" so I can figure out my gear and buff up and... the guildy I'm there to help pulls (he's DK tanking). Okaaaaaay... so I heal us through it -- pausing long enough to say in party chat "not ready not buffed not cool" and we make it cuz I'm all leet and sh*t. :) So after the battle, I say in party chat "gimme a min to buff" and the other DPS guildy says approximately the same thing. DK pulls again. I run out. So does -- unprompted -- the DPS guildy. Needless to say, the rest wipe. DPS says "we'll come back in when you're ready to listen." I say "what he said". DK says "I didn't see you say anything. I don't watch party chat". I say "you have to when you're a tank... you have to make sure everyone's ready. it's your responsibility". DK says "uh... no i don't". I leave the party. So does DPS. DK proceeds to complain that I bailed on him and blah blah blah. The he says "your attitude needs to be adjusted". /gkick. My bad?
3. Get an H DTK (the daily) run pugged... I'm on Aldo. There's three DKs, me, and a shammy healer. We get in and during the first pull I look at the DKs and none of them have over 21K health. I ask the tank "do you have tank gear? are you def capped?" He replies "nope". Hearth. Leave party. One of the DKs -- he shall remain nameless (Raezor) -- starts harassing me via whisper. How I left early. How they replaced me with 'real' DPS. What a fool I am. How he's a geared tank that can tank 10 ToC. Blah blah blah. I look him up. He's 1700-ish in his Unholy spec, all dps gear. he's a respectable 2400+ in his Frost spec... BUT IT'S ALL PVP DPS GEAR!!! WTF? /sigh.
4. Run H ToC with Aldo, and then want to run the H daily since I didn't get to earlier (see #3). I grab three guildies and then a DK from my last H ToC run who seemed decent. First sign of trouble is he's using some emote to basically yell 'charge'. Ok, cute. But 237 times in one instance? C'mon. Then, he starts yelling at Cooplan to hurry up. Well, first of all it was like 1 minute of waiting. Second, it was Chazz, not Coop. Third, Coop is a 25 ToC geared mofo, and you have no business yelling anything at him. And finally, look at the gear around you, think about how easy this run is going to be, and STFU! I tell him to chill. We get to second boss and he's over the top of the stairs, grabbing mobs out of LoS where I can't shoot em and Coop can't heal the knucklehead (aka, Deathblunt). Takes me four posts in party chat to get him to wake the eff up and get back in LoS. We get to the last boss, and douchey emotes tapping his foot waiting on Chris while Chris was taking all of 20 seconds for something. We get done with the last boss, everyone loots -- including the daily item -- and I ask Chris to pass me lead. /kick. This guy had everything he needed, was a complete ass, and I don't kick him til it's over. He whispers me a couple of love-grams, including a C-Bomb. What the what?!?

Seriously... is it me?