Okay, I realize tonight (today?) went over badly. Infact, I'm going to be using it as an example, a lot, because I want to make a point. A big point, and one I think we all -kind- of know about, but I want to put it out in the open so we're all clear on just what -did- go wrong tonight.
For the rest of the guild, here's the backstory to the example. Qoz, Darba, Geth, and myself were taking Kul'thran, a good friend of ours, out on a few instance runs. And because we liked those two particular instances (Zul'farrak and Maraudon). It was his first time on either of these instances, whereas the four of us had a lot of prior experience (or, Qoz, Geth, and Darba did.. it was only my third-fourth time in Maraudon.)
A lot of things went wrong that night, but we had one big glaring error.. Lack of communication. Among other things. All that bad stuff that went on? It was -nobody's- fault in particular. What really went wrong was we didn't communicate -as- much to Kul'thran, and since all four of us were so used to grouping together, it just sort of came out as habit the entire two runs, including the disasterous run into Maraudon. We didn't think, ahead of time, to explain to him how we were going to handle it. Basically, we talked amongst ourselves and let him try and sort it out. Bad move on our part, and not very politically or socially savy. Our bad.
What I'm proposing is a few things that could beneficially affect such matters in the future.. The first of which is a tactic used in the Blue Angels, and that's called 'taking a safety'. To wit, after every successful instance we go on together (and let's face it, guys.. We almost -always- do them with at least -one- other Ishnu member present), we have a sit-down afterwards and go over everything that went on. The important part of this, though, is -everyone- mentions something they did wrong. Nobody's perfect, least of all us goof-offs, so there's got to be something we weren't exactly happy with. That's taking a safety. The -reason- behind it is that you acknowledge, and identify, a problem you had, with the full intention to work on it for the next time. It'll help not only improve our methods, since we get a look into what the other people were thinking, but it builds a lot of trust.
The second thing I want to discuss is group communication -before- the actual instance, and during it. When we're with people that haven't done a specific instance before, or have never grouped with us, I think it would be in our best interest to let them know how we're going to do stuff, and -why-. After our first two bad pulls in Zul'farrak, I did a half-assed version of this, but left out a lot of the why. My fault. But, after I (attempted) it, we -did- get better right up until just after the Temple. But -that- was just bad luck, and -nobody's- fault. In fact, I think we all did a -heck- of a nice job that night.
I just think we need to work on a few more things, and try to communicate a bit better. Sorry if this comes off as a rant, but I've been up around 24 hours now, and I can't get any sleep whatsoever.
Voice back with opinions, please!
_________________ "Abbendis is nothing but a harlot, and Admiral Westwind is selling her cheap like he sold us out!" - Stable Master Mercer, under coercion
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