Keeping Up Raid Morale.

You're the tank, that means morale is your job! Oh sure, it's not only your job, but as the tank, you occupy a certain level of authority and leadership that others will follow if you lead them. The raid leader may be too busy analyzing the last wipe or telling people where they can improve to deal with the morale of the raid. As the tank, our job is not always easy, but let's face it, after a certain level of gear and progression, it's easy quite often. It does not take a lot of effort to stand there and fall asleep tank Blood Queen Lana'thel. So we have no right to criticize dps or blame healers for failures. We have our job, they have theirs. It doesn't matter if we did it just last night on our mage and never had any problems, we're not them, they're not us, it's irrelevant. More than that, it's detrimental to the raid.

If there is criticism to be made, it is the responsibility of the raid leader and only the raid leader to make it. If you're the raid leader, fine. If not, the only things coming out of your mouth should be encouraging and morale building. No one likes a raid that is turning on itself, and no raid will suffer repeated wipes if the members are finger-pointing. Don't do it. It is a known fact that people crave praise, and Warcraft players crave it doubly-so from their peers. It's evident in the way they constantly post their damage per second, brag about the new item they got, or tell the story of the time they saved the raid. Most players, in an anonymous medium like Warcraft, will eventually succumb to bullying. That is, informing other players how bad they are (compared to their leet skills) or whispering among each other about the bad player. No one likes a bully, and if you're being one you know it and should stop. Pointing out the mistake a player made will never encourage that player to be better, nor will it strengthen the team once he finally leaves. It does not better the raid team to stroke their e-peen by harming another, and it impresses no one. Replacing him with a new member who may be better still does not improve the raid. It will only make the rest of the team afraid of whomever is doing the bullying and the stress will cause more wipes, more problems, until the raid and maybe the entire guild falls apart. Because what every single fight in Warcraft is about is teamwork.

Teamwork, coordination, and unity. This spells success. Gear should only be seen as a buffer for mistakes. The better your gear, the more effective you are at correcting a mistake or cleaning up a mess. Lower gear is not a crutch, and in fact I see it as an excuse to perform better and practice an encounter with better efficiency. A high enough level of coordination and brotherhood among the raid will overcome any gear deficiencies.

As a tank, I find myself bored past the first two fights in Icecrown, where the tank's job is sadly relegated to standing around hitting the boss while watching everyone else scurry around. Occasionally a tank swap is in order, then back to watching the raid. What should the tank be doing during this down time? Uplifting the team! I always make it a point to encourage people I notice doing their jobs exceedingly well, or who make a last second save. People want to be noticed, and want their peers to see that they are doing their job not only well, but fantastically. If someone makes a mistake, trust me, they are usually very aware of it. There is no need to attack him. Instead what you can do is compliment the people doing well, which will encourage the others to perform better, in hopes that they too get noticed and uplifted. Some examples:

The other day I recall fighting the Blood Princes, and I started watching a kinetic bomb slowly falling that no one had caught yet. I made sure to call it out in case no one had seen it, and from clear across the other side of the room I see a mage blink, run in and blast it right before it landed, saving us all at the last second. Should the bomb have been anywhere near the ground? Of course not, ideally, it should have been hit ages ago. Pointing that out helps nothing. I don't know if the other dps were occupied with bigger problems, so instead I told the mage "nice save!" in vent, and guaranteed he felt like a hero.

A long time ago I died to an enraged Icehowl, and the bear off-tank picked him up in a split second and managed to pop his cooldowns in order to survive, saving the raid from certain death. I made sure to point out what a great job he did under pressure, and to this day that tank loves to raid with me on any of his toons. Because he knows he will get noticed, and will feel great.

Why make people feel bad when you can make them feel great to raid with you? The more you uplift and notice the small things people do, the more appreciated people will feel, the more they will want to raid with you, the more you will succeed in raids. Morale is your job as a tank, as a dps, as a healer. It is everyone's responsibility to make sure people are not discouraged after hours of wipes. Crack a joke, notice how much closer the raid got to downing the boss, keep it light and always remember that stress will only make everything worse.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned next entry for: Cooldowns And When To Use Them.