It's 5:25 local time. Raid starts at 5:30. You've got the chips, updated your addons,
fed the cat, patted the girlfriend on the head and gave her the remote control
and a kiss on the lips. You've got drink in hand, reset the router, the computer,
holy crap, that's a lot of things to do.
I"ve had the luxury of being on both sides of the raiding coin. My original group really
never were raiders. Carpe Noctem was a group of people who got together, played
and leveled. But we never really got into the 25 man raids (this was Burning Crusade).
Our big dreams was to maybe hit Karazhan once we were geared.
At this time, I was the Main Tank and defacto Raid Leader. Mostly because it defaulted
to me, mostly cause I was the one that tended to show up on time and be ready
to go. Nothing more frustrating than waiting for one or two people to show up and
then get to hear the dagger into the raiding heart, "I forgot we were raiding tonight".
When doing a 10 man group, you have 10 different schedules to juggle, 10 different priorities
and 10 different groups of occurances to deal with. It's the nature of the beast to have
to be flexible with happenings. Especially in a relatively casual raiding guild that Inner Peace
tends to be. But then it has been from time to time that the hammer comes down quickly
to replace someone very quickly. IP's current Main Tank tends to have a very quick sense
of urgency (and I'm not complaining at all).
For me, I start to get prepared an hour early. Mostly cause I hate being late for anything
(I used to be late for everything, but finally had to put my own foot down and change
my attitude when it came to appointments). Where raiding isn't a job, it is an accepted responsibility when you sign up. It's a hobby with a purpose and everytime that you
don't live up to that responsibility you end up wasting that much more time of others
to find your replacement. And many times it's someone who might not be as high of
calibur as you are, or doesn't fit into the created dynamics of the raid group. One more
plate wearer in a swarm of DK's, or one more clothie to roll on items that would be more
useful to kept in guild. All for the sake of forgetting to reset the clock.
When I prepare for raid time, I get my tea made (sweet tea thank you), get my chips or
my veggies or whatever I'm feeling like eating and munching on, get the cats water and food
ready to go, even give them some extra loving so their not begging for attention in the middle
of a fight. With my spare time, being the Main Tank I mentally go over my notes and the
pulls for the night and my personal goals. Can I beat my Threat Per second by a certain amount, on DPS fights can I actually not bring up the bottom of the list. Any nerfs this
week (thank you blizzard, next week Ulduar will end up being no tank and you can bring a
72 to dps).
So why take the time? It's just a raid, not like another raid isn't going to happen next week.
To me, it's important to start off things in the right direction. Raiding is a matter not just of
skill but of momentum. I've been in groups that were able to blow through everything
in no time, but with the same group makeup the next week starting off 10 minutes late
they wiped on the first boss over and over again. All having to do with the attitude
from the start. The tanks become cranky, the Healers get cranky at the tanks, the dps
get bored and it's downhill from there. And you get to enjoy that hefty repair bill and
having accomplished bupkis.
One other thing from raid preparation. I"ve been lucky to have 2 raid ready toons,
my hunter and my warrior are tier geared and ready to rock it. So I keep both of them
parked for whereever I raid. It adds a little bit of time to the preparation cycle. But then
you never know when you need to swap out a dps, and everyone having to run back,
summon and then run back to where the next pull is costs time.
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