Getting worse?

Have you ever had one of those raid experiences where you just have to call it because every seems to be getting worse?

You walk in and start blowing things up at a pace that is quicker than normal.  You break your previous time records on bosses by a huge amount and then bam, out of nowhere, you wipe.

No big deal, it happens.  You dust yourself off and go at it again and correct the mistakes you made.  Usually this happens because everyone is doing so well you start to become over confident and make a stupid mistake here or there.  It has happened to every raid group out there.  Wiping on something you have on farm.  It is a lesson in humility.

Personally I think of moments like that as the perfect time to point out the gentle reminder that no matter how many times you have done something, no matter if you are over geared, no matter if you think the mechanics are capable of being ignored now, no matter what, you still need to do what your are supposed to do.  Or you wipe.  Plain and simple.

We hit one of those moments last night and after the wipe we wiped again and again.  Each time we did worse than the previous time. 

I've seen it before, it is just one of those nights where everything was easy and a mistake was made and you just can not get back into the grove.  So I called it.  Sometimes that is the best thing to do.  Wiping against a boss you know you can beat, even if it is not farm status, and getting worse with each attempt is one of the signs that you need a break.

That is the beauty of a casual guild.  A hardcore guild would have had the raid leader snapping at people and keep going at it after three consecutive wipes that everyone got worse on each time.

I don't snap at people.  Part of the reason we are not as progressed as other guilds.  It is not my style.  There were a few people making stupid mistakes and I mentioned what we all needed to do better.  I did not single people out.  When I saw we did worse with each attempt I figured it was just not our night and I called it for the betterment of the group.

Sometimes the best thing you can do for a teams morale is to know when to quit.  I saw the pattern.  I did not see it getting done.  I did not want to single out anyone in public, whisper is fine for that.  If we kept going we would have not downed it.

Have you ever had one of those days where you just start getting worse?

I am sure you have, we all have.  Maybe the solution is not to keep banging your head into the boss hoping it will knock it over.  Sometimes the solution is a lot simpler.  Call it a night.  Take pride from blowing through the raid up to that point and don't let it go down hill with any more wipes.

Morale is a touchy issue for a lot of players.  Keeping people motivated is a lot easier when you quit after a couple of tries and laugh about it than if you kept going for another half an hour and don't down it.

I just think the whole concept of getting worse is an interesting thing.  I have to say, I really hate those days when things are going so smooth and then one wipe leads into a downward spiral but what are you going to do.  It happens to every group at one point or another.  No one escapes the getting worse problem.

In a war a good general knows when it is time to withdraw so you can fight another day.

When you see you are getting worse you know, it is time for bed, good night all, lets get it next time.