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Good communication is an incredibly important part of any team and I firmly believe that the source of and solution to most problems in life comes down to how we communicate with each other.  Since I consider raiding in WOW to be a team sport, good communication can often be the key to success when faced with a complex encounter.  One of the ironies of WOW is that finding good communication can often be difficult.  Below are a couple tips that will serve you well when trying to communicate in game.

1. Be polite.  It’s incredibly important to remember that you are playing with folks from all walks of life who deserve to be spoken to with respect.  Most people who make mistakes are not “slow” nor are they intentionally sabotaging your team.  They made a mistake.  Insulting or belittling them will just make you feel even worse the next time you make a mistake (and trust me, you’ll make a mistake).  Politeness can help diffuse a difficult situation, especially considering that most people get defensive and embarrassed when they make a mistake.

2. If something is wrong, say something.  If you feel like something isn’t working properly or you don’t understand a mechanic, it’s up to you to say something.  Its impossible to decipher what you’re thinking or not thinking unless you say something.  If you feel too embarrassed to bring it up over vent, throw a whisper to someone in raid for a quick explanation.  Remember, there is no such thing as a bad question.

Hopefully these tips can help your raid team communicate more effectively with each other.

After a half dozen progression attempts on Chimaeron last night, I sat back to think about what a difficult job healers have.  The analogy that popped into my mind was this: healers are just like your mom.  Think about it; they’re always there to clean up the mess you’ve made and you never thank them.  Healing is one of the most thankless jobs in WOW.  It’s only when a healer makes a mistake that they get any type of attention at all.  Most times, they quietly and heroically do their job, bailing you out of the fire and keeping the tank up, all the while managing their mana pool and responding to the same mechanics as the rest of the raid.

Healers  hold a tremendous weight on their shoulders during dungeons and raids.  A DPS can step away mid cast to respond to a mechanic without any real impact to the raid.  Sure your DPS will dip a little bit but no one will die as a result of your decision to leave early.  Now put yourself in the shoes of a healer.  In a split second, they have to decide if they need to take the damage on the chin from the mechanic and finish their cast or hold off on casting and fire off a quick heal on their target when they are done responding to the mechanic (all the while hoping that their target won’t die in the mean time).  When was the last time you faced a decision like this as DPS?  Maybe once or twice a raid cycle?  Healers face it multiple times on every boss.

If healer’s have such a tremendous amount of importance placed on even their tiniest decisions during fights, then how can you accurately judge a healers performance in a fight?  Measuring the performance of a healer is an incredibly nuanced exercise that is way more difficult than pulling up their HPS.  Is there any meter that shows whether or not the healer cast the right heal in a given situation?  How about a meter that shows how quickly the healer responded to life threatening damage on a raid member?  Unfortunately, there are no standard meters that measure any of these things.  What you can rely on is your healing class leader helping to analyze the decision making of all healers in order to help improve their overall performance.  And, like most complex analyses in life, we should leave this to the professionals.

In conclusion, I’d like to give a big thanks to the Healing Team of Bound and all other healing teams out there who have saved my ass (and the asses of thousands of other tanks and DPS) countless times!

Can you run and gun?  No, I’m not talking about sprinting the length of the basketball court to drain a three.  What I am talking about is are you capable of moving AND dpsing in instances and raids?  This skill, although it isn’t discussed very often, is an essential ingredient to success in 5 mans and raids.  Haven’t quite mastered this ability?  Below are a couple tips to help you keep alive and in the top five on recount.

Set aside your instant cast spells as well as your fast cast speed spells for when you’re moving.  Having these on hand can ensure that you don’t lose too much dps when you’re responding to mechanics in a boss fight.  Moving without casting is a complete waste of DPS.  That said, don’t put your life in jeopardy to try and cast and move.  If you’re having difficulty with this, try to only cast a couple spells while you’re moving.  Over time, you’ll get more comfortable and casting while moving will become second nature.

Don’t move unless you have to!  I see people moving all the time when they don’t need to.  Think about it this way, every time you move when you don’t have to, you LOSE DPS.  It also adds additional confusion to what can already be an incredibly confusing situation.  Long story short, don’t move unless its completely necessary.

Save your cool downs for moments when you know that you’ll be stationary.  There’s no sense popping your trinkets or triggering other cool down spells when you are going to be moving around.  Save those cool downs for a moment in the fight when you know you’ll be standing in one spot for the duration of the cool down.

Hopefully these tips can help you increase your DPS in movement heavy fights!

Welcome to The Daily Fan, where you get to see what we are reading, listening or tweeting about in our community of fan blogs, podcasts and other sites surrounding World of Warcraft, Console, PC gaming, and much more.

Today I really wanted share how I checked out Twisted Nether Live with Disciplinary Action, or how Rawrcast’s was a blast with Mike B. Then the obvious hit me, oh yea it’s Cataclysm time! So here are some go to places for your Launch Day love!

	Elitist Jerks We have to send you here if you are going to raid or play harder than casual and have questions about your class.  Elitist Jerks is the go to place for advanced class knowledge. If you don’t know you can start at their forums. Your next step is a class in Calculus for the heavy but sometimes needed math. www.ElitistJerks.com
	Wowpedia The new go to place for explanations for Lore, NPC and Raid Boss info, this is a must for anyone entering Cataclysm.  Hosted by Curse, it’s always being updated and has a strong community helping to build a great database for all things Warcraft. www.Wowpedia.org
	Wowhead Need a little help on the new quests? Someone showing off that new toon morphing reward and want to know how they got it? You should already know but Wow Head is the way to go! The strongest aspects of Wowhead are the comments, few trolls but many more great info by players like you! www.Wowhead.com

Want to suggest something to be featured on in an upcoming Daily Fan?
Send it to Fondre@Rawrcast.com or twitter @Fondrewow

Giving criticism is one of the hardest things you can do in WOW. Players, if they can take it at all, often take critiques as a personal attack on themselves. For instance, many players translate, “Try to have higher uptime on your DOTS”, as “You’re not good enough”. It’s even harder to give criticism when you take a step back and realize that folks are paying $15/Month…and your criticism is not included in that bill.

Putting all that aside, there are players, for whatever reason, that do need feedback to play the game better. Finding the right way to give this feedback is essential to building a competent and progressive raiding team. Here are a couple tips that have served me well in the past when delivering criticism.

1. Present a Data Based Argument. Dig through your logs and come up with hard data to back up your points. Oftentimes, you can take cover behind data and assure the other party that you aren’t carrying out a personal vendetta against them.

2. Come up with a list of Actionable Feedback. Giving general feedback (Tank Better!) is a great way to reach no outcome other than a pissed off guildie. Find very specific things that the player can change to get better.

3. Speak in a neutral, helpful tone. Pinpointing one player and brow beating him will not make him a better player. Speaking about the good of the guild and improving all players will help the player take the feedback without feeling attacked.

Using the tips above (and the ones provided by my much more insightful readers), you can hopefully make a painful conversation much easier.

This is a quick guide on how to be a loathsome raid member and alienate yourself from your fellow raiders. Hopefully these few quick tips can help you infuriate every player around you!

1. Contribute as little as possible to the raid: Whether you’re the tank/healer/or just regular Old Joe DPS, you are way too important to follow kill orders or any instructions that are coming from your raid leader. In fact, I encourage you to mute vent and listen to Metal as loud as possible. Remember, boss fights are no exception. Strive for mediocrity. After all with the 30% buff, you don’t need to do a damn thing. Remember, if you die, the raid should easily be able to 24 man it.
2. Roll on every piece of loot that drops. Don’t feel bashful about being worthless to the raid, you are entitled to roll and get every piece of loot that drops in the raid. Loudly announce your intentions for the loot that dropped over vent and moan/groan/scream loudly when you are out rolled. However, just cause you didn’t roll high enough to get the loot doesn’t mean that you lost. Petition the player that got the loot via whisper, informing them that the piece is a much better fit for you and complain loudly about the current loot structure over as many raid channels as possible. If you still don’t get the loot, continue to follow rule #1.
3. Conduct yourself as if you are an officer. Rank is for suckers. You know exactly what everyone should be doing at all times and you should let them know it. Give advice to players of your same class who have been consistently outperforming you for months (you should have ample time as you’re lying on your back during a boss fight). Don’t fret about gumming up Vent with advice and calling out specific players who you think are under performing, the raid as a whole will definitely benefit from your soap boxing .

Follow all of the steps above and you should be the single most hated person in your raid.