Thursday, July 3, 2008

Brain Dumping when Leading a Raid

In the couple of days since my first raid as the RL, I've been spending some time analyzing my performance, seeking out improvement opportunities.

One thing I tend to do when leading through uncertainty is to Brain Dump, which means to develop minor verbal diarrhea and share each detail of your decision making process for those around you to hear.

I generally do this with the hopes that I can share my thought process and the motivation behind each decision, such that the people around me will either (A) buy into the solution more, or (B) have the basis for a conversation that we can build upon.

One such time was when forming the parties out of the 25 raiders. Having never done it on this scale before, I was uncertain as to the optimal solution. I had a variety of people whispering me asking for specific buffs for themselves. So after listening to each of the pleas, many of which were conflicting, I asked for everyone to take it easy and listen while I brainstorm aloud for my initial party composition.

This guy here for Tree of Life.

I ask a veteran pally if he's got any auras that help healers. He tells me about Concentration Aura. Good, you go here.

This guy here for mana battery-ness.

These folks spread out cuz Trueshot Aura don't stack.

I ask who plays the drums. Ok, you go here, along with the following DPS maximizers.

A player chimes in that he thinks his group is silly. I shout at him "stfu, noob" I share the two reasons why he is good in his current party, plus the compromise I had to make which didn't allow me to put him in the party that both he and I would prefer he be in. He says "cool".

And so on, and so forth. All out loud over voice for the whole raid to hear.

So I'm wondering what you all think of this style. As a Raid Leader, do you ever do that stuff, or do you do things like party composition in silence and have people just accept it. As a Raid Member, do you like being "privy" to this sort of decision making process, or do you find it annoying / boring / uninspiring?

Note, I said "Brain Dumping" and not "Brain Farting". The former is a sharing of copious details about your thought process and the motivations behind your decision, while the latter is freezing up, forgetting what you're doing mid-sentence, or just plain putting your foot in your mouth.

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