Wiping on bosses has been a way of life for me over the past 5 years. I started raiding in the summer of 20065 and while my first steps were being boosted by a top guild that didn't last long and I was soon wiping on early bosses in Blackwing Lair. We wiped for many weeks on Vaelastrasz (boss no2) and then many weeks on the 4th boss, Firemaw. No one complained as all 40 members knew what to do we just needed the practice to get the fight down.
We eventually downed those particular bosses and moved on only to encounter the next nemesis. This has happened in every guild I have been in in most instances (OK maybe not much in Wrath) but wiping happens and each group gets their block when they hit their limit.
These blocks are good. Why? Because it makes you analyse what you are doing, determining what you are doing wrong and taking corrective action to overcome the challenge before you. In short it is character building (no pun intended). The other beautiful thing is that it gives you a real sense of achievement when you master the encounter and defeat the boss, you know you earned the right to the loot he dropped.
The guys and girls of SKF have been wiping on normal Ragnaros for no more than 1.5 raid days per week for 4 weeks, or a maximum of 18 hours. Assuming that the average time per wipe is 20 minutes, that's 54 wipes.Sure it is a lot but because we are not a full on raid guild we have low attendance among our players and those 8 raid days have probably had 8 different tank/healer teams and 8 different DPS teams with maybe only 3 people that have been on all wipes, which means each Monday/Tuesday raid day we're learning how to do the fight from a different perspective (tank healing, raid healing, healing warrior or a druid tank, dealing with no mage, dealing with 2 ranged and 3 melee. The combos are endless (well maybe not but I can't be arsed with the math). To compound matters, we've also had 2 raid leaders, one of which is having to learn to do the raid lead thing because of my new job which prevents me from being the ever present I was until 5 weeks back.
Is our experience different because we're a smalltime casual guild that raids rather than a bleeding edge raiding guild? Well actually no, Dream Paragon, world no1 ranked guild, took 500 wipes on heroic Ragnaros before they downed him. Sure the wipes were done over a shorter period of time than I would do 500 wipes but they kept focused, they analysed, they adapted, they practiced that kill 500 wipes. The saying, "practice makes perfect" exists because it's true in all real life scenarios. I wonder how good Manchester United would be if their players didn't practice football for 12 months? How fast could Usain Bolt could run the 100m if he failed to practice for 12 months?
Our particular block is getting to the through phase 2 to the 2nd intermission phase, moral is down and people are getting frustrated because we all know what to do we just can't execute it. But I know that we just need to give it time, put in the effort and practice till our execution is flawless, let the tension disappear and the buger will go down. I just hope the other raiders, who have been used to the Wrath style of raid progression can hang on in there and get through this challenge as they will all emerge better players and hopefully better people because of the experience.
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