Raiding: Knocking The Rust Off & Clearing The Cobwebs
Posted by 
iTZKooPA on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 - 16 Comments Tags: Anaheim, bad dps, clearing the cobwebs, knocking the rust off, l2p, learn2play, newb, noob, out of practice, plague ridden seattle, raiding, spell rotation
iTZKooPA on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 - 16 Comments Tags: Anaheim, bad dps, clearing the cobwebs, knocking the rust off, l2p, learn2play, newb, noob, out of practice, plague ridden seattle, raiding, spell rotation 
Thanks to a lovely excursion to Anaheim, California for something, an enjoyable trip to plague ridden Seattle, and the recovery time from said plague, I've missed a fair bit of raiding. Actually, I have missed almost a month's worth of raiding. I've never missed a full month of raiding unless I was still leveling, or not playing the game at all. Coming back to raiding is a new experience to me, one that makes me feel incredibly dirty.You know that feeling when you haven't showered for a few days; your hair is oily and shaggy, your skin feels like it has an extra layer to it, and your feet have begun to grow a new breed of penicillin? I've felt like that, disgusting, dingy, dirty, during this week of raiding.
I've misplaced Tricks of the Trade (be faster on that Feign Death next time!), dropped Slice'n'Dice, blown openers, allowed Hunger for Blood to dissipate and mistimed Envenom after Envenom. In short, I've been a total n00b the last few play sessions. As if completely dropping off of the "good" side of the DPS chart wasn't bad enough, I even did something I haven't done as long as I could remember. I failed at the same thing in an encounter not once, but twice. You better believe that was a night filled with /facepalm.
My utter failings came as a complete shock to me. Sure, I've take a week or two off here or there for vacations, I've had friendly rogues come back from excursions only to complain about ruining their spell rotation, but I never thought it was this bad. I never thought it could happen to me! I never dreamed I could be this bad again! But the proof is in the pudding, I've absolutely blown chunks in every possible way since returning.
Other than raiding - simply brute forcing my way back to nimble fingers and high DPS - I have no idea what to do. There's nothing I can easily correct. As far as I can tell the only remedy is to simply get back into the rhythm, get playing and get focused. If you guys have any bright ideas on clearing the cobwebs and knocking off the rust of vacation I'd love to hear them.
Please, for the sake of my ego, tell me I am not the only person to ever experience a total lack of skill after an extended break. Lie to me if you must.
Reader Comments (16)
FIRST!
dont worry dude, it happens.
I played my deathknight for so long that when I went back to my prot pally I was freaking out looking for "Bloodboil" and wiped the raid.
XD
Hate to say it, but I experienced no losses when I went away for almost a month :) The only thing that I had to get used to again was using a computer because I had not only been away from WoW, I had been away from any computers in general, especially my nice lappy. However, I have experienced loss of skill in other areas of my life when being absent from them for a long time.
If it makes you feel any better, I'm still trying to figure out my preferred raiding groove. It takes time. And you've got several good reasons to have been away!
just go to a target dummy and practice, easy as that
wtb new PL vids....
By Cptkeyes on Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
wtb new PL vids….
WTB FLY SWATTER for thease ppl lol stop asking over and over again they will come out with something when they get a new editor.
my friend after a 2 month trip came back with bad DPS. it happens to everyone.
I switched specs from tank to DPS to cover a lack of DPS in the guild. About two weeks later, having just gotten the hang of DPSing things, I switched back to tanking, and completely sucked at it. I lost aggro faster than ever, and never noticed I was trying to tank the place in berserker stance until we'd already wiped at least half a dozen times.
What's more, individuals in the group can have an effect, too. Change a druid healer for a shaman, and the whole group has to adjust to new buffs and a different set of heals. DPS ends up switching aggro dump timing. Tank has to watch out a little more without guaranteed heals over time. And etc...
The short is that any little thing can just wiggle its way in to your cycle and throw you off. Be that a new raider joining in, a week or more away from the game, or my personal favorite, leveling an alt with a different job in between raids. I still recomend the last (problems and all) if for no other reason than to give your fellow raid membes and yourself an appreciation for the intricacies of their particular job.
Ive never heard "lovely" and "Anaheim" spoken in the same sentence.
After a while lvl'ing other toons I always go find a target dummy and get my reflexes built back up. Gotta get the groove back on and have your reflexes sync with your rotation.
It helps if you calibrate your rotations for each toon to the same keymappings.
Way back in my old guild, I had to give up my enhancement spec for restoration because guildmates were always coming to me for heals. When the dual-spec system was implemented, I eagerly went for enhance as my off-spec. The only problem? I had been resto for so long that my enhance gear was sub-par and I had to figure out where my dps buttons were. Took quite awhile to get up to a respectable amount of DPS, but I managed it.
Drug my poor alt priest out of the closet the other day, thought she'd like some leveling time. Some dumb hyena, 2 levels lower than me starts attacking, and there I stand in the middle of the Barrens with not a clue of what I should do to fight back.
By the time II remembered I had a staff and a wand and oh yeah - power word shield, I was nearly dead. Fortunately I found a healing icon on my bar and survived. But, the whole incident was extremely embarrassing!
So yes, I think I get the gist of what your are saying!
Tell me about it, 1 month and 6 days away from the internet, phone and good signal tv all cos virgin media screwed up the bills when i moved house.
My main is a Holy Paladin on the Muradin server. despite my reservations most people in my guild and my raiding group tell me I'm a pretty good healer. I took some time away from healing to level my Frost DK tank. When I came back to my paladin for a quick heroic run no matter what I did I could not keep the tank up. I have run with the tank in the past and I knew he was a good tank. I had also never had a problem with him previously but for some reason I just couldn't keep him up.... Luckily things have gone back to normal and I currently am running both my Holy pally and the DK tank.
best new blog
U56Xm8 I want to say - thank you for this!