Raiding with Visual Aids

Okay – I admit it.

I’m a “visual” person, meaning that to me, pictures are indeed worth a thousand words.

Scene:  Ragnaros – Sons of Flame

The most important part of this fight – for dps – is to correctly attack your add assignment.  If there is any confusion as to your add and you miss it, well if it gets to the hammer it’s a wipe.

Fortunately we have a very patient raider who explains it all very clearly because some of us fill-ins (me) have trouble distinguishing our left side from our right side.

Add in (pun intended) that communication is limited to text and vent, it can get confusing for those of us who are “visual” and need extended diagrams, maps and a sticky note on our monitors.

So….here are a few tips to communicating tactics with the verbally-challenged raider:

Very Bad:  Mathematical

Yes, we all acknowledge the indisputable accuracy of mathematics; however it will make the visual person’s head explode.

Exploding Head

Bad:  Counting

Bad because of the math references, but as long as there is something “visual” to count and it’s one number (e.g. you’re on add 4) we can handle it although the RL must be on their toes to correct some of us (me) who might start counting from the left instead of the right….

Good: Visual Placement

Run your character or better yet, walk the “visual” raider over to the exact spot their add will spawn.  The visual raider will immediately pick up all the contextual graphics and run to the correct spot.  If you have trained them to count to “4”, the possibility of errors decreases significantly.

Best:  Charts and Diagrams

Prepare a simple diagram for the visual raider and send it to them before the raid.  They can compare it with the contextual graphics, print out a copy and tape it to their monitor.

Sons of Flame Spawns - Left (or is it Right?) Smash Diagram

Make sure you have separate diagrams for Left, Center and Right.

As tempting as it might be, do not add numbering or anything that might remotely be considered “mathematical” and cause head explosion.

If you have any comments, please send me a note or better yet, draw me a picture!