raid report: managing expectations

I showed up 2 hours late for the raid invite last night (I forgot that I was an hour BEHIND server time, and thought that I was an hour AHEAD of server time). It was ok though, since for once 3 other warlocks in the guild were on that wanted to raid. By the time I got on they were still working on getting Lurkey Below down, so my mishap had the added bonus of dodging repair bills on a boss we should have been able to 2-shot. Additionally, as an Affliction Warlock, Lurker's boots aren't much of an improvement on the Frozen Shadowweave boots.

Then we spent an hour clearing trash to Void Reaver and had just enough time to get in one failed attempt. You probably aren't going to down a boss you are learning with 5 substitute raiders that haven't been gearing themselves up, don't raid regularly, and haven't been in the fight at all.

One major difference this time was that our Main Tank was a Druid. I dont remember reaching a threat ceiling at all until about 5 minutes into the fight when he got punted away too many times. Meanwhile last time with our Warrior MT, I would have reached an aggro ceiling 2:30 into the fight. Perhaps this is due to the fact that I didn't have a shadow priest, but thats only 15% more damage, and even then we had 4 Misdirects last time instead of only 2 this time.

The highlight of the raid was when I finally joined up for the Void Reaver, one of the other warlocks said to me "Sun, I've been meaning to talk to you about managing expectations". I was confused of course, and he went on to explain that I was being too accomodating with my healthstones, and they were getting yelled at throughout the night for not handing them out fast or soon enough. My fellow warlocks went on to explain that it is an important thing to do in life in general, one stating: "Never be too great of a spouse. Otherwise she will expect you to be great all the time. Thats why every once in a while I make it a point to be an ass to my wife."

PROTIP: As a raiding warlock, you know a soul well only has 10 stones per well, and it has a 5 minute cooldown. To get the entire raid stoned that means you need at least 3 wells. To do this, zone in early, and when you coun the first 10 people, drop a soul well. That one will dry up by the time there are ~15 people in there. By the time the entire raid is raidbuffing for trash, drop another well. Finally, when you are just before a boss encounter drop the well again. If there was a hard trash encounter also drop wells because some people use their stones then rather than die on the battlefield.