The Ultimate player

[jmc1989]

Hey, firstly I'd like to apologise if this is in the wrong part of the forum, wasn't sure whether to put it here or in the guides area. so move it at will:p

Ok I want to start with a little background so first you know where I am coming from, hopefully then you will understand what I am asking etc.


So, I've been playing from around July'08 I started slowly and hit 70 about a month before WotLK was release, hence no TBC raids. I was the GM of a levelling guild until we lost a good few members who hit 80 and wanted to raid. I went on to a raiding guild. I was here for around 8 months, clearing naxx and a good chunk of ulduar. The guild however was unable to do ToC10 and it felt like I was paying to stand in Dala constantly.

I decided to set up my own raiding guild focussing on 10man content as I had a few friends with the mindset that 10mans were better.

The guild got off to a good start clearing all 10man content bar hardmodes. We started working on ulduar hardmodes and managed 4/5 in totgc10.

The guild fell apart numerous times as it seemed to be a feeder guild into some of the top guilds on the realm. We constantly rebuilt it but stopped around 3 months ago as the group standard had declined, raids were drying up, and we were only 11/12 in icc normal.

This leads me to today, I am in one of the realms top guilds, currently one of 4 guilds actively seeking the realm first light of dawn. Now this is, of course, not great progression for a realm compared to others but needless to say when one of the 4 guilds get it It will be a big achievement for the realm as a whole.

Currently I don't get to raid much, my gear does fall behind a lot of the other members in the guild I am in. I don't make mistake when raiding but, from a guild perspectivce what do you do, do you take someone that wont fail, or someone that wont fail and does an extra 2k dps. of course you take the higher DPS, I completely understand that and I would do the same if I was in that situation, so this post isn't about QQ'ing.

Instead, I would like a communities opinion.

What makes a great player? Wow isn't about 'you either have it or you don't' theres got to be a way of improving.

so, the question I pose to you is this...

'If you were to write a guide to becoming the best player possible, what would it say?'

so I'm thinking in terms of research, theorycrafting, how to raid, timing cooldowns and tracking icd's of procs.

I don't want to be a bog standard player, I want to work hard and do well.

I eagerly anticipate any replies, and seeing whether this post gets moved elsewhere:P

[zYN]

You're already showing the single most important trait that's in every 'top' player: willingness and motivation to improve.

I'll write some mish-mash reply a bit later and edit this out, currently more or less working on some stuff that needs to be done and taking breaks from it.

[jmc1989]

awesome, thanks zYN.

Thers the general consensus that the realm I am on basically sucks, i'm not going to lie there is a lot of room for improvement but I don't think the realm should make a player, a player should help make a realm.

I probably will eventually move realms just to test new places out etc, new crowd and what not. But I would like to grow first, maybe even level to 85 (as I'm on a pve realm) then move. (been looking at moving to auchindoun - pvp)

Thanks for replying so swiftly:)

take care:)

[arx]

The ultimate player is mostly a state of mind; the single most important thing imo is attitude. Essentially you need to want to improve and take an active role in it.

If you got that right, there are plenty of resources to go to for theorycrafting of various quality. Same with UI design issues.

There's obviously more to it, but that lays the groundwork for everything else. Leading roles and developing new strategies of course require additional qualities to do well.

[jmc1989]

thanks for the reply arx,

i do feel that i have the attitude to improve.

would you mind recommending any sites? obviously Tankspot(for tanking classes) and EJ are essential sites what about places directly concerned with UI design and theory crafting?

[arx]

Those are good places to start. You shouldn't constrain yourself to simply one class since the methods and way of thinking aren't exclusive to one either.

I don't have any specific links to give you besides those, you can scour those forums for other (typically class-specific) sites. And you can also do your napkin math yourself - more complicated modeling and simulation is hard to get into unless you know your stuff.

You're probably familiar with tools like SimulationCraft and whatnot, use several of them and assess the accuracy before you start blindly following anything.

As for the UI part, I'd recommend simply going through a lot of UI pictures and discussions. Evaluate what's good/bad about every UI. Typically you want to shoot for minimal eye movement, minimal clutter, emphasizing necessary info, etc. Ignoring class timers and whatever you need to perform your role, you really want to have a way to instantly see your debuffs, and to see your character clearly. Throughput generally isn't the "hard" part, it's perfecting that and having good situational awareness at the same time that you should design for.

[jmc1989]

thanks again arx:)

will be trying to minimise the amount of addons I start cata with so i can work out a top ui:)