No microphone, no interest in getting one. And I will be turning sound off if all I hear is a bunch of mouth-breathing kids.

If the fight is so complex that it can't be explained with a few typewritten instructions, then who is really to blame for the problems that follow? Yeah, the choreographers trying to force us to dance, i.e., the devs.

Yeah, how dare the developers try to make fights interesting and fun! How dare they!

*sighs*

Truth is, a lot of fights *are* too complex to be explained in a few short sentences without glossing over many of the details.

@SamLowry

Voice chat isn't there to explain the strategy before the fight. Voice chat is there to communicate changes to the strategy mid-fight, to account for things going wrong (such as unexpected deaths or disconnections). Voice chat is there to make minor adjustments based on the flow of the fight. Voice chat is there to coordinate assignments, tank swaps, bloodlust and heroism.

The raid leader needs to be able to communicate with the raid. There will be raiders that need to communicate information to the raid leader, so that the raid leader can make decisions. Typing is strictly inferior to voice as a coordination tool when raiders are watching their rotations as well as their feet.

The thesis statement of this article was that a raid requires a) a (competent) leader and b) a raid that is willing to take direction. Not every raider needs to be capable of leading; every raider DOES need to be capable of being led if they are to be successful. You don't need a mic to follow directions, so long as you make sure you're never in a position where you need to communicate anything to the raid mid-fight. For you to say that you don't need to listen to the RL mid-fight, makes you the problem raider this article was written about.

I haven't tried the voice chat since it's been implemented. Back then it was way too low. Coupled with the fact I haven't met anyone using it (we are mainly using TeamSpeak 3, at least on the German servers here in Europe), I didn't try it again the last years.

And Mr. SamLowry just perfectly illustrated the biggest problem that WoW has: players who refuse to work WITH their group, instead working against their group. The RF cannot weed them out, unfortunately.

Let just realize that having a microphone it is not requirement for playing WoW, or queuing up for the LFR, and that therefore the super majority of players don't have one.

Sam has it right. you shouldn't have to dance. just kill the boss. These gimmick fights are not fun. killing the boss and getting the loot is. Heck it's shouldn't even require more than 1 tank. all fights should follow this pattern. A. tank runs in and agros the boss, he now has agro and can't loose it unless he dies. B. dps proceeds to kill the boss... Heals keep the tank alive and heal any aoe damage to the raid. done. no stupid dancing moving round. none of that. I can see having to position a boss so he doesn't breath on the raid or something, but having to switch tanks, and all this crap is not fun.

@ Lee Weaver

So... every fight is supposed to be a tank & spank, with no movement? I'm not a super big fan of the Heigan dance, but what you propose sounds pretty boring and un-fun.

@Kurash
What can I say... You are Wrong! the fun in in the getting of stuff not beating your head against a brick wall and wiping 15 times on a boss because the dev's thought it would be cool to add a Gimmick. the fun is in seeint the boss go down. not in how he got there.

Something I forgot in my first post. these raids that take forever to run are for the birds bring the raids like Obsidian Sanctum and Ruby Sanctum. jsut get rid of the gimmicks in those and they would be perfect

So all you care about is the loot, then? I gotta say that, while everyone is entitled to play how they want, that seems odd to me. The experience is what makes it fun. Sure, the feeling you get when a boss bites the dust is great, but a large part of what makes it great is that it was *challenging*. If each fight is simple then the sense of accomplishment is correspondingly smaller. And, unlike you I guess, loot is not the be-all-end-all for me. It's nice to have nice gear, but what color its name is doesn't matter much to me as long as I can work together with a raid group and do my job adequately.

I'm not prone to hyperbole, so know that I mean this:

I vehemently disagree with Lee Weaver. We could not possibly be more different if we tried.

I hope he's a troll because the proposal of "all bosses should be just tank it" is utterly ridiculous. I would absolutely drop out of raiding if that was the case, it would be so incredibly boring and dull.

Fortunately, I'm quite certain you are in the vast, vast minority Lee. I never say this, but if there is anyone that I want Blizzard to drive off, it's you. This game really is NOT for you, go find something else.

I don't think Lee Weaver is in a tiny minority. I certainly get tired myself of "interesting mechanics" and "Super Mario mini-games" often enough.

Remember that WoW IS a pure spank game from level 1-85. Now I know that many raiders like to pretend that the game starts at 85. But it doesn't.

Not from a philosophical standpoint: the spank-away levelling game is the first thing a player encounters, and it is the biggest part of WoW by far.

And not from an economic standpoint: the subscriptions from the ordinary players help finance the non-stop raiding development. The raiders are too few to finance it themselves.

I'm not a troll, here is a bit of where I'm coming from. Speaking from the standpoint of fun, if the game is a PITA it's not fun. Why isn't it seen as fun to see if you can kill the boss before he kills you? Maybe for the tanks it may not be the most engaging, but Blizz is working on that making you take a part in your own survival. For the record I Play all classes and have every class at least to 60 2 tanks at 85 a warrior and a DK. I have a mage at 85, and my main is a Boomkin with off-spec tree at 85 so I have "Done it all". I am currently actively leveling the 6 other classes and all are in the 60's the Pally is tanking, and the Priest and Shaman are healing. I participate in all roles of the game. But I rarely raid since currently it requires entirely too much of a time investment that you need to commit to a schedule for. I play the game for enjoyment, not for it to take on the aspects of a second job. If Raid design is fixed such that a random group of strangers without communications can manage it, (without doing a Dance Dance Revolution impression) then the raid finder will be a godsend for a huge group of players. Remember that a very small percentage of players currently see raids when they are current. most have to wait until they out gear them to go back and see them and can then ignore the asinine gimmicks.

Why not get gear for how long you auto attack a target dummy? At least you don't have to compete for gear. /sarcasm