Player Competency

So I was sitting in Dalaran last night, after the guild's second ToCr-10 for the week, chattin away with some guildies over vent, and spamming my recruitment macro over trade--when a trade chat discussion erupted:

"[Sated] is looking for seasoned raiders for ToCr and the upcoming ICC. Core positions available to tank-healers and competent dps (4k+)."

Trade1: "That's a word I don't hear nearly enough in trade. Competent."
Trade2: "Yeah, it's always the fail, LF non-fail blah blah blah."


I thought about that for a sec.

The two terms may be semantically similar (in-game), but they're actually completely different. As a GM, I'm not looking for "non-fail." I want competent. I want the "I-can-trust-you-to-know-what-you're-doing-and-get-the-job-done-so-I-don't-have-to-pick-up-the-slack-or-compensate-in-other-areas-of-the-raid-for-your-lack-of-(insert area here)" person.

I want people that come face to face with the wall...and barrel through that fucker without looking back.

Runners typically characterize "the wall" as a point in a run where they are inclined to shut down; to give up. Pothead's generally characterize it as one of Pink Floyd's more memorable albums. I tend to look at the wall as being the 3k dps barrier. Some players never seem to see the wall, let alone acknowledge that it was ever there. Others, no matter how much gear they obtain seem incapable of scaling it. This is an issue. And, I'm only mentioning dps here, but "the wall" also applies to healer through-put and tank efficiency. It's about wanting to be the best, standing out in the crowd--its about shining.

The Test
I was in 3 Ony-25 pugs this week. All failed. 20 wipes of geared players, hardly even making it to phase 3.

One of these attempts consisted of 5400 gearscored tanks and the respective healers from fairly known progressive guilds: these were known players. These were known players that failed at breaths and couldn't hit the consecrate button quick enough to grab welp-aggro...

Now let me tell you about our guild run.

I decided to take whatever members of Sated I had on. I didn't gearcheck. I also took members of our sort of sister guild, Deathgrip, some of whom I knew were undergeared. I had players in greens and blues with me in Ony 25.

One-shot.

Oh, and about 20% of the raid were first-timers.

Competency, as defined by me: being able to carry out a specific team strategy while performing your duties as a player. This may include, but is not limited to, being able to quickly adapt to a changing situation, communicate effectively with other raiders and team lead, and setting personal issues aside to the benefit of the team.

Sated wins.