More than local knowledge...

Via, there's an old golf joke around local knowledge. The guy whose t-shot hits the inside curve of a small hillock in the fairway and then rolls to a stop in perfect position below the green. That's not a bad shot with a lucky break; that's local knowledge. LOL.

I was thinking about how with both you and Twink, I found myself chaffing a bit under the commands to attack in a particular way, though to your credit, you both listened and let me do my thang. The problem comes from a lack of understanding of DOT/casters. It makes less sense for a caster like Hallgrima to "focus on the skull till its down" than to DOT up all the baddies. Her curses build over time and she can lay down some damange that will cook up on each. She's much less effective just dealing DOTS to one guy and WAITING to do the next one. So, of course, I didn't do that. By the time you finished off the skull, the X or moon damage was just hitting crescendo and the aggro was heading my way. Perfect timing for a warrior to step in and reclaim it. That's how my damage meter got to be so high. In a sense, warrior and lock are a perfect team. Because of Saami, I also know a lot about hunters. Twink knows some, clearly, as demonstrated when he asked Assy to put down the nature blessing (I forget the names of 'em; they're just icons to me.). You both know about traps...some. THere is also a frost trap that is an AOE that slows down the speed of all baddies that trapse through it. THere is also the fire trap that hits all your baddies, repeatedly, not just one guy once. I use that one a lot when in solo or duo team questing. Saved me arse more than once as it has the same DOT properties as Hall's spells...wearing down one guy while you melee the other who is also being worn down.

Hallgrima at 67

Anyhow... I mean all this to say, it's more than dungeon knowledge. A strong instance leader should know his/her classes well enough to deploy the troops most effectively. BUT WAIT, there's more to this. I'm not so sure leadership is the word we want to think about. I hate to do this but...lol...it's TEAM, baby (that was my Dick VItale voice imatation, in honor of NCAAs). Yesterday I was lead by Twink AND Via in two back-to-back instance runs with 5-man teams. Now I don't know that either of these things was intentional but, Twink told us all what to do and when, even where to stand. Via was considerably less specific, mostly warning us about what lay ahead or what HIS approach was gonna be, and then wanted us to just riff off him, i.e., do our thing like a jazz improv. NOw that works when everyone knows what to expect of each other. We didn't exactly, and I believe I died twice in that instance, although I still managed second highest dmg count. =heh heh= But I know what I'm good at, how to play the warlock as I've spec'd her. I have a reasonable sense of what to expect from a pally and hunter and warrior, having played the toons myself a bit. And I *did* appreciate the freedom to do my thang.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out when we know each other even better as a five man set.

Hall/Saami