Situation Awareness and You

Every role in World of Warcraft requires that the player track his surroundings, the flow of a fight, how that fight fits into the raid as a whole, the actions of others, and then determine what actions to take next, and what effect that will have on his and the raid’s future actions. This flow of observation, analysis, and action is all part of situation awareness (SA). The ability to take in all the data and determine next action is the differentiator between a good and mediocre player.

Every role in a raid requires the player to have situation awareness. Too often, a player gets locked into a task and gets target locked – effectively running with blinders on during an event. This can lead to sub-optimal performance, or even worse, knock over the first dominos to a raid wipe.

The classic example of lack of SA is standing in an AoE effect. Too often, I’ve seen players standing in a fire as they blindly keep attacking, casting heals, or tanking a mob. (In full disclosure, I have done this as well.) It is not enough to just track your task at hand. You must also keep an eye on your status and those of your teammates.

While each role requires SA, the overall picture and reaction is different for each. For DPS characters, this means keeping an eye on threat, ability rotations, positioning, and current status. It means knowing when to pop that potion, when to blow your long term cooldowns, when to move and when to stop attacking.

For tanks, being situation aware is a lot more complex. You have to be aware of all the mobs that are engaged, of your threat, of the threat of your DPSers, your rotation, the mana of you healers, and knowing what is coming next. You have to know when to pop that Shield Wall or Last Stand. We’ve all seen the bad tank – the player who thinks tanking means just standing in one place and having the mobs beat on him. A good tank is one that tracks everything and, most importantly, keeps his healers alive.

Healers may have the most difficult job with situation awareness. It is not enough for a healer to stand and spam Flash Heal on the main tank. The healer has to keep an eye on the health of his main target and, very often, the health of the other raid members – including his own health. He has to be aware of his mana, his rotation, and of any upcoming events like an enrage. For many fights, it’s not enough to react to a drop in health, but to proactively have queued up healing for a strike that will drop the tank’s or party’s health. It is often also the healer’s job to keep an eye on removing debuffs.

The removal of debuffs brings us to one last role – that of the hybrid. A good player adapts when needed based on his situation awareness. While a Retribution Paladin or an Elemental Shaman may be fulfilling the DPS role, finding the right moment to drop out of DPS mode and help cleanse or purge can mean the difference between a successful boss kill or a wipe. A paladin that drops Lay on Hands at a critical moment rather than continuing to blindly DPS to a wipe is demonstrating good SA.

This ability to take in the environment, process, and react is key to becoming a good player. It is one of the key components of successful raiding teams. Don’t be “that guy” that stands in the fire every fight. Learn, adapt, and succeed.