A clicker is a player who uses his mouse to click each of the abilities in his rotation. His mouse cursor dances across the screen from one button to the next, and all you hear over his headset is “click, click, click.” For some reason clickers are often the same people who keyboard turn, meaning that instead of using their mouse, they use their WASD or arrow keys to turn their character before they move out of harm’s way.

Keyboard turners are easy to identify. If you suspect someone, wait for them to find themselves in a situation where they have to turn and move, and watch them closely. If they immediately dart to their destination via strafing and creative flow, they’re mouse turning. If you see them stationary while their character slowly turns 90- or even 180-degrees before they start moving out of the bad stuff, they’re keyboard turners and need a lesson. I spotted a keyboard turner on heroic Spine, of all encounters. When it was time to stack up for a barrel roll, he’d stand perfectly still, do a nice little turn, and then start moving toward us. I had a few words with him after… But back to the clickers.

Imagine your primary action bar is a row of piano keys, and each key is an ability in your DPS rotation. To kill that dragon you need to play “Raindrops” by Chopin. If you’re a clicker, you’re trying to play that song with only one finger on your left hand, and your right hand is tied behind your back. To play some beautiful music you need to use all your fingers and you need to know damn well which finger is striking which key is producing which note.

Note: Exceptions to all rules exist. I’m sure there are some excellent clickers out there, perhaps even in Top World 100 guilds. But for the vast majority of us normal people, clicking is simply not optimal and should be corrected immediately.

We know how to identify keyboard turners, but how do you spot someone with an a-click-tion? (That was bad. I’ll work on that.) First, look for the symptoms:

• Does the patient have overall low DPS compared to others of the same gear level?
• According to logs, does the patient have an overall low up-time compared to others of the same class?

If either of the above is true, it’s possible that the patient is a clicker. If you suspect a clicker, get your hands on a screenshot of his User Interface. Look at the main abilities on his bar and see if they’re keybound in a sensible way. Get him in Ventrilo or Mumble while he’s got his game client closed and ask him, “To which key is your Inquisition bound?” He ought to be able to visualize it and tell you, “5.” If he can’t visualize it, it’s because the bastard doesn’t use his keys and clicks on Inquisition instead! Here’s a picture of a potential clicker’s UI:

Even if you suspect someone’s a clicker, you can’t know for sure, and it’s not nice to insult someone when you’re not sure. The only way to identify a clicker is for the clicker to identify himself as one. Throughout Tiers 12 and 13, I’ve had two clickers on my raid team. I’d always suspected them, due to the symptoms, but I’d given them the benefit of the doubt. After all, they made it onto my raid team, so they couldn’t have been all that bad. It wasn’t until they actually admitted over voice chat that they were clickers that I confronted them about it and forced them to correct their play.

When your raiders have Click Fever, it is up to you, their raid leader, to send them to Clicker Rehab.

There are 6 steps in Clicker Rehab:

1. I admit that I am a clicker.
2. I realize that clicking is not the way to maximize my DPS. At first, I may whine and moan and say, “I’ve been playing like this for years! Why should I change now?” But I will realize the truth.
3. I must decide to keybind my abilities, no matter how much it hurts.
4. I must master my new keybinds, preferably at a dummy or in dungeons rather than in a raid.
5. I must never revert to clicking once I have tasted the glory of keybinding.
6. I must spread the Gospel of Keybinding to other Clickers.

If your clicker also happens to be a keyboard turner, then there is an additional three steps they must take before they’re fully cured:

1. I realize that by wasting time turning, I am standing in harm’s way longer than is necessary.
2. I unbind my “Turn Left” and “Turn Right” keys immediately, and replace them with “Strafe Left” and “Strafe Right.”
3. I never rebind my “Turn Left/Right” keys, no matter how hard it is to get used to using my mouse to change direction.

Make sure your raid team is addiction-free, and you’ll down bosses a little bit faster.

Yes way!  Eluna and I have both been raid leaders.  We’re women.  We’re healers.  And we’re darn good raid leaders, too.  BUT, be prepared for a different experience, because we are not tanks.  And our view of these fights is decidedly different.

If you haven’t healed, you may not realize that healers often have no sense of what the space actually looks like in dungeons and raids – at least not at first.  While you (as DPS or tank) are running around smooshing the bad guys and wandering the halls of some immense Dwarven cavern, we are chasing you trying to keep that darned health bar somewhere over 75%.  There have been many a night where I finally get the chance to really look around and be at awe over the graphics in a particular place.  And generally, my guildies chuckle because they noticed that stuff ages ago.

For example, did you know that as you cross the bridge between the first and second bosses in Well of Eternity that you can actually see down to the ground below.  The actual Well is beautiful and I didn’t notice it until at least my 5th or 6th run.  Only because I was usually so focused on the health of the group (and keeping up since I always seem to lag behind) that I never actually looked down!

Something else we are frequently unaware of is the name of the mobs as well as the names of their spells.  We know what they do, but we don’t always know what they’re called.  We don’t target them – we target you.

So, for me anyway, when I think about leading a raid, I prefer to have been there.  At least once or twice.  I can better coach my team when I can actually describe what I need from them.  If I can not (or have not) had the chance to run the place, I will read about it.  Heck, even if I have been there, I read.  A lot.  A ton, really.  Any article I can find, I’ll read: Wowhead, WowInsider, TankSpot (I love when Ciderhelm narrates…), LearnToRaid… and many more.  For me, knowledge is power.  The more I know about the fight mechanics and raid needs, the better (and more confident) raid leader I can be.  Confidence isn’t just sexy – it’s powerful.  People will follow confidence.

I used to read the various guides and then write out my own notes for our guild.  Because we all know that each guild has different people in it – and those people have different strengths and… quirks (I refuse to call them weaknesses).  And what works for Ciderhelm and Lore and Aliena from TankSpot… yeah… that’s not really how it’ll go for us.  But, it’s enough to help me make informed decisions.

Going back to the thought that we don’t always know what the mobs names are or what the name of a particular spell or ability is…

Even being well read and knowing the fights backwards, forwards, and inside-out… I still don’t call things what they are.  Just last night in Firelands, I was caught saying things like: “Is this the snake-dude that we have to stack for?  Or is it the other one down the road?”  We’re 6/7 in FL and 8/8 in DS.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve healed us through those snake kills (and their annoying lava buddies who blow us up).  But I still cannot remember their names or the name of the ability that hurts so much.  What is important is that I know what we need to do!  We need to stack.  Does it matter, honestly, if it’s called [Explosion of Doom] or [Swipe of Kills-the-lonely-tank]?  Nope.  What matters is that I know it’s coming and I know how to mitigate it.

This actually makes for some fun “Story Time with Brae” moments.  I’ll be talking more about “Story Time” in my next RLP post.

It may surprise you to know that tanks aren’t the only people who can lead a raid.  Sure, they’re the go-to-role, since they’re the first one into a fight (usually).  BUT… healers – who are trained to look at more than one person at a time and focus on the entire encounter and not just our rotation – healers can be incredibly good raid leaders.

Just be ready to stand in that spot over there (near the thing-a-ma-bob) and pew-pew the bad guy until the puddles of owwie come out.  THEN MOVE!