I feel that I’ve come a long way. I know I still have a long way to go if I want to be a truly amazing gamer, but compared to the noob that I was a year and a half ago, I feel like a different person.

A year and a half ago, I had just entered the world of raiding. I had no idea what was going on. Very little concept of what gear levels meant, almost no concept of what boss mechanics are, no ability to be aware of the things my addons were trying to tell me. I also did not know how to navigate beyond using wasd, never tried to truly maximize my abilities (I didn’t know the significance of gcds at all), and didn’t really understand the applicability of most of my spells. All these things I’ve learned well enough to become an elitist and feel like why can’t every other mythic raider do this at least as well as I? 

Gear levels: There’s generally a difference of about 15 ilvls (item levels) per piece of gear depending on the difficulty of the boss you kill. I use ilvls now as a basic threshold, since those with ilvls far lower rarely can perform well enough for the more difficult content that I do. On the other hand, once the ilvl surpasses the threshold, though there can still be a large difference if people are 10 ilvls apart, by then player skill and experience count more. 

Boss mechanics: When I started raiding, I didn’t know much beyond trying to hit a boss with my spells. Boss mechanics, however, require you to be aware of where you are positioned relative to the boss or the room; when the boss is going to cast what type of spell and how you need to react to each individual one; and when to target which mob. Failing at boss mechanics means at best you do badly at the fight (low damage, healing, etc), or worse you die, or at worst you kill the entire group. Succeeding at understanding and preparing for and reacting to boss mechanics means at least you can manage to do good damage or healing (the raiders who perform the best are those who know when to do what in relation to what mechanics are going on); or better you’re prepared for anything that may happen and can save the raid from others’ mistakes; or at best can be one of those raiders who ‘carry’ the group by allowing the group to kill the boss because of your participation. 

Addons: My addons give me so much information. When I started playing WoW two and a half years ago I had an addon that told me the damage or healing numbers of each person in my group (recount then, skada now), and an addon that warned me of boss mechanics and showed me how many seconds I had left before the next boss mechanic (dbm -deadly boss mods). I was able to understand recount, but I may as well have not had dbm: not knowing what boss mechanics were meant that the many animations and words that appeared, huge, on my screen meant nothing at all to me. Now I’m able to use skada not only to see people’s damage and healing numbers, but use it to find out what problems the group is having. For dbm, I’m getting to the point where I can react early, at a glance, to all the timers and call things out beforehand so others know when to do what, as well as use it to see whether my position is perfect. I also have a variety of other addons that allow me to be aware of everything I need to know the times I need to know, including whether or not there’s fire under my feet that other animations hid (gtfo); what events have already happened and for how much longer (weakauras); which mobs are out and what spells they’re casting (kui nameplates); to list a few.

These things have already helped me improve enormously both as a raider and a raid leader. Some skills are really accumulations of understanding what’s already there and an ability to react to this knowledge quickly. For these types of skills, everyone has potential.