What should all trial leaders know?

I was growing tired of leading after a long run of iTrials and settled into someone elses BAF. It got me thinking that some people really have no idea what they are doing. It doesn't make them bad or evil, just folks who want the reward the trial gives them, so they recruit and start a trial.

It is a game, they want to progress.

It made me think - well, they haven't asked for help - I shouldn't interfere in this leader's run. But, they're giving no direction. At all. Prisoners are escaping (which can happen, but really shouldn't with a halfway seasoned league doing choke points).

Tactics aside, besides what to expect in a given task force or iTrial, what else should all leaders know?
Am I setting the leadership bar (in my mind) too high?
Are some of us too lazy to share what we know, what others have taught us? I'm thinking no - these forums are filled with folks being helpful, or at least trying to be.

I thought I knew quite a bit - but playing some itrials on a couple of different servers exposed gaps in my knowledge - and I was grateful that I learned from it.

Still, I'm left wondering. There are folks that somehow, through simple words and instruction at specific intervals of time turn a league that would fail into a success. (and vice-versa)

As an example - without saying that one server is better than the other - I did two MoM trials. The one on one server was over in...maybe 15, 20 minutes. A little messy in phase 3 with the shared suffering bit ( I think one fellow was going off color instead of words across the screen and was color blind, heh. ) But, all the components I would want in my leagues were there. Controllers/Doms for holds ,Buffs,debuffs, Blaster, scrappers brutes for damage, tank/brutes for taunting and such.

Yet, on another server, still successful, but it took much longer, because all though there were several controllers, one had an emp secondary that was seriously lacking in several of the buffs. Another was force-field, which doesn't help a whole lot when you're lagging and standing in pink. (or just trying to execute that last attack when you notice the timer count down)

Shouldn't a trial leader be able to foresee problems like these? I read elsewhere about someone doing an MoCuda without a mastermind or defender. ( I had just learned why this was foolish yesterday- thankfully, we had a mastermind)

My signature has a quote by John Cleese. The very skill set that is required to be good at something requires an awareness of what it takes to be good at that something.

Off the top of my head, I think a trial leader should either be a very fast typist or have a good working knowledge of macros and binds.

They should know that a lambda cannot be run with more than 16 players.
They should know that you need at least 12 to run a magi.
They should be at least familiar enough with the purple patch to know that an unshifted toon is 8% effective against tyrant. (and should really think twice about allowing them to join said trial, and encourage the unshifted to switch)
I think they should have a solid understanding of the damage types the league/team will encounter and be able to look at the league (players and powersets) and discern if the league is capable of succeeding the trial.

More helpful is a broad experience in powersets and ATs. My only MM is level 28 - and I'm still learning things here and there about how to better manipulate the pets. However, I'm currently unable to explain that it might be better for them to just unleash their alpha pet and use bodyguard mode for a specific fight.
I would like to think that at the incarnate level, most of these things are known already - but I don't think that's a safe assumption.

What do you all think? What should a trial leader know to be successful?

Not sure, but:

1. Get consensus from the League what will be done: badges, iXP run, speed, etc.

2. Ask if anyone is new and needs explanations. Don't ask if everyone knows what to do, you'll never get everyone to respond. Ask who wants some help.

3. Now that you asked who needs help, did you research the trial first so you can help them? Yes it helps to know what you are doing.

4. Be clear up front what each phase entails, and also give reminders as the trial progresses. Don't expect people to remember everything you talked about in the beginning, but don't expect folks to adjust if you spring new information on them at the last minute.

5. Be polite, fair and complimentary. You'll get a better response than if you are bossy or insulting. Remember that typing doesn't convey emotion or tone, so watch carefully what you type. I find it's best to use full and correct English as shortening the language or "l33t sp34k" can come across as flippant, rude or ignorant.



Beyond those generalities it depends on the Trial you are running. Seen #3: know the trial.

What should all trial leaders know?












Also, it helps if you actually know how to run the trial in question.

I know nothing of iTrials (I'm a noob), but I know on many other missions, it's often as fun to go on the complete failure missions if not more so. The efficient runs aren't all that interesting. I'd rather stumble through and learn, knowing I'll get better next time around.

So I think prereqs for leaders seems overboard. Go in, have fun. It's not like dying has any real downside in the game.

It is hard for me to make comments about this for a few reasons.

1) I am playing in defiant and we have a certain group of people who were running all trials at certain hours each day. We have around 4 people who can lead itrials without problem and another half a dozen people who are capable of leading if necessity arise. Considering that at most we got in defiant is 2 trial run at the same time of a day it is more than enough.

2) I never felt the need of a certain AT in certain trials except MO runs and even in MO runs except UG and magi we didn't need most of team being a distribution of certain AT's. Surely some AT's were necessary in certain trials like a taunter in keyes, a KB in MoM etc. but I never felt forcing of a form mostly because those 4 I mention bring their own toons that fits to trial if we lack something and it almost always worked. Only times I remember failing were because of a new trial and most people were doing it first time

3) Well more than AT distribution our trial leaders focuses on destinies. For UG and MoM asks about clarion, for keyes and tpn aska about incan, for most of others barrier with rez or rebirth.

4) Maybe most important part but if it is not a MO day than first 3 or 4 trials being same and rest depends on number of left and their ishifts. Most of the times they ask what leaguemates want to do too and if there is a shortage in ishifts they explain why it would fail .

5) They all have binds which they use during trial phases to tell what is going to happen and what is needed to done. There are also special binds like green patch coming run away charge etc for specific trials though I admit it I don't look at chat much since I keep my eyes on timers and warnings myself.

Some great advice in this thread, I have always admired efficient leader's who communicate clearly with short frequent messages.

I am a good little soldier, played for many years and happy to follow but freeze if the star lands on me for any reason and get rid of it like a hot potatoe, so hat's off to anyone willing to take on the responsibility.

I wonder if there would be any benefit to some kind of mentoring scheme where players who fancied becoming efficient leaders could be taken on a few runs and given some tips by the more confident and proven successful leaders?

Threads like this make me sad.

People shouldn't have to know anything to play and enjoy this game and it has been so for ~7 years up until incarnates

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aggelakis PrincessDarkstar: "RAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH SOMEONE IS *WRONG* ON THE INTERNET!"

I don't know that I would call myself a good leader, but the teams I lead don't seem to complain (in fact some have complimented me) and I don't often fail Badge attempts in iTrials (with the notable and obnoxious exception of the Avoids the Green Stuff badge).

But, I can say that when I was on my first iTrial, I hated every minute of it. I really really disliked not knowing exactly what I had to do, and I felt like 23 people were staring at me not knowing what to do. This was probably a few weeks after BAF and Lambda were dropped in our laps. But, as I ran them, and especially future trials, I grew to like them a lot... and eventually grew courageous (or fool-hearty) enough to begin leading them.

I think the one reason that I do well as a leader is because I had so much experience NOT being a leader. What I mean is, I had a lot of time to watch what other leaders did right, and where leagues started to have problems and the good and bad way leaders tried to solve them. I learned early that YELLING THINGS IN ALL CAPS doesn't help, much. Blaming and throwing league mates under a bus doesn't help either. Nor does being really immature and rage-quitting when something doesn't go exactly right.

What does work well is knowing what you are doing before you go in. Making sure as many folks with you know what to do as well. And be willing to modify tactics on the fly if you league starts to falter OR in the case of some leagues, starts to do things in a way you weren't expecting.

So, my words of wisdom for all would be leaders (if you can call it wisdom) is spend a lot of time as a non-leader... even well after you are confident you know what you are doing. There were, for a short while, iTrials that I had only been on when I was leading... I learned a lot when I joined someone else's run.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snow Globe Basic stupidity check for trial leaders. If they don't know these, do not join their groups. Instead make your own group and invite them to your own (or find something else to do). This information is available in the LFG window, if they can't be bothered to read the help text for the trial they are launching, the trial will have an extreme chance of failure.

For the most part, this is correct... but there was one particular instance in which I somehow totally lost track of the number of tells I had gotten and brain-farted on the maximum team size for Minds of Mayhem. That league ended up getting very close to all the badges for MoMoM. So, there are exceptions to every rule, and it is not always a question of laziness, or poor leadership qualities.