There’s a lot of work that goes into finding what the best things to do for your character. Get the best relics, get lots of artifact power, get all your stats at the right levels, etc.
Those are all well and good (though I don’t always pay attention to them), but there are other ways outside of the game to achieve the same goal of making me a successful raider.
Spending the same amount of time on this external min-maxing has improved my raiding to a greater degree than if I spent that time grinding mythics for my ideal relics or whatever. Admittedly, this is still a very much in-progress set of goals. I’m not very good at most of these. Maybe once I nail these things, I can start doing the in-game tedious min-maxing stuff too!
Maximize Concentration. I have trouble paying attention all the time, and that means missing easy things like timers and verbal communication.
- Avoid foods that make my brain foggy.
- Drink lots of water (no headaches by raid time).
- No distractions on my second monitor. Even a glimpse at twitter shatters my focus. (I’m very bad at this.)
Minimize Stress. I tend to get overwhelmed and flustered right before raid because so much needs to happen between getting home from work and raiding. This is the most recent set of goals, since I only noticed in the last few weeks how much being in the right mental state helps raiding.
- Easy dinners.
- Hitting exercise goals before getting home.
- If I have to walk the dogs, get takeout or premade meals.
Maximize sleep.
- Go to bed right after raid, no more trying to fit in dailies.
- Go to bed for real!
Minimize Burnout. A raider who shows up is 100% better than one who quit.
- Don’t do dailies except on weekends or if I get home from work early.
- Do just enough mythic+ for fun, no grinding.
- Play my character how I want (i.e. favorite talents, legendaries, etc).
- Basically cut out any unfun min-maxing.
- If I want to play an alt or a different game instead of “chores” on the main, do that. I’ll hit those artifact power goals eventually.