A Strategy Instructor's diary in TESO : Samie the Unfall (or unfold).

Samie the Strategy Master : Maker of Kings and incidentally, less and less "noobs" players.

To teach is to bring a potential to its peak. It is also to combine this potential with others for a new synergy. teaching is creating, step by step.
My students help me to bring my patience to its paroxysm. Patience is the very first quality a pedagogue should work on, for it brings to understanding, tolerance, impartiality and observance. Teaching is to raise oneself , in resonance with the elevation of the others ... The difference between "oneself" and "the other" thus becomes negligible, since we are part of the same elevation.

Easily expressed, these noble thoughts ... But on the field, it might not be simple.

Do not lose patience is the leitmotif of a Master Dungeon Strategist Teacher. Follow me :

Details on a TESO workshop, the DARKSHADE CAVERNS, on Grobull the transmuted

Training on "Grobul", the floating giant nech who masters in surrounding specifically the fragile healer in order to isolate him from his crew.

The instructions for the healer ( who, right from the start, must be under a big deal of stress) are as follow :

"Healer, don't you move too much, because you're going to be surrounded by nice little killing octopuses. This gathering around you allow us to DPS the whole bunch. You will the taunting for this strategy. The only times you have to move is when you're in AOE zone, understand ? "

My student nods. Legs trembling. Staff grabbed to break fingers.
The tank engages, the DPS follow.
At the first attack of the small jellyfishes' ban, I see my heal messing his legs in his silk robe, zigzagging in all directions like a crazy bee. Regarding this inconsiderate flight, my DPS run after the bullet head heal hounded by the bench of excited nechs.
The tank, having nothing to taunt, follows back and forth, weighed down in his steel armor, sword cutting hopelessly the air. Sigh... It is fair enough to animate the scene with Benny Hill's music to complete the picture of a beautiful stampede.

Do not lose patience.

Second try: My heal student understood that she should not move. But immobility facilitates the task of death within ONE second with AOE lightning. "Heal's dead !" Everybody shouted...

Explanations of my heal student:

"You told me not to move ..."

Do not lose patience and learn to give up your technical habits. That's too, is teaching. You must be a good student before you want others to be good students.

Another workshop training on "Slikenia the singers", the snake woman and her cub in ARX CORCINIUM. My instructions to all the group:

"Do not kill the baby snake, and as soon as the boss begins to sing, rush close to the little snake which will be protected by a bubble, the whole area outside will be deadly zone."

Everyone agreed and nod as they seemed having understood.
The tank engages, the DPS rush just behind him and the heal stays alert at the back. So far so good. Slikenia starts to sing. The deadly area darkens to black soot. Under the bubble, I count three buddies .... the heal is missing ! where is she ? We do not know, everything is too dark to see a damn thing. But we know that she is dead because her life bar is black.

Explanation of the heal afterwards :

"All of a sudden, everything went black, I ran around blindly, could not see anything. And then, I died... Waiting respawn."

It took three tries for the heal to reach the protective bubble in time, breath broken, ragged dress.

Do not lose patience and ensure the survival of all : "Have you all eaten a bite, I feel you quite fragile?" . That's it too, teaching : Do not hesitate playing the "mama's care" card to reassure a disoriented or tired group, and to cover within our wings the most hesitant pupils.

Training on the Engine Gardian in the DARKSHADOWS CAVERN, big spider dwemer spitting fire, lightning and poison.

The instructions are very fancy, especially for the heal whose profession happens to be quite dangerous :

"It's simple, this one, you wear it out with time. Can't have it killed within a short time... We have to "dance" with him. You must never go under his belly, you must never be close to him, and when it's poisonous striking, you gather around the heal, who will cast a healing source. Backing-up and get ready."

The tango starts, Argentine. Everyone takes the dance step without big trouble. While the boss spits his poison, everyone back, grouped around the heal raising to tendinitis out the shoulders her healing stick , when, without warning, she suddenly dies. Just like that, without a good-bye or farewell. The whole group went poisoned to death irreparably. Explanations of the heal:

"I stepped back, back when I have been stopped by a kind of wall, so I had to move forward to free myself by executing a roll up which finally brought me under the belly of the spider ... then the black out. "

A dozen respawn ... under my encouragement that I wanted convincing :

"You are doing great, good tactics, come on, we can do it ! See ? The last time we died (again), the boss had only 80% life points left ! So, now, we hold it to the end, go !"

Do not lose faith, do not lose patience, for instilling those to our beloved students.
Even if we do not see the dawn of a better day, nor the end of the tunnel...
That's the role of the teacher : Believe in miracles !

Another training workshop on the boss called Gamyne Bandu, the 2nd one in the FUNGAL GROTTO veteran stage.

My instructions : " As soon as you are linked with another buddy with a ray of white light, you run immediately on the opposite side in order to break the beam, otherwise, you will be light striking, one shot dead.
Another thing : If one of us is enchained by 4 little monsters, the other 3 buddies must hit on the same monster (only one of the 4) to free the one captured. Understood ?"

First try : I'm the one unfortunate enchained. I cry out : "chains, chains ! help !"

I then see my two DPS, both hammering the main boss (Gamyne Bandu) deafly : Indeed, they hit the same monster, as the instructor said.

Seconds later, I announce in the micro :

"I am dead".

At other try, my students felt one by one as sick flies, dead. It happened that nobody had understood the detail of the beam link ! One is telling me that he didn't see it coming, another tells me didn't hear it coming and the third tells me that he never felt it.

"Well, when there is a laser coming, I'll let you know and you just have to run to the opposite direction, ok ?" I said, to give the most help possible.

Do not lose patience and know how to organize. That's teaching : it is to be a friendly Animator from time to time.

It's not just the tactical side of combat. There is the fight itself. Which includes, the fighter himself.

As this : What was my surprise to meet a Dragonknight, dressed in a fine silk lace dress, healing wand grabbed within his orc's green hand, coming to learn the hard job of healer ("I always love giving a hand " he argued) ...
Or a good looking Templar, hair combed and waxed, nails carefully manicured, come to learn how to do DPS with bare hands (" I always liked to hit som'thing" he said).

I finally was lucky to take them in both for training :

To drag the group out of trouble, I combined my Dragonknight's healing staff and a healing skill of my belligerent Templar.

After two hours, we left victoriously the dungeon, gold key in hand ... However, I trust their insight wisdom to find more suitable ways according to their nature. Do not lose your seriousness and do not laugh at the risk of vexing. That's teaching: To reveal incongruities leading to incompetence without giving up into derision.

Regarding my astonishment, the dragon knight explains to me: "You've always told us that a heal must stay alive first, so I'm an dragonknight orc, it's solid!"

As for my Templar who does not want to heal : "I want to hit ... but with delicate manners and subtlety ... with style and poesy, that's why I became a Templar, it's more classy."

Do not lose your impartiality and preserve the freedom of the other. That's teaching : to respect each one's choices, but to bring those to be more and more coherent. Then there is also the art of hitting. I show where to hit, what to hit and when to hit.

see? You hit right there !

I concede that sometimes, it is right on my nerves that my students hit ... but here too:

Do not lose your temper, do not get trapped by emotion. That's teaching : As an axle, stay solidly centered so everyone can whirl around without falling.

Who says "hit", says weapons.

Again, my students sometimes come with the most surprising material ...

To my question: "Do you have a set?" I once heard this answer: "Yes, I have seven elements: cuirass, boots, trousers, epaulets, gloves, helmet and belt." That's why, I always do a little "bag tour" before each training.

bag tour

For it's useless to equip oneself with copper head arrows that offer the monsters an acupuncture cure,
rubber blade swords that make good massages, shields made out of oak leaves that can be fine fans, etc ... the list is not exhaustive.

In addition to benevolence, listening, observation, knowledge of the other, therefore of oneself, intuition, humility, generosity, availability and calmness, the teacher must add another essential element: faith.

This is why, in my teaching, there is always a Divine background on which every action takes place ... It is always in prayer that I begin the dungeon :

"May strength and wisdom be given me to get everyone out of there, even the clumsy ones."
And at the end of the dungeon, sometimes a few hours later, sweaty and exhausted : "Trust and gratitude, I'm still alive and ask for more: My passion for teaching has not gone astray."

Because as hard as this job can be, when I hear a shy voice asking for an instance party to learn tactical techniques, I invariably answer :
" Me, me, me ! I'm in !"
And I gallop towards my new student's group waiting for being intructed.

with my tank student and hinding behind, the healer student.