Your fault, our fault, my fault

Matticus has a post up to see who or what is to blame when someone dies. And while he's accurately pointing out possible causes of raid deaths and wipes, I really cannot advice the blame game that comes with your fault, our fault.

Now I have to say that I hate pointing fingers anyways. I also don't like fail mods too much. If you're in a guild raid you should be able to expect people to do the best they possibly can. And people simply make mistakes sometimes, it happens.

And there are much better ways to discuss what happened, and how to prevent it in the future. Ways that will keep your raid motivated, because once you start pointing fingers there is always someone who will play less good afterward. Either because that pointed finger is aimed at you, or because it is aimed at someone you need to trust to do your own job properly and a little seed of doubt is planted.

What to do instead?
There are several ways to handle these situations. Some are a bit more general, while others are definitely a bit more direct. Depending on the situation, the how manniest wipe it was, and how often this player has already been the cause of wiping you can use one (or combination of) the following.

1. Analyze the raid in general terms. If you saw 3 or 4 people die to void zones mention that everybody should be more careful to not stand in void zones. The people who did die to void zones do know it was them, really they do.
   
   And that without you needing to point them out, sticking a hunter's mark above their heads with neon signage and saying that so and so should not be standing in the void zone. People are left feeling a lot more comfortable with this.
   
   
2. If with the general discussion people don't seem to grasp that they need to pick it up because it was them screwing up, whisper them.
   
   Yes, this may take a moment away from spending the time to your entire raid. But, if your entire raid can profit from a 5 minute whispered conversation, there is nothing wrong with doing so. By not calling this person out publically they get to keep their dignity, and you can actually give out tips specifically to this person.
   
   
3. If people are still not clear on what they should do it is generally best to wait until after raid and go over the fight with them and explain what they did wrong.

I realize very well that these tactics aren't always possible for a progression guild, but raiders in a progression guild also normally get the hint at step 1 or step 2.

For non fight related issues I would almost always take step 3. Talk it over with the person and ask if it's ok to discuss it with them after raid. You generally don't want to make your entire raid wait for some non-raid related issue.

What Matticus list is good for
Matticus has lined out perfectly the sources of damage that should be avoided at all cost since there is simply no repair possible from them. They are the abilities that you should recognize immediately and stamp them in your head the first.

The red rockets from Mimi is an example. Everybody in the raid should run like hell when the red square is under their feet. It should be your first priority, over preventing other sources of damage.

A lot of damage is preventable or repairable, but these are the things you should recognize instantly and and just get the hell out of them.

So I would suggest to use his list, not as a guideline to find where you can put the blame, but as a guideline to which priorities the 'getting out of the fire' crap has. If you run out of a red rocket into a napalm...well darn, that stinks, a lot. And ideally you should run out of the red rocket and the napalm, but of two bads you at least chose the least bad.