I'm not sure I really understand what you mean by talking about abilities IC. I can see how it'd work for like "Burn him down" and using a fire spell, or "Slow him!" and casting Slow, but I can't ever see my dragoon saying "I'm going to use my Jump attack!" IC without everyone, including myself, laughing our asses off behind the keyboard. This isn't Pokemon.Â
As for IC raid bosses, Eva brings up a very good point about needing some OOC to communicate and thus not completely wipe. I feel like most of the fight could be done IC though. I think if, before the fight, someone decided to throw out "((this guy does an AOE at 50%. Tank, I need you to work on your placement so we're out of his cone of attack.))" that'd suffice. I don't see why you couldn't say things like "I'm going to need some back up." IC if you need your off-tank to take some threat off you. Everyone can see your health, it shouldn't be too cryptic. At the same time though, heavy RPers should realize it is a boss fight and you might have to deal with "((got aggro))" or "((no MP))" instead of a long drawn out speech about how your power is waning and you lack the strength to continue casting spells or whatever. (Idk what the usual excuses are. I don't RP mages.) In the end, it's all about what's more important to the group: downing the boss, or making a good story... Though I can't really see how "we all got our asses handed to us by that boss" is a good story.
Sorry, this has gotten terribly off-topic. I don't mean to spam your [sub]"What exactly is a linkshell?"[/sub] thread with "THIS IS HOW YOU CAN RP IN A BOSS FIGHT!"
As for IC raid bosses, Eva brings up a very good point about needing some OOC to communicate and thus not completely wipe. I feel like most of the fight could be done IC though. I think if, before the fight, someone decided to throw out "((this guy does an AOE at 50%. Tank, I need you to work on your placement so we're out of his cone of attack.))" that'd suffice. I don't see why you couldn't say things like "I'm going to need some back up." IC if you need your off-tank to take some threat off you. Everyone can see your health, it shouldn't be too cryptic. At the same time though, heavy RPers should realize it is a boss fight and you might have to deal with "((got aggro))" or "((no MP))" instead of a long drawn out speech about how your power is waning and you lack the strength to continue casting spells or whatever. (Idk what the usual excuses are. I don't RP mages.) In the end, it's all about what's more important to the group: downing the boss, or making a good story... Though I can't really see how "we all got our asses handed to us by that boss" is a good story.
Sorry, this has gotten terribly off-topic. I don't mean to spam your [sub]"What exactly is a linkshell?"[/sub] thread with "THIS IS HOW YOU CAN RP IN A BOSS FIGHT!"