Category: Epic Dumb

New Ninja:

Eschersendak of Korgath in his own guild Mushroom Stamps, decided to be a complete jerk and NEED on everything he could off the last boss in an AN run.  Classy!  Congrats on making my blog with your snotty sarcastic comments!

ETA: And since people being jerks is becoming so commonplace, I’ve added a tag solely for bad pugs.  Though I may end up making it a weekly post.

ETA: Thank you Eschersendak for posting your profane commentary.

Baby Warrior Tanking Blues:

I took my baby warrior [level 75] into the random LFD as a tank.  I’ve bought as much tanking stuff as I could for him.  He’s at 476 defense and short of some expensive enchants, don’t really know how to boost him higher, but he’s done a good job, much better than most of the tanks I’ve seen queuing in Northrend level instances without defense gear at all.

Anyway, I accept, get into the instance, and I see that 4 of us are zoned in, the fifth was on a quest mount, and I assumed, would come along shortly.  The healer tells me to go ahead and pull.  So I do.  First pull goes perfect.  Mobs die, we don’t.  Second pull: DK dps pulls my offtarget rather than focusing on the one I clearly marked skull.  We wipe.  I then notice that the mage in the group is standing at the beginning of the instance… just standing.   And the druid’s quest completer is dinging off the objectives he’s continuing to do as we’re sitting there.

They call for him to come in several times with no response.  He’s party lead, AND we have the debuff so we can’t vote kick, and then the healer and dk begin critiquing my weapon and how I want “tanking stats”.  Now, I’m using the 1 handed resilience BOA weapon.  I specifically bought the pvp one because resilience helps you crit cap as a tank [and I have stonekeeper shards everywhere].  I have 3 level 80 tanks, 2 of whom are plate wearing and one of whom is insanely geared.  There’s not a good level 75 tanking weapon that I’ve been able to get hold of, so what am I supposed to do?  Magicly create one?   I’ve already sat down with my blacksmith, leatherworker and other assorted profession alts to bump this guy’s defense as high as I can, and I’m experienced at tanking to boot.

Why am I supposed to sit there and take abuse from a healer who knows it all, a dk who won’t stay on target, a mage that wants to sit at the front of the instance and a druid who won’t even get in the bloody instance?  I left.  As a level 75 tank, I can queue again and be in within seconds of the buff going away.  I’m sorry, but I’m not going to fight that level of epic dumb.

Some things your PuG tank wants you to know…

1. Just because I have good gear doesn’t mean you can be stupid.
Yes, Askevar has great gear – wonderful gear.  And that does not give you license to do whatever you want rather than filling your role.

2. Don’t attack my offtargets.  If I don’t have things marked, I can understand you pulling aggro on a single mob.  But purposefully selecting my offtarget to attack because you’re leet?  No.  Charging in and performing high threat AoEs before my DnD is down?  No.  [See Number 1]

3. Do NOT initiate pulls!  A lot of people are doing this lately, whether to speed me along or because their main is a tank and they’re used to it.  If I’m waiting – there’s a reason.  It could be I’m waiting on the healer to get mana, or I’m waiting on a CD.  Either way, if you pull, I’ll taunt once, then the next time I’ll let the mobs swarm you and I’ll pick them up after the fact.  This rule doesn’t change because you’re a healer.  I’ll pay the repair bills to make the point [up to a point anyway], even at 10-15g a death.  [see Number 1]

4.  I’m NOT required to take abuse from random pugs.  Yes, it’s my job to put out as much threat as possible and make the mobs hate me the most and I’ll gladly take that abuse.  If you’re being stupid [See 1,2,3 above], and I let you die, and you proceed to cuss at me, do you honestly think I’m going to stay if the group is unwilling to kick you?  You can find another tank who’d prefer to take your abuse while I wait 15 minutes, get into an insta-group and clear the next instance in 10-15 minutes.  I’m seen a number of dps with the attitude “Shut up and tank” or “Shut up and heal” and they seem to believe that I’m required to do as they say.  No.  I’m not.

5. Cussing out and voting to kick my guildies in the same group will not yield kind results either.  I actually had a group I was healing that on the last boss in HoS, did NOT explain the strat for Abuse the Ooze so guildie and I were under the impression you kill adds until the big oozes spawn.  Explaining that was not the case [since YOU insisted on the achieve 5 seconds before intiating the fight] might have been a good idea, rather than voting to kick the over 4k dps dk and in addition losing your healer – on the final boss.

Of Frozen Orbs…

I’ve seen quite a few posts about people “ninjaing” frozen orbs.  And while I don’t doubt that some people have – I’ve seen intentional ninjas myself, most of these seem to derive from a difference in the “norms” from server to server.  On Thorium Brotherhood, the normal convention is to roll “Greed” on frozen orbs.  But on other servers, apparently the norm is to roll “Need” [which actually prevents ninjas in their minds – because everyone is supposed to roll need].

I understand the principle of being against ninjas – and I am – I hate the behavior.  But the fact is, if someone just asks ahead of time how to roll, or even says “Everyone need/everyone greed the frozen orb”, then it will clear up MOST of the misunderstandings and supposed “ninjaing frozen orbs”.  If it’s not worth asking and setting the record straight ahead of time, is it really worth fussing over?  I went from having about 10 spare frozen orbs before 3.3, to having 2 extra stacks now and that includes a couple of instances where people needed the orb and “ninjaed” it.

It’s not worth me asking to be honest.  It really isn’t.  But it is worth waiting to see what other people roll, because most of the time everyone else follows suit.  If people roll Need, I roll Need.  If they roll Greed, I roll Greed.

Reminder: Check your stats when you get a new piece!!!

I’ve been extremely cautious about making sure I stayed hit/expertise capped… so cautious that I forgot to check for massive overcapping and had my hit gemmed up to 318 rather than keeping it close to the cap…  gems that could have been [and now are] used to add to other stats.

Just a reminder to everyone else – check for OVERcapping as well as UNDERcapping!  😀