WoW Rest Stop

Sometimes the frustrations of WoW are so great you wonder why anyone would play the game. I have been on a raiding break for over a year now and don't really miss that aspect of the game. I do like the challenge of learning a new class and playing it until I have a good understanding of all the nuances. The name of this blog is Resto Stop because that is the character I raided Molten Core to Sunwell. I know druid healing in my sleep and the buttons are pretty much second nature. I think -- I heal -- I know the class. It takes a long time to become proficient at a class at a high level. A high level raider not only knows the pro's and con's of every spell in the book, they also have obsessed about every talent point on every tree to make sure that they are getting the most from their character that is possible. In the last year I have spent a lot of time on all of my characters and of my 5 non-druid level 80's I feel that I'm almost a B grade as a paladin, mage and deathknight and nearing an A on my hunter and rogue. This didn't come without taking the time to study, learn, and spend countless hours in the Heroics learning how to play each class.

It is funny that I've taken so much to 2 pure dps classes as I really avoided dps'ing for a long time. When I started the game I played mainly my paladin and was a hybrid dps/tank. When that guild broke up after about 6 months, I went from guild to guild and found that healing was the easiest way into a guild and soon I went from paladin leader to druid healer and stayed there for the next 3+ years. I always avoided the pure dps classes as I felt that was the domain of the fast-twitch 12 year olds and I was better suited to sitting in the back and healing/managing.

I like playing my rogue and my hunter because they are much more than just hitting a button over and over. As a healer you control the fight by keeping health bars in the positive. As a dps, your job is to kill things but there are secondary jobs like misdirecting, trapping, and tricks'ing that are almost as important. Still, the best thing about playing a dps class is seeing the big numbers on your screen as you pull off good combo move.

Anyway ... today I ran a PuG on my hunter Saelle. The "looking for dungeon" option has made it really easy to find groups in the game. The problem is I now remember why I only ran heroics with guildmates. Don't get me wrong -- most of the people I group with are great and most of the runs are error/stress free. Still, the idiots can suck the fun out of an otherwise good day. This morning I queued to LFD for my daily heroic. About 5 minutes later I'm in Gundrak. Immediately the tank says, "I need a moment". This is a bit annoying but it's no biggie. In some ways it is a relief as most tanks start running the second they get into a dungeon and this gives me a chance to get in my hunter mood. I have realized that one of the bad things of having so many alts is I need to reset my mentality when I switch characters. Druid healing is different from Pally healing just as Rogue DPS is different from Hunter. Whenever I go into a fight I have to remind myself of the class as playing a class is like playing the piano -- you need to be able to hit all the buttons without thinking. The way I do this is go through a mental checklist of important hunter items. I am doing this -- "Hawk aspect - check", "Pet Growl Off - Check", "Focus on Tank - Check" ... when after about 15 seconds the rogue says ... "pull plz". No one responds as we are waiting on the tank to return. Another 15 seconds ... "omg! pull plz". I respond with "we are waiting for the tank to return." About that time the tank returns and asks if everyone is ready to go. The rogue gives the tank grief for making him wait to which the tank responds "sorry" and the rest of us interrupt them so we can start the run. I have seen many instances fall apart at this point due to little silly arguments and frankly who needs the grief.

The funny thing is I was already feeling a bit self-conscience about this run because I had just hit 80 the day before and this was my first heroic (this is my second 80 hunter :P). I had hit the regular instances pretty hard the day before and had gotten quite a few upgrades I was still sitting at an average gear level of 190 while the rest of my group was in the 230 range. I have seen people get kicked for gear before so I was a bit nervous at the start especially considering the rogue's attitude so far. Pugs are an interesting dynamic because in many ways it is just like dating and the first pull is like a first date. Trash mobs are never a good way to judge results but I always try to do the best I can on the first group as it sets expectations for the rest of the dungeon.

The tank pulls the first mob. Misdirect ... Hunter's mark ... oops pull back the pet due to close mobs ... Multi-shot ... and I try to AoE the rest of the way down. This was a mistake because there is a tunnel between the first pull and the tank and I have trouble getting the shot off due to Line of sight issues. First mob goes down and the rogue puts up the Recount for the first mob. Rogue - 1200dps ... Me 500dps (I'm only going to list our numbers but the mage was around 3500dps and the warrior around 2000dps the entire instance). Rogue says in party ... "wtf huntard?" If you've played a hunter for a while you will be called a huntard at some point. This wasn't my first experience with the term and I've grown to consider it a term of endearment so I just typed. "lol--line of sight issue". The tank pretty much ignored us and had already moved on the next mob. I run into the next room and put up a belated AoE on the tanks mobs and see my results are little better than the first mob due to our chatting. The rogue didn't even try on the second mob but instead decided to take the time to say, "i don't got all day. you need to pick up dps." This pissed me off. Trash mobs aren't a good way to judge dps and they guy makes a snap judgment that I suck on the first pull. Frankly I wasn't very impressed with his 1200 but I didn't say anything and just sat to get mana while the tank pulled the third (and last) mob before the first boss fight of the instance. Once my mana was full I helped the tank finish the third mob, then ran to catch him as he immediately engaged the boss. Boss fights are where dps is the most important and I'm immediately into my rotation - Misdirect ... Hunter's mark ... Explosive shot ... and I'm soon into my hunter groove. The thing I love about dps'ing is the differences between it and healing. When you are healing you are waiting for something bad to happen before acting and you have milliseconds to act or someone will die. As dps ... you still need to have millisecond timing but instead you get good positive damage that happens. It is so much less stressful and fun. After you've dps'ed a class for a while it is just a matter of making sure you stay aware of your surroundings while keeping an optimal rotation going. The first boss in Gundrak isn't going to be confused with Arthas any time soon but I treated it like it was the world's first kill. A few moments later the boss died and we gathered our loot.

I sat to get some mana back and looked at my recount. Rogue ... 900dps. Me ... 2800dps. I smiled to myself. The funny thing is I knew he knew but I didn't say a word. I didn't have time to gloat anyway because the tank was halfway to the next mob by the time I was finished getting my mana back to full. I certainly didn't want to get into the same trap as the rogue and start talking smack after only looking at one boss (and in the rogue's defense that boss does incapacitate people). We steadily make our way to the next boss and this time -- Rogue ... 800dps Me ... 3100dps. His dps actually got worse but in his defense that boss is a bit tough on melee as they have to move around quite a bit so it really wasn't fair to judge him on that either. We move on to the 3rd boss that is pretty much a straight dps race and this time -- Rogue 1100dps ... Me 3500dps. He did better but so did I and at this point I was really starting to enjoy myself. The rogue had to know the numbers he was posting as he had posted Recount earlier. I crossed my mind that perhaps he was just afk/autoattacking but his recount log showed mutilate damage so he was pressing buttons. It is times like this that I like the fact that I play multiple toons and my rogue's gear is almost the same of this one and I know I've hit well over 4000dps on a single target in heroics (it really depends on the buffs and group makeup). Anyway as we make our way down the stretch run to the final boss and I feel like I'm Luke Skywalker in Episode IV as he walks up the red carpet to get his medallion from Princess Leia. Perhaps I'm overstating the importance of my dps to the groups success (frankly the tank could have solo'ed it with the healer) but I was really enjoying my victory. No one had said a word since the rogue called me a huntard back at the beginning. By this point I've realized that the tank is really talented and so is the other dps so everything is going down without a problem. We get to the final boss and soon enough Gundrak is complete. I look at my recount to see the final tally -- Rogue 850dps ... Me 2900dps. At this point of every instance there are always a few moments of small talk before everyone drops group. The tank says... "good group". I'm considering posting my recount for spite when I see that rogue dropped group right after we finished the instance. Perhaps he did have somewhere to go but I think he knew what was coming and didn't want to face the music.

Heroics these days are a joke as they were made for people in 180 level blues and they are being done by people in level 230+ purples. There is certainly going to be skill differences between all players and people aren't always going to get along. But to have epic gear, to be a bad player, and to be a jerk all at the same time is a difficult feat. After I noticed the rogue had left the group and feeling down that never got the chance to respond, I made the general comment to the party.... "Interesting rogue". The tank responded, "He was an idiot."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

With the advent of Patch 3.3, many player that would have never gotten groups are now able to find them thanks to the new Dungeon Finder system. This has created quite a few issues as newer players learn the dungeons and veterans try to deal with the "noobs". I have had varied luck with this new system ranging from "OMG .. this PUG has renewed my faith in humanity!" to the "OMG .. I want to delete this game from my machine!" This morning I had one of the latter....

One thing about having 6 80s is it really helps me understand the mechanics of the other classes. When I woke up this morning I decided I wanted to play my Paladin since she needs the most gear of all my toons.

Queue Dungeon finder for Hall of Reflection ... 5 minutes later ... in the dungeon ... 15 minutes later ... Done!

Nice! Perhaps this is going to be a good day! Queue for Pit of Saron ... 5 minutes later ... in the dungeon.

I look at the group. Warrior Tank (4200 GS) as party leader, Rogue DPS (4700 GS), DK DPS (3500 GS), Hunter DPS (4800 GS), and my paladin healer (4800 GS). ((For those that don't know -- GS is gearscore which rates the gear of each player. I have never booted anyone nor quit a group due to gearscore but use it to figure out what kind group I have so I can put together my strategy)) Interesting group. A bit melee centric and I'm not going to get DPS/Tank plate drops but not bad. We cruise through the first two bosses pretty easy with the exception that the hunter aggroed 2 groups by mistake because he didn't see the patrol coming. We now approach what I like to call the "Hill of Death". I've been in many groups as DPS and Healing and it isn't easy for anyone. There are 5 enemy in front of us - 1 humanoid elite with direct caster damage, 2 undead elite with aoe damage, and 2 undead elite with melee damage. The killer is when the AOE stack on top of each other with the caster attacking because it is almost impossible to keep your tank alive. The typical strategy usually involves DPS/CC the two AOE/, then the caster, then the melee. We really didn't talk strategy, the warrior just marked the caster for attack and then charged. The tank gets aggro on the caster, but almost immediately I notice that the rogue has aggro on one of the AOE and the hunter has aggro on the other. I start putting 2 big heals on them back to back to save their lives when I see a melee charging for me. I can't heal if I'm dead so I heal myself twice then switch back to the hunter/rogue in an attempt to save them as they are starting to take more damage. As I am casting, I get hit again and die and 10 seconds later everyone is dead.

Silence....

I respawn and fly back to the instance and begin the run to my body. This isn't a long instance so I am back to my body in a minute. I notice the rogue hasn't released while everyone else is running through the instance. I should mention at this point that this is a big pet peeve of mine. I don't mind rez'ing people if they ask beforehand but I get real annoyed when someone is being lazy and expecting me to do it (I also hate when people don't heal themselves between battles and expect me to get them back to full health -- I'm especially looking at you warlocks). This annoys me because his body is sitting halfway up the hill under one of the AOE casters and while I probably could have gotten in range to rez him, his laziness puts 4 other people in danger of dying again. I stood there for a moment, thought about it, then said,

"I hope you aren't expecting a rez"

Silence....

A few moments later he says, "You need to learn to heal" to which I respond, "Learn to not aggro". Bingo! ... Yes, we have now entered 3rd grade recess! A few moments later we see the message,

"Rogue has left the party".

The tank had gone afk for a bit and came back a few moments after this occurred then said, "Who left? Oh the Hunter ... good ... he was an idiot." At this point the next message we see is,

"Hunter has left the party".

The Death Knight types, "LOL" and we both are met with the message,

"Warrior has left the party".

At this point it is just me and the undergeared Death Knight so I tell him ... "Oh well ... it was a nice try" and leave group.

As I sat in Dalaran I thought about the how quickly the group went from domination to failure. I definitely was the catalyst to the disband as I probably could have just rezzed the rogue. As I calmed down, I realized the issue with the group wasn't healing or even the dps attacking the wrong target. The tank had issues from the beginning holding aggro and we all had to cover for him in every fight. The rogue was tricking, the hunter was misdirecting, and I was overhealing to keep people alive and we still had aggro issues. The "Hill of Death" is tough on PuGs that are unfamiliar with each other and that combined with my comment killed our group .

PuGs are an amazingly fragile thing. I know I have held my tongue a hundred times because I would rather get loot than cause a disband. Today my attitude in a PuG caused a disband. I hope everyone learned something from the incident because if we do then ultimately the Dungeon Finder will be a better place for groups and WoW as a whole will have better players.

As for me, I hate holding my tongue for lazy people but this may cause me to pause in the future. There is a fine line between being nice and being taken advantage of and the key is to know the line and when to take your shots. As for this morning I would probably do it again even knowing the outcome. I still believe I was correct and I'd rather group with a bunch of noobs that work together than a group of vets that don't.