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.
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.
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