WoW rantage

[sparkindarkness]

Ok, I love my guild. I love the people in it. they’re fun and friends - this is exactly what i want in a guild. But I also want to strangle them sometimes. ESPECIALLY the DPS.




Ok everyone makes mistakes. Like the Paladin who cast Blessing of Protection on the main tank during a Karazan run (oh, that was fun), the tank who forgot his own markings and ended up screaming “which one should I be hitting?!” the warlock who dotted 2 sheeps and a sapped target in one pull even the rogue who clicked the stealth button instead of the sap (He then yelled “argh help” and was told “hell no, you die waaay over there. We’ll res you.”) even the dagger rogue who tried to challenge my feral druid to a duel 6 times and always used all his cooldowns and STILL didn’t get me to half health

But the DPS is just driving me up the wall constantly. So here are some nice rules for the dps.

1) you are not offtank. EVER. I don’t care if you are a moonkin Druid, a fury Warrior or a retribution Paladin. YOU ARE NOT A TANK. You only every try to play tank if the REAL tank is stunned/feared/dead/otherwise occupied. And then only for a very brief moment before the real tank gets back in action. You have 10,000 armour? Nice. The main tank has 24,000. Because he is a tank. You are not.

2) And on that note - the tank NEVER has too many mobs attacking him. If all the mobs are attacking the tank, that is a GOOD THING. That is what tanks DO. Don’t pull agro because you think “the tank is going to be overwhelmed,” or “the healer can’t keep up.” If the healer can’t keep the tank alive what chance does he have of keeping the tank alive AND your squishy self?

3) Damage meters are BANNED. It is NOT a competition. If all the mobs are dead and we aren’t then we’ve ALL won. It doesn’t matter who has done the most damage. The worst idiocies always come from the DPS competing.

4) NEVER EVER AOE without warning and express permission of both healer and tank. I don’t care if the druid is using swipe to hold agro - swipe vs flamewave? What causes the most threat? Yeah, that’s right. That’s why your squishy self’s face has been imprinted into the floor of heroic arcatraz

5) Your job as a dps ISN’T just to do as much damage as possible. If it were a not-very-complicated bot could do your job. Or a monkey could be trained to just keep pressing the pyroblast button. Your job is to do as much damage as you can WITHOUT PULLING AGRO.

6) Every time the tank has to use taunt to save your squishy backside you have failed. I don’t care if you survived, I don’t care if the tank got the agro back. You failed. Taunt is now on cooldown. if one of the other mobs decides to go munch on the healer I can do sweet bugger all about it. Also, the time I spent feral charging, bashing and taunting the mob is time I WASN’T smacking his 3 friends so I now have less agro on them. And THEY’RE now going to eat the healer. You suck.

7) When you say “this is an easy instance, we’re all well equipped enough not to concentrate much” that may be true but what you really mean is “I’m not going to concentrate to make the tank and healer’s job harder.” Your screwing around makes it harder and less fun for me. Thanks for that.

8) When the mobs are grinding your face into the dirt, they’re not hitting me. This means I generate no rage. Which means I can’t agro them back. Which means they will continue grinding your face into the dirt until the poor overworked healer runs out of mana. Learn.

9) You aren’t a weapon. A weapon has one purpose - to cause damage. You aren’t. Look at your action bars, you have other powers than squishy ones. You a rogue? Right, stun these mobs so they hurt the tank less. You a mage? Stand near the priest - if a mob starts charging her use frost nova. You’re a druid? Use cyclone when necessary - paladins, shamans? You have a whole RANGE of shiny abilities. I shouldn’t have to ask a hunter or a mage or a shadow priest to use silence/spell interrupt. You have all these nifty skills, use them. Yes, even if it does mean you can’t nuke quite so much

10) LEARN TO CONTROL YOUR AGRO. Seriously, it’s easy. See, the tank just used faerie fire to pull the mobs? That is NOT your cue to hit it - what do you think causes more agro? Faerie fire or trinket enhanced starfire? Well done. WAIT UNTIL THE TANK HAS SMACKED THEM A FEW TIMES. If the tank says he is pulling them back that means MOVE BACK. Not “come forward so you can get some hits in while the tank is running away.” If you crit, congrats - now cool it a little. I don’t ever want to hear “cool, I just got 5 crits in a row” on vent again.

11) NEVER pull unless the tank asks you to. Do not pull the first mob. Don’t break sheep/sap/shackle. Do not pull. You just force the tank to overwhelm YOUR agro before he can establish his own.

It’s not rocket science, damn it!

Comments

[speaks.livejournal.com]

You forgot one.

12) If you do get Aggro, do not run around in circles. It won't make the mob hate you any less. It will make the TANK have to run around in circles trying to catch you. Either stand still and announce that you have aggro, or run towards the tank.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, that annoys. "I have agro" Really? What am I supposed to do? Teleport? They run around or even BLINK away from me.

The time I've screamed "don't run away! You CANNOT OUTRUN THEM!"

[tanarill.livejournal.com]

Before I comment, I'd like to make it clear that I don't play WoW. This is for a number of reasons, starting with:

IT'S TOO DANGEROUS. Srsly, I'm a full-time college student. I don't have the time to be playing World of Warcrack six hours a day. My roomie, on the other hand, plays it full-time, so I know how the system works.

And my only response to this can be "WTF is Wrong With You, DPS?" Roomie is a healer, and she's always complaining about people who do this on raids. To the point where she quit Guild A to hang with Guild B because Guild A refused to listen when she made this point. I don't think Guild B is much better, from the way she complains.

So, DPS, here's a hint: if you want to be the Tank, go make a tank character. It's not that hard, really. Oh, you don't want to stop being an uber-god and return to being a level 6? Then stop fucking it up for your teammates on raids.

[/rant]

[tanarill.livejournal.com]

Also, on a completely different topic, a manfriend of mine just came out to his parents, who still love him but are Freaking Out.

Have any useful advice I might pass along? Aside from putting him in touch with the local GSA, which I have done.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Naturally there are groups like the GSA which can help - some are aimed directly at parents.

I think the main thing to emphasise is NOTHING HAS CHANGED. He hasn't changed. No-one has changed. The onyl difference is that they know more now than they did before. The situation hasn't changed, he hasn't changed, life hasn't changed.

I think a lot of parents think the whole world will change after this. It's important to make it clear that NOTHING IS DIFFERENT. The only thing that has happened is that their son loves them and trusts them enough to tell them about him.

I'd also emphasise that it isn't a BAD thing. Emphasise the happiness, the fulfillment, the honesty and that he is comfortable enough with himself to tell them.

It might be worht looking at this link

http://www.io.com/~wwwomen/queer/etiquette/chap1.html

it's humourous, but has some words of wisdom as well

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

Advice to the parents or to the friend?

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

It just EATS life.

What annoys me abotu dps is they assume it's an easy clas they don't have to concentrate on. Becaus eit IS simple for them - but if they do it the simple way they aren't makinG THEIR lives hard. They're making my life hard

The best dps have tank/healer alts - because they understand how the GROUP works. Tanks and healers have to be aware of everyone else. A dps knows himself and the enemy. that's it.

[harald387.livejournal.com]

I am DPS. I've been a Rogue, and now I'm an Elemental Shaman.

Some advice for your Rogues:
-Vanish is an instant threat-b-gone.
-Stunlock is your friend.
-Back off and bandage, bitch.
-If you do pull threat, stun it. Then STOP HITTING IT.
-Feint. Feint feint feint. Feinty feint. Feint.

Some advice for any Shamans you may have:
-Yes, I made the mistake of getting myself to 45% lightning crit too. Remember, dead DPS is zero DPS. Add something other than crit, your tank will thank you.
-Lay the totems that help the GROUP, not yourself. Yes, you get no benefit from your own Windfury totem. However the Paladin or Warrior tank will thank you a million times as they become a small tornado factory.
-Fire Nova Totem is your friend. So is Magma Totem. Just make sure you don't blast the CCed mobs.
-Chain Lightning is Not Your Friend.
-Wearing mail doesn't mean you can't be one-shotted.
-Wearing a shield doesn't mean you can't be one-shotted.
-Back off and heal when things get hairy. You're there to make the group better, not top a damage meter.

The obsession with damage meters drives me batty, particularly because I can, with on-par gear, still top them AND never once draw aggro during a raid (as a Rogue; I never top the meters as a Shaman, too busy offhealing about half the time).

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Stunlock is a friend and it annoys me when dps refuse to bandage *slaps them* people who don't take first aid? Deserve death!

Vanish and other threat be gones (like feign death) I'm leery off because I've had a hunter who used it to get out of trouble form over agroing - which meant loads would head to him after multi-shot, I'd chase, he'd feign death, without me to get agro on what he pulled they went for the healer

If you have a threat reduction like feint, cower or fade, why not use it? this always amazes me. And it amazes me how many people pull threat - then keep htting it!

I don't mind teh fire totems, but have found grace of air + flametongue weapon to be better since the extra agi is NIIIIICE and the flamtongue makes sure the extra dps is applied as you want in agro order - and you don't get sheeps/saps hit by annoying fire totems.

I've had shamans who complain that totems are too expensive and don't use them - would you believe it?! And no end of shamans who drop the best for them rather than the party,

crits are nice if you treat them with respect., As a mage I know says "treat crits as extra mana - an opportunity to take a spell casting break and preserve mana while causing the same damage as opposed to extra damage" she berates our moonkin often "you going pvp? no? Then drop the crit gear and invest in some nice spell damage kit." Steady, predictable damage is better for instances. crits seemto cause more agro than their damage (so a spell that crits for 1000 damage seems to cause more threat than one that simply causes 1000 damage).

No Aoe is EVER your friend. Ever.

And ALL dps can be one shotted. Even retri palas and fury warriors - but they never seem to realise this.

That's the worst thing - people tend to get prima-dona "it' my jonb to top the damage meters and take centre stage" it's not. Go vp iof that's whatyou want, here the victory is all of ours or none.

[amynnah.livejournal.com]

I hate damage meters. Rethel (the Guild leader of EoN, and a RL friend of mine) has outright banned their uses during raids, except by the raid leader.

He also made a Guild rule... on raids, healers are to focus on the tanks only. A HoT here and there on the DPS is fine, but the vast majority of the healer-mana is spent on tanks. Fortunately, the people of EoN know their classes very well (most of us are RL friends who are willing to listen to advice when needed), and understand their role in a raid.

Funnily enough, there's actually very little talking over Vent during fighting, except to call out aggro or targets. Sometimes it makes other Guilds nervous... until they realize we actually know our stuff.

I'm still new to the entire tanking thing... Amy was only recently respecced from Resto to Feral (I matched her spec to Ann's... and she STILL does less damage than Ann, at three levels higher), but I enjoy the challenge. :)

[(Anonymous)]

We were doing a heroic slave pens once, myself on my rogue, prot warrior friend, two mage pugs and a priest friend. We got to the first defender pull, after wiping two times already since the mages decided they would be funny and pull all the bogstroks with sheep and then aoe them down.

One of the mages go "Ok, lets not suck this time, im gonna kite the one defender and you (Warrior) offtank the other one" So we're on vent and like "All right... seems simple enough"

The mage pops PoM, arcane power and his trinket, and gets a lousy pyro off on one of the defenders. My warrior friend isnt ready, but he just barely gets back in time to pick up the one hes supposed to offtank. The mage then proceeds to "lag out" as hes clearly running around, sadly, trying to kite the mob. He then gets one shotted.

Afterwards he drops the group and sends me a tell saying "lol you need a better tank"

Stupid people ftl =/

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I agree with him wholeheartedly. They are the bane of all instances

We have that, especially on heroics. doesn't stop the dps dying and bitching and/or wiping us (they take threat,i can't get it back, healer dies)

Most of my guild are RL friends which makes it bloody hard to dress them down when they scre wup so badly all the time

Well, we ten dto balbber about random stuff AND do our thing., We've had guilds complain because we confuse them - we're taking crap about danish bacon and its use in sexual innuendos while crushing a heroic mechanar

Tanking is hard work - much more tiring effort. but at least you are always in demand (which can be a bad thinG)

[soappuppy.livejournal.com]

KLH (possibly KLM) Threatmeter. It is your friend. Install it. Use it. Have wild monkey sex with it.

What it does is keeps track of everyone's aggro in your party or raid with big obvious bars. You can see that Mage X is about to make a new friend or that the healer is about to pull healing aggro. It's a little complicated in a multi-mob setting but against one or two mobs it's a godsend.

Beyond that...god, god, yes. Stop farking with the tank, DPS, or the tank is going to stop moving, and stand there, and LAUGH while the mob has its way with you. We'll take pictures. I pull aggro off the healers, who can't help it, and off any DPS who has stopped hitting the mob and is standing still (or better yet, running TO THE TANK), and is thus being helpful. You pull aggro off me and run screaming into the distance? I'm gonna wave and laugh....

WTB remote "Feign Death" button for hunters....

P.S. Lucky bastard, druid tanking Karazhan!

[rampagingturtle.livejournal.com]

KTM Threatmeter? My guild uses it. It is a beautiful, beautiful thing as long as the aggro whores aren't too busy trying to make targets of themselves to look at it.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I will have to look for that mod. Sounds really helpful

Yes, I've doine that before and been snarked at. My response? "what? You pulled it. I assumed you could tank it!"

Healers get agro pulled off because they have to heal (though someone who overhals without need annoys) which is why it annoys when my taunt is on cooldown because I've saved some stupid dps and can't save the healer#

Feign death kind of nnoys me as hunters use iot very recklessly - they pull vast agro... then deign death. Agro switches to healer. healer dies.

LOL, we always seem to have a druid tank for everything! Never seen it as an advantage before

[jerril]

Our guild has the strict policy that KTM is a crutch. If you need it, you can't raid. We played with it a little bit last weekend out of curiosity and the verdict was we played WORSE with KTM up than relying on people understanding their own threat.

However, it can be a useful training tool to SHOW people how much threat they generate when they do X or Y if they haven't figured out what part of their routine is the issue. The big thing is to then take it away and force them to apply that knowledge.

[kirylyn.livejournal.com]

is there a linky for those of us who are NOT fluent in WoW to have the slightly clue what you're talking about??

tank I got

the rest? not so much

especially DPS

Data Point System??

[manna]

I was totally confused too :-) I Googled around and eventually found this handy glossary.

[tanarill.livejournal.com]

Damage Per Second. The Tanks take damage and keep on going, the healers heal, the DPS are everyone else. They do damage, but hopefully not at the expense of their teammates. Unless they're painfully stupid.

Aggro's something I never really got either. As far as I can tell, it's how likely the beasties are to attack Player A as opposed to Player B. Tanks are supposed to have the aggro, because they can take the damage and keep on going. DPS with aggro on them tend to die. Horribly and painfully. No, don't expect the tank to rescue you. He's busy.

I know way too much about this for someone who doesn't play D:

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

"Damage per second"

Basically there are 3-4 types of classes in WoW

1) A tank. Doesn't doo much damage but has MASSIVE armour and lots of health. they are a meat shield. The enemies hit him and he laughs because he is immune! MUAHAAH! He also causes extra agro meaning enemies hit him rather thn the others

2) A healer - what it says on the tin. Restores people's health, keeps the tank alive.

3) DPS - causes damage. they are classes that cause a lot of damage in the least mount of time and who actually kill the mobs (enemies). Very damaging but usually very fragile

4) Hybrid - usually capable of doing 2 roles to a degree (like a Paladin, who does damage but can occasionally heal as well) Very handy when the healer is feared/stunned/dead

Agro/threat - basically the mobs (enemies) hit players based on how much threat they cause. If you do a lot of damage to them, they will hit you rather than someone who is doing a little damage. DPS cause a lot of damage but are fragile, so they need to hurt the enemy WITHOUT causing more threat thn the TANK because if they do they will get agro (the mobs will attack them) and eat them

[beladibaby.livejournal.com]

I had to read this to my hubby, half of the WOW addict team in our home (the kiddo is the other). Needless to say he was torn between laughing at how you phrased things and yelling "YES that is what I have been talking about! See its not just me who thinks that way!" Needlesss to say he enjoyed your post *grin*

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Wow addicts FTW!

Thanks, it is funny now and helps me not kill my dps :) All right thinking tanks agree!

[illiana-galean.livejournal.com]

WoW! YAY! I play on an infamous RP server..*coughtramincidentcough* I am boomkin. I love it. I can pop in and out at a moments notice if things get to hairy, sheep breaks, I cyclone the damn thing until the mage can grab it an re-sheep. Granted, I like my crits and the aura = love, but damn. I KNOW I'm not a tank. In fact, I have a macro that screams this to the general population if/when I accidentally pull something I shouldn't even think about touching. Stupid starfire getting me in way to much trouble.

I like to think I'm a good boomkin. I stay in the back, blow shit up, and pray I don't crit. And, if I'm feeling really froggy, I'll send in the trees.

[illiana-galean.livejournal.com]

P.S.

I found my way over here via a certain ranting comm. >.>

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I love oomkin - they have massive damage. I just wish ours was more careful. His main fault is he attacks too soon before the tank has agro - seriously, he will have an insect swarm and a moonfire on the mob before I've more than faerie fired it.

The crits are fine if he's disciplined. He has a 30% crit chance (or there about) and will KEEP critting. In fact, if he thinks he hasn't enough crits he will wrath spam the enemy to get more.