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.

[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

[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!"

[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.

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

Advice to the parents or to the friend?

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

advice to him is he needs to emphasise the below and, in my experience, take it slow. When I came out to my parents I came out - then just let it go slowly. Coming out on wednesday then showing up thursday bedecked in rainbows and heavy petting with the boyfriend on the sofa is not a good idea. Let them assimilate the idea, bring them along slowly and expect them to make a couple of mistakes.

My parents love me and were very accepting of my homosexuality... but they did make mistakes. They said things, purely by accident, that were quite insulting. They have done things accidently that have hurt me quite a lot. They may need time to learn and understand - even if they accept and are loving which is a good thing and he is very lucky, they're on uncharted ground as well and need to get their balance

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

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.

So this is why my son's teacher was mildly freaked when I said if he brought home a boyfriend I would try to accept the boyfriend as a person. The fact that you're saying this means that there are people who don't realize 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).

[tanarill.livejournal.com]

Both. Because I honestly don't know how to handle it, other than give him fall-back support.

[tanarill.livejournal.com]

This is indeed a good link, which I shall pass along.

Thank you!

[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. :)

[tanarill.livejournal.com]

You know, I'd never actually considered this problem before, but you're right. A big part of the problem has to be that someone thinks things will change. That just because we're telling them that we're different, we somehow become different people than we were ten seconds ago. Where is the logic? Where?

(I am reminded of the entire "what is up with straight people assuming that just because we're not, we want to tie them down and violate them?" thing. Listen, I wouldn't touch most of you with a ten-foot barge pole!)

[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!

[(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 =/

[leymessenger.livejournal.com]

^^ this is me btw, forgot to log in.

[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:

[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]

"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

[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.

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

I think the logic, such as it is, can be summed up fairly simply. "What else has this person lied to me about?"

I don't know everything about who my children are. I am never going to know that, because I am not them. I'm not supposed to be them. They don't come with warning labels or instruction manuals or help menus. They will love who they love, and I will love them for many reasons, and who they love is not sufficient reason for me not to love them.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of people who look at gay folks as a whole new species as opposed to just people like everyone else.

I am amazed as well. I really don't understand it