Opinion vs. Fact

I won't pretend to say I know everything about smite healing, I read a lot and have read some things for and against it.  I do know however how I feel about it and where I consider it useful.

In a PuG raid I was in over the weekend on my hunter one of the healers, who thought he was gods gift to the game, don't you love those people, was talking about how great smite healing was.  I mentioned that I was glad that more spells where being added to it and he agreed.

Later he went on to say, while others where asking him about it, that smite healing is the best way to heal five man dungeons.

I immediately disagreed.  I said, I believe in a group with all ranged DPS is it great otherwise it is not very effective. 

I said that not based on only opinion mind you but based on fact.  Apparently he did not like being disagreed with.

Being I disagreed he of course said "apparently you know nothing about smite healing" to which I had to put him in his place. 

I pointed out my very own disc priest with a disc(smite)/disc spec.  Proving I knew both of them.

You have to love people that when you disagree with them their first line of defense is that you know nothing.  They never say any facts to back up their belief that you do not know what they are talking about, they just say you don't and hope it will fly. 

Most people in game do not fight back with facts and they get away with it.  That is how people like this get the idea that they are great and know everything because no one has ever put them in their place before.  This guy had never met me.

So I started a simple fact.that smite healed the closest, neediest target which can sometimes be a pet, a blood worm, another melee, you name it.  In a group with three ranged and no melee pets smite healing is perfect for a heroic as it will always hit the tank.

He said, you (meaning me) really don't understand how it works.  It is better if everyone is melee.

I said, again, the fact that you can not target your heal from the smite, so having so many targets means the tank might not get the heal.  If I have a melee and a tank that are both low on health my priority will always be the tank, smites priority might not agree with me which means it becomes an ineffective heal.

Melee takes too much incidental damage that they will always be a possible target for the heal when you really want the tank to be getting the heal.  If you have any melee you are better off throwing a direct heal on the tank just to make sure it gets to them.

He said I was wrong and that the smite heal would always get the tank and be enough to keep the tank up even if the group is all melee.  Did something change that I do not know about because that sure as hell is not how mine ever works.

I went on to say that ranged routinely take less damage to begin with so with all ranged the smite healing always hitting the tank it is the best situation for smite healing.

Of course he went back to the good old standby.  Not the range I have met, they all suck and take more damage.  I said, then run with guild and stop running with bad players.

Hey, one good cliche deserves another and I was getting tired of dealing with someone that was trying to force his opinion down peoples throat as a fact.

I am not even sure what he said would count as opinion.  It is a fact that the smite heal will not always hit the tank.  Me saying I like to use it with all ranged is my opinion on when it is best used.  There might be better places for it or other useful places for it.  Him saying it always hits the tank in a melee group is wrong.  It is not even an opinion, it is flat out wrong.

Normally when I am in a PuG I keep my mouth shut, stay on top of the damage done meter and on bottom of the damage taken meter and basically just do my job.  This just seemed to get under my skin.

Why is it that people do not actually know how an ability works before trying to give advice on it and trying to pass it off as fact?  Even if I am sure my opinion was fact I still prefaced what I said with "I believe".  I did not pretend to know everything.

If it had just been a conversation about the ability I would have never jumped in but the questions where coming from another priest that was interested in trying it and I could not let this person keep filling them with the delusions that smite and smite only can keep up a tank and three melee in a heroic.  It can't, that is a fact.  When we over gear it like we over geared heroics at the end of wrath it might be fine but not now.

My opinion is that smite healing is fun and I will use it every chance I get.  If I heal a normal for guild I smite heal.  It is usually enough to keep everyone up, even in a melee group, and if the tank needs a little direct loving I hit them with a penance or greater heal after I hit atonement and all is well.

The fact is that bad players can still be dressed in all 359 and 372 epics.  This guy proved that.

How can someone get that far in game playing a role and still having no clue how their abilities work?

I won the argument.  They stopped arguing their opinion because I presented the facts that disproved what they where trying to state as fact.  I did it respectfully, no name calling, no cursing, no insulting them for their opinion even if I knew it was wrong.  Heck, I never even called them out saying they where wrong.  I only said I disagreed.

Either way, I did not change them.  They where still elitist pricks that don't know what they are doing and think that because they are wearing epic gear they know more then everyone else around them.  They will go on thinking what they think and I will go on thinking what I think. 

At least at the end of the game play day I know that I made my point and never had to result to using a line like "apparently you know nothing about smite healing."

I'm sorry, but if you have to start the defense of your opinion with a line like that, you lost before you even got started no matter what your gear score might tell you.

Word of acvice, if you are ever going to go toe to toe with someone like that, make sure you did do not have anything for them to pick on because then no matter what facts you have, they will never get over the fact that there is something they can pick on you for.

I got away with it because I had the right gear, spec, gems, enchants, lead in damage done, was last in damage received, and was the only person that had not messed up even one mechanic.  If anything was wrong with any of that, I would have lost that conversation because everything I said would have been replied to with, well at least I don't have a hit gem, or something like that.

Remember, bad players will always pick on you if you make even one mistake.  Never let them get the chance. 

If you are DPS, do not let lack of gear scare you.  As long as you can beat them on the damage charts no bad players with great gear will ever mention your gear out of fear that you will respond, if my gear is so bad how come I am beating you by 4K DPS.  They will never open themselves to getting hit with a line like that.

Sometimes the bad players at the top of the game are worse then the bad players at the bottom.  The bad players at the top of the game think that smite can keep a tank and three melee at full health in a heroic.

God I hate PuGs.