Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The Gambler - Play it Right

Using the looking for dungeon system is sometimes like the classic Kenny Rogers song The Gambler.  You've got to know when to hold 'me, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, know when to run.

That is really a great line, hell, there are many lines in that song that are so fitting for the LFD system really.  I could probably make a week or two worth of posts with lyrics from that song in reference to the LFD system.  One line, besides the one already mentioned, that stands out to me today is one later in the song.

"If you're gonna play the game, boy, ya gotta learn to play it right"

From using the system at various stages of the game and since it came out I can tell you that this is the number one most important thing on doing well in the game and in the system.  Knowing what your role is and how to play it well.

A guild member was talking about a random Zul instance he was in yesterday where the healer had a few greens still on.  I am guessing he had stuff in his bags that made it so he could get into the dungeon, they really need to fix that.  That is not the point however, the point is that the healer rocked.  There were no wipes and only a few scary moments from what he said.  The perfect case of knowing how to play it right.

This was proof that the healer knew what to do and how to do it being they where capable of healing an instance that requires a 346 item level while still wearing four pieces of green gear.  Without a doubt this means they are a great healer but lets not go gushing over the healer all day long because it was not all the healers doing.

Sure, the healer knew how to play the game from a healing standpoint but they would have never been able to do that if the other people did not know how to play the game as well. 

If anything went wrong the healer in greens would have gotten blamed for the failure just because they where wearing green items and cheated the system to get in.  In most cases, this might be true but we see in this case it wasn't.

From what my friend said the tank was amazing as well.  Marked and held aggro.  The DPS was great all around, two 17K and one 15K and they never took aggro, hit marked targets, CCed when needed and moved from the fire so to speak.

Seems like he got one of the rare groups where people knew how to play the game.  The reason the healer was able to heal a 346 instance in greens was because he was good, yes, but it was just as important that the people around the healer were also good.

A tank that uses CC to help mitigate the incoming damage, remember, not all mitigation comes from dodge, parry and block, not taking damage at all because a mob is CCed is the best mitigation in the game.  It also makes it easier for a healer when they need to heal two mobs hitting you instead of four mobs hitting you.  Chalk one up for the tank here for noticing the healers limited mana pool and possible lower output.

The DPS that was high enough to ensure that the fights never went on very long and did not take avoidable damage was a huge help as well.  If DPS are not taking any damage that is avoidable then the job of a healer is easy in many cases.

It was nice to hear his story because it proved the point I always say and try to stress to all my raiders.  Gear is nice, gear helps, but no gear will ever make up for a lack of skill.  "If you're gonna play the game, boy, ya gotta learn to play it right."

Playing it right not only makes you shine but makes everyone else around you shine as well.  I've learned from my recent adventures into the randoms as a healer again that even people with half an ounce of skill can make me look like a great healer whereas people with little to no skill make me look like a horrible healer.

There are just not enough people out there that honestly take the effort to know how to play their role enough to be an effective assets to their groups.  Usually people will fall back on the line, but I play just for fun.  What is so fun about failure?

"If you're gonna play the game, boy, ya gotta learn to play it right."

4 comments:

  1. Agreed.
    I cant tell you how many groups I have been in where the DPS basically wanted to tank. But in dungeons prior to Cataclysm, you don't NEED to play your role. Healers can suck, DPS can draw aggro, tanks don't really need mitigation, etc.
    Then you get to Cata dungeons and suddenly you have to play it right. *I* am "ok" with that, but I think that it confuses many players.

    When my mage joins a dungeon I always say "please moon it if you want me to sheep it."
    And invariably I get at least one:
    "we never needed CC before, and this isn't heroic, just l2p noob"
    Ok, and thats kind of true, but there are some instances where you DO need to use CC, even non heroic. And really, why WOULDN'T you? It doesn't slow down the run, and it gets you in practice for heroics and raids. Yes MY DPS will be a bit low, but I don't care, I would rather not wipe. :)

    Anyway.
    I just wonder if maybe the current system is teaching users to play bad.

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  2. I don't think it is teaching them to play bad as much as it is not teaching them to play good thus leaving them to their own devices.

    Everyone thinks they are good which means it is always someone elses fault.

    If people think they are playing well they will never get better.

    Unless you teach a player to DPS within the tanks aggro they will always pull and always say the tank is bad and the tank will always think they are bad.

    When you train them both the tank will learn they need to mark if they want to make sure threat is not pulled and the DPS will learn not to blow all cooldowns on the pull and if a target is marked that means single target it.

    Dungeons do not teach that, the game does not teach that, left on their own they will never learn that. We, the other players, are the only ones that can teach them that.

    Sadly bad most people will say "lrn2p noob" instead of saying, attack the skull first.

    BTW: That is also why I am a huge supporter of returning things to the way of wrath. It seems way too many people suck to be quite honest. Let the skilled people have raids, let the randoms for points remain for the unskilled and skilled that have to suffer them.

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  3. Your disposable "BTW" hurts.
    It hurts mainly because I THINK that you may be correct, but I WANT you to be wrong. :D

    Can't we start teaching players earlier? Make CC and interrupts important at the lower levels. "Hey, you don't have to CC or interrupt, but you will whip incessantly if you dont." Broadcast interrupts so that the whole party sees that it was done, broadcast broken CC and over threat generation. That way the players can't blame anyone but themselves. "hey man, I saw the announcement that you broke CC, THATS why we wiped." No more "I THINK that we wiped because you need to l2p"

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  4. People are reluctant to being taught in game and being everything is so easy they forget what they learned so quickly.

    If people really wanted to learn they would on their own. I learned how to play a Hunter (my first character) while leveling because I was having problems and looked it up online. A very large majority of the players do not look online for anything.

    Just think back to the when 4.0.1 came out and the 100s, perhaps, 1000s of people per hour you heard asking, where can we by flying when every website on the net had articles saying it would not be purchasable until Cataclysm came out.

    You, me and any other unfortunate soul that happens to fumble their way to my ramblings are not the people that do not know what to do or how to find out how to do it.

    It is the people that will never see this or any other wow related site that need to be helped and being they will never see this or any other wow related site ever we can't help them.

    They want things easy, they do not want to learn.

    Also, they have an addon that you can get that will announce to raid/party all that stuff. It is a great teaching tool as long as people do not get offended by it or others do not insult them when they fail. I'd be darned if I could remember the name right now however.

    ReplyDelete