Why Can't People Grasp The Basics

The healer baggie came up yesterday so it was time to do a run with my healer.  I am the total opposite of what they expected to happen with adding the baggie.  I used to cap out my healers every week.  Now, I only run if there is the baggie.  If a week goes by and there is no baggie, I do not run dungeons, simple as that.  I run less now because of the baggie, not more.  But that is another story.

My first adventure into healing a random yesterday, or should I call it misadventure, was not completely horrible for the most part, nothing I couldn't handle, but it did get me thinking about dungeons, fights, mechanics and the roles people play.

This post will contain nothing involving peoples skill or lack thereof.

This post will contain nothing involving peoples knowledge of fights or mechanics.

This post will contain nothing involving people gear level, gear choices, gem choices or enchanting choices.

This post will only contain things that are complete and total common sense.

I enter into well of eternity on my shaman.  The dungeon is already in progress and it seems there was just a wipe or a near wipe being the four people there are at the entrance with low life.  I see the body of the guard at the entrance is still there so I know that this just started.

We get to the first pack and the tank runs in.  Common sense failure alert. The tank faces them toward everyone and they start breathing fire in everybody's face.  Okay, I can accept he is new, did not notice it and sometimes it is hard to turn mobs around but he did not even try to turn them around when he noticed this happening.

We get to the second pack and the tank runs in.  Common sense failure alert.  You would think that he would have figured it out being this pack is the same as the others but he didn't.  He did the same thing he did before.  This is not a skill issue, this is not an ability issue, this is a common sense issue.

Common Sense Pro Tip:  If stuff is breathing fire at you and you are the tank, face it away from people.

Okay, so we have a tank with no common sense.  Lets check out the rest of the group.  One melee and two ranged DPS.  Common sense failure alert.  The two ranged DPS just stood there getting hit by the fire.  I noticed the tank did not turn them the first time so I made sure to stand where the fire would not hit me the second time in case he did not turn them again.  The ranged did not seem to have that same level of common sense.

Common Sense Pro Tip:  If you are getting hit by something because of where the tank has positioned a mob and the tank won't move, you move.

The tank has no common sense, the ranged have no common sense so what about our friendly neighborhood melee DPS?  Common sense failure alert.  The melee DPS didn't give me a break healing either.  He stood right in front of the mobs taking all the damage.  Lets remember, this post is not about skill or knowledge.  So lets forget that it is basic knowledge that melee should not be in front of the mob.  This has nothing to do with skill.  It has to do with common sense.

Common Sense Pro Tip:  If you are getting hurt by something that is coming from a mobs face and you are not the tank, get out of their face.

I'll give credit where credit is due however to the melee, a feral druid.  He might have been lacking in the common sense department but he actually did have a grasp of his class, as this story will show.

The only reason we did not wipe on those trash packs with everyone taking damage except for me is the fact that my shaman is way over geared for this content and that 100%+ crit buff makes healing as a shaman like super healing, every cast is over 100K heals.  I can handle a little stupidity here and there.  Not a lot of stupidity, but a little.  Next fight, the boss, we settled into a lot of stupid, but not completely stupid.  It was a combination of lack of fight mechanic knowledge and a bit of common sense failure.

Apparently the only person that knew about the flame circles was the melee DPS.  Common sense failure alert.  The ranged DPS just stood in it.  I tried healing them through it but being the tank was seriously under geared he required a lot of healing which meant I lost the two ranged DPS in time.

Common Sense Pro Tip:  If there is any ground effect under you and you are tanking damage from it. MOVE!

Again, this is not about not knowing mechanics.  I do not mind they did not know there where flame circles and they where taken by surprise by it so they took damage.  I can handle a little extra healing for a short period of time.  It is not about the tanks gear.  While under geared, the tank was more then geared enough to handle the fight.  It is about the complete and total lack of common sense.

That attempt ended in a wipe because the tank made two mistakes.  Common sense failure alert.  Instead of kiting the boss out of the flame circles, he kited the tank to them and stood in them with the boss.  Common sense failure alert.  So he saw he was taking insane damage and did not have the common sense to move, you would figure he would at least use a cooldown or something.  Nope.  He made no efforts to save himself even.

Common Sense Pro Tip:  If you are about to die, try to save yourself.

This was the first showing that the melee actually had a clue about the abilities his class had.  When the tank went down he switched to bear and taunted the boss out of the fire.  To bad the damage was done, it was a wipe.

We go at it again, no one said a word, I started to type out that they needed to step out of the flame rings while my rez was loading on the tank but never really had the chance to finish my sentence.  Common sense failure alert.  The tank charged right in the second he was revived.  He did not wait to be healed, he did not wait to be buffed, he did not wait to even ask what went wrong.

Common Sense Pro Tip:  If something is going to hit you and hurt you a lot, be healed before you enter combat.

I kept the tank up, no biggie.  Everyone moved from the fire rings this time without me ever getting my post out about it which proved they learned something.  Maybe they had some common sense, it just moved really slow.  Like an old lady that can't see over the steering wheel drives.  They get there, but slow as hell and they might injure a few people along the way.

I can go on and on with this run. 

I could tell about people standing in bad on the second fight even if the casters usually give you more then enough notice to move.  Heck, one of the images no one could miss with his huge swirling lights everywhere before they land.

I could tell about how the melee was so good with his timing that he stopped fighting and headed to interrupt the boss the second the cast started, even if I said I would handle it before the fight started. 

I could tell how I died, not once but twice, on the last boss because the tank was too busy DPSing the boss to pull the adds off of me even though I was standing right on top of him and all he needed to do was an AoE tanking rotation to save me.  I self rezzed and had a druid battle rez and almost died a third time.  All while standing directly on top of him and not even once did he try to take the mobs off me.

Common Sense Pro Tip:  If the healer is taking damage, save them.

The whole run left me wondering what is wrong with people.  None of this stuff is skill related.  None of this stuff is not having the knowledge of the fight related.  None of this stuff is gear related.  All of this is complete and total common sense.  All of this is something that anyone would be able to figure out even if they never played warcraft or any other game before.

If something hurts and it is in front of you or under your feet... Move from it.
If you are the tank and someone that is not you is being attacked... Get them to attack you.
You know, common sense things like that.  Those types of things have nothing to do with gear, ability, skill, knowledge, just common sense.

Stuff like that annoys me.  I have no problem with people that have never done a fight before.  We all need to learn at some point.  I have no problem with people being lesser geared.  We all have to go through the gearing up process.  But people failing to things that someone that doesn't even play games could figure out on their own annoys the crap out of me.

Why can't people grasp the basics?