- I'll start this random thought collection on a high note, but most of my thoughts today are about being my grumpy self.
- I watched a video of the new pet battles.
- While it is something that I could give or take, I have to say it sure does look kind of fun.
- I am going to hate camping for rares, but the battles themselves seem simple enough.
- Going to be something fun to do in those minutes where you just sit around doing nothing before a raid.
- Or something to do when you hit a stage in the game like now, when there is nothing to do.
- It is simple, it is silly, it is a flat out rip off of pokeman and no one can deny that, but it does look fun.
- Now to get to doing what I do best, complaining.
- Each role has a lot of rules that go into what makes playing them correctly.
- But more and more I see one simple thing from each role being done wrong.
- First up, tanks and their complete and total lack of common sense.
- If you do not turn mobs away from people and keep making the people have to run around you... you are a bad tank.
- You could have the best gear, you could have DS heroic on farm for 6 months, you can be avoidance capped, you can be beating DPS in the damage dealing department, you could be a god in tank gear, but if you can not turn mobs from hitting everyone, you are a bad tank.
- There is no defense to it. Oops I forgot is fine the first time, the second time is just you admitting you are a bad tank.
- It is amazing how many "good" tanks there are out there that flat out fail at it.
- Sure, when I heal or DPS I pick up on it and always move myself because I know the tank won't.
- But I should not have to, positioning the mobs is the tanks job.
- I can do it to cover for a mistake once in a while.
- But if it happens all the time, it is no longer a case of a mistake, it is a case of a bad tank.
- Now to healers and their apparent amnesia to the fact that they generate more AoE threat then any other class could ever imagine.
- So when adds pop out they will always go right to the only person generating any threat, the healer.
- And the healers forgot the basic mantra... run to the tank.
- Nope, run as far from the tank as humanly possible, even better if you can get out of taunt and healing range of the tank.
- Who the hell started to teach healers this?
- I've seen heroic raid geared healers getting aggro in randoms and hightailing it away from the tank.
- How the hell did you get your gear if you don't even know the basics?
- Positioning is not just for the tanks, good healers know how to position themselves as well.
- If adds spawn during the fight, you place yourself behind the tank as long as the mobs do not have a frontal cone attack, so the spawned adds need to run through the tank to get to you.
- If you stand any other place, you are a bad healer.
- I don't care if you can solo heal DW heroic, if you do not know how to position yourself, you are a bad healer.
- As I said, positioning is not just something tanks need to worry about.
- I can tell a good healer within three pulls in a random just by seeing where they position themselves.
- And now to the damage dealers and their obsession with DPS.
- Had a conversation with some guild mates about a member of our guild that used to tank and heal exclusively but has turned damage dealer this expansion.
- All of them had the same thing to say about him.
- They do not want to raid with him any more.
- He is obsessed with the meters that he ignores all mechanics.
- Need to jump to avoid something, nah, heal me through it I am doing damage.
- Need to run out for a mechanic, nah, I won't be able to DPS.
- His numbers are awesome, he pulls ranking numbers in low item level gear, so I am not saying he is not good but his obsession with numbers makes him a liability.
- I use him for normals but I can't for heroics.
- Tried to bring him in on a heroic DS run and we wiped 5 times on morchok because he would not use feint as the designated soaker, as he said it would lower his DPS.
- I don't care if it will lower your damage dealt, if we wipe you are wasting everyone's time and your DPS during a wipe might as well be zero because that is what it really means.
- In a wipe, everyone counts as having done nothing.
- I had to say it over and over, it is not a DPS race.
- Being in the position you need to be is more important than damage, the soaker using their cool downs is more important, heck, from a DPS standpoint, your damage dealt in that fight is the least important thing.
- You can down that boss with everyone doing 20K DPS, it does not matter at all on that fight. You don't need to do 50K, you need to do the mechanics right.
- I hate when damage dealers get the idea that their worth is only judged by the damage they do.
- Ask any raid leader worth their salt and they will tell you that doing the mechanics is the most important factor. Doing them while doing high damage is second. Nothing there says ignore them does it?
- If you place your damage done above all else, you are a bad damage dealer.
- Three very basic rules, three things I see people breaking all the time.
- How can it be that instead of players getting better they keep getting worse.
- I swear it is all the me, me, me, generation.
- Tanks do not care if they have fire breathing mobs facing everyone, it is not their problem. You move.
- Healers do not care if they grab aggro from healing because if the tank does not get the adds off them they are a bad tank. Even if the healer is nowhere in range of a tank.
- Damage dealers that won't follow mechanics because they are too good for that. And it would hurt their leet DPS.
- Go run some randoms and I bet every single run you go into you will see one of these people.
- Are people really getting worse at the game or am I just becoming more grumpy the longer I play?
- Maybe it is both.
- I might just quit the dungeon and raid scene and just do pet battles only.
- Seems nice and simple and and I would not need to deal with anyone else.
- It just dismays me to see all these people forget the basic rules of their role.
- Have a great day.
Back to More Warcraft
14 minutes ago
Instead of "roll" you should use "role."
ReplyDelete#corrections
Did it twice too. Fixed, thanks.
DeleteFrom what I understand Pet Battles include things like Levelling your Pet and Rare Pets, so I'm pretty sure that Levelling will be nerfed and Drop rates will be increased, as no Pet should be left behind (in the world and in Levelling). After all, it would be unfair if those who spend more time and more effort in general get to see all the Pet Battle content and those who rather watch TV instead would not. MMORPG's are meant to be finished nowadays, so having content left ungraced by one's presence is an abomination unto the Lord.
ReplyDeleteToo grumpy ;)?
As far as the Bad Tanks etc. go: it's the same with BG's, plenty of people who should know better never being in the right spot at the right time (as Shift + M + working brain is Hard Work nowadays) spamming how they top DPS and HK's etc.
I think it has to do with something Tobold wrote (can't find the link atm): with Cataclysm, WoW culminated in its current design philosophy of focussing on the Achiever and Killer types of players (alienating the Explorer-borked levelling and Socialiser-cross server LF tools types).
However, esp. since 4.3 (LFR, nerfs, Real ID full-Raid premades in regular BG's etc.) the 'true' Achiever arch-type sees their content getting borked as well, and basically only the Killer type (and inept Achievers) are being catered to.
It also doesn't help that the levelling Dungeons have been nerfed, Patrols have either been removed or made less frequent, and I can't shake the feeling that a lot of mob packs have been removed (I Tanked for example SM more often than the Geneva Conventions probably allow during WotLK and I remember it being a much more alive place). As those (imo) were the encounters that really teach you to Tank etc. , I don't see how removing them has helped the situation.
But of course we both know that it is essential to get as many people at cap ASAP as possible, and preparing them better for end-cap content would be unfair and simply not fun
Those Pets won't Battle on their own, you know.
It does really seems like they have completely removed anything that might have taught people in favor of just letting people get to the end and they can learn then. Problem is, they never learn then either.
Delete"Are people really getting worse at the game or am I just becoming more grumpy the longer I play?"
ReplyDeleteIt's very rare that I decide to heal or dps on an alt and I don't think I've noticed tanks turning mobs. Since I'm in the wrath bracket with my one and only dps, I have a couple of examples: the fire breathing dragons in UK, the poison spitting abominations in Drak'Tharon. Not one tank has bothered to turn them. When I tank I turn mobs even when they don't do any special attacks so the melee don't have to run around me to hit them, I don't really understand why tanks fail to care about their group.
But you know what really bothers me, people's lack of awareness. I tank them mobs, I move them 10 yards back, there's a patrol coming. Ranged, you see me move, move with me. I have to move 40 yards away so the ranged is out of range, otherwise they never move. Never. So yeah, maybe positioning is my job as a tank but but man sometimes it gets to me how the rest of the group is so oblivious.
And here's an example of the fight that illustrates everything you described. Manaroth. You know, that should be such an easy positioning fight. Let me stay next to the boss and the healer + dps on my right so anything coming from the portal gets caught into my cleaves... but no... you have your one ranged in the back that body aggros some mobs, your one melee next to the portal who decides to maybe cleave the mobs a bit too as soon as they spawn before getting back to the boss, your healer still in the back running as far as possible. And in the end, as a tank you get stuck to the portal because, well, it's hell trying to dps the boss *and* pull mobs of spread targets. Just stick to the portal... I have only found what, two healers capable of understanding to sit behind me there and no dpses capable of understanding body aggro, positioning in relation to the tank or anything of the like. Sure, it's an easy heroic, but I just wish I could hit the boss too. So yeah, that's basically 2% of the random people I've met caring about anything other than their basic role of dps-ing or healing.
If people are getting worse? I can't say, I haven't been playing all that long, 3 years, but it's always been like this for me. It's just that it gets to you at one point. As a tank, being grumpy and criticizing anything that moves comes with the job. I can't speak for the rest of the roles...
That fight is the perfect example. You are right.
DeleteI hate tanking it and the healer stands off to one side, the shadow priest giving off his minor AoE heals on another side, one melee trying to boost DPS by cleaving adds too, etc.
I have to end up tanking on the ports because it is impossible to pick up everyone.
When I go with guild I say, I am going to stand on his left foot, everyone behind me. Tada, super easy fight, I never lost one add, no one takes any damage and if I am on my warrior, we do not even need a healer, so the healer can DPS as well. Vicroy rush for the win.
How F'N hard is that?
It is an easy fight, super easy fight, but with the people playing this game that fight is harder than rag sometimes.
It is as if no one really truly understands how the game is supposed to be played.
The dps thing is an interesting one. They do seem to be a lot worse than healers (don't think tanks can compare in the same way). You don't tend to get healers over healing for example to try and get top of the meters.
ReplyDeleteI can understand that for dps it is important to see meters. It shows how well you are doing, whether you have improved. But people pushing their dps despite mechanics is just wrong. I do really hate that.
Here is a good one for you, did Heroic Firelands the other day (for achies). We were doing Shannox, so everyone on the boss and ignore the dogs except for that one person to break his berserk attack.
Now I should say I am a hunter, I pride myself on doing my best. Although I don't really care if I come bottom of the charts as long as I helped with the kill.
I was running third on this boss. Which is fine, I actually kind of like someone giving me a run for my money as it were. A challenge is always nice.
It was then I noticed that the Moonkin and Shadow priest were multi-dotting the two dogs to improve their dps. I couldn't believe it really. Was dps that important to them?
I guess it was. Nevermind, I got the achies I wanted. Amusing thing is, that Moonkin was 407 equipped and had 8/8 Heroic in DS. Guess they just like being on top no matter what.
Goes to show you that just because someone is 8/8 heroic it doesn't mean they are a good player.
DeleteSure, he might be good enough to do the fights and get the job done but I am of the solid belief that if DPS is the most important thing to you, you are not a good player.
Just because someone has done good, doesn't mean they are good.
I've seen some fantastic players that don't ever raid and I've seen many 8/8 heroic players I would not even invite to a normal.
Ah, but tanks do compare.
ReplyDeleteThere are dps-obsessed tanks. Guild has a druid tank, ranks every fight. But I heard he stays with his back at the little adds on hc Spine so he can dps the tendon better.
And, as much as I'm risking getting called a bad player, I like to output as much dps as possible as well. I've had this talk with my offtank, him trying to convince me that my dps is not important and therefore I shouldn't care about it. But this is a pride thing. Hold aggro, check, use block-capped gear, check, use cooldowns and see that I survive, check, use cooldowns on the rest of the team, check. And after that is done - try to rank. Sure, I could make the healer's life easier a bit by, say, sitting on my holy power and using it for WoG instead of hittin ShoR or use Seal of Insght instead of Truth, but the difference is so small, I hardly think they'd notice. Besides, the sooner the fight ends, the less damage I take.
Whether dpses, tanks or healers you'll always find people trying to rank higher. And some of them take pride in excelling at a role that isn't theirs (like healers dps). It's human nature. Best example this expansion for our team would be Spellweave on HC Madness... useless aoe ftw, look at me, how I'm breaking 80k dps...
Anyway, trying to be top even through gimmicks does not make you a bad player. That moonkin was there on a fun / achi run so he wasn't letting the team down. Now if he was doing something silly on a progression fight, ignoring mechanics or whatever just to rank higher on dps charts that would've meant he's bad. Otherwise, no.
Tanks trying to put out as much DPS is the next step. After they have mastered the "tank" job, you step up your game. I do that on my tanks as well. First take care of my job, then see how much DPS I can put out will still doing my job to the best of my ability.
DeleteThe boomkin is really a different story as he was not "needed" to focus on one thing, but I look at it this way, the same way I look at people not following mechanics in LFR.
If you can not do the right thing in simple content, I do not trust you to do the right thing in hard content.
Simple as that.
It is not bad to try to top the charts, but it is bad to try to top the charts when it effects other people adversely. Or could wipe the group, all because your numbers matter to you more than mechanics do. That is what makes someone bad, not the fact they do it, the fact that they matter to themselves more than the team.
Like if you were so concerned with your DPS while tanking that you did not use your shield wall when you needed to "because it would hurt your DPS", you are a bad player. But if you did everything your job said to do, and still pulled 18K as a tank, great job.
I've been working my ass off to get over 20K on my tank on a non gimmick fight. I would not call me a good tank, but I am surely not a bad one. I do my job first, and DPS second. 19600 is my max on ultra, I'll break 20K one day. If I tanked more I would probably be able to do it, having only a 390 item level on that char does not help. But I do my job first, DPS second.
I'm inclined to blame Blizzard for the "DPS or die" mentality - almost every problem in a Cataclysm encounter could be solved with more damage, while hybrid utility was gutted across the board.
ReplyDeleteNot sure why but your posts often end up in spam and I have to go retrieve them.
DeleteWish this would tell me there was something there to go get, but at least I have now gotten into the habit of looking. Seems you and two other posters end up there a lot for some reason.
OT: I said this early in the expansion. DPS went from being the "dime a dozen" thing to DPS being the absolute most important thing in any encounter. You used to be able to do anything with decent DPS, now you need actually good DPS to do everything.
In a way I am torn on that. I love the idea that DPS get to shine but I hate that is seems like 90% of the player base has no clue how to DPS.