Putting the MM Back in MMORPG
Mar. 7th, 2010 09:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
perzephone
Rob & I haven't gotten into the 'Massive Multiplayer' aspect of WoW too much, mainly because Rob is a poor sport. He is extremely competitive and throws a lot of emotional investment into the outcomes of certain events. Like receiving loot, winning duels and surviving PvP battles. Want to watch a grown man instantly turn into a 7-year old retard having a melt-down? Beat Rob at PvP. He has thrown his keyboard and controller at the computer many, many times. He takes everything anyone says in trade chat personally. He can't handle friendly banter, let alone not-too-friendly banter. Nerd rage doesn't even cover it. Sooo, we've been a guild of 2 since our first days of WoW.
Usually, Rob or I would take a high-level character & run the other's lower level characters through the dungeons. It's been sort of stale for us because Rob's got mostly 80s and mine are either extremely low level (like a lvl 3 priest) or are teetering on the brink of being a high-level, where a solitary lvl 80 toon has trouble running a poorly geared lvl 70 through the lvl 70+ dungeons. Since the random dungeon finder came online, it's been an interesting new chapter in my WoW experience. I've been running instances in groups with other players with appropriate level toons for the dungeons in question.
I've been learning some things. I can't heal as a Resto Druid worth shit. This is partially due to my gear - Rob is a loot whore & will work at getting good gear, no matter how much honor or little rocks he needs to collect or whatever. Patches are the bane of his existence, because just when he finally builds his last set for his last toon, the next tier gear comes out & all his shit is obsolete. My toons wear whatever I pick up or make. They are always grievously under-geared. I can multi-task fabulously for healing but I can't juggle a stupid tank, clothies who stand in AoE range and DPSers who don't watch their own life bars - and manage my mana at the same time. As a poorly-geared Feral Druid, I can do fair to middling DPS and swap between off-tank or off-heal. As a poorly-geared Shaman, I can't do anything except resurrect people when we wipe.
Earlier, I was in a lower-level dungeon w/my poorly geared Shaman, who is now creeping up on lvl 69. The dungeon was for 60 - 65. The other 4 players in the party were 60 - 63. It was quite an illuminating experience.
1) Green clouds are bad. Do not stand in them. Two people died after we downed a boss because they stood in the green cloud.
2) If you are wearing cloth, be you a priest, mage or lock, do not stand where an enemy can hit you. You will die. Our priest kept dying & then saying, "WTF just happened?" - wasn't it obvious? You are a priest, you are in cloth, you are standing in the middle of the fight. You died.
3) If you are a clothie, do not stand within range of an enemy's AoE. You will die. Once again, our beloved priest got downed by a boss's AoE. Once again, he asked, "WTF just happened?" I told him, "He killed you - killed you with fire!!"
4) If a message comes across your screen that says something like, "Boss is charging his lazers" - back the fuck up or hide behind a pillar or something. Don't just stand there. You will most likely die.
5) If you are a tank, especially a level 63 tank in a group with others of similar or lower level, and some of them are caster-classes, please let them replenish their mana. I'm sure someone out there is mightily impressed with your 7-minute instance runs, but your casters are crying for mercy.
6) If you are a tank, do not pull everything in the goddamned room if your casters have no mana. You will die. They will die. We will all die. Everyone will die except the enemies. They will point and laugh, and probably tea-bag you.
7) "OOM" and "Mana" and "Out of Mana" and "Need Mana" all mean the same thing. Stop pulling enemies.
8) If your casters are replenishing their mana, do not run into the next room, around a corner, completely out of the line of sight, and pull every single enemy on your way into said corner. You will die and the enemies will come looking for the rest of us.
9) If you are a mage, hunter or another tanking class, let the main tank attack something first, unless they specifically ask you to pull an enemy. Once engaged in battle, attack what the main tank is attacking. Do not attack something from another group. Do not attack something from the same group & then run towards the healers, bringing the wrath of legions upon their poor manaless souls.
10) Accept responsibility for your actions. If you are a clothie & standing in the middle of a fight or within AoE range and die, do not blame the tank for not holding aggro. Get the Hell out of the way. Stand back - your spells are ranged for a reason. If you are a class notorious for out-aggroing tank classes, and you out-aggro the tank, don't lead the enemies to the healers - save them and feign death or ice block, and don't blame the tank if you didn't let them attack first or if you chose a target the tank was not attacking. If you are a tank, and you run around a corner pulling every enemy in the room and die alone, do not blame your healers or casters - they were getting their mana back.
11) And please, even if a group wipes, come back to the dungeon :)
Usually, Rob or I would take a high-level character & run the other's lower level characters through the dungeons. It's been sort of stale for us because Rob's got mostly 80s and mine are either extremely low level (like a lvl 3 priest) or are teetering on the brink of being a high-level, where a solitary lvl 80 toon has trouble running a poorly geared lvl 70 through the lvl 70+ dungeons. Since the random dungeon finder came online, it's been an interesting new chapter in my WoW experience. I've been running instances in groups with other players with appropriate level toons for the dungeons in question.
I've been learning some things. I can't heal as a Resto Druid worth shit. This is partially due to my gear - Rob is a loot whore & will work at getting good gear, no matter how much honor or little rocks he needs to collect or whatever. Patches are the bane of his existence, because just when he finally builds his last set for his last toon, the next tier gear comes out & all his shit is obsolete. My toons wear whatever I pick up or make. They are always grievously under-geared. I can multi-task fabulously for healing but I can't juggle a stupid tank, clothies who stand in AoE range and DPSers who don't watch their own life bars - and manage my mana at the same time. As a poorly-geared Feral Druid, I can do fair to middling DPS and swap between off-tank or off-heal. As a poorly-geared Shaman, I can't do anything except resurrect people when we wipe.
Earlier, I was in a lower-level dungeon w/my poorly geared Shaman, who is now creeping up on lvl 69. The dungeon was for 60 - 65. The other 4 players in the party were 60 - 63. It was quite an illuminating experience.
1) Green clouds are bad. Do not stand in them. Two people died after we downed a boss because they stood in the green cloud.
2) If you are wearing cloth, be you a priest, mage or lock, do not stand where an enemy can hit you. You will die. Our priest kept dying & then saying, "WTF just happened?" - wasn't it obvious? You are a priest, you are in cloth, you are standing in the middle of the fight. You died.
3) If you are a clothie, do not stand within range of an enemy's AoE. You will die. Once again, our beloved priest got downed by a boss's AoE. Once again, he asked, "WTF just happened?" I told him, "He killed you - killed you with fire!!"
4) If a message comes across your screen that says something like, "Boss is charging his lazers" - back the fuck up or hide behind a pillar or something. Don't just stand there. You will most likely die.
5) If you are a tank, especially a level 63 tank in a group with others of similar or lower level, and some of them are caster-classes, please let them replenish their mana. I'm sure someone out there is mightily impressed with your 7-minute instance runs, but your casters are crying for mercy.
6) If you are a tank, do not pull everything in the goddamned room if your casters have no mana. You will die. They will die. We will all die. Everyone will die except the enemies. They will point and laugh, and probably tea-bag you.
7) "OOM" and "Mana" and "Out of Mana" and "Need Mana" all mean the same thing. Stop pulling enemies.
8) If your casters are replenishing their mana, do not run into the next room, around a corner, completely out of the line of sight, and pull every single enemy on your way into said corner. You will die and the enemies will come looking for the rest of us.
9) If you are a mage, hunter or another tanking class, let the main tank attack something first, unless they specifically ask you to pull an enemy. Once engaged in battle, attack what the main tank is attacking. Do not attack something from another group. Do not attack something from the same group & then run towards the healers, bringing the wrath of legions upon their poor manaless souls.
10) Accept responsibility for your actions. If you are a clothie & standing in the middle of a fight or within AoE range and die, do not blame the tank for not holding aggro. Get the Hell out of the way. Stand back - your spells are ranged for a reason. If you are a class notorious for out-aggroing tank classes, and you out-aggro the tank, don't lead the enemies to the healers - save them and feign death or ice block, and don't blame the tank if you didn't let them attack first or if you chose a target the tank was not attacking. If you are a tank, and you run around a corner pulling every enemy in the room and die alone, do not blame your healers or casters - they were getting their mana back.
11) And please, even if a group wipes, come back to the dungeon :)
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no subject
Date: 2010-03-08 09:24 am (UTC)It's All Fun & Games
Date: 2010-03-08 03:07 pm (UTC)Plus, the random dungeon finder is cross-realm, so if I screw up really bad, no one can tell me off or follow me around giving me grief for days :D