The Art of Patience #WoW #WorldofWarcraft
stargrace 
My guild may be incredibly small with only three active members, but we’ve not let that hold us back (so far). We’ve been doing our weekly guild runs to gain some experience and obtain the achievements. Thankfully we only need 3/5 group mates to be guild mates in order for it to count. For some reason earlier this week I had thought we needed 4/5 which we simply don’t have. Blizzards new guild level system is not very ‘small casual guild’ friendly, and encourages guilds to gain as many members as they possibly can in order to reach the achievements and weekly goals that they implemented. I know we’ll get there (“there” being anywhere above level 1 in this case) eventually, and it’s mostly due to our class levels (we’re currently 20-40 for the most part) that restricts how much guild experience we gain. I wish Blizzard took into consideration the number of accounts in a guild rather then assuming or encouraging everyone to belong to a giant one.
In that respect I am learning patience. Another area where patience has become a sore spot is in dungeons, specifically when I am tanking them. My number one issue at this level (currently 25) is that no one has patience to let me actually pull. Even if we’re moving at a steady pace, the hunter or the shaman or the mage frequently decide that they’re the tank and they will pull for me. Kind of them to take this upon themselves, but annoying for me, as I learn to tank. I’ve spoken up about this a few times and every single time it’s been met with “this is a lowbie dungeon, stop QQ’ing” – when I’m simply trying to learn how to play my class properly, as it’s the first time I’ve tanked. I’ve done the dungeons countless times just like everyone else, but playing a tank is a different dynamic, and I don’t like to feel as though I must rush my way through. Keep in mind I’m also not moving at a snails pace, it’s pretty steady.
Since I do play in a guild group we’ve come to a decision about these ‘helpful’ pullers. If they do it once no big deal, but once I ask them to stop if they refuse then I refuse to tank, because they obviously wish to tank more than I do. The healer refuses to heal, because they can obviously handle the entire zone on their own, and the mage refuses to dps. It might seem like I am being unnecessarily cruel – after all, it IS just a lower level dungeon. But I firmly believe that there’s no excuse for a lack of respect towards other players and it doesn’t matter WHAT level the dungeon is. Let the tank do their job, let the healer do their job, and let the dps do theirs. It may be a dungeon that everyone has done countless times but that doesn’t mean that everyone has played that particular role countless times and I think it’s important that we allow players to ‘discover’ themselves and their role as they level up.
In higher level dungeons I rarely have such problems. As an example myself playing my discipline priest and Toargo (formerly the guild shaman) an 85 warrior queued up for a level 85 dungeon (non heroic). Everyone by that time knew their roles, and no one attempted to pull when they shouldn’t (unless it was by accident) and the dungeon went so smoothly that both myself and Toargo were complimented numerous times by the rest of the group for the healing and tanking abilities. It was a good feeling, especially since I constantly doubt my capabilities. Well, it’s not so much as I doubt my capabilities, but cataclysm is incredibly hard on my mana pool. I have a difficult time managing it, and have to drink after every fight in most cases. I keep hoping that eventually this problem balances out, but it hasn’t yet. I was debating switching to a holy spec last night to see if it was any easier on mana consumption (I’m currently sporting a discipline / shadow spec) but as of yet have not decided if that’s the rout I want to go or not.
In any case I really wish players had more patience. By the end of my tanking episodes yesterday my own patience was also pretty thin although it was said that I had far more patience for the groups shenanigans then most would have had. We (guild mates) decided to leave the dungeon part way through and move on to something a little less frustrating. It was the first time we left a dungeon like that, and not something I want to repeat that often.
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!