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!
In my last comment, I forgot to mention my favourite type of dpser when I’m tanking: The person who decides that the dungeon is too easy and orders you to pull more at once. I like to take it easy and only pull one mob (or group of mobs) and slowly work my way through the instance.
Usually the ‘expert’ takes matters into their own hands and leaves our group’s current fight to start the next one on his own. sigh.
It’s funny (but sad), as this same thing happened to me just a couple days ago. I’m new to WoW (finding ways to kill the time while EQ2 is offline), but joined a friend’s guild of experienced raiders. We did one of the lower-level dungeons, and picked up 2 people via dungeon finder. The healer was played by someone who normally tanks, and the tank was played by someone who normally casts (both know their main class quite well). I was playing a scout, completely new to the game, and unfamiliar with the zone(s). We picked up a pair of folks that were not only impatient, but rude as well. We hit a couple tough fights, and took a few moments to rest afterwards and regain mana and such, and they demanded we push on. Somewhat happy they decided to /ragequit, so we could find a couple of nice folks that were happy to help us finish up the dungeon.
I’ve had some less-than-perfect PUGs in EQ2, but never anything that straight-up disrespectful. When is EQ2 coming back online? *sighs*
I see this on my 76 dk all the time and it’s nearly always hunters what is it with that class lol
I’ve run into this same problem in just about every MMO I’ve played. Guild groups are usually fine, but in groups that involve strangers, there always seems to be one or two that just seem to need to rush through everything, get impatient when things are “too slow” for them, and constantly whine about needing more challenge when they’re not constantly on the move. It’s exhausting to deal with these kinds of players, and makes for a pretty unpleasant grouping experience even if the overall goal is met. They’re usually also the type to get bored and just randomly drop out of the group at any given time when it seems like something they feel they like better comes along.
I don’t think the plan you came up with is cruel at all.
I’m glad you are taking on tanking. I meant to post something to an earlier post but didn’t get around to it.
I’ve been tanking off and on in WoW and I understand where you are coming from. I used to get mad at pullers, but now I’ve learned my class a bit better I don’t mind not getting in any proper practice in lower level dungeons. Sometimes I even try my best to rescue everyone and pull all the aggro I can back to me. I see this as practice for later on when a tough dungeon run goes wrong. It’s nice to know that I can go from zero rage and no aggro and still be able to rescue my team mates. It doesn’t always go this way but you can’t have everything.
Hang in there. If you are a prot warrior, it gets easier as you level up to keep the aggro.
“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.”
Great minds think alike! I’d do em one better: while they’re invovled in their own thing, everyone ELSE take off ahead and leave em there XD