Friday, July 23, 2010

So you're minding your own...

...and you suddenly get smacked in the face. 

Do you:

A) Dust yourself off, apologize for being hit, and ask for another

B) Act like nothing happened, as this occurs a lot

C) Try to maintain some civility while letting the person know their behavior is not acceptable

Well this happened to me more or less. But before I get too deeply into the post, I want to explain a few things. 

First off, I have three level 80 tanks, and have experienced current (at the time- my pally only did Nax and EOE) "end game" content with each one.  I have a fairly damn good idea of how to tank.  Secondly, I hate hate hate hate the Halls of Reflection.  Some sort of swear word literally escapes my lips IRL when that dungeon pops.  Most of the time I will leave group immediately instead of waiting around to see if it's a fail (as you will see why in this post) and it's not becuase I doubt my ability to actually tank it. I don't care to rack up a repair bill for a dungeon where the only thing I need is two frost badges and my level of faith in the average LFD random guy is not that great. 

Also, I use tidy plates addon with the threat plates theme.  This turns name plates into a threat meter, and I can see if I have aggro on a target (name plate is small and green) or if I need to get a taunt in on something (large red name plate).  This gives me a very very good idea of what's going on and if I need to get some hits in on something at range.  And lastly, there's a guild member who just joined recently and could really use some loot out of there in the group with me.

So here we are... in the LFD que quickly followed up by the HOR loading screen.  #($*&#)(@#.
Group makeup: Warrior tank (me), Warlock (guild mate), Hunter, DK, Druid healer.

The events start and the group immediately heads for the corner.  I tell them I'm not going to be doing the corner, and to come back to the door.

Everything is going OK on the first few waves of trash.  I had to blow shield wall and last stand at one point because I was getting no heals.  On the first boss, everybody dies, but the boss manages to drop as well.  So the group runs back in, gets loot nobody needs and starts up for round two.  Two waves towards the second boss I just drop from lack of heals.

Chat legend:
Green = guild member
Black = Me
Grey = Pug
Demonikal = Fuckin retard DK
Silfactor = mouthy druid
(I'm not going to black their names out, because if they want to be internet tough guys they can deal with having their names posted)

So everybody runs back in and the group chat looks like this:
It's a fact.  I can't tank when I'm dead.  Yep.  So the group continues past the second boss.  I try to pull the giant out of the hallway to avoid getting the extra adds, not that they're a big deal, it just takes longer.  Halfway down the hall the DK charges in and pulls aggro.  /shrug  Ok... whatever.  The DK then says "lol fail tank" 

And at that point I had had enough - it was a combination of a bad day at work, not wanting to even be in HOR, and retarded dps that can't even assist a tank.
So I'm tired of the whole childish "lol fail tank" crap when t he healer is the one having troubles and I get called names?  I'm so glad I'm stuck in the dungeon with you guys.  (Also I find it very funny the guy was playing a female character in a fantasy game and was so quick to toss out that derogatory comment.)

Five minutes later:
Haha!  Asshat DK got kicked.  Feeling a tad guilty for making the rest of the group I said I was sorry, and immediately regretted it.  In fact, I wasn't sorry.  I wasted 5 minutes of your time.  Deal with it.  So I get called an "inconsiderate fuck" for actually choosing option C above.  What the hell?  What does it matter?  It matters because I don't have to put up with bullshit, and I chose to take a stand.  Grow a pair and stick up for yourself, man!

I'd rather have time to charge mobs and have a lot of space to work with as opposed to having mobs come around the corner when my thunderclap and shockwave are on cooldown and instagibbing a party member.  And most importantly, I'm the tank.  You follow me.  That's just how it works.

So we're on the last icewall before the dungeon is over, and the red pug actually says something intelligent!  The funnies thing, however, is the DK who was kicked from the group was bothered enough by the kick that he actually made a character on my server just to talk some more smack.  And he had the cleverness to name it (MyCharacterName)isgay. 
Rest assured, Demonikal, I never doubted your ability to display what a gem of a person you truly are!  Just slap a sticker on your helmet that proudly proclaims how special you are, and keep jumping in the LFD.  I'm sure you'll find more people willing to tolerate your bullshit.

And I'm still boggled by Silfactor's attitude.  Just because it's a random person you probably won't spend time with ever again does not mean you have to tolerate behavior like that.  I can't believe you're willing to just more or less whore yourself out to the LFD.  It doesn't matter how it treats you, it will be over soon and then you can go about your business, right?

After that dungeon run, I was in a rather foul mood.  It's a good thing my arena teammate was on and looking to do some matches.  It was a nice stress relief.  Who knew arenas could be less stressful than dungeons? lol.

Between matches, I received a whisper that made my night though.  I guess we stomped his team at some point.


So you want to know why tanks freak out now and again?  Here's your answer: retarded DKs and mouthy druids.

3 comments:

  1. Dude. Good job standing up for yourself. Rule #1 is never screw with the tank, and apparently some people haven't figured that one out.

    I saw the list of characters in the pug, and immediately thought "DK DPS is going to be the idiot."

    I'm still shocked by the Druid Tree's reaction. I mean, HoR is custom made for an AoE type of healer, so what's the big deal if you don't go into the corner? You do what the tank says so you don't die. And the no healing stuff? WTH was he thinking? That he was going to teach you a lesson for not going to the corner?

    Having done HoR enough times, I know that Warriors can have trouble with aggro in the corner; it's too close in and there's always some clown or two who can't wait for the tank to get a good lock on all of the trash because the trash moves so slowly. If the tank wants to do something different, you don't argue.

    Short example: I've done HoL a boatload of times now, and just about every time I slide off to the right hand side of Loken while the tank grabs aggro. I like being able to see the direction the tank is taking him before I close, and once in a great while someone accidentally pulls one of the last pieces of trash into the fight. This last time as I was moving to my right, the tank said "line up behind me". So I did. No arguments.

    The Druid's concept of "it doesn't matter, you'll never see him again" is complete bullshit. I've done enough pugs at 5 AM to tell you that I've gotten used to seeing a group of regulars in pugs. There was one morning where I had the same player with two different toons on successive runs. I also had the pleasure of having Sorrolyn as my healer in back-to-back pugs, and we weren't queued together either. (If you read the forums, you'll probably recognize her name.)

    If that alone doesn't give "it doesn't matter" pause to consider his actions, then the Golden Rule won't sink in either.

    And Mr. Stalker? Real brilliant, dude. You're just asking for your account to be suspended with that behavior. Actions have consequences, man.

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  2. This is why I don't want to tank.

    I'm glad you stood up for yourself - I guess I'm chicken enough that usually if a group is SO horrible, I'll just drop the group and let them wait for another healer. And unless the tank is a fantastic ass, I have no problem backing him up with strategy and pace.

    And clearly we know the calibre of asshole the DK was based on party dickery AND a character rolled just to say shitty things after he was kicked. Nice :/

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  3. wow... just wow

    From your story, I gather the tree druid is just as much of a *%#@ up as the DK, which is why he didn't care about the DK's behavior. And the follow up from that guy was just uncalled for... he must be a gem IRL (said with overwhelming sarcasm). If someone sent me a whisper like that, I would definitely report it to Blizzard for abuse, harassment, and offensive language directed at me.

    @ the 'Out in the Open' method
    Definitely the best method for warrior tanks! And as a healer, I much prefer this method to hiding. When you hide around the damn corner, the mobs and the group are all bunched up in the same place, meaning all AoE hits everyone in the group, not to mention the silences and traps that make it impossible to heal. When you fight out in the open, the healer is protected from these mechanics, and the tank can easily see when something is on a member of the group (no screams necessary).

    I know how much having these experiences sucks. Even though you know this person is an idiot and not worth you getting worked up about, you just can't help it. But I've found that having an awesome guild is the thing that always gets me through it, and prevents me from having horrible a horrible WoW day. I could not imagine being in that world alone...

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