I'm Working on my Backhand

Puggers will sometimes make a comment that throws you for a loop.

This morning, I was fishing in the Dalaran Pool, having a beer with Marcia Chase, waiting for the LFD tool to do its work.  Dal was about as peaceful as it was going to get, given that it was 5 in the morning; there were only a few shouts here and there from people asking for alchemy work, and I'd turned off Trade Chat a long time ago.  (Yes, Cassandri, I know I'm a bad man for doing that.)

Suddenly the LFD screen spat out that it was ready, about 5 minutes early.  I quickly vendored the flotsam I'd accumulated, reset my Seal of Command and Blessing of Might, cleared my screen of junk, made sure I was out of Crusader Aura, and ported in.

Utgarde Pinnacle was the destination.  I surveyed my puggees, and discovered that three of them were from the same guild from another server.  Sometimes that's good, sometimes not, but I shrugged, dispensed Blessings, and got ready for the fight.  The tank asked if anyone needed any achievements, which I thought was a nice touch.  He still intended to engage all the bosses --he needed Emblems-- but he said that this will be a quick run without any achievements required.

We started down that initial hallway and made it to the outer passage before I realized something was wrong.  The Judgements were simply not showing up.  I grumbled, thinking that I'd missed the Seal of Command, but sure enough it was there.  Then what...

Oh crap.  I was still equipped with a fishing rod.

I corrected that in mid-pull, and apologized to the group.  "That's good to know," the tank replied, "as I was doing more DPS than you.  For a minute there I was thinking we'd picked up a fail DPS."

If a toon could flush, Quint would have done it, but I kept my mouth shut.  It was my mistake, so I deserved the ribbing I got.

The rest of the pug went well enough, and I got my DPS into it's usual mid-3000 range for UP.  The guildies in the group kidded back and forth with each other, so this felt like a comfortable enough run.  Ymrion was dispatched, and the guildies asked if I was interested in a Pit of Saron run.

"Hey, any chance to see if that hilt will drop is fine with me."

"I'm convinced it's a myth," the tank said.

We ported in to PoS, and the run went fairly well --except for the unhappy convergence of two drakes and another group of trash at the same time, that is.  Sometime right before Ick and Crick, the tank said, "You know, Q, you're a pretty decent guy given the server you're from."

I knew our Trade Chat was bad, but I was surprised.  "A-52's supposed rep again?" I asked.

"Oh, it's not supposed.  Just about every pugger from that server has been a dick."  He then described in detail several escapades where A-52 people behaved like complete jerks in pugs.

I realize he meant it as a compliment, especially when after we finished PoS and I had to leave, he had some genuinely nice parting words.  However, the implied sound of "well, at least you're not a dick" bothered me.  Talk about your backhanded compliments.

For all of those people who say "it doesn't matter, you'll never see this person again," as an excuse when you behave badly in a pug, well here's a newsflash:  people remember you.  People remember the server you're from, or the guild you're part of, and they'll associate that bad behavior with everyone else from that server/guild.  Given the number of bad experiences that the tank and his guildmates had with A-52 puggers, it's a miracle I wasn't booted at earliest opportunity.  Why waste time when most of the people you run into from A-52 are jerks?

Now, that said, have you gotten any backhanded compliments in the game?  Been stereotyped in one way or another?  How did you break the mold?  Maybe the question should be 'Did you break the mold?'  Did you do something unexpected?