Friday, October 22, 2010

"Big mistake. Big. HUGE"

Some posts I make inform, some are interesting, some are a little boring, some are filled with pictures, some are filled with discussion. Well, this one is going to be full of, erm, my opinion and I am not going to hold back whilst expressing it. I will give one concession and not name names, coz you’ll know if this is about you. Why? Well, I have no problem if someone wishes not to not put in 100% commitment when playing their toon. I don’t all the time. I have no problem with someone who has real life issues and therefore attention and commitment wain during a raid, but I have no time for folks who do not even try. Not even a little bit. Especially and in this case, mainly when that fail makes me look bad too. Then I DO have a problem. You don’t want me to have a problem started by you. As Julia Roberts told that toffee nosed shop assistant in Pretty Woman, “Big mistake. Big. HUGE”.

Ok, let us start from right there, at the beginning. No, not THE beginning. I won’t be discussing Big Bang Theories, unless it’s about what I’d like to do to some folks computer so they do not have a chance to brush acquaintance with me again. Anyhow, the start. I play a class that is typically thought of in a negative manner. As such I already have an uphill battle to show to the rest of my raid colleagues that I am not a douche and do actually bring something to the raid force. In my case it’s usually the ‘oh shit’ moments like memwipes and grabbing the mob before he heads off to more squishier waters. It is concerning this role (one that I take very seriously I might add) that I wish to discuss today.

For me to do the job 100% effectively as an off tank, being already handicapped with Leather Armour (although I have bumped it up to the level of Chain effectiveness through AAs) I need some good support in my group. Typically that’s some good hate transfer, some juice vendor to make sure I don’t run out of the good blue stuff and a healer that is not asleep and knows where their cure buttons are. ALL of those are not essential though. Last night I had absolutely no hate transfer and no dirgey support. Yet I still managed to grab aggro pretty quickly during mob rampages. Now, this is where the problem begins. With me actually grabbing the mob off the main raid force.

“But, but...!” I hear you cry, “surely that is what is supposed to happen”, you may exclaim. And you’d be right. What is not supposed to happen though to your off tank (admittedly a leather wearer) is for them to die almost immediately. Especially when they had just under 30k avoidance (I’m not getting into the uncontested/contested issues here), about 27k Hit Points, a defensive stance that cancels out all strikethrough and not great, but decent resists well within the parameters of survival. It’s just not supposed to happen. Oh, if the healer is doing their job that is. And by doing their job I mean keeping me up and in good health, not painting nails, watching tv, plucking their eyebrows, reading Sports Weekly, or investigating the smell coming from the dog. No, by their job I mean keeping the off tank up, so they can keep the mobs off the raid. For me to do my job, you have to do yours. Ok? gottit.

It’s at this point I need to address some issues. Our other healers in the raid force, this is NOT addressed at you, most definitely not. You all have your own jobs and were very very busy with those. It should not be for the mage group healer or indeed some of the MTs healers to be watching my health and detrimentals. Strangely enough though, it is the job of the healers in my group. Oh yeah. You read that right. HealerS. Plural. Two. Dos. Zwei. Deux. Dva. Yes, two.

It all came to a head for me when I started taking serious note of what was happening and who was doing what in a bid to assess the issue. It was important to me to find out the issue so my raid colleagues did not think I was slacking or on a jolly. Well, the fight I started actively seeking reasons in, gave me the evidence I needed very quickly. For the whole duration of that fight, now bearing in mind we had two healers in group, the only time my detrimentals were cured, was when I used my cure potions. The only times, the WHOLE fight, against a named. The only time I was healed, was when I used my self heal or my duoheal / regen / immunity skill. Actually, I tell a lie. I noticed some heals popping in from three of our other raids healers (thanks guys!), who by the way had really important jobs of their own and should have been able to concentrate on those in the knowledge this little job would be taken care of. There was a knock on effect to this too.

This meant that because I was dying every time I grabbed aggro, when I was ressed (always by Star or Derr, or Ema or Arbor or Irja or Syn..strangely only once by one of the healers in my group..during the whole night) then I was way back at zero on the hate metre. Having to climb back up that meter against dps’ers who are doing 30 to 40k dps, each. Well it’s almost impossible. But sometimes I would manage it using all my skills available I can hop 4 hate positions up the list, then another 5, then another 6 and if I’m lucky, it will put me near enough the top to hope my dps pulls me the rest of the way. I don’t have that issue if I don’t die. My hate position always hovers around 70 to 85% when I manufacture it that way (and I live!), then I’m just below the level ready to grab aggro without doubt when I need. 70% to 100% is nowhere near as big a jump as having to clamber your way back up to 100% hate from zero. When I keep my hate in those parameters I will always grab hate when I use one of my snap tools.

OK, so we have had the evidence stage and now we have to move on to the reasoning. Now I may need some help here and Jahf will know what I mean because we have discussed this type of thing many times. I cannot find any reasons! I just cannot get my head round it. I cannot think what the reasons would be to subscribe to a game then just sit back and watch it. It’s interactive FFS. It is not Fox News. You don’t just sit there and soak up, spongelike the pretty colours on screen. You actually have to do something. If the Off tank of a raid starts monitoring what he is getting during a battle and the results state that the healers in that group, to the off tanks point of view, did nothing, then that's a message right there. Absolutely nothing that benefitted me that I could see or feel the benefit of. I have still to check ACT, but it does not bode well so far.

This brings me on to another question. Again, one I have discussed a few times with Jahfster. How on earth (or mebbe I should say, How on Norrath?) does someone level a toon through 90 levels and not know how to heal or cure at the right times? How does that happen? Ok, perhaps ‘not knowing’ is incorrect, but ‘not doing’ is spot on. How does that happen? I was under the impression most healers got their first heal spell by the time they are level 5, their cures very shortly after that. At the most that’s 80 levels of practice you should have had. It’s beggars belief. I simply cannot get my head round that. Now if ye wish to play like that, it’s not my concern. Fill ye boots, have fun. You pay your subscription and no one else should tell you how to play. Until it starts to effect other people that is.

Especially on a raid. There were 20 other people affected by this last night, not just me. Real people, with busy lives (some of them *grin*). It is not fair to think that that it is ok to not work at all at what you are doing when other peoples time is invested. That’s just selfish. But more importantly, it makes me look bad. I don’t like that. Not at all. I’m actually doing my regular raid colleagues a bit of a disservice there. They are intelligent and experienced and will probably have guessed what was happening.

If you were one of my healers and are reading this, I hope you take it as a reason to look further at your commitment to your toon and take it on the chin, no hard feelings. IF you wish to continue raiding that is. I say this because it is something that is required by a raider, with any raid force, not just ours. Effort and commitment. Effort to turn up on time, to turn the TV off, to tell the wife/husband/partner that snuggly cuddles will have to wait until later. I mean I have an extremely busy real life. If I couldn’t put in the time or commitment to raid, to learn my toon as best I can and to perform as best I can, I wouldn’t have signed up for that raid. Commitment to your fellow raiders and learning your toon and what is required in a raid force. Simply, the same that everyone else puts in. In addition, if you were not experienced to raiding and this is the cited reason, I refer you to the 9th paragraph. You have had about 80 levels to perfect healing and curing, two of your main roles and it does not take much effort to try and do that. Like I said, I have no issue with how you play. You pay the subs, so have at it, but when it affects me and my raid force and has the propensity to make me look bad, please try a little harder.

OK, /rant off. Normal niceties return and all is calm.

Oh, and I know I have said in the past that I dislike moaners. Well, I may preach but I’m not perfect by any means. Just ask the wife, she knows!

Be well.

6 comments:

  1. Damn eloquent post Volt & I want to copy it & pin it on all forums relating in ANY way to EQ2!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks mate. I bet any person who has played EQ2 seriously at any stage has experienced something like this. Cheers Bro.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It seems so weird that you have two healers and neither heal or cure you at all! Would be interested in what excuse they offered up.

    I wouldn't worry mate, I'm sure your raid group knew what had happened.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Aye, they know their shiznit mate. They would have sussed it out. No excuses offered. When I called the 'incident' out in raid chat and told them I had cured and healed myself thru a whole fight, one of the 'healers' quit the raid...

    ReplyDelete
  5. I can tell that one of them (that came for the first and last time) is really not someone I would trust healing me even in an easy instance. Just seeing his/her name in a JET raid signup makes me go "please, dont put h/er in mage group, NOT mage group!".

    You know that we know your worth, so don't be too worried about last Thursday :) No one would hold it against you, mostly as we probably all know you got a very bad healer combo there.

    As for curing, it boggles me that many healers I encounter just dont bother with cures. At all. I can't understand what excuse they might have. Perhaps they think they're DPS machines and just ignore the cures so they can squeeze in a ridiculous amount of extra damage?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks Mynna :) It's nice to know stuff like that is recognised by the raid. Cheers for your kind words ;)
    I have NEVER been able to get my head round not curing. When some detrimentals kill you with 2 ticks it's a no brainer. Especially seeing as cures have been of massive focus now for the last two expansions and have become a 'must do'. It's not as if it's an usual thing to request! hehe, og well.

    As ever thanks for stopping by for a read!

    ReplyDelete