Breakfast Topic: Acts of kindness
by Jennie Lees 
Apr 27th 2006 at 9:55AM
Sometimes encounters in WoW leave me with a deep loathing for the entire human race, but other times I'm left with a
warm fuzzy feeling towards fellow homines sapientes. Fly-by buffs are still fun to give out and to receive --
I would be lying if I said I didn't buff fellow players in the hope that I will receive similar services back, but I
tend to rely on global karma, buffing anyone and everyone who crosses my path.After being beaten up by a nasty elite roamer (Son of Arugal, I'm looking at you, though Borelgore gets honourable mention) there's nothing nicer than a random resurrection. Standing at the graveyard facing a long and depressing corpse run -- or even a short one -- the magic words "<Player> wants to resurrect you" can do a lot to lift my tortured spirits. The last time it happened, a passing priest dismounted, resurrected me, then rode away before I could thank them properly. Back at the mailbox I sent a present, thinking all that karma -- the similar resurrections I'd done on my alts -- had finally paid off.
Ever had a little act of kindness make your day? Do you like or loathe fly-by buffs and resurrections?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Social Conventions, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Drewd Apr 27th 2006 10:19AM
What I loathe is people that demand that you buff them. I was on my druid the other day, and this UD rogue who was in the same area just kept spamming, "Buff me" over and over again. So I say "You could try saying please." To which all I got was "BUFF ME!" spammed in purple in my chat box. I told him once more that if he would be more polite and make it sound like a request that I'd be happy to do it, to which he responded with silence. Maybe I made too much of the situation, but is a little courtesy too much to ask in the virtual world?
FiG Apr 27th 2006 10:24AM
I love em! However, it seems that most of the fly by buffs I get eminate from lvl 20's, so that +8 Fort buff isn't gonna go a huge way, shame really...
PodMonkeys Apr 27th 2006 10:41AM
I try to fly-by buff, but I only have so many buttons on screen. I feel bad that I can't quickly buff all the "Player is too low level for this buff" lower players. Its like the phrase: "Practice Random acts of kindness". I try to do the same in RL (minus the buffs).
Ysidro Apr 27th 2006 10:49AM
I give out fly-by Blessing of Kings whenever I can. I have attempted to help people with ressurections a couple of times, but stragely they refuse them! I don't get that.
Drewd: You are perfectly correct and reasonable to expect politeness. Most of the behavior you describe I would think comes from early-teenagers. At least I hope so. :-)
Ysidro
Stefan Apr 27th 2006 10:56AM
I'm all about the fly-by buff. I'm a 56 UD priest and I still throw out fort buffs like it's going out of style. Since I put points into improved PW:F my Rank 6 will overwrite a base level 60 fort (+53 to my +55). If I'm waiting on the zepp everyone else waiting gets a fort buff and a renew. Lowbs aren't a problem since I used the BestSpell (automatically cast the highest rank the toon can recieve) when I click my buff :) I love getting fly-bys and I love to give them. It's all about that karma :D
Bigmooma Apr 27th 2006 11:07AM
As a shaman, i'm incapable of buffing people with anything interesting, but if i see a corpse i will 9/10 times attempt to res them.
I have got a couple of strange looks from priests when i /kneel and call them father while asking for buffs, but it kinda gives me kick.
Big thanks to each and every druid who give fly by MotW, you're all stars!
Sylythn Apr 27th 2006 11:26AM
I was on some quests that although they were Green for me, they were elite...and doing them on my own was proving difficult. A LvL 60 was in the area and started helping out, waiting for me to get the tag on a guy before he came in and helped. It was a nice thought, but it decreased my XP like crazy anyway. Once we discovered that, he apologized and headed off. I've run into a bunch of situations of random people helping me out, and I return the favor whenever possible. It makes you feel more like a member of the world you're in.
Ceej Apr 27th 2006 11:44AM
Agreed, love the run-by free buffage. It's one of the many reasons I prefer WoW to EQ, where the common practice was to actually sell the higher level buffs. Granted it is a different game but still - I think I see a lot more generosity in WoW.
SteveK Apr 27th 2006 11:57AM
WoW is my first MMORPG, and I remember my first character running around Wetands and all of a sudden a new icon would appear at the top. Took me a while to figure out random people were buffing me as they ran by. Since I had a hunter as my first character (didn't everyone?), I couldn't return the favor. But whenever I'm on my mage, I make sure to drop Arcane Intellect on anyone with a blue bar. Especially if I'm waiting for a boat or something where I have time to kill and don't have to worry about an empty mana bar. Most of the time I get the same back from most priests and pally's. But for some reason Druids seen to be stingy with the Mark of the Wild...
spencer Apr 27th 2006 12:00PM
Definitely agree with Drewd, when I play my mage people are constantly demanding food, water, and sometimes teleports, it's very rude. I'd be happy to comply if they were nicer, but usually it's something like "Food/Water?".
On my paladin I like to rez every corpse I see, but most of the time if you see a corpse lying around it means the player has logged offline, so I'll do a /who check beforehand.
It's a team sport, people. Let's all get along.
jason Apr 27th 2006 12:12PM
Indeed.. I'm a huge believer in the "Give and you will recieve" idea. On my druid(s) I had a script that would gauge the person's level and then buff them accordingly. However, I don't play priests/mages/paladins, so now the only buffs I can give out are unending breath and the ones my shaman needs regents for...
but hey, its funny to see people waiting for the Zep, and cast waterwalking on them and go "Hey... hope the zep doesn't dissapear... its a long drop..."
BreakerofWnd Apr 27th 2006 1:30PM
I love the fly-by buffings. If I can, I will buff whenever possible. I've only run into one person who demanded a buff and they did say please. Strangely enough they already had taken a potion for Int (I'm a mage) so my buff was too low to overpower the potion. Otherwise, I give 'em out freely. There is a macro out there that I believe I saw on worldofwar.net that would automatically buff the person for the highest level it could. I have been meaning to implement it, but haven't gotten around to it.
Breaker. . .
Jonathan Apr 27th 2006 3:26PM
I buff a lot, especially after a Griffin ride. I also try to resurrect any corpses I see lying around but quite a few people obviously log off after dying and don't get resurrected. I always wanted to know if it still works when they log back in again?
Perhaps I'm naieve to expect people to thank me for rezzing them but it really galls me when they don't.
I also raise hit points to max when they come back. One player ran straight back in to battle after rezzing and died immediately. I swear she was blushing when I got her back a second time.
But I've only been rezzed twice. Either there aren't many Paladins around, or people just aren't very nice...
Molnek Apr 27th 2006 3:27PM
I will always try to resurrect people when i see their bodies and even thoughn im on a PVP server i dont attack everything that moves, and it has come back to me in good ways, one time i was in stv doing the naga quest at level 39 with my shaman and then a level 40 paladin came along and we each killed all the naga i needed helping eachother and then i got the water and we went are separate ways.
Phaeland Apr 27th 2006 4:29PM
I too am the same way. I hand Blessing of Kings/Might/Wisdom whenever I am able to because having Mark of the Wild and Fortitude buffs put on me sure help out a great deal. The nice thing about playing a buff class is that you have such a wide range of buffs that you can use, both on people who deserve it and people who don't. There was once a warrior, who I assume to be a teenager because of his demeanor, who wouldnt stop yelling at me for a might buff while he was fighting a bear up in Hillsbrad. So I gave him the blessing of wisdom(Mana Regen) and ran off. I found it rather amusing. He didn't.
Dave Apr 27th 2006 5:06PM
When I am not actively in combat, I drop Mark of the Wild on everyone I see - at least as long as I'm not mounted. Rather than help a lowbie kill their mobs, I stand back and heal them as they need it.
Gillean Apr 27th 2006 5:29PM
i healed a lowbie who was swarmed by some elites. He got all the xp but never died. I tend to ride in lowbie areas and help when possible as well especially killing Mor'ladim in Duskwood. He deserves to be killed everytime i ride through raven hill cemetary
mk Apr 27th 2006 8:02PM
Dave and Gillean, well played. I've done enough alting to be driven nuts by watching high-level characters "help" lowbies out by killing their mobs. There's nothing more disheartening when you're trying to level a lowbie *quick* than to see a 60 swoop in and take your mob out with one swipe, taking about 75% of the mob's XP along with it.
On the main topic, I love receiving fly-by buffs and will try to thank those that I notice right away. As far as giving buffs, I'll hand out Arcane Intelligence to those who can use it (I haven't set up a level-specific macro for that yet. In fact, I haven't set up any macros--I'll need to work on that one of these days...) and I'll whip up some water when I'm in a group out of course.
jakk on the blackrock server Apr 27th 2006 8:09PM
no not really but son of arugal killed me when i was a noob then at lvl 30 i maged his ass. :-)
obo Apr 27th 2006 11:54PM
I almost like buffing more than I like fighting. If I'm chatting with someone, I usually set up next to a gryphon and just buff. I should probably be fishing or farming instead, though, hehe