Forum post of the day: These are the people in your raid
by Amanda Dean 
Feb 16th 2008 at 6:00PM
When you put five, ten, twenty-five, or forty people together you're bound to come across people who annoy, amaze, and amuse you. Peri on Terokkar posted a list of raid archetypes who may seem familiar to you. Some highlights of her post include:
- The GM's Significant Other- Okay, so he was going to have to quit but he tricked his SO into playing. She loves it. She's terrible. You'll effectively 24 man every boss. Count on 4 constructs in the raid, every attempt. She plays a Belf.
- The Backbone- Plays a tank. Doesn't have much to say. Made an error once in SSC, or so you heard. Will disconnect when Gorefiend is at 30% and keep aggro while offline for the rest of the fight. Has never said anything negative to the healers. Ever. GL with your progression without one of these. Hates the prima donnas.
- The Prima Donna- Requires special attention from management. Constantly whining. Plays some vital role. Might be a main tank, mage tank, or lock tank. The officers really hate this guy and as soon as they can find another tank with 24,000 buffed HP, he's out.
This got me thinking about some of the folks I've raided with in the past... and why I may never raid again. Here are some folks I've come across in my days:
- The Dead Mage- This spell slinger may or may not be an Undead Mage. Has no idea how to manage aggro and firmly believes that AOE is the solution to every situation. Spends most of the raid face down. The scourge of all healing classes.
- The Insatiable Smoker- This character can be recognized by their raspy voice and frequent cough. Must go AFK after every boss fight to puff away. Asks for more frequent breaks and may be unresponsive at unpredictable times.
- The Tab-Targetter- This raider is completely incapable of creating an assist macro and fails to recognize the significance of the skull icon. When played by a hunter character expect erratic pet behaviors and prime dps targets to be frozen in blocks of ice.
Raiding is serious business. After a tough night it might be a good idea to take a step back and laugh. It helps keep it fun. Maintaining perspective is important, especially if you fall into one of these categories. While it's just a game, everyone is counting on you to pull your weight and create as little drama as possible.
Who have you played with?
Filed under: Virtual selves, Humor, Raiding, Forums
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Tristan Feb 16th 2008 6:25PM
lolmacros
Meira Feb 16th 2008 6:31PM
"The Dead Mage- This spell slinger may or may not be an Undead Mage. Has no idea how to manage aggro"
Sometimes the Dead Mage (or false alarm if he knows his stuff) knows the aggro management too well for its own good, like what happens to me in akward moments: normally i give the tank a 2-critical aggro equivalent, knowing that is rare having more than 2 crits in a row (my specc is not very crit chance friendly)... one crit "oh well i can get one more with no problems"... second crit and bam, clearcast procs... +30% chance to crit... I can't help it, is a free cast >< normally, the tank can hold the extra aggro, sometimes not... praise IB/Invis/Timelapse Shard XD
Matthew Feb 17th 2008 1:28AM
The usurper (or Starscream) - Whiny and annoying...questions every decision the leader makes, wants to have in-depth discussions about strategy in between every attempt on a new boss. Thinks he knows everything about every class. Fancies himself a "theory-crafter". Sends whispers during boss encounters telling you how to play your class. Often plays a mage, or a gnome. Or a gnome mage. His mother can be heard yelling to him in the basement when he's got his PTT button depressed in Vent.
kr3wman Feb 16th 2008 6:36PM
I'm the Mic-less guy.
I have no mic, but when I play at a friend's people really alt-tab to see who just talked. Atleast it's between bosses...XD
Bero Feb 16th 2008 6:44PM
I quit a guild over a significant other. Yes she played a huntard. We were in kara at the time, she had no clue about dps or cc. She would (despite being the best geared hunter in the guild) often sit behind the MT on damage output.
I started actively looking for a new guild when she 3 times in a row moved in the flames at Shade, the 2nd and 3rd time after yelling out focus in vent. Seeing as she was always there, and I figured it'd be a bad idea to tell the GM that he should /gkick or at least leave her off the raids I left for good guild, that has since downed Illidan, while the guild I left behind struggles in SSC and TK.
ringu0 Feb 16th 2008 7:28PM
Bero, looks like we were in the same guild once :)
Sylythn Feb 16th 2008 6:47PM
Clearcast, Nightfall, Backlash...the bane of casters everywhere - you just can't NOT use it up - who cares if you already have aggro on the boss.
klink-o Feb 16th 2008 8:55PM
Haha, yes. I will pull the boss if I don't have anything else to unload Nightfall on.
Felwrathe Feb 16th 2008 7:33PM
My name is Felwrathe, and I am a huntard.
It's not that I don't know my class and how to use it. I'm just not used to thinking under pressure. Back in the EQ days I played a Bard. Auto attack, then twist songs. In WoW when I play solo, it's auto attack, then add in a arcane shot, multishot... concussive, wing clip, aimed shot if need be.
When I'm soloing I don't bother chain trapping or managing aggro with my pet [well I do the latter, but lazily], because I don't need to put that much effort into soloing.
So when it comes raid time, I'm a bit slow. You could blame me, sure, but I blame the fact that there's not many group opportunities before your 40s.
doncristobal Feb 18th 2008 12:45PM
Thats the lamest excuse i ever heard : "i solo a lot so i dont need skills". Your 70, kara attuned and joined a raid ... before joining a raid get revered if not exalted with every faction taht requires running dungeons ... get ur gear, get ur skills before ruining the night for other 9 or 24 peeps that know theyre class and tehy cant act quickly under pressure.
Siobhan Feb 16th 2008 7:35PM
Don't forget the Dead Rogue. They're almost as common as the Dead Mage. As a healer I don't let the "Dead Mage" types bother me. If they want to die on every pull, that's fine. I'm not going suicide by getting aggro myself with heroic healing. If they ask why they're dying I tell them "Sorry - I was healing the tank. Let the tank hold aggro - it's what all that shiny plate is for." After that, it's up to them. BTW, I'll go out of my way to heal the good mages with a rare triple-crit.
ErsatzPotato Feb 18th 2008 3:17AM
I'm a "nothing aoe can't fix" mage in recovery. Working on Step 6: Pally tanks are not your Higher Power. They need a few seconds to nail down threat.
Jan'alai is not good for my staying on the wagon. Been going to extra meetings.
My loathed are most common in five mans:
I'm Fine. The rogue or druid who wanders all over the instance sightseeing. Answers demands they stop it with "I'm stealthed, I'm fine." Most often happens while the tank or healer is AFK so the inevitable aggro is certain to be a wipe.
Sir Pullsalot. I've got rage from the last fight so I'm going to pull by charging that group. This is followed by "why no healz?" and "SHEEEPZ!" to the healer and mage that were drinking in the hallway out of LOS. This can become a drinking game in a pug. Great way for mages & healers to meet for later runs. " We're screwed. Let's see how many times we can let him die. That plate is expensive. If we get lucky he'll type something we can report."
Three Arrows. Loves multishot. Doesn't understand what cc is and is unlikely to use his or her own. Night Elf. Likely marks specced. Pet ran away because it was never fed.
In raids, there's Wayward. Sadly, I'm one. No matter how many times the run back has been done, always gets lost. May or may not aggro skipped trash in the process. Frequently says, "OH SHIT. Um...sorry guys."
The vilest, most evil of all is Honor Getter. Shows up to the raid--requires a summon--flagged on a PVE server and no one notices until the buffs start going up. Isn't a buffing class/spec.
Therhiannon Feb 16th 2008 7:41PM
There's always the suicide-lock. The Lock who mana taps to low life and then Hellfires.
Killu Feb 16th 2008 7:51PM
Ye, I like to heal them up before I die XD
They shall not get away without repair costs :P
Cailleach Feb 16th 2008 8:03PM
@7: Dear, you've identified pretty precisely what is keeping you in the huntard state, and what you need to learn to solve that. Nothing says that you can't go practice those skills on your own!
Try chain trapping a mob clear across a zone or two: Slap Arcane Shot rank 1 on your hotkey. Pull and trap a mob. Move to extreme range, drop a new trap, wait for the trap to break. Repull only if necessary. Rinse, repeat.
Slap a sticky note on your monitor reminding you to turn off growl in a group.
See how long you can keep that mob bouncing between you and your pet.
See how many different mobs you can crowd control at one time (hint: You can double trap w/ice, pet tank, and one other way at least).
The only thing standing between huntard and hunter is a little practice! You can do it!
Fetialis Feb 16th 2008 8:04PM
Since my AQ40 days, I've been "The healer who does 1/4 of the total raid healing on boss fights". The only guy that shows up with every food, elixir, pot they can get their hands on so they never run out of mana. And has a supernatural ability to find the one spot to avoid death. Thus being the one up at 5% spamming heals on the last 6 dps .
big_a88 Feb 16th 2008 8:31PM
How about the incessant lock life-tapper? I'm not talking about life-tapping during boss fights...no, this is the one who life-taps between trash pulls when they could just as easily sit and eat/drink like the rest of us. I've stopped healing her; unfortunately, our pally ponies up every time to the point she calls him her "pocket pally."
And yeah, she also happens to be the SO of our RL. :(
Solidstate Feb 17th 2008 2:44AM
I play a Holy Priest and I *hate* noob warlocks who *don't* lifetap, especially between trash pulls when we want to gogogo and not stand around waiting for the warlock to drink ever-so-slowly.
What would you rather do, heal a warlock for 50% of his health at a cost of 2% of your mana, and a time cost of maybe 5 seconds, or waste 30sec waiting for him to drink up while you stand around and do nothing?
Not so long ago I played with a PuG doing LBRS (I was the only level 70, I wanted the UBRS key ;)). The level 58 or so warlock sat down between *every freaking fight* to drink, and mid-run complained he was out of water and asked if anybody had any to spare. Ebay ftl :(
Tim Feb 17th 2008 7:21PM
Aww... Don't heal life tap locks. That's why we have drain life. I get annoyed in trash fights when I get heals. The DoTs were up, I was just about to start draining! Relax healers!
Tenchan Feb 17th 2008 6:14AM
I don't know how your raids normally move, but in our runs, there is no time to drink between most trash pulls. 1 or 2 lifetaps and a simple HoT are far quicker and more effective. (Except for Shadow Lab. SL is hell.)