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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsDrama Mamas: Tank entitlement
by Robin Torres 
Aug 6th 2010 at 4:00PM
There are many kinds of tanks. There are skilled, geared, uber-tanks and just-learning-how-to-taunt tanks and OMG-I've-never-meleed-before tanks and I-queued-tank-so-I-wouldn't-have-to-wait tanks. There are tanks of various personalities, talents and patience. But this week, we only concern ourselves with the tanks who think they're entitled to do whatever they want because groups are at their mercy. We have two letters that ask about this issue.
Drama Mamas,
In the past few weeks I have noticed a disturbing trend in with the dungeon finder. At least twice a week I will get into a group where one player will pull everything in sight then leave. I play a mage so this means I get killed in milliseconds, which is no fun at all.
I hate to say it, but it's usually -- OK, always -- the tank. So far the only "solution" I've found is blocking that particular player so I don't get grouped with him again, but that won't keep it from happening with other jerks.
Have either of you experienced this, or am I just extremely unlucky?
Instadeath
Dear Drama Mamas,
I'm an old hand at WoW, but recently, I decided to try something a little different. Since my husband and I started a small guild of our own, we also decided to roll a couple of characters that would basically be us in WoW form -- two orcs, his a warrior, and mine, a shaman.
So here's my problem: I'm trying to learn to heal, and shaman are the most efficient healers I've seen. However, I'm still low level, only 18, and I know that I won't be getting really useful skills to heal until I'm a little higher. However, I want to practice, and I've been trying to use low-level dungeons PUGs to do so. Most of my experiences have been pretty nice, as the first thing I say is, "I'm new to healing, so can we please go slowly and not aggro too many things?" However, that all changed two days ago, and I've been afraid to try healing again because of it.
I was in the Deadmines, and I was brought into a dungeon in progress. As soon as I arrived, I could see the problem -- the tank was aggroing too many of the goblin engineers in the foundry area. We immediately wiped, and I suggested that we try to skip the goblins in the center of the room. When we got back, we wiped again, and the tank blamed me, then left. Then we got a new tank, and she did the same thing as the first one, causing a third wipe. She began yelling at everyone for "pulling adds," and at this point, the group fell apart. Unphased, I rejoined the random dungeon finder, only to be put into a new dungeon with Tank No. 2.
She immediately started yelling, "Kick that healer! She's lousy; she let us die in the last dungeon!" A few people asked what happened, so I explained -- but all the whil,e the tank was yelling, "She's lying, she's just horrible, she can't play healers!" I ended up leaving that group and putting Tank No. 2 on ignore, but since then I've been afraid to try again, and my shaman is sitting forlorn and lonely in The Barrens.
Is there any way I can convey just how new I am at healing to future groups so I can continue to play my healer? I don't know enough people around my level on my server to make a teaching group, and I'm terrified of trying to run in a PUG now. Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
Shaman Scared Silly
Drama Mama Robin: I put these two emails together because I feel they both stem from the same cause: Tank Entitlement, or TE. TE has been a problem since the dungeon finder first appeared on the scene, and it's not going away any time soon. Though both tanks and healers are in demand and have shorter queues, tanks are the ones who set the pace of the PUG and therefore can make or break the experience. Of course, tanks should go at the pace of the healer. Duh. But those suffering from TE go at their own pace, regardless of level, dungeon or skill. Let's look at the the possible mindset of those whose brains are addled by TE:- "I don't have to wait in the queue, therefore I have the power to quit any group I want to instantly join another."
- "Everyone else has a wait in the queue; therefore, they have to do what I say if they don't want to wait."
- "Everyone is a baddie except for me."
- "I am miserable in the physical world, have no control over my non-virtual life and therefore, I grief people in game to make me feel powerful."
Instadeath, griefers grief and funsuckers suck. Though I haven't personally experienced your issue, I'm sure many have, and I'm also sure it will continue during this whole summer-break-boredom-before-an-expansion thing we're going through. TE makes griefing easy in random dungeons. Put the tank on ignore and move on. Try not to let it bother you.
Scared, you're learning, and the majority of players at lower levels are learning. This is common and, as you've already found, most people are more than happy to work together in the lower levels. The bad experiences that keep you from enjoying PUGs are due to TE. Again, put the nasty tanks on ignore and try not to let it bother you. Just like with Mr. Too Sexy from last week, there is no point in arguing with those who suffer from TE. You'll just increase your own frustration as well as cause more drama for everyone else.
There is only one way I can think of to avoid TE altogether and that is to always make sure you only random with a known, good tank. This is easier said than done. But if you are planning a duo to take through dungeon leveling, plan for a healer/tank combo. If you have some guildies with baby tanks, make playdates with them. Since TE is a common problem, you could even advertise for a tank in trade chat and hold tryouts for tanks on your server with similar schedules to yours. Your queues will be shorter, too.
Drama Mama Lisa: Instadeath and Scared, I would echo Robin's advice and add an additional strong word of advice: Don't allow these boorish bullies to make you feel shoved into a corner. We've talked before about every player's ability -- your ability -- to set the tone and influence the player community. Let's take that idea for another spin.The way you react to vote-kickers and bullies is every bit as influential to the tone of our online community as the screechings of the problem children. If group members are going way over the line with criticism and attacks, stay calm; your restraint makes it painfully obvious what shrieking harpies they really are. Don't argue with these creatures, which gives them the platform for displaying their bullying and egos that they so desperately crave. Keep using your ignore list, just as you have been. A light, well-timed comment ("Whew! Another worm leaps free from the apple barrel!") can help restore calm and establish solidarity among those of you still left in an abandoned group. What's most helpful in the long run is not to cause a commotion over how horribly you were wronged, but to counteract the effect of the bullies and spread an attitude of empowerment and respect among other players. Immaturity and callous disregard for others aren't the only forms of behavior that are contagious; your reactions can be equally powerful in creating the online world you want to live and play in.
Dodge the drama and become that player everyone wants in their group with a little help and insight from the Drama Mamas. Remember, your mama wouldn't want to see your name on any drama. Play nice ... and when in doubt, ask the Drama Mamas at DramaMamas@wow.com. Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Drama Mamas
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 13)
Lydia Aug 6th 2010 5:10PM
While lots of lowbie alts (especially players who are tanking for the first time) don't seem to realise that you can't chain pull every vanilla dungeon, that's not always the problem.
On my baby druid, I've had a number of dps harass me to pull more, so they can AOE (and then complain at me for letting something hit them). At first, I was compelled to oblige them, because I knew my healer (who is always my IRL friend/leveling partner) could handle it. But it seems that dps who have never been anything but dps won't be placated until I'm pulling half the dungeon at a time. (To them I say, if you want a 5-minute vanilla dungeon, pay someone to run you through.)
New tanks, especially new players or new-to-the-server players, don't have the luxury of heirlooms to facilitate pulling more than 5 or 6 mobs at a time. People rolling their 3rd or 4th alt on their primary server tend to forget that not everyone has access to heirlooms and/or AH gear all the time.
That said, I've seen my fair share of mean players in general (not only tanks), thanks to the dungeon finder. Tank Entitlement, though totally not cool, isn't the biggest problem of the dungeon finder.
Bodewell Aug 6th 2010 4:29PM
I've been healing in Dungeon Finder a lot on a variety of healing toons (what can I say- it's what I like) and have ran into a few of these enititled Tanks and I just will not back down in the face of their childish behavior. I guess it's my age (45,) but I will not stand silently by while these idiots run wild, ruining and wasting the other 4 peoples time. If I have to wait another 20 minutes to get another tank, so be it.
Stand up and be counted and do not let these entitled idiots trash everyone elses good time.
Slaytanic Aug 6th 2010 4:32PM
Very simple solution on Blizzard's end: "You cannot leave group while you are in combat."
Usually, I would ignore these individuals....if I can. But only if they speak, and I can click on them. Otherwise, I'm usually out of luck, because their names have symbols in them that I could never hope to replicate on my own, and many people's names cannot be typed in because there is not enough spaces in the IGNORE tab for someone to type in the "name + realm". I think the max is like, 15 characters, and it's almost always past that.
(cutaia) Aug 6th 2010 4:49PM
The special characters suck, but if you're actually able to re-type their name, I'm pretty sure you can just do a slash command like this:
/ignore randomdouche-Bronzebeard
Perhaps someone can confirm or deny this?
Zhiva Aug 6th 2010 5:01PM
I think you can target them and /ignore %n or /ignore %t (I don't remember which placeholder brings full name with server, %n or %t)
Boobah Aug 7th 2010 2:57AM
In Windows, at least, there's a program called Character Map. Find the odd character, select it, and you can either copy and paste it, or use the alt+4-digit number pad code to replicate it.
At which point you can, as indicated above, type "/ignore Ćĥāřàçŧëŗ-Server"
Seniri Aug 6th 2010 4:32PM
There's this guy in my guild I truly despise, he finds joy in irritating people, dropping random people found in trade out of his two person flying mount, etc. Well he has an 80 Pally tank for the sole purpose of instant queues, pulling large groups, and leaving. He thinks it's hilarious. I think it's douchey and he should be removed from the guild because of it.
edgeblade69 Aug 6th 2010 5:16PM
He should not only be removed from the guild but removed from the game, perma-ban based on a combination of IP address, name, credit card #, home address, etc. Enough information used to prevent them from easily creating a new account to escape said ban. People like this should also be castrated. The world has too many idiots as is, we don't need more.
humperdinck Aug 6th 2010 5:25PM
This kind of thing reflects poorly on a guild and if the GL knows about this and does nothing, it sounds like a crap guild. The first time I experienced a pull-boss/drop-group, it was both the tank and healer, and they were both in the same guild.
I looked them up on the Armory, created a toon on their server and sent an in-game mail to their guild leader, who replied and said they were horrified by their guildies' actions and would make sure they didn't do anything like that again.
Seniri Aug 6th 2010 5:31PM
It's actually a pretty good guild for a bad server, but there are a few people I don't think should be welcome in our raids.
This specific person, though, I only found out about him doing this the other day when he was gloating about the groups he did that to. Said he must have done it a good two dozen times that weekend. Next I hear of it, I'll bring it up to the leader, see what he makes of it.
Vladeon Aug 6th 2010 4:35PM
@ Robin's response, namely the part about putting the tank on ignore.
If they don't say anything the entire time and you don't whisper anything to them, you can't put them on ignore after they leave group. In fact, once they're out of the instance, you can't put them on ignore anyways. This happened to me once in H OK, I was on my mage and the tank ran in, aggroed everything and left group. I tried to petition a gm to have that tank put on ignore, but the gm told me that not even they could do it for me. Once a player has left the group and the instance, there's no way to put them on ignore.
Kaphik Aug 6th 2010 4:42PM
You have to manually type in the person's name, followed by a dash then the realm.
Example: /ignore Jerktank-Mal'Ganis
Make sure you spell the realm correctly, capitalization and apostrophes if it has them.
Vladeon Aug 6th 2010 4:48PM
According the the GM that I talked to, that doesn't work. it just ignores someone with that complete name on your realm.
Kaphik Aug 6th 2010 4:53PM
Interesting, it worked for me the other night. The person's name and realm showed up on my ignore list. I'll try it out again.
Arodiel Aug 6th 2010 9:28PM
I just ignore people by right-clicking their name in chat and selecting it from the dropdown. Works very well (incl. X-server) - in fact, I often do this accidentally when I mean to invite heh). I find that the name is available in chat 90% of the time.
Krz Aug 6th 2010 4:35PM
"the majority of players at lower levels are learning"
I disagree. I've found the majority of players at lower level these days are elitists with multiple level 80 characters who laugh at any attempt to be serious in a group setting at such a low level.
E.g. I was in RFK, and a hunter needed a melee axe. I was playing a warrior.
I questioned the hunter, only to be given the response from a third member of the group "He will probably use it for melee hunter spec". Hunter won the roll. A fourth member laughed along with the third member. (Both those players were decked out in BoA gear)
I sighed and continued on.
M S Aug 8th 2010 2:21PM
I had that happen last night while healing SM Lib on my priest. A hunter rolled need on a Int/Stam staff. I asked, "Did you really just roll need on a caster staff." He won the roll and 30 seconds later said "yep.", then Lol'ed.
He wasn't laughing so hard when neither he nor his pet got healing for quite sometime after it. I never let him die, but unless he was going to, he didn't get any. All that mana he had to use on his pet healing gimped his dps. After that, he behaved like a good netizen and felt some healer love.
MrLee Aug 6th 2010 4:36PM
It's a shame that the LFG tool has given us the 'opportunity' to meet so many appalling tanks. I specced my priest disc because I thought it would be good to do a lot of leveling in dungeons (you get groups much faster as a healer) but it just wasn't worth the hassle. I think about 1 in 100 tanks from LFG bother to wait for people to get mana back, in the mean time they have run 200 yards ahead, around three corners, pulled 10 mobs then start yelling HEAL!!
Artificial Aug 6th 2010 5:52PM
Anyone who pulls aggro out of range or LoS of the healer is declaring their intent to use whatever self-healing skills they have. Oblige them.
Asgoth Aug 6th 2010 4:38PM
All I can say is, Don't let these small minded tanks stall your development as a healer. The demand for tanks are just as high for healers. Don't be concern with what the tank says. "F" them, realize this, as great as the tanks power to draw aggro to keep the group alive, you have the greater power as a healer to keep EVERYBODY alive. Tell the party that you need to move slower, if the tank doesn't listen, initiate a kick. If that's doesn't work? Well I've done this before, although it's ranter unscrupulous, I've let the tank die. while keeping everone else alive. (Period) Sure he gets mad and yells and has a expensive repair bill to boot. Just again tell him that you had requested to go slower. And, if he blocks you, it's a win for you and the party. I guess I have a bit of the HE (Healer Entitlement).