Breakfast Topic: Have you ever lost your nerve?
by Trevor Malakowsky 
Apr 12th 2011 at 8:00AM
I am an altaholic. More than half of my loading screen on my main server is tanks, including at least one of each tanking class at various levels of progression. This is by design. I love tanking. I like the instant feedback of a job well done, because I am alive and all the aggro is mine. Cataclysm represented my first opportunity to tank content that hadn't been trivialized by overgearing and nerfs. I could not have been more excited about leveling my death knight from 80 to 85 with undue haste. I completed only one zone and have no idea what most quests in any zone were about.
When I hit 85, I realized that I had not bothered to do the dungeon quests for each zone, and I needed to go find all of the entrances. When that was done, I hit the "I" key on my keyboard to queue up. I clicked "Find Group"... and left the queue so fast that I beat the tanking insta-queue to the punch. I stared at my monitor in disbelief. What just happened? I tried again; bailed faster than the insta-queue, again. I was terrified. Shocked. I'd lost my nerve.
It's spring now. My 85 DK has run all of one dungeon at max level. I don't even log on to him anymore. I stare at my character list every day... and I pick another toon to play.
Have you ever lost your nerve? How did you get it back?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
billg Apr 12th 2011 8:05AM
Ask yourself, what's the worst that can happen. And then do it anyway!
uncaringbear Apr 12th 2011 8:58AM
I think a lot of people ask themselves that exact question, and the answer is "the utter destruction of my self esteem, as applied to WoW". And then they walk away.
Kurick Apr 12th 2011 10:12AM
As a tank myself - I have lost my nerve - during wrath when everyone was geared and I had just ding'd. The abuse I got trying to hold aggro with my greens vs their full epiced out dps with all CD's and the gogogogogogo mentality. Yep I lost my nerve. It took our guild tanks (yep both of em) to persuade me to go back - with both of them as dps, our raid healer as healing and another guildie as the last dps.
We went through the training run, then tried 3 randoms. The price of the 'gentle' intro was to get geared for a bit then they would ask a 'favour' I couldnt refuse.
A little while later (with wrath gear so easy to grind), my mostly kitted pally tank got the 'call'. I nearly s*at myself as they explained, the off tank was on holiday - and I was now the new Offtank (for the alts run - my main was dps in the main run). To my surprise I found that ICC was tbh easier than most heroics for me then. Mojo back, I started tanking on some pugs - and found with that bit of gear meant I COULD hold aggro vs Mr gogogogo (although I didnt just gogogogo- I waited for mana, CD's etc rather than let them push me - including letting him pull, die, and then taunting off the healer).
This became a regular thing - and I ended up MTing and RL the alt run a few times. It was wierd cos even though as the alt run we were significantly less experienced and geared than the main on - we equaled them on a number of occasions - boss for boss.
Anyhow in Cata I sort of lost interest in it after gearing my main, and then leveled a DK up (as dps while collecting tank gear), and just really couldnt be bothered to lvl my tank/healer pally.
After a while the old MT for the alt (who had changed guilds then - becoming the GL of the other guild) asked me for a hand - our MT came as dps and we pugged the rest. I warned everyone I was new to cata tanking - in my 80 pally, and icc gear.
We got stonecore. Considering the dps lock was heroic capable, I seriously feared for aggro, however we only had one death, and at the end, the healer asked if we could go again, and again. After running nothing but stonecore quite a few times, he is now Lvl 83 and still cannot face the quest chain (and no no tank stuff ever dropped!!!)
jimbob Apr 12th 2011 10:45AM
I've lost my nerve for healing. Haven't healed anything since Novemeber last year in fact when our guild stopped raiding due to lack of attendance.
I just can't bring myself to do it. So now i'm levelling DPS alts to max level.
billg Apr 12th 2011 11:46AM
Actually, truth be told, I lost my nerve for healing with my (then levelling up) pali just after they dropped patch 4.0 and made all those class changes. Queued for a random and healed a PUG through Morondum (spelling is intentional!) and lost all the dps on the last fight with the Princess because of their inability to cast and shoot from max range and my lack of any aoe heal.
I promptly repec'd my offspec to retri and haven't had the nerve to go back since. I'm now happily and routinely tanking random HC pugs via Dungeon Finder the with that same paladin, and his then shiney new retri spec has by and large sat unused gathering dust since that post-Princess respec.
Still can't bring myself to switch his off spec back to resto though. The very idea just gives me the shakes and sets the butterflies a fluttering inside :)
vbreeze11 Apr 12th 2011 12:20PM
I recently decided to try tanking, made some gear for my 70 warrior, spec'd her as protection and said "let's go!" The first 5 times the dungeon popped I clicked decline. But finally I just said "what's the worst that can happen?" and went for it. I've never had a group kick me yet. That's not to say I'm amazing at tanking (far from it), but if we had a bad pull I'd apologize and let them know I was still learning. The next run through I'd warn the group the pull might be messy and to give me a few seconds before AOE-facerolling. After the final boss I'd always thank everyone for their patience saying I was still a new tank and I appreciated them sticking with me.
I think being polite really helps - I still have messy pulls (sometimes my fault sometimes the fault of the mage who just has to blizzard everything instantly) but by apologizing or laughing it off everyone in the PUG seems not to mind. Last run I lost aggro on the boss twice and I was still asked if I'd like to run another dungeon with the group.
I know there are asshats out there, but I think people should give PUGs more credit. Just remind the PUG that you (the tank or healer) are human with a quick "Hi! New to this, so bear with me :) " or a "oops! Guess I should watch out for those ranged next time, sorry!" and I think the group will be a lot more forgiving. Besides...half those DPS have to be the 9th alt of some geared 85, they know they're going to pull aggro and are fine with it.
Twill Apr 12th 2011 3:03PM
Distracted by T4 Warlock Helm being a reward. Anyone have any info on that?
Trandom Kaggus Apr 12th 2011 8:06AM
I've lost my healing nerve on my main. After a patch or two of Paladin changes where I was leveling alts, I'm not at all confident enough to log in and heal a heroic, or a pug raid. At this rate I'm never going to get to raiding on that character.
Evelinda Apr 12th 2011 8:56AM
me too; both my main (a druid) and my paladin, i've lost my healing nerve. i just don't feel like i can keep people up in max level pugs on these guys. i've got a priest and shaman at 85 as well (like the author, i'm an altoholic too, but i level healers instead of tanks), and i'm happy to charge in on them (though i'm not overly confident with disc; holy, no worries), but i'm really worried about it it with the druid and pally.
liliornin Apr 12th 2011 9:32AM
My feelings on Cataclysm healing is that they buffed everything BUT healing: they buffed tank health, they buffed mob health and mob damage, but they left healing alone. Did you notice how priest shields only absorb less than one regular mob hit? Or that your mana efficient heal only heals a FRACTION of your tank's health, and at an insanely slow rate? Honestly, I have one of each heal class (I loved healing until Cata), and the one I found to do the best was Paladin. Paladins have a lot of instant cast abilities that are direct heals and two of them do not take mana to use. However, I gave up on healing because I feel like if I can't keep the entire group up to full (just like in WOTLK), then I'm failing the group and it's frustrating. So yes, I'd say I've lost my nerve to heal.
dlux Apr 13th 2011 1:31PM
I briefly lost my healing nerve when I had a bad group that kept insulting me, I wasn't sure what wrong and they kicked me. I could heal again for two weeks. But then I decided to dust myself off, look to improving myself, and jump back in.
My heart was beating so fast that first group back, but it went great. Also I realise now that your skill at healing is directly proportional to the group you're in. So many times we defeat a boss and everyone is dodging the fire and following tactics and I hardly have to heal anything and someone says "great job healer", then the next fight everyone seems to be seeking out damage and I get a "wtf healer" when we wipe.
Res Apr 12th 2011 10:47AM
If you get the idea in your head that keeping the entire party at 100% all of the time isn't the goal (or even expected) anymore, you'll get your nerve back.
That, and who cares what the rogue from another server who can't move out of the AoE who you'll never see again thinks about you? :)
Hiwa Apr 12th 2011 11:47AM
I stopped healing on my beloved main resto druid. I'll heal with guild runs, but pugs--no way.
I accepted the fact that I wouldn't be able to keep everybody at 100%. I accepted and understood the concept of triage healing. I even had a policy of 'no heals between pulls if I'm drinking."
After multiple runs with cries of 'why you no heal me healz????" "That's your job, why don't you do it healz?????" "OMG, HEALZ YOU SUCK" I threw in the towel. It was getting to the point where I was even losing my nerve on guild runs, with good people who I know and trust. Unless the run was 100% guildies I would start having crippling panic attacks at the sight of even one pug member.
I also felt a loss of the fluidity and elegance of druid healing. Before it was like a dance--I was a tree with my branches blowing in the wind, spreading good health to the whole party. AFter Cata it started to feel more like pulling teeth--without anesthesia. Nothing about it feels natural anymore, and for a sort-of-roleplaying druid that's pretty much the kiss of death.
So now I'm leveling up a disc priest and a holy pally. I still believe that healing is my natural role, so I'm trying my other options. But it breaks my heart to see my dear Hahni reduced to farming and cooking for my alts.
Stilhelm Apr 12th 2011 11:55AM
I guess I didn't lose my nerve, I relished the challenge on both healers and tanks. I was leveling my warrior first, and just a couple hours after Cata was released had gone to find the entrance to Throne of the Tides. While there, I saw a rogue from another guild. He asked if I'd help summon so his guildees could discover the instance, invited me and I saw that we had a full group with a geared holy pally. I offered to tank and off we went, I was very excited to see a new instance. Was relatively easy, the first big surprise was Dark Fissure on the 2nd boss, which had me instantly popping Last Stand. The next big surprise was the giblin trash groups that dropped me in less than 2 sec. Lesson learned, pulled the next groups with cooldowns popped. Was a good group so we went on to Blackrock Caverns and completed that instance as well.
I also healed on my shaman, and even before shamans were buffed they were capable of healing heroics without too much trouble. The main thing to learn was that you could no longer heal through stupid. You could heal the unavoidable damage and not much more. I really had thought it would be much worse than it actually was. Letting dps die when they stand in bad stuff really does train them pretty quickly. The real key is to not feel bad about letting someone die for being stupid. I don't play stupidly on my dps toons, so if I'm bothering to heal then they shouldn't either.
On the occasions when I do stand in the bad stuff while as a dps or tank, I make a point to apologize for it because I know that unless the healer is overgeared, they can't do much about it.
Neuropox Apr 12th 2011 3:36PM
When i first hit 85 on my druid healer i had the minimum ilevel to get into heroics. I queued up and ended up in Heroic Grim Batol. Didn't know how hard it was till we get to the first boss and wipe over and over, with people dying and me not being able to save em. After that fail run i ended up getting kicked by every pug i ran with because they would take more damage then my poor green equipped healer could handle, and for the longest time i refused to heal ANYTHING, or even set foot in a heroic....
eventually i started running with my fine guild-mates of AIE and they helped me get better, learn the fights, and now i breeze through heroics NP. I almost gave it all up though....
Moridin Apr 12th 2011 8:07AM
I lost my nerve with my warlock at the start of 85 cata. I rerolled pally and once I let my feet settle into prot/ret I decided to give my warlock a 2nd pass. Loving it yet again.
vorgadk Apr 12th 2011 8:07AM
Fascinating. This happens to me too. I hate the instaqueue too. I stopped tanking after 4 years. It's straightup stressful and unpleasant. CtA isn't nearly enough...
Angus Apr 12th 2011 8:34AM
It's not a case of losing your nerve so much as hating the role now.
I tank raids and have much more fun than ANY of the stupid heroics I have been in. Guildies or completely random group, doesn't matter. I just lost my will to tank them.
"I could spend an hour or more trying to get through content that is poorly designed from a lot of standpoints, or I could do a random battlefield in my off spec and actually have fun as long as Gilneas doesn't pop."
The heroics are too long, the pay-off is pathetic for the investment in time and pain and the fact that some have weird things like only 2 classes that can CC for half (2 TOTAL classes) and a lag spike wipes you on one boss (looking at you Ozruk) I have to wonder what they were thinking. Ozruk makes Loken look easy and fair. And he's not alone. Hymn-boy sending you to pull levers while snakes fight you and go after healers, wind storms juggling you off of a platform, it makes it so if your connection isn't perfect, you can't tank.
The call to arms is in the same patch as guild challenges. that makes sense...
Quarnok Apr 12th 2011 8:40AM
I played a prot warrior from the day WoW launched, took a break and came back and tanked through ICC. When Cata came out I got him geared up enough to unlock heroics and then said forget it. Started from scratch on an enh shammy and have been loving the change of pace ever since. I agree with Angus that I think I could handle tanking the same raids I'm doing with my shammy right now, it's just the Heroics that I've seen long time guildie tanks struggling to get us through have really put me off.
DarkWalker Apr 12th 2011 9:30AM
I don't think your case is lost nerve. Looks like burn out to me.
I was in a similar proposition. While I was confident in my tanking capabilities, I couldn't bear myself to join the random heroic queue. Tanking heroics was just too much frustration for too little fun and reward.
BTW, I didn't get better. I left the game. Although I'm still reading news about WoW, looking for any indication Blizzard might have corrected the issues that made Heroics frustrating for me.