Breakfast Topic: Behavior unbecoming a player
by Aiden James Kosciesza 
Apr 29th 2011 at 8:00AM
Sometimes we do things that we'd rather forget. Sometimes we do those things in a dungeon. My guild has a few funny stories, such as the paladin tank who forgot to turn on Righteous Fury or DPSers who went through entire runs wearing fishing hats.
In my case, I'm ashamed to say that I let a pushy dungeon group get to me and earned my only dungeon finder kick to date. It was late Wrath, in the early days of the dungeon finder when leaving a random still gave you a long, unavoidable DF cooldown. I queued as a healer and popped into heroic Drak'Tharon Keep. I greeted the group with a cheerful "Hi guys!" but was blindsided when one of the DPS replied, "less talking, more healing." We hadn't even pulled yet.
I shut up, but the comment rankled so much that I immediately decided not to heal the DPSer. As a result, he died a couple times throughout the run and was rezzed by the ret pally. They were all from the same guild, so I knew any attempt I made to vote-kick the rude DPSer would fail. I seethed throughout the dungeon, healing only the tank and two of the DPS, and when we reached the last boss, I was the recipient of an unceremonious vote kick. I was angry at the time, but in retrospect, I deserved it. I should have dropped group the moment the comment was made and let them find a new healer. It's all water under the bridge by now, but that's the one dungeon moment of which I'm ashamed.
Have you ever done something in WoW that you wish you hadn't? Was it with friends or strangers? Is it just a funny story now, or do you still feel sheepish?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
Mperiolat Apr 29th 2011 8:05AM
I remember having a hard time with a guild run through Blackrock and it just seemed so disorganized and, my first run through as a low toon and everyone else overpowered, I felt like the third wheel the whole time, just along for the ride.
I actually lost my temper at one point after getting lost so many times and them just charging ahead. I was snapping at a few guildies by the time it was over. Thankfully no one took it personally and we all cooled off and it was fine. Few weeks later, another guild group did the WHOLE of Blackrock from the Upper down to the Depths, getting everything from the Beast to LEEEEEROY!!!! and it is still one of the best times I have had playing WoW.
venslor Apr 29th 2011 2:03PM
Man, I feel your pain. My guild knows that I ALWAYS get lost. Doesn't matter how many times I've been to a zone, or a dungeon... I can still get lost. They are very, VERY patient with me, and have been known to send out scouts to find me.
This is why I clearly do not leave home without my GPS device. Obviously.
Myramensgone Apr 29th 2011 8:06AM
Well one time I zoned in as a healer to heroic DM to a group that had wiped before the first boss the tank was very rude and told me that if I suck now I should go. I then noticed his terrible blood spec and remarked on it. He proceeded to get very angry and childish till he could vote
odiee Apr 29th 2011 8:10AM
Some Italian guy on ghostlands-eu in mid wrath. Heroic AN. He did about 700 dps as a rogue. and we commented on it. Not rude on anything but rather to help him or something.
(He was wearing all epic gear btw.)
He then went all apeshit on his broken english we beeing noobs and stuff.
He clearly bought the char because he knew nothing of the gameplay.
I think 700dps was just from white dmg.
Necromann Apr 29th 2011 1:42PM
I'm pretty sure he could more with white Dmg. If he was even standing behind the mob, that is.
MusedMoose Apr 29th 2011 8:12AM
Yeah... not proud of this, but at least this is a good place to say it.
The dungeon finder dropped my healer shaman into a group for one wing of the Scarlet Monastery, I forget which one. Before we even had a chance to say hi, the tank runs in and pulls the first six mobs - I didn't even have a chance to drop Earth Shield on the guy before he was a smear on the floor. I tried to keep things together, but after two of the DPS died as well, I ran for the door. The tank said something like "guess I shouldn't do that," and I chewed him out and dropped group.
Looking back, it was a really stupid thing to do. People make mistakes, and I should have given the group a second chance before making them wait for a new healer. If a group just plain doesn't work, then I'm okay with dropping, but bailing at the first bit of trouble was selfish of me.
Gendou Apr 29th 2011 8:30AM
I know you already know this, and I don't want to pile onto your self-deprecation, but I felt I needed to add to what you've already said.
Lowbie tanks, especially in Vanilla instances (or Death Knights in BC instances) are often getting their feet wet. When they get insulted for not knowing everything about the game, class and role right off the bat, they get discouraged and go back to being an anonymous DPS in the background.
Granted, not every low-level tank is looking for assistance in learning their role. Some of them are just queuing as a tank to get past the DPS queues, and they respond to any attempts to help them learn with dismissal and insults.
But often enough, taking the time to impart what we, as long-term, old-time players of WOW have learned through trial and tribulation and reading sites like WOW Insider can help a new player become the player we want them to be.
And besides, shouldn't we be doing all we can to help encourage those willing to tank to continue to queue up?
MusedMoose Apr 29th 2011 8:48AM
@ Gendou -
Agreed, and I usually will try to help. In a recent SFK run, we had not one but two tanks who just plain didn't know how to play their class (both druids) - one, I had to tell several times that he should be using bear form, not cat, and the other just plain couldn't hold aggro even when the DPS was focused on his target. I've seen others try to help as well; one person reminded me to put Righteous Fury back on after we wiped during my attempts at paladin-tanking. >_< Sometimes, though, it's hard not to get frustrated.
Aspirisis Apr 29th 2011 9:12AM
This is why I don't want to try tanking. I tend to take things a little to personal, even though it's a game. I'm quite confident in myself, but I just don't know how to tank. I've been in groups where the tank was new and I wanted to be encouraging and I did my best...but I've also been in groups where the tank fails once, and a vote kick pops up on my screen saying "Fail Tank". My friend wants me to try tanking, but I refuse to...I'll just stay the anonymous DPSer in the background.
ambermist Apr 29th 2011 9:47AM
My druid has been my main for years, but I hadn't tanked much precisely because it made me nervous. Recently I decided to give it another go. I got past the jitters with this macro:
/p Hello! I'm learning to tank, so please bear with me (pun intended). I will not be offended if you choose to kick me.
Immediately, this puts everyone on the same page. If they're willing to give me a shot, then they know what to expect. If they aren't, then I really am NOT offended when they choose to kick me, and I get to queue again. So far the responses to my macro have ranged from "Haha" to "You'll be fine" to "I'll focus your target and MD to you, no worries," and all of my groups have been successful!
Drakkenfyre Apr 29th 2011 11:18AM
Was the tank a Druid? Had that happen to me awhile back. Pulled every single NPC in the beggining of Graveyard. He couldn't be healed quickly enuf, died within moments.
shadcroly Apr 29th 2011 1:21PM
@ambermist
I've been seriously contemplating picking up a tanking spec again to help with the slowing queue times, and if I can get a tanking set up and running, that macro looks like it'd be amazing to have.
Eirik Apr 29th 2011 1:37PM
You guys were talking about sheer mitigation and survivability, but threat is an issue for low level druids as well. 4.03 (or 4.0?) nerfed swipe pretty horribly, and Thrash is gained at perhaps level 81. DPS with a low level druid tank have to watch their threat pretty heavily.
Udderpowered Apr 29th 2011 8:23AM
I've had a paladin tank that didn't turn on fury despite the whole group telling him to repeatedly during the run, he just never replied and kept losing aggro. Then suddenly half way through he seemed to realise. If it wasn't for my constant misdirects it wouldn't have ended well.
I manage to keep my cool usually though, except when I try tanking and DPS ALWAYS ignore my target and nuke down something else, pulling aggro every bloody pull. Warriors use rage as a resource for a reason IMO.
venslor Apr 29th 2011 2:03PM
hahaha This reminds me of such a cute Paladin tank story. I was healing on my priestess, one of the Razonfens, and the Pally didn't have Righteous Fury on. I noticed that his aggro wasn't so good, and I always double check with low level pallies. I mentioned it to him, as did another person in our run.
His response: but, then everything will attack me.
After I was able to stop laughing, and after I posted a o.O I asked, so new to tanking? He threw up RF, and the run went fine after that.
I just thought that was adorable, and thought I should share.
ShamTheMan Apr 29th 2011 8:35AM
During the elemental invasion, I was dropped into a group with the boss from Mauradon. The tank died when I got knocked back and couldn't get in healing range. My fault as much as anybodys. What pissed me off is when the tank screamed HEAL ME!!!!! just before dying. We proceeded to down the boss when a DPS was able to finish out the tanking. Another DPS had died in the meantime and I got asked in party chat to rez. I explained that I would be rezzing everybody but the tank. I let that slide for a minute or so before rezzing the tank and dropping group.
ShamTheMan Apr 29th 2011 4:51PM
Why was I downvoted?
cyanea85 Apr 29th 2011 8:25AM
Starting to play the game in the first placImean...I was a dick to a guy once.
>.>
cyanea85 Apr 29th 2011 8:59AM
No laughs? It was a jooooke.
Maybe I find it funny because I'm so tired. That's probably it.
Gendou Apr 29th 2011 8:25AM
I stopped running Heroics after joining a group with four members of the same guild. They were on vent together, and refused to discuss strategies with me in chat even after I told them I hadn't done that particular instance on Heroic before. Additionally, the healer apparently hadn't healed since Wrath and was going OOM on every pull. As a result, we kept wiping on trash, even with me popping out of cat-form to toss innervates and heals.
Despite all of this, I tried to maintain a good attitude and remain friendly and communicative, even though all of the response I got was, "shut up we on vent talkin."
After we wiped once more, the healer said, "turn off ur mod or no healz." Apparently he didn't like my 'Fatality' mod declaring who had died and why. I imagine because it was embarrassing to him. Had he asked politely, I might have been more inclined to accede to his request. But his peremptory demand coupled with a threat was more than I could take.
I thanked them for their time, told them I didn't appreciate being kept in the dark while simultaneously being ordered around, and I dropped group. Before I left, I saw one of them say, "lol tool" in chat.
They had nothing to worry about, of course - as a guild group with tank and healer, they would get another DPS to abuse almost instantly, and I would have to eat my deserter debuff and wait for a DPS queue on top of that.
That was months ago. I stopped running the daily heroic dungeon after that and haven't been in one on my druid ever since.