Breakfast Topic: What won't you do for your group?
by Chris Clow 
Dec 12th 2011 at 8:00AM
As the immortal Meat Loaf once said: "And I would do anything for love, but I won't do that!" Many of us have aspects of the game that just aren't that appealing to us. For me, that is healing. I love raiding. I really love it. I'll worm my way into a group in a variety of roles. Need a tank to get the run going? I've got all four. Need someone to kite the adds on Magmaw? I'm pro with Chilblains. You want a ranged DPS to go up against Alysrazor? I'll prove to you that despite all appearances, the boomkin is not a flightless bird.
Oh, you need a healer. Good luck with that.
For some reason, healing has never clicked with me. I've given it a few tries here and there, but it just hasn't appealed to me. My hate affair began on my very first toon. I'd been leveling my paladin as protection for a while, late in The Burning Crusade. I had just reached level 20 and was invited to come tank a Blackfathom Deeps group. The group leader was a level 31 shaman who was trying to finish up a quest that had been apparently been moldering in his quest log for a while. We made it past the first couple of bosses, when the shaman declared that he was going to tank the rest of the instance and I should heal him. Still being new to the game, I had no idea what was going on and struggled to cast healing spells with no mana, with my spellbook taking up half my UI. Since then, I've tried a few different healers, but none of them made it halfway to the level cap before becoming a DPS toon.
I love my healers. I just couldn't imagine being them. What about you?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Revnah Dec 12th 2011 8:04AM
The one thing I'd never, ever do again is tank a PuG.
MattKrotzer Dec 12th 2011 9:02AM
You don't like doubling the DPS of the next closest member of your group and hauling them kicking and screaming to success?
Psh...
Yeah, me either.
Thank god for Raid Finder Guild runs allowing me to cap out my VP now instead of having to subject myself to Random Dungeon Finder any more than is necessary.
Revnah Dec 12th 2011 10:36AM
Lol!! That pretty much sums it up, Matt :-D
Snuzzle Dec 12th 2011 1:30PM
I tank PUGs. I sometimes question my sanity, but I do it.
I draw the line, though, the instant a member starts getting abusive-- for any role. The minute a member starts harassing me or another player, I report and attempt to kick. I figure if someone stands up maybe others who agree but are too shy/worried will back me in a kick. If the kick doesn't go through, I drop and tell them why.
Again, it's about standing up against behavior I feel is bringing this game down. If everyone who agreed with me did the same, I think it'd be a much better place to PUG.
Wubble69 Dec 12th 2011 8:09AM
Tank or Heal a Pug ever again
Kardas Dec 12th 2011 8:11AM
I will never, ever, ever, melee dps. Tanking is fine, for whatever reason, but I can just never get the fact that you can't melee from 25 yards away.
I played a rogue once. He only shot arrows, as soon as I could get my hands on a bow.
MattKrotzer Dec 12th 2011 9:08AM
Sounds like you should've rolled a hunter.
Amanda A. Dec 12th 2011 9:25AM
I'm the exact opposite-- I like melee, but ranged feels very detached and disconnected to me. I can do it mechanically, but I'm not as good or as comfortable with it. But I'm fine with healing and its cast times....
noel mcleod Dec 12th 2011 10:31AM
I love to tank - I'm even back to tanking PuGs if I have my guildie healing for me (I do 20K dps as a tank).
I like to heal - when a tank occasionally (very occasionally) throws out that "awesome heals" or when some idiot pulls everything in Stonecore and you manage to heal through it, it's a real rush.
I'm ok at ranged DPS (but not a pet classs, so not hunters, warlocks or frsot mage). Melee DPS? I got kicked from groups regularly in Wrath for dps too low as melee, and I'm still no good at it. I use a tank assist macro to target, and often by the time I've acquired the target and gotten back into melee range there's nothing left to do. (Although rewriting the macro would probably help ...)
Shinae Dec 12th 2011 11:01AM
Same here. I love tanking, but melee dps in a group is a pain for two main reasons:
- being subjected to the dangers of boss proximity, and
- having to chase after the mobs when the tank is dancing around more than necessary, and therefore having difficulty being in juuust the right spot.
Nadia Dec 12th 2011 12:05PM
I thought I was alone in this.
I am currently leveling a melee class toward my guild's "Classy Gnomes" achievement, and thanking the Light that I gave her Herbalism and Mining as professions.
It's not so much the positioning, or the lack of spiffy magical special effects...it's really having the NPC's behind or *ahem* frontal business in super close proximity that makes me loathe it.
Wubble69 Dec 12th 2011 8:11AM
Actually to be more constructive I should point out that I have 1 of every class at 85 and everybody who can tank and heal is geared and dual specced to do so.
I just won't do it for the public again.
After healing from 1 - 85 as a Holy Priest I quit healing after my first random at 85 when I was thrown in with the rest of the trash.
Caylynn Dec 12th 2011 8:21AM
I have found that I'm not good at melee DPS in Cata.
In Wrath I loved my melee/healing hybrids. My main was a holy paladin, but I had fun with ret as an off-spec. My primary alt was a resto shaman, who had enhance as her off-spec.
For whatever reason, I can't get into melee DPS in the same way in Cata. :( So it's ranged all the way. I'll heal, I'll DPS - but always from range. My main is now a shadow priest, with a disc off spec. My primary alt is my holy paladin, but she doesn't DPS.
clundgren Dec 12th 2011 12:58PM
Don't judge all melee dps by retribution.
Because ret was perceived as too faceroll in Wrath, the developers went 180 degrees with the spec for Cata. It is now one of the trickier specs to master: you have to know your priorities inside out, keep track of quite a few buffs, dots, and cds, and react instantly to a ton of rng procs.
They've succeeded in raising the skill cap dramatically, but it's no longer an easy off-spec to carry. Try a warrior or Frost DK for a melee spec that is a little more intuitive to play.
I have the opposite problem: in Wrath I didn't mind healing in a pinch, and could even do so effectively while still in ret spec, or at least well enough to get us through a boss fight if the healer went down. Now, I can't off-heal as ret, and I just don't enjoy holy.
Nina Katarina Dec 12th 2011 8:23AM
I'll put together a gearset and try to heal PVE from time to time. I do OK - I'm not going to top any meters, but I'm solidly midrange. I just don't enjoy it at all. I love to tank, I enjoy several forms of dps'ing. I will heal if I have to. Luckily, my guild is blessed with several awesome healers who love what they do and will pout if we make them dps. Oddly, I enjoy battleground healing.
One thing I will not do is duel. I never have done it, I don't really want to try. On my first character, I had just gotten to Goldshire when someone started following me and spamming duel invitations. I had no idea how to report him or how to make him stop. I was so traumatized I logged off and deleted that character, went to another server entirely. I still get the heebies thinking of it. That jerk probably really enjoyed traumatizing me, too. I wish I could reach through time and space and punch him in the face.
karatesmashunhurt Dec 12th 2011 9:05AM
I think that you can just /ignore them.
paulmewis Dec 12th 2011 9:11AM
I think the leatrix plus addon can automatically decline duel invites. Useful if such spamming is chronic on your realm.
razion Dec 12th 2011 9:14AM
@karatesmashunhurt, I believe the point was that he was new at the time, and didn't know most the things regular players take for granted (like Interface options, which can disallow trade and duel and guild requests if you wish, or per your example, the Ignore command). He didn't know how to make him stop.
Helston Dec 12th 2011 8:23AM
I've got some bad news for you Mr./Mrs. Clow, Meatloaf is far from immortal.
I don't mean anything against him or his music, but he is getting old, and his singing isn't exactly what it used to be. He came to Melbourne in September, and the overwhelming opinion was that his performance at the AFL (Australian Football League, great sport) Grand Final was terrible for such a big event. I also know someone who went to another of his gigs while he was out here, and apparently it that much better either.
He himself knows this has admitted his voice isn't what it used to be. Unfortunately some things just don't last forever.
DragonFireKai Dec 12th 2011 8:48AM
It appears that you've require some education in the english lexicon regarding the arts. When an artist is referred to as "the immortal", it's not because they're biologically immortal, it's because their art is of enough significance as to not be forgotten within a reasonable time span. While the reference is somewhat tounge in cheek, due to his penchant for dying on the silver screen, it's not entirely unwarranted.
So you've essentially boiled yourself down to either having a fundamental misunderstanding of the nuances of language, or you're just using any opportunity you can find to complain about a bad show you saw once, on a website about World of Warcraft. Certainly there are more appropriate venues for you to voice your dissatisfaction.