So I started a new character, well two actually (I had space, and I'm weak, but I deleted one later because I decided I preferred a different face) I made a shaman and a little priest , oh and I guess a druid too, (My altitis is probably incurable, and technically the druid was a level five bank alt so she's not really new) All three got leveled to twenty something.( I get to that level 20 something range rather fast ,but at 27 distraction sets in.)
So at fifteen I have some useful quest rewards ( nice that almost every quest has a sensible award , no more spirit stamina stuff or other sorta unwanted stat combos) anyhow then it's time to hit the dungeon finder. I actually really like PuGs , I know I complaine but really I enjoy them (Or I'm desperate for some form of interaction).
My little priest was first , things went well the first deadmines run was nice and pretty smooth , except for people getting blown off the bridge , I had to explain that bit because well it's not obvious enough. I felt happy knowing that maybe people would sorta avoid the burning exploding spots later on ( How does the dock not break these are cannons?), I was in a very good mood, wwailing caverns a few times then at 18 I zoned into Shadowfang Keep , there was the tank and one DPS and a rather large number of skeletons , in that Commander fellows room. Things had apparently been going badly. The DPS was calling the poor tank all sorts of names and stuff like that. I suggested he may want to leave after all he must really hate the tank. He left after calling me a short bitch. The Male Draenei tank who I was imagining being reduced to tears ( Well, I would have been, in character at least) declared he was terrible and having the worst time and he was new. I thought a moment and said hmm well, what do you think went wrong?
He didn't know.
I thought a bit and asked did you notice the green stuff and wavy arms coming out of the floor? (brilliant technical terms on my part). I said well that is bad, and especially if your DPS is not ranged , it can hurt them a lot and this is a bit stressful for the healer. Move yourself and the DPS out of it. I then explained that there area lot of places that there is stuff on the floor and standing in it is bad (although I didn't go intro the some stuff your group makes on the floor is good to stand in, this may come up later, I once had a death knight Tank that ran dutifully out on my AOE floor heal, For three instances before I asked him about it and is is so pretty with leaves and all, but he was scared it was a bad thing). I explained the various other mechanics on the other bosses, and we requed after he got repaired. You know what? ( I mean you can guess it went well,as I'm writing it down) the next attempt went off perfectly no one died he ran out of the bad and kept stuff and that thing that you need to face away from the DPS was kept from hitting the DPS we were happy, He thought it was amazing and easy. The rest of the instance went well to no one stood in the pistol barrage ( I preemptively warned the group). I did four more instances with this tank and he was actually better then many if he had some idea what was going to happen. We were both in fairly high spirits when we parted ways. I felt pretty good. ( sometimes I think it would be nifty to do a comic of all the instances and boss mechanics , it could be funny and informative, but since I only know up to level 80 stuff I'd probably need help and even I forget stuff, well actually my memory is notoriously bad but still....)
The thing is I've had to explain Shadowfang Keep about seven times now, ( I may even have written about this before , because it happens a lot) at the same point half the times I came in as the healer at the same point after a wipe. Why can't someone be bothered to type out a simple polite explanation or something? is it that much harder then typing swearwords or insulting people? ( If you must be rude perhaps a " Don't Stand in The F****** desecration or point the Sh*t at the DPS you illbegotten spawn of an murloc!" Should suffice) Do these people never move out of the bad? do most tanks and DPS expect to be healed through it ( I will heal through it on a well geared heirloomed character, but not everyone is, and then I feel guilty for encouraging incompetence, these people will haunt me in later heroics I just know it)
The other place I have to explaine is the Occulus, I try to start off with DPS please take an amber drake .... ( I understand some people are trying for the achievement but, they usually say.) I haven't had a lot of luck there, it usually goes badly I think by 80 people are very sure they know what they are doing whether or not that's true. One can always try, though.
Of course there is the other side of things , the times when you politely tell the tank or someone (after a wipe usually) and they get really mad even though your advice was sound. in this case trying to help is not fun. Or perhaps you need to try the swearing obnoxious explanations,( " Hey douchnozzle! if you didn't feel a need to wave your dick about by "bravely" pulling half the F*****g instance, before the party was zoned in the damn place, then run off and pull the boss while the healer was drinking you pile of corpse worm manure , we might not wipe, by the way the first boss mind controlls, you poopyhead!") this might work I'll have to try it some time, at least after the polite attempts fail. I'm also not all that good at swearing, I may need to polish my style a bit to be on par with many in the LFG.
Helping feels good when it actually helps and you do it in a nice way, but explaining something for the tenth million time can get annoying too. I'm not exactly sure how to balance it, but I do know some nice folks helped me out when I started, but now everyone expects you to know it all already and I guess there are sites out on the web that can help, ( I know there are, since I use them quite a bit , because I would be terrified to ask anyone about something in game with how the atmosphere is lately) but I think it makes someone feel good to get some personal help perhaps with a suggestion later on they could research things.
The PuGs with the Shaman went smoothly same with the druid I got mostly experienced players and when people felt a need they asked what to do, right off even, .
I deleted the gnome, but I'll just remake her later.
I got a laugh out of people moving out of healing because of the move from the stuff on the ground rule.
ReplyDeleteBack when healing the zuls I had this one group with all ranged, so I was happy, drop my healing rain and get all DPS any myself at the same time but this one hunter kept moving out of it. After the third time I asked him why he was moving out of my healing rain he and said, is that what that was.
Some people just do not know sometimes. We all learn somewhere. We got a laugh out of it and I must admit I wish that everyone moved from the bad as fast as he moved from my healing circle. He was on the ball when it came to movement even if not knowledge of abilities.
I have a character that just hit 85 and has run a few heroics and all of them where nothing to write home about but I cleared them all wiping a few times along the way. It was nice when you get a group where you explain and they listen and you beat the challenge.
It does bring me to think about one thing you said however and I have said it myself many times.
Where is the line between helping others and damn it I've already taught a million people this why do I need to keep teaching.
It sometimes feels unfair that I need to teach people to do something that I learned two years ago but I am a patient person that way, most are not, and that is where random ill will comes in.
I believe most people do not mind helping it is just at some point you reach that time when you have helped enough already and just want to play instead of teach for a while.
I usually just stop helping , when I feel overwhelmed by it or start getting cranky, but I'm given to feeling guilty and often overdo the being nice thing.
DeleteOf course I'm also one of the people who can need the help since unless I do something a lot my memory won't hold stuff , so I usually have to have my son sitting next to me telling mechanics of fights in new content for the first 20 or so runs. because I literally can't remember something I just read many times I usually have to do it , but post it notes help.