And other general group etiquette.
Last night I was invited to go to Steamvaults as DPS. The group was all 70s (hunter, paladin healer, mage, druid tank) and myself. I thought “sweet, this group is gonna kick ass, this’ll be nice and smooth.” I was wrong.
Our group wiped 5 minutes into the instance while we were fighting a Bog Overlord. I don’t understand why. Suddenly I noticed that the tank was dead, then the mage was dead, I grabbed aggro and my health went down very quickly (I wasn’t in my tanking gear, I popped a potion, and I’m not about to pop cooldowns on a trash mob when I know I’m gonna die, I’m sorry). I realized it was because the pally just decided to stop healing, or atleast thats how it seems. He was just standing there, not doing anything.
So we wiped, and got back into the instance for another go. No apologies from the pally, not even an excuse for no heals, nothing. He didn’t say a word except for “water pls.” My friend (the mage) and I knew this wasn’t going to go well.
The second instance of jackassery was when the hunter pulled a pack of mobs with scatter shot. Scatter shot. I’ll say it again, he pulled the group with scatter shot. Now, perhaps there is some kind of trick to that certain pull where scatter shot is the best thing to use. I highly doubt it. Needless to say, the wandering mob ran into a patrol that was coming back, aggroed the pat, and we wiped once again. As we were ghost running back the hunter said “Oops! I pressed the wrong button guys, sorry.” You expect me to believe that at level 70 you can’t concentrate on the correct button to press for a pull? In the middle of some crazy action and you’re freakin out trying not to wipe, sure I can believe you pressed the wrong button. But when nothings going on and we’re just waiting for a pull? That’s called being a moron.
To top it all off, a few minutes later (after having told us the “wrong button” story) he said “LoL someone told me to use scatter shot on those mobs!” Get your story straight, buddy.
I don’t really think the hunter was quite all there in the head. During trash fights he was running around like a goddamn monkey on crack. If he grabbed aggro, he would run all around, making it that much harder for the tank to get the mob back. He would trap something, and then run to the total other side of the fight (in order to get range, I assume). But why did he need to run through the fight? Why couldn’t he just back up a little bit, and stay near the mob just incase he needed to drop another trap? Speaking of dropping another trap, he apparently likes to freeze sheep, and other random mobs that do not need CC. He dropped frost traps randomly, freezing mobs that we were fighting and such. He was pretty much a disaster.
Luckily we actually managed to finish the instance. We wiped on the gnome, but I went in to tank the second try and we did it. We even managed to kill the final boss, woo for us! I was happy about that. Nothing good dropped for me, but I managed to turn in a quest and get Myrmidon’s Headdress which is a pretty sweet tanking helm.
It might be good for me to get to the point of this story, because I do have a point. My point is, try not to be a total jackass when you’re grouping in a PUG. I try to be as nice as I can, as polite as I can, as helpful as I can, and as level headed as I can. I play my role and I’m not an idiot about it. If for some reason you have to stop casting heals (I dunno, maybe your microwave blew up or something) don’t be completely silent about it and hope everyone forgets. Say you’ll try better next time, or say what went wrong. Say anything (call us douchebags for dying even without heals) I don’t care. Just don’t be totally quiet.
And try not to be a moron when you pull. Bad pulls happen, yes, but a little concentration and knowing what button to press will stop that. If you’re a hunter and you grab aggro, don’t run around like a madman. If you do this, you will probably die, because the mob follows you and the tank has a hard time regaining aggro.
Watch your aggro, know your role (I’m not saying “PALLYS HAVE TO HEAL!” but I’m saying, if you went into the group saying you were gonna heal, then heal goddammit), have some sense of group etiquette, and don’t be a moron. That’s really all it takes for a PUG to go smoothly.
The Barracks 