These days, I’m pugging a lot less, so I have less stories of fail, BUT…
Today. Violet Hold Heroic.
The “tank”:
Hashbrowniee from Ner’zhul.
Put him on ignore. 506 defense. No gems. NO relic (!). Didn’t even have Righteous Fury on until I told him to put it on three times.
Just a pitiful excuse for a player. I told him to respec ret and not inflict himself on others in an important role and he’s like “naw i like the instant queues”.
UGH. He got crit in the face a bunch. Good thing at least *I* knew what I was doing so I could keep his sorry ass alive.
I gotta say, the liking the instant queues is quite the valid reason for tanking. Healing is my main spec, but I mostly tank in 5-mans for that reason. But then again, I have my 540 defense on, and am gemmed/chanted up. I even have a couple pieces of T9 in my tank set.
I can also understand somebody not being quite up to par as a tank at this point, relatively soon after the Dungeon Finder has been introduced. (It’s not like it’s been out a year.) Somebody who’s relatively new to being 80 not really knowing how to tank but noticing that tanks get queued instantaneously, yeah, I’d be tempted at that point to give it a whirl.
But you gotta at least *attempt* to find out what you need to do to be a functioning member of a team. Was he receptive at all to advice on things he could do to improve himself? That’s where I’d draw the line, I think, if they didn’t care enough to listen. It’s one thing to not know, it’s another to not *want* to know.
Ag
Oh, he was COMPLETELY unresponsive and, when I continued to explain (as I am prone to do) that, as a tank, he’s THE most important member of the group, he laughed and was all “i don’t care” about it.
He then said “plus i think healing is pretty important” to which I replied “Yeah, which is why I AM DOING MY JOB, HERE.”
He just plain didn’t care about his job as the tank. The ONLY reason he “tanked” was for the faster queues. The only actual thing I can say about him is that at least he HAD a tank spec and at least he didn’t queue up as a tank in a DPS spec in DPS gear. I’ve heard of that happening, but have yet to see it. Thankfully.
It’s one thing to be undergeared. It’s another thing to be unprepared. And it’s still another thing to not CARE about either of those things.
I’ve healed close to def cap tanks, uber ICC25 tanks and mediocre tanks all… After a hellish 2 hours trying to heal a ret pally “tank” without any defense gear through H-FoS, I won’t do it anymore on my healers. Tanks MUST be in def gear and at least near cap. My main is a tank so I know what it takes to be trying.
Askevar – Had it not been Heroic Violet Hold, had I not known that I could keep him up with just a bit of effort and had I not been a little pressed for time, I would have dropped the group. I think the interesting thing (and part of why I document stuff like this) is to see where, exactly, my limit is.
What I’ve discovered:
– I have no patience for people healing me if they’re not a healing spec.
– I have no patience for “tanks” who aren’t in the proper gear/spec and will drop instead of healing them.
– I have more patience for “tanks” who at least have a decent spec and some gear and are trying. I don’t mind healing someone with low gear score as long as they’re trying and crit immune.
– If, on the other hand, I am pressed for time or am running with a RL friend or my brother, I will probably put up with it if I’m capable of it, just because it’s not worth it to drop the group and take a 30m debuff. This is what happened with the “tank” my entry was about.
As an aside, thank you so much for taking on both roles of healer and tank so you understand both sides of that relationship. :)
There’s a drawback to that taking on both roles thingy that I discovered this morning. My wife just put together a DK tanking set, so I ran a heroic with her this morning as a healer, which I haven’t done in a while. Ugh. Had a wipe on each of the first two bosses in TOC, because the healer (me) was just simply not back in the groove of healing. Must remember, if their health goes down by half pretty quickly, then I shouldn’t be trying a Holy Light to get them back up to full, as I’m not going to have time to get the spell off before they are dead. Now, granted, the DPS deaths were due to pulled aggro or standing in poison. Maybe I should reroll a priest so I can get LifeGrip™ =^)
Ag
Ugh ugh ugh. I had one guy just like that recently. I’d noticed he was a bit squishy, but chalked that up to being a bit new – he had some T9 so I assumed it was offspec.
It was also first thing in the morning and honestly, heroic forge of souls isn’t hard to heal.
…until the guy kept taking massive crits, and almsot dying on trash near to Brojahm.
It was only when he died to that boss (sob) and I was drinking up that I actually stopped to check him.
504 defense rating. No enchants. NO GEMS WHAT SO EVER, NOT EVEN A META. The spell-hit sword from /normal/ Drak’Tharon Keep. I can’t even remember what shield but it was a lowlevel quest reward. A haste trinket! All holy glyphs, so he may have recently respecced? …and NOT ardent defender. I could have cried.
He went to repair, and if it weren’t for the fact the rest of the group was good, i’d have ditched. but it’s only 2 bosses and lots of pain.
I did advise him to be defense capped and at least get green gems for his sockets in future, but he quite literally ‘cheesed’ that instance and when i’ve checked his armory since.. well.
I ever see him again as a tank, I’ll /votekick or just leave. I don’t need the stress. X)
Oh, and the level 70 libram from Sethekk Halls. How could I forget that. :X I think he’s since updated that one, but oioioioioi.