There’s a priest applying to my guild at the moment. He’s currently part-time, due to school stuff, but he seems to be knowledgeable and enthusiastic and stuff.
Yes. There is an upcoming “but”.
But… he’s weird. Okay, that doesn’t help describe the situation. He’s full of ideas, he’s really enthusiastic, he’s really gung-ho, he loves to talk about healing. I really should like him a lot.
I don’t. In fact, I’m sort of having to just hold my tongue and not shoot him down at every opportunity.
The issues began about 10 days or so ago when we pulled him in for heroic Festergut attempts. He had been saying, in healer chat, before he got swapped in, that the key is to watch the goo from Putricide’s balcony or whatever. Dude comes in, gets smacked by Goo like, 12 times and also misses getting all his Innoculated stacks.
ALSO, when he came in, he automatically assumed he was going disc, so he’d done his spec change from holy already and we tried the first attempt with two discs, instead of the 2 holies and 1 disc I wanted. Then, I was like “okay, that’s not working” in healer chat, got distracted by a raid leader chat conversation and come back to healer chat to discover that he told the disc priest already in the raid that he could go holy.
I was like, wtf, dude. Let me handle requests. We had actually brought him in to be holy. So I had them both switch back.
I don’t think he’s trying to “take over” or anything, and he seems perfectly pleasant. I think that my concerns stem from the fact that he seems to overthink EVERYTHING. I thought I was bad, but no, no, this guy overthinks absolutely everything in the entire game.
What prompted this post was my irritation regarding his thoughts on our heroic Lady Deathwhisper encounter.
We’ve wiped to her for five hours this week. No joke. The big issue is people getting smacked in the face by Vengeful Shades, meaning they trigger Vengeful Blast which does a huge 20y AOE thing, basically killing people.
The raid leader and the MT commented about this on the forums and the raid leader broke down how many people got hits/misses/absorbed hits from the Shades. As it turns out, even a miss or an absorbed hit will trigged Vengeful Blast.
One healer took 5 total hits over 5 hours of wipes. I took 23. That shammy, who took 3 on Wednesday and 2 on Thursday, and I are the only healers who took LESS on the second night than we did on the first night. (My breakdown was 15-8.) So I wrote to all the other healers, asking them to please be aware, blah, blah, blah.
Priest app writes back with this post that goes on to say that he’s got a new holy spec just for this fight, that’s got Soul Warding and Body & Soul and I’m thinking, what are you DOING, man? I want him to be holy. I don’t want him to bubble spam people. Hell, we had two discs in the raid anyways on Thursday to help shield people to keep them alive through our Vengeful Shade failure. And now this app, who had 8 hits of his OWN, is saying “hey, let me watch for that stuff, I’ll shield them and they’ll get the speed boost” when he can’t even look out for Shades that are hitting him?
How to crush his suggestion without crushing his ego/enthusiasm? Hm.
I think part of what annoys me is he just goes out there and Does Stuff instead of talking it over with his healing lead, who would be me, in this case. No “do you think it would be beneficial”, no “hey, I was thinking”… it’s just “I’ve also devised a specific holy spec meant purely for just this fight.”
I don’t mind thinking outside the box, I really don’t. But the consistent thinking outside the box without even considering what’s INSIDE the box kind of makes me want to throttle the guy.
How does he not even CONSIDER the issue of Weakened Soul? Two discs AND him bubbling the raid? Not gonna work, man. Sigh.
Oh hai.
As a huge lover of Body and Soul, I can tell you that having swapped to Disc almost exclusively I HATE having other weakened soul debuffs to deal with.
It’s ingrained in my blood now to bubble spam the raid and even when I have another disc priest my shit’s messed up (I’m becoming a prima donna that way haha). I have grid set up to show me who has PWS, and who has Weakened Soul.
On fights where B&S works? It’s awesome. Like infections on Rotface or well… anyway.
On a fight where you have 2 disc priests, what are the odds the Holy priest in question will be able to B&S someONE? (And it WILL be ONE person because of the 6 sec CD on shield for Holy) The odds are miniscule(sp?).
If your Discers shield like I do? The odds are 0.
Let him know that his priorities are not bubbling people. He’s holy to AoE heal the raid, not worry about how fast people are running. Waiting for someone’s weakened soul to fall off is NOT what a holy priest should be watching. If he does that, people will die to healable damage, which is why he is there in the first place.
Soul Warding is great, btw. Diving Fury can suck it!
Just let the Disc’s do what they are good at and tell him to do what Holy is good at. Besides, his bubbles will absorb for shit compared to the Discs.
/phew ^^
Ah yes, I’ve had apps like that. LOL Generally, you just have to be straight-forward and firm with them. There is no beating around the bush. It needs to all “slow down, dude. Please wait until I ask for changes until you make them.” straight out. Having to fight my chick tendencies to say nothing and stew is tough, but with these types of folks it -needs- to be done.
Me love you long time, Kal. :)
The issue is that he takes the point out of GS and puts it into Soul Warding in disc (not Spell Warding in holy, though I see what you’re saying) to get no cooldown on PW:S. So theoretically, he COULD get a couple of people, but when he’s that bad at getting out of the way of his own shades (not that I’m much better, mind you), I don’t see how, combined with that many WS debuffs in the raid, he’s going to be at all effective at that.
Blah!
Thanks for your comment. :D Every time the priests talk about B&S, I think of you!
Codi – my issue is that I’m more liable to take their ideas and just completely dissemble them so that they’re left with not a shred of self-esteem. ;D
But thank you for the helpful input. :)
Well. I like that your guild finally got someone with spunk applying, but he does sound like a tool. Like that kid in my own guild who came in and was all “LOL you cant solo Garfrost.” But only in that they’re both really big tools, this kid almost sounds like he knows how the game works.
My suggestion? Take him aside some night and just be like “Hey, I like your attitude about coming up with new ideas, but here’s the thing: you’re still an app. We have these strategies that have been proven, and we’re really just trying to keep an eye on how you work with the other members of the guild, rather than your creativeness. If you make it in, we’ll be happy to try your strats, but for now, let’s just go with what we have.” ((I realize that you didn’t actually ask for advice on the matter, but hey, what sort of comment would this be if I didn’t make it sound like I have some idea of what’s going on in your guild and said guild’s politics?))
And if he doesn’t get it, kick him in the mouth and move on. I’m leveling a priest and getting broadband tomorrow, I can be ready to raid ICC by… No later than Thursday. ;D
Also, I was thinking about buying you a Mini-XT. Would you use it or just delete the email? ;)
X – I think I would kick YOU in the mouth if you bought me a Li’l XT. Seriously. That shit is the most annoying thing I’ve seen in a REALLY long time. :P
As to the app, two things:
a) We don’t have heroic Lady Deathwhisper down at all, much less on farm. This is why he’s trying to be all creative, I suspect.
b) In an update, dude is batshit. I talked to the caster lead who linked me to another guild’s forum on the server and there’s an app by the priest (and an app by a mage who is also apping with us, who withdrew her app after his was denied…) and in it, they say sorry, but they don’t have a spot for him right now and he went OFF on them.
It was kind of hilarious, actually.
So my job is now to tread carefully, because we Like the mage and can use the priest.
But he’s totally batshit. Which makes me feel a bit better.
Grats on joining the rest of the universe with broadband, slacker. ;D
Wow. Seeing as how he’s batshit, it makes much more sense, but WOW. I mean, there’s being creative and taking initiative, and then there’s doing your own thing that YOU think is awesome that could very well make everything WORSE because you’re NOT THE ONLY PLAYER IN THE RAID DAMMIT.
Or even the only healer!
Best of luck treading lightly, and hopefully you can convince the mage to stick with you guys even if you don’t keep the priest. And if you DO keep him, best of luck dealing with him. I assume you can be a little heavier handed once they’re out of apps and settled in?
I didn’t tell you to tell him the truth. Am I the only one that lies to his guildies to keep them in line? o.O
Shrug. I guess seeing all the PUGs starting in trade makes me think there’s way more than enough people on a given server to fill in a guild’s dedicated core, but you know how much first-hand experience I have with that.* When he’s actually doing what he’s supposed to, if you’ve seen it, is he pulling his weight? Can you afford to not take him and get his douchebaggery under control?
And c’mon! He can’t be more annoying than that Egbert thing, or the train set. Or everyone standing around Dalaran on their shiny new Celestial Steeds like $25 makes them a balla.**
* That is to say, none.
** I have one too. I do that in Ironforge.
Oh God, it’s me :(
Okay, it’s not. But in a “there but for the grace of god” way.
Seriously though, I think perhaps he hasn’t got his head round this whole ‘team’ concept?
Apple – it’s hilarious, really, when you think about it. The way I see it is that he lets this stuff sit in his head and is all “I know what to do to fix this!” as if he, single-handedly, can do so. And it’s always something WAY out there. Like “omg, you know what? Instead of using Flash of Light, I will glyph for Holy Shock and never use FoL! And that will make us win!”
So bizarre. I’m so relived he’s batshit crazy, you have no idea.
I’m not sure if the mage and priest are able to be separated. I think the mage likes us a lot and I know the priest does, so far, but who knows how quickly we’ll leave the honeymoon phase if the priest’s ideas keep getting squashed? I can’t let it bother me, though. When my RL friend the resto druid comes back, she’s going to put up with even less of his shit than I will and she WILL swap him out, etc. Thus far, I’ve pulled him in when possible. I think we’ve extended a ginvite to him (we’re weird — unguilded app for 2 weeks, guilded recruit for 60 days, then promotion to member upon 75% attendence over 60 days) so we’ll see how he fares.
X – har, har. If it WERE possible to lie to him to smooth things over, as in to say “yes, we have her down, yes, we know what to do”, I probably would. But it’s too easily found out. ;)
The problem with filling up a guild roster, and keeping it full, is keeping people happy. Some people like being on standby and getting a break. Other people want to play every single chance they get. And others are somewhere in between. Plus then you have RL schedules to contend with, personality conflicts to settle and batshit crazy people to sort of pat on the head as you back away from. ;)
Lil’ XT is worse than Egbert as XT makes noise. It is worse than the train, because I have a train smasher. It is worse than the mounts because I don’t give a rat’s ass what anyone is riding or flying. XT makes noise that doesn’t fade if you’re 100 yards away from it. THAT makes me twitch.
Tam – hahaha. I think you have a good point in regards to the “team” concept. He seems to feel as if it all relies solely on his shoulders and takes a very narrow view. Whereas I, in the position I’m in right now, have to take a larger view: these are the resources I have. How can I allocate them wisely? How can I allocate them properly? And it’s like he keeps messing around with what he can bring to the table, which scews up my evaluation of the resources available.
Driving me nuts! :) He was well-behaved tonight, though, and we got Deathwhisper down and some good attempts at Saurfang heroic.
Oof. I get it now. Must learn to read and know my priest talents better, haha.
One word: UGH. Seriously, I get why he wants to help and all but for reals, that’s almost as dumb as Cell not taking SoR. SRS.
Kal – it’s okay, I understand, since every other talent of mine is “light” or “divine” or something. ;)
AHAHAHAHAHA. I *totally* forgot about Cell not taking Spirit of Redemption! OMG! Ahahahaha! God, that was so BAD that it was hilarious!
<goes to armory>
OH MY GOD. HE IS CURRENTLY SPECCED FOR IT. /flail
I have the feeling the universe will end aaaaaaany minute now, hahaha!
Ahem. re: my fail priest, I KNOW, RIGHT? His crazy is also starting to show up! He wiped us on regular Sindragosa last night because he was marked for the tomb in the last phase and he tried to move away from some casters who weren’t moving and ice tombed the OT…
Turns out the casters who weren’t moving? Were MIRROR IMAGES. So he goes *off* on mirror images in healer chat! “Fucking mirror images! They fuck me over in arenas and now in ICC! Fuck them! Fuck whoever invented them! FUCK!!!!” ahahaha.
Oh, God, people are so crazy. Thank you for being not insane, Kal. I miss playing with you!!
Holy CRAP he IS specced for it!
/waits for apocalypse.
You know who also changed things around? Kaylora or ‘Kayranus’ as he is now called. He’s actually gemming HASTE. So crazy because he used to be all mp5. He still spams CH to be at the top of the meters.
I was on an alt in VoA and he was healing, and after every boss he linked meters in the raid chat. Of course he’s the top because he spams the shit out of CH.
GAD he BUGS me.
Anyway, I miss you too!
*cough* Balance is recruiting a Holy Palleh. kthx
Why on earth he changed his name from Kaylora to Kayranus… I will never know. Good for him, gemming haste. I think it’s what the resto shammies are supposed to do. But of course he’s still spamming CH. Kaidenn PMed me a few times after I left BB and was like “ALL HE DOES IS CHAIN HEAL” and I was all “… yeah.”
I sent you something on FB. :D
As to Balance, I just checked your WoL parses for fun. Nice to see you, Chronis and Fad at the top of the healing meters on LK attempts. ;D Alas, even if I weren’t tied to my current guild via my RL friend, my brother and another friend are also on this realm and we’re all planning to head back to Eldre’Thalas come 4.0 and such. Too much $$$ to move around!
Also, I have zero desire to re-learn the Lich King fight. ;)
Tips: – Bubble spam if you aren’t (although I suspect you are) because it is SO worth it for infest!
– If you have to actively spend a lot of time healing due to the lack of a second holy paladin, have another disc spam bubbles for infest. Seriously.
– Try marking someone for the third phase, meaning the defile/val’kyr/soul reaper phase and stack on them for valks to make sure they all run in the same direction and run out for defile. It can be useful to call out defile and valks at 10 and 5 seconds ’till.
– For Harvest Soul, have your healers basically drop what they’re doing. A well-timed GS as soon as the person gets it is exceedingly useful, too. :)
<3