Jump into the deep end

by Copra

Sometime ago I wrote about how the PUGging is in fact a question of trust. In that post I mention how I don't want to tank in LFD heroics because I feel that the rest of the group are not trusting me. Now I have to change that a bit: I don't feel comfortable enough to volunteer for a PUG raid as a tank, but in LFD group I take the leap into the deep end of the pool. I trust the healer to do their best to keep me alive, but I don't trust the dps to look their threat meter -if they even have one.

Yesterday was another evening like that. Several IC10's opening up all the time, GS requirement a bit higher than my current gear and achievement requirement for 4-6 bosses, minimum. I don't have the achievements, so that's it. I know I can do the fights as a tank, seen them all up to Sindragosa and bested them. Sadly on two different characters and on different raid sizes, so I don't have a concise way of showing them.

So I passed the whole /trade because of this. If the people calling for a PUG raid have such expectations for their group, they won't trust them a bit. They just want to have the badges and some loot, not anyone doing their best.

We ran two heroics with Förgelös, and I submitted myself on the mercy of the healer. There was enough to do in the first Ahn'Kahet, as there was a hunter and a warlock who were no the most careful with their pets. Fun and furious, never the less.

Second one showed me again the lack of group play tutorials in the game. We went to Gundrak Drak'Tharon and there was this boomkin druid who clearly had no idea on aggro management or what to do in a group. But hey, he had at least four pieces of ilvl264 on him. First pull with five mobs and this druid was down. Why didn't tank hold the aggro was his question. Being the gentleman I am, I told that I had a glitch on my computer (which I really had, the whole thing froze for 5-10 seconds mid-fight), but the real reason he died was the fact that he pulled that one mob before I had any aggro on it. I had enough to do with the rest before my 'puter froze.

The same thing persisted through the whole instance. The other thing that royally pissed me off was his use of Cyclone all the time. Just as I had charged, thunderclapped and slammed the trash mobs, his cyclone would push them all away from me and I had to start again. Worst moment was when he did that on King Dread fight in which we had two adds: the two adds were pushed to the path of two more, so that when Dread was dead, we still had five (one came later) raptors to deal with.

Without the wonderful shammy healer and mu total trust in her talents it would have been a wipefest. Also the mage did a great job to down the odd adds for the druid, not to mention Förgelös' new level of dps after getting some sweet crafted gear.

It is hard to let go and trust completely to other players when you see this kind of disregard from them. But in the end, when you are able to trust that the players around you do -or at least try- their best, you can really pull out the best in your own performance: concentrate on your own skills and moves and dedicate yourself on your own job.

As a tank, getting beaten by the bad guys so the others can do the beating, uninterrupted.

Can you really take the jump into the deep end and not worry about other's doing their job while in a PUG (raid or LFD)?

I think I finally can.

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