Thursday, July 24, 2008

Welcome to Heroic Ramparts. Speed of the Day? Jerkish.

I should learn by now that running Heroic Ramparts is the best place to meet star people. This run was no exception, but I did learn something from it! Story time first, and then the lessons learned, me thinks. There is a lesson -- or, perhaps, there are lessons -- that I have to pass on from this story!

It started out as a DPS warrior, a tank, a lock [these three from the same guild], Had rather a rough start (involving me forgetting that the stuff at the beginning hits harder (or so it feels) and I really ought to be in tree form and actually paying attention and healing rather than chatting with a few friends). So people died, and... well. I healed as I ran out. I don't think it garnered me much love, but... I tried to save them as they ran with me.

The DPSWarrior and the warlock each died two or so more times, but that was because they both pulled aggro and I had a choice of saving one or the other, as their health was going down rather fast. (I ended up saving (and trying to save the other as well) the one that was closest to where my mouse was at the current time).) Apparently, that wasn't good enough, so I later found out.

I managed to grab leader so I can mark (as I was tired of sitting around and waiting for the tank to mark. He was slow at it, and I was bored during the end stages of every fight, so I took up the task. We got to the second boss without *too* much incident though -- a few deaths, but nothing *too* out of the ordinary. Dying is normal in heroics, and especially in that one, in my books at any rate. Even if the tank is in ZA/Badges/Heroic gear, and I was about the same too. It happened. Bad pulls, "OH CRAP" moments, the "I HAS AGGRO AND CAN'T GET RID OF IT... and I'm dead" moments too. It's all a part of the lure of heroics.

Well, maybe not the lure, but we do heroics for some reason (besides badges, at any rate), and that's definitely part of what many people (if not everyone) experience in their heroic runs at one time or another.
    Reasons Why I Heroic:
  1. Badges
  2. Chance to meet new people?
  3. Chance to try out a new guild member?
  4. Boredom. It completely beats farming alone.
Okay. So maybe not for the negative sides. But it's still a part of it.

Second boss rolls around, and I go ahead and ask the DPSWarrior to take adds. Mind you, I completely forgot the fact that we had a warlock -- I just saw his lack of mana and thought -- 'Oh, goody. He can take care of it! He doesn't have mana that gets eaten, unlike the lock and the mage!' -- and we went for the boss.

I died not too long in, then slowly the rest of the group (except the mage and the tank, who held out surprisingly long without a healer). Try two. Warlock tried to take care of the adds. Too many, too fast, apparently. I had assigned the DPSWarrior as his backup, but that didn't work either. Another wipe. Warlock had to leave before try three. I wasn't reading properly, and, as the warlock didn't actually leave, I was forced to remove him. I hate removing. I don't tend to do it right. Before I did so, I said in the chat: "Removing DPSWarrior". Paused. Didn't see complaints, removed the DPSWarrior.

And looked around for the replacement the warlock was talking about.

The mage spoke up: "I thought it was the warlock that was leaving."

Oh dear. Scroll back up. Yeah. Warlock.

... Look around. DPSWarrior was standing there. He had backed up slightly, and if animations were truly animated, I bet he would have been staring at me confused. Oops. I reinvited him.

And got chewed out by the tank. "REINVITE HIM BEFORE HE GETS GHETTO HEARTHED". Much less literate than that, but the effect was the same. At that point, I already had, and was on my way to kick out the warlock. Couldn't resist mentioning that they could have said something when I mentioned WHO I was on my way to kick...

But we got a rogue more or less, in one fashion or another. It took a bit; I couldn't find him, and, therefore, I had turned to a guildie, but he was currently trying to slaughter the last boss in Heroic Shadow Labs (ewww. -shudder-) and failing. Popped into LFG, and llo and behold! There was the rogue! Snagged him, went back in.

One more try. Transferred the duty to the rogue. DPSWarrior got the debuff. Didn't move away. Rogue died as I was working my tree arms frantically to try to keep the tank up. [Oh, I found this shirt while looking for an image of a casting tree. I like it!] The DPSWarrior may have been chasing a fel puppy or something, but all I saw was my health dropping, and, before I could do much about it, me dead. And everyone else died too. Surprise? Not too much. Normally, if the healer's down and there's no backup healer, group's just screwed.

Not so pleased with dying, I was, and, therefore, I spoke up [transcribed from screenshots -- this was easier than blurring out names, if you'll believe it]:
[Me]: DPSWarrior, you're killing us.
[Rogue]: i stayed away from you guys!!
[Me]: You had the debuff. Rogue died.
[Me]: You ran toward me.
[Me]: I died.
[Mage]: lol
[Rogue]: get'em!!!
[DPSWarrior]: How did you both die because I had the debuff
[Mage]: damn.
[Me]: The debuff ticks for 3156 on EVERYONE you're by.
[Rogue]: I have no idie lol
[Me]: Go through your logs.
[Rogue]: idea*
[Me]: [2:01:11] DPSWarrior has slain Lossemenel!
[Mage]: lol
[Rogue]: lol
[Me]: xD Tell that to the gear we're all repairing soon.
[DPSWarrior]: You hae let me die so many times I figured you had it comming
[Me]: Little less amusing then.
[Me]: Okay, you've just earned no heals for the rest of the instance.
[Me]: You killed Rogue as well, you know.
[Mage]: lol
[Rogue]: ouch!
[DPSWarrior]: What would change
[Mage]: can't we all just get along? :D
-shows healing meter. DPSWarrior is the one that is second on the healing taken meters, at 10.1% of the healing taken-
[Rogue]: nw
[Rogue]: i was dead in 2 sec anyways
[Tank]: yeah you better heal him or I'm out
[Mage]: lol
[Mage]: oh snap.
[Tank]: I could list 5 things why he was healed that much but I don't want to talk shit about everyone
[Tank]: you better stf
[Tank]: U
[Me]: I can list two things of why he was healed that much.
[Me]: And neither of them having to deal with me.
[Mage]: atleast no one is mad at me for polymorphing at wrong times now :P
[Tank]: will there I have a bigger list. I win
[DPSWarrior]: True
[Me]: Bigger list means nothing. One: Your tanking. Two: His aggro. Beat it.
[Rogue]: kk this time we kill this guy!
[Mage]: k lets finally finish this instance...
[Tank]: well I'm out
[Tank]: peace
[Mage]: ...
[Tank]: nah I dont need that
[ Both the Tank and DPSWarrior leaves, as they're guildies. ]
[Mage]: well that sucks oh well
Hrm. Apparently, the two weren't interested in knowing just why the DPSWarrior died more than everyone else. They just wanted to know why I didn't heal him.

I almost felt bad. Almost. But, really though? There was little I could have done to save the DPSWarrior. The times he tended to pull aggro happened to be when I was busy saving my tree hide, or when I was busy trying to save the hide of the warlock, who somehow also had pulled aggro. And, for my part, GCDs got in the way and the mobs hit too hard for me to save both. Had time to save one and start saving the other before the other died. Oh, the woes of being a healer and having DPS that just didn't know how to watch their aggro.

Despite that, however, the DPSWarrior had little right to say that I had it coming.

We interrupt this post with the following... interruption.
    Mini How-To: How to Irk Your Healer
  1. Saying: "HEAL ME!" -- by anyone. It's our job to heal. Staring at health bars are pretty all we do. We know you're injured. We're either in the middle of a cast to heal you, our HoTs are ticking away on you already, or we're healing someone else who is dying.
  2. Saying: "I didn't bother saving you because you didn't heal me." -- If we didn't heal you, it's generally one of two reasons. And, usually, the reason does not tend to be because we don't like you. Normally, we "didn't heal [you]" because a) you died too fast or b) someone else was being healed instead, and you died while we were saving them. Not because we chose to completely ignore your dropping health bar.
  3. Not Understanding this Concept: Quite honestly, it boils down to this: Tanks are important. Healers are important. They get priority to living. DPS are not so much. If the tank and healer needs healing, we're going to keep us up before we keep you up. You're DPS. Watch your aggro. If you exceed, stop DPSing. If you can't resist hitting them, white attacks. If you're a class that has an aggro drop of some sort, use it. You're not as important as the tank/healer. Get over it. Want to be the center of attention? Roll a tank.

  4. General: Bandages! First of all. Everyone should have maxed out FA. Second of all. If you aren't a tank (or even a healer, at times), and you're hurt, and the healers are working hard to keep the tank up, step back and help them by bandaging! That way, there's less of a chance you'll die, and the healers won't have to stress to try to get you in between keeping everyone else up.
  5. General: Getting eaten by the mobs that are supposed to be CCed. And said DPS whom the CCed mob belongs to is busy DPSing, or even pulling aggro. Heeeeey, guys? You won't get very far without a healer. Watch your CC!
  6. Tank (or anyone, even), that pulls more than they could handle, and then whining when they die. And when their DPS dies. And when the healer dies. Oh, and when the healer doesn't die as well. Sure, they might be awesome, but their healers sometimes might not be able to keep up with all of the damage being taken.
With two pulls beside that boss left, me not healing him probably wouldn't have been that big of a deal. He just had to watch his aggro and not stand in the fire. Not good enough, apparently. Either that, or it's just too big of a thing to swallow: the healer was refusing to heal you. Either way, it was the tank that got upset about it. Guild bond, I suppose. Still. I don't take well to being told that I deserved to die because I let him die. I really don't take well to being told that I fail for not healing him. He can go and bandage for the rest of the instance as far as I was concerned. I was still going to heal the tank -- he hadn't really insulted me at that point (beside the snide comment that pointed at me for being the reason his guildie died), and... well. He was the tank. Oh, and he had put together the group.

They did leave after all, and then the mage decided that he didn't want to wait (he was a PvP mage. Hated waiting) while I got replacements. I had to say I didn't feel bad, for I rather felt that I was in the right. (I tend to. Feel free to pop that nice bubble of mine if you disagree.) Sure, it wasn't too nice, but... They deserved it?

Replacements and summons took less than five minutes, and ten minutes later, we had downed the second boss. No issues what so ever. (Replacements being a moonkin, a hunter, and a pally tank.) Ten minutes after that, Narzan was down. Two free and painless badges for our replacements, a nether for our pally tank, and both the hunter and the moonkin received a needed blue from the chest. Quick, painless, and useful loot for them. Couldn't ask for anything better.

Oh. One last thing. The Reinforced Fel Iron Chest really enjoys keeping my Tree-Mender's Belt from me. Good thing I love it just as much as it loves me. I'll be seeing a lot more of Vazruden and Narzan, that much is for sure.

What else is new?

Side note: Thanks to Matt and Jez for the note about how to make my lists a bit easier on my poor, overworked (only from trying to post) brain.

6 comments:

Dale said...

Waaa I miss wow-ing. And I'm sure you miss my magey too. Hehehe.

Anonymous said...

Been a tree druid for 2 years now. Hardest dps class to deal with in 5 mans is def. the dps warrior. Very often pulls aggro and gets in trouble. Its been a hard lesson to learn, but finnally I realized that they have to save themselves. No heal before they loose aggro and are back on track again. Very often they die ( to slow to use pot/hs/bandage ) and if u have made the mistake of healing them the mob comes straigt for you. Most other classes have an emergency button for loosing aggro, but warrior not. So just follow my advice, no heals when they get aggro ( unless they ofc are oftanking with a shield )

Lin said...

@Dale -- Of course I miss you and Ash. With Ash along, it means that I don't have to deal with stupid DPS that whine about me not healing them. With you along, it means the same thing, minus the whining and plus the banter.

@anonymous -- Ah, yes. I don't tend to group with DPS warriors a lot, and when I do... well. You just read about the experience I most recently have. Worst thing is, most of them tend to have a chip on their shoulder that really belongs better on a tank. Also, many don't seem to understand the part about saving themselves...

Normally, there's little issue healing them, but when they drop really fast and then blame you... well. -shrug-

Not that being a tree druid helps in the aggro-drop department when you decide to pre-heal and are getting eaten. No fade to save us.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately it escapes me where the link was, but it was there.

Nice to hear from you, keep up the great site.

-Sylv

krizzlybear said...

Oh boy. I just had a...similar experience with my ramparts run tonight. Doesn't help that the tankadin says it's his first heroic EVER, and that the hunter is in more greens than blues, and that the healer is always leaving the tank at approximately 10-15% health throughout the entire fight despite my assumptions that he's not uncrittable yet.

Oh well, we still make it through the first hallway no problem. pulled a pat somehow during the boss fight. Everyone dies (except me, the frost mage of course!), leaving me to kite the add and the boss at 1%, having him die due to rogue poison, and successfully kiting the mob back and forth from the corpses to the instance portal.

Ok, not too bad, I like being all heroic (pun totally intended) and doing stuff like that just to pick up the pace, rather than sheeping it and wait for the others to come back (oh, did I mention that tankadin likes to chat while auto-running off the bridge into the gorge below?).

Of course, healer has enough with the waiting. Even though he has the option of rezzing the tankadin, he goes afk to get some food, and when he comes back, he d/c's right after the caster pull at the top of the spiral ramp.

I grab a tree druid from my guild, and we resume pulling. Due to some issues with laziness, hunter and tankadin decide to keep pulling the pats outside the end of the hallway; somehow, despite the mere 5% success rate of pulling the pat without aggroing the side mobs, they're always willing to wipe just to kill a single mob from the pat group.

Fine, I'll live with that. Mages don't have large repair bills anyays. After taking a wipe for each mob in the pat group, we finally get around to doing the normal pulls in that room. Second boss was no biggie. Never fought him before, so I ended up betraying my healer to death, but thank god for Cold Snap, Water Elemental, Icy Veins, and 6 crits in a row, right? Dizzying shots and daze effects from the hunter and Rogue sure help with making sure he doesn't get to me. Oh yeah, rogue took on the adds, and valiantly too. The second-best geared person in the group.

So what's up with that final pull that triggers the boss fight? Damn mobs keep respawning despite burning them down super-fast. Vazruden comes down when I'm already at 45% mana. As a deep frost mage. WITH MAGE ARMOR ON.

So yeah, we sorta wipe a lot on this fight. And each time we're always having to fight respawns. Out of the 3 or 4 wipes, we down Vazruden no problem, but it ends up with either the tank not getting out of the fire, or not letting go of Vaz's aggro and simply picking up Nazran before he gets a few lethal shots at our tree. Fire + Wood = Fail. Well, mathematically, Fire + Wood = Firewood, but at this point, it's merely semantics.

What else is new? Nothing much, really.

Anonymous said...

they deserved it. I'd have exploded in their face with all my woody fury the second they even implied it was my fault that they died. IMO, any half competent healer will know who died from what and how. If it was his/her fault, he/she'd know. Any added "comments" can go f- themselves. ^_^