What's Aggro?

The other day, as I was happily healing random dungeons on my little baby pally (don't ask why I needed another one...I had to level something!), I encountered this Noobmage Buttscratcha (zomg, a name says soooo much!) in SFK. He had no self control! None! Blithely blizzarding his happy gnome ass off before the poor bear had a chance to swipe on every pull. I finally informed him that if he insisted on tanking I would cheerfully let him die.


His response, "I'm not tanking!"


We nicely tried to explain he needed to watch his aggro which led to this...

I hope he has lucrative professions...this one's going to rack up a lot of repairs bills.

The Joys of LFG Noobs

Seriously? You're questioning my defense cap in T10 gear because my HP is......too high?

/facepalm

Shiny!

Five players walk in to a dungeon through the LFG tool, let’s say it is AN, and things go failrly smoothly. The usual greens drops and people are rolling for disenchant, trash is dying, it seems like it will be a fairly smooth run.....

And then something new pops up in the loot roll window.

It’s new...it’s shiny...it’s a Pot O’ Gold, it can be used as an off-hand for +23 luck and +12 intellect or it can be vendored for 15,000 gold.

What’s a dungeon group to do?

There’s a moment before people roll where the group could have a discussion about whether to Need or Greed. They could discuss the stats and the vendor value. They could reach an agreement together. They don’t have that discussion.

Here’s what happened:

One passed - no one is clear why but I’m sure when he got home and looked around his shack on the wrong side of Redridge he kicked himself.

Four rolled Need.

A warrior wins the roll and they finish the dungeon.

* * *

Later the same day the warrior’s GM gets a series of tells from a mage who was in the group accusing the warrior of ninjaing the Pot O’ Gold. He complains that because warriors do not need +12 intell he should have passed. The GM talks to the mage about the value of the object and the fact that it wasn’t a case where everyone Greeded and the warrior waited until they were done to roll Need - no indeed! 4/5 Needed!

The mage continues to use the word “ninja” and won’t leave it alone. The GM then makes a discreet call and the mage’s body is later found rotting in Un Goro. The general theory is he was farming for little dinosaur pets and took on more than he could handle. He is not missed much. The GM is tired of stupid whispers.

* * *

True story. Almost. Substitute Battered Hilt for Pot O’ Gold and Shaman for Warrior and you’ve about got the picture. This little mage was very upset about the “ninjaing”. Unfortunately for him it really just came across as being a sore loser in a fair roll. I’m sure there are people out there who say that since there was only a slim chance the Shammie would want the weapon he should have passed or Greeded...I’m going to guess those are the same people who have lost a roll on it.

In my opinion the ridiculous value of the Battered Hilt as something of a vanity weapon (not to say the stats aren’t nice but come on...it’s more about bragging rights) that will be quickly replaced makes it fair game for anyone in the dungeon. Honestly, if I was in a random group and it dropped I would try to have a quick conversation and encourage everyone to Need on it. If there was a mix of Need/Greed I would probably Need myself. Lark could use weapon - use as in equip and have appropriate stats not use as in OMG that’s an upgrade! - but the 15k would go a long ways towards repairs for progression wipes and my little priest would finally have epic flying.

A Fairy Tale (no, not that kind of fairy, Priestest)

Once upon a time, in a land not so far away but very much more violent, a paladin decided to re-roll a mage. This paladin had the reputation of being quite good at tanking but had leveled many toons to 80 on PVE servers and was bored and wanted a new challenge.

So, this paladin decided that rolling a clothie mage on a PVP server was what was missing in her life. Silly, silly paladin. Should have at least considered a Dranei mage for Gift of the Naahru, but no, went with a belf. Silly, silly paladin who never really liked PVP to begin with but blamed it on being Prot. Not actually on the OMG...they're trying to kil...nvm I'm dead and they're camping my corpse...wait did they leave? Let's try a rez and mount really fast...nope they didn't leave life style.

Then, low and behold! Blizzard comes out with the new and improved LFG system! Baby Mage doesn't really need to quest! (Other than the Wrathgate quest chain, because, really that was a primary reason for re-rolling Horde.) But what does Baby Mage find? She may be new at her class and working out a few rotation issues and what not and may be not so sure what to do in certain situations but OMG so many people are totally clueless! Seriously, DPS, wait the 3 seconds it takes your poor tank in greens and a sad mix of blues (which there aren't many of for tanks before 80 and are always rolled on by wanna-be DK tanks) to gain aggro! I see you...you're wearing BOA gear which tells me you have at least a nodding acquaintence with the real world of WoW...so WAIT! Wait for your healer to have mana too! (Mana is the blue bar that looks a lot like your rage and rune bars but it's totally freaking different in that WATER fixes it and it's the reason you live or die in many cases!) Let's be clear, I've aready seen the first forum posts from LFG-unsatisfied customers about crap runs...do you really want to be called out for bad - but fixable - behavior this early in your little alts career? I didn't think so.

Here was the big eye-opening, adventurous thing about rolling on a PVP server...the characters your level just want to quest and be done with it. They don't hurt you. You don't hurt them. It's the characters 12 levels below you that attack you, and ,of course, you kill them, that go for level 80 back ups to come back and haunt you. It frankly amazes me at times how many level 80s have nothing better to do than stalk a level 73 mage who just wants the damn quest drop so she can go back to Dalaran and queue up for the daily BG...and during the 2 hours it takes to do that level her enchanting and tailoring.

I seriously need to join a guild on this little Baby Mage but the one I tried a few levels ago never responded to "Hiya", "Is anyone doing ________ quest?", or "Does anyone need help with anything?" I mean not one response in days...so I /gquit and figured I was better off talking to myself. I'm much more entertaining. : )