Gear Creep

Has anyone noticed the quality of pugs has both increased and decreased lately?

Groups get impatient with pulls and stupid / reckless with extra gear. You can’t plough thru all the crowds without mana breaks and ignore all CC mechanics just because your Level 24 guild is doing Nefarion Hardmode. We’re all NOT on the same page. This leads to bigger expectations in random PuGs and players able regress back into WotLK playstyles.

I tank Heroic 5 man content. I use three toons between 352 and 340 gear level. As a Tank, you worry about Threat and being able to survive the damage output. As people get better equipped, I’ve had dps rip agro off in regular intervals. Why? The dual wield Fury warrior is pushing 16000 DPS using twin 365s and is wearing T11.5 in all slots. He was pushing insane amounts of damage. Consecrate has nothing on a 30k damage whirlwind. Then I had two 359 iLevel Warlocks unleashing hellish amounts of spikey threat and 15k Dps in a damage race. I was forced to keep Taunt as part of my rotation. The healer was going OOM trying to keep up with Life-taps and Adds being ripped off the Tank. Are they bad players? Yes. BECAUSE their better gear makes them assholes? No. They just happen to be inconsiderate players with fantastic loot.

I also heal 5 man Heroic content. My healers are 350, 340, and 333. That’s a much bigger range of ability. As a Healer, it’s a different kind of hell. I had a full 359 Tank geared for Max Avoidance. He only had 155k health. I had to explain to him that 5 man heroic content should still be respected. He drew all of the mobs onto him without any CC, then expected to be healed thru Inferno + Meteor Strike + Lightning Lash and two melee beating on him. I understand the caliber of endless mana he’s accustomed to bathing in, but seriously know your limits. Some of that trash will still rock your face, if you get reckless. My obligation as healer is to keep the tank AND the rest of the group alive thru the fight. That sucked trying to keep up. A couple seconds of Polymorph, Banish, Ice Trap, Sap, or whatever can mean a world of difference. Don’t push your healer in blue 333 gear. Gear Creeping upwards to Tier 12 doesn’t mean that everyone’s alts are able to achieve the throughput required to do Hardmode 25man content. Especially when you que for a Random PuG.

I also DPS. My mage pushes 8k. My Shaman pushes 14k. My DK pushes 12k. Not much to brag about. If I can’t keep up with the other DPS, there’s no crying. I can accept being Top DPS and being Very Bottom. I always use CC and assist the tank. If the tank breaks CC and the healer is fine, we’re all good. I STOP attack and run to the tank when I do pull agro. DPS is easy. Follow the lead. Think on your feet. Help where you can. Stay out of the fire.

Play nice. It’s a chore to do Pugs for daily Valor points with the “non-Raid Scrubs”. Don’t be a jerk about it.

5 Man Healing

Hello and welcome to the healing / keeping people alive portion of tonight's entertainment. Normally, I have a great time being DPS and a good time being main tank. Healing is something I rarely did when people died off and I had to keep people breathing to finish off a boss.

The other day, a paladin friend got me back into healing and I've been pretty happy healing. Getting behind a solid tank, reliable DPS, smart raiders, and capable co-healers make my job as a Resto Shaman quite awesome. Here are some pet peeves.

Every day I try to hit a random group and get my two daily Frost badges. Over time, you learn that some things complicate your run and really chafe your "fun time" away from raid healing.

Tanks that don't type instructions, give notice on pulls, or stop for breaks. These guys are usually at 50k but I've seen over-zealous tanks as low as 30k. I don't know about you guys, but I can't heal a tank when he's dead. No matter how much hp you have, if I'm still 2 rooms behind - You're dead. I'm not wasting time, but I do have to stop to loot corpses or drinking for mana. Unlike dps, I don't stop healing until after the fight. If I stop to loot during the fight, I'm not keeping heals on MT or my team. I'd rather check loot after the dust is setttled. That's just benig professional. Charging ahead and chain pulling isn't cool. Thank goodness for riptide being a HoT and my Mp5 being great. I normally don't have to stop to regain mana after heals unless the incoming damage is obscene. Also, when I ask for a mana break, I want the pulls to stop. When I'm DPS, I don't chain mis-direct whole groups onto the tank. People don't like being pushed along or dragged thru. Random runs take 15-25 minutes at most. That's fine.

2) DPS that move ahead of the Tank. Hey dude. Warlocks in cloth and 22k health make poor tanks. Get your scrawny ass out of that crowd. Nobody cares about your L337 DPS skills. Flexing your E-Peen on a 5 man PuG damage meter is pointless. My only consern about DPS in a pickup group is if he's doing less than 1500 dps on a heroic.

3) People that NEED on everything they can. Really?? Really? Those mail leggings of spirit isn't going to help you do your job any better Mr. Hunter. We all know better. If you're going to get a legitimate BOOST to your Damage, Heals, or Survivability... Need the item. Nobody will question you. There WAS a debate about Needing Frozen Orbs because of their recent jump in value with patch 3.3.3 but now no one can NEED it and everyone greeds those.

Enchanters will often NEED a purple item on the last boss of a pickup group. Why? Because they are gauranteed the shard from disenchanting. If they choose disenchant, you have to compete with 4 others. Luckily, alot of Endboss items are mail, Plate, swords, and such... so no Enchanter (casters usually) can need on every epic.

Pug healing. Most times, no one dies and things go smoothly.

Advice to new Pug Healers? GET some mana regen. Today's pickup groups move at insanely fast pace. I've never been dropped by a group because of mana breaks, but I have been blown off and seen the tank chain-pull at zero mana. Frustrating when you're "obligated" to heal idiots. I could let the MT and everyone else die, but that wastes everyone's time. Caught between pinciples and practicality, I'd just get thru it and choose your Raids carefully. The pickup 5 mans are random and not worth the 30 min deserter debuff unless you really HATE your teammates.