TLDR: Tanks who don't tank in a group because someone else got aggrod are morons.

So I was playing my 76 shaman, and got into a Violet Hold group. It was me, an 80 DK tank, a pally healer, a hunter and a mage. Since I've done this dungeon before, I knew what to do, and figured the other players would know as well, and if not, figure it out pretty fast.

At first we did okay, but I noticed myself and the hunter kept getting hurt a lot. Eventually he dies, and I try to heal myself, but I get overwhelmed and die as well. The mage dies shortly after too. I ask in group chat "uh tank?" and he replies "He pulls, I don't tank." Normally I would understand that, since a DPS pulling can cause problems. But Violet Hold isn't exactly a long maze we have to run through, it's just one big room.

So after all the DPS dies, the mage releases. I could reincarnate, but chose not to, instead waiting for the pally to rez me so as not to waste it unncessarily. The mage comes back, casts cone of cold, and immediately dies again, so I could tell he wasn't holding aggro on multiple mobs very well. The pally had aggro too, but was able to heal himself and throw enough on the DK to keep him alive.

Finally I release, run back, and attempt to rez the hunter. I immediately get aggrod by one of the mobs running towards the gate. As I was fighting and trying to keep myself alive, I saw the tank act as if he was going to run towards to help me, but then he backs off and just stands around. Since I was losing a lot of health, I just left the party.

The fact that the tank said that and chose to follow that sort of rule ("if I don't pull it, I don't fight it" really ticked me off. If it wasn't for the fact that the mobs keep coming once you start, I would've voted to boot him out for being a crappy tank. I looked at his gear in the armory website, and he's wearing some really crappy stuff, including a helm that has intel/spirit on it. I'm guessing he hasn't run too many instances.

You mean you experienced a bad group in WoW LFD?

Surely you jest.

 

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Bad group post #3553778...

in this case the tank is a moron. this is violet hold were talking about not a regular dungeon with normal patrols and such. its normal for people to pick the mobs up in violet hold and pull them towards the group. any tank whining about that is an idiot. be glad someone was paying attention to where the damn portals were spawning and pulled the mobs toward you.

of course if the person he was bitching about pulling was a hunter the hunter was just as much of a moron for not using misdirect.

 

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Yeah, that's pretty much what I was thinking. If we were in a different dungeon, then I could understand the tank doing something like that if the DPS was a bit overzealous and kept pulling things beyond what we could control.

But the fact that this was Violet Hold, and we had just started, I don't know why the tank was having such a holier than thou attitude about it. If he was just a bad tank trying to do his job, I could overlook that, since we all have to practice those skills at some point if we're playing the role. But just outright refusing to tank because a mob aggrod someone else first due to the tank not being in front is just plain WTF retarded.

I used to be more patient with players in groups. But I think from now on, if I group with anyone like that, I'm going to first try to boot them from the group. If that fails, then I'm ditching the group after making a smart aleck remark to them, such as "well, I'd love to stay, but I'm needed in a competent group!"

Uh, I don't think that was a bad player. I think that was a griefer.

 

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As a rule of thumb, if I see a tank in my random with really crappy gear (as in wearing spirit/int mail or plate or wearing leather/cloth) or using a 2hander and they are NOT a DK, I politely ask the player about it. If I get ignored, I just drop and wait out the debuff.


Playing with complete and utter morons/griefers just isn't worth the little bit of loot/xp you might get from a run.

 

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I've never done that or taken on that mentality. And I'm not about to get into pissing contests with DPS as to whether they are following kill order. Usually the healer is a good indecator as to whether or not the DPS is targeting the corect targets. So I communicate with the healer

 

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well, while each dungeon has its own peculiarities in general when I tank, or play the healer...


I tell everyone at the start, I pull no exceptions unless you are specifically asked to help via kill orders.

accidents happen, if you "accidentally" snag agro..I will be there to help, its my job, if you ignore my rules, get yourself out of trouble.

When I heal I let people know my focus is the tank and he/she leads, if you think its an all out dps game and you want to top the charts by pulling agro...I will let you die.


these simple rules save a lot wipes; and yes I do understand some people only want to race thru an event as fast as possible and if the pace is just 2minutes slower than what they have done in another group they start to whine...feel free to leave.


lets face it, when you have the gear all dungeons are really just about following orders; and if you are with a new tank trying to gear up its even more important to "follow the rules".


with new tanks that have been used to soloing (which you can tell quickly) they do need to focus more on group agro than dps, politely offer advice and explain why; the explanation part goes a long way to helping them understand.


lately tho, I am not seeing many "new" characters...its almost always the "I want to get this done in 5 minutes lets gogogogo"

There is one thing I will not tolerate in a dungeon - being pushed through it. I won't tolerate it as DPS, I won't tolerate it as a healer, and I sure as sh*t won't tolerate it as a tank. That said, Violet Hold sort of has a pre-defined rate of pulling. The group should have actually focused on kill orders so that they could kill things expeditiously without stressing healer mana and without causing the tank to go through heroic measures.

 

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