Here's the situation: This morning I sold off the oldest and worst of my feral gear. This evening I got tired of going OOM constantly, so I went back to feral. I'm really winning so far, right? Oh, I didn't respec. The 15, maybe 25g annoys me. So I dual-specced. Yes, I spent 1000g to avoid paying 25g. So now I'm feral and eventually find myself in Jintha'Alor in the Hinterlands, because it's an awesome place, though less so since it appears to have received a second massive nerf. The mobs there used to be elite, so it was a sort of outdoor dungeon, which could be frustrating I suppose. Now the kill and gather quests seem to have much lower requirements, which seems dumb since you'd mostly run into the full number while heading up anyway.
Okay, point time: I was forming a group for BRD during this. I invited a warlock first, who didn't seem to quite know the norms of communication for forming a group. This isn't to say he was rude, but that he seemed too polite, perhaps he was new. I wish I'd realized that at the time. Then there was a hunter. Finally a tell from the alt of a DPS warrior, who I told to not bother switching until we had a healer (I also don't summon people to instances until we know there's one open). Then there was the DK who apparently wanted to argue with me that my group didn't just need a healer, since I'm too stupid to figure out on my own that we only had three people in the group.
Still not there yet, here we go: the hunter says something like "last I checked druids healed and warriors tanked." Someone pointed out that I was tanking while I told the hunter to check again because MC was a few years ago. Time passes.
He starts saying how he's healed and tanked as the wrong spec and how we should do what is needed to get the group going. This sounds very nice doesn't it? Also potentially stupid.
Grouping Wrong
Let's pretend that all of this can be quantified, for sake of argument. There is some amount that that the fury warrior wants to do BRD. There is another amount that he doesn't want to tank, or perhaps would be frustrated by tanking or whatever. Point is, tanking would be a negative of fun. If the fun of BRD is outweighed by the unfun of tanking, then it would be stupid for him to tank BRD. He would be grouping wrong. Oh sure, he'd get into the instance and the group, but he'd not be having any more fun than if he was soloing.
Is this selfish? Yes. There would probably be a net gain of happiness if he tanked it and I healed and the hunter got to run along acting important despite being a hunter. But, this is a free world where we choose what to do based on what we want to do and where we submit ourselves to a greater good only at our own choice. It is not sensible to stop having fun at the whims of others for little gain. It's not as if this is a raid and wiping is learning and we're all guilded and working together. It's a PUG which will be forgotten the next day, unless someone is a real jerk.
Tomorrow I'll tie this into the world-game balance.
Avowing my price sensitivity
2 hours ago
4 comments:
Even though I dabble in my classes' other specs and I'm frequently willing to take on other roles just because I revel in my hybridness, I don't think it's a good idea to force someone into a role they're uncomfortable with.
But I think it's okay to ask if someone is willing to do their off-spec. For instance, I had an SM run on my feral druid where we ended up with three (!) ferals, and two other dps-only classes. We talked about it and asked if the lowest level feral (who theoretically would have the worst dps) would be okay healing. Turns out he was.
The hunter in your group sounds like a jerk though. :P Just because he did it doesn't mean everyone else is comfortable with it. Goodness knows I've tanked enough of the wrong things in the wrong spec before, but I'd never recommend doing it!
You should have told him that if he wanted to get the group going that bad he should get on his healer and do it himself. ;)
Unfortunately he left right as I was typing out that he should get his own healer, so instead I sent him a tell about what's the point of grouping if you're not having fun, and then put him on ignore.
Hmmmm, interesting observations. Not to make it all about me or anything but it ties into some disconnected thoughts I've been having about instances and the tyranny of fun. Ultimately if you join a group of players then there's an extent to which you put "group" above "individual" fun but I notice the primary mover and shaker in the "make someone's life miserable" lobby was the hunter, who basically got to run around dpsing regardless of what anybody else was doing. In which, as you say, he'd put his own fun above everyone else's ... treating the rest of you like a bunch of NPCs who were there to facilitate his game and his chosen playstyle.
Gah!
I have no objection to off-speccing but only if I'm in the mood and the group is good - shouldn't be taken for granted.
@Tamarind: Your comment about us being NPCs reminds me of a comment my mom once made when I said something about an online friend: "oh, so not a real person?" When people go online they forget a lot of the humanity of others.
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