Archive for December, 2009

So there was a post on the warden boards last week titled “What makes a bad warden” that got me thinking about the things players do that drive me batty while they’re in our fellowship.  I don’t mean this as a bashing thread, more a “what not to do” discussion.  This was further reinforced as shortly after reading that thread I did Sword Halls with 2 captains and had no less then 3 fear debuffs on me the entire time – even after asking in chat numerous times for a muster!

Hopefully by looking at what others don’t like about our class we can all become better players.  Essentially this is the inverse of the “what I wish others knew about wardens” post meant to help folks find what others don’t like about what they do.  I mainly play a warden, captain, or minstrel so I know the most about them – so if a class has a shorter list it mainly means I just don’t know it well enough or group with enough bad ones to have pet-peeves.  So in no particular order please don’t be one of those people that do the following things:

In general

• not considerate of others time
• un-announced afk’s
• not prepared (no food/pots, wrong gear, etc.)
• not knowing their class
• not listening, or repeating the same mistake over and over again
  • “don’t hit the mezzed mobs”
• Anyone with a cure that doesn’t use it (captains muster courage, hunters poison, LM wound, etc.)
• Not assisting the main assist (use the window)
• not letting the main puller pull
  • usually it should be the tank, but crown control pulls are handy
• not removing corruptions if it assigned to you (or you’re a champ/warden that can “spam” them)
• fighting for agro – pick a tank and go with it, even if you’re a tanking class
  • force-taunting off the tank usually isn’t a good idea.  Not only is it annoying to the tank but it also confuses them as they may think they’re losing agro when if fact usually it will pop back once the taunt wears off
  • Only force taunt when someone asks you to
• Positioning:
  • Don’t:
    • Stand in fire (or something equally nasty)
    • stand in an area with AoEs
    • run too far away from the group
    • run away from the tank if you pull agro
  • Do:
    • stay behind mobs while not tanking
      • you take MUCH less damage this way
      • comment by xhii – mobs can’t block/parry attacks from behind, so better chance of hitting
      • burgs definitely get a damage bonus, but I’m not sure about others
    • stay in range of your healer
    • comment by vr00mfondel keep mobs together as it allows folks with AoEs to use them
    • if you’re tanking – pull mobs a bit away from the group and spin them around such that their back is to the group (real key for Trolls)
      • comment by xhii – keep mobs in front as you can’t block/parry attacks from behind

Wardens

• If tanking – not using full breadth of skills (HoTs and buffs for example)
  • you should hear lots of shouting
  • and see lots of shield bashing
• Not traited properly (spear line for tanking as an example)
• trying to be a hunter and attacking from range only (yes I have actually seen this outside of the moors)
• Not using AoEs
  • Or using too many AoEs when group wants to use crowd control
• Not paying attention to other mobs that may be hitting minstrel or other squishies
• not interrupting
• not having masteries slotted, or not using them (you can see the icon over their head when used)
• having the “Skill and Power” trait slotted

Captains

• Not buffing or re-buffing
• Going to mention it again – not using Muster Courage
  • will/fate de-buffs are VERY painful and MC is a group cure/resist buff
  • Plus if traited it is a self-heal!
• not marking targets
• using a herald (there are RARE cases when this is a good thing)
  • and if you use a herald, keep it under close control as you don’t want it pulling extra mobs
• not replanting banners, or using the wrong one
  • pay attention and switch to power if folks get low

Minstrels

• war-speech while healing in more difficult fights
  • it can be done, but generally it is scary
• not using anthem of free people
• not using resist ballads
• using too many big heals and pulling agro
• wrong tale, or not refreshing it after silence
• not using threat reducing tools (song of soothing, anthem of compassion, lute strings, etc.)
• wrong instrument (not using threat reducer, or power reduction)

Guardians

• In wrong stance for job (OP for tanking, etc)
• (many similar to wardens)

Champions

• Not interrupting
• Pulling too much agro with their AoEs and dying (they’re REAL squishy at times)
• thinking they can tank but either not knowing how or not being geared/traited for it
• being a dumb champ
  • sorry, champs (all DPS classes) get bad raps as they’re notorious for going all out DPS and not paying attention to anything else.  DPS is good, but living is better

Loremaster

• mezzing random mobs
• not draining power
• wrong pet
  • keep it under close control as you don’t want it pulling extra mobs
• not debuffing

Hunters

• pulling with heart-seeker
  • or insisting on pulling in every case
• using the wrong stance
• comment by vr00mfondel and BlueKae (rewording my traps comment) my thought here was that Hunters should know how to use traps and when they can be helpful in certain circumstances.  Claiming they have no CC abilities is just annoying – that’s what I was getting at, or trying to.
• being a “huntard”
  • pulling wrong or additional mobs, etc.
  • going full out DPS in strength stance

Runekeepers

• not knowing how to flip attunement
• similar to hunter/champ, need to be conscience of DPS – if you get a big crit or something back off as with Mirkwood squishies pulling agro is a bad idea

Burglars

• not starting conjunctions
• not debuffing

Most of my pet-peeves are just general group gameplay that are good habits for folks to adopt.  There are some class specific ones, but the biggest class specific one (for me) has to be the captain  not using muster courage.  This is HUGE as I’ve been in many fights where the entire group is low on power and we all have a ton of fear de-buffs – one muster courage gets rid of all of them and helps prevent more from coming in the future.

If you play a class that has a removal skill, please take some time to understand which de-buffs are bad and which ones folks can live with.  Small DoTs are fine, but one that are 300+ per tick or –250+ to a skill should be removed ASAP.  And if you don’t have a group wide skill the order should usually go healer –> tank –> everyone else.

As for DPS classes, I’m probably being a bit harsh on them – but just like everyone else you need to watch what you’re doing and no go full-out all the time.  Like I said earlier, they’re just seem to be more likely focused on their own damage output and nothing else.

Now I’m not perfect by any means so during trash pulls I’m a bit lazier and do many of these things as it just doesn’t matter.  However, for boss fights or harder instances many of these will immediately result in a group (or raid) wipe.

I hope this helps, feel free to comment, correct, add more, yell at me, etc but hopefully there’s something in here that has helped someone out.