Shared Topic: The Rules of Me

Blog Azeroth proposes a new topic for bloggers to discuss every week. This week is courtesy of Mataoka of Sugar and Blood.

The Rules of Me: What are your personal rules you wish others would know about you?

When I first read this topic, I honestly didn't think I really had personal rules... and then I thought on it for a minute and remembered the "Code of Conduct" I referenced in my last shared topic and realized that the "Code" I was proposing is tied very closely with my own personal rules of how I would like to be treated by other players. The more I think about it the more I realize how high strung I really am.

Mataoka said in her post, of her rules, "These are not hard and fast rules, by any stretch--take them as suggestions." In my case, I feel like my personal rules, are not suggestions. They are what I use when I interact with others and detail my expectations of them too. Control freak or what?

I feel like most of my issues and rules come out when I'm dungeoning, because I think that the dungeon finder brings out the worst in all of us, so most of mine are going to be written with direct application to dungeoning, that was the only way I could form the feelings into words.

1. If I need help with something, I will ask for it. In return I will not offer unsolicited help. - I've been running a lot of dungeons lately. My significant other has recruit-a-friend so I play the account linked with his and I almost exclusively heal. Lately I've been getting a lot of groups with DPS who seem to think it's part of their job to tell me that they need heals. This only succeeds in pissing me off. If you need heals, I guarantee you, I know that.

2. If you want to talk to me, approach me. I'll like it. - I'm quiet, shy, and unassuming. It's hard for me to be the first one to talk. I love it when people make the first move at friendship, so I don't have to.

3. Friends in WoW or friends on the internet are real friends. Related: People on the internet are still real people. Be nice.

4. When in a dungeon group, know your role, please, act within the parameters of that role and be spec’d appropriately.

5. If I'm standing on a node, fighting, that node belongs to me, don't take it. In return, I will not take nodes from you.

6. Be courteous in dungeons. I'm not there to cuss you out, don't do it to me either. Mistakes happen, wipes occur. There's no need to call someone out. If they're horrible, kick them. If it's the first misstep in an otherwise good group, let it go.

7. I don't usually loot in dungeons. Sorry but telling me I have to loot skinnable stuff makes me want to even less. I'm stubborn, probably to a fault.



I probably took this way too seriously. Oh well.

Blog Azeroth: Shared Topic "Wow Faux Pas"

Blog Azeroth proposes a new topic for bloggers to discuss every week. This week is courtesy of Ninevi of Flask Half Empty.

A faux pas, noun, \ˈfō-ˌpä, fō-ˈ\ is a violation of accepted social norms (for example, standard customs or etiquette rules). The term comes originally from French, and literally means "misstep" or "false step". (via Wikipedia) Shared Topic: Do you think there any faux pas in WoW? If so, please explain your thoughts or maybe share your own memories and experiences! Feel free to include serious ideas (ie: etiquette in LFD/LFR) and silly ones alike (ie: fashion disasters in transmog)!

Let me start by saying I feel like there is an unwritten code of conduct in WoW, one that all good, respectful players know instinctively. I've given the rules a bit of thought and what I think it all boils down to is "If you wouldn't do it to someone in real life, don't do it online."  

I feel like with the introduction of many of the tools that make WoW accessible to people with very rigid schedules has brought on the consequence of exposing decent, knowledgeable players to more ignorant players who are looking for a free ride in dungeon and raid groups. It used to be that you could only play with other characters on your server. If you had a bad reputation on your server you didn't get into any groups. For example, during Wrath on my server there was a mage who was notoriously poorly geared.  He would spend peak hours in trade chat spamming for an invite for ToC, which was current content at the time. Now eventually he did gear up but his reputation for being lazy prevented him getting invites into raids. These days no matter your reputation, you can get a dungeon group, and even a raid group with no prior screening and with people you never encounter again. This added anonymity seems to give a lot of added freedom to ignore the rules of conduct.

Here are some of the Dungeon faux pas I've encountered:

1. Intentional Non-Tank Pulling. I'm not talking about accidental fear pulling or when a dps switches into tank spec because your tank has been afk for ages. I'm talking about the idiot in the group who intentionally runs off and pulls another group, usually while you are killing a perfectly good group already.
2. Needing on things you don't need. Related: Needing on everything. This applies to the guy who needs on all of the greens "for enchanting" and the DPS who needs on tank gear and steals it from the tank. Easily avoided by asking permission first.
3. Signing up for a tank or healer role, and running as a DPS spec. I know, the DPS queue can be long, but it doesn't matter when you get booted from every group you enter because your cpec in wrong.
4. Starting an escort quest before everyone in the group has the quest. 'Nuff said.
5. Wearing gear with inappropriate stats. The image below was a mage in Heroic Oculus at level 80. For real.

The Mists Have Receded

Mists of Pandaria has finally launched. Here is a picture of my new baby Monk.

I have to say that I was lukewarm about Pandaria since it was announced. I don't really like change and Mists proposed a lot of new changes. I have not gotten to play a whole lot yet, I have school and work to deal with. but my priest is about half way through smiting her way through the Jade forest and my Mistweaver Monk is nearly level 19 and so far, talent system aside, I really like this expansion.

Mists received a lot of criticism about Pandas, the Asian theme, and there were a lot of "Kung Fu Panda" references thrown around. Honestly from what I have seen so far I think it is beautiful. From the expressions that my new little panda makes to the cherry blossom trees that I saw on the Wandering Isle. Thus far it is beautifully crafted.

As for healing on the Monk, I don't have much commentary. At level 19 I have only one healing spell. It works well enough. I like that my auto attacks heal, feels reminiscent of my priests atonement healing, and it gives my little Panda something to do while waiting to heal somebody. I've been mostly questing though, the lack of energy limiting my attacks is nice but my decision was based largely on the poor quality groups that I've been getting in the dungeon queue. I mean come on people, the game has been around long enough for DPS to understand that the Tank is the only one who pulls. Clearly some people think that group etiquette is unnecessary in low levels, and to avoid slapping a disclaimer macro up that says "No heals for DPS that pull. No Rez either." or simply acting on that philosophy, I have chosen to quest, disappointing but it saves me grief and frustration.

Escort Quests in Dungeons Suck

For the past couple of weeks I have been leveling a new disc priest on a new server and have until now leveled completely through dungeons (the exception being levels 1 through 15) and have thoroughly enjoyed my time spent playing disc from the ground up. That is, until I got put in a group for my characters first run of Razerfen Downs. For those of you not familiar with the dungeon there is an NPC Quest giver named  Baelnistraz who gives out an escort quest, this would be fine if the quest were sharable; however, since you must accept his quest and then exchange it for the escort quest it is an unsharable chain and a huge pain in the butt and it is safe to say that none of my characters have successfully completed this quest. It's just too irritating.

Now, I'm the first one to admit I'm trying to level this character quickly, so this afternoon I decided to pick up the quest - the first one - the one that starts the chain. Directly after that someone started the escort part. I'm pretty easy going so I shrugged it off and saw it as an opportunity to get a little more exp and maybe a few scraps of cloth. The feral druid (read: kitty druid) did not take it this way, and immediately starts demanding that the escort portion be shared with him. Of coarse the quest is a chain and cannot be shared.

I should also mention that in groups I am the token quiet one. I sit back and heal. I have little to no interest in socializing with groups that are not on my server who I will probably never encounter again.

So, in true "quiet one" style, I sat back and let the drama deal with itself and did not get involved. Or at least, I thought I didn't. About halfway through the escort encounter I found myself back in Brill, where I had just purchased my new undead ponies. Apparently my silence had made me guilty of starting the quest, when I didn't even have the quest to begin with.

I know that getting kicked wasn't my fault, they were upset at not being able to complete the quest and needed someone to blame and I was easy to pin that on. It just... well, it upset me. Other than this I cannot remember the last time I was kicked from a group, and I usually equate being kicked with being bad and it's painful to feel like you weren't good enough, even when you've done nothing wrong.

Rationally though despite however much I hope that group wiped after kicking me it wasn't really their fault that they kicked me either. Ultimately it was a design flaw that got me removed from that group. If the quest were able to be shared that druid never would have mistaken my silence for guilt, because it wouldn't have mattered who started the escort.

Also: when things go wrong, it is not always the healers fault.