WoW: The Expectations

Alright.

We’ve looked at the comments that started it all, the Apparent Elitist POV, the Game, the Community, Another Voice…

Time to get to the nitty gritty.

What do I expect from a random pug heroic?

What should I expect from a random pug heroic?

On to the numbers!

Sike!

Or is it psyche? Dammit, I am so not hip.

Do kids still do that these days? It was all the rage when I was a kid.

Before we actually tear into numbers, I want to look at the behaviors I’m expecting from other players. These behaviors will drive much of what they can be reasonably expected to produce in a combat situation.

I’m going to break it down into what I demand, what I expect, and what I want.

Demands are the bare minimum I require. Expectations are just that, although I may not get them. Wants are the icing on the cake.

Demands

That they have the game installed. Pretty self-explanatory. And that is about all I can safely demand. If they don’t have the game installed, the whole point is moot.

Expectations

Here’s where I start getting disappointed. (OK, so I’m probably disappointed that some people have met the demand of installing the game when I would rather they be off playing Hello Kitty.)

Common fucking courtesy. This is a hard one for some people. I don’t need name calling or details about your sexual life or what you think of my lineage. If you’re going to take the time to type something, be pleasant about it, or at the very least not insulting. This also extends to the other members of the party, not just conversation directed at me. If you don’t got nuthin’ nice to say, don’t say nuthin’ at all.

To be there. Not stealth afk or standing in the corner picking their nose while the rest of the party is healing/tanking/pewing. Don’t make me look at recount to see if you’re even pushing buttons. If you have to afk after every pull, bite the bullet and admit that perhaps it’s not the best time to be running heroics with random strangers.

To pay attention. If the healer is OOM, don’t pull. Well, don’t pull if you expect any heals. If you can solo it, go for it. Your repair bill, not mine. If the rest of the party has not zoned in yet, don’t run off in a huff.

To perform the role you signed up as. If you signed up as tank, you best be swapping to that stam gear when we zone in. If you signed up to heal, you best not be running around as a critchicken. Using the fact you are a hybrid just to get into an instance and then failing to perform the role you were assigned will net you a spot in the lower bowels of hell.

To follow direction. This is generally as easy as literally following the tank/healer. Don’t go wandering into the next room and bring back friends. Especially if you’re the healer. If there is a specific mechanic that needs to be dealt with (harpoons on Skadi, etc.) and someone asks you to do it (and you have a clue) do it. If you don’t have a clue, pipe up. Which leads to…

To ask if you don’t know. Don’t know how the fight works? Just say something. I promise that if I’m in the party I will not bite you. Not hard at least. Maybe a nibble… I can’t wait to roll a worgen, I’ll be /biting everyone. I would much rather take 30 seconds to explain a heroic boss fight than spend 2 minutes running back and rebuffing after the wipe to a heroic boss fight.

To know your class reasonably well. This is primarily directed towards utility abilities. If you are a mage, you have remove curse. I swear it’s trainable. I expect it to be on all mage action bars. And I expect it to be used. Same goes for removal of poisons/magical effects/diseases/whatever. If you can do it and it helps the group, then do it. I also expect that some of the other basics are taken care of. If you’re not tanking, don’t have righteous fury/defensive stance/frost presence on. If you are tanking, have righteous fury/defensive stance/frost presence on. Turn growl off of pets. If crowd control is being used, don’t break it. Know your “oh shit” abilities and have them ready.

To not stand in the bad. If you have made it to level 80, I really expect that you have figured out how to tell when you are taking damage. Take steps to eliminate excessive damage to yourself. (Hint: your green bar goes down.)

To be repaired. There are repair vendors everywhere. Take the time from your busy heroic running schedule and pop off to repair before all your shit breaks.

To be prepared. Just like repairing, have your reagents/poisons/ammunition/whatever on hand.

To get through the damn heroic. If all the expectations are met, this can be done. If most expectations are met we can still get through it, I’m not going to bother to initiate a vote to remove you. Although I may choose to agree with a vote to remove you if you’ve particularly ruffled my feathers with poor attitude.

Wants

To be friendly. Crack a joke (that doesn’t involve politics or religion). Offer a “gratz” when cool stuff happens.

To be helpful. If someone is struggling, offer advice in a useful manner.

To work as a team. This doesn’t mean that we need a ready check before every pull, but adapt your speed or actions to go with the flow.

To have fun. I was in a group once that was like, let’s try this crazy thing, you up for it? We failed miserably, but we had a good laugh about it.

To read my blog. It would be really cool to run into someone that knows me through this, it would totally make my evening.

To know your class well. This means you have the basics down and are working on the fine-tuning or are kicking my ass on the charts. I enjoy a little competition now and again.

And that’s about it.

Funny enough, when I really started thinking about what I demanded/expected/wanted out of a heroic dungeon (or even out of the normals as I’m leveling my alts), numbers didn’t come into play until the very end and even then, it’s not even a number I’m looking for.

…

Dark/Soth has come under a lot of fire for his attitude about heroics and what he expects over the past few days. It was really brave of him to put his opinions out there, knowing full well that not many people were going to see it his way. But he said his piece and the floodgates were opened. And we all read and responded and hopefully we all did some thinking, because I know he has:

Another interesting aspect for me to think more on is that when I group with you guys on our alts, I never stop and worry about that I’m doing more than double dps of G or J. I don’t care. I’m just having fun. I trust that you guys are doing a good job, and I just try to do the best I can. I trust that if I take aggro, you will heal me. I know G and J will assist the tank (most of the time =P). I care less about performance because I have that comfort level and trust that I know you guys are all dedicated to the success as a group.

And what happened then? Well, in WoWville they say that the Elitist’s small heart grew three sizes that day. And then – the true meaning of WoW came through, and the Elitist found the strength of *ten* Elitists, plus two!

(I didn’t ask for permission to post that snippet so I hope he doesn’t kill me, but I was really happy that he was able to look at the whole thing in a new light and realize maybe we’re not all quite so crazy after all. )

…

Maybe tomorrow I’ll actually post some numbers for you. =)