WTB Mana!

I’m really happy that everyone enjoyed my last post, it was meant to be funny, and I think I succeeded, however today I get to talk about what to do when people aren’t doing their jobs.

Tanks

Tanks, I’ll start with you, in general I’ve found that tanks fall into one of three areas:

1. GREAT! You are a great tank, you are capable of picking up adds, keeping aggro, you understand your class, and all your cooldowns. You communicate well with your other tank and with the raid.
2. Pretty good. You keep aggro 90% of the time, you might let and add get through occasionally, but your good at picking them back up, you know your class, and you normally spot on with your cooldowns. You might not be the best communicator, but you come through when it really matters.
3. Bad, you have to constantly be told to taunt back, you’re not given the add pick up job because you can’t keep them all together. You’re still playing your class like it’s WoTLK, and you only use your cooldowns when the RL tells you. You never talk on Vent, and you’re still wearing PvP gear.

Now I know that some tanks might fall somewhere in between those descriptions, but in my experience your one of those thing. All I ask of my tank is to be pretty good, I ELTATED if they’re great, but I can heal pretty good.

To spell it out for tanks your job is as follows:

• Keep Aggro off DPS so that they can do they’re job.
• Pick up any adds
• Stand there and look pretty while maintaining your cooldowns, and rotation.
• Don’t tunnel vision

 

DPS

Oh DPS, you’re all so pretty and shiny. To my surprise I’ve also found that DPS generally falls into one of these four areas:

1. DPS EVERYWHERE! This is the warlock that plays affliction and never lets her dots fall off, all while running around to avoid the mechanics, brezzing a fallen foes, topping herself off with lock crack, and she ends up at the top of the charts. Amazing DPS at their core know they’re class, I can’t express how important that simple fact is, know what your doing and it makes your day better. Once more over they DO what they’re supposed to do, and they have a freakishly good reaction time, and hand/eye coordination.
2. #1 On The Charts, these guys are at the top of the charts in “casual” raid groups, they know they’re class pretty well, they almost never stand in mechanics, you can ask them to do the more difficult mechanics, and only expect their DPS to drop off a little. This is your Paladin that manages to be 4th on the healing charts and 1st on the DPS meter.
3. SORRY! The mages of the world, they do burst DPS and manage to stay in the running for good DPS, but they stand in defile and wipe the raid. You should never ask them to do anything other than DPS the boss, and hope that they can avoid completely wiping the raid.
4. My Main Is A Tank, But I Prefer DPSing The Guardian drood turned Feral kitty. Doesn’t actually understand how to play the cat form, is in all his bear gear, cause they share “close enough” stats, doesn’t stand behind the boss and gets killed by the cleave because he’s so used to being up there. He’ll pop into bear form as soon as a tank goes down, likely cause he did something to get him killed, he’s at the bottom of the charts and laughs about it, 2 minutes into the fight you’re giving serious thoughts to 9 maning this boss.

DPS, get down to the nitty gritty this is your job:

• Do Damage Per Second until the boss is laying dead on the ground.
• DON’T stand in stuff your not directed to stand in (I promise your healers will tell you.)
• Help with mechanics that your RL asks you to, and for Gods sake if you don’t think you can, then say something.
• Don’t tunnel vision

 

Healers

I’m hugely biased toward healers since I am one, but most of the time not in a good way, healers in my very jaded opinion fall into one of three areas:

1. That Which We All Strive To Be This is the Druid healer that not only manages her lifebloom correctly, she never stands in stuff, she swiftmends the person who is standing with the group, she maintains all her buffs, she knows exactly when to use stoneskin on the tank, and barkskin on herself. She is the master of using innervate at 80% and then again on cooldown. You can even give her mechanics to do. (I am not this level)
2. That Which Most Of Us Are The Shamans, who are the hybrid of tank and raid healer.  They keep track of the Earth Shield on the tank, while chain healing the raid and using their healing rain appropriately, please don’t give us mechanics to do too often, especially on hard fights, we’re good mulit-taskers, but maybe not that good. That time that the healer saved the raid with the geniusly timed cooldown? That was us.
3. Baddie McBadderson, From Badville The monk healer that stands in melee, and ONLY heals through passive healing, they are at the bottom of the heals, but have managed to stay in the running with the DPS, this is likely their off spec, they stand in mechanics, and don’t use their life saving methods appropriately. They have to be told twice to use their major cooldown, and when they say that they’ve finally learned it they still manage to use it at the worst time. For your sakes I hope this was a pug and you’ll never have to do it again.

Being a healer is one of the hardest, and most rewarding jobs in this game, do these things and you will go far:

• Make sure that you are healing!
• Use cooldowns correctly
• TRY to keep the raid “topped” off when transitioning to a phase with high damage
• Don’t stand in stuff
• Don’t tunnel vision

 

That’s it, that’s what your jobs are, while we strive to be the #1 in our category, in generally people sit in the middle, and that’s fine. Just remember as Raid Leaders all we ask is that you do the best that you can, and if the best that you can do it’s good, then we want to help you. What class/role would suit you better. WE DON’T LIKE RECRUITING NEW PEOPLE! So help us, help you!

/Cheers!

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