It takes one to know one.
It’s been a while, but hey, everyday blogging is for people like Redbeard and thank God for them!
I’ve been working on alts of course, from alliance to horde and back again. The pairing of warlock-priest, paladin-druid and shaman-warrior turned out quite well, have had a blast.
One hitch in the process was learning that using weakauras to tell your other toon to follow was against the TOS. Ouch, glad I didn’t catch a ban for using it prolifically. But, follow macros instead work, no biggie.
Recently I joined a guild whose advertisement went along the lines of 'Honestly, it's just a bunch of old farts stumbling our way through stuff, looking to get a group for Kara'. Perfect for me, a bunch of my alts haven't set foot in there and are ready for it. A couple weeks in, I didn't see much happening in terms of running even 5-mans, and was wondering if it was just a group that played together.
This weekend, the GM asked me to join in on a Crypts run with their 67-68's. I took my 64 Holy Priest and from the talk on Discord, it was a brand-new experience for some of them. The others had seen it, but only back in Original BC.
The GM was the Paladin tank, who was quick to tell me he has troubles with holding aggro on mobs. I walked the pally tank through every pull, marking, showing Line of Sight (LOS) spots, how to drop consecrate before you get to your spot so the mobs had to run through it, stuff that makes life easier.
I also watched the DPS jump on stuff as soon as the tank pulled. All rookie mistake stuff, seen it many times before. I talked to the group, explained how they can help the tank and themselves by waiting for the mobs to start beating on the paladin, then they could single target the marked skull. After skull was down, they could open on aoe as the tank would have decent aggro on the rest of the mobs.
Sure, it’s a ‘slower’ way to get through, and it’s not something they’d seen joining in PUGs. Yet by the middle of the run, the Tank was starting to relax and enjoy the run a lot more. The DPS were looking at their recount numbers, and the fact that they could do their jobs without being smacked all the time. Speed comes with experience. Experience comes from starting at the beginning. Soon enough the Paladin Tank will have confidence, use the methods and make them his own.
After that run, they wanted to try Setthek Halls. I’d hit 65 on my priest, a little low, but with patience we made it through. The pulls in Setthek were a lot more complicated than Crypts, but the Tank had a much better handle on using LOS and the DPS were patient in starting their attacks. A couple of leaked ranged mobs thought I’d make a nice easy snack, but I was ready most times for it and some fade/bubble/self-heals only had me dirt-napping once.
The next day two of them had reached 70, and they asked if I’d come DPS Shattered Halls. I hopped on my Warlock and headed to Hellfire Penninsula. On Discord I asked if they’d been in there yet, and found out this was going to be their first time. Shattered Halls is probably the trickiest of all the instances for Tanks, as there are some very different mechanics attached to the groups. From Legionnaires who continually call-in reinforcements to Snipers that scattershot (stun) the tank momentarily to run-and-gun pulls through entire hallways that is on fire or covered in slime.
It went quite well, a wipe in the sewer tunnels when the tank pulled too many globule groups, but a soulstone rez later we were back in action, and the second try went a lot better.
Unfortunately, a mob had bugged out and was un-targetable yet could still hit us. Tried different ways to get it to de-spawn, but some web research showed that it was a very new bug and reported it.
After the bug-shortened run, I asked if they’d like to get their key for Shattered Halls. Enthusiasm for it abounded and so it was off to Shadowmoon Valley to start the quest. Fortunately I’ve been saving a lot of materials from TBC, and the follow-up quests requiring Fel Iron Bars, Motes of Fire and Arcane Dust were sitting in alt’s banks. While we were searching for the Fel Reaver in order to dip our key molds in its still warm body, the GM piped up in Discord. He said that they had been talking after our runs and had decided to offer me an Officer position in the Guild. I said I was flattered, and appreciated them asking me, but asked why?
The GM responded that I was always helpful, had extensive knowledge, was always cheery, and they loved the fact that I took the time to teach them from the very first time we met. All the stuff I’ve always strived to do, it makes my day that much better. These people have been playing online games for as many years as I’ve played, going on 30 years I guess. They’ve seen EverQuest from the beginning, played Ultima Online. They understand that there ARE people who will go beyond ‘LRN2PLAY NOOB’.
It's a nice start :D
Wylset