I can't promote this enough; Linedan over at Achtung Panzercow has a great article on "The First Ten Seconds". The article is a first of a series that I am looking forward to reading.
Back to TTP, my apologies for the disappearing act! Work has certainly picked up and with that so has my time allowed to game in Azeroth. I also went through a period of burn out, as the guild I run was low on healers/tanks and I felt was getting run to the ground. We've since, through some active recruiting, have fixed that problem and are now working on forming our third raid team. I also was able to, believe it or not, get a Saturday morning raid team put together that's been fairly successful.
Raiding, coffee, and pajamas. What more could you ask for?
Anyway, if you have not heard the latest build was deployed to the PTR and this is a Release Candidate. This ultimately means that the patch is soon to be deployed to the live realms. As with all tanking related blogs out there, I thought I should chime in with LFD Call to Arms changes.
While others may focus on the worst that can happen, I feel that not a lot of bloggers have focused on what good can happen with this. I am certainly in the group that states that the quality of the healers and the tanks will certainly drop a bit while folks try to learn these roles for the very first time. This will certainly affect the quality of life in-game that some, especially those DPS players, to a large degree. I imagine shorter queue times, more wait time while in dungeon while it finds a new tank or healer, and basically some pretty painful encounters.
But if you think about it, those folks who are legitimately trying to learn these roles now have extra incentive to do so. Those looking to get the mounts as fast as possible and are unhelpful to the larger player base will finally get to understand the difficulties of both roles. This may lower the amount of tank-hate/healer-hate that goes on from other players in a party, because they would have tried these roles.
I can't say how many times I've asked a DPS if they ever tanked or healed before after they've made comments about the quality of the tanks and healers. Many times they do not respond (because they have been put in place) or respond that they have not. I do not criticize healers because I've never played one. I have no right to judge you. But now the rest of the player base will have a chance to try out these roles, find it may or may not be for them, and at least have a better understanding of the tank or healer they are running with.
Wars throughout history have been fought because one side simply does not understand the position of the other. I think a better understanding from DPS about the roles of healers and tanks will promote healthy game play. However, the first few weeks after its inception will be difficult.
A few things to keep in mind, if you are a tank and will be taking advantage of this tool:
If you happen upon this blog and are DPS, you can help these new tanks out by providing constructive criticism and the following:
Good luck with the LFD: Call to Arms, see you in game!
Back to TTP, my apologies for the disappearing act! Work has certainly picked up and with that so has my time allowed to game in Azeroth. I also went through a period of burn out, as the guild I run was low on healers/tanks and I felt was getting run to the ground. We've since, through some active recruiting, have fixed that problem and are now working on forming our third raid team. I also was able to, believe it or not, get a Saturday morning raid team put together that's been fairly successful.
Raiding, coffee, and pajamas. What more could you ask for?
Anyway, if you have not heard the latest build was deployed to the PTR and this is a Release Candidate. This ultimately means that the patch is soon to be deployed to the live realms. As with all tanking related blogs out there, I thought I should chime in with LFD Call to Arms changes.
While others may focus on the worst that can happen, I feel that not a lot of bloggers have focused on what good can happen with this. I am certainly in the group that states that the quality of the healers and the tanks will certainly drop a bit while folks try to learn these roles for the very first time. This will certainly affect the quality of life in-game that some, especially those DPS players, to a large degree. I imagine shorter queue times, more wait time while in dungeon while it finds a new tank or healer, and basically some pretty painful encounters.
But if you think about it, those folks who are legitimately trying to learn these roles now have extra incentive to do so. Those looking to get the mounts as fast as possible and are unhelpful to the larger player base will finally get to understand the difficulties of both roles. This may lower the amount of tank-hate/healer-hate that goes on from other players in a party, because they would have tried these roles.
I can't say how many times I've asked a DPS if they ever tanked or healed before after they've made comments about the quality of the tanks and healers. Many times they do not respond (because they have been put in place) or respond that they have not. I do not criticize healers because I've never played one. I have no right to judge you. But now the rest of the player base will have a chance to try out these roles, find it may or may not be for them, and at least have a better understanding of the tank or healer they are running with.
Wars throughout history have been fought because one side simply does not understand the position of the other. I think a better understanding from DPS about the roles of healers and tanks will promote healthy game play. However, the first few weeks after its inception will be difficult.
A few things to keep in mind, if you are a tank and will be taking advantage of this tool:
- The DPS roles in the party will be very defensive. They will more often then not have struggled with low quality tanks and/or healers. Know your audience and the environment you're joining and act accordingly.
- Don't become too much of a tank-diva. Even we tanks have DPS toons or off-specs that we like to run and would certainly like our tanks in our group to be just as proficient as we are without an attitude. Keep that in mind before you respond to any comment.
If you happen upon this blog and are DPS, you can help these new tanks out by providing constructive criticism and the following:
- If the tank is having a tough time with aggro, request that he marks targets and/or CCs.
- Focus on your tanks target and keep switching. This may lower your dps but will certainly help the tank with threat.
- Be patient. If you are trying to learn to tank later, you will want your party to be patient with you as well.
Good luck with the LFD: Call to Arms, see you in game!