Disappointed in myself
Three guildies and I needed to do our daily random Heroic pretty late last night, so we pulled a PUG tank out of the queue for Violet Hold. My three guildies are all very, very experienced, and at least one of them, the warlock, is an e-peen porn star of sorts, all about his gearscore and his most recent unbelievable crit. The healer was an old veteran raid healer, the hunter knew his business, and though this is my first 80, I feel comfortable with the fight at this point. So we are thinking that it's going to be a bit of a face-roll, right up until the point where the warlock says "What the hell is the tank doing?"
This turned out to be the beginning of rotation that continues Where is the Tank?> Where is the Tank Going?> This Tank Can't Hold Aggro> Someone Heal Me!> We Are Lucky to Have X Healing This.
It turned out of be an episode of minor-degree failtanking. Minor because there were no wipes and I think the warlock only actually died once. I inspected the tank and the gear was decent. Of course the warlock was in the throes of disgust in Vent the entire time, the healer was sighing a lot as he commiserated with the warlock, the hunter was in quiet agreement, and I was just doing my job and killing things.
At the end, the tank said, "I hope I did OK." The warlock asked if he should be honest (and by "be honest", I'm pretty sure he meant "rip the tank a new one") so I suggested silence might send the message better. I was the last to leave, and just before I left the party, I got a whisper, "How did I do?"
But then it was too late, I was already out and I couldn't reply. I let myself get sucked into the snobbery of my guildies and failed to give that obviously-new tank what they really deserved, feedback that would help them get better, and I'm still kicking myself for it. Given the nature of cross-realm PUGs, I have no way of amending the situation, so I'm just going to get it off my chest here. Maybe by the magic of the internet, this little message in the bottle will get where it needs to go.
How did you do? Not great, but don't worry about that too much. I'm sure you are going to get better. Take my feedback with a grain of salt, since I'm a noob DPS who has never done a lick of tanking in her life, but this is what I saw.
The first thing I noticed was that when a pack of mobs split in two, you weren't able to round them up. I'm not even sure you tried, knew how to try, or maybe you weren't aware that the group had split to begin with.
The second thing I noticed was that there would be times when mobs were coming out of the portals and we looked around and you were waaaaay over there, or even running away from the mobs and we had no idea why. I'm guessing that's just a matter of you learning the fight or getting turned around, or maybe you were looting? But if we are all running one direction, you might want to figure out why.
The last thing was the aggro breaking up, which I would take with a slight grain of salt. You may have noticed, the rest of us were all in the same guild, so I know the warlock crits for 13-19k all the time, and he's spoiled by working with a guild tank whose aggro is like the gravitational pull of Jupiter. If he's too much of a prima donna to regulate his DPS to match the tank, then a little time of the floor is not unearned. But I do 3k DPS in a good instance, so if I'm pulling aggro then, yeah...
I'm guessing you are new, or new to tanking. I would say so at the beginning of the instance. Most people will appreciate the heads up, work to accommodate you, and often give you tips to improve. If there's some snotty DPS who is too leet for your party, fine, he can go stand in the queue another 15-30 minutes.
Thank you for being our tank, and thank you for caring enough to ask us how you did. I'm very sorry you didn't get the answer you deserved, the answer that would help you continue on your way to being a great tank. Perhaps the LFG system will group us together again sometime. If so, I would be happy to DPS behind you, and throw the occasional heal if necessary.
Sincerely, with friendship and respect,
Harmlesse, Shadow Priest of Nordrassil
The thing that really eats me about this situation is that later in Vent, the warlock and the healer were commiserating on how WoW was getting boring, they'd done everything, blah blah blah. Done everything? Had they already helped a random newbie from another server bring up their confidence and improve their skills? I know you don't get an achievement for that, but really, it's worth doing all the same.
This turned out to be the beginning of rotation that continues Where is the Tank?> Where is the Tank Going?> This Tank Can't Hold Aggro> Someone Heal Me!> We Are Lucky to Have X Healing This.
It turned out of be an episode of minor-degree failtanking. Minor because there were no wipes and I think the warlock only actually died once. I inspected the tank and the gear was decent. Of course the warlock was in the throes of disgust in Vent the entire time, the healer was sighing a lot as he commiserated with the warlock, the hunter was in quiet agreement, and I was just doing my job and killing things.
At the end, the tank said, "I hope I did OK." The warlock asked if he should be honest (and by "be honest", I'm pretty sure he meant "rip the tank a new one") so I suggested silence might send the message better. I was the last to leave, and just before I left the party, I got a whisper, "How did I do?"
But then it was too late, I was already out and I couldn't reply. I let myself get sucked into the snobbery of my guildies and failed to give that obviously-new tank what they really deserved, feedback that would help them get better, and I'm still kicking myself for it. Given the nature of cross-realm PUGs, I have no way of amending the situation, so I'm just going to get it off my chest here. Maybe by the magic of the internet, this little message in the bottle will get where it needs to go.
How did you do? Not great, but don't worry about that too much. I'm sure you are going to get better. Take my feedback with a grain of salt, since I'm a noob DPS who has never done a lick of tanking in her life, but this is what I saw.
The first thing I noticed was that when a pack of mobs split in two, you weren't able to round them up. I'm not even sure you tried, knew how to try, or maybe you weren't aware that the group had split to begin with.
The second thing I noticed was that there would be times when mobs were coming out of the portals and we looked around and you were waaaaay over there, or even running away from the mobs and we had no idea why. I'm guessing that's just a matter of you learning the fight or getting turned around, or maybe you were looting? But if we are all running one direction, you might want to figure out why.
The last thing was the aggro breaking up, which I would take with a slight grain of salt. You may have noticed, the rest of us were all in the same guild, so I know the warlock crits for 13-19k all the time, and he's spoiled by working with a guild tank whose aggro is like the gravitational pull of Jupiter. If he's too much of a prima donna to regulate his DPS to match the tank, then a little time of the floor is not unearned. But I do 3k DPS in a good instance, so if I'm pulling aggro then, yeah...
I'm guessing you are new, or new to tanking. I would say so at the beginning of the instance. Most people will appreciate the heads up, work to accommodate you, and often give you tips to improve. If there's some snotty DPS who is too leet for your party, fine, he can go stand in the queue another 15-30 minutes.
Thank you for being our tank, and thank you for caring enough to ask us how you did. I'm very sorry you didn't get the answer you deserved, the answer that would help you continue on your way to being a great tank. Perhaps the LFG system will group us together again sometime. If so, I would be happy to DPS behind you, and throw the occasional heal if necessary.
Sincerely, with friendship and respect,
Harmlesse, Shadow Priest of Nordrassil
The thing that really eats me about this situation is that later in Vent, the warlock and the healer were commiserating on how WoW was getting boring, they'd done everything, blah blah blah. Done everything? Had they already helped a random newbie from another server bring up their confidence and improve their skills? I know you don't get an achievement for that, but really, it's worth doing all the same.