Some Tanks are assholes
So I mentioned in my last entry regarding The Secret World that most of the people I have met are wonderful, helpful, and fun. But...
...yesterday I went on a play binge that lasted probably a good 11-12 hours, I honestly wasn't keeping track, but it was pretty much the entire day. I mentioned in my entry that there are dungeons which are a series of bosses that are designed to be conquered by 5-person teams. Groups pretty much comprise of pre-defined roles: DPS, Healer, Tank. Until I started playing TSW, I had no idea what these things meant, apart from healer and tank, and even then my grasp of the roles were ballpark at best. There are three major stats that define what sort of role you are in the holy trinity of MMOs there. There is "attack" which is for the DPS (damage per second), "health" (HP/hit points, or amount of life) which is for the tank, and "heal" for the healer (obviously). The stats are obtained by equipping your character with talismans, moreover equipping those talismans for the role you want to fill in a dungeon group. Apart from the three stats I've mentioned there are a bunch of other ones that affect gameplay as well (penetration, hit, critical, etc, but we'll stick with the basic ones for now).
This is not my character, it's just an example.
As aforementioned, you see that the talismans are in effect invisible on the character, which is nice. Anyhow, being an utter n00b, I was learning about all this as I was going along. Needless to say my first time in a dungeon was simply and honestly abysmal. I really had no idea what role I was, I suggested I could tank based on my HP, but it became pretty evident that that was not what I could do best at the time. The tank's role in the group is to take damage from the boss, hence the need for HP, 'cause bosses pack quite a wallop. In addition, the tank must be able to draw the fire from the bosses, so the DPS players (in addition to the tank) can slowly whittle the boss' health to zero. Since the DPSes put all their stats in attack, they're relied upon to kill the boss relatively unimpeded (since the tank is taking most of the damage). The healer's job is to naturally make sure everyone survives, either through direct healing, or use of shields, usually both simultaneously.
After my first dungeon debacle, I decided to look into the game mechanics more thoroughly and learn how to actually play the damn game, at least as dungeon and playing in groups was concerned. After some research, I decided to use a modified version of this healing build. It's actually quite a serviceable build and has gotten me quite a few compliments when I've implemented it. Of course, once I level up and thereby enable myself to equip better talismans, the potency and effectiveness of my heals will only increase.
I'm not anywhere near these numbers yet!
One of the main drawbacks of this build though is that I don't have much opportunity to heal myself except with certain abilities (not outlined in that healing template). Another major drawback is that when I use a particularly big heal/barrier ability, the enemies (being not completely stupid) make a beeline for my direction, since they know that taking out the healer puts a major damper on everyone's day. This little healer setback is why it's so important that the tank in the group is able to draw fire from bosses and other formidable enemies in a dungeon [standard formation is 3 DPSers, 1 tank, 1 healer... this frees up at least one DPS to watch the healer's six as the need arises]. I could theoretically equip some talismans that favor health over healing, but with the rate at which most tanks take damage, as well as sometimes looking out for the DPSes to heal, I haven't found a compelling reason to deviate from my current build, which is very heal-heavy, meaning I pretty much do little to no damage when I try to hit enemies.
So I think that's enough backstory and setup out of the way, so let's get to the real point of this entry. Since I've been playing so many dungeons in the past few days, I can't really remember a time when my healing build has been ineffective, quite the opposite. Yesterday was the first time that not only my healing abilities were called into question, but that I (probably not uncoincidentally) had a quite wholly unpleasant group experience.
Unless one has a reliable group of players with whom one can "run" dungeons, the usual method of assembling a group is randomly via in-game chat, the usual callsign being "LFG" (Looking For Group), which can be expanded or modified: DPS LFG [insert name of dungeon here], LF1M Tank for [dungeon], etc. One either assembles or joins a group, and theoretically a challenging, yet fun and rewarding time is had by all. But... there can be unpleasantries. I answered a chat looking to assemble a group for the second level dungeon, nicknamed Inferno. We assembled our 5-member team and started off. When I heal, my first priority is to heal the tank (for all the aforementioned reasons above) while simultaneously making sure I don't get killed myself, which is contingent on the tank and DPSers. In our first little battle, I opened with my barrier/heal ability [the "Cold Blooded" in the little picture above, a damn good ability], whereupon I was immediately set upon and battered to death in roughly 8 seconds. And I wasn't even standing very close to the tank or the enemies, those fuckers sought me out to clobber me good.
After this episode repeated a few times, I mentioned that somebody else (hinting really at the tank) should use abilities that generate more hate or aggro, which attract enemies toward them. I've used such abilities before many times, and they do attract enemies like wet silk on brick. Our tank suggested that I not use the ability, which seemed daft to me, but admittedly, I was a little overpowered for the level and perhaps for the group, so rather woundedly (because I have pride in my build and therefore it pained me to change it) I spent a few hard-earned points to buy a passive ability that decreases the amount of hate/aggro enemies have toward me, which then turned into having to buy an active ability to further decrease aggro, effectively forcing me to remove either a potential healing or attack ability. I had never had to do this before in any group. There was even a DPS in our group that had to likewise do the same because he kept drawing aggro whilst attacking.
As we drew farther into the dungeon, the tank was irking other team members as well, mainly by trying to get all the loot and gear dropped by fallen foes. One member even asked the tank if he was going to snag everything for himself, which was answered with a curt "yes." As we progressed, things became a little smoother, but the team dynamic was definitely strained for certain. I tried to remain as courteous and helpful as I could, giving pointers and debriefing and giving info before important fights, which I think helped.
I honestly forget what happened, but when we were at the last boss, I think I had it with this guy, this tank. The last boss is not only massive, but calls forth all manner of destructive arts to utterly annihilate any aggressors (us).
You can't make it out, but the boss is rollin' around with 127k HP... I average about 2600.
Of course pictures, as nice as they are, can only tell you so much. I found a vid of this last boss fight featuring the person who devised my healing template:
As you can see, no small feat with a capable team. Now when my group tackled this boss, it was pretty much down to me and the tank before too long. I think what set me off was he blamed me for his getting killed or something even though I was doing my best, and had he been better prepared for the dungeon, would have easily survived [funnily enough, the same thing had happened earlier that day, down to me and a tank and we finished while everyone else sat in the penalty box] and decided to be snide about it, as had been his virtual mien pretty much the entire time we were playing.
So yeah, it was basically down to just me versus this hulking mass of fiery death incarnate. Etiquette is varied on how to handle a situation like this, especially since this is the last boss of the dungeon. I typically think it's best for everyone to be involved in the last fight at least, so everyone feels like they earned the victory through participation. So normally, in a situation like this, I'd just give up the ghost so everyone can restart together, no big loss, team effort and all that rot. But since this tank just so royally got on my tits, being bitchy and blaming me for everything, I decided, no... fuck that guy, I'm gonna try to beat this thing on my own. Mind you, the boss didn't have much health left, but keep in mind, I'm using a healing build, not specializing in either damage nor health. Fortunately, all my healing abilities were dedicated just to me, so even though I was doing a piddling amount of damage with each hit, I was making up for the damage with increased survivability, even with the boss bearing down all damage just on me.
I felt a little bit bad by essentially going solo (and really foolishly so), basically robbing the other members (apart from the tank, naturally) of potential victory... that is until two of my group members actively were rooting for me to finish. Of course, the tank had to throw his two cents in, most notably mentioning when I was getting low on HP: "btw, you're dying" or something to that effect. Spurred on by the encouragement, through many minutes of hard slog, and really against all odds, I managed to fell the damn bastard. Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. I received accolades from my supporters, but the tank tried to make me feel guilty in his snippy manner. And though I did feel some guilt, I wasn't going to let him be indignant about it without a retort. And normally I wouldn't retort, just ignore the rudeness, but I was so annoyed with him and so tired after the fight, I responded to him with:
I'd rather play by myself than have to play with you.
And with my double victory, I left the dungeon.
Funnily enough, my two vocal supporters messaged me shortly thereafter congratulating me further and agreeing that the tank was a douche :P
...yesterday I went on a play binge that lasted probably a good 11-12 hours, I honestly wasn't keeping track, but it was pretty much the entire day. I mentioned in my entry that there are dungeons which are a series of bosses that are designed to be conquered by 5-person teams. Groups pretty much comprise of pre-defined roles: DPS, Healer, Tank. Until I started playing TSW, I had no idea what these things meant, apart from healer and tank, and even then my grasp of the roles were ballpark at best. There are three major stats that define what sort of role you are in the holy trinity of MMOs there. There is "attack" which is for the DPS (damage per second), "health" (HP/hit points, or amount of life) which is for the tank, and "heal" for the healer (obviously). The stats are obtained by equipping your character with talismans, moreover equipping those talismans for the role you want to fill in a dungeon group. Apart from the three stats I've mentioned there are a bunch of other ones that affect gameplay as well (penetration, hit, critical, etc, but we'll stick with the basic ones for now).
This is not my character, it's just an example.
As aforementioned, you see that the talismans are in effect invisible on the character, which is nice. Anyhow, being an utter n00b, I was learning about all this as I was going along. Needless to say my first time in a dungeon was simply and honestly abysmal. I really had no idea what role I was, I suggested I could tank based on my HP, but it became pretty evident that that was not what I could do best at the time. The tank's role in the group is to take damage from the boss, hence the need for HP, 'cause bosses pack quite a wallop. In addition, the tank must be able to draw the fire from the bosses, so the DPS players (in addition to the tank) can slowly whittle the boss' health to zero. Since the DPSes put all their stats in attack, they're relied upon to kill the boss relatively unimpeded (since the tank is taking most of the damage). The healer's job is to naturally make sure everyone survives, either through direct healing, or use of shields, usually both simultaneously.
After my first dungeon debacle, I decided to look into the game mechanics more thoroughly and learn how to actually play the damn game, at least as dungeon and playing in groups was concerned. After some research, I decided to use a modified version of this healing build. It's actually quite a serviceable build and has gotten me quite a few compliments when I've implemented it. Of course, once I level up and thereby enable myself to equip better talismans, the potency and effectiveness of my heals will only increase.
I'm not anywhere near these numbers yet!
One of the main drawbacks of this build though is that I don't have much opportunity to heal myself except with certain abilities (not outlined in that healing template). Another major drawback is that when I use a particularly big heal/barrier ability, the enemies (being not completely stupid) make a beeline for my direction, since they know that taking out the healer puts a major damper on everyone's day. This little healer setback is why it's so important that the tank in the group is able to draw fire from bosses and other formidable enemies in a dungeon [standard formation is 3 DPSers, 1 tank, 1 healer... this frees up at least one DPS to watch the healer's six as the need arises]. I could theoretically equip some talismans that favor health over healing, but with the rate at which most tanks take damage, as well as sometimes looking out for the DPSes to heal, I haven't found a compelling reason to deviate from my current build, which is very heal-heavy, meaning I pretty much do little to no damage when I try to hit enemies.
So I think that's enough backstory and setup out of the way, so let's get to the real point of this entry. Since I've been playing so many dungeons in the past few days, I can't really remember a time when my healing build has been ineffective, quite the opposite. Yesterday was the first time that not only my healing abilities were called into question, but that I (probably not uncoincidentally) had a quite wholly unpleasant group experience.
Unless one has a reliable group of players with whom one can "run" dungeons, the usual method of assembling a group is randomly via in-game chat, the usual callsign being "LFG" (Looking For Group), which can be expanded or modified: DPS LFG [insert name of dungeon here], LF1M Tank for [dungeon], etc. One either assembles or joins a group, and theoretically a challenging, yet fun and rewarding time is had by all. But... there can be unpleasantries. I answered a chat looking to assemble a group for the second level dungeon, nicknamed Inferno. We assembled our 5-member team and started off. When I heal, my first priority is to heal the tank (for all the aforementioned reasons above) while simultaneously making sure I don't get killed myself, which is contingent on the tank and DPSers. In our first little battle, I opened with my barrier/heal ability [the "Cold Blooded" in the little picture above, a damn good ability], whereupon I was immediately set upon and battered to death in roughly 8 seconds. And I wasn't even standing very close to the tank or the enemies, those fuckers sought me out to clobber me good.
After this episode repeated a few times, I mentioned that somebody else (hinting really at the tank) should use abilities that generate more hate or aggro, which attract enemies toward them. I've used such abilities before many times, and they do attract enemies like wet silk on brick. Our tank suggested that I not use the ability, which seemed daft to me, but admittedly, I was a little overpowered for the level and perhaps for the group, so rather woundedly (because I have pride in my build and therefore it pained me to change it) I spent a few hard-earned points to buy a passive ability that decreases the amount of hate/aggro enemies have toward me, which then turned into having to buy an active ability to further decrease aggro, effectively forcing me to remove either a potential healing or attack ability. I had never had to do this before in any group. There was even a DPS in our group that had to likewise do the same because he kept drawing aggro whilst attacking.
As we drew farther into the dungeon, the tank was irking other team members as well, mainly by trying to get all the loot and gear dropped by fallen foes. One member even asked the tank if he was going to snag everything for himself, which was answered with a curt "yes." As we progressed, things became a little smoother, but the team dynamic was definitely strained for certain. I tried to remain as courteous and helpful as I could, giving pointers and debriefing and giving info before important fights, which I think helped.
I honestly forget what happened, but when we were at the last boss, I think I had it with this guy, this tank. The last boss is not only massive, but calls forth all manner of destructive arts to utterly annihilate any aggressors (us).
You can't make it out, but the boss is rollin' around with 127k HP... I average about 2600.
Of course pictures, as nice as they are, can only tell you so much. I found a vid of this last boss fight featuring the person who devised my healing template:
Click to viewAs you can see, no small feat with a capable team. Now when my group tackled this boss, it was pretty much down to me and the tank before too long. I think what set me off was he blamed me for his getting killed or something even though I was doing my best, and had he been better prepared for the dungeon, would have easily survived [funnily enough, the same thing had happened earlier that day, down to me and a tank and we finished while everyone else sat in the penalty box] and decided to be snide about it, as had been his virtual mien pretty much the entire time we were playing.
So yeah, it was basically down to just me versus this hulking mass of fiery death incarnate. Etiquette is varied on how to handle a situation like this, especially since this is the last boss of the dungeon. I typically think it's best for everyone to be involved in the last fight at least, so everyone feels like they earned the victory through participation. So normally, in a situation like this, I'd just give up the ghost so everyone can restart together, no big loss, team effort and all that rot. But since this tank just so royally got on my tits, being bitchy and blaming me for everything, I decided, no... fuck that guy, I'm gonna try to beat this thing on my own. Mind you, the boss didn't have much health left, but keep in mind, I'm using a healing build, not specializing in either damage nor health. Fortunately, all my healing abilities were dedicated just to me, so even though I was doing a piddling amount of damage with each hit, I was making up for the damage with increased survivability, even with the boss bearing down all damage just on me.
I felt a little bit bad by essentially going solo (and really foolishly so), basically robbing the other members (apart from the tank, naturally) of potential victory... that is until two of my group members actively were rooting for me to finish. Of course, the tank had to throw his two cents in, most notably mentioning when I was getting low on HP: "btw, you're dying" or something to that effect. Spurred on by the encouragement, through many minutes of hard slog, and really against all odds, I managed to fell the damn bastard. Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. I received accolades from my supporters, but the tank tried to make me feel guilty in his snippy manner. And though I did feel some guilt, I wasn't going to let him be indignant about it without a retort. And normally I wouldn't retort, just ignore the rudeness, but I was so annoyed with him and so tired after the fight, I responded to him with:
I'd rather play by myself than have to play with you.
And with my double victory, I left the dungeon.
Funnily enough, my two vocal supporters messaged me shortly thereafter congratulating me further and agreeing that the tank was a douche :P