After yesterday’s rant, I feel like I should go on to moan about other problems with the WoW society too, so here we go.
While we’re on the topic of PuGs, there’re people who ask for your gearscore and use it as the basis for inviting you (it’s determined by an addon which I don’t use on principle). Now your gearscore is based on the iLevel of your gear, and is what it says it is – a score for your gear. It doesn’t measure skill, it doesn’t measure experience, and it most certainly does not measure how good a player you are. Yes, I understand that as part of the overall view somebody’s gearscore is a good way of quickly checking their gear. But it should not be used as the sole means of deciding between two people!
The only real way to determine how ‘good’ a player is, is to run instances and raids with them. Just because a person has credit for killing a boss, whether by achievement or somewhere like Be Imba!, doesn’t mean they were really involved – they could have been stood there AFK. Likewise, gearscores can be cheated – simply put on your highest iLevel gear while someone is inspecting you (even if, for example, you’re a Warrior and this means putting on healing cloth items) and then change back when you get the invite. No, you need to actually run with the person. That way you can see their reactions, skill, relative dps (because it does depend on the fight you know, so asking me for my average dps is a waste of time too), and all that jazz for yourself. Then you can decide how good the player is.
Speaking of relative and situational dps, there’s Recount. One of my greatest hates has got to be the spamming, whether in party or raid chat, of Recount meters. Let’s observe some basic rules people ought to follow:
- Trash dps does not count. IT DOES NOT COUNT. If you post meters for trash mobs alone in my group, you will not be staying. This also invalidates the default ‘Overall Damage’ setting, because that includes trash. Something 97% of people should take note of.
- The only meters which count are for bosses, and even these should be taken with a pinch of salt. Each boss has different requirements and situations which could affect those meters. Sure, that Mage is below the tank, but was he busy using CC so the group didn’t wipe? Yes, that Warlock is at the top, but did he deliberately risk the group safety by DoTing up all the mobs he could reach to boost his damage? Did the Hunter have to keep moving, lowering his damage and DPS but keeping the raid safe from his AoE debuff? The only fair comparisons are Patchwerk fights where you can stand still and attack with no other factors, and these happen incredibly rarely.
- Overall Damage is just that – damage. It’s not DPS. Don’t, for Pete’s sake, happen to be first on damage and then claim to be doing the highest DPS, because often you won’t be.
- Spamming meters without asking is frankly rude anyway. It clogs up the chat channel and makes it hard to see things – this is especially a problem in raid chat when the Raid Leader is attempting to detail a fight or hand out instructions and the other 8 / 25 people can’t see anything because you’re busy lording the fact that you’re second on DPS or something.
Another thing which really annoys me is incorrect spelling and grammar – I mean, is it really so hard? The main requirement for my guild is that everyone joining must be fluent in English (we’re an English speaking server after all) although it could be debated as to whether ‘I can haz 50g lol kthxbai’ is English or not.
On that note: beggars. Right, just listen – it is NOT HARD to make money in World of Warcraft. It was, once upon a time, but no longer. Anyone who complains is obviously an idiot, and that’s not even considering that everything is also cheaper these days. I mean, mounts, what?
If you need money, there are some very simple things you can easily do rather than stand in a city and waste all our lives:
- Go and kill mobs. Take their money and sell the items they drop. Works at any level.
- Go and do quests. It’s not as if the game is designed around them, or anything. Works at any level.
- Learn to use the Auction House. There are so many stories of people rolling a new toon on a new server and hitting 50k, 100k, 200k gold within a month or whatever by playing the AH, it’s not even funny. AHing works at any level.
- Get a gathering profession. Skinning, mining, herbalism. Sell what you get. Works at any freakin’ level.
To finish for now, we’ll cycle back to yesterday’s post again. A friend recommended an addon to me called The Underachiever*. It basically allows you to fake achievement links, so the next time you’re annoyed because that Ulduar PuG needs an achievement, fake it, get in, and enjoy. Just make sure you do know the strategies and what-not. We won’t stand for ridiculous PuG entry requirements!
Vel.
*The addon is just like any other – perfectly legitimate, abides to the ToS, etc, so don’t worry.
der Hexenmeister 