Observe carefully. I hope this show of hypocrisy is brief and singular.
I am a hypocrite.
On our Friday ICC-25 run, the one that was full of pugtards, there was a particular mage who was rather more pugtardy than anyone else. Which, in the end, rather made sense as they're from a guild that seems rather marked by their pugtards as this is mage is now the third pug that will never be reinvited to one of our runs.
This mage shall, for the purposes of this post, be called Magetard.
Magetard has an impressive array of gear, ranging from ilvl 200 to ilvl 268. Some pieces are from Naxx, some from Ulduar, some from ICC. Some are tier pieces from a tier that is before my knowledge of raiding. Several are pvp pieces with stamina gems in them.
Before I continue, I do want to make sure it is known that Magetard is not labeled a tard based entirely on his gear. He was labeled a tard because he acted like a tard. As we were clearing the trash before Marrowgar he wanted to know which of the casters had the most spell power. (The answer: As I was in my demonology spec, it had damn sure better have been me.) The reason, I gathered, was because he thought he had the highest and when we assured him that this was not the case he said "Damn :(".
Magetard also tended to offer "helpful" advice continually and spent a lot of the time talking when we wished he wouldn't. This kind of behavior always bothers me. The raid leader is there for a reason. If they want your advice, or your help advising others, they'll ask for it. Otherwise, its their job to know what they're doing and how to impart that information to the other 9/24 people.
Now, Mara's gear spans a similar range (ilvl 200 to ilvl 277). I would probably die of happiness if Blizzard introduced a nice haste trinket somewhere before 25-man Rotface. Or gave us one that we could purchase for emblems. Seriously.
If we ignore the Abyssal Rune, Magetard gets a range of 219-268 and Mara jumps to 232-277. This distinction serves no purpose except to make me feel better about myself.
Anyway. When asked about his gear, Magetard simply says "Oh, you're wondering why I have Ulduar and PvP gear. :p". Well, yes. But no explanation was forthcoming.
Aioka, nooblet priest that she is, has a worse mix of gear. I have two pieces of high level hit gear, and now I have a piece of high level pvp gear. And, damnit, I will heal with them anyway. Because they are better than my current alternatives.
This is where the hypocrisy comes in.
Despite my mixed-bag of gear, Mord was willing to essentially carry Aioka through VoA-10, VoA-25, and an OS-10 zerg run. Of course, nothing priestly dropped in either VoA except for the Wrathful Gladiator's Cuffs of Dominance. Yeah, I'm using them.
When we started pugging the zerg run, one of the dps asked "Why is there a 4k gs priest in here?". Being typically wonderful, one of my guildies said "To keep you from dying". But I was still rather put out. One of the other puggees said "Well, he's doing very well."
Despite being a she, and not a he, I do try to heal my silly dorf butt off when I'm on Aioka. Mord had me healing the raid in OS while Takk was on his Shaman healing the tank. I also got to bubble the tank and hit Pain Suppression whenever I was told. I discovered that binding stuff to your middle mouse button (wheel?) is extremely annoying. Pain Suppression will be moving to a new home.
We died a lot. Mord blamed it consistently on the dps. But then... I was (apparently) taking up a dps slot. One of our charming puggees wanted to know why there were two healers to begin with. I told Mord I wouldn't be offended if he opted to replace me. I bet if I were a pugger I wouldn't stand a chance in someone else's run.
We succeeded when everyone pulled together and executed one totally awesome attempt. It's really very cool to get a chance to practice raid healing. I think its something that doesn't really get practiced. Usually a new healer just has to do it. But I have the advantage of knowing (or perhaps just believing) that if I suck too hard another healer can and will pick up my slack.
This is especially true if I'm healing with Mord; who absolutely dwarfed me in Healing Done and HPS. Haha, pun.
I think anybody with half a brain recognises that raid contribution is measured in more than gs. I think someone is 'carried' when they aren't as well geared as they could be and simultaneously make the raid a worse place - i.e. by being distracting and tardy like magetard. But somebody who does the job to the best of their ability is nevertheless still contributing more than they would be if you a) didn't have them b) had someone better geared but more of a tard in their place.
ReplyDeleteIn short: I don't think that's hypocrisy.
Well GS isn't something that our guild is particularly fond of talking about or for the most part... none of us even know what a "good" gear score is... or what ours happens to be.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am lots of proud of your awesome Dorf. She healed and bubbled and pain suppressed her little butt off on Tuesday (and Thursday). Good for Aioka! Yes, your gear might not be up to par for "healing ICC" but you did (with Mord's freak healing) :)
Win!
Tam,
ReplyDeleteI tried for a long time to come up something more intelligent than "Squeeeeee, that is THE TAM commenting on MY blog. ZOMG!". In the end, all I can say is thank you for the kind words. In regards to the hypocrisy I feel I am still guilty of, it's more of an agreement we made as a guild to seek a certain level of competency in gear selection, gemming, and enchantment. But then, perhaps they're cutting me break because they know it's not by choice that I have crap gear. Thank you again!
Ann,
Can we please tell Mord he is a freak all the time? :p
Aioka would be blushing at the praise if I thought that was something dorfs are likely to do. Thank you for the support!
I didn't say that Mord was a freak, I said that his healing was freaky. :P
ReplyDelete