MEH!!!!!!!!
That is what I thought after reading about Blizzard’s “fix” to the DPS Queue time.
(yes, yes I know a lot of others have written up responces to this)
*cough* Anyways, no matter what game you play, be it MMO, or traditional Pencil and Paper RPGs, the “tank” and “healer” to DPS issues always seems to show up like an bad case of crabs.
The inherant issue of a “trinity” system bottlenecks players into a system where you need “X” amount of this to proceed.
To prevent DPS and Healers getting killed, there is usually a role or class which will stand on the front lines. These roles draw the attention and ire of enemies so the healers and DPS do their jobs. this job is dirty, at times difficult, and does not bring any glory. That unfortunately, goes to the DPS. There are tactile means to measure DPS, but there is no way to effectly show oh boy, good job Mr tank.
In this world of meters and gearscore, all people see are DPS #’s. Hell look at the site StateofDPS.com. (Sure there is a healing portion to it as well, but HPS does not mean effective healing all the time.)
Another issue in this world of Cataclysm, Wrathbabies (I know this term is degrading and generalizes, however, when used is specific ways, it can represent a feeling or playstyle), is the mentality that Wrath brought upon. The GOGOGO, pull the whole instance, AoE things, push one heal spell thing. For a guild group I can say one can do this, but when dealing with the grab bag, LFD , more then likely you cannot do this. For some off reason, people in LFD still think this can be done. 😦
Lack of comminication, etc brings the LFD tool to its kness in Cata. Hell I don’t even want to use LFD as a healer, and I think I am a decent healer.
Another reason as to why this “fix” is meh, is that it punishes people for playing a role they ike to play, DPS. All I can see is this bringing about stories of princess healers, or snobby tanks lol. Sure if you are a hybred you can take advantage, but how many people actually know how to play an off-spec well? (Not too many I would imagine.)
Also with the grouping of servers to form the LFD tool….the anonymous nature of it itself also makes it a dangerous beast. With no reason to be patient, polite, etc. The random grabbag iof players can make for a bad mixture of players, with varying levels of skill, politeness, and patience.
Does Blizzard want people to know every aspect of the class? (by allowing LFD even in lower levels) Good I applaude them for doing so. However, the way in which they have setup the game does not show it. Using a primarily, quest based system, one does not have to group up with people prior to the “end levels” showing there is no way to teach someone their class. (also people don’t want to listen to advise etc, and many don’t have the patience to teach.)
Sure you can group up in lower levels, but how many times have those turned into people facerolling the dungeon and pulling packs of mobs….
(I know many players do not want to “grind” their way to endgame, but at least with “grinding” you did have to know how to play. You cannot just hit random buttons and hope to win. I personally think playing FFXI for 6 years taught me how to play. And for many of those who may have played even older MMOs understand how to group. Furthermore, by pulling from a random group of people, there is no way to “weed” out the baddies. When I played FFXI, if you were a “baddie” you were doomed.)
I think until there is a way to teach people how to play from the get go, and fix players overall attitudes, the pain of the LFD will never be fixed. Furthermore, unless there is ever a way to get away from this “trinity” system, players will always be plagued by this. There always seems to be a shortage of tanks and healers when compared to DPS. Why play the support when you can be the slayer?
Really, the problem in the trinity system lies in the odd fractions.
5-man: 1 tank, 1 healer, 3 DPS
10-man raid (average encounter): 2 tanks, 3 healers, 5 DPS
25-man raid (average): 2 tanks, 6 healers, 17 DPS
1:1:3 becomes 1:1.5:2.5 or even 1:3:8.5
There aren’t enough tank roles available within raiding encounters (healers too, but more pronounced with tanks) to support the number of tanks required to run heroics for all the DPS needed to run a raid. True, not every tank that runs 5-mans runs raids. But there is a limit to people willing to gear and play a tank well even if they never get to raid in that spec and most don’t want to bother.
Agreed, well played tanks, and those willing to take it on the chin day in, day out, with little glory is rare.
The ratio of tanks to raid composition, you are correct also makes it even more apparent that there is not enough tank roles.
Is there a way to get away from a trinity system in a game environment, I don’t think there is. Once you start making people jack of all trades, the game becomes dilute imo.
You had me come back and re-read the post for one extra paragraph? 😉
I can tell you what will happen to me, personally. I will queue up a couple times on my tanks, it will suck donkey balls, I won’t get a mount in my bag, and I will go right back to raid tanking only.
Crossing my fingers and hoping there’s a healer shortage each time I want to queue is about all I will be able to do after that.
Recent update indicates that the goodie bag will be BoA. Hopefully healer pops up in the CtA once in a while and I can try for mounts for my mage.
So they are going with something similar to what they did with Oculus: lure people with extra goodies so they won’t run away screaming.
I’m interested to see how this will play out: the pessimist part of me thinks that we will be in for boatloads of fayle tanks.
I want to be a Princess Healer.
You want to be Liyhe?
Har har har.
/sulks in a corner cause its true.
You are worse than PPP
When I saw PPP I thought of “Pool Party Princess” because my friend registered her dog with the AKC as that name.
lol no
PPP = Pretty Pretty Princess
aka my priest
As a side note:
PPPPPPP is one of my favorite acronyms.
Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.
(aka “read the strat you #$%^& keyboard monkey”
PPP is a dirty girl…gonna get her bubble popped…yeah, you like getting smited, don’t you?
Truth be told, with the latest goodie bag, I’ve seen a glut of folks tanking who’ve never tanked before. Some are admiting it, others are just showing it. Post comming in the future, but hey, when the mob is chewing the healers face, it might be time for a taunt!
Even better are the “I’ve never tanked this instance – will you tell me in detail what to do?” (Actual question posed right before I dropped group.)
I admitted when I healed my first heroic. I’ve healed all the normal ones, but man… And if I was a new tank, not only would I say I’ve never done this, but I would also be using hella lot of CC and if the DPS think CC is too slow (sorry Sorak) I would let them drop.