I must be a troll for punishment. I love company, but sometimes it just puts me off. I play support ATs most of the time, and yet I dislike most groups. In truth, I am just sitting around, hoping for that perfect gem of a group to come up, for all of us to shine brightly like stars in a constellation...
I was doing some missions last night with two colleagues of mine in the supergroup, when I got a tell from an old acquaintance I have grouped with a few times in the past. He was trying to put together a group. I had one already, but I always support tanks who try to do their jobs as a principle, and he was one, so I asked El Alacran to invite the tank and the defender who was with him. El Alacran was a nice person and started off by doing a bunch of their missions first. The defender was three down from us, but heck, we don't mind whipping through a bunch of greys for him. Then the other defender had to leave, and we went on to do El Alacran's mission.
We finished the mission, and I asked them if they wanted to help me clear some Devouring Earth so I can make my science contact happy enough to sell me things. My colleagues were all game, but the the tank refused.
[Team]{Tank}: see if you can get a healer or maybe more melee classes pls
[Team]El Alacran: we should be OK, I like small groups
[Team]Contrition: Would you all like to help me clear a warehouse of DE after this so I can upgrade my red LEDs?
[Team]El Alacran: sure
[Team]{tank}: only if we get a healer for it
[Team]El Alacran: do you take much damage?
[Team]{tank}: not really
[Team]El Alacran: I have nanobots to heal me
[Team]{tank}: but then agian i hate having to stand around cause i don't have end
[Team]El Alacran: did you take stamina
[Team]{tank}: when i hit 32 i can get end regen from fitness
[Team]El Alacran: yeah
[Team]{tank}: takin it kinda late
More melee classes? We have already shredded through El Alacran's unyielding mission on a five person team. Scrapper and Kheldian do enough damage. Tank tanks. Defender defends. Damage dealers deal damage. Simple?
I have already noticed an unpleasant trend about this person. He would always have an empath around, often lower levelled, and yell at the person to give him RA constantly.
Being a good teamer means putting your team's interest before your own. If a tank does not have the endurance to hit and tank at the same time, then it must just tank. Also, none of the people who team with him are ever obliged to do so. I treat my damage dealers with respect, not as pets. Conversely, I am not the pet of any damage dealer, and my empath berthen are not either!
This was a person I considered a friend. Not the type of friend I talk to and group up with all the time, but the type of friend whom you've been in two taskforces with and consider a decent person. His constant demand for RA I have just treated as a peccadillo and did not really notice since 'by chance' he always had an empath on his team.
I was truly upset. We did his missions and he refused to do mine because there wasn't someone around to give him RA? El Alacran and I decided to just log off and go to bed instead of get into some kind of prolonged argument.
I really do not understand how some people can behave the way they do and not just stab their eyes out and die out of complete, utter shame at their own selves!
But I want to remember the good. I remember the good empath 'slave' our tanker brought along, who completely refuted my previous posting and made me ashamed to have posted it at all. Ashamed? Hell YES! I was caught in an eight DE ambush, flopping around on the ground, unable to run or turn on my toggles, with my teammates trying to get to me. Red again and again. Giant shots of green kept coming again and again. Alive, somehow...though that poor empath was probably killing himself spamming absorb pain and heal other on me. No idea, was too busy staring at my red health bar and my flopping around with eight DE pounding me. This empathy defender's name is Cursed Angel.
Is this a pet RA-providing slave?
No, this is a Hero. A Hero's Hero.
I want to ask the reader: Who is more heroic, the I-can-take-on-a-million tank who refuses to aid his team-mates with their mission, drags on some empathy defender always so he can get his RA crack, and refuses to budge without RA... Or that 'three down be grateful to be around now provide me with RA and more RA' empathy defender?
2 comments:
I don't think this is about heroism, though come to think of it, some thought on the definitions of heroism would be fun - but we'll leave that for a whole blog entry on its own.
Call me a bit of a black-and-white fool, but this is simply someone being an idiot, a moron, a jerk, a dumbass, or doesn't play well as a team or has a different expectation of how his team should perform. Insert choice of phrase as thy mood dictates. :)
I still say you've always been the more tolerant of us two. :P You befriend people that I steer clear of, for one reason or another... but which basically boils down to -"we're not going to enjoy each other's company due to the way we think, behave, have different expectations."
In this case, I despise people screaming for heals. The consistent behavior of the tank you describe puts me off.
Now as a tank, I admit sometimes I slip up and do mention in a group that, nah, no way I can tank this without a healer. It's a fantasy RPG-based turn of phrase, alas, but I do mean any kind of AT that can produce relatively consistent green numbers...
And when I say it, I mean it because I know there's damage that will leak right through my stoney defence, and cleave right through earth's embrace extra hp and leave me gasping for slivers of red remaining. At which point, um, yes, healing is what you require. And it would be an extremely stupid tank not to pre-plan ahead and have one along at points like those.
But I certainly don't do it ALL the time. I know my own defence is better than that. And I have NEVER yelled Heal at anyone.
I know that competent defenders WILL be looking out for my health bar and healing. If not, it is their life on the line after I eat dust, after all. :)
Heck, Contrition is totally paranoid with the spam heals. :P Many a time, I know my rooted will heal the damage back up, but the glowy green numbers come on anyhow. Just in case.
And incompetents, well, I don't trust my life to those, and prefer not to group with those either. I doubt screaming HEAL at them is going to be that effective.
Call me paranoid also, but I keep respites handy and earth embrace around as a backup. I rely on myself as a tank. Defenders just make it extra groovy. I also never jump into things I know I can't handle.
One caveat though, now that I think of it. Was this a fire tank by any chance? They -are- exceedingly squishy and do require healing backup more than most. Without hold protection, I can see why an empath with clear mind would be preferred.
Still, the way you describe the tank, he sounds like a whiner and a wuss.
I hate teaming with wusses. It's not my style. I'm scrapperish, I like to take risks.
To be fair, you could say there are certain kinds of player who are exceedingly careful, cautious and unoptimistic about their odds. (I define that wussiness.) I accept that kind of behavior in 'trollers and defs and even blasters. But when I see tanks and scrappers do that, I just feel like weeping at these lousy representatives of the nation and saying, "You're in the wrong freaking AT. Why take a frontline class, if you want to sneak around in the rearguard?"
The only time I play coward is in random PuGs as a controller -5 or more to mobs where my teammates clearly do not know wtf they are doing. Then yes, I call that sensible debt avoidance.
Inv tank.
Yes, an INVUL tank. :/ I'm also on hide now because he keeps trying to invite me to group now.
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