Shortly after complaining about "Multiple Tanks: The Nightmare Experience," I chanced to join a Synapse TF with a fire tank as a leader. Go figure, this would be "Multiple Tanks: The PL-Style Dream." :)
Don't get me wrong, it was very enjoyable. We were a group of 50s (ok, I was only 43 or so) auto-exemplaring down to do Synapse. There were a bunch of level 19s or so, some random, and some I think, were alts of 50s who knew each other.
As you can imagine, decked out in SOs and HOs, clockworks meant for a sub-21 team were aboslutely nothing. It was as if we were coated in a conductive, reflective material. The zaps just glided off our backs.
This was also a controller/defender heavy team, so there was even LESSer than less risk. It sort of reminded me of the time we had 3 bubblers stacking force fields for Synapse.
Everyone started off normal, going group to group. The fire tank was a good leader, in that he would provide direction and lead, but he wasn't the sort to go HERDHERDHERDWAITSTOPGO at every opportunity. Not a big ego fella. Big rooms, yes, after a while, he suggested rounding them up, and everyone behaved, more or less. So we meshed together as a good team, and proved that all of us could play like normal people...
And then we started getting fancy. :) Not being one to hog all the glory, after rounding them up for a bit, he then suggested that I go bring back more, while he tanked for the rest of the team.
Face it, this is the Dream if you don't mind shortcuts. The really-piss-off thing about herding is that the stupid tank is off playing sheepdog with himself, prolly wanking off somewhere, and you're just stuck standing around waiting for him to remember you exist and bring back toys to play with. Especially if the moron decides he can herd up the entire floor by himself = lots of downtime.
But if you have TWO tanks, TWO tanks that can cooperate well and coordinate matters, then, one guy can be tank for the group to clear hordes of mobs...(I haven't really met any squishy who is offended by hordes of well-controlled mobs, the scrappers and blasters are all happy to use their AoEs and nova, and defender/controller effects are better went clumped. Key being, well-controlled.)
...And the other tank can keep feeding in a supply of mobs. Like your very own "wave" mission. Cackles.
Everyone is kept busy doing things, there's no 'wait and go to sleep, boooooring' time, and you don't have to run all over except for the tank, and if he doesn't mind, why the hell not?
Especially if you are a fan of maximum efficiency and xp, this is beautiful when it works properly. And it did.
We skipped missions when we could, but the later "defeat alls" we handled this way. We crashed through Synapse in 2.5 hours, leveling up all the 19s this way also.
Deciding to take a break on tanking, I log on Rapid Meltdown again. He did the Positron TF, and so got a lvl 17 end redux SO. First time I've been glad to see one in my tray. :) Into Teleport, it went.
As I was mucking around playing, with a LFT flag on, I get a tell. 'hi, do u heal?'
ROFL. Whoop. I am an official defender. I got my first moron tell.
Having not have met hundreds of such morons yet, I remained considerably cool-headed, and decided to do my part for the defender community and "educate" the un-educatable. I explain about having a melee-based heal.
'Oh, sry no offense nuthing gainst kin but we are inneed of a healer'
*blink* I spend a little while deciphering the coded speech. Well, at least he did try to apologize for such a question. Then being masochistic, and feeling in a good temper, I decide to press the issue a little more and insidiously cultivate a speed boost addict. After all, kinetics is actually a damn good heal machine if you slot him out the way I have, 3 recharges 2 heals 1 acc, and I know my transfusion will beat healing aura in big green numbers any day, if you leave out the fact that it can miss, hem.
I explain that melee-based heals are centered around mobs, and are should be fine for tankers and scrappers. I ask the moron whether his team is primarily blasters or scrappers. Half of me is hoping it's all blasters, so I can go putz around with a team who knows what it's doing. (But since I logged on to really test vigilance, I'm also inclined to joining a train wreck.)
'O in that case alright. We r scrapper and tanker.'
He invites me. Oooh, time to forcibly demonstrate the fact that defenders do lots more than heal. To my surprise, there is already a defender on the team. I check powerset. It's a Stormie! Wow, they invited a stormie. So I guess they -can- be flexible-minded. (At least, that's what I thought.)
It's a Vahz mission. The tanker is invul, with RPD and TI. At level 15. Ouch. The scrapper is regen, he has fast healing, quick recov and reconstruction...and assault. Hmm. Heh.
They run around like crazed maniacs once fed speed boost, and hurtle headlong into entire vahz spawns - often promptly dying.
To give them their due, not once did they complain about insufficient healing. The moment they saw the big green 101 hp float over their head, and the first spawn get decimated, the scrapper sent me a tell saying, 'boy am i glad we got u.' *chuckles* So maybe I have now educated a moron to ask for healers and kins. Did my part.
Unfortunately, I think there is only so much you can teach these people. Because the stormie was an eye-opener, and a master of hurricane. She didn't run any other debuffs or anything, and O2 boosted when really urgent, and didn't want a tp from the hospital, but asked constantly for speed boost and asked me to taxi her over to blue steel like a queen, to be waited on hand and foot... (Actually I don't really mind, I made Rapid to be a taxi, otherwise why take recall friend?)
...But for all her flaws, I have now had my eyes opened about hurricane. I've seen one too many stormies use it badly, aggro'ing every freaking thing in sight and running around in the open. I've only heard of one storm who pushed stuff into the tanks aggro radius with it, but in this cramped little warehouse map, one single -3 lvl storm defender (plus end recovery buff and heals from a kinetic to survive the aggro) held off a multitude of vahz and saved a tanker from himself. :P
She was an expert at cornering stuff in perpetual knockdown for the narrow-focused tanker. The other zombie vahz tended to just wander toward her and get pushed back by hurricane, without really spitting. With the two of them crammed together like that, it was an easy matter to sit by them and keep them alive with spammed siphon power and tranfusion, plus regular buff application.
(There was one time a mire shut off her hurricane, and I panicked for about 5 seconds before remembering I had ID. Welp, it was a fairly interesting duo, a stormie and a kin. She ended up being primary tank because it was most effective, but she let the real tanker soak the alpha first.)
Unfortunately, as the saying goes, for both tankers and defenders and all other support classes who care about others on your team - "You cannot save idiots from themselves."
The scrapper died multiple times. Usually as a result of charging the spawn before we even knew he was in it (hooray, the power of speed boost, it speeds up good teams and speeds bad players to the hospital even faster!) And then because he ignored my advice of keeping together and choosing to go fight vahz on that side, while the rest of us were clustered around the tanker. My transfusion is sufficient only to keep one group of people standing, so if I have to distribute it, both meelee'rs might die. They did once or twice, actually, cos I tried to heal the scrapper. :P
Let's see, is vigilance working well? I'm not sure. I didn't run out of end, so it could have been working. Especially in the case of suicidal meelee guys like this. Most I got down to was about half end.
We finished the mission, and then the scrapper and tanker started making excuses and needing to leave. I decided to make my farewells as well, when out of the blue, I get a tell from the scrapper.
"o [name of the storm defender] is gettin on r nerves, so we r going off for a bit. we will b back soon, and will send u a tell then k?"
What? You want me to heal you without the storm defender? The storm defender whose hurricane saved everybody's ass from Vahz? You want me to try and pump you full of green numbers when you charge right into a full spawn without any protection from mobs too busy with hurricane to bother about spitting at you?
Hahahaha. I have done my part to educate a moron that there are other defenders besides empaths who have big green healy numbers. :)
But if you cannot recognize the value of other defender powers when they have been forcibly demonstrated to you (especially after you eat dirt the moment you catch the two defs unawares and unready to hit hurricane and transfusion. Twice.), I am NOT sticking around to share in your debt and get derided for insufficient healing.
I just send him a polite tell, "oh, I'm going off for food also. Catch you later when I get back on." (I'm not getting back on, obviously. *shudders*) :P
But it's a funny story.
Some people never learn. But slowly, if we're patient, we can slowly educate those with potential (have to look with a very forgiving eye here) and just run away, far far away from those who won't learn. Ever.
In the end though, I am still going to take over the world, one speed boost at a time. Just wait till the Knives of Artemis, man, just you wait. *cackles*
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