How to Handle the Easily Offended
“Dear BRK, thanks to your articles when I group with random people I get messages like, “You’re that guy my guildy told me about who can chain trap, how do you do it?” This just makes me feel happy and sad at the same time.
“I used to play as a resto druid. In all my time I don’t believe I ever saw a hunter competently trap. Most wouldn’t ever bother trying and would just let the warrior pull. They would always be happy to let a mob beat on me but never happy when I stopped healing, even more so if I didn’t heal his Crocolisk.
“I guess the whole point of my rant here is to say thank-you for your insight on chain trapping and advising on how not to be a huntard, but I guess my major question is: How do I inform the other less-fortunate hunters without hurting their all-so-delicate egos. They always seem so tender when you try to advise them on the basics like turn Growl off, take the pet off of Aggressive, or don’t multi-shot that sheep. Rosca & Karen.”
Thank you for the nice email, Rosca. /wave
Fictional Conversation Number One:
Druid says, “I like vanilla ice cream.”
Hunter says, “I’M OFFENDED!”
Raid says, “That hunter isn’t rational. What a loser. Get him out of the raid.”
Fictional Conversation Number Two:
Druid says, “Don’t Multi Shot and break a sheeped mob, please.”
Hunter says, “I’M OFFENDED!”
Raid says, “That hunter isn’t rational. What a loser. Get him out of the raid.”
Fictional Conversation Number Three:
Druid says, “MORON! Can’t you Chain Trap!? My little sister’s 34 hunter could trap better than you, and she plays WoW with a Dora the Explorer keyboard that only has two keys, and they’re shaped like Dora and Boots!”
Hunter says, “I’M OFFENDED!”
Raid says, “That Druid isn’t rational. What a loser. Get him out of our raid.”
Nobody should be upset for having basic fight strategies restated at the beginning of every major battle. It takes just a few seconds to remind people that there will be crowd-controlled mobs and to watch their Multi Shots, AoE attacks, etc. However, being polite, sincere and honest on your part is required.
If people want to get upset, that’s their business. But it is your business whether or not you want to raid with them.
Druid says, “Hunter, we need to talk about your performance in that instance. You need to learn to chain trap and not break crowd-controls so frequently. I can point you in the direction of some hunter-guides that will help you if you’d like.”
Hunter says, “I’M OFFENDED!”
Druid says, “OK, be offended. But be offended in another guild because you’re not raiding with us anymore.”
/gkick Huntard
Problem alleviated.
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13 Responses to “How to Handle the Easily Offended”
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Polite, sincere, AND honest?
..
This ain’t Thanksgiving, my name ain’t November.
/gkick em!
WhereTF do you find magazine covers for girls and corpses? I’m not even going to search, that’s just sick.
I use “lol” alot, and smilies, when telling others how to play, lol. See!
Seriously though, keep the conversation light, I’ve found that most people are eager to learn better strategies and better methods. Of course this is with lvl 30-40 lvl players, so they are still fairly new to the class, usually. I’m guessing it’s more difficult explaining to a 70 how to play their class. It helps too if you’re the same class. Having a druid tell me how to play, would be frustrating, because he’s a druid, what does he know about a hunter? It’s a lot easier to take advice from fellow hunters, so, maybe mention that when you play YOUR hunter, you do this… Knowing that you actually have plaid the class, maybe they’ll be more receptive.
I find the biggest problem with perfecting my hunter skills is that the folks I group with in pugs rarely give me the time to trap, and the chaos the ensues pretty much means BW and shoot like crazy. I can drop traps in front of squishies, but someone else usually still has aggro.
sigh…
we need a pugging hunter’s guide.
i did a search on armory did you know that there are 109 hunters names huntard =P
i have tried to help people out before on stuff like you should really have your pet out to help and stuff like that but they just act like im stupid and keep playing the way they were so i dont try to help any more i just try to get it dont the best i can and get out of the group and put them on my list of people i dont want to group with…
one good bit of news i am now keyed for kara after 2 months of trying to get ARC and then BM runs everything came together both runs we had a druid tank but after i finished BM someone whispered me asking me to run it again and i need the rep so i did but they had a warrior and it was a lot harder. every time i attacked the mob holding the gate open with the warrior tanking i pulled agro with the druid i never pulled agro…
***OFF-TOPIC WARNING***
I just invited a Hunter to our guild the other night and we started talking. He mentioned he was Beast Master spec and I mentioned BRK’s Blog; he said he visits the Blog everyday! ****queues the Disney song, “It’s a Small World…”***
I found that people are more receptive to kindly whispers rather then out-right callin them out in party or raid chat. Even if you arent currently playing the same class, you can send them a tell like, “Hey [huntard], I saw that one of your multi-shots strayed and broke that sheep. Was that an accident or do you always use MS in your rotation? I’m asking because I have a 70 Hunter myself and have learned some things about selective rotations.:)” The emote at the end is the key. Throw that up and you lower your offensive aggro by 50%. If he/she comes back with a smartass comment, then follow BRK’s example and paste his response into an open channel (/g, /p or /ra), then dump his ass. Now that I play a S Priest I come across a lot of people that have a hard time listening to my advice, but once I probe them with some questions about their spec/gear/stats and give some insight into how they can improve, they usually open up a bit and thank me in the end.
When PUGin, keep in mind that almost 80% of WoW players dont research information on the forums or blogs, so pointing them in the right direction before berating them is a more PC way to go.
- Misfit
Is it just me, or the only “decent” answers to the question (”How do I inform the other less-fortunate hunters without hurting their all-so-delicate egos?”) are coming only from NON-BRK sources?
Is this a sordid plan on making us all “answer BRK’s mail”? Because you did fail to give that guy a proper answer, BRK…
where can i get one of these Dora the Explorer keyboards?
This is the closest I could find to a keyboard:
Dora Toy
I recently had a conversation with a hunter in my guild. He says that he likes to melee. I have run with this hunter (lvl 70). Cant trap, can’t dps (100dps approx) and pulls aggro with multishot on cc’d mobs. I started by asking if I could give some advice. The player knows me well, we’ve been guildmates for months. He said “sure”. I proceeded to give advice, in a non threatening way. He listened, was receptive. Agreed on some things. Then I told him what we look for in Karazhan raid people. He told me (politely) that people can play the way they want, and if he likes to melee, that’s what he’ll do. I told him I agree. But that he woulnd’t be in my kara runs. This is the NICEST response I have gotten from most people, even those who ask ME for advice. People are just too stubborn sometimes.
conspiracy, would you mind explaining me why a childrens toy is shaped like a penis?
I’M OFFENDED!
This one really hits home. As a feral druid, I was tanking heroic Durnholde with some guildies a week ago. It was our first time in heroic mode for Durn, and I wanted to take it a little slow going in to get a feel for the mobs.
After the first 2 or 3 pulls, and the hunter basically sleepwalking through the pulls (tank pulls, send pet, fire rotation, rinse and repeat) I asked (yes, asked!) politely if the Hunter, who was one of the guild officers, would please use Misdirection pulls to help me build initial aggro.
The Hunter immediately went off on a masive rant about n00bs trying to teach her how to play, and that SHE had downed Moroes, so who the heck did I think I was? etc etc….
Sometimes… you have to remember that it is not necessarily your approach that sets someone off, and there is no magic ‘perfect’ way to phrase things. All you can do is try to be polite, and apologize for ruffling feathers… and decide how much abuse you are willing to take before telling them to get punted.
What is with it with some not wanted to use misdirection? I was tanking on my feral druid in SL the other day with a PUG. Hunter was marking and pulling (without misdirection). Of course, everything was running straight to the hunter and then I had to chase them down. So I politely say that if the hunter is going to do the pulls, could he misdirect to me. Immediately turned over marking to me and pulls and refused to use misdirect. I didn’t mind marking and pulling but couldn’t understand the aversion to misdirect.