Every night at 3am server time I log back into game and queue up for my daily random heroic. Normally it’s amusing when people inspect me as the healer and see that I have Val’anyr equipped. They normally make comments about feeling more at ease especially when the random is heroic Halls of Reflection.
But recently two events have occurred and seem to be reoccurring since. I’m referring to it as the Val’anyr curse.
About two weeks ago I was doing a PUG heroic on a Monday in the early afternoon. A decent chunk of my guildies were on, and it was a rather enjoyable day. I queue up to do my random of the day and like any healer will tell you 20 seconds went by before there was a group ready and waiting. The random instance it selected was Halls of Lightning. Not a bad instance, all things considered it’s fairly easy. I look at the people in my group, Full i245 lock, hunter mage and paladin. We all inspect each other which seems to be the custom of the pug tool when the paladin exclaims;
“HOLY SHIT! Wet got ourselves a [Val’anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings] !!!! That means I can do this!”
and then he takes off running. He hits the first group, tags them both, and keeps going down the ramp for the second group. Ok, that’s pretty normal, I’ve had a lot of tanks do that no big deal. After a couple seconds of Consecrate being down he moves on to the group on the right, dragging everything with him. Ok healing gets a little more difficult but still bearable, dudes got some good gear and can take the abuse. Again though after a couple seconds he drags EVERYTHING with him to the next set of adds. Oh, and the boss was there fully lightning charged too. At this point healing is ridiculous. To the tanks credit he manages to hold aggro on it all and the mage and lock are happily AEing to their hearts content, meanwhile I’m playing Yo-Yo with the tanks health as he’s taking a ton of hits all at once. We get through it somehow and he goes
“That was awesome! Lets do that again!”
and before I can even sit to drink he’s off pulling mobs leading up to the gauntlet room and through. At this point I sit down and drink. The dps is smart enough to stay with me and when the tank does die I see in chat from the tank
“too much huh?…. sorry =( I’ll be good now”
the rest of the run was smooth but I’ve seen this behavior become more and more common in the last couple weeks. I’ve had 9 out of 14 tanks see the hammer and just go careening off. I know it’s the hammer because they ALL said something about the hammer before trying to pull half the instance. I asked in guild chat and none of the other healers had seen this behavior either.
The second event was just a few nights ago. I was in a pug Forge of Souls rolling heroic, we were going to do FoS, PoS and finish with HoR, after the first boss is down the tank gives me a compliment on heals, one of the DPS in the group, a Feral Druid, says
“He’s only good because of the hammer, Shaman can’t heal this shit otherwise”
I laughed at first but then the following statement was uttered
“I’m not kidding, I have a Resto Shaman, I know you can’t heal this shit without that mace”
obviously I’m using better grammar than he did but you get the point. So I relay this to guild, I get a tell from one of the newbies
“So… un-equip the hammer, do it without it you got another caster weapon right? Maybe just do it without a weapon I know you can do it and that will stick in his craw for sure.”
I thought it over for a second, and then off came the mace. Second boss went down, the druid made another comment about
“you must be really thankful for that mace”
I casually reply,
“Oh, that. I haven’t had it equipped since you made the first comment. Don’t plan on putting it back on either, matter of fact bet I can do all the rest of the two without a weapon at all.”
Druid tried to call bullshit, but kept inspecting me. A successful (and flawless) PoS and HoR run later the Druid apologizes and leaves the group. So I asked around to some of my friends on the server that have the mace, and sure enough they all said they had similar experiences. The mace is a fantastic healing weapon, it really is. It’s a great lore piece and a sign that a guild is willing to put in the work necessary to construct it, but the general mentality of non healers that it is a godly healing weapon seems to be rather prevalent. So my New Years resolution in wow has been born as a result of this. When using the LFG tool I will no longer equip the mace. I’ve dubbed this the Val’anyr curse, it gives some people false expectations of your abilities.
So how about you out there? Have you noticed people being treated different in PUGs when they have the mace? Do you have the mace and noticed it as well?
well, that’s it for today, Until next time, Happy Healing
Image courtesy of MMO-Champion
I have the mace, but have only gotten one “holy crud you have Val’anyr” comment. Maybe people look but they don’t say anything. I dunno. That doesn’t mean I have not had tanks pull constantly multiple mobs – to the point where it feels like I’m healing hard mode anub 25. I have to say, though, that in those situations, I am *very* glad I have the mace. : ) the legendary certainly does make such pulls easier.
I only get the “OMG you have that mace!” comments. Other than that they don’t dare to do *really* stupid stuff. But, (having read Mat’s post) I do tend to carry people in pugs. I rarely tell someone to learn to play, unless I can’t heal it.
And I do like a challenge once in a while. 😀
.-= Maraetha´s last blog ..Resolutions and 2009 analysis =-.
you are playing with bads.
stop playing with bads.
= stop the pain.
I do wonder if overgeared tanks and healers are teaching people to play badly. Like, it doesn’t matter if you stand in the fire, someone will heal you through it. It doesn’t matter if you pull an extra group, someone will grab it off you and tank it. etc.
Maybe the game would be more interesting if healers were nerfed in 5 mans?
@smeedsc defeats the purpose of using the LFG for random daily heroic =P
aye lodur, I avoid it like the plague.
all of the things i did when gearing up and learning fights, and then progressivly raiding go out the door.
and bads expect miracles. so …
I just dont do it bro. 😉
I dident know this kind of thing happend in PuGs, not to say i havent seen my fair share of stupidity as either a DPS or a Healer but from what your saying it might be a good idea to get another epic healing weapon for the sole purpose of curbing the hubrism of the group.
I never would have thought about that, Lodur, but you’re right. People rely far too heavily on gearscore and the like to blast through PuGs anyway. I can only imagine how seeing a Legendary would make them barrel through it without considering anything or anyone else.
It would be a two-edged sword for me, though: I would be so proud of having such an item that I would want to use it and get less enjoyment and become bitter toward the groups (and pugging system) if I were not able to use something I put so much time toward attaining.
.-= Professor Beej´s last blog ..John Scalzi’s The God Engines – Free First Chapter =-.
@professor Beej I can understand that, believe me I really really can. To me though the Random Daily has become a means to an end. Frost Badges. So because it’s become a bit of a necessary devil when I can’t find a guild group to random the heroic, it’s something I either have to eat, or let it go by undone. Like you said double edged sword.
I’m proud of obtaining my mace, I really truly am. If it’s possible to love a set of pixels, heck I just might. But I need badges so I’ll suck it up for the time being.
Pssst… that color for failtank doesn’t come through very well on Google Reader. I R SAD because i like to read silly tankspeak 😉
Great post.
.-= Miss Medicina´s last blog ..Miss Medicina’s Best of ‘09 =-.
@Miss Medicina fixed =D
The silly rate of gear inflation and the ease of acquiring it has created a dependence on it rather than encouraging people to understand their abilities and the mechanics of the content they are doing – why learn when you can out gear and bulldoze your way through? Really, it’s made people lazy. Seeing an orange item is now equivalent to how purple items were viewed in Vanilla – it means you’re over powered as hell, and no amount of skill can equal what you get from having it. But like most gear then and now, if you put that hammer in the hands of an awful player….he’s still going to be awful, just with an orange hammer. A good player is a good player, even without the orange(or even purple) text , but it’s getting pretty hard to convince anyone of that.
I remember doing Naxx 25 last November in level 70 gear and leveling blues just fine, and now you need 5K dps and a 5 K gear score for heroics? *shakes head*
As a pally tank, seeing a Val’anyr in any 5 man easier than H-HoR generally means I’ll never have mana again. I can think of many not-so-nice things I’d like to do to a Val’anyr.
I’ve heard a lot well geared healers complain of tanks going nuts with pulls after checking gearscore. My own healing experience is kind of the opposite. The groups who notice my gearscore are the ones who seem to try to impress me by playing flawlessly. Then they spend the last few pulls complimenting me on my healing. And I’m trying to figure out what exactly they’re thanking me for. Silly suck ups.
.-= Ophelie´s last blog ..Of The Treatment of Women in WoW, part 2 =-.
Oh my god… that’s a real curse 😮
I read so often “[insert healing class] cannot heal HoR!” (or another harder heroic), I have no idea why people keep on saying that. There might be bad players in the huge world of WoW but you cannot claim that a special class is bad in general! Ack… frustrating. When I play my holy paladin I am used to people leaving my grp when joining HoR only because they think holy paladins cannot heal that. I don’t care as I have no problem but that’s stupid though D:
.-= Nanuki´s last blog ..Holy shieht, he’s back! And too much WoW is too much. =-.
a sign that a guild is willing to put in the work necessary to construct it
Mmm… Work? Or luck, in fragment droprates, people not leaving the guild, and picking the “right” healer to get it?
@rilgon At plugging through the instance to gather the shards, sure that’s luck, but working on the hardmode kill to get it, that’s always work and dedication. My guild for example worked hard to bring the raiders up to speed on the encounter after changing a good chunk of the roster sure, but we did it as a team and when we got the mace, the ENTIRE guild was excited regardless of if they were raiders or just friends and family. It was a guild event from start to finish. So yes I stand by my statement =D
True enough. Val’anyr is probably equal portions both hard work and RNG courting, with a dash of praying for low healer turn-over/real-life invasion.
Sadly, my guild only has the hard work to our credit – we’ve lost a good dozen fragments to healers leaving, healers having to quit due to RL, or our current designated Val-bearer being unavailable when non-Yogg shards DID drop.
*sigh*
Rilgons right – those shard drops just can suck for anyone. We have been clearing ulduar since week 2 of it’s release, and JUST finished our third one last week….needless to say, never seeing that place again will be too soon. With the first one, the shards fell like RAIN….the next two….I’ve seen paint dry faster. Thats one of the main reasons I passed on all three…I’m dealing with some post cancer health issues and I can’t guarantee my presence. It wouldn’t be fair to the other healers. But I do fine without it! We can heal your PuG!
Well crap….. Nanuki’s comment just made me realize why my Random HoR group drop the second they get in when I’m on my holy pally. What’s so tough about a holy pally healing that? *bangs head on desk*
– ava
.-= Avalonna´s last blog ..Tunnel Vision – A Healer’s Bane =-.
I ran with a disc priest who had it and the effect was quite awesome. It was a normal run otherwise. I did gratz the person who had it on what was obviously a lot of hard work for them and their guild.
.-= Askevar´s last blog ..ICC:10 =-.
This was quite entertaining. As a tank with 45.9k hp unbuffed(only 20 off of 46k) and because I always have BoSanc up, I usually enter into an instance and a dps or two sometimes even the healer get awe-struck. They usually end up pulling mobs themselves expecting me to pull them off, or demand I pull over 1/2 the instance in one go. I’ve yet to indulge these requests, but I can understand the effects of such a curse. Though I can agree that when I see a healer with Val’anyr I do get a bit crazy and generally offer them a congratulations and pull a little bit more than I normally would, simply because, I know this healer likely has better skills and better gear in order to handle a more intense situation.
I don’t have a mace, but I am experiencing the I will pull 3 rooms ahead of you mentality a lot…
More often than not now I drop group after the 2nd charge.. usually because I have the mana for the 1st, but not the 2nd, so they wipe and I hearth.
As for Shaman not being able to heal instances… I tend to get the opposite…
“Oh thank god its a Shammy healer”
That’s usually when I look around at the corpses on the ground.. frown and hope the last healer didn’t leave in exasperation
.-= Gnomeaggedon´s last blog ..My Xmas Present to Me =-.
You should keep a less heroic weapon around for running PUGs…
I made the same decision within the last week. I’m tired of the crap that people pull when they see Val’anyr. At first, it was amusing – like the dps that asked what was causing the “lazer shields” and the tank that linked Val’anyr with gusto. But now I’m just tired of the laziness and expectations that one will be healed through any degree of stupidity. I’m glad I kept my Misery’s End, just for random pugs. 🙂
I tank mostly and really the random daily is a devil.
I had sworm to not do heroics anymore and since 3.3 here I am getting my 2 frost emblems every day..
Because I dislike heroics so much I want to get them over with as fast as humanly possible.
That’s why I can see my healers mana bar. I will push my group to the max, healers and dps. But I’m always careful to not go over that max.
Why? Easy, a run without wipes costs less time then a run with wipes.
Are there no tanks that can see their healers manabar?
OMG 1000 times yes!
I get this constantly:
OMG YOU HAVE [link val’anyr]
…Yes, I am aware of my weapon dude, you dont have to tell me.
And then the rest of the party inspects me and proceed to tell me, again, what my weapon was, just in case I wasn’t sure or had forgotten.
I find this phenomenon lessens when I run with at least one guildie in my group. It seems to be restricted to when I random on my own.
.-= brangwen´s last blog ..Raiding 101 =-.
not that it’s pertinent now, rilgon.. but the first vals were farmed by good guilds doing hardmodes week after week after fecking week. one bad in the guild having one = means sheet.
then do hardmode yoggie.
I have never had a pug group drop when random heroics have me (a holy pally) do HoR.
I also had the wonderful fun time of carrying 2 just-hit-80-2-hours-before dps in my run today that had a gear score too low to randomize for the new Icecrown 5 mans. By the time we got HoR done with no wipes (stressful as hell though), I’m pretty sure I could heal anything. I don’t have the legendary, but I don’t see why any healing class would be deemed too ‘fail’ to heal a specific instance.
I don’t have the mace but I still get the pull 3-rooms-at-once tanks all the time.
Frankly, it just plain sucks, especially because I tend to do my daily pug heroic early in the morning before going to work, and my main spec is shadow = my holy gear is very good but not extrauber.
It’s not that I can’t heal a fast run, but healing a tank in blues who pulls 3 groups of mobs BEFORE brekfast/coffee and in my offspec isn’t certainly my best way of starting the day.
Unfortunately, I work full time and If I want to get my 2 badges a day + raid 3 times a week, queueing as healer guarantees me minimum waits.
But spending 10 minutes more to finish the instance, giving people time to buff/loot/skin – crack a joke or whatever is just a lot more pleasant imho.
Well, I am a resto druid and I rarely have anyone inspect me or even comment about my mace.
Frankly, I doubt that many pugs I run with even know what the shield proc was. They just took it for granted.
I think your pugs might be smarter than mine.
I don’t have the mace but have had similar experiences. Usually starts, “Holy crap, the healer has level 264 gear!” And then the tank pulls 3 packs of mobs. Heck, I don’t really mind. If it is a successful pull then its all good. If it is a wipe I just laugh it off. I actually prefer a tank that pushes me other wise I get bored and tab out. There are a lot of times I throw a PW:S, PoM and a Renew on the tank and then tab over to my other account and find another saronite node to mine in Sholazar. I tab back over in about 10-15 seconds to see how its going, throw a few heals and tab out again.
The mace is a special case. Unlike most of the gear out there it requires more than luck with the RNG. It also requires a lot of time invested and enough skill that your guild would work towards you getting it. Wearing it is not just “I HAVE A LEGENDARY ITEM GO WILD” sign, it is also a sign that you have skill which sadly encourages some people to act stupider than normal and expect you to carry them trough.
I primarily tank(pally) and have run across a few healers with the mace. It’s nice but it doesn’t help with the increasingly stupid DPS in the pug tool.
My least favorite activity is when a “helpful” DPS, say a hunter or mage thoughtfully pulls the next group for me. I would let them get killed but they seem to be just smart enough to feign death or ice block but not smart enough to have pulled them through my consecration leaving the mobs to go howling towards my healer and me cursing them.
Wish more people would learn that skill>>>gear.
I only have 25-normal gear and don’t get many complements. The one that does make me smile, though, is the tree who was in awe of my mana pool – right before I swapped over to do the tanking.
Anyone dropping group or whining about a particular healer in a certain instance has never run the place with a (pick a class) who was paying attention. Paladins can’t heal HoR? That last “paladin” obviously couldnt cast Holy Wrath, stun, HoP, or DSac. Or the tank couldn’t manage the fight properly. Or the dps couldn’t keep it in their pants and help the tank do his job.
I’m really getting to like HoR.
Nice read Lour. I know there are a few of us that wish we had your problem!
I decided that I would write a bit abut your struggle over at my place.
Grats on the new toy!
.-= Cozmo D´s last blog ..The Curse! =-.
It’s not THAT great of a mace…it has a neato gee-whiz shield effect, other than that it is really not that great of a healing mace..sorry to burst your bubble there.
But grats on healing a dungeon with no weapon equipped. I would vote to kick someone doing that. 🙂
I don’t have the mace, but I have full ToC/ToGC gear, plus some new stuff out of ICC. I have found that usually it’s the badly geared tanks that think they can chain-pull because I’m very wellgeared. Wellgeared tanks behave themselves for the most part. I’ve had several 45-50k prot warrior/pallies that will chain pull just the right number of groups. But they know exactly when to stop and break or how much is too much.
And I have had several lower quality tanks that inspect me and proceed to go nuts. Most recent was in UK dragon stable area, when the bear pulled the entire left side all in one run. Held aggro okay, health was bouncing all over the place but still alive, until one of the dps got knocked back into a mob on the right. Mob killed him, aggroed to me and beat me into the ground. I couldn’t keep both of us up. We wiped, which is just a total waste of time and money. So, as someone else stated, a lot of people are developing really bad 5-man techniques. Aggro pulling, positioning, standing in bad stuff, stupidity…
Ironically, the DK tanks I’ve had behaved themselves. Often to the point of pulling too slow.
I must be doing it wrong, as I’ve yet to get a comment about my hammer. LOL
.-= Codi´s last blog ..re: The Line Between Theory and Application =-.
I have completed the 100pug random achievement and still do one pug a day for my frost badges. I have felt fortunate to have only had three bad experiences that stand out in my mind in regards to my Val’anyr Mace.
Each of those times it was pretty much as you described; Tank going nuts, or DPS backing into NPC groups and buttpulling, or just undergeared/underskilled playing with me carrying them by brute force healing. Each of those three times I was told that if it wasn’t for my mace, they’d drop me and that I must have obtained my mace in some means other than with skill. Needless to say, I just consider the source during those moments and am glad that the vast majority of PUG players keep their mid-run communication focused on pleasantries and compliments.
Only bad tanks abuse their healers.
You should see how an Ensidia tank reacts to this. It was actually also a HoL and got grouped up with a tankadin of theirs. I saw him inspecting me (while I was also drooling at his gear) and then off he went. 10 minutes and about 8,9 huge pulls later, we were at Loken. 😛
Yeah, this is the case with all legendaries, but I imagine the lfg pug system makes it worst of all for healers.
Back in Vanilla, I was one of the first warriors horde-side to get a Hand of Ragnaros. From then on, the weapon and I were inseparable, even against my will. People assumed I was basically a god if I had it and expected me to basically do everything. I imagine it’s living hell for healers using the random system. Just take it off.
Probably the worst case of all was with my guild, who, long after Hand of Rag was old and overshadowed by a weapon from the very next tier up (Ashkandi), forbade me from ever rolling on any sort of upgrade ever again. Even into Naxx 40, the damn Hand of Rag was forbidden from leaving my hands (although my two blades of Hakkari were ok). I felt like god damn Arthas with Frostmourne. Nothing to look forward to, ever. No Might of Menethil for me. Nope. Just me and Raggy, 24/7.
I do look on the weapon fondly now, as it represents what I feel was one of my better accomplishments, both for me and my old guild. But damn, it was frustrating at the time.
But for healers with Val’anyr. Damn…. that must suck.
As a tank, when I see the hammer, I dont go ass wipe crazy, but I do feel more confident that the healer isnt going to be unable to keep me up, and if I do pull a little more, they know how to adjust.
I don’t have the mace, even though I wish I did, of course. Congratulations on the achievement!
I basically think you have been unlucky with the groups you get, and I guess you gave far too much attention to the druid. But I can also understand your reaction after a while – it just gets old very fast when someone lets one item on your healer affect their behaviour in a negative direction so much.
Reading through the comments here, I get the impression that yes, indeed there is a Valanyr curse for some players. The question is: How can we help people to learn that yes, skill > gear? Yes, that one druid did apologize before he left – but did he learn something? Somehow I doubt it. This leads us to a more general discussion about the fixation on gearscore, orange items, and whatnot. I remember when I a few weeks ago ran heroics with my t7.5 gear and people commented on my low gearscore. I ignored it back then, but I also thought about how I might help them to understand things. (Given, of course, that we don’t assume that they are lost causes and there Is No Possible Improvement™)
My gear is pretty mediocre, so luckily I dont get this problem. In fact, I do enjoy it when the tank chain-pulls. Of course, if he chain-pulls and then loses aggro on mobs that go ahead and kill that clothie over there before I can save that clothie – then I suggest that the tank either works on improving his threat on multiple mobs, or stops chainpulling so much 🙂
Speaking for myself I’ve never personally pugged with a healer that had Valanyr (at least not in a random, did do VoA 25 with one once), but my general policy while tanking, regardless of the healer’s gear level, has always been to err on the side of caution. To me it doesn’t matter if the healer is in blues and greens or in full ICC 10 gear, you never know how skilled the player themselves is. I’d rather take a few minutes longer going at a steady pace and not incur a 20g repair bill for a heroic then pull too much and find that my 5800 gs healer is a fricking moron.
Besides all that, there’s always those dps who go crazy and start attacking something 20 feet away from me that I only have enough threat on to keep off the healer. On my dk tank I usually don’t have too much problem with that kind of thing – if I see em being dipshits I can death grip the mob off them (if I decide to be nice enough, sometimes I let them take their beating and hopefully learn a lesson). But on my druid it’s a little more difficult – maul/swipe spam can only do so much after all, plus if I’m rage starved at the beginning of the pull…. well, dps is just gonna have to fend for themselves. Sorry guys, learn to /assist.
But then, this comes also from me having healed tanks who go hog wild, so I’ve seen both sides of the coin.
I first read the title of this as the “Val’kyr” curse and I was expecting a hilarious tale about wiping on ToGC Twins or something.
This story was alright too, though. ;]
If only i had that mace. Most of the time i have the opposite of that problem, in that pulls take waaay too long, so being the snazzy healer that i am i usually throw a lightning bolt at the next group and hide. works great with a pally tank, since they just run in his conc and instantly aggro to him. Guess ill just have to wait for some icc25 mace or dagger.
I get this kind of reception with Constellus – the mace is often confused by look for Val’anyr. Even when I tell people that it is a 25-man Algalon (or Hodir hardmode) mace, a huge step down, tanks and dps still tend to pull pretty recklessly.
I am a disc priest though, so having Val’anyr was something more effective in other healers hands.
I know what you mean. The weapon is simply the ultimate symbol for all overconfident tanks (and dps) out there. I’m levelling a resto druid with the new dungeon finder system and I’m mid lvl now. Most pugs start slow, but at the point they notice we can survive big accidental chain pulls because of decent healing, they pitch up the pull speed and pull size, looking for the healer’s limits. You can almost see the tank think: “How far can I go with this?” Or the rogue: “You know what, this tank is too slow, lemme pull this time!”
So… having the legendary weapon is a curse, I’m sure. But good healing skills in general are a curse as well, halfway the run. It’s totally paradoxal.
It’s ok for the party to test the healer’s skills and adept to it, but they should never cross reasonable limits. In a way it’s even slowing runs: a tank chain pulling several trash packs takes a few seconds to reach the last pack (dazed). In the meanwhile the first few packs are being kited with minimum aggro, hitting the tank to hell. Every essential HoT I cast at this point aggros enough mobs to start self healing and watch chaos unfold. That’s hardly time efficient.
Not all, but most tanks really think that having a uber shield or something, is the same as being able to control aggro.
You know, Im a pretty mediocre tank. I have 232ish avg ilvl, i dont always catch that loose mob before it nearly kills someone, but i get by as a tank when someone needs it in an instance.. i have tanked saurfang, and gunshiplol. I find your example of HoL is rediculous… i have been in HoL more as a dps, than as a tank but tanked many times. and i have to say that since somewhere in early spring last year the avg HoL first pull includes every piece of trash up to the fully charged boss… this sounds and looks and feels crazy but even when i had 33k buffed hp i could tank it with heals in blues. in fact we just recruited a priest in blues who pulled 3200hps on that pull and kept us all up. if you want to complain that tanks can be crazy in heroics thats fine… but dont use it as another excuse to write an article about your l33t heals stick and how cool you are that you dont even need to use it… we know heroics are easy we get it…
example; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJuRWUTNuyc
Ive only had one bad experience, most of the time i dont mind tanks pulling alittle extra, so long as they can hold it off me and my fun aggro. The only time i’ve been annoyed was by an undergeared warrior who made it a point to gush about my(admittedly epic) gearscore in a HoR and then couldn’t hold aggro off anyone in the group. In the first 5 waves i healed like 750k dmg and we still wiped. It was to the point that the raid was taking so much dmg that while everyone was hotted and i was spamming I still had to pop tranquility….in a heroic to get to the next wave. The bad tank proceeded to say “I guess gear and legendary aren’t everything” and left. We got a druid tank in with the same gearscore as bad warrior and 1 shot the rest.
Not gonna lie though i normally relish the OMGs, but poor enough skill can still trump my lovely hammer of awesome. Despite that bad experience ive pretty much stopped using treeform just as an extra point of vanity lol.
I think you get these responses because the legendary mace is one of the very few items that’s evidence of skill rather than just persistence. You had to gather the 30 shards and complete Yoggy on hard mode, and that’s impressive. The hammer is just evidence that you’ve done something difficult. Like a college degree, it doesn’t guarantee you’re smarter than the next guy, but it does make it much more likely.
in fact, I’ve only wanted to push my tanks to pull more in randoms. Almost no tank wants to pull more than 2 groups of mobs when I was in random. No one mentioned that I had a legendary mace. No one even bother to ask what the shield was on them.
In my experience, only the bad tanks take breaks in between pulls. The good ones always have a well controlled rythem.
The funny thing is that I am often put with fresh lvl 80s when I do randoms.
in HoR, the only tank I am afraid to heal is DKs. Can’t heal one shot.
You don’t have to carry a legendary mace to have tanks act crazy. I have noted an increasing number of tanks behaving in similar fashion. Why? beats me … and mana … what’s that? The play is getting sloppy.
I so recognize this.
I play a resto shaman myself and although I don’t have that legendary mace I do have a nice set of gear (mostly 258 and 264 items atm).
My regular experience with the LFG tool is that the tank just goes “Cool we got a 5.7K GS healer” and then he practically chain pulls everything up until the first boss.
You can usually tell within the first couple of pulls how well the group is going to work in terms of speed running the instance. Personally, I’ve never gear checked anyone when I’m in a pug unless they’re an exceptionally bad job at their role. I’ve met more bad tanks than I have healers as well. Any tank that pulls an outrageous amount of mobs based simply on the gear the healer is wearing has issues anyway. It can result in repair bills that are unwarranted. There are times when I curse gear score.
.-= Pwnyxpress´s last blog ..Gearing Your Guild =-.
I was at 5 fragments when I left my nazy raiding guild. Maybe it’s a bit of an inflated ego I have, but I left because I wanted to see them carrying the stupidiest( is that a word? ) holy priest I have ever met, which got promoted to officer and got the 30 fragments before me. I wanted to see they getting the legendary without my help. It didn’t happen.
It’s the only raiding guild on my server that got fragments and didn’t get the mace.
I’m happy I never got that mace.
I have been healing random heroics with Barb of tarasque, 2 pc of T8.5 and T9. My gear score , which is very important on my server is one of the lowest, and I still keep rolling, being one of the best resto shamans over there,even faction changing to alliance recently.
Yes that mace is a curse, and some healers are just good because of that mace, indeed, but if I had gotten, it wouldn’t be my case, Skill is always better then gear. GS is a way for mediocre players to make a pug, and I really hate it.
I think another problem here is a misunderstanding of cause and effect. People meet healer with Val’Anyr. Healer does some amazing healing. They conclude that Val’anyr made them an amazing healer when the more likely situation is they got Val’anyr because they were already very good to amazing in the first place.
I don’t have the mace but I have Quel’Delar, Lens of the Mind (the same stats minus the shielding) so I get rush tanks that pull 2-3 trash packs at once but I get asked in Ogrimmar for gold a lot (note. I had the item drop…I’ll never pay 20k gold for a quest item 🙂 )
I love new system.
50K tank enters the instance… ok not really like Valnyr but very same…
First /p ZOMG 50K!!!
and so on…
After 3 pulls, mage or some happy dpser (in 1.5K – 2K range usually) goes in front and pulls on his own… he dies. After that run goes smooth.
Been getting bored at work so I was reviewing all the old posts in my RSS feed to google and I when i read this again…it occurred to me. I don’t know the lore behind the weapon!!! lol. Some one wanna enlighten me?