Today I was thinking about my playstyle and what classes I play and which ones I avoid. After a bit of time, I realized that my alt-ism has carried me into all three player roles in the game, but not all of the classes. With the exception of shaman, I have played every single class through level 15. Shamr is was still a lovely little Level 1 orc that has not even seen the introduction video for shaman yet. It is this dabbling that has led me to stick with the classes that I enjoy in order to fill my rotating playstyle fixes, because, “dang it!” some days I just don’t want to heal your annoying butt in an instance.
My first toon right out of the box was a dwarven hunter named Grimr. I spent about 30 minutes on the character creation screen picking his name using Norse sites. I played him for hours for a couple of weeks up through level 32 or so. One day I was talking with my seriously addicted co-workers about WoW, and they opened my eyes to the concept of playstyle. They told of this great warrior who stands toe to toe with level 60 Elites in Molten Core and had over 9,000 hit points. Wow! I had something like 1,200 and had to run away when things got after me. I had to try that. I wanted to be up front getting hit and smacking back. I knew what I had to do.
During my short stint raiding with Gitr, I realized that dps was so dependent on gear that I couldn’t compete. I settled for running the 5-man instances and tanking like an M1A1 Abrams. I mastered my role in every pre-MC instance and could rip aggro off just about every dps monkey or stressed out healer. I took pride in getting people through instances with no deaths, healer dependent, of course.
Then along came Deadr on the PvP realm, Burning Legion. I have no idea any more why I wanted to be a priest. They’re the armor opposite of Gitr. I took a lot of pride (I can’t believe a game can do that to me, but it does) in entering an instance and announce that “no one dies on my watch, unless someone does something stupid.” If it was a decent group that was noob-less, it was very rare that I’d let anyone die, although there were some times where sacrifice was necessary when things went very bad. Did I experience wipes? Sure, but not very often.
Getting back to the topic of the post, because that was a heck of a bragging run, do either of those abilities make me a good player? I would argue that the answer is yes and back that up with some solid logic. We have all been in a PuG where someone did not understand their class. Mages that start tossing spells before the tank had aggro, hunters that break crowd control and try to tank with their pets, pallies that don’t buff, and rogues that don’t get out of the way when the boss does an AOE spell or melee hit. Those are not good players, without a doubt.
For the purposes of being quantitative, here is a checklist to determine if someone (or yourself) is a good player:
- Understands the basic role of the class or the build (tank, dps, healer).
- Comes to groups prepared with mats and full tummy and empty bladder.
- Communicates with the party or leader.
- Improvises and keeps a cool head when things go wrong.
- Remains mature and calm, not easily given to group drama, such as “I’m on my period!” or “I hate guns! Don’t use guns!“
- Is not on players’ /ignore list for group play; “you are being ignored by Leetcow” is bad.
This is one of the many reasons why my 2 level 70 characters are Hybrids!
They can both do all 3 things really well!
Firelight was holy and raided holy at 60, then went prot (off tanked in kara)when he hit 70 after being retri for leveling. I’ve since found a guild that want me to raid retri so i’m really happy!
Gwindle was Boomkin from level 52-70 then raided Boomkin for a couple months in kara. I then tried her resto, but sucked at it, now she’s feral for grinding and occasionally dps/tanking instances.
I really love the versatility of hybrids such as paladins and druids. i wish there were more of them in the game! I suppose Shaman are classed as hybrids, but they’re not as versatile as pala’s or druids. (when was the last time you saw a shaman tanking (on purpose!))
That’s an interesting approach. I never thought about using a hybrid to meet your playstyle. I’m loving pally because I can be either of my favorite roles, but not to their fullest at the same time.
I’d rather tank 2-4 things in an instance very good and be able to heal myself while grinding than be gimped as a good single/double target tank and not be able to save my butt while soloing.
My Shaman, at 60, healed in Molten Core and got his full set of Tier 1. At 70 he can hold his Elemental own DPS-wise in the instances.
My Warrior, at 60, PvP’d into the full set of blue PvP gear. Now at 70 he has gotten 4/5 of his Dungeon 3 set, the missing piece is a Kara upgrade, some miscellaneous epics (like tanking sword and tanking shield), and is tanking in Karazhan and Heroics.
My Paladin, Druid, and Mage, played in conjunction with my wifes Mage, Druid, and Paladin, seem to accomplish some pretty good things.
I’m in a guild clearing Karazhan, next stop Gruul’s and beyond.
But the true measure: Am I, after practically three years, still having fun? Yes. I think *that* makes me a good player.
Totally agree with you Kinless!
I’m nearly 2 years into my WoW playing and i still have loads of fun playing the game!
Just last night I was lauging out loud properly talking to a friend i’d not seen for 6 months as he’d switched server, then switched back this week and has joined the guild i’m in. Talking to him about something that happened back in the old days…
Picture this:
40 of us standing in Molten Core about to start the 3rd boss (forget his name – the one that looks like the 1st boss in front of that big dog boss) and we’re talking about keyboard short cuts and jokingly i said:
“Alt-F4 FTW!!”
Suddenly about 15 people went offline!!!
Fits of laughter errupted on Teamspeak, i practically wet myself..never in a million years did i think anyone would actually press it!!
And at the moment the Guild i’m in are a real fun bunch! But when we need to buckle down and do something the jokes end and we get it done!
How many guilds can say they’ve cleared 3/6 bosses in SSC, have Gruul and maggy on farm, and can go to Tempest Keep for the first time and down Void Reaver on the 2nd attempt!
Thats fun! I love it!! And the fact i can DPS as a paladin is a myth that i’m living…!!!
Hmm thats odd!
I wrote a reply and its not appeared – even though it said i’d duplicated it when i tried to post it again! O.o
Help!
Kinless, I could tell for a very long time that you can play. I’d say you’d be hard pressed to find a blogger who can’t because they won’t want to put their wares out for all to see, let alone have anything to say in the first place.
Grats on your Kara gear.
Firelight, there isn’t anything in moderation… strange. Perhaps try again with a few different words, because that one got through. Sorry for the problem.
Yeah – I’ve gravitated to the “true” hybrids for most of my WoW career. Despite an unhealthy love of Hunters and too much time spent leveling warriors, I tend to always come back to my druid or my Shaman. They make the most sense for my playstyle.
Ah, no. It’s not about the gear. It’s about having fun. I have as much fun with a new level 5 Paladin, and playing with my wife’s latest new character. Gear is just one part of it. Having fun is another. (I’ve got my eye on that Ranseur now!) Being social, getting to know folks, testing boundaries, and so on.
A good player has fun. (Otherwise it’s just a job, and you aren’t playing.)