the stubborn underachiever, part 1

A few nights ago, my guild was doing a Naxx 25 run and a few people didn’t show up. We’re a small guild, so that wasn’t unexpected or new. We simply grabbed a few people from LFG to save time. My guildleader tends to prefer ranged dps over melee dps because (in general) ranged dps don’t have to deal with as many dangers that melee dps do (stuns, whirlwinds, tail swipes, cleaves, etc). Ranged dps also have a lot more time-on-target — they don’t have to stop dps and run out of locust swarm, for instance. However, in the interest of starting the raid, we took a rogue along rather than waiting for a ranged dps to join.

There were immediate warning signs that this rogue wasn’t ready for 25-man raids, of course. Giant, glaring warning signs. First, he arrived with a pvp mutilate spec. Nice burst, nice utility. It’s the same pvp spec I use. However, I wouldn’t use it in a raid, and especially not 25-man. Burst isn’t as important in PvE and much of the utility is useless.

He also showed up in savage gladiator gear. PvP gear is almost never appropriate for PvE content. There are quest greens that are better than savage PvP gear when you’re running an instance. I didn’t think he had any business in Naxx, and particularly not in 25-man. However, once he was in the raid, I tried to look past his lack of class knowledge and help him improve.

He told me to leave him alone. He knew his class and didn’t need my help. He’d played a rogue for over a year.

Interesting.

We started to clear trash, and it became apparent to everyone that he didn’t understand rogue mechanics. Perhaps he was an alt. Perhaps he was primarily a pvp player. Perhaps he was just new to the game. I wasn’t angry with him for not understanding what to do so much as I was disappointed that he wouldn’t even consider advice.

We cleared 2 wings with this rogue. He died on every boss, within about 2 minutes of the start. I coudn’t help him with that — I can’t teach you to lava dance and I don’t have time to explain hotkeys during a raid. What I could help him with was the damage he was doing while he was alive — a mere 1450-ish dps. That would get you complaints in 10-man (or even heroics). In 25-man, it was apalling. Even with his gear and spec, he should have pushed out over 2000 if he would only change what he was doing.

But he wouldn’t even consider my advice. He was using a slow off-hand and spamming eviscerates (I’ll discuss the advice I would have given him in part 2 of this post.) He wasn’t using the right poisons. I could have increased his dps by 20% at least if he would just hear me out. But he refused.

I’ve never understood this. I’ve always listened patiently to advice from people, regardless of who they were. I may not take the advice, but I listen. I research the advice if I think it even has a chance of being good. I’ve never turned down a chance to learn something that would help my performance, regardless of the source. I certainly wouldn’t turn down advice from someone who was 2300 dps higher than me. (I went back and forth on whether to post  the difference in our dps, but it was so significant that it reinforces how stubborn this rogue was.)

Why don’t some people want to improve? Is it pride? Is it a case of a pvp player looking down on pve content as easy (I must admit I’ve been guilty of this myself)? The latter could be the case… this rogue had 36 thousand honorable kills, so clearly he has ventured into battlegrounds pretty regularly. But pve and pvp are different animals, with very different playstyles.

As for pride, I don’t understand that. I wasn’t offering advice in vent, but rather in whispers during breaks. No one would have known that I had given him advice except him (or her)  and me. So I don’t think pride was the culprit (unless his pride was so extreme that he wouldn’t accept help from anyone).

Perhaps it was just apathy. Perhaps he only wanted gear and didn’t care about learning pve mechanics.

What do you guys think? How often do underperforming players refuse to listen to advice? How long do you allow someone to underperform before you insist that they make an effort to improve or leave the raid?

In my next post (or two), I’ll discuss the advice that I would have given him. Perhaps it will help someone else. It’s a shame that it won’t help him.

Rogues aren’t a strong class right now. In WotLK, hybrids do as much damage as we do — and they offer more utility. A feral rogue can dps or off-tank, and even heal in a pinch. They can do comparable damage in melee and can switch to decent dps from range. The primary reason to bring a rogue — dps — has been spread across the board in this expansion.

Furthermore, the rogue ranks are dwindling. Many rogues have rerolled as death knights. And it’s a shame to see a stubborn or lazy rogue underperform, because it damages the public perception of what rogues can do. Every rogue represents our class. Every rogue should try to represent us well.

Advertisement