So last night, since we weren't raiding, I decided to run a heroic with someone who could really use the gear. Eraagon is a warrior in our guild, and he's been around for a while. He comes to Karazhan occasionally, and tries to get groups for instances, and often gets shot down.
The common misconception is that he's a poor tank. The primary issue with this is that early on, he didn't know how to tank. He had one set of gear, and whether it was DPS or tanking, he just swapped his weapons. As a result, he was a poor tank and a poor DPS warrior. A lot of people were very critical of him also, possibly explaining the fact that no one wanted to run any instances with him.
So I grabbed a group of 5 and we ran along into heroic Ramparts, which I've never run before. We brought along 2 mages and a shadow priest as well from the guild...all very well geared I might add.
Eraagon did an excellent job tanking. Sure he doesn't have a crap ton of HP (12404 with fort buff) but he did a great job of taunting mobs and kept agro reasonably well, especially when you consider that our mages and shadow priest were very well geared and generally are agro machines. He did so well that the majority of the group stuck around to go to heroic Underbog. While we wiped a few times on the first boss (agro issues due to kite-tanking) we got him down and everything else was a one shot. In the end it was a great night.
So don't ever think that any one person is hopeless. They might be, but they probably aren't. The first thing you need is the trust to help them to listen to you and your suggestions. Once they start taking your suggestions, and see that they work extremely well, they'll listen to further instructions from you. They'll listen to you when they make their talent spec...their gear selection. And they'll respect you and work with you for a long time. I've worked with a lot of people in TN to help them improve, and they all seem hopeless at the beginning. But it doesn't take too long before they start kicking some major butt on their own. It just takes a little invested time on your part to help them learn.
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2 comments:
I know I am one of the people who have benefited enormously from your wisdom. Your advice has helped me become a better warlock, but not only that, a better player. Your example of deliberate and thoughtful character tweaking is a hard one not to follow, and the fact that you look at a fight not only at "how much dammage/healing can i do" but also "how long can i last" "how well do i manage aggro" "How well am i supporting the team" and every other possible angle rubs off.
Eraagon was a wonderful tank in the underbog! What a significant improvement. I was amazed at his progress. Holding aggro off of Ranai and Rubix is no mean feat, and he did his job in superb fasion.
Patricles
Hell, I can't hold aggro off those guys, lol. Nice job Eraagon :-)
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