Rokk Talk

There’s hundreds of stories that come out of PuGs. Some of them are uplifting, showing the better side of humanity that seldom gets representation in the World of Warcraft. More often, the stories reflect the more common, ignorant and self-serving side.

This is the story of Tragon, the Human Warrior.

Tragon happened on the group as it was running Utgard Keep. They’d suffered numerous wipes and, as was often the case, when the going got tough, most left the party. There were two from the original party – a DPS Pally and a BM Hunter. It was a non-heroic group, mostly around the 70 range, except for Tragon who was 69. Clad in greens and a few blues, gemmed as best he could, Tragon asked how far along they were.

“End boss”, the Hunter said. “We wiped on Ingvar the Plunderer.”

It was the first time tanking the heavy hitter, so the group was somewhat prepared for hiccups with Tragon. There were two or three, which resulted in party wipe after party wipe. Each time meant a long run back to Ingvar. Plenty of time for reflection on what went wrong, and after the second wipe, who was to blame. The Priest took some heat, but Tragon was constantly getting crushed during the encounter. People weren’t coming out and saying it, but the feeling was there that maybe, just maybe, this lowbie Warrior wasn’t going to be able to pull it off.

The tension finally bubbled over, which lead to a dick move by the druid who pulled Ingvar and then dropped the group. (Why did you do it, Skunktank of Scarlet Crusade? Were you trying to wipe the group? Or bug the encounter? Or does being a jagoff just come naturally to you?)

Even with all the chaos swirling around him, Tragon kept his cool. He never complained about late heals. He never tried deflecting criticism. He never showed that the repeat wipes were getting him down. He was in it for the long haul, despite being the lowest level in the group.

The Priest finally showed doubt when a Warlock joined the group, and said they’d never pull it off because the Warlock was within 1k Health of the tank. I suppose that means FAIL in some languages.

Tragon didn’t know that language. He soldiered on, encouraged by the Shaman who was confident they’ll score the win the very next pull. With that, Tragon charged forward…

Tragon held firm but died during the Undead Ingvar phase. So did many others. But the group didn’t wipe, they held strong, and managed to pull out the win. Achievement for Tragon – Utgard Keep.

I don’t know if he got any loot from Ingvar. What I do know is that he never showed doubt in himself. He never offered to drop the group so they could get a better geared tank. HE was the tank, and by God he’d be the one to get the job done. That’s the sign of a good meat shield, and that “never give up” attitude is probably why there’s such a tank shortage.

After all, the easiest route is to drop and get a better group.

Unless you’re Tragon, vanquisher of Ingvar the Plunderer.

Maybe it was a late night thing. Y’know, lack of sleep makes you do silly things sometimes.

Maybe it was curiosity. A “what would happen if?” kind of thing.

In any case, last night I decided to my try my brand new 80 Arms-specced Warrior in the Dungeon Finder. He was mostly geared in blues that Rokk had crafted for him, with a green Axe in his hands. I didn’t know if his gear total would be good enough to get him into Heroics, or if his poor weapon would keep his DPS to the point where he would be allowed to stay if he did get in.

Poof, he got the call – Heroic Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom.

The initial few moments were oddly tense for me. Would someone notice the Axe the Warrior was swinging, do a gear check, and vote to kick? I pushed the thought from my mind. I would stay alert, mindful of my surrounds and rotations, and prove that I was a decent player looking to gear up rather than some scrub just along for the ride.

Like most PUGs, the folks were quiet. At the start, two people asked the Mage for an Intel buff. Other than that, not much was said. We trudged along, wiping out pack after pack. I was a little disheartened at my lack of killing prowess – the Mage kept AoE burning everything down. I had Recount running but not up, which I felt was probably a good thing. That Mage had to be right at the top, standing firmly on my poor Warrior’s throat in the process.

We dropped the first Boss without much issue. Then, moving along, we picked up an extra pack during trash pulls and somehow the Mage was killed. We fought through, cleaned up all the adds, and I took a second to check my inventory while the Mage was rezzed.

Seconds ticked by. The Mage hasn’t released. He was just lying there. Was he AFK?

I was a little surprised when we started to move on. I passed by the Mage’s corpse. “That’s our AoE DPS guy,” I thought as I moved by the prone body. “What’s taking so long in getting him back?”

The Paladin pulled the next pack without the Mage. The whole time, party chat remained silent. Why wasn’t the Mage asking for a rez? Or even releasing so he could run back to the instance? Why wasn’t the group saying anything to the Mage?

That’s when the window popped up on my screen: Vote to Kick.

Just as quickly as it came, it disappeared. The Mage left the group.

“He wasn’t very good,” said the Paladin, finally breaking the silence.

He wasn’t very good? He was burning down the packs! He wasn’t pulling adds! What had he been doing, or not doing, to be considered “not very good” in the eyes of the party?

A second thought jumped up and slapped me in the face. The first time I die, I’ll probably be left hanging and then gkicked. I had to be at the bottom of the DPS charts, so why keep me around when they’d probably have a better chance at getting someone with more punch in their punch.

We advanced, and it finally happened during a fight with some bloated humanoid thing. It released a poisonous gas cloud that I thought I could fight through. I couldn’t. I wasn’t paying attention to my health. It killed me.

Here it comes, I thought. Here comes the kick…

It wasn’t the “Vote to Kick” window that popped up. It was the “Ready for Rez?” window.

Really?

The Priest apologised and made the obligatory “dangerous fart” comment. I said the death was my fault because I tried to light a match. That earned a couple of chuckles.

From that point on, I probably died five times. Two of those were on Boss fights, which were party wipes. There never seemed to be an issue with getting a rez when I solo died. When the party wiped, the Priest actually waited for me to zone in and ran back to the rest of the group with me. Nobody made any comments about the noob DPS Warrior. Nobody flashed a Recount result after a Boss fight. After all was said and done, my Warrior walked out with a new weapon:

I also came out feeling very lucky to have been running with some understanding strangers. This morning, I logged on for a second to check the Recount results. Had I done better than I thought I had? Did I have a stronger showing on the DPS chart, something that warranted the group keeping me around?

Hell no. I was fifth in line, right above the priest. Triple Digit DPS.

Yes, I was that guy.

Sometimes it pays to take a chance.