WoWGrrl's World

So, I don't know if you've experienced this or not since the new Dungeon Tool came in...

But man, what's with all the Healer Ninjas in the leveling dungeons??!!

Playing With Friends? Playing With Strangers.

Personally, I love the challenge of PUGs with complete and utter strangers.

Ever since BC came out, and the first rendition of the LFG tool, I've gained a huge amount of playing skill just by playing with strangers instead of friends.

In fact, for a while there were social friends I wouldn't invite into dungeons to fill final slots in parties, because I found that playing with complete and utter strangers was a more positive playing experience with less negative ramifications after the party was complete.

After all, BC was a time where Crowd Control was valued extremely highly, and as a Mage I was getting into parties right left and center specifically because I was not only DPS, but I was one of the more reliable classes in terms of repeatable Crowd Control techniques.

The social friends I would avoid inviting to fill out dungeon groups were generally DPS classes (Healers and Tanks got regular invites), and the ones I'd avoid inviting the most were the ones who only wanted to go into dungeons in "guild groups", and then once they got there demonstrated exactly why - they had NO grouping skills, and didn't think that was a problem.

For whatever reason, guild Hunters were the ones I remember the most in terms of ones I'd avoid grouping with in a dungeon.

Huntards who refused to freeze trap. Who broke other forms of CC with their flame traps, snakes and multi-shot. Who "liked chaos" and therefore didn't pay attention to kill order. Who pulled aggro, and only feigned death once the mob was on top of them... generally leaving the mob to turn its attention to the nearby healer. Or a DPS wearing more than toilet paper for gear if the healer was lucky.

After a few runs with such social guildmates and hearing them talk about their beliefs and intentions for future runs, I started to realize that in order for my playing skills to improve while I'm actually enjoying myself, I'd be way better off playing with complete and utter strangers.

Some Strangers Suck, But I Can Ignore Them

This isn't to say that all of the strangers played better than these social guildmates - not at all.

There are always plenty of strangers who are either under-experienced or over-experienced, and both of those levels of understanding can result in challenging (or annoying) group situations.

But at least they're strangers, which means I have no urge to say "hello" to them when they log in the next day, or the next week. If they're annoying, boasting, aggro-pulling, chaos-generating players, I can pretend they don't exist - at least until the next time we end up in a PUG together (which didn't tend to happen much with the bad ones, even before cross-realm LFG).

Yet Another Dungeon Tool Effect On Parties

These days, it's not very often that a social guildmate is the right level to join me in the Dungeon Tool, so I'm doing a lot of PUGs with complete strangers. My social guildmates are all pretty decently skilled now that we've been playing for years, though, which makes it easier to invite them to groups when we do match up.

But now what I'm finding is that it's BETTER to bring in a social guildmate (as long as they're not complete tools), because that extra person that I can influence cuts down on potentially annoying, time-wasting situations.

Like the Healers who are incredibly crappy healers, but who have discovered they can get into dungeons much more quickly if they mark off that they're able to heal, than if they just list themselves as DPS.

Beware The Healer Ninja

As a lowbie tank, I completely expect that every dungeon I go into is going to have its share of challenges.

Whether the challenge is that the dungeon is Wailing Caverns or Gnomeregon which have players drop as soon as they zone in (because both are very long and have huge potentials for someone unknowledgable to spend a lot of time wandering around trying to find their way to the end to get the satchel), or the challenge is that the DPS are predominantly weak (due to inexperience, class dynamics or just plain laziness), or it's that the healer is new to their job and doesn't have any addons to help them heal (*cough* Healbot *cough*), I fully expect there to be SOME kind of challenge.

I am, after all, tanking at under level 30 at this point, and by default most players haven't had much experience with their characters to really know how to rock their role.

Most challenges aren't a big deal - if someone leaves the group, the Dungeon Tool fills their spot. DPS and Healing requirements are quite light for low level instances as well - everything is very forgiving and it's not very often that a DPS who pulls aggro even experiences death at this point.

But the one challenge that's bugging me these days is all about the Ninja Healer.

What's A Ninja Healer?

Simply put, it's a player who joins the party in the Healing role and then chooses "Need" on every gear drop they can roll on.

And on top of that annoying behavior, they're usually horribad healers who prefer to DPS (and do), but don't want to wait for the Dungeon Tool to place them as DPS!

The Dungeon Tool's restriction for kicking players early in an instance is what makes this player especially annoying to me more than anything - if after the first five minutes I've done 40% of my own healing, as a Warrior Tank using Healing Potions periodically, something is very wrong. And my not being able to vote the healer out because we haven't been in the party for long enough is highly frustrating to the rest of the group as well.

Sometimes I'm lucky and there's a class that can cast backup heals to keep us going until we can remove the dead weight, but lately I haven't been so lucky, and I've had to make the long run back to the instance because the One Who Doesn't Heal But Needs Everything also doesn't ressurect - and generally doesn't even respond to conversation on the party chat line.

It's getting to the point where I can recognize a Healer Ninja within the first three or so pulls in an instance, just by watching my health as I progress from group to group. The healing meters in Recount serve as a source to back up what I've noticed, and at times communicate it to the rest of the group before I initiate a kick.

But unfortunately, as I mentioned before, early in an instance there are kick restrictions in place, and therefore our group generally has to live with a Ninja in the group for what feels like an eternity before the vote actually gets past the restrictions and has a chance to pass.

How High Do The Healer Ninjas Show Up?

I'm working on lowbies right now when I get a chance to play, and I'm finding that Healer Ninjas are more prevalent at 20-30 than they were from 15-19.

I wonder, what's your experience with crappy Dungeon Tool healers who have to be kicked early in the instance because they're rolling Need on everything they get a chance to roll on?

At what level can I expect this horribad population to more or less die out?

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Related posts:

1. Tank/Healer Not Required: An Alternate Universe

Tagged as: bad pugs, dungeon tool, Dungeons, healing in dungeons, instances, lfg tanking, LFG tool, ninja healers, Playing With Friends, playing with strangers, pugging, PUGs, social guildmates, Tanking, wailing caverns