If you are one to follows the forums, the blogs and the various news on WoW, wich is likely if you are reading this, you know that the new dungeon experience has left quite an impression on the player base. With these changes come changes in group dynamics too, or for the old timers, a return to the times of yore when CC was king, when you waited for two sunders and where a dps pulling aggro wouldn’t even be looked at by the healer and left to die, mana was too precious to spend on people who played like retards.
And now the forums, the blogs and the web is aflame with players pissed at the changes, pissed that they have to actually pay attention now to what is going around them and not play like retards. Blizzard made numerous statements to the effect that free loot was over, that epics would not be raining down from the skies and that Heroic would mean heroic. But still, the flames and the cries keep coming. It started with the Dps complaining about the healers would could not keep them alive despite their stupidity, then the healers complained that they didn’t have enough mana to spam heals non stop. Then both healers and Dps figured that the real issue was that tanks had been nerfed too much and the tanks joined in. For a sensible look on this from the healer point of view I strongly recommend you check out Reversion post over at Looking4more.
Let me tell you about two of my runs in Grim Batol. Grim Batol is the last five man dungeon you will do before stepping in the heroics and as such, it can become a lot harder than the other five mans if you don’t pay attention. The trash hit like trucks and CC is required, not optional. During the first run, CC was minimal, people kept breaking it, the dps was hitting different targets everytime and the kill order was never followed. It was long, it was painful and it was a mess.Second run, the kill order was followed, the CC was applied and respected and the run went like a charm, even felt easy…
What does this tell us? That just like Blizzard promised, we now need to pay attention to what is going on. That we have to wait for that patrol to pass, to wait for everyone to be ready between pulls, to use CC and most importantly, to use our heads. But best of all is that this mode of playing
does not make the game worst, it makes it immensely better.
For the first time in ages we have to communicate with one another in groups. In the past few days, I’ve seen people be friendly to strangers, congratulate on good pulls and awesome recovers. Pass on loot to help out someone from another server. I had two bad “gogogo” players and both were kicked from the runs. Often by other dps scared to death that the healer or the tank would leave the group.
My wish now is that Blizzard will not cave in to the rushers and the bad players. I want civility back into my game and I think we might be holding the winning ticket. And it looks like Blizzard knows it too. (linking to MMO-champion as we can’t link directly to the WoW posts anymore). Read between the lines and you’ll hear “Learn 2 play”.
I am praying, too, that Blizzard doesn’t give in. On a similar topic, I’ve seen a lot of healers QQing about having bad mana and bad mana regen and I cringe and pray that Blizzard doesn’t give in. As a healer (up until 2 moths ago), I can tell you that I don’t *ever* want to go back to the whack-a-mole style of healing. BOO. But people can’t seem to see that change can be good – you just have to relearn how to play a game that you’ve gotten so used to playing your way. >.<
On the wowinsider article about that post that you referred to, someone pointed out the age-old addage:
"If the tank dies, it's the healer's fault; if the healer dies, it's the tank's fault; if the dps dies, it's their own damn fault."
And I replied that this is no longer really accurage. It now looks more like this:
If the DPS dies, it's the DPS's fault.
If the TANK dies, it's because the DPS stood in shit, the healer ran out of mana healing them and couldn't heal the tank, so it's still the DPS's fault.
If the HEALER dies, it's because the above happened and then the mobs destroyed the healer, and it's STILL the DPS's fault.
The thing is, I'm saying this AS a DPS. And I think it's awesome. We are no longer responsible solely for killing bad things and staying alive. Our every action has lasting effects on not just our survival and our dps, but the survival of the entire group. If we can use our CDs, our mitigations and shields, or simply be aware of the mechanics and not stand in bright stuff on the ground (or even be aware of what stuff is the GOOD stuff and stand in IT so that the healer doesn't have to waist another heal on us), it makes it so that the tank and healer can do their jobs better and the whole group will win!
(Mostly copied from my comments on the wowinsider post)
I do belive tanks and healers can still destroy groups as easily as dps, it’s just there happens to be more dps in groups
I remember an especialy bad healer and I’ve been responsible for a least one wipe with one of my most spectacular messed-up pulls ever, seriously, I’d have voted to kick myself from the group…. so ashamed…
Good post
You’ve provoked me to write some views on this today 
If Blizzard caves then it’s game over for me and it will truly cement the belief (at least in my mind) that WoW caters to nothing but ez-mode types. If that’s the case, then “no thanks”.