I always think it’s quite nice if people want to give tips to other players, as long as their information is basically correct.
But one I thing I have noticed in low level instances with alts this week is that as soon as anyone does so, the rest of the group immediately starts treating the other person as a new player. (ie. they’ll all talk to you as if you were a three year old and try to hold your hand through the instance.)
So for example, I was healing on a low level shaman and picked up an agility dagger that dropped in an instance, for my levelling spec. No one else in the group wanted it. Immediately the rest of the group asked why I’d needed it and (when I explained) jumped to explain that enhancement shaman should be looking for slow weapons and not daggers.
Sometimes a gal just wants an upgrade to her levelling gear, and not a lecture on how the offspec should be min/maxed at endgame! Just saying. But it’s hard to really convey that without sounding mean minded about people who are just trying to help.
I wouldn’t mind but because they’d all evidently classified me as a noob, they were also giving me healing tips (which I really didn’t need, you can heal low level instances on a resto shaman by throwing earth shield on someone and going off to get some tea.)
Group 2: Raid mark roulette
In challenging instances, the group leader can help players out a lot by good use of marking.
Marks can be used to indicate the kill order for an assist train, to pick out which mobs should be targeted for different types of crowd control, and to make sure everyone knows what they are supposed to be doing and in which order.
In fact, there seem to be some generally accepted uses of marks. People often use the skull to indicate “Please kill this one first, ps. that means max single target dps, not AE to boost your numbers please.”
But I was in a random group last week where the tank carefully marked every mob, using different symbols each time, and there was never any discussion of what the marks meant. This actually worked better than you’d expect since the group was fairly together. Everyone who was able to CC picked a mark and did it and people held back on dps until they could see what was going on and which mob the tank had picked up.
But it did make me wonder at why anyone would think that marks explained themselves. (Maybe they should actually give us more explanatory marks than green triangle and purple diamond ….)
Welcome to Spinksville! 
I’ve known some tanks to use 3-kill order marks Green first then Orange, then Red, like a traffic light.
With Moon = long CC (like Sheep/Banish) and Blue Square for short CC (like Trap)
However, in low level instances there generally isn’t any need to crowd control, or for marks, although you DO have to tell melee not to attack the oozes in Mauradon.
Last night I got into an in-progress Cathedral run, they had cleared the main passage of the cathedral but not the wings, and the warlock, suicidal as he was, pulled the boss, pulling everything from the wings.
Naturally we wipe. We tell him not to pull the boss, but as soon as we run in, he pulls as everyone is manaing up. Me and the tank were still outside the cathedral, the two other DPS were sitting inside and had gotten into combat ran out and nearly got us into combat too. Despite protests saying “dont run, I’m out of combat, I’ll rez”
We ran anyway and got out, tried telling the warlock to stop pulling. The guy didn’t reply, he didn’t acknowledge our existence at all. So he got kicked.
Next guy we got in, we cleared the wings, downed the boss easy.
The only challenge in WoW is other people.
My favourite for the Cata instances was the Druid healer I had in a Stonecore group while DPSing on my Shaman. We had a DK tank but the Druid pulled mobs here and there. He was asked to stop and when we got the drake boss he goes and moonfires the boss. The tank just stands there as the boss goes straight for the healer, the DPS try and do their thing with me being a bit cautious as I’ve noticed that the tank hasn’t moved. Now, it’s not a hard fight so I throw down my DPS to try and get us out of this as the tank proceeds to run around everyone but not actually use any abilities. We wipe and the tank leaves after decrying the fact that the healer puilled. The best bit is the explanation that the Druid gave! Apparently in Cataclysm it’s the healers who pull…. I said that in every group I’ve ever been in, and I have a resto off-spec, the tank pulls. He just said “Well, you’ve got to update your tactics.”
In fairness if he’s always been the healer and he always pulls then it’s true, every group he’s been in in Cataclysm has had a healer doing the pulling.
Whether the rest approved is another matter.
I had a very similar experience. I joined a low level instance as tank and the healer started in on me over my hit point total. It having been established thusly that I was a noob the rest helped me by pulling for me and making decisions about which direction to lead us in. I had to bail, it was unplayable.
I then joined another run as tank and rolled up the same instance without any hitch.
It came from the PUG: You can tell someone is a noob if ….
They lead a group of lowbies (including a brand new Society member) directly into the Pirates Den, chock full of level-capped Buccaneers drooling over the sight of five teenie-weenie British ships.
Glad you were able to join us last night. Sorry for the party wipe. I was feeling a bit too over-zealous. I’ve always thought the first few sessions were awkward when joining an established guild in an MMO. Sort of reminded me of my university days when I’d arrive at a party hours after it started. All I could think was, “What a bunch of degenerates. How do I politely excuse myself?” On the positive side, when I chose to stay and have a few beers, I amazingly turned into one of those degenerates and had a great time (I think).
Disclaimer: The above analogy wasn’t in any way an attempt to coerce you into sailing with us next week. O.k., I suppose it was. Until then, happy sailing!
Sven, it was brilliant fun, even the spitting frenchman 🙂 I’m already plotting to try to get to level 12 so I can buy a bigger boat before next week!