I really do feel for new tanks trying to level through LFG.
Last night I played my wee baby shadow-priest, Olateria, certified member of SAN. (/curtsey) I've been trying not to heal with her, mostly because I'm a healer at heart and every toon I roll ends up being one so I thought, hey, I need to do something different with this girl. So she's going Shadow, though she has healed once or twice when our current healer dropped/died/lost their mind, etc. In any case, she is a budding level 18 and is totally fixated on getting to 20 so she can get her kitty mount. (Ola is the first Night Elf character I've ever rolled and stuck with so the kitty mount is uberly exciting to me. )
So there I was, full of epic, shadowy glory (except for the part where I can really only, like, spam Smite over and over and over...) and I get into a group for RFC. Immediately upon zoning in the tank, an unheirloomed paladin, says, "Bear with me, this will be my first time tanking."
Hunter pipes up, "Sure!".
And proceeds to pull.
The hunter's pet bear basically tanked the entire instance. (And is it just me or is the initial bear roar really annoying? Love me some druids, but bear pets? Argh, shut up already!) I don't think our poor, newbie tank actually made a single pull. Our mage spoke up once in regards to the hunter pulling, but it was hard for me to take him seriously as he was pulling just as much as the hunter was.
Up until this point, I'd been trying to keep my mouth shut. If someone is being an asshat, I will usually call them on it, and usually because I'm healing and said asshat is making my job harder in some way. Sometimes this is good, sometimes it's bad. Bad because sometimes, if I'm defending someone else, that someone else is fine with just sitting there and taking it and doesn't particular want me to jump to their defense. Or just doesn't care either way.
So, Ola was a little hesitant to speak up. I was a DPS quietly doing my thing, targeting my tank's target, etc, and the tank was speaking up at all so why should I say anything? He could have stepped up and told the hunter to stop pulling for him but he didn't. Of course, my intention to say nothing wore thing right before the boss and I had to say something, though I was a bit more nonchalant than usual.
"It might be a good idea for us to let the tank pull so he can get some practice."
This remark was met with silence and the hunter running off to pull the next pack. The tank said nothing, healer said nothing, no other DPS spoke up. I let it go. No skin off my nose then. If the tank wants to run around taunting off the hunter's bear, well then, that's his happy fun time. And maybe that worked for him, took the pressure off him to make the pulls himself.
It's a mildy frustrating situation however, at least for me. It irritates me to no end when party members can't seem to fulfill their proper roles. I'm glad your bear can tank, Mr. Hunter, but save it for when you're soloing. Even if the tank was totally alright with the hunter's pet tanking for him, it's not like it will be possible for him to do that at 80. He's not getting any experience tanking in a group, watching his healer's mana, threat, etc. I know it's less important at these low levels, but it's still irritating for me. I guess, though, I should just be quiet and be glad we made it through alive and I escaped with my satchel of goodies clasped tightly in my hands. (A strength/agility cloak, really? I mean, really?) It's disappointing though, to see that hunter decked out in all heirlooms, just pulling away. If you've got heirlooms, you've got an 80 and should know better.
I had a rogue in another RFC the other day who pulled extra groups of mobs because he thought, I'm sure, that, hey, he was all decked out in heirlooms and the tank wasn't pulling enough for him - oh look, more mobs! That time, however, I WAS healing because there wasn't another healer in LFG and I let him die the third time he did this, after asking him once to to please stop pulling extra mobs. He ignored me so I let him eat dirt. At 16/17 my mana pool was practically nonexistant, having to heal two "tanks" was running me dry in seconds. And Ola is not in heirlooms, since SAN resides on a totally different server than my main. She's on her own for money, upgrades, etc.
Rogue calls me a "retard" and then asks for a rez. I, obviously, am not going to rez him but the shaman in our group does so I don't get the satisfaction of making him walk back.
But, uh, anyway, where was I? Oh yes, baby tanks. I think this whole "lol the tank's a newbcake, I'll pull" thing happens alot, from what I've read elsewhere. I felt sorry for the baby tank the entire run but he never said anything, never gave any indication that the group's behavior was irritating him. I could never do it. I tanked once on my baby warrior and immediately felt my blood pressure rise everytime a DPS would pull for me or shout at me to "gogogogogo". I don't know how you do it, tanks, I really don't, but I feel for ya. Oh, do I feel for ya.
Probably why I stick to my healers. I can stand in the back and grumble under my breath and not draw any attention to my murderous rampages.
