Tales of Mage

So, in keeping with my goals mentioned in yesterday's article, I hit level 80 and immediatedly tackled Heroic Violet Hold. Unfortunately, the drops did not go my way as we were plagued with an onslaught of mail and plate; however, I do not digress as I did get some reputation with the Kiron Tor and im that much closer to Revered and the really nice MH caster weapon. For today's article, I'm choosing to write about something that happened on that Heroic Violet Hold run.

I entered the prison in Dalaran with just over 850 spell damage and approx 65 +hit. Being that I hit level 80 approximately 15-20 minutes prior and the abysmmal state of my gear, I knew that I wasnt going to light up the meters. During the run, the druid tank was having a considerable amount of difficulty keeping the adds that come out of the portal from running towards the door. So, in an attempt to help the situation, I moved myself to a position where I could pick up the stragglers and kite them about until the tank was able to get sufficient aggro on all. The same thing was the case when we had the boss that summons the arcane orbs. The tank moved the boss around the room, while I DPSed but also made sure to use my novas/freeze's and CoCs to snare/slow the adds and allow the melee to really unload their damage.

When the dust settled and Cyanigosa was dead, I did 1700 DPS for the run. This was not far from what I was expecting. As I said before, I knew that my DPS was going to be bad; however, what did surprise me was a whisper I receieved from the tank. Instead of going out of his way to flame me for my admittedly sub-par DPS, he thanked me for picking up the stragglers that made it possible to get the achievement. He said that he was expecting me to be a complete scrub in every facet given my gear level, but was pleasantly surprised to see me contributing in a "non-traditional" sense to the successful completion of the dungeon and associated achievement.

This seemingly insignificant comment given by another player got me thinking. Surely we have all encountered people in the game we deem to be a "scrub", "bad", etc. based soley upon their current gear level, without actually giving them the opportunity to prove themselves otherwise. I know I am not without fault here, but it definitely presents a different perspective when it is you who are being judged before you have a chance to show what you can do.

So, I present my readers (all 3 of you :) ) with a bit of advice. Give everyone a chance to prove themselves. Far too often players are tossed aside and deemed "unworthy" to attend a raid or group because of leaders/officers preconceived notions and ideas.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

---Confucius