Actual newbs? In my Warcraft?

Actual newbs? In my Warcraft?

It's more likely than you think.

So, the first instance for M and I was Deadmines, because we're not Horde, and while I like Ragefire Chasm, running into the middle of Orgrimmar as a level 20 isn't my idea of a good time.

It was more fun than I expected, probably because it's been a while since we've done it at the proper level - I usually play Horde, and M hates being at the whim of random idiots. We picked up another Human Paladin, a Nelf Hunter, and feral Druid. It was an unremarkable, clean run. Everything but us died, loot dropped, Cookie was stingy with the Siamese cage.

It took me around three pulls to adopt the hunter. She could control her pet, she didn't melee, and she had the "right" gear. I have seen level eighties perform worse. Often.

(Both my retired eighties are hunters. I have something of a soft spot.)

I don't recall much about the druid, other than the fact that he utilized his status as a hybrid. He'd pop into bear form to grab a mob if I lost it, or go humanoid to throw a renew. Since the jack-of-all-trades aspect of druids is one of my favorites, I liked that.

The Paladin, well. Sucked. Her DPS was lower than M’s, she’d run ahead, lag behind, I had to tell her three times to stop Needing every drop…I could go on. And sure, she just could have been dumb, or a jerk, but I suspect it was someone not only new to the game, but new to MMOs entirely. Why? Mostly because of her gear, it was all vendor-bought whites. And when I rolled my first toon (a pause, to pour one out for the little Tauren Shaman foolishly rolled on a PvP server.) I thought that vendor-bought stuff was the best you could get until you, I don’t even know. Raided? I had no clue. I was a newb!

So instead of booting her, I explained things. And by the end of the pug she was a slightly better player, with at least a slight grasp on instance etiquette. And who knows, maybe I was wasting my time and the player was just someone who couldn’t be arsed to alter her play style to a group setting, and liked the look of that vendor set.

But maybe not, and deity-of-choice knows I’m still grateful to the people who pointed things out to my newb self.