What's with the irrational hate?

[ScaledMystic]

<p>I'm a level 70 mystic on Antonia Bayle, with melee AA emphasis, with those wonderful EoF melee-conversions for all my spells, with weapon mastery and Ancestry to boot. I have a great time soloing, and in groups. I even did my first raid in Labs the other day.</p><p>My problem is this... I'm starting to be plagued with "melee mystic suk u r discrase to healor profesin" hecklers in groups I've taken to Unrest and EoF. It doesn't matter how well we do, I've had two raid-kiddies nag me throughout (to the point of breaking group) that my one purpose in life is to aquire Wisdom gear at the expense of everything else, and of course, that I should put my AA into the heal-slave lines (little do they know about the Chieftain line of critical heals apparently)</p><p>Is this a new thing? Or have these minmaxer types always held melee mystics in low regard?</p>

[Ordate]

<p>First let me say not all raiders are equal.  You could have a guild full of pretty bad players and they could probably kill all the KoS instances.  So don't take what a "raider" neccesarily says as gospel.  Myself included.</p><p>That being said your first job as a mystic is to prevent damage/heal.  Why I am saying this is because groups are not inviting you because they want someone to dps.  They want someone to keep them alive.  If you succeed well in this first stage of being a melee mystic then feel free to move on to stage 2, knocking the heads of mobs together.</p><p>If these players were dissing on you and you were doing a good job of your primary functions then ignore them.  Melee build is a valid build as long as you don't forget what you are primarily being invited to a group for.  My suggestion is getting good enough to heal and outdps them and then tell them to bite your big brown bear butt because you just mauled them.</p>

[rvbarton]

<p>don't listen to them, me, or anyone else.  Play YOUR playstyle!  You are paying to play this game, not them!  If your method of playing is DPS/Healing, in that order, then play that way!  Make yourself happy, first and foremost.</p><p>Enjoy the game!  Screw everyone else!</p>

[Banditman]

I agree with Ordate.Your very first job is to keep the people who are primarily responsible for busting heads open alive.  If people in your group are dying then by all means, you are doing something wrong.  Dreadfully wrong.  You rolled a healer, not a damage dealer.  No matter how much damage you kick out, you aren't going to be mistaken for a real DPS class.Now, here are some things to consider from a raid perspective.As a melee spec'ed Mystic in a raid, you'll be one of two places:  MT Group or Melee DPS Group.If you are in the MT group, you have absolutely no business being on top the mob trying to do damage.  Get out of there.  Your value to the raid goes far, far beyond what DPS you might be able to contribute.  There are too many "bad" things that can happen to a MT Mystic when he's near the mob.However, in a Melee DPS group, I think I'd almost prefer to be up there with the Scouts.  Here's how my thinking runs.First, by being up on top the mob with the Scouts I'm supposed to be keeping alive, I know when an AE goes off . . . it hit me too!  I'm wearing the same armor as those Scouts are, so I also know how "hard" the AE hit.  I'm in a much better position to decide whether that requires a heal or whether its just incidental damage.Second, if I'm up there with the Scouts, I am 100% sure that when I cast a Group Heal, they are ALL going to get healed.  I'm standing right next to them, as opposed to back behind the front lines.  In cases where there is a knockback or whatever, I'm gonna get knocked back too.  By running back to the mob before I cast the Group Heal, I know that I've given all my Scouts time to get back in range of my heal as well.Third, you gain another tool in your box.  Your Attendant line is pretty much useless to a Mystic standing back away from the mob in a Melee DPS group.  The Attendant stands next to you, and has a pretty short range on his healing.  If you're standing way back to do your healing, the Attendant simply can't heal your group.  However, a Melee Mystic standing up there with his Scouts can drop the Attendant and let it heal away, knowing that because his Scouts are right next to him, they are getting the heals as well.Finally, as a Raid Leader, I give my melee people a baseline for suck.  I'll often tell them over Vent, "If you're doing less DPS than the Mystic, you're doing something WRONG."  It's very  motivational.  Let's face it.  I'm a Priest.  I'm also capable of kicking out 1000 DPS in certain situations.  My personal record is currently sitting at 1068 DPS.  Once I get more gear that is conducive to melee spec AA, I think I can break 1200.  With RoK, I fully expect to hit 1500+ by bringing Dogdog back in the game with the extra AA's.  "If you are doing less DPS than the Mystic, you're doing something WRONG."  Very motivational.

[Finora]

<cite>Ordate wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>First let me say not all raiders are equal.  You could have a guild full of pretty bad players and they could probably kill all the KoS instances.  So don't take what a "raider" neccesarily says as gospel.  Myself included.</p><p>That being said your first job as a mystic is to prevent damage/heal.  Why I am saying this is because groups are not inviting you because they want someone to dps.  They want someone to keep them alive.  If you succeed well in this first stage of being a melee mystic then feel free to move on to stage 2, knocking the heads of mobs together.</p><p><span style="color: #cc6633;">If these players were dissing on you and you were doing a good job of your primary functions then ignore them.  Melee build is a valid build as long as you don't forget what you are primarily being invited to a group for.  My suggestion is getting good enough to heal and outdps them and then tell them to bite your big brown bear butt because you just mauled them.</span></p></blockquote><p>I agree! I'm a melee mystic and proud of it, I also raid and I'm MISSED when I can't attend =p. </p><p>I can heal with the best of them and beat the mess out of stuff at the same time. Having the melee build actually makes it easier to get off both heals & damage & debuffs, rather than having to just sit there to heal & debuff only because my damage spells take too long to cast in a hard fight. As a melee mystic I contribute more than Id did before to my groups. =p I still heal very nicely and I can actually add some damage this way as well.</p>

[Finora]

<p><b><i>Opps, not sure how I managed to double post with 1 hit of the enter key...</i></b></p>

[ScaledMystic]

<p>Thanks for the good advice and support, everyone. A lot of valid points were made, considering the raid leader's perspective.</p><p> With that said, I need to clarify a little. In the raid I was in, in Labs, no one said a word about my build, and the one time I was yelled at was when I wandered a little too close to the pitbull-faced dragon to get a screenshot and it lunged at me so fast that I jumped out of my chair... before I was tossed backward and set on fire! Amazingly, I got a quick rez and we managed to beat him without a wipe. <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p> The problems I've had have been in single-group zones in places like Unrest. The group will be doing fine, hell, even when I'm the ONLY healer. But then halfway through some leeter will inspect me and start screaming. Come on, you have to admit, having another 5% power over another setup, at the price of any and all other utility I might have had, is slightly irrational. But nevertheless, having a good amount of Wisdom gear, but a handful of combat enhancers like the +25 haste gauntlets I got from Mistmoore Castle... means trouble.</p><p> It was group-breaking twice so far, even on the second time when I tried to ignore it, and the raid kiddie would simply NOT shut up. "u r disgraze to healr profesin..." I will never forget that. Oh, and the same guy said, I kid you not, "this is why rpers nevr see most content." </p><p> Uh okay. Out of the blue, because I'm melee spec, I'm a roleplayer? Blasphemy. Madness! How dare anyone roleplay in a massively multiplayer <i>role playing game</i> on the Antonia Bayle <i>roleplay server</i>.</p><p> Sorry for ranting, but I enjoy the utility, self reliance, and suprising combat prowess a Mystic can have... and I refuse to simply be the heal-bot for some "achiever" who burns through one expansion a week.</p>

[xandez]

here here! Keep enjoying the melee mystic, we rock <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />++Xan

[TheSpin]

<p>The first time I pulled out a hammer on a raid I was yelled at.  Eventually they started noticing the parses some of the melee priests can do without losing the ability to heal well and people started jumping on board, even the other inquisitor that had much better gear.  The casting speed is what really makes the melee line so nice for healers and it gives you every right to melee all you like.</p>

[wushupork]

There's nothing a non-melee Mystic would get that would make them a *significantly* better healer. As a 'raid level' Mystic I have all +wis adorns, +heal adorns and healing gear, when I am in a situation that I need to focus primarily on that I can( high dmg, AOE mob etc). There is a lot of room to melee and to be a successful healer, with the CAs and with long duration weapons (Blackscale Maul for example) you can heal and debuff like you would be as a non-melee with no issue 90% of the time. You just have to be smart and know when you can afford to do it. Basically, they should be told they're a disgrace to ___ for being a mindless twit. <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[thedu]

There is nothing wrong with being melee specced.  I am a successful raider, grouper and soloer.  There are times where you are learning zones that you try to figure out just what you need to do and how much.  I truly hate being the only healer in a mage/scout group for raids -- trying to keep these aggroer's alive destroys power quickly.These are my rules for anyone that does something like that:1) Tell them to go back to school and learn to spell.2) Tell them if they don't shut up that you will stop healing them  -- this usually gets their attention.  If you are doing your job then they have no need to complain.3) Tell them that they shouldn't inspect without your permission.Ultimately it doesn't matter what gear and stats you have.  If you don't know your class and what your capable of, you will never be good player.  To prove a point -- I am melee specced and have succesfully taken out epic content in Shard of Fear.   But you need GOOD players from all classes to do something like that;

[rumblepants]

Pfft, I took my friend's Mystic for a whirl on a raid and in groups a few times and had absolutely no problem doing what I needed to do melee spec-ed. That's why I rolled mine up because I fell in love playing that character. Debuffs, wards, buffs, slow them down and then beat them down. My adornments are aligned for power, +heals and heal crits but my achievements are put in for melee damage (not much of a choice anyway since we're pretty much shoehorned into certain builds). I considered spec-ing away from STR (keeping AGI) and onto lines to improve reuse timers but with RoK coming and 20 more points to play way, it pretty much renders any argument of achievement placement moot.

[greyf]

<cite>Banditman wrote:</cite><blockquote>Finally, as a Raid Leader, I give my melee people a baseline for suck...</blockquote>I loved this entry! <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[SladeBlackstone]

<cite>ScaledMystic wrote:</cite><blockquote>The problems I've had have been in single-group zones in places like Unrest. The group will be doing fine, hell, even when I'm the ONLY healer. But then halfway through some leeter will inspect me and start screaming. Come on, you have to admit, having another 5% power over another setup, at the price of any and all other utility I might have had, is slightly irrational. But nevertheless, having a good amount of Wisdom gear, but a handful of combat enhancers like the +25 haste gauntlets I got from Mistmoore Castle... means trouble.<p> It was group-breaking twice so far, even on the second time when I tried to ignore it, and the raid kiddie would simply NOT shut up. "u r disgraze to healr profesin..." I will never forget that. Oh, and the same guy said, I kid you not, "this is why rpers nevr see most content." </p><p> Uh okay. Out of the blue, because I'm melee spec, I'm a roleplayer? Blasphemy. Madness! How dare anyone roleplay in a massively multiplayer <i>role playing game</i> on the Antonia Bayle <i>roleplay server</i>.</p><p> Sorry for ranting, but I enjoy the utility, self reliance, and suprising combat prowess a Mystic can have... and I refuse to simply be the heal-bot for some "achiever" who burns through one expansion a week.</p></blockquote>Whenever this happens, you always have the option of inspecting them and start bashing them.  :^)  It's not the best thing to do, but sometimes it can be good stress relief.  Attacking scouts and fighters with low to no int, casters with no agility, druids with no int, etc. It's really fun to watch a swash squirm when you finally start to convince him that his int is so low that the only way his poisons will do damage is if you use EVERY poison debuff you have.In all likelyhood, when they started playing MMOs they were taught that <i>stats > player</i>... and simply haven't learned better yet.

[Heathenistic]

Play the game to have fun, don't let others tell you how to play. .. if they can play it better let them bring their toon instead and you can go out and have a few drinks.I usually get nothign but praise, but i've solo healed alot of tough zones. even when i'm not paying attention peopel still think i'm doing a good job ..lol ..ignore the haters .. or get in a good guild where you may not have to do pickup groups

[Gnevil]

<p>Wow I have never ever had this happen to me.  I get pretty much nothing but praise in groups.  Having been a long time Raid Tank (guardian) but having burned the heck out after tier 6.  I swapped to playing my mystic and my ranger.  My tank is now my tradeskill main and only goes out to adventure when friends need help.</p><p>As to us being melee specced, aren't most of us spec'd for melee.  Not like we have alot of choices.  Being the only mystic in our raid force, and being specced to be a healer first and melee second.  I get more ribbing from my raid for not putting up a parse then doing it.  </p><p>My raid leader defines my role as debuffer> cures> warder/healer> melee in exactly that order.  I am always in the off tank group because our best ability can be cast cross raid, and I use my single target ward while the main tank defiler uses his group versions.  This way we stack no overwriting. Now granted I have been raiding for a long time and know for the most part when I can get in there and add my dps to the raid without causing any problems for my group or the tanks.</p><p>As to grouping hell even in pickup groups no one gives me a second thought when they see me standing behind the mob shoving my various weapons up his [Removed for Content].. lol ... </p><p>I will tell you a trick for getting peeps to love you ... make your macro's with tells to the group (use your imagination just don't over do it) about what you are casting.  Such and such spell being cast now on X.  Ect ... group heal inc, group cure inc in 2 seconds ect ect.  I get more tells from peeps that haven't grouped with me before for being the most on top of it healer they have ever played with.  What they don't know is that I simply am to lazy to setup non raid centric hot bars.  In my guild we have language issues so we don't use Vent we use raid chat ect.  So every single major cast is announced to my group, some of them to the raid to let our healing corp's know what I am doing ect.  Same thing from them.  It works [Removed for Content] near flawless once you get used to reading the scrolling window while your fingers automatically do their jobs hitting your spells in the casting order needed for the mobs you are fighting.</p><p>Anyone these days that slams you for being melee specced probably is in a sucky guild that doesn't utilize all the tools available to them, and most likely isn't clearing all EOF content.</p>

[ScaledMystic]

<p>I find it funny that in the Kunark era we're now in, with the awesome +power regen gear now available (wow, +9/+10 stuff all over and for cheap, when +6 would cost platinum before), I rarely run truly out of power... but the pressure is still on to max out wisdom to the exclusion of all other attributes, just to please others. It's sort of absurd, especially when I was told "regen gear sux lol" but in the same breath "betray to defiler lol" because only defilers can cannibalize for power. Pfft. I'd rather just have near-limitless reserves, thanks.</p><p> Looking at a lot of set gear, I'm thoroughly unimpressed with the "slave away for a long time and get six pieces of this for +20 heals" or something along that line. Funny that there's so much whining about the loot table in Kunark, when I find "of the Tempest" and "of Light" gear to suit many of my purposes, mixed with no-trade stuff I find in instances.</p>