Freshman year of college, my communications prof. told me never to begin a talk with an apology. (He used the word ‘talk’ because “only actors and politicians give speeches”.) Ironically, he would greet us every Tues. and Thurs. morning with “Sorry I’m late…” (Not kidding.)
Immediately after comm. 101 I’d spend an hour and fifteen minutes with my creative writing Prof., who similarly advocated the staunch rules of her trade. “Never begin an essay with a direct quote or a hypothetical” she’d say. I often wondered if I was in her class because of my response to the question “If you could have dinner with any four people…” on my college application… or in spite of it.
Regardless, none of that is relevant to the subject of this post… other than to prove I was paying attention should either one of my former professors read this next line (which was originally going to be the start of this blog).
“I’m sorry, but is a melee weapon ever really a main spec roll for a ranged character?” Those words crackled over vent and may as well have been “Let’s get ready to rumble”! The torrent of expletives, ‘yea buts’, and ‘I nevers’ that followed would have made any school yard proud.
The situation: Frost Giant’s Cleaver dropped after the Gunship Battle in ICC and a PuG hunter out rolled all melee characters for it.
The argument: This one handed ax should go to a melee toon because “To a hunter it’s only stats. To a melee character it’s stats plus most of their damage.”
The rebuttal: “My hunter friend told me to get this ax and he’s top 15 on this server.”
The result: A ‘forget you’ for the hunter and master loot the weapon to the highest melee roll.
The question: Was justice done here?
I ask because I feel a party to said incident by silently believing that PuG hunter would simply toss aside the one hander as soon as a hunter two-hand wep dropped.
As a resto druid, I know very little about melee dps or hunter weapons, so I felt the need to do a little research on the question at hand. (Very little research, as it turns out, because websense has been all up in my grill lately.) From what I’ve seen and read, A. there are very few two-handed stat sticks for Hunters in ICC, B. Dual wielding Frost Giant's Cleaver blows away any level 251 two hander currently available to hunters, and C. It seems the current BiS hunter weapons are in fact dual wielded axes (albeit not the ax in question). Now, it sounds to me like PuG hunter may have gotten the shaft here.
Then again, maybe not. BiS or not, a hunter rolling on melee weapons is a bit like a rogue rolling on bows/cross bows, right? I mean, it IS just stats and probably won't see a lick of use once equipped. The class that actually uses the wep certainly gets a hell of a lot more out of it.
So I'm torn. Part of me believes PuG hunter won a roll for a main spec upgrade but didn't get his loot, which is unfair. The other part thinks PuG hunter should have acquiesced and let the melee wep go to the melee toon... instead of putting my guild on blast in trade (which is never cool, imo).
/Sigh. D.R.A.M.A.
I dual wield a hunter and a resto druid. In the PuG's place, I would have been livid. In my opinion you broke a social contract.
ReplyDeleteI see two issues here.
1. You expected a random stranger to put the needs of your guild above his own. That axe is a sweet upgrade for many many hunters. Pugging people into a guild run, unless specifically stated otherwise up front, is an implied social contract that the puggers have equal rights to loot.
I'd let my guildies have that axe first, but this wasn't his guild. He was under no social obligation to put the needs of your guild above his own.
In a guild run, I know that sooner or later I will get "it". In a pug run, the players always vary, so I might never get "it" if I defer to others.
2. What precisely makes a stat stick an unimportant piece of gear?
You say its a melee piece, I say that it is itemized perfectly for a hunter. It doesn't have any pesky dodge, expertise, strength or anything else prized by melee and wasted on hunters. It wasn't one of the awesome cool weapons with an on swing proc.
Yes, a ranged weapon is the most important piece for a hunter... but even then the stats on it are far more important than weapon speed or damage done. However, your melee weapon(s) are also a very very important source of stats.
Or, to put it a different way - druids have a 2 hand or weapon + off hand and an idol. There are almost no off hands that don't have hit. Really, there are perishingly few off hands at all. So, if your pugged resto druid wants an off-hand that is a CLEAR upgrade in spite of having that pesky hit, do you tell him too bad so sad, it is not really an upgrade? That the off hand is just a stat stick? And, well, it is, but an important one. The dearth of off-hands means that I've had off-hands with hit far more often than not. Might not be itemized perfectly, but even if I see one of the "perfect" ones, I then have to win a roll against all of the other healers, or have the highest dkp or epgp.
You make very good points Christina... although if an off-hand w/ hit dropped in one of my pugs, I would only roll on it with the permission of the others in group.
ReplyDeleteStill, the incident in question very clearly falls into some gray area (I've heard arguments for both sides in game, on twitter, and now here) which means, imo, that our loot master made the WRONG decision.
PuG hunter had as much right to main spec roll on the ax as the others, and I dropped the ball by not speaking up in his defense.
But see the problem was that even if the hunter got the weapon, it wouldn't have done him any good at that point because he had the 2h weapon. If the axe went to the melee toon, which it did, he would've been able to use it right away whereas the hunter's stats would not benefit from the axe right at that point. I was in vent for the whole ordeal :P
ReplyDelete- Devenem
was i a ninja?
ReplyDeleteI'm leveling a resto druid and rolled need on the Satyrmane Sash in Maraudon (www.wowarmory.com/item-info.xml?i=17755). From everything I've read online so far I can expect to be in cloth for a long time as there's not much leather spellpower gear in the low level instances. The resto is my main and I'm leveling him as a healer - not dual spec. I didn't think twice about needed what is a really big upgrade in gear. Someone in the PUG was shocked that the system even allows leather wearers to need cloth. I explained my side but the guy was really upset. I would've given him the gear and just rerun the instance if he hadn't dropped group so fast.
Was I wrong? Was I a ninja? Am I supposed to avoid cloth gear upgrades just because I can wear leather? I want to make sure before I go and make the same mistake again... any thoughts