Originally Posted by
HeatherRae
When I started playing in TBC, I was so confused about what I was supposed to do. My first character was a Human Priest, and I got conned into healing Deadmines at level 10 or 12. Needless to say, the experience was so traumatizing that I nearly quit.
Later, I'd leveled a Hunter up to about 60ish or so, but I got bored. I missed healing (which I had done in other games, though nothing as complicated as this). So I rolled a Blood Elf Priest. I was still deeply confused about healing, and terrified of going into a dungeon after what had happened on my first Priest. But, I was in a guild with people I knew IRL (that's how I picked up the game, actually), and they had already trained me somewhat on my Hunter (remember when guilds taught you how to trap? How to control your pet? How to taunt trap before trap launcher?). One of the healers hooked me up with a Holy Pally in a small raiding guild that was on the same server.
Highheals was the most flamoyant, fabulously gay Paladin I've ever run into. He dragged me and two friends through Scarlet Monastery wearing a pink dress. Just for funsies. He twisted my arm until I got Healbot so I could see everyone, he taught me about downranking. He taught me about healing priorities. He taught me to sit down and drink if I needed to. He pushed me to PvP to help me learn how to raid heal. And if it weren't for him, I never would have made it to 70. Because I was ready to give up, and I was so frustrated (remember, BC leveling...it sucked, especially as a healer, but even as Shadow!). He took me to my first raid (an insane AQ 20 when I was level 65, with like, 8 level 70s in raid gear). Seeing that raid...seeing how fast it was, how FUN it was, inspired me to keep pushing (and yes, he did help me with the last 5 levels).
I was a noob. I was bad. I stood in things. I didn't know how to heal myself and the tank. I've stood in defile. I've failed the jump on Thaddeus and gotten hit by fire walls on Sarth. I failed at tornadoes, and fell through the web in Firelands. I dreaded meteors. I went insane on Yogg Saron. I failed at Penetrating Cold (and killed the entire healer group on my Shaman as, well, my Healing Spring got eaten by something). I stood in purple fire. I will say I never blew the raid up in Hyjal, tho. :-P But I've dispelled ionization in the pool.
I never would have gotten to where I am if people didn't help me along the way. And it's true - you can get better at the game. But we all started as the confused noob who had no idea what they were doing. What took you 20 minutes to figure out took me 6 months as a healer. But there are some people who, for whatever reason, are never going to reach that point. There IS a skill cap, and some people hit it very quickly. That doesn't mean they're worthless (I mean, jesus christ, this is a game!), and it doesn't mean that they don't deserve to get as much enjoyment out of the game as hardcore raiders do.
I thought Normal content was for raiders who, for whatever reason, either could not or would not do heroic content. Why are we treating it as though somehow hardcore progression raiders have a right to tell people stymied by the current progression in Normal ToT that they're bad, they should quit, they should get better, they should cut their friends loose (for holding them back), they should stop sucking, etc? If normal ToT is a joke for you, that's great - IT WAS NEVER MEANT FOR YOU TO PROGRESS IN. GO DO HEROICS.
Apologies for rambling. I hope that made some modicum of sense.