Would you rock the boat?

My first idea for the title was "Don't rock the boat", the second impulse/idea was "We don't go to Razorfen Kraul". Shortly following these was a brief realization that they were both bad titles, one was a simple saying, the other a done-to-death rehash of a quote.

Now I'm counterproductively munching sugar-based consumables to try to calm down before this goes two steps further and I end up in a nihilistic mindset and ragedelete this all.

I hate titles.

Today's late night dungeon was Razorfen Kraul - the clever reader may already have guessed this - and thoroughly pleasant. Now to destroy that pleasure by overanalyzing it!

This is where I expect myself to say "Just kidding", but I'm not quite sure.

I even took notes.

In truth, I've been anticipating RFK for a bit - I saw it as a potential challenge what with the totem forests, mana burns and potential for "whoops" in all the z-level fun, Gnomeregan edge-peek style.

Sadly, and I think I may be sincere in that regret on some level, we got a tank. Descendeth onto Azeroth from high heaven, this titan of a warrior showed uncanny dedication to his role. Heck, just staying in defensive stance would have sufficed, but he went all the way. The champ even used an elixir.

And he was an obvious keyboard-turner and clicker.

Now, I don't mean this condescendingly, but god bless his little massive enraged heart for it. At this point, it doesn't really matter, and good enough is good enough. I'm hardly an example of perfection myself. My faults mainly come in form of mental inhibitors that won't let me heal if it's gonna be an overheal, even if my mana is full. Among other things. Sounds like a post of its own, actually.

To end the major detour here; As a result of this, it was decidedly not a challenge. Aggro was mostly on the tank, the dps knew what they were doing, sans hard-cast pyroblasts so nothing to comment on there, but chat was unusually active.

In Greek*.

See, I didn't mind at all. Me, the silent warrior and the even silent-er ret paladin were just running around doing our thing, and this mage and hunter combo would suddenly stop and fire off a stream of unintelligible letters, then carry on. They were perfectly capable of either whispering eachother if it was private, or using English if it wasn't.

Obviously I was missing something. Noone said "English plz", though, and judicious ding'ing was rewarded with grats'es from them, and when I commented that the tank was doing a great job, they pitched in with praise in as understandable Engrish as any.

Some annoying bats and pigs later, the final boss went down, and there was this air of expectation as we stood before the jump down to the escort quest. The second I asked, three yes'es and a stoic, agreeing silence confirmed that we liked eachother enough to attempt an escort quest together.

Truthfully, it's not even remotely hard. It's just a thing most people have for escort quests.

Or rather, a thing they have for not doing escort quests.

Suddenly, party chat became a lot livelier. The air of "We are signed up together do do a dungeon" dispersed and was replaced by a pleasant fume saying "We're an instance group doing a quest together", which was far more condusive to chat!

That, or people were fat and happy with their loot bags. Go third pair of enhancement gloves!

Jokes about pork roast, me being forced to make a song while I mined an iron vein, the next five minutes were an unusually jolly time. And then;

Mage: how do you say when you need pause for mana?
Me: Just saying "mb" or mana break usually does the trick
Warrior: Yeah :)

Wait. One. Minute.

These weren't just "new to the game" or a little eccentric. Or bad.

They were actual, real new players.

I've teamed with so many heirloom-bedecked people by now that when I see a person, I immediatly assume it's an alt. When I see badly geared lowbie, I think poor/underprioritized alt. Here, there was a decent chance that they didn't even know how to whisper.

I wish that bit of the story had a more interesting end than my surprise.

That's pretty much it. "Wow!". Also, it was nice to know people still join the game from scratch and seemingly enjoy it. End of.


Of course you didn't stop reading when I said go away.

Actually, if you're not reading this, you're either very gullible, very polite, or extremely easily distracted.

If you just needed a break, that's fine too.

My to-write-list had one final note. And the title still doesn't make sense, does it? Of course it doesn't, it's a question.

Among friends, I am probably known for two rather contradictory traits; Lootwhoring and shying away from taking loot. Well, more than that, hopefully, probably and sadly, but among traits, two that are relevant, except for my sexy droning dulcet voice.

I am probably the first person to browse datamined raidloot, to find what I want, and to obsess about it. "I hope that item drops.", "Damn, no item today either."
I'm also extremely quick to roll for offspec. Commonly I roll before it goes to offspec and have to apologize for my finger slipping. That /roll is ready before I see what the item even is.
Lastly, I am the first to pass if anyone else needs something. If it's a bigger upgrade for someone else. If someone else has not had loot for a while. If I've already had loot. I'll pass.

Not trying to blow my own horn here, I'm making a point.

Besides, I'm not that stretchy.

Loot in low level instances is a sketchy affair. There are daggers with spirit and no spellpower, there are robes with so much pure crit that a hunter is tempted.

When you then have an obviously new player, know that very few people take too kindly to too much advice in one helping, and are pressed for time, my stance becomes that of "Don't rock the boat."

Sorry. This linking thing is a disease.

I did not lie when I said I started writing for myself, but asking questions into thin air seems part of it, then; Would you rock the boat?

Those robes did in fact drop. The hunter and the mage both needed (triggering the longest stream of gibberish moonspeak yet), and while I'm an avid follower of the "stick to your damn armorclass you ninja!" stance, my current chestpiece is the second-to-last remaining piece of enhancement loot*. And it's ugly as sin***.

Would you need and try to explain that they are in fact Good For You(tm), or would you rather not have that discussion? Requeue time as a healer is hardly an issue, but it's all theoretical.

*This may be an application of "Greek" in the sense of "I've no freaking idea", but I think it may actually have been Greek.
**Not an excuse, I know.
***This, however, is.