I am fortunate to raid under the direction of a great main tank and raid leader (and as of last night, guild leader — congrats Gat.) He understands the game mechanics, and he explains the encounters before he pulls. Although I’ve heard him re-explain things through gritted teeth, he usually remains calm, even when things go to hell; I think I’ve only heard him cuss once, maybe twice.
I’ve raided with a lot of screamers and cursers. I’ve raided with people who I picture are sitting in front of their computers, red in the face, frothing at the mouth with rabid fury over a wipe. In general, I think it’s unwise (and unsportsmanlike and probably unhealthy, but mostly just unwise) to respond this way. Screaming tends to make folks tune out, take off their headset, put their guildmates on mute, pull the plug, give up, guild quit. Screaming might make someone a WoW legend but I don’t think it makes someone a good leader, and it tends not to make those around you better raiders.
Exception: Naggash.
Much like the voice in the infamous Onyxia meltdown, Naggash had a thick Geordie accent. Not a posh British one with which the Queen reads her New Years greetings, but a rough and “common” one, the kind with which soccer hooligans scream insults at the Spanish. Not the accent of the Surrey gentry, but an accent from the streets of the north. He was a mean bastard. Lots of people hated him, but I have fond memories of Nags. And truth be told, I think his screaming made me a better healer.
Nags was a main tank and a raid leader. He had “the gift” — not all tanks do — of knowing all the pathing and all the timing of the mobs (in Everquest, this took more skill and perception than in WoW as there aren’t things like DBM or Omen to warn you when shit’s about to go south). But I wasn’t in Nag’s guild. He raided during the day with some of the other Euros on our server. But as he never slept, he also raided some evenings with my raid alliance. He’d come on his brigand, and even though he wasn’t tanking or leading would typically end up explaining all the fights and assigning roles and telling people what to do and where to stand… and oftentimes, where to go, if you know what I mean.
One of the things I quickly learned as a raid healer — thanks in part to Nags — was the importance of cures. When there’s a DoT on someone, you can, of course, just heal through the pain. Or — and this is usually the far better decision — you can cure.
The classic vent exchange:
Nags: [shouting] CURE!
Me: [already casting it] Got it.
Nags: [shouting] CURE FASTER BITCHES!
K- and I joke with this phrase all the time. I’ll tell him to “DPS FASTER BITCHES!” He’ll tell me to “FOLD LAUNDRY FASTER BITCHES!” I’ll respond with “GET ME THE ENGAGEMENT RING FASTER BITCHES.” Which elicits “RAGE QUIT!!”… but that’s a different EQ2 reference.
But in all seriousness, “cure faster bitches” is the motto with which I approach healing. Any debuff I see pop up, I try to be on it the minute it occurs. I confess I don’t always distinguish between the holy-shit-get-Fusion-Punch-off-Yurand-now debuffs and the ho-hum-blah-blah-blah-slowed-by-Frostbolt ones. And I confess, I’ve removed Arcane Power from mages before. Oops? But I pride myself on responding quickly to cures. (Last on the healing meters, sure, but I fucking pwn face on the dispell count.)
So I’m curing as fast as I possibly can.
Bitches.
/RAGE QUIT11!!1
Ha ha, nice! I love the decursive for the exactly reason of basically thoughtless decursing. I first learned of it during the Maiden fight in Kara and haven’t looked back. Any class that can remove something, curse, poison, etc. I have it up.
The one trouble I have (and this is specific to 5-mans) is that I can’t cure everything, but some times there is a class there that can, but they fail to remove the poison because they are DPS, not the healer, well bitches, I can’t cure poison as a priest. In a 5-man, curing is everyone’s job if you ask me.