life, the universe, and donna

So Nick’s been playing his Death Knight pretty heavily — 73 already, almost caught up to my holy paladin. Damn him. I spent YEARS working on Sechet to get her to the place she is now… he grinds instances for a couple of weeks and is already comparably geared? Damn expansion packs!

Anyway, it’s a good thing, because now we can supply ANY party member — he’s got tank & ranged dps, I’ve got healer & melee dps. I’m looking forward to the Looking for Group channel messages of “2 anything, LF3M anythings.” (Almost as good as “4DK, LF1MDK”)

If you don’t get that, well… whatever. It’s warcraft stuff. Better to ignore.

So the other night, Nick’s running with a group, and a really nice bind on equip two handed axe drops. BoE items are a bit unusual — most good things, when they drop, are bind on pickup. Meaning, you can’t sell it, its yours forever. Bind on Equip means you can sell it on the AH, and if it’s something pretty skookum, you can occasionally make a pretty penny.

But, Warcraft also has a Need vs. Greed system built in, with “Need” of course getting higher priority. My guild, for example, has a standing policy that you “need” on things that are on-spec, “greed” for off-spec, and if nobody rolls either, a disenchanter will go and pick it up. (We won’t talk about the time that Nick accidentally greeded something to disenchant that someone else wanted for off-spec… oops. “Well, maybe I can just strap those void crystals onto my feet…”)

But, in a pick up group, you generally go with what Blizzard intended, unless the group leader wants something different & everyone agrees ahead of time. So, if it’s an upgrade, you need. If not, you greed. If it’s bind on pickup, and there’s an enchanter in the group, pass and let them greed, as they can disenchant it instead. Then roll on the disenchanted results (either right away, or at the end of the instance.) If there’s no enchanter, greed and vendor it for a few gold. Whatever.

Anyway, since the axe in question was a big upgrade for Nick’s death knight, he rolled need. Three members of the party were gracious with their “congrats!”

Except… one guy. Who decided to be an utter tool, and spent the next 15 minutes calling Nick a ninja, and generally insulting him copiously. In a (misguided, if you ask me) effort to make peace, Nick offered to let everyone roll again, and he’d pay 100g to whoever rolled highest. Everybody else said no, that’s fine, it’s an upgrade, you won it fair and square. Except for the Douche, as we will hereby refer to him, who was throwing quite the fit, continuing to refer to him as a greedy ninja, etc etc. Well, conveniently, he got kicked from the group… and, of course, was replaced in about 30 seconds. DPS is easy to come by. Douche continued msg’ing Nick until he finally ignored him. I added him to my ignore list, too — not that I’m expecting him to msg me, but it’s an easy way to track “People I don’t ever, ever want to group with.” I think there are about 4 people on it. (Dear Blizzard: Please provide an alternative to the friends list — like, say, a “shit list” that isn’t just the ignore list. I don’t want to ignore him. I just never want to group with him.)

Fast forward to the next day. Someone msg’s Nick asking if he can tank. He checks the guys group, and sees the Douche in it. Says, “No thanks, so-and-so is a jerk.”

Lo and behold… the party leader kicks the Douche, and re-invites Nick who eagerly accepts, tanks right nicely, and everybody lives happily ever after (except the douche, of course.)

Moral of the story? Well, several. 1 – Don’t piss off your tank. Like healers, they’re .. well, not more important than DPS, but harder to replace. DPS is a dime a dozen. 2 – don’t be a douche.

I love karma.