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How To Deal With Pickup
Groups
How To Deal With Pickup Groups & Kids in CTF.
Skip to the end. I would have.
I am curr farming Rep with Warsong (another 10-20
won games should get me to Honored), and I still get
excited occasionally while playing CTF, though it
has turned into a bit of a drudgery.
Disclaimer: This was written from a Horde
standpoint.
Alliance got all the love in the beautiful scenery
of the lowbie zones (and you got the Darkmoon Faire
first) - so deal with it. You guys deserve having
Paladins on your side.
1. People and kids in particular will play the game
however they want to, occasionally no matter what
you try to tell them. Let it go. If you can't stand
losing, /afk out. Console yourself that the other
side suffers from the same problems more often than
not, unless they're all guilded (a rare sight indeed
for lowbies like me).
2. There is no way to get people to drop their group
and join the raid if they don't want to. Try to
/yell occasionally and /t whoever DROP GROUP PST FOR
INV - this usually works but not always - and even
if it does work it might not be worth your time
anyway.
3. As soon as you zone into a pickup situation - ASK
IF THERE IS A GROUP formed already - quite often
there is - but mostly there isn't, and the most
experienced or most exasperated guy ends up
shouldering the burden. Only once in 50+ games have
I seen two groups split evenly - that sucked badly -
and we didn't get it straight until a few minutes
before we lost. This might work different in
different brackets on different servers, though,
since sometimes ppl know each other so well that the
who's-gonna-do-what issues are already understood
and solved.
4. MAKE RAID ASSISTANTS! As many as you feel
comfortable with. They can help invite people who
show up late - and while you are in the middle of a
hair-raising battle you're not gonna pay attention
to general chat or people yelling... I've had people
yell and scream for 5min before I noticed. Raid
Assistants are also supp to be able to move people
b/n groups but I think this feature's been disabled.
At least promote the highest-ranked person besides
you. I like promoting everyone - that way when
someone tells me to invite someone I can just tell
them to do it themselves. Ok, that's not very nice,
so I'll try to if I'm waiting on a rez timer
(happens quite often for
me) or not engaged in a life-or-death struggle.
5. If you join a CTF game in progress - quickly buff
up or heal or w/e you usually do, check the score +
who's playing - then pm any friend you have that's
already there - or someone you know - and ask them
who the raid leader is - this is A LOT more likely
to get you a response than /yell INVITE PLS. Once
you know who the raid leader is just pm them and all
he has to do is right-click your name and hit
'Invite'. Better than the alternative of having
people telling him who to invite - and him having to
type out a name he's most likely never heard of, or
can't spell right - or is 'Jonhnyawpqwrs' or some
such. Btw short names ROCK.
Pls someone report my name for being the rl Swedish
name for Sweden, so I can change my name to 'Par' or
some such. Once you have your invite - check map and
figure out where you are needed. Ask not what your
group can do for you, but ask what YOU can do for
your group. Or raid. Whatever - you get the point.
6. Buffing is nice. Traps and totems are nicer. Good
pickup-raid healers are next-to-nonexistent. If you
have the time - great. Prior to start there's no
excuse unless you are busy inviting - and even then
I usually manage to at least MotW everyone, and
hopefully put Thorns on the Warriors and Shamans.
Speaking of which I can't buff you if I can't see
you
- if you're down in the tunnel you ain't gonna get
it.
Hmmm... I just thought of something - I think I'll
start making those +Spirit fires you can start.
7. As soon as you zone in - MOVE OUTTA THE WAY and
STAY IN ONE SPOT! Some people like to select ppl on
the screen and then right-click for inv. Myself I
usually hit a hotkey for 'Select Next Friendly
Target'
and invite that way. If you're jumping around all
over the place it just makes it more difficult.
Personally I always quickly move to the same spot,
buff myself, ask if there's a group, and start
buffing others.
After 30-40 times of doing this people on my server
in my bracket expect it and are used to quickly
inviting that Tauren Druid with the Wolfshead that
always looks the same and always stands over in the
corner by the gate buffing people.
8. If you find yourself Raid Leader or Assistant -
take a few seconds now and then to check the raid
group matches who is actually in the instance. Once
you get good at this it shouldn't take more than a
minute. A MINUTE?? Yep - it sucks, but someone's
gotta pick up the ball that Blizz dropped. People
leave, people disconnect and new people show up.
I'll stealth and take care of that before I run up
to check the Defense, sometimes.
9. Be nice to ppl who show up at lvl 21, or lvl 31
or whatever - if they're trying to help - and even
if they refuse to do what you or someone
knowledgeable tell them. They might be in a position
to help you some day - and just 'cause a guy
disappears while carrying the flag and you lose b/c
of it doesn't mean he did it on purpose. One of our
flag carriers lost power in his house when both
flags were out and the game was tied 2-2. Two
seconds later they capped. Oh well.
10. Screaming at ppl and calling them idiots like I
have done far too many times is not likely to
improve anything. Telling people 'I told you so'
after they disregarded your warnings about how many
Alliance were on defense and promptly got
destealthed and and wtfpwnt while you were spamming
'WAIT WAIT' in /raid - is probably not very
constructive either. Your choice whether you want to
have patience or not. In the long run it seems to
pay off to be nice to people.
11. Repeating ad nauseaum that you NEED DEFENSE,
however, just might improve something. If you repeat
something often enough ppl have a tendency to
believe it - which sucks, but that's the way it is.
Funny thing is, I can't tell you how many games I've
barely won, where my side started off not listening
to anyone talking about Defense - and then at the
end we have EVERYONE talking about D and grouping
together on D - and with a few lucky runs we manage
to win it by basically denying the enemy access.
Seems ppl are more apt to work together in the
latter stages of a match than in the early parts of
it when everyone is usually doing their own thing.
12. Don't listen to the haters. Just let it go.
13. Some ppl really are just in it for the HK's -
and nothing you can do or say about the Bonus Honor
will change that - but you can always try to argue
it a bit. And some ppl just HAVE TO play in the same
group with their buddy apart from the raid. Oh well.
14. It's plenty easy to win CTF games without
exploiting - so what's the point really? Just get
organized, geared up, get on vent and kick butt - no
need to exploit.
15. It's ok to /afk out. I'm in it strictly for Rep
- others for HK's - others in order to score high in
Killing Blows or to be on top of the list. If you
don't like what's going on - leave. If you can't
deal with that - find another game or only play with
your guildies. That said I've only /afk'd once - and
too many times to remember I've come back to win it
from being down 0-2.
16. A person is approximately 4 times more likely to
respond or perform an action that you want them to
perform if you send them a /tell than they are if
you /say or /yell or /1 the same message. On offense
this isn't really practical - but it's mucho useful
to get ppl to DROP GROUP. This is due to the little
sound and contrasting colour that goes along with
each private msg.
17. For all you diehard CTFers out there - and those
who like to be Raid Leaders - make this macro and
put the button in an out-of-the-way spot on your UI:
/who warsong gulch XX-YY
XX-YY being either 21-30, 31-40, 41-50 or 51-60 This
way I can hang out on an alt and still know quickly
if there's a game for my main. And it can be
INCREDIBLY useful for quickly organizing a Raid -
just right-click each name that pops up and hit
Invite.
Takes ten seconds to get everyone an invite, and you
don't have to worry about highlighting people
jumping around yelling 'lolololol this is my first
time what do I do lol?' in the flag room. The only
other CTF macro I use is a simple
/target X
with X being the name of the hiding enemy flag
carrier that we simply CANNOT find any other way.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
18. Relax. It's just like foreign policy - this
isn't about what you WANT to do - it's about what
you CAN do. ..
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