Wow, you pretty much summed up huge parts of my philosophy...
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
You have more or less covered something I was thinking about a while ago - how come I am able to switch constantly between 3 specs (Holy, Protection and Retribution), have the gear for all of them and be able to perform on par with our top healers/tanks/DPS? It's because "I've done my homework" as I say - I have went to Wowhead's paladin forums, and have read everything I can about healer as a paladin, tanking as a paladin, and DPSing as a paladin. In your words, I have the taken the initiative and devotion. And I am even bigger discipline freak! I have between 3 and 5 addons that monitor the group/raid status. I will Cleanse, even if I am not on Cleansing duty. I will stun every time my Hammer of Justice is up. I will toss Repentance around if my tank is struggling. My philosophy is that if I can do it, I should do it. And this is exactly what irritates me in many people - all they care about is smashing the keys, getting on top of Recount. And it's not all about that - it does you no good to be 500 DPS ahead of everybody else, when everybody else is...well, dead.
I'm the type that bearforms when the tank falls under.I'm the type that heals him before he does.I'm the type that taunts mobs off the party members while the tank is busy.I'm basically the type that does everything to make the group succeed (except playing their game)./hail
The above definition is a 'good player' is somewhat limited in the sense that it's geared towards raiding/parties. A good player to me is someone who helps others, doesn't expect everyone to be an elite and accepts others as they are. For a good player the game is the thing, and it's about everyone having fun.Someone who knows his class inside and out, can tank/DPS/heal till the cows come home, leave and come home again is not a good player if he can't accept others as they are (warts and all).
I've recently started to intertwine my damage dealing duties (as elemental) with backup/emergency healing A LOT better.If it ruins my rotation a little to give the healer a breather and keep the tank up, thats a GCD well invested.Poison/Disease cleansing totem instead of Mana Spring, aswell as placing down a WF tot if the group is 3/5 Melee.I would personally give up 500dps (maybe more) if it raised the rest of the groups dps by 200+ per person.
Heya, this blog entry caught my eye. You see, I am a blogger myself, and a member of Blog Azeroth, and this (more or less,) was a shared topic.What Makes a Good Player @ BlogAzeroth.comMy reply to this topic.Now, this is linking away from this web site, I donno if thats a no-no, if so, and my post gets killed, my bad, just dont ban me, bro!Keep up the great blogging!
One thing that I felt was left out of the recipe for being a good player here:Patience. You need to be patient with other players, as most of them are on the same learning boat as you are, and you need to be patient ultimately with yourself, because all the research and reading is no substitute for practice. Sometimes, it is a good thing to wipe a lot on a tough instance boss or trash pull. It will help you figure out what either you or your party is doing wrong, and think of something constructive or useful to say or do. You will deal with people talking down to you, rage-quitting, cussing you out... learning to be the one who smiles, nods, and remaining serene will earn you the respect of other people who ARE good players, and they are the ones you want to be around... to learn from, and to run with. These are the players who will point out the valued Wowhead threads, show you how to make macros and make the best use of them, point you in the direction of add-ons that will truly help you... in short, when it comes to running raids/instances/group quests, your attitude of a calm patient person will attract the people who will truly help you, whether it be by telling you what you're doing wrong, or by helping you compensate for the skill areas that are still your shortcomings. In closing, the keys to patience: Knowing you won't be perfect right away and accepting it, being calm and rational in volatile situations (such as raging players), and practice, which will all lead to interactions with good players and ultimately your continued growth into one.