Play how you want, screw em if they say different.

At the end of the day, WoW is a game. A game that should be played for fun and enjoyment. If for whatever reason you get in a position that takes away the fun of the game it's up to you to correct the situation.

So, I stated before that I was going through some guild fluctuation and should be in Kara soon.

I joined a new guild with every intention of going to Kara. I was set to go on my first run with the new guild, half hour from start when the following happend.

Some guild members were bagging on a Holy Paly wearing a piece of mail (not in our guild). To which I replied. I wear both leather AND cloth.

The GL - being a resto shaman himself. Stated that I would not be wearing anything except mail if I planned to go to Kara.

I reply that I still have more AC than a priest. There is very limited healing gear before T5 for Resto Shaman and that I shouldn't be getting hit as a healer anyway and that my current mix and match helped to make me a very effective healer.

His response?

"I don't care, I told you, you'd be wearing mail blah blah blah."

To be honest, I don't recall much after the "I don't care, do what I say because I'm the GM"

My retort?

"lol" /gquit.


See, the thing is he is also an effective healer. His problem? He thinks his way is the best way and is the only way. In a game like WoW this is of course not the case. Yet, the issue pops up for every class, every spec, and every piece of gear all the time. BRK on his blog always gets comments from MM hunters bagging on BM hunters. Prot paly vs. Ret Paly, the list goes on and on. This idea that the path you have chosen has to be the best and only path for the simple reason that you have chosen it is to say, as politely as possible, idiotic at best.

Apparently after I had hit the dusty trail, he made several legitimate points which I will paraphrase and counter below.

1. I had indicated to him that I would switch to mail.

Response: I never imagined I would switch to mail from what I was wearing to make him feel better. Why the hell would I want to downgrade? I assumed he meant that I would switch to mail when the items were upgrades. Who wouldn't think that? I am not tied to the idea of wearing cloth and leather forever and I do want to switch to mail, but not at the sacrifice of being the best healer I can be.


2. Me going with leather and cloth means I would want to roll on cloth and leather items at the expense of other classes.

Response: I am not a douche bag and would of course defer to those that are restricted to that armor type before even considering trying to roll on a given item. Also, in looking at the entire loot list for Kara on wowhead.com, I would want a total of 5 items. 1 trinket, 1 shield, and 3 pieces of MAIL GEAR. Hello my name is non-issue, have we met? And it becomes less of an issue after Kara, as that is where actual mail healing upgrades become available. Gruuls, SSC, etc.

3. He has something like 12k AC and claims that it directly contributes to having him live longer if he gets jumped on.

Response: Theoretically this is true. However talking to a co-worker that has a resto shaman guildmate in full T5, he still gets smacked down by mobs in Kara if things go wrong. Particularly after Maiden. His opinion that he is still alive whereas I would be dead is conjecture at best. AC is not the only stat that contributes to damage mitigation, everyone knows this. Yet he sacrifices other more important healing stats for AC when he shouldn't be getting hit anyway. And as I said before, what the hell are priests supposed to do?

His retort: Priest have other abilites to mitigate....blah blah blah.


Yeah they have fade, an ability that when its effect wears off restores the threat lost. I have reincarnation and am working on getting the Keepers of Time trinket that reduces threat permanently.

You see where I'm going with this?

He would actually prefer I wear:


Tidefury Shoulderguards
Shoulder
Mail489 Armor

+18 Stamina
+23 Intellect
Red SocketBlue Socket
Socket Bonus: +4 Spell Damage
Durability 70 / 70
Requires Level 70
Equip: Increases damage and healing done by magical spells and effects by up to 19.Equip: Restores 6 mana per 5 sec.


Over:


Primal Mooncloth Shoulders
Shoulder
Cloth133 Armor
+16 Intellect
+15 Spirit
Durability 60 / 60
Requires Level 70Requires Mooncloth Tailoring
Equip: Increases healing done by spells and effects by up to 92.
Equip: Restores 7 mana per 5 sec.

Simply because he says so, and Shaman are "supposed to wear mail".

This opinion in my view is ridiculous, but it was his guild so /gquit for me.

Long story short, there are a lot of opinionated people out there, most have very little to back those opinions up.

Why have stats and numbers when "because its my guild and I said so" is a much easier card to pull?

So, for everyone out there feeling pushed in to a corner because of someone else. Feel free to get the hell out of Dodge and don't look back.

Now, there will be times when you'll be the one with the wrong idea, be open to what people have to say and consider the validity of what they are trying to tell you. You may very well need to change your tactics/gear/spec if it can help you be a better player. At the end of the day though, thats for you decide, not them.