Last week I had some fun running the random Pandaria Timewalking dungeons on my blood elf hunter Sriset. I had good groups and got some armor upgrades and new appearances. I got tons more Timewalking badges too of course.
I’m not overly familiar with Pandaria dungeons but I think overall I’ve improved a lot when it comes to playing a hunter in dungeons. Growl is always off on my pet, I don’t use AoE spells unless I’m certain I won’t pull more baddies than we’re already fighting, and I’m careful what I target.
Considering that when I first did dungeons years ago I’d go in bow blazing trying to kill everything in sight, I’ve come a long way. Luckily that behavior took place with my then active guild who was rather forgiving and showed me the error of my ways.
During one of the Timewalking dungeons last Thursday night I got a drop of new pants and one of the other players asked if I needed them. When I checked what I got, they were a rather nice upgrade so I said yes I needed them. I apologized for needing them because that’s how I am but the other player was very nice about it and seemed to understand why I kept them.
Even so, I still felt a bit guilty about keeping the pants because I know I’m not the best in dungeons and that maybe other players are more deserving of upgrades. Probably sounds silly but I am who I am. In a gesture of appreciation for the other player being so understanding of me keeping the pants, I mailed them some gold for repairs with a short, kind note. It only take a moment to do something nice and a little nice can go a long way.
The next day when I logged in I had a note back from the player thanking me profusely for the gold and saying I was one of the nicest players they’ve encountered in the game. I was surprised by their words because I thought my gesture had been rather small but I was pleased they appreciated the effort.
I was starting to think that maybe I should be so kind to additional players in random groups and send tokens of appreciation to those on compatible realms. It’s somewhat rare to have another player in the same dungeon on a compatible realm but I liked the idea of it. I know there’s some less than nice people who play World of Warcraft and that it’s not in my nature to be all nasty like that.
My enjoyment of running Pandaria Timewalking dungeons led me to solo the normal Pandaria dungeons on Sri so I could become more familiar with them and keep collecting new appearances. I did a few of them and then queued for a Timewalking one Friday evening. Alas the dungeon I got into was one I hadn’t done yet called Siege of Niuzao Temple and it was full of bugs and I felt lost and confused. But I did my best and kept up and tried to stay out of trouble.
I thought I was doing reasonably well in the dungeon until one of the other players asked what I was doing and to get to a certain place and then called me a scrub. As a hunter, I’m somewhat used to not being a favorite in a dungeon but I’d never been called a scrub before. I didn’t really know what the term meant but I deduced that it wasn’t nice.
I later looked up scrub on Urban Dictionary and found this explanation: “Whilst a noob is generally considered one who is new to the game, and as a result not proficient, a scrub need not necessarily be new. It may imply that the person accused is forever a noob, regardless of how much they may practice.”
While I may sometimes feel that I’ll never quite get certain parts of the game right, I don’t consider myself forever a noob. I’d never done that dungeon before but we’d all purposely chosen to queue for a dungeon with a random group of people that may or may not know the dungeon, so calling me a scrub seemed unnecessary. But I know that there are unkind people in the game and in the world and that that will never change. I certainly won’t let it change how I act either.
I didn’t respond to the other player’s words and continued along in the dungeon being even more careful of what I attacked. That dungeon is one of the worst in my opinion and I was very glad when it was over. Interestingly enough, the player who called me a scrub was on a compatible realm but I didn’t mail them anything, understandably so. I also didn’t report them because I felt embarrassed that I didn’t know the dungeon, although I’m still not certain I really did anything wrong…
After that I decided I was done running Timewalking dungeons and went to the Timeless Isle to see what I could buy with my badges. I opted for new pants, shoulders, and boot appearances and then went online looking for a chest piece that would coordinate. I found one purchasable from a pvp armor vendor on Draenor and had just enough Marks of Honor to buy it, so I did.
While at the vendor, I browsed the other items they had and decided I wanted the belt and bow that went with the chest piece. That meant running BGs where it’s common for players to be less than nice but I’m used to that behavior and can more easily ignore it. I know I’m not good at pvp and I never will be but as always I do my best.
I ran just enough BGs to get the Marks for the belt and bow and happily purchased them.
I then ran some epic BGs because I’d never done epic BGs and was curious. By the time I logged off last night I was only 125 conquest away from a sweet bow upgrade so I’ll probably be doing more epic BGs tonight to acquire it. Pvp really isn’t my thing but when I see something I really want, I’m determined to get it.
People can call me many things but I never let the negative things keep me down and I do my best to turn it into a positive. After all, if that person hadn’t called me what they did, I never would’ve shifted my focus from Timewalking to BGs and got as far as I did.
I got enough Marks for another new bow appearance and that pvp bow upgrade will be mine soon.
Just goes to show that when you give something a good scrub it can shine up in ways you never imagined. 😉
Srinity 