Your Questions

Dear Crusader Manners,

First let me say, I'm a big fan; you've combined my love of WoW and my obsession with courtesy, so of course I'm all about your work.

Gratuitous appreciation aside, I do have a question I'd like you to weigh in on: When is it appropriate to post damage meters in a PUG?

I, natch, am super-elite and usually finish in the top 1-2, but I don't run meters because I'm secure in my DPS. That said, it seems an awful lot of people like to throw up meters whenever they want to brag, belittle, or bemoan... And frankly I don't think its important as long as the mobs are dying. Granted its useful to have metrics by which to gauge ones contribution, and from time to tome I even ask to see them so as to assess my own performance, but its gotten gratuitous and I think there needs to be some etiquette established with regard to this practice.

So what do you think is appropriate?

Best,
Hesta of Zul'jin-US


Dear Hesta,

Crusader Manners appreciates your kind words of support.

That being said, Crusader Manners runs her own DPS meter. She does not post data with it unless requested. That way, she has the information she needs when she needs it, and does not spam anyone else. If you find that Recount is hogging too much in the way of system resources, she recommends that you ask someone to whisper the Recount data, rather than announce it loudly.

It might be wise to simply redirect and ask people to help out by not spamming your chat frames with meters during raids. That way, vital information is not lost, opportunities to roll on loot are not missed, and no one is made to feel inadequate. Different classes and specs put out different types of damage in different kinds of fights, so comparisons of this sort are very unnecessary.

General Guidelines for Understanding Death

Crusader Manners has noticed that when there is a death in the party, people are fond of assigning blame for that death. It is extremely rude to tell someone else they are at fault for your death when they are not, so keep the following helpful general rules of thumb in mind.

• If the tank dies, it is the healer's fault.
• If the healer dies, it is the tank's fault.
• If the DPS dies, it is their own fault.

Stay in range of the healer. Don't pull aggro off the tank, or before the tank is ready. And don't blame anyone else for your own mistakes.