How nice are you in-game? Are you nice at all? Does your choice of characters reflect your personality in any way?I recently managed to get through to Outland with my Warrior in World of Warcraft, and I was tanking my way through Hellfire Ramparts with a PUG *shudder* when I got talking with the Priest who was healing us, and I was honestly shocked to realise that he was a complete tool. Not only was he a poor healer, he was rude, ignorant and refused to listen to friendly advice.
I was shocked because I realised that I really do think that certain classes attract certain types of players. Simply because this person was playing a healing class, I expected them to be pleasant, polite and reasonably intelligent. The more I thought about it, the more shocked I became – not at the Priest, but at myself, at my stereotyping of people, at my naivete.
It got me thinking – why would I think like that? Does it make any kind of sense, and what basis do I have for thinking it in the first place? Do certain classes and archetypes naturally attract certain personalities?
I like to think that I'm a nice guy, and that I'm quite forgiving of the mistakes that other players, less wise than I, might make. I remember way back in pre-expansion World of Warcraft, tanking Scholomance on my Feral Druid. It was my first time tanking in a group, and I was all over the place; bad pulls; poor aggro management and a complete lack of target marking – I had them all. I kept apologising for screwing up, telling them again and again that I was new to tanking, and even though most of the group were screaming at me, one of them stayed calm and was helpful and polite, talking me through the basics, and telling me all the stuff I should have known already.
Something about that moment has stuck with me, and I've tried to be the same ever since. If a group member is lost on the way to the instance, I'll be the first to run out to show him/her the way. If we're coming up to a tricky bit in the instance I'll make sure to put up a warning in party chat, even if it seems that everyone knows what they're doing.
As an example – I can't now deny that I have always held the belief that healing classes are for 'nice' people. People, like myself, who enjoy the game that little bit more when they know the people they're grouping with are having fun too – it might suck that your X didn't drop, but at least your tank got Y, and you know he's been trying for days to get it to drop.
I like to think that that's part of the reason I was drawn to healing classes – my Feral Druid ended up going Resto eventually, and my second level 70 was a Priest. I enjoy helping people; I enjoy being a safety net for my friends.
Healing can be hard. Ask Marcie Knox. I've never been main healer, or lead healer, or anything close to it in a raid, but you don't have to be to know how hard it can be, being a healer. When the whiny, emo-lock in your PUG (who you're sure'll turn out to be a ninja) simply refuses to watch his aggro because, "lolz im top of the dmg meetrs", or your 'tank' won't use a shield, things can get hairy – a Priest's Fade won't seem to cooldown fast enough, Druids will worry about wearing out their Lifebloom button and Paladins will start inching towards their Bubblehearth macro. Some of us thrive on moments like that – when all Hell is breaking loose, you can be right in the eye of the storm, thinking two steps ahead of the tank, watching to see which mobs are heading for the casters, balancing up if it's worth letting the Lock get smeared across a wall just to teach him a lesson. Maybe not so much that last one. At least, not all that often.
That being said, I may just be being naïve, and perhaps some people are drawn to healing for the sole reason that it allows you to act like a complete tool – maybe your boss gave you a hard time today, so you group up with some strangers, cause them to wipe repeatedly then blame it all on the tank for not holding aggro, and skip away laughing, happy that you've spread a little misery around.
I'm focusing on healing classes here but hopefully you see my point. There may not be much logic behind the idea that certain player types are drawn to certain classes. It seems like common sense to me, but that's hardly irrefutable proof, is it? If I'm tight-lipped and surly when I play my Warrior, but erudite and witty when I'm using my Priest, is that the characters affecting my mood, or just me projecting my mood onto the characters?
What do you think? Do you think your character class reflects your personality? Do you tank because you're a no-nonsense, 'get it done' kind of person, or do you enjoy being the centre of attention? Are you a DPSer because you like having the raw numbers to show how good or bad you are compared to others? Do you heal because you're a big softy like me, or do you enjoy having the power of life and death over your friends?
