The craziest group I had to deal with was in Athiss HM with a guildie (heals and DPS), a few days ago.

 

I honestly didn't realize much was wrong with the PUG at first; the only major gripe was the tank dropping Assassin's Shelter and yelling at us healers to stay out of it.

 

Oh yeah, about that plural: the other DPS (Merc) was spec'd Bodyguard. Loaded with Power/Alac and pretty much nothing else.

 

This was something I didn't really notice until we made it to the bonus boss, who enraged because the other merc thought he needed to heal as well. He openly admitted he was specced for heals when the tank asked, but after the first try we got the bonus done.

 

The last fight... was a bit intense. My guildie (our DPS) disconnected about 30 seconds into the fight, which basically turned into "the tank is going to DPS and we're going to bounce threat between the two healers". Thankfully we were fortunate to finish the fight before we died - he had enraged at 2% and we were below 10% health when he died.

Had an interesting TfB 8m run through GF yesterday afternoon. My Guild saw the call on fleet and a couple of friends decided to join. Scoundrel healer, extremely well geared - 168 minimum with set bonus - and Guardian DPS more and less at the same lvl. I was on my Guardian Tank in 162 with set bonus and 168+ without it.

 

So we join the group without issues as a package, all together in moments. I clarified I tanked the Op before, and at that time we still lacked another tank. We were melee heavy, DPS being 3 Guardians - one my friend - and a Sentinel. But no biggie, I just love seeing Force Sweeping around, so no worries.

Healers were my Scoundrel friend and a similarly geared Sage. No set bonus on him, but again, no problem.

Then we get another Guardian Tank. He has 200 HP more than me and is at a similar gear lvl, without set bonus though.

 

We get in right away and gather at the entrance of the first tunnel. Since noone clarified who was maintank and who would offtank, I asked. As always, I'm fine either way, so no problem on my part. The other Guardian Tank decided to maintank. Ok, then I will not taunt unless enemies go for others, I thought. Boy, was I right!

As soon as we attacked he showed a bad case of tunnelvision. I had to grab the mobs and Force Push them close to each other, then Force Sweep and Cyclone Slash on CD. Masstaunt also helped. To the point that I got asked to either Masstaunt right away or to avoid it, because the other DPS were stuck chasing their target.

I was guarding my Guardian friend, and the Sent ripped aggro off the enemy he was attacking. I taunted back though, so no problem.

At this point I noticed only one guard was around. Mine. And aswell only taunt debuffs were mine. But ok, I thought, perhaps he just forgot. I don't want to be annoying, I'll just shut up till we wipe.

 

The whole run through the mobs went like that till the first boss. RC happens, and I ask if the other tank prefers to be on boss or on Mate. Boss he says. Ok, then I'll take care of the Mate. Fight goes well, but I keep boss focused and notice the Sent and my Guardian friend are taking turns tanking. Without taunting off the other Tank, mind you. Switch guard as needed all the fight. Only result is their turns tanking get shorter.

Still, boss goes down and noone dies, so again I decide not to say anything. My Guildies noticed the issue, though, as I did. In fact, they said the other Tank was "keeping aggro like a Training Dummy".

I asked them to keep an eye on him for me, because I feared something may have been wrong with his rotation. I never had that much trouble with others geared at around my level. Now, Sents in 180+ with set bonus are another matter entirely...

 

We keep clearing thrash while proceeding to the first money boss, the leaping one. Again, my Guardian friend tanks when I'm not. Which luckily is not often. Other tank simply attacks. We lost two Guardians there, though, to my dismay. They were rezzed, but I take it as my fault if someone dies in Ops.

 

So, next boss. The Dread Guards. I ask again what the other tank prefers to do. No answer. Ok, I take Kel'sara, I say. And I kept Kel'sara on me the whole time. I reached a personal record of 27 debuff stacks, burning all my DCds, adrenal, medpac and so on. Still, SM. We can manage. At that point they had downed in order Heirad and Ciphas. I called for a tank swap to take some time to lose those stacks. Other Tank taunted off me, and then we went on. We lost another Guardian - again, not my friend, they were the only ones that didn't die even once apart from me and the other Tank. Except on the only wipe we had...

Still, we downed them.

 

Cleared thrash again, next money boss. No issues there, luckily, but I had my Masstaunt on constant CD to keep enemies on me. No deaths.

 

Operator IX. Op leader assigned groups. Me and the other Tank were blue. First time I see tanks paired, but I understand the logic to free both tanks for later. So I decide to give it a try.

We explained the basics and off we go. First phase blue, of course. I was supposed to channel, so I went to the console. "Black Parallel Required". Which means the other tank was not in the blue circle. I called him there to no avail, and the Sage finally pulled him. I was able to channel for a full 5 seconds. Nice. Of course, phase fails and we get the big mean droid. Which the other Tank keeps on himself. Noone attacks it, so it's not that hard.

Other phases proceed as planned, but I have to manage all adds with my Guardian DPS Guildie. Again, my Guildies keep telling me the other tank is not doing what he should, but I reply with a less talking more killing. My Scoundrel Healer Guildie helps me keep the adds off the channeller when they slip past me. And we pass the other phases till purple. There, one of the DPS Guardians is assigned with my Scoundrel friend. And my friend is supposed to channel. Dejavu. Other Guardians goes to attack adds instead. Again, Sage pulls and he gets the hint. Second big mean droid, and the other Tank taunts that too. I Masstaunt to save him, he was at around 20%, dropping fast. I assumed he burned all CDs there, thus the Masstaunt. Nope, he Masstaunted back, and went to the boss. With the two droids in tow. He dies, my Masstaunt is on CD, the droids go crazy and sweep the foor with us. We wiped.

 

Second attempt went better, this time I was assigned a Guardian DPS as blue phase companion. And the other tank was assigned to channel on orange phase. Blue phase passed, aswell as the others. We failed nothing. Boss went down easy. No deaths, no critical healing needed. I tanked it, of course. Other Tank just tunnelvisioned as usual.

 

Next money boss, again no deaths, but the tanking is still between me, my Guardian DPS friend and the Sentinel, that after that fight has my Guard on him permanently till the end of the Op. He never rips aggro again.

 

Now, Kephess was fun. It's likely the favourite boss of the Op for me. I of course tanked it all, except when the lightning debuff was on me. Naturally, I got the debuff all the time and ran through lightnings like a crazed man with suicidal instincts.

A few times I had to wait till the next lightning appeared, which is something that never happened to me. Wishing for an AoE from boss to appear, I mean. My Guardian DPS friend offtanked. Other Tank again attacked without a serious rotation. I saw buffs for Force Sweep and Blade Storm pile up to three, but never saw the two attacks being used. Same goes with Force Stasis. Never saw the boss have the graphical effect of it. Being stuck waiting for the lightning AoE to appear on the floor, I now noticed his rotation: Lightsaber Throw, Force Jump, Master Strike on CD, Strike. With the occasional DCd. Of course, Lightsaber throw and Force Jump were only an opener. This explained his trouble keeping agro, I guess.

Still, Kephess went down. We lost the Sage Healer at a point, and a Guardian DPS, but at least Kephy went down.

 

We watch the cutscene and I get a whisper from the Ops Leader asking me to explain the fight ot the other tank. He knows of phase one, but after that he never saw what happened clearly, and as such needs help explaining. Ok, I say. And I begin whispering hte other Tank as politely as I can. I ask him if he knows the fight, to avoid making him feel bad. I get a "It's been ages", at which point I inspect his achievements. DF 16m SM till the weekly. That's all for Ops. FPs, only Esseles, SM. And a few first bosses here and there. Oh well... That explains it, I guess. I just focus on being as clear as I can about mechanics. The Tanks positioning, the Spit, the Scream. The tantrum phase. The Anomalies. And the Tentacles.

I explain the fight taking Dulfy's guide as a model, since it's one of the most clear I found around. Going slow and with details. I tell him what he should be doing on every situation. And of course I clarify Tentacles are DPS targets. So he has one less thing to worry about. I stress the need for Tank swap on the Scream. And the necessity of moving off the platform after a Spit. I also suggest he use his Force Sweep and Blade Storm when he can, and that Sundering Strike gives him Focus. He thanks me for the suggestions and says he understands and that he's ready to go. Ok, I tell that to the Ops Leader, and off we go.

 

This time he uses a more proper rotation, inserting the occasional Sundering Strike, Force Sweep and Blade storm in the mix. He also used Force Stasis once!

He still had to taunt on CD to keep the tentacle on him, but it was far smoother than before.

Phase one passed with no issues, only a couple of times my Guardian DPS friend ripped aggro off him. But he was ready to taunt back after a few seconds, so no big deal. No deaths.

Phase two was nice too, but he kept sticking to me all the time till I told him to get to a platform on the other side.

He taunted off me at the first Scream, and apparently avoided the Spit. I taunted off him the next Scream and avoided the Spit too. Then he stopped taunting though, so I ate the third Scream and what was after, burning all my DCds. Only Sage bubble, Scoundrel HoT and my medpac saved me from death. Enure helped too. I called for a taunt off at least three times before I saw a taunt debuff on the boss. Scream debuff went away though, and the healers topped me with HoTs running, as such I taunted off him at the following Scream. The last one, luckily. The Terror entered his Tantrum shortly after my Scream debuff faded. And we downed the boss with only the Sent dying.

 

After that we all looted the final drop, said our farewells and so on. We left instance and group shortly after. My Guildies kept telling me they had no idea how that guy could have been Maintank with that kind of rotation, and I told them he was likely new but afraid to say so. They were more comprehensive after that.

 

Tbh I don't really feel that good, though.

I mean, yes, he was new. He likely levelled through KDY or something the like. He knew few things about his spec, but obviously not enough. But I didn't take the time to notice that myself and give him a few hints till the last boss, thus causing a wipe and deaths for everyone but my Guildies. I feel responsible. Should I have taken a moment earlier? Should I have noticed on the first few pulls that went not as well as usual?

 

I only read the first couple of paragraphs, cause this is a long read, but I definitely would have said something after the first fight. Some people are ignorant and don't know any better and if the fight succeeds and no one dies, or few die, then they think they did a good job. When you are surrounded by strong players, you can be weak and not know any better.

 

Personally, if you were offering constructive criticism, I see no problem giving advice. Plus, if he/she turns out to be a dick and/or not listening, then you find out early on and can find a replacement before the weekly. I sure as hell have learned a lot about this game from listening to other people, and I still have so much more to learn. I personally would only get pissed if someone was nit-picking like I forgot to keep a kolto shell on a DPS or something, which is also perfectly fine in an HM OPS.

 

For me, tanking is the toughest role and the one I still haven't "mastered". At least on the Imp Side on Ebon Hawk, they seem to be few and far between, so I'm spending more time with him.

For me, tanking is the toughest role and the one I still haven't "mastered". At least on the Imp Side on Ebon Hawk, they seem to be few and far between, so I'm spending more time with him.

 

I think the main issue is that tank is quite a useful role, yet the hardest. The way I see it a good healer will carry a group no matter how bad the group is (unless it special-needs levels of bad). However a good tank will make up for and cover a poor healer. The issue is you cant really tell when the tank is good. If the tank is good it just goes smoothly and looks like the mission is easy. Its only when you replay with a poor tank that you realise just what a well-played tank does.

 

As for the toughest role, yeah it is, and sadly most people (I would say everyone on this thread at least) expects perfection. I was lucky when I started tanking, my first tank was a jugg, and the first time I got to tank properly (I don't consider sub lvl 14 to be tanking, there's no taunts, no aggro gen's and no Soresu form) was a hammer station run. On the first pull a dps pulls and afterwards I ask if I can practice tanking, rather than us just storm through. The entire group is happy to let me try things out and the healer happens to have a high lvl jugg, with the dps both willing to stand round while the healer marks targets and explains threat priority, target switching etc. Sadly these cases (where 1 person in the group knows it and the other 2 are willing to wait) are rare. I very much think without that I wouldn't be able to tank properly now (I have taken the aggro gens, taunts, etc and fitted them into the tanking method explained to me at level 16, and it generally works).

 

I would suggest calling out around the guild for help. The way I tend to help people is I will grab a toon around their level, enter a H2 with them, then they can try to hold aggro and I give pointers.

 

On a side note, what has surprised me now I have move on from ops running on my dps and am now learning ops healing, I find healing easier than dps.

On a side note, what has surprised me now I have move on from ops running on my dps and am now learning ops healing, I find healing easier than dps.

 

I'm the opposite: I find healing hella-stressful to the point it isn't fun for me. Though a sorc healer may change that opinion. I love DPS and am really enjoying tanking ... but healing makes me shudder!!

I'm going to go slighly off-topic here, but hopefully not much: I know there're quite a few people(and stories!) from my server, Red Eclipse, and I've been reading in fascination. Thank you! (I've had bad experiences with members of a certain F-guild, myself). Now I have a dilemma: my small Russian guild is being disbanded(conquests, guildships, enough money, but just not enough people to get in top ten), and absorbed into Imperial Wolves/Star Wolves. Are there a lot of bad/weird stories about members of that guild in ops/fps? Because I know all those stories about Firewind guild are definitely true - had lots of weird experiences with their members, ninja-looting included.

I'd post on your server forum. Good luck!

I'm the opposite: I find healing hella-stressful to the point it isn't fun for me. Though a sorc healer may change that opinion. I love DPS and am really enjoying tanking ... but healing makes me shudder!!

 

How ironic that you enjoy tanking. I feel like my head is going to explode every time I tank. All that watching everything, constant spinning the camera, leaving auto-run on constantly as force charge has a rediculous cooldown. I feel like im doing 20 things at once with my tanking.

Edited September 4, 2014 by BobFredJohn

I'm going to go slighly off-topic here, but hopefully not much: I know there're quite a few people(and stories!) from my server, Red Eclipse, and I've been reading in fascination. Thank you! (I've had bad experiences with members of a certain F-guild, myself). Now I have a dilemma: my small Russian guild is being disbanded(conquests, guildships, enough money, but just not enough people to get in top ten), and absorbed into Imperial Wolves/Star Wolves. Are there a lot of bad/weird stories about members of that guild in ops/fps? Because I know all those stories about Firewind guild are definitely true - had lots of weird experiences with their members, ninja-looting included.

 

Imperial Wolves, I can't speak up for all their members particularly their "socials" but I ran DP HM with them the other week and there was nothing untoward in the way they loot etc. I would blame the person rather than slate a particular guild unless it's the guild leader themselves promoting the behaviour which in most cases they will actually be against it.

Last night I decided to give my Sentinel a spin, because I want to take her to raids soon enough and practicing seemed like a reasonable thing to do. The toon reached level 55 a long time ago, but was mostly in Rakata gear along with Brutalizer relics and other rubbish. I went on a gearing spree and sent her an Underworld earpiece I crafted on an alt, bought two level 53 Microfilament implants, spent some extra Dread Forged and Underworld tokens I had and called it a day. In the end I had a 168 mainhand/offhand, Underworld Earpiece, Microfilament implants, four piece set bonus (two DF and two UW pieces) and Brutalizer relics, but the rest was 140 stuff. Got 12 out of 14 pieces augmented with blue 28 Might augments as well.

 

So this brave Sentinel in a set of mixed gear grabs her leadership sticks and heads to the group finder. Time to demolish some stuff! Corporate Labs HM pops and a quick glance at the group tells me it will be a decent run. The other DPS, a Gunslinger, was mostly in Black Market gear, but that should not be a problem at all, even in the first boss. Trash pulls go nicely and the tank is one of the faster ones, but the healer is not complaining, so I roll with it, despite the damn tank not letting me pull although I am obviously the leader. I think he absorbed competence from my dynamic and inspiring leadership.

 

The droid boss in the pool goes down just fine, but after the fight the tank just stops. After maybe a minute and a half he asks "Why are you wearing 140 gear in an HM FP?". I told him I have not played the toon a whole lot and went on a last minute gearing spree right before queueing. Then he insists I am an utter liability, because clearly I have been dragging down Ops groups by entering HM DF and DP in Rakata gear. I tried to explain that I actually used Legacy gear to move the stuff from my other toons, crafted some stuff and so on. After a few minutes the tank initiates a vote kick against me with the reason "Drags down groups" and I get booted from the FP.

 

And yes, I followed kill order, peeled enemies off of the healer, did not stand in the electrified water AND I had two lightsabers. Hopefully the Force was kind to the group, but I doubt the Force can find mercy for those who defy the exalted status of Sentinels.

 

To be more specific: I had 140 bracers, belt and gloves. Rest of the modifiable stuff was 168/180.

Edited September 4, 2014 by Elusive_Thing

The droid boss in the pool goes down just fine, but after the fight the tank just stops. After maybe a minute and a half he asks "Why are you wearing 140 gear in an HM FP?". I told him I have not played the toon a whole lot and went on a last minute gearing spree right before queueing. Then he insists I am an utter liability, because clearly I have been dragging down Ops groups by entering HM DF and DP in Rakata gear. I tried to explain that I actually used Legacy gear to move the stuff from my other toons, crafted some stuff and so on. After a few minutes the tank initiates a vote kick against me with the reason "Drags down groups" and I get booted from the FP.

 

And yes, I followed kill order, peeled enemies off of the healer, did not stand in the electrified water AND I had two lightsabers. Hopefully the Force was kind to the group, but I doubt the Force can find mercy for those who defy the exalted status of Sentinels.

 

To be more specific: I had 140 bracers, belt and gloves. Rest of the modifiable stuff was 168/180.

 

Utter ridiculousness. More often than not people will go along with a vote kick just because it's there in front of them. Or they think, "oh man someone wants to kick this guy. Someone probably knows something I don't, so he's probably trouble and I'd better kick him too". Or... who knows.. I guess it's too much to ask for them to think about it first.

Trash pulls go nicely and the tank is one of the faster ones, but the healer is not complaining, so I roll with it, despite the damn tank not letting me pull although I am obviously the leader. I think he absorbed competence from my dynamic and inspiring leadership.

 

I actually used a one time password at work to login to respond to this. If you weren't kicked from gear, you could've been kicked for this. Tank pulls first, always. That's why they're the tank. LTP.

I actually used a one time password at work to login to respond to this. If you weren't kicked from gear, you could've been kicked for this. Tank pulls first, always. That's why they're the tank. LTP.

 

I find your lack of a sarcasm meter disturbing.

 

Please search the ten rules of marauders.

I actually used a one time password at work to login to respond to this. If you weren't kicked from gear, you could've been kicked for this. Tank pulls first, always. That's why they're the tank. LTP.

You must have missed the sarcasm. I was refering to the ongoing joke about Marauders/Sentinels screwing up in group content. I waited nicely, just as I always do.* And as said, the tank was pretty fast with the trash, so I lost very little Focus and not once did I lose Centering (Combat though, so I could've easily gotten it back anyway).

 

*Worth noting that I do often pull ahead in guild runs. The guild groups are usually a mess where it's every single player trying to pull as fast as possible and run through the FP without stopping apart from the boss fights. But that is just our mutual agreement during full guild runs.

I actually used a one time password at work to login to respond to this. If you weren't kicked from gear, you could've been kicked for this. Tank pulls first, always. That's why they're the tank. LTP.

 

You don't understand - he was generously letting the TANK pull, even though as a sentinel he was the leader by default.

 

EDIT: As explained above.

Edited September 4, 2014 by EranofArcadia

I actually used a one time password at work to login to respond to this. If you weren't kicked from gear, you could've been kicked for this. Tank pulls first, always. That's why they're the tank. LTP.

 

I find you lack of knowledge about the ten golden rules every decent Sent should follow rather disturbing. As is your absolute lack of sarcasm meter.

You don't understand - he was generously letting the TANK pull, even though as a sentinel he was the leader by default.

 

EDIT: As explained above.

Sentinels can be gracious leaders. I saw no reason to embarrass him in public by showing how a real leader tanks!

Sentinels can be gracious leaders. I saw no reason to embarrass him in public by showing how a real leader tanks!

 

I do the same when I run my marauder - and I make sure they KNOW how gracious I am being, so that they can learn from the experience.

So there I was, queueing for 50HMs for conquest points, when I got this.

 

Kaon Under Siege HM. I was Commando healing (35k HP) with a Vanguard tank (27k HP), a Dirty Fighting Scoundrel (33k HP), and an Infiltration Shadow (21k HP). Shortly after we zone in the tank begs off due to lack of time and drops. We queue up just in case, but we end up 3manning it.

 

The Scoundrel was fine. He hadn't been in there before, but he took instruction well, DPSed sensibly, avoided breaking CC, and did all the cool stuff you might expect of a good DPS. He had a little trouble with interrupting the Infected Mercenaries' grapples and getting away from Bloated Plaguebearers before they explode, but hey, he was new to Kaon.

 

The Shadow was one of the worst players I have ever seen.

Chat mute, to start with. I don't think he spoke English at all. (His legacy name made me think he might have been Russian or from nearby.) He was specced full Infiltration (I saw Clairvoyance buffs coming up) but stayed in Combat Technique the whole time despite our requests that he switch to Shadow Technique. He also used attacks at random --a Project here, a Double Strike there, a Telekinetic Throw fairly often, and lots and lots of Force Wave-- and made no attempt to handle the more problematic mob types.

 

The Scoundrel whipped out his Treek, set her to X'ekra stance, and we got through the first trash and downed the turret boss without difficulties due to faceroll healing.

The Rakghoul Behemoth proved more challenging. The Shadow pulled before I could properly explain the strategy, but thankfully kited the boss over to a barrel and blew it up. We burned the boss to about 30% before he hit his second Frenzy and started taking greatly reduced damage while dealing out way more. The Shadow was too dumb to take the boss to another barrel, and the Scoundrel didn't know the fight on account of not having been there before, but I was able to keep Treek alive due to my being way overgeared. Then at about 18% the Behemoth hit his enrage, started doing triple damage on TOP of the Frenzy, and squashed Treek in about two hits. The Shadow and Scoundrel got stomped pretty quickly as well, but I popped my CDs and managed to kite the boss to a barrel and blow it up on him, removing the extra damage and damage mitigation from his Frenzy. He then tossed me, which dropped my threat, and started pounding on the turrets from the nearby quarantine terminal. I seized the chance and quickly burned him from 18% down to zero before he could get back on me. Most exhilarating healing experience this month, I'd say.

 

We proceed, killing the bonus boss along the way. The idiot Shadow had been needing on EVERYTHING along the way, mostly green vendor trash, and despite us also needing on the decoration that dropped from the bonus boss, OF COURSE it went to the terribad guy in the group. Ah well. Between that and him constantly knocking raks out of my AoE, I resolved to let him die, told the Scoundrel so, and asked him not to rez the guy. He replied "like I would" and determined to put the Shadow on his ignore list afterwards. All of this is in /party chat. The Shadow must not have spoken any English at all.

We get to the final boss. The Scoundrel and I are focusing our fire on Chak’aghakh, but the Shadow goes straight after G’klarg and we all get the extra damage taken debuff he puts out when burned to 50%. As promised, I let the Shadow die just after we down Chak'aghakh. Now I'm running around, kiting G'klarg and the adds that came in. Treek picks up some of the adds but due to my running I'm unable to keep her alive through all of them. We manage to kill the Commander, G'klarg peels off and attacks the Scoundrel, and I kite the adds while healing him until he downs the big spud. We then kick the Shadow so he doesn't get credit, the Scoundrel gets the rare Tirsa Elite mount that dropped (I already had it), we grill Melarra for information, and the two of us friend each other and go on our merry way!

 

A bit mean, I know, but that Shadow was AWFUL and kept ninja looting. Bleh.

 

I actually used a one time password at work to login to respond to this. If you weren't kicked from gear, you could've been kicked for this. Tank pulls first, always. That's why they're the tank. LTP.

 

Trolled softly. Read the Ten Rules of Marauders.

I actually used a one time password at work to login to respond to this. If you weren't kicked from gear, you could've been kicked for this. Tank pulls first, always. That's why they're the tank. LTP.

 

Woosh

Okay, but at this point we're kind of piling it on.

Most exhilarating healing experience this month, I'd say.

Loved your story!

 

And I know what you mean about exhilarating. I don't mind poor groups on my Op healer (so long as they're friendly, of course) because it can actually get quite exciting keeping everyone alive.

Okay, but at this point we're kind of piling it on.

Agreed. An honest misunderstanding. Can't say I've always been immune to those myself.

I actually used a one time password at work to login to respond to this. If you weren't kicked from gear, you could've been kicked for this. Tank pulls first, always. That's why they're the tank. LTP.

 

LOL learn irony

(Combat though, so I could've easily gotten it back anyway).

 

If out of combat I've learned to use heal just when stack is about to drop. Instant 30 stacks!

If I'm on my Carnage Marauder I don't like fast tanks in boss fights usually because I don't have time to generate Fury. Some people even complain about me using out-of-combat heal between pulls.

 

Yeah, I know... I'm breaking rules.

Edited September 5, 2014 by Halinalle

The Shadow was one of the worst players I have ever seen.

Chat mute, to start with. I don't think he spoke English at all. (His legacy name made me think he might have been Russian or from nearby.) He was specced full Infiltration (I saw Clairvoyance buffs coming up) but stayed in Combat Technique the whole time despite our requests that he switch to Shadow Technique. He also used attacks at random --a Project here, a Double Strike there, a Telekinetic Throw fairly often, and lots and lots of Force Wave-- and made no attempt to handle the more problematic mob types.

Sounds like it might be the same Shadow I got as a tank for Colicoid while levelling - except at that point, he had the tank role but wouldn't switch out of his DPS stance, and I seem to recall getting at least a minimal (non-English) chat response out of him. So maybe he's learning, and just hasn't grasped group roles yet? Plus, if he tends to get kicked after saying something, then just being quiet might be the best option he sees. The loot and fighting style sound about the same, though. If it's the one I'm thinking, I thought it was his char name (not legacy) that had a pretty blatant regional clue as the second part, the first part being an alternate name for a seasonal mythological figure.

 

I hate cases like that much more than someone who refuses to play well - he might just need a little coaching, but if you flat out can't communicate with them, there's no feedback, they just see lots of stuff in chat and then get kicked (or have people drop group - I guess I should have votekicked him, but felt weird kicking someone without being able to communicate to them why. I feel a little bad about dropping, too, but really wasn't feeling Colicoid at that point.)