Don't get Discouraged by Jerks in PUG FP's or OPS

Just thought I'd share the worst flashpoint experience I've ever had on this game the other day (its a long one I warn you).

Now usually I don't pug, since I always roll with my guild, however I've only recently returned to this game after a long hiatus and without a guild now, so PUGing has become the norm for me.

-Snip for space=

Sorry for the long rant.

First of all, I am really shocked at the level of "fragile-ness" in this game. "OMG you call my mommy fat! Report!", "OMG, you told me to go kill myself! Report!" seriously, these people who say these kind of stuff do not care and neither does BioWare customer support unless some racial slurs were used. All these superfluous "mature" people only make yourselves look weak in the eyes of flamers and trolls. Now, I am not saying go start a war every time someone lash out at you (although that's what I always do personally), but there are times when you need to defend yourself.

Your story fits exactly into the second category. Right from the start you need to start noticing problems in your group. Why are you healing the DPS more than the tank? The fact that you didn't know the reason automatically puts you at fault. Why? Because not only you are fueling whatever mistaken notion your other group members have about themselves/you, but you are CONSENTING to their behavior by remaining silent. First thing you should had done is to check the tank if that POS is even in the correct stance, after that check his gear. With the group finder system a lot of dual role classes sign up as either tank or heal when they are not for faster queue time.

Also just because you took a year break doesn't make you "at a disadvantage". This game is not like WoW or Rift or Tera or other major brand where a week of hiatus and the whole universe filps on you. No, in fact I don't think this game changed at all from a year ago. This means, you are automatically at an ADVANTAGE given your past experience. A lot of players nowadays are post 1.4 noobs who are so used to nerfed contents that they don't know how the actually game mechanic used to work. So in your case of Ironfist's fight, what you should had done is defend yourself that you had been healing yourself and that the tank was neglecting his job to keep aggro off you. Next, the one thing that confounds me the most: If the boss was shooting at you, WHY WERE YOU STILL IN COMBAT?

Seriously, you are a Scoundrel, which means you have1 single ability which all other healers will commit mass genocide to have: Disappearing Act. This skill will vanish you, drops you out of combat, thus resetting your aggro. If things went south and nobody is trying to help you, then vanish and watch with amusement as rest of your POS group die in a horrible flaming death. So moral of the story? Stop being such a weak sheep and be more confident about your class, yourself and your skill. More importantly, learn to stand up for yourself. Unlike in real life, there are no "Parents", "Teachers", "Principle" or "Police" to help bail you out when you are confronted by bullies such as the ones you've met.

And trust me I was more or less spamming Disappearing act and surrender off CD because of the group, so I never always had it available. I was actually standing up for myself - reminding the group that I shouldn't be healing the DPS and myself more than the tank, and hinting that the tank really ought to be doing a better job with aggro. Alas its a little difficult to get your point sincerely across when the entire group decide from the beginning to paint you as the scapegoat for anything that goes pearshaped.

I never really thought to check the gear if I'm honest, or the tank's stance (he was a Guardian), so perhaps that was somewhat my fault. Ahh well thanks for the pointers, I'll be sure to be more scrutinous over my group members, though in my defense I'm only used to grouping with guild members so I usually take things like appropriate spec, gear and stance for granted. Also in my situation the DPS tended to side with the tank for whatever reason (no idea if it was a fellow guildie, friend or whatever), so in hindsight I think the best situation would have been to leave the clowns to their fate and get on the GF queue again (not really all that taxing for a healer).

I never really thought to check the gear if I'm honest, or the tank's stance (he was a Guardian), so perhaps that was somewhat my fault...

I completely agree with you on it theres no reason for that but ppl like that do exist I had a guy kicked out of my group the other day and he went ballistic vengeance jugg in shii cho wearing greens trying to tank Foundry.