A while ago, I read this post. It asked a simple question: do you trust the people in your raid?

Then, a few days ago, I spent an hour laughing my ass of at this. You probably don’t have all those 25 people in your raid group, but you definitely have some…

They don’t seem related, but they are. Read on.

Do I trust the people in my raid?
As a whole? No. We’ve got those people who always die. The big blob of death is chasing them? We’re gonna wipe. There’s a puddle of pain under them? They’re dead even with 3 dedicated healers. God forbid, they’re the only one of the class with a vital role? Might as well try another boss.

Luckily, we also have some of those who will get us out of trouble – the healers who somehow find the mana and cooldowns to keep the tanks alive for 30 seconds more, the DPS who save the day by blowing the last 1%, the tanks who use LoH at the appropriate time.

Personally, I have a few generic trust issues. This never happened when I was playing a DPS, though: I was there to kill and other people were supposed to take care of me. Then I rolled a healer and got a hero complex.

I only trust myself. Something chasing me and I’m on my pally as holy? I’ve stopped once to cast a FoL and I died, because I didn’t trust the others to keep me up. The Bad is trying to eat my roots? I’ll hot myself up more than I do the tanks (I even find my LB!).

It gets worse when I’m tanking. I’ve learned not to be as trigger-happy with my LoH since a healer asked why I didn’t trust her, but I still feel helpless and my fingers go to my Clique keybinds… “No Jen, casting FoL while you’re tanking is NOT good”… I need to tell myself that a lot. (How would it be to play a non-paladin that can’t even judge Light? Aaaa!)

Which leads to question no. 2…

Do the people in my raid trust me?

Going back to that list of stereotypes, it’s quite clear to everyone who knows me that the following descriptions is me.

Trade Troll will be giving general chat a concise rundown of what it is exactly your raid is doing at the moment between wipes. (S)he will be going on the realm forums and typing stuff instead of running back (Ever wonder why they’re AFK? It’s not because they have a bad computer..) and will need a rez every single time. Is known by half the miscreants and dysfunctional people on the server, and not in a good way. Will never actually pay attention to the raid except at the exact second the pull starts, and even then, if Trade Troll is a druid healer, will apply hots and alt tab to see the latest juicy news on the forums. Trade Troll is possibly a good player in your raid, they just have ADD and can’t focus on one thing at a time for longer than 5 minutes.

*I have been chastised for spending more time in /1 (either joining the banter or telling them to STFU) than actually healing or listening to the strats.
*I always (always) read blogs and Twitter while raiding, sometimes even during boss fights; it’s gotten worse since I have a desktop for WoW and a laptop next to it for Vent and browsing.
*I do run back instead of waiting for rezzes, but usually it’s on follow or autorun, and I’ve pulled a few bosses…
* The whole server doesn’t know me, but oh, the bit about the druid healer… My raid leaders would be horrified to learn how easy it is to slack (in easy fights) when you have hots. The pugs I end up with would bitch at me forever if they knew how much attention I actually pay to the instance. Hint: when I say I Rejuv the tank and WG when it’s off cooldown, I’m not kidding. Of course, this is much easier to do when the tank is my friend and geared in ICC25 stuff :P
* ADD? Well, perhaps not in the clinical diagnosis sense, but I’ve always had trouble focusing on things for longer periods of time.

That being said… I think my raid generally trusts me – with a few key exceptions, namely the people who know me better. It’s not exactly rare to get a whisper asking if I was really there/if I heard what I’m supposed to do/if I was on follow when I pulled that trash/if I was alt-tabbed for the ready check. I have bad spatial awareness, and it’s good that some people know this. A well-timed “Jen, move!” has saved more than one raid. (Also, this is the reason why I name changed my druid – although Cynn was a nice name, I respond much, much faster to Jen… and I knew how important that was for me in raids.)

Let’s just conclude by saying that me and my guild are a good match. We can’t fully trust each other, but we get along.