After all the “OMG new LFG rocks!”, it’s time for everyone to get all angry and talk about how them hardcore raiders are ruining their dungeoning experience. To that I say: we’re not all that bad.

The small group of friends I run dungeons with is mostly comprised of progression raiders. We’re geared, we’ve run the instances countless times, we want to get them done and collect our badges. Hell, our alts are better geared than your main. But it’s OK though – we’re not expecting you to know all the bosses, put out 3k DPS, chain pull everything or heal 3 packs of trash. We have the advantage of experience, gold and friends.

What we do expect is a bit of courtesy. “Hello”, “please” and “I don’t know how to do this” never killed anyone. Actually, it might even help you – we have a lot of alts and can give advice. We all want to get it done and we’re not trigger happy with the “Vote to kick” button. If you’re a nice person we’ll even boost you, take you on more runs and shower epics on your head if the RNG is kind. Even if you suck, we won’t QQ in party chat, we’ll keep it in whispers or in the guild because we don’t want you to feel bad, and most people don’t like unasked-for advice. If we end up with an idiot in the group, we will defend you because, guess what, some of us still remember how heroics felt like when 2k DPS was good.

Did you spot the key word there? “Nice”. We are nice people who want to be treated the same. If you’re being a dick, the claws come out. Double so if you’re a dick who’s being carried. If it gets out of hand, you will be kicked. We can get a replacement in the guild or simply wait some more; you’re not irreplaceable, not even you’re a healer or a tank. And please, if you get kicked for being an overall nasty and unhelpful person, don’t go crying to WoW.com afterwards about how them hardcore raiders are bad mean evil people.

That’s all you need to know. If the people you’re running with mock you for being an inexperienced player without offering any helpful advice… drop group. Douchebags aren’t worth getting angry about. Just keep in mind that douchebaggery is not a trait of all raiders.