Hmmpfff…. Here they come again!

I have been putting my new raid spec though its paces. Last night we did our normal 10 man routine and I used my new spec for most of the night. It is a fun spec to play and I like the fact that I can do some decent damage.

One of the things I am noticing in Rift is people’s reluctance to adapt to new specs and play styles. I am not sure if this is due to the freedom of the Rift role/soul system or a throw back behavior from other games.

I am seeing a lot of people living in the world of “good enough” and shying away from trying to do better. I guess the thinking goes “we killed boss ABC, I must be doing ‘good enough’ right?” Unfortunately when we fight boss XYZ, good enough isn’t going to work.

Rift is full of hidden barriers for raiding groups. DPS checks, healing checks and gear checks just to name a few. There are a ton of people who think that by getting passed one or two of these barriers that they don’t have to continue to strive for better.

I guess the perfect example would be gear. Instead of running all of the content available (think 5 mans) to get the best pre-raid gear, they wait and hope that they will get an upgrade in the 10 man raid. What they fail to comprehend is, this is one of the very reason progression stops.

I mean hell; my crappy offhand is “good enough” until I get a really nice drop on raid night. Or “.. .sure my healing isn’t all that great but it was “good enough” to kill the first boss. I will continue to use my sketchy spec and dps gear to heal, it has been ok so far.”

Let me clear something up for you, NO IT HASN’T. You were carried through boss ABC and now your crappy spec/gear/play is a hindrance to the group. Overall we are at a point where the workhorses in the group can’t cover for your garbage play. Or to put it more simply, we can’t carry you anymore.

This is also the point where these people will start calling out “elitist”. They will claim that we just need more time or more practice (or more nerfs). They will say they only play for fun and do not want to be bothered with theory Grafting or any other elitist activity.

I have a question, is constantly failing fun? It isn’t for me. I never have fun wiping due to the same reasons over and over. There is no fun in that. As far as I am concerned, that is playing to lose.
You know what; I was in plenty of ‘good enough’ guilds in WoW. I wasn’t having any fun in those guilds so I did something drastic, I moved to a new server and a new guild I was sure would kill the Lich King. I was there the night of their first kill, now that was fun.

You know what else? I left a lot of ‘good enough’ people behind to be in that guild. I have definitely had my fill of good enough in Rift. This ‘good enough’ crap is getting old; there ain’t no future in it.