Still a Noob

After all these years.

After the previous night's Ramparts Runs all it took was two of the current Festival Dailies to ding 60, which got me a Gratz in Guild Chat. That surprised me because normally my sister & her husband aren't on at that time, but then I saw it came from Steve, the fourth member of our Guild and an old college friend whom the BIL and I had worked for a couple of years at his father's factory. (He also wound up dating an old GF of mine. Small world.)

We chatted briefly and I mentioned that I'd Tanked Ramparts the night before but didn't get the Polearm I was after (which would see me re-learning how to be a Retadin if I picked it up), and Steve offered to run me through a couple of times on his Druid, which I accepted.

I made my way back to Honor Hold and learned Flight (at 60! 60! That's 10 levels below 70! You kids these days don't know how good you've got it!) while Steve logged onto his 80 Druid and met me there. I'd entered the Instance when I realized Steve might not remember exactly which Portal was the right one, so I popped back outside just in time to greet him as he confirmed what I'd suspected.

Back into Ramparts we went and with me still being in Tank Mode I managed to pull Aggro a couple of times, so I almost died once or twice. Now I could have just stayed back, played it safe, and Looted the bodies, but I wanted to seem somewhat helpful so I tried to DPS when I could and catch the Runners. Steve apologized for almost letting me die and occasionally remembered to throw me a Heal, and I apologized saying I was still in Tank mode and hitting the wrong buttons (like 1 for my HoR & Avenger's Shield macro, instead of F1 for Consecrate :P).

We downed the first Boss and he dropped the 1H Sword I was keen to get, then we killed the second two Bosses who both dropped Caster gear. Out of the Instance we went, Reset, and back in again. This time a pair of Mail Leggings dropped from the first Boss, and when I examined them I realized that with their 3 sockets they would actually make a decent upgrade over my Plate pants from Maraudon.

The second Boss dropped a pair of socketed Mail gauntlets which, like my new Mail leggings, were also an upgrade over my current Plate pair. As Steve moaned about the crappy drops I said it wasn't too bad, that I'd got a new sword and two new Armor pieces, even if they were Mail.

The third Boss/es (Dragon & Rider) went down and once again my Polearm failed to appear. What's really annoying is the damn Polearm is lying there in plain sight, on the ground in Vazruden's cold dead hand. But can you pick it up? Of course not. If this were Titan Quest then yes! Yes, you can! But in WoW? Uh uh.

Outside the Instance I asked Steve if he had time for one more Run, but he apologized about the crappy drops then logged off.

And in the stillness after the storm of two rapid Ramparts Runs I became aware that Steve had been talking in Party Chat during both Runs...while I had been talking in Guild Chat.

With a growing sense of dread I opened the Guild Tab and looked through the list of names. Steve's Druid was not among them. His 40s Priest was in the Guild, and a second Alt, but that was it.

Inside the Instance most of our chatter had been situational so we'd often both discussed the same things (like my almost dying) at the same time, but the conversations we'd been having had actually been one-sided.

Since logging onto his Druid Steve hadn't seen a single word I'd typed.

It was getting late but I waited around for 20 minutes (while hitting the AH and Gemming my new Pants and Gloves), but there was no sign of Steve, neither on his Priest nor his Druid.

He'd just run me through Ramparts, twice, and from his point of view I'd not said a single word during either Run. I felt like a complete Noob. Here was an old friend helping me out with two free Ramparts Runs, and even though I did get upgrades out of it, Steve didn't realize that. From his PoV I'd just run along behind him, grabbed the free Loot, and hadn't replied to a thing he had said. I felt like a Noob, but also an ass.

I typed up an in-game email and sent it to both Steve's Druid and Priest, explaining the situation and apologizing to him for my complete and utter Noobness. Then I logged off and sent BIL an email explaining the same, and asking him to apologize to Steve on my behalf.

We used to have a running gag in my old Guild where it was acknowledged that I was the King Noob, and occasionally I'd get to pass the crown onto someone else who committed an act of Noobness, but I'd always end up "getting it back", sometimes just seconds later.

I've been playing WoW for 4-5 years now, but these two Ramparts Runs proved that I am still the King of Noobs.