Adorably terribly newbies

runagate · November 2016

Sometimes there's people that are so new to playing computer games it's cute and sad.

I ran into a poor tiny bosmer just now. Dying horribly to 2 of those pirhana flower things by a wayshrine. Skills uses: lots of bow light attacks, agony (I had to log on a NB to see the name of this skill, I forgot not just mobs can cast this), entropy (!?) and that awful bow skill that bounces enemies back away from you I think it's called "please kick me from group immediately." Poor little thing. So that's one stamina skill slotted on a full medium armor toon.

At first I tried to talk to her and offer to craft some set armor for free since despite being CP 140 or so it was clearly mismatched stuff picked up off the ground. Didn't appear to notice I was talking to her. Thought I'd at least make the offer.

She ended up in the dungeon I happened to be doing a daily in so I invited her to Group. Never did seem to realize I was chatting with her, despite addressing her by name. In Group chat. No self heals. Aggroed basically anything and everything without seeming pattern of direction. I told her if she ever notices that I'm talking to her to /w me sometime and we could adventure together. I love people like that. I wonder if she's ever once talked to anyone in-game? So cute.

leepalmer95 · November 2016

Its ok i ran into a dps mag dk using s&b and heavy armor.

He then proceeded to dps by spamming inhale so quickly if never exploded outside

Oh and soul assault.

Cavarka · November 2016

Hmm. I am 160 and I use that bounce back skill. Morphed it into a self heal, critical for pve. I haven't run dungeons yet though. Should I not use it in groups?

I haven't trained in dw yet (levelled it, just haven't put skills points in and practised) so my self heals are limited to that (bounce back) and potions pretty much atm.

anitajoneb17_ESO · November 2016

Question... did he/she ask for help ? (I assume not, since he/she did not communicate with you).

Then... why did you want to "help" ?

Don't try to help people who don't want or need to be helped.
Not everyone wants to play the way you play (i.e. nuke down mobs efficiently). Play and let play.

I really wonder if some people's greatest fun in this game is to judge others (and call it "helping", and write about it on forums on top of that).

Loc2262 · November 2016

That "awful bow skill" is called Bombard, and my stamblade (also a cute little wood elf!

) used it too for a long time! It's quite nice for solo playing, but not useful in group dungeons. Doesn't do much damage, pushes the mobs away from you, wastes a skill slot, and you have a healer for heals.

Oh yeah, and I used Agony too, to snare the strongest mob in the usual three-mob groups you meet overland.

runagate · November 2016

Cavarka wrote: »

Hmm. I am 160 and I use that bounce back skill. Morphed it into a self heal, critical for pve. I haven't run dungeons yet though. Should I not use it in groups?

I haven't trained in dw yet (levelled it, just haven't put skills points in and practiced) so my self heals are limited to that (bounce back) and potions pretty much atm.

To answer your questions seriously:

1) bear in mind when you're playing solo do whatever you want - the character I was on (and I have 12 max level toons) wears cyrodiil's light/soulshine and has like 30 points in health, and that undaunted set that summons a shadowy clanfear - entirely because it makes her look like a crazy far dinosaur and because it amuses me

2) the only decent self-heal available to bow/dual wield is Vigor which you get from pvp... the dual wield self-heal from Slashes is semi-ok in some situations and using a skill to keep enemies away from you solo questing is a great idea! it also is definitely not a pertinent group skill but at CP 160 it doesn't much matter yet and you'll learn as you ask questions and we cruelly and mockingly answer them like we know all along

3) in beta my wretched redguard sword and board (DPS, as there weren't people to group with really) vampire templar hybrid used that undaunted blood altar thing for self-heals... on a templar. with magicka points allocated. I have no recollection or justification for how I came up with that brilliant strategy

4) I heard that bouncy arrow self-heal is pretty good, but yeah socially it'll not exactly say to others "I am an accomplished player" is what I was getting at, not that it's terrible - suffice it to say that outside of pvp you will likely have better options later on, especially ones based on quickly annihilating things and if you're a NB the whole siphon/self-heal skills strategy that my magicka NBs rely on doesn't really work, in fact the stam AoE siphon doesn't even heal you

runagate · November 2016

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

Question... did he/she ask for help ? (I assume not, since he/she did not communicate with you).

Then... why did you want to "help" ?

Don't try to help people who don't want or need to be helped.
Not everyone wants to play the way you play (i.e. nuke down mobs efficiently). Play and let play.

I really wonder if some people's greatest fun in this game is to judge others (and call it "helping", and write about it on forums on top of that).

Hey thanks for jumping to conclusions! Now go get therapy and realize not everything is about you.

Are you honestly such a wretched monster inside that you question a simple, kind offer to help? I offered - I did not insist.

When I offered to group when I ran into her after my 3 second offer to help she promptly accepted. Thus, I infer she was not intentionally dying to prianha flowers earlier.

You have no idea how I play. I was playing a joke character with a dinosaur head. Because it amuses me.

runagate · November 2016

Loc2262 wrote: »

That "awful bow skill" is called Bombard, and my stamblade (also a cute little wood elf! ) used it too for a long time! It's quite nice for solo playing, but not useful in group dungeons. Doesn't do much damage, pushes the mobs away from you, wastes a skill slot, and you have a healer for heals.

Oh yeah, and I used Agony too, to snare the strongest mob in the usual three-mob groups you meet overland.

I've wanted to use it but my characters with a bow and aren't also able to use the two-hander self-heal happen to have used the other morph long before it was changed to a self-heal. I really have to remember to test it sometime. Those characters also happen to already have Vigor.

Believe me, I did the whole "isolate the tough mob" strategy in the past, too!

anitajoneb17_ESO · November 2016

runagate wrote: »

Are you honestly such a wretched monster inside that you question a simple, kind offer to help? I offered - I did not insist.

No necessarily. But I really do question the need to make a long forum post about it, qualifying the other player as "poor poor cute noob thing".

runagate · November 2016

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

runagate wrote: »

Are you honestly such a wretched monster inside that you question a simple, kind offer to help? I offered - I did not insist.

No necessarily. But I really do question the need to make a long forum post about it, qualifying the other player as "poor poor cute noob thing".

I guess I don't care what a vitriolic forum troll who jumps to conclusions thinks about what I post.

When people first try their hand at something they are terrible at it. Otherwise we'd all be experts in everything. I find it adorable. But thanks for ruining my mood. That was entirely necessary.

I love newbies. I love it when they stop ever 3' to look at their map, tear off in a direction with great purpose, stop, consult their map 5 more times, then accidentally jump 11 times in a row not realize they didn't focus the chat window.

I have stopped and helped innumerable new players over the last few years, crafted them purple Set gear and added them to my friends list, and answered any and all questions they have when they /w me.

You want me to have them contact you in-game so you can see what it's like to be a happy and kind person? Perhaps you, too, can learn by example.

Mady · November 2016

runagate wrote: »

Sometimes there's people that are so new to playing computer games it's cute and sad.

I ran into a poor tiny bosmer just now. Dying horribly to 2 of those pirhana flower things by a wayshrine. Skills uses: lots of bow light attacks, agony (I had to log on a NB to see the name of this skill, I forgot not just mobs can cast this), entropy (!?) and that awful bow skill that bounces enemies back away from you I think it's called "please kick me from group immediately." Poor little thing. So that's one stamina skill slotted on a full medium armor toon.

At first I tried to talk to her and offer to craft some set armor for free since despite being CP 140 or so it was clearly mismatched stuff picked up off the ground. Didn't appear to notice I was talking to her. Thought I'd at least make the offer.

She ended up in the dungeon I happened to be doing a daily in so I invited her to Group. Never did seem to realize I was chatting with her, despite addressing her by name. In Group chat. No self heals. Aggroed basically anything and everything without seeming pattern of direction. I told her if she ever notices that I'm talking to her to /w me sometime and we could adventure together. I love people like that. I wonder if she's ever once talked to anyone in-game? So cute.

Sounds like a 10 years old child, that uses the account of her father/mother.

AzuraKin · November 2016

Loc2262 wrote: »

That "awful bow skill" is called Bombard, and my stamblade (also a cute little wood elf! ) used it too for a long time! It's quite nice for solo playing, but not useful in group dungeons. Doesn't do much damage, pushes the mobs away from you, wastes a skill slot, and you have a healer for heals.

Oh yeah, and I used Agony too, to snare the strongest mob in the usual three-mob groups you meet overland.

bombard doesnt push enemies away, it is an aoe immobilize and speed debuff.

runagate · November 2016

Mady wrote: »

runagate wrote: »

Sometimes there's people that are so new to playing computer games it's cute and sad.

I ran into a poor tiny bosmer just now. Dying horribly to 2 of those pirhana flower things by a wayshrine. Skills uses: lots of bow light attacks, agony (I had to log on a NB to see the name of this skill, I forgot not just mobs can cast this), entropy (!?) and that awful bow skill that bounces enemies back away from you I think it's called "please kick me from group immediately." Poor little thing. So that's one stamina skill slotted on a full medium armor toon.

At first I tried to talk to her and offer to craft some set armor for free since despite being CP 140 or so it was clearly mismatched stuff picked up off the ground. Didn't appear to notice I was talking to her. Thought I'd at least make the offer.

She ended up in the dungeon I happened to be doing a daily in so I invited her to Group. Never did seem to realize I was chatting with her, despite addressing her by name. In Group chat. No self heals. Aggroed basically anything and everything without seeming pattern of direction. I told her if she ever notices that I'm talking to her to /w me sometime and we could adventure together. I love people like that. I wonder if she's ever once talked to anyone in-game? So cute.

Sounds like a 10 years old child, that uses the account of her father/mother.

Could be. One of the greatest times I had playing Asheron's Call back in the day was farming something or other along the (almost unbelievably long) beach with another player. She wasn't silent, but wasn't especially talkative but in a world where there's immature morons spewing vile it was just a lovely time.

After a couple hours someone else starts chatting from their character and tells me, "Thanks for being so nice to my daughter, she had a great time." And I was like, "Wait, what? How old was she." He tells me she was 9. I laughed and laughed and laughed. I told him in all honesty she was the most mature person I'd ever played with. Then again the world and internet was a wee bit less toxic back then than it is now. Given my surreal sense of humor I'm shocked I didn't say something incomprehensible that entire time. 9 years old. Crazy.

adriant1978 · November 2016

There are introverts who play this game. Paradoxical, you might think with it being an MMO, but we do exist and what might you might see as a friendly offer of help can set all sorts of "OMG who is this guy and what does he want is he judging me oh **** I'd better get the hell out of here before I look like a stupid noob" alarm bells ringing for us shy folks. Extroverts would sometimes do well to remember that before barging in and offering to randomly group.

Not saying you were being pushy though, and the fact that she accepted your group invite makes me think that maybe it was a non-English speaker or someone's kid who has been told not to talk to strangers.

MakoFore · November 2016

i think its draining shot not bombard. very fun to play with in pvp. but i a dungeon not the most efficient.

you: "whats ur dps rotation- you should do a parse test - whats ur crit rating and mundus? you could maximise it by weaving in ur dots and light attacks- do you know how to animation cancel?"

12 year old kid: "huh... i like elves..."

Junipus · November 2016

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

Question... did he/she ask for help ? (I assume not, since he/she did not communicate with you).

Then... why did you want to "help" ?

Don't try to help people who don't want or need to be helped.
Not everyone wants to play the way you play (i.e. nuke down mobs efficiently). Play and let play.

I really wonder if some people's greatest fun in this game is to judge others (and call it "helping", and write about it on forums on top of that).

Were you raised on a diet of Ayn Rand and Reaganomics?

runagate · November 2016

adriant1978 wrote: »

There are introverts who play this game. Paradoxical, you might think with it being an MMO, but we do exist and what might you might see as a friendly offer of help can set all sorts of "OMG who is this guy and what does he want is he judging me oh **** I'd better get the hell out of here before I look like a stupid noob" alarm bells ringing for us shy folks. Extroverts would sometimes do well to remember that before barging in and offering to randomly group.

Not saying you were being pushy though, and the fact that she accepted your group invite makes me think that maybe it was a non-English speaker or someone's kid who has been told not to talk to strangers.

Sure, and conversely there's people who wonder how it is that everyone high level seems to know one another and wish someone would chat them up. I know people that won't play without a group, or at least a partner. I myself can barely bring myself to group with others outside PvP or content that demands it, and then mostly only with people I already know I like and with a near certainty they won't invite someone I don't like.

I guarantee you this person never noticed I was even talking to them. I didn't say but 4 sentences but one was using their character name and "if you notice that I'm chatting with you later feel free to /w me." The player, judging from the @name, was a male - only the character was female which is why I was referring to her as her. I imagine the main thing they thought was, "Wtf is this huge green thing and is it going to attack me?"

This person was way, way too new to be worrying about whether someone was judging them. It's not like we were outside Sanctum, it was outside some random delve. When I first started playing I, too, attacked absolutely everything in a delve and I'm not entirely sure why I thought that was necessary. I think players who don't come to the forums don't yet know what terrible people are around, and just assume that zone chat is a noisy minority of attention ***. I'm holding out hope that is the case myself.

Introverts would do well to remember that they live and play in a world where people interact. There's lot of different sorts of people. Some can't yet type and it's probably harder for them than for anyone else, regardless of personality type. It's like if IRL you had to suddenly interact with people only by laboriously writing everything down on a little notebook you carry around. I will always have the greatest patience for such people in this game. It's tough.

anitajoneb17_ESO · November 2016

Junipus wrote: »

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

Question... did he/she ask for help ? (I assume not, since he/she did not communicate with you).

Then... why did you want to "help" ?

Don't try to help people who don't want or need to be helped.
Not everyone wants to play the way you play (i.e. nuke down mobs efficiently). Play and let play.

I really wonder if some people's greatest fun in this game is to judge others (and call it "helping", and write about it on forums on top of that).

Were you raised on a diet of Ayn Rand and Reaganomics?

My friend Google rarely lets me down but when I asked him about "Ayn Rand and Reagonomics" I couldn't decipher his answers without swallowing tons of more or less reliable pages about philosophy or hypnosis. It looks like it's a purely US reference. Care to elaborate ?

Saoirse_Siobhan · November 2016

So many newbie questions in zone chat these days. It's kinda cute, they're still so innocent. But I can't help but facepalm sometimes

JKorr · November 2016

While I can tolerate the crap some people enjoy filling zone chat with for only so long, I do try to respond to questions or requests from people who seem to be new and lost. After I give directions or information, I'll mention I know of a couple guilds that are new player friendly, don't mind questions, and have helpful players, then ask if they want an invite. If the guild doesn't fit the playing style, they can always quit. I *never* send blind invitations. I'm more on the side of the solo as much as possible, so I know how unpleasant "pushy" can be.

Now, if dragonspeaking would only come up with a "speech to chat" option...

Cavarka · November 2016

Ayn Rand was a neocapitalist philosopher. Wrote a couple of books, Atlas Shrugged was prob the most famous/accessible for the lay person. Very much a merit driven ideological philosophy with a focus on minimal government and taxation.

She is one of the first few authors fiscally conservative minded people tend to read in their formative years. Incidentally Rand collected social security, something critics have pointed at when criticising her work.

The jib prob references her stance against the social welfare (the inference being helping) state. Reaganomics likely just refers to trickle down economics in the context used...? Maybe. Meaning help the rich and the benefit will trickle down to the poor.

TLDR - you are being accused of a lack of empathy and compassion.

Nifty2g · November 2016

runagate wrote: »

Sometimes there's people that are so new to playing computer games it's cute and sad.

I ran into a poor tiny bosmer just now. Dying horribly to 2 of those pirhana flower things by a wayshrine. Skills uses: lots of bow light attacks, agony (I had to log on a NB to see the name of this skill, I forgot not just mobs can cast this), entropy (!?) and that awful bow skill that bounces enemies back away from you I think it's called "please kick me from group immediately." Poor little thing. So that's one stamina skill slotted on a full medium armor toon.

At first I tried to talk to her and offer to craft some set armor for free since despite being CP 140 or so it was clearly mismatched stuff picked up off the ground. Didn't appear to notice I was talking to her. Thought I'd at least make the offer.

She ended up in the dungeon I happened to be doing a daily in so I invited her to Group. Never did seem to realize I was chatting with her, despite addressing her by name. In Group chat. No self heals. Aggroed basically anything and everything without seeming pattern of direction. I told her if she ever notices that I'm talking to her to /w me sometime and we could adventure together. I love people like that. I wonder if she's ever once talked to anyone in-game? So cute.

I remember being like this person when the game released, did my first pug trial in craglorn, I will never forget going in with heavy armor and 2 hander builds

I sort of wish I still played like that, Imperial heavy armor Sorcerer

Sheezabeast · November 2016

I'm betting it was a language barrier, most people can figure out the /say function one way or the other.

AcadianPaladin · November 2016

Hee! When you first started talking about a tiny Bosmer with a bow and struggling some, I thought you might have been talking about me!

My stamsorc bow/bow certainly has limitations but does pretty well pve out in the open. She would never pass herself off as a real valuable player to any sort of group.

She was struggling once in a public dungeon simply trying to grab the skyshard. Tight passageways and tough groups of six at a time killed her a couple times. A CP561 templar took pity on her and invited her to group - an offer she quickly accepted. The templar 'overwatched' her all the way to the shard and back out, letting her kill what she could and simply disintegrating any foes that were too tough. I was so in awe that I added a magplar to be my second character. The only thing the CP561 said was at the end - 'A bow may not be the best choice for your dps bar'. I've since figured out exactly what he meant. I still like the bow/bow but have a much better appreciation for what she cannot do.

Prof_Bawbag · November 2016

I sucked badly when i first began too. After a year's hiatus I was kinda dreading starting from scratch again on the PS4 because i remembered the parts I died over and over again when i played the game for the first time on the Xbone. This time around I have rarely died in the PvE overland areas other than to a number of bosses since 1T landed.

The amount of skills on offer is overwhelming when you first begin and especially so if you're one of those gamers that just pick up a game and don't give a jot about reading up on builds, visiting forums and whatnot. Some people also just play purely for fun and don't really care about efficiency and just roll with what looks cool. Not a dig at the OP, but it is amazing the amount of people who think everyone else lives and breathes any given game just because they themselves think it's all about efficiency of the highest order.

It's the same when people pick apart the builds of others when all they're doing is running quests. My NB would probably raise a few eyebrows and not for the right reasons either, but because i only play solo and group with other people who don't give a rat's ass, it's ok, it doesn't have the slightest impact on those who look down on me from their ivory towers.

Funny thing is, I bet most of us found the game more fun back yonder when we were all running around like headless chickens, thinking we were uber cool with our bat swarm.

Narvuntien · November 2016

That sounds like me... about three weeks ago. Although I am cp 140 only now.

I love the Bow skill that knocks mobs back and heals me, for a long while that was my only heal available to me.

6 weeks ago I had never played an MMO before..

bottleofsyrup · November 2016

Nifty2g wrote: »

runagate wrote: »

Sometimes there's people that are so new to playing computer games it's cute and sad.

I ran into a poor tiny bosmer just now. Dying horribly to 2 of those pirhana flower things by a wayshrine. Skills uses: lots of bow light attacks, agony (I had to log on a NB to see the name of this skill, I forgot not just mobs can cast this), entropy (!?) and that awful bow skill that bounces enemies back away from you I think it's called "please kick me from group immediately." Poor little thing. So that's one stamina skill slotted on a full medium armor toon.

At first I tried to talk to her and offer to craft some set armor for free since despite being CP 140 or so it was clearly mismatched stuff picked up off the ground. Didn't appear to notice I was talking to her. Thought I'd at least make the offer.

She ended up in the dungeon I happened to be doing a daily in so I invited her to Group. Never did seem to realize I was chatting with her, despite addressing her by name. In Group chat. No self heals. Aggroed basically anything and everything without seeming pattern of direction. I told her if she ever notices that I'm talking to her to /w me sometime and we could adventure together. I love people like that. I wonder if she's ever once talked to anyone in-game? So cute.

I remember being like this person when the game released, did my first pug trial in craglorn, I will never forget going in with heavy armor and 2 hander builds

I sort of wish I still played like that, Imperial heavy armor Sorcerer

Not nearly as bad as me. For a year I ran heavy armor and sword and board on both bars...as a DPS. I had all my attributes split exactly the same across all 3 and would pretty much just spam puncture, talons and flame lash. I would even "DPS" dungeons like this (before pledges). Somehow nobody ever said anything or no tanks got pissed that I kept taking aggro from them. I probably did 0 DPS.

The only reason I even got on the right path was that after competing Cadwell's Gold and going to Craglorn, I got tired of not being able to kill the mobs there, so I searched for DK builds and found Deltia's video. Took me a while grinding mobs (had a good spot in Reaper's March) to level 2H, DW and Medium Armor. It was sometime after that that I started actually paying attention to how the game works.

alexkdd99 · November 2016

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

runagate wrote: »

Are you honestly such a wretched monster inside that you question a simple, kind offer to help? I offered - I did not insist.

No necessarily. But I really do question the need to make a long forum post about it, qualifying the other player as "poor poor cute noob thing".

Wow you jump in to criticize someone for helping other people. And we were all noobs at once point. The term does not always have malicious intent.

I for one like reading things like this, rather than the usual nerf/crying threads. I question your need to criticize op for simply helping new players. I have yet to have someone who got mad at me for helping. On the contrary they were all extremely grateful and happy when helped.

anitajoneb17_ESO · November 2016

Cavarka wrote: »

Ayn Rand was a neocapitalist philosopher. Wrote a couple of books, Atlas Shrugged was prob the most famous/accessible for the lay person. Very much a merit driven ideological philosophy with a focus on minimal government and taxation.

She is one of the first few authors fiscally conservative minded people tend to read in their formative years. Incidentally Rand collected social security, something critics have pointed at when criticising her work.

The jib prob references her stance against the social welfare (the inference being helping) state. Reaganomics likely just refers to trickle down economics in the context used...? Maybe. Meaning help the rich and the benefit will trickle down to the poor.

TLDR - you are being accused of a lack of empathy and compassion.

@Cavarka : thank you very much for the summary.

The question now is actually who lacks empathy and compassion : the one who laughs so hard about a newbie that he/she feels the need to post on forum about it, or me, who helps people often while hardly saying a word about it, and most of all, by letting them play the way they want and learning at their own pace instead of harassing them with "do" and "don't".

I'll stick with my statement that people should not help other people if not asked to. It just makes the other person feel miserable (and the "helper" feel artificially "great").
That being said, everything is in the tone and every situation is different. The tone used by the OP sounds very despising to me - but maybe I'm wrong.

Sasyk · November 2016

Dear forum mods,

Please ban anitajoneb already. They're nothing but toxic in every thread.

Ty ty

Yolokin_Swagonborn · November 2016

Reading this thread makes me want to buy a new account and try to create the most terribag pug hybrid build I can and queue for all the dungeons.