This is a discussion I’ve touched on before in a previous article, but the topic still seems to be alive and well, so I’m certainly not above adding my two copper, again. The topic? The use of addons and how it effects your skill as a player.
What refreshed my zeal for this topic was a post on /hug where Aurik discusses his take on some recent blog posts from other bloggers. Before I dive right in, though, allow me to lay some foundation to work from. All three posts I’ve linked are from healer blogs. Now, many of you know (though many more do not, which is why I’m explaining here) that I’ve also played a healer. I have a 70 Priest in full T4 who has healed through Karazhan, Gruul and Mag and who I love using to heal in PvP most of all. Sure, nothing stellar or particularly impressive, but I wanted to make it clear that I have healed in a raid environment before I press forward with this. I do have some basis of understanding for the topics these other three bloggers present.
Now, that having been said, let’s get to it.
Aurik begins his post by saying that he’s disappointed in two bloggers within the community that he (and I, incidentally) have come to generally respect. Both have recently posted on their own sites various topics concerning the use of third party addons when healing in a raid environment, and both have insinuated, if not stated out-right, that if you can’t heal a raid addon-free, then you’re not as capable a healer.
The crux of the discussion is based on the premise that eventually addons will break, and you’ll be forced to heal without them. To which, Aurik had this to say:
Absoloutely. If my addons all completely and utterly break with no hope of recovery on the next patch I’ll get those raid frames out and I will spend a few hours customising them to show the information I need. I will then go into some pvp matches and test out this new setup and only then would I commit to raiding or grouping (this all if I could not find a similar replacement addon). I will not go into a raid situation, which requires spatial and ability awareness distracted by an annoying or sub-par UI – especially as I’m usually in the role of assisting the raid lead. That is the point at which the addons are in the way of the actual game.
And I have to say that I agree with how Aurik would handle such a situation. Hell, we’ve all been there. A big patch rolls out, and we spend the next several hours sorting out what works and what doesn’t, and realizing that the interface we’re used to is fubar (not to be confused with the addon “fubar”). Performance isn’t about not being able to do something without addons, it’s a matter of having been conditioned to work more effectively with certain information right under your nose. Take any UI purist and throw a buttload of addons their way and they’ll be just as confused at first, I guarantee it.
What I found especially interesting about the discussion as it rolled forward was the apparent double-standard that Aurik uncovered:
So, let me get this correct. You use an addon (XPerl) to show you simply, and effectively, which characters have low health, need cleansed or will take overheal. Also mentioned in the post is a hot tracker. Oh and you use visual heal to track how much you’ll overheal and who else is healing?
In what way at all is this different from using grid? This is exactly what grid does without clique. So what happens when XPerl breaks and doesn’t work? Your whole argument is made invalid with this. XPerl is not default blizzard frames any more than Grid is.
And he’s absolutely right. I’ve used XPerl in the past (though my preference leans toward Pitbull these days), and it enhances the features of the default UI greatly, to put it mildly. It completely changes the look and feel of your UI upon installation, and presents you with a slew of new information at your fingertips. It has aggro indicators, curse/etc indicators, overheal warning, the whole nine. Essentially, it does many of the same things Grid does, it just arranges the information in a manner more closely related to how the default UI is laid out.
I was a bit surprised to see that this was even an issue in the first place. On the one hand, we have two separate bloggers advocating a purist stance on the use of addons. That’s actually fine, to a point. I don’t believe people have to use addons or not use addons to be great players. What I take issue with is telling someone else how to play their game if they want to be “the best”. But, taking a stance on the issue and sticking to it at least scores some brownie points with me. It could’ve ended there for me, until Aurik pointed out the double-standard of which these folks are apparently guilty.
If you want to advocate a purist UI, fine. Whatever blows your skirt up. But don’t then tell me in the next breath that you just couldn’t live without your XPerl. Ass.
Sure, both Vonya and Matt go on to say that good healers use addons but great healers don’t need them, but uh… I hate to break it to ya, folks, but that sorta took the wind right out of your arguments’ sails.
Truly impressive persuasive essays take a stance on an issue and stick to it, rather than waffle about a debatable, and decidedly small, distinction. Their arguments, inevitably, did not tell us anything we didn’t already know and largely agree upon: relying completely on anything is stupid, because it’s all subject to change. This is pure common sense stuff, people. Take, for instance, the current Judgement of Light bug. People are abusing the crap out of the added TPS the bug generates, but all understand that it’s likely to be fixed soon and so they don’t rely on it entirely. They’re using an available advantage while it’s still there to be used. Addons are no different. Certainly, playing with them and then not having them is disorienting, but you don’t just forget how to heal one day.
I didn’t log into my Priest one day after a patch and say to myself, “Uh durrrr… what does this button do??” You don’t forget the basic strategies behind healing just because what you’re looking at has changed, and I think in the race to help players become better at their jobs, they glossed over the fact that people aren’t total retards.
The long and short of what I’m getting at here is this:
- Don’t patronize me
- Don’t base sweeping arguments on minuscule distinctions
- Don’t say one thing and do another
If I’m looking for advice on how to be a better player, I should think I would be better served with a discussion of strategy rather than a sermon on how my UI should look at any given point of time. I honestly don’t give a flip what your UI looks like, why are you so concerned with mine? Instead, tell me who I should heal, when I should heal them, why I should heal them and not someone else, and what spell I should be using to heal them. That will make me a better healer, not whether I use Grid or not.
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Well, in the case of both “World of Matticus” and “Egotistical Priest”, the title of the blog tells you the perspective of the blogger. In both cases you’re being told, in advance, that the things you find here are going to be from the views of someone that believes they are correct.
Now, while I did disagree with some of the things that Vonya posted in her blog, I can’t say that she said them in an offensive manner. Were they coddling? No, but if you post everything assuming that a person will be wounded by what you say, then really you end up saying too much while not saying enough of what’s on your mind.
I don’t know, it just seems like people got angry because they decided to read a blog that’s advocating the thoughts of a person that created said blog. If you find yourself getting hot under the collar over something as small as an opinionated posts, is the blogosphere really for you?
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To Lass: Huzzah!
To Shatter: Is that like saying if you’re ever offended by anything is the entire world really for you? I think a major benefit of the blog world is being able to comment on and rebut just about anything.
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I was quite happy to see someone who agreed with me, to be honest I thought everyone would disagree as usual
I’m glad you got my ‘point’ as to why I was irked – not just about the attitude addons but in the manner of presentation and lack of proper argument behind their opinions.
Shatter: I know Vonya wasn’t trying to be mean, or offensive and I was not offended by her post but by the way she stated her argument – I often disagree with both Matt and Vonya’s blogs but I respect them because their reasoning is usually solid. In the recent posts I did not see that quality, is all.
As Awl says, the point of the blogosphere is to debate, not to just all sit there and put out our opinions and hope noone will disagree. I will get passionate over some issues, others I just /shrug at. As you say -sometimes you cannot hold back from saying something just because someone will be offended ;P
My blog is for writing about things which interest me and this subject does. Just because they gave their opinions on their blog does not mean I cannot comment on my own regarding what I see to be incorrect.
/hug
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Awl: I wouldn’t compare a collection of blogs that you choose to view anywhere remotely similar to the world in which things happen completely out of your control. Your life wouldn’t be changed one way or the other if you opted to put Vonya or Matticus on mental /ignore, but if I dislike that someone is drunk-driving and I decide to “ignore them” and drive on as I was, I’d still be hit (quite literally) with the ramifications of that action.
Lass: You are right and it’s your right to be angry about whatever you are, but it’s a bit hypocritical that you’d be angry at them for appearing condescending when you return fire in the same manner. I guess it’s one of those “practice what you preach” kind of things.
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First one was to Aurik, I went cross-eyed there for a second…
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@Shatter — Stating personal feelings/opinions on a matter is one thing, and something I’m fully in support of. Flat-out stating or implying that someone else is a bad player just because they don’t share your opinion is something else entirely, and is a subject I’m more than willing to hop up on my own soapbox about. It’s not a matter of being angry or not, in fact, emotion had little to do with what I said. I simply chose to disagree with their arguments and how they were presented.
That’s allowed, is it not?
@Aurik — That was precisely it. I did very much agree with what you had to say. Admittedly, both Matt and Vonya are in my feed reader, but I suspect I glossed over the posts you talked about until I happened to catch yours. And I’m glad I did see what you had to say on the matter.
What I took issue with wasn’t so much the implied or stated belief that using addons do or don’t make you a better player, but the presumption that one can make a judgment statement about someone else’s level of skill based solely on that information. It’s poor form, imo.
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My healer is still in work so I have not had to healing addons for anything, but i have been healed both ways. I have a pally healer who is a good friend of mine and uses addons, shes amazing and can heal just fine for any raid. I have a druid that comes on some raids who thinks that addons in general are cheap. The druid however lacks the heals and reliablity that the pally has. It takes him alot of effort to heal comfortably in a raid and just cant seem to keep pets alive (Important for BM hunters).
if addons were cheap/cheating/make you less of a gamer then wow wouldnt have a system set up for them to be use in the game.
If we did not have addons, then blizzard would have to have there own team developing these tools.
I use addons, and I allways will.
For those of you not using addons, try em. See how much more valuable you are to raids and runs. If it doesnt change anything good, if it does even better.
In the end, beauty is the eye of the beholder.
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Ok, let’s take a quick look at a few quotes from Ego.
“Addons make our job easier. They provide us with tools to facilitate our game play and in some cases to correct an oversight or lack in the Blizzard default UI.
It is my very strong opinion that if you are incapable of playing this game without addons, then you are allowing those addons to play the game for you.”
Does it say “if you use any addons, I’m better than you”?
I didn’t think so. Another one:
“I’m not saying that if you use those other addons, you’re cheating, or that you’re a lesser healer.
I’m saying that if you can’t heal WITHOUT them, then you’re crippling yourself, AND you’re crippling your raid. What happens if a new patch comes out that breaks your beloved addon? Do you just stop raiding until it gets fixed?”
So…explain how that first sentence justifies your post’s title? I just don’t see it.
I’ve been told I’m not wanted to heal raids because I don’t use Healbot. I use Xperl because, quite honestly I like having a 3d picture and I think it looks nice.
Would I ever want to heal with the Blizzard UI? No, I wouldn’t want to do anything with the Blizzard UI.
Could I heal with it? Of course. I think a lot of people could. That was the point of their posts.
But really all of that is a moot point. You called Vonya an “ass” for advocating a purist UI then using mods, but…she didn’t advocate a purist UI at all. She simply stated that you need to make sure that you’re not using addons to compensate for not learning how to play your character.
To call her an ass for something she didn’t do, amazingly (not really), makes you look like one yourself.
@ Spe: Actually, I don’t think Blizzard gives a crap, and that’s why we had to create addons. Not the other way around. Lol.
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@MIsamane — Hyperbole and sarcasm are rather lost on you, eh?
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