Help! My best friend is a zerger.

[sorenkb]

Dear Dungeon Master,

I guess I always relalized my best friend was a zerger. Of course back in the days of paper and pen D&D we didn't call it that. He was always running into battle with his last few hit points left uttering some war cry. Flash forward to yesterday and he and I were running Redfang together. He lives a long distance away from me and I haven't seen him in almost 16 years, but he talked me into joining up on DDO so we could hang out. Well it was just like old times, he is still running around leaping haphazardly into traps and battle. As his friend I see him getting destroyed and I jump in to help him. However, I am just a Cleric, and not a battle one at that so I end up dying right along with him. I really like to hang out with him, but his zerging is driving me crazy. What should I do?

Sincerely,

Frustrated in Ghalanda

[Reisei]

BE AN HERO

[DelScorcho]

The best advice I can give is to watch him closely, and do everything you see him do. Before too long, you may also become a skilled player.

[gamblerjoe]

use more consumables and then send yer buddy a bill. also, u can use raise dead scrolls at Lvl 7.

[Docta_PoPo]

i think wea ll know the real issue ur best friend is a guy u haven;t seen in 16 years =-O

[Leyoni]

Remain calm, talk to your friend in a calm voice. Once he ressurects in whatever inn he is bound at, walk him slowly to House Deneith. Keep him in casual conversation, nothing too exciting, and when you get to the King's Watch drop in to the Temple of the Sovereign Host.

Zergers Annonymous meets there every Tuesday and Saturday at 6 and 9 PM Eastern time. Just have him walk in and introduce himself, "Hello, my name is --- and I'm a zerger." Sir Kinze will have a pennance for him and that should help....

[sorenkb]

Remain calm, talk to your friend in a calm voice. Once he ressurects in whatever inn he is bound at, walk him slowly to House Deneith. Keep him in casual conversation, nothing too exciting, and when you get to the King's Watch drop in to the Temple of the Sovereign Host.

Zergers Annonymous meets there every Tuesday and Saturday at 6 and 9 PM Eastern time. Just have him walk in and introduce himself, "Hello, my name is --- and I'm a zerger." Sir Kinze will have a pennance for him and that should help....

ROFLMAO That's too good. I might need help with an intervention.

[sirgog]

The best advice I can give is to watch him closely, and do everything you see him do. Before too long, you may also become a skilled player.

That cracks me up.

[Leyoni]

With some seriousness, I will say that zerging isn't necessarily bad. There's a difference between zerging when you know the quest and and zerging when you don't know the quest. If you know what needs to be done to get through in the fastest, most efficient, way the whole group ought to zerg as everyone benefits. But, if you don't know what is needed you shouldn't zerg because then you just waste resources.

What is funniest about the OP is that he is a cleric and his friend rushed into combat w/o waiting to be healed.

Alright, that is bad zerging. OTOH, there was a thread in the forums a few days ago about Low Road. The only way to run that quest is to zerg. Anything else is just a waste. A L1 ranger or barbarian can zerg thru n/h/e and only needs to kill two kobolds (and then, only on elite if his sneak is good enoug). Easy XP all in the space of 10 minutes or so.

I pick Low Road because it is a quest we all know. But there are plenty of others. Waterworks, STK, Splinterskull, Co6 (but, oddly, not Greymoon where it is so linear and it is virtually all hack-n-slash w/o much option) -- standard fare that can be zerged easily (at least in appropriate spots).

OP's real problem isn't that his friend is a zerger -- it is that he is a zerger with no appreciation of the impact his being dead has on the rest of the group. It isn't a zerging problem, it is a group cooperation problem.

When I played PnP that was a real problem as well. People all over the map exploring every nook and cranny. Somehow, magically, they all made it to the big fight, the secret door, the chest....

These people never learned to play well with others. And, that is what happens a lot in DDO. People think they can rush off and do their own thing w/o it impacting the party. But, it does.

Was in a PUG yesterday with my newly remade Cratesmasher (WF multiclass) running WW. Part 3 and the group splits 3 directions. Someone calls out and we decide, bad idea. We group up and go for the ogre. Yep, no cleric/bard/healing, mage takes 1 arrow and drops. I'm the only other ranged character, I take 2 arrows and am -1. Rest of group can't wait for Crate to regen. Out come the melees, down goes everyone.

Where was the rogue -- off getting the switches behind the acid traps. Good job! Only, we are just about at party wipe. Now, a L2 Crate and the rogue get to go clear the shrine side and bring everyone back to life. Not exactly a cakewalk as we were running it on hard.

Sometimes it is time to zerg. Sometimes it isn't. You need to pick your places. But never, regardless of whether you zerg or not, is it time to play poorly.

Healing cleric -- heal. Don't die trying to save your friend. If he won't stand still long enough to heal then let him die. Move to safety, figure if it is a soloable quest for you. Play smart. Body pull, range pull, cut the fights down to size. Stay healed. Rescue the soul stone and find a shrine. Or tell you friend to rez out and come back in, you'll meet him at the entrance.

The only way to overcome bad play is to learn from the experience. The only way to learn is if people don't save your character everytime you do something stupid.

I do that a lot -- something stupid that is. When I do and the cleric says, "Sorry!", I just answer, "It was my own fault, I shouldn't have been stupid." And that's the bottom line here, really. Stupid is as stupid does. Play stupid and you will die in DDO (or the electronic character will). Play smart and you should, normally, succeed.

[Edit: I do realize this is the cleric forum, so the comment on OP being a cleric isn't meant to be out of place but to indicate that a cleric ought to be stressing the "stop for heals" mentality with a group. Also, I should mention that Low Road can be zerged by 2 characters without the need to fight a single fight at any level as long as the two of them work together.]

[Noctus]

Talk with him about tactics.

It is bad to start a fight when the monsters job (kill you) is already half done ( half HP), before they used ther first attack.

[baylensman]

I have a similar problem I play with my son (adult age). He also is a ZERGER, mostly because of his ability to play. His build sare potent. He usualy melees the mobs while the rest of the party me included are still shouting incoming. He has looted enough stat enhancers so that his running speed with out action boost is incredible, and he can leap tall trolls at a single bound. However, as he has run through most campaigns multiple times, he often forgets that I at least if not most of the party are still new to the run, We may finish out sucessfully, but haven't learned a darn thing. I've tried to slow him down, he acknowledges his ZERGING but just gets caught up in the game. I guess I just have to live with it and catch some XP on the fly and try to keep up.

[lostx]

Pick up divine healing enhancement. Its great at low levels, you can cast it around coners and through obstructions while regualar healing spells will be blocked. It will heal your freind over time so just try keep his life at 50% then hit him with the divine healing.

The number of uses is based off your charisma and you can pick up extra turning feat and add turn undead enhancement to get more uses between rests.

[unionyes]

Zerging isn't 'bad' in and of itself. A good group (or player) can run very quickly through lots of the level appropriate content in this game, if they have a good build, know what they are doing, and are familiar with the quest. It can be a great way to get a lot of loot and/or xp in a hurry, finish off certain quests that you may not like much to get the favor and get out, or just for the sheer thrill of plowing through it.

Of course, if the quest is too difficult, the build isn't quite 'uber' enough, the player isn't good enough, or you don't know the quest well enough, you run into serious problems. Good luck trying to get anyone to admit that their build sucks or they aren't that good at playing the game just yet.

Bad zergers remind me a lot of dogs in bear country. I spend a lot of time in areas with a high bear population. Some dogs think that they are pretty tough, and will actually go chasing a bear. The bear will usually run, but if the dog CATCHES the bear, the bear realizes that it is a big bear and the dog is just a dog, and take a swat at it. Then the dog comes running to it's human for protection, usually with the bear right behind. And the bear is mad.

The 'fix' for the dog issue is to keep the dog on a leash. Some dogs are actually 'bear dogs', specifically trained to make a lot of noise, growl, and act threatening but to stay put with the group. If they don't do that, they stay on a leash, simple as that.

Maybe the 'fix' for zerging incompetence would be the same. Call him over for a haste, then drop a grease spell on him. Or else throw a web spell on him. I have done that before. Although web doesn't affect him, having one member of the party explain to him about sticking with the group while someone drops a web spell on him usually gets the message through.

It is made a little more difficult because it is your friend. For the most part, the best fix for a lousy zerger is to right click on his name when you are out of the quest and select 'dismiss'. The best tactic for running with a good zerger is to pass them the star.

[branmakmuffin]

The best advice I can give is to watch him closely, and do everything you see him do. Before too long, you may also become a skilled player.

Exactly. By observing boring zerg behavior, sorenkb will learn how to recognize it, then do it a few times to see how boring it is and then never do it again. sorenkb will therefore become a much more skilled player.

[Gol]

The best tactic for running with a good zerger is to pass them the star.

Although slightly off the topic....


AMEN TO THAT!


On topic... It sounds like you have a good buddy. A backpack buddy. Right there next to your spell ingreds, before the potions. Nice and safe is the soul stone