I've seen just as many tards with a barb/ftr symbol as w/ a monk or rgr symbol. It's just not as obvious until you look at the death & kill counts or they open their mouths. Keep in mind I'm not in any guilds and thus if I'm not soloing or duoing w/ The Beergirl or a friend, I'm pugging. So I get the privelage of seeing many tards.
a lot of us newbs understand that the vets have the experience and were running shrouds at 13-16 back in the day. They also had better gear/equipment then a lot of the newbs have now at 16. I've been in a shroud with a lvl 14 newb, they went down like Paris hilton in a windstorm, and apparently "it's not my first time". That may not have been entirely their fault, as we ended up wiping due to poor play from several people and horrible lag. But they definitely had issues.
A couple comments:
1) You are not the typical pugger. Comparing a toon you have built and geared to a random pugger in Gianthold going to look pretty bad for the pugger. I don't care what class/race/build they are.
2) A player of your caliber is not normally what a leader gets when a pug ranger X applies to his/her LFM. If that was the case, then the LFM would probably only list rangers for melee dps.
3) I agree with you. There is no reason to exclude any melee classes when looking for DPS. That people do it is born of ignorance and laziness. Any class can be gimped and an inexperienced player could screw up even something as easy as a barb or fighter. You really aren't protecting yourself from gimps, although that is the goal.
I was just playing devil's advocate and presenting the reasons why people shy away from certain classes. These players are generally less confident in their own ability to cover for one or more party members who are not "up to snuff". It is their own lack of confidence and previous (relatively limited) experiences with poor players in that class that cause them to do this.
As they get more experience they will run into experienced, veteran players running rogues and rangers and see what these classes can do. Then they will not be so quick to exclude them from the LFM. Also, they will gain more confidence in themselves and will be more willing to take on any joiners with less restrictions.
Um... Level 9 =
20 heroic
48 ranger levels
30 fighter levels
54 con bonus (16 base + 2 tome + 4 item = 22 Con)
20 IFL Item
12 Toughness
10 Fighter Toughness
=
194
Maybe add another 20 or 30 for racials depending on race.
Whats wrong with ~200 hp at 9th level? Where else are you getting much more HP than that with a Tempest/Kensai build? Besides multiple toughness feats, which will probably come with the monk levels or fighter levels that have not been taken yet?
Seems OK to me. This build will end up with HP in the 520-570 range. Acceptable for a DPS focused melee. And besides, what exactly are you tanking at 9th level?
Pay very close attention to spelling. A newb is someone new to the game. They contribute as much as they can but more importantly they listen & learn. A noob is the tards we're talking about. As I've said many times you don't have to be new to be a noob.
As far as why I don't just solo? As I've also stated several times. I've been playing for 4 years. In that time I've never been in a guild. Yes most stuff I could solo. The stuff I can't, I've been blessed. All of the many good guilds on Khyber let me in on their runs and show me the ropes, and I greatly appreciate them for that.
So I pug out of both necessity and pleasure. I enjoy running with newbs and showing them the ropes like the guilds on Khyber do for me from time to time. I give away more gear than I care to even think about. The same goes for plat. Yesterday was a mod fort and heavy form belt along w/ spot 11 min lvl 11 goggles. I'm bringing up 4 lowbies and have three friends new to the game all with at least 3 toons. Yet I still gave these guys gear that should have gone to me or one of my buddies. But if dude is a newb and willing to listen then I'm down for giving him gear to help him help himself and me.
So before you pipe off about how this post is damning to the OP you might want to ask around about how often I take a newbie under my wing. It's way more often then I call out the tard noobies that I'm referring to in this thread. But one can only take so much then it's time to vent.
Guess what? When a vet does this the rest of the seasoned players see it and you see subtle changes in how LFM are being posted, to put these noobs in check. You'll see lfms saying all welcome, we don't need a cleric to complete this quest, first 6 and we go, crucible newbies welcome we know quest well & we'll teach you. Once this happens there starts to be a change in the noobs attitude because their mind has been opened.
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