Monday, July 27, 2009

Selling your heals (and tanking)

The other night I saw a strange thing in /trade. It's fairly common to see someone offering to pay 40g or some such for a run through Scholo or Dire Maul, the price varies of course - and lots of requests for healing those DKs in the outlands.

This time though I saw someone hawking their skills in the other direction - offering to tank/heal a dungeon for a fixed price. While this makes sense, I had to ponder for a moment and think about the risks involved here.

I'm a huge fan of PUGs, so this isn't a rant about casual vs. hard core, or PUG vs. guild - but rather a reflection on what exactly I'm getting myself into when I step into a PUG. I know that I'll probably die a few times. There's almost always that one DPS who opens up too quick, or that tank who thinks that holding one mob is sufficient. Even worse is the DPS that refuses to CC - as if it was a badge of shame on the tank or DPS.

I just wonder if the 40 or 100g they are looking for covers their time? What do I get for my money? I'm assuming that if I'm paying for your services, that you are therefore excluded from loot (shards, orbs, etc). If not, then why am I paying you over and above the standard loot?

I guess when it's 4am and loltank is the only meatshield around, you take what you can get.

Personally, I went to bed.

3 comments:

  1. Sap or Vanish, Sap or Vanish, Sap or...

    Surprising how much a level 30 will pay for that zerg through SM isn't it?

    On the point of hawking ones skills, does the price increase with the difficulty of the content? Let's face it, roic Occulus is gonna be more painful than say a Nexus run.

    Better idea, get a group and play the game. You'll be a better player for it.

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  2. I don't hire myself out like that, and I certainly am not about to pay someone to come and do something like that for me either.

    The most I would ever pay, would be whatever your repair bill might come out to, and even then only if we had wipes that were caused by me or my guild members.

    If I get all the loot, then maybe I'd be willing to pay a small amount, but I'm sure I can find people who are willing to do it for free as well.

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  3. I think that's the beauty of the free market Psynister. Right now, I don't need - or want - anything from heroics (much less regular dungeons). I've put in my time and grind on that content.

    While I don't mind running in PUGs, if I'm out farming or doing dalies, and you ask me to heal/tank your group - you are taking away from my money making time. You're not doing me a favor by asking me to heal your run, and I'm not out looking for a run.

    Here's an example. One fine day I'm out gathering ore and fish, when I got a tell asking if I'd come heal Sarth +0. I wasn't saved, but I needed to get my farming done. I mentioned this, and they offered me 150g to come heal it if I didn't take any loot. Since I didn't need anything anyway, I accepted and off we went.

    Longest. Kill. Ever. I honestly don't know how we didn't wipe, there were so many flame wave eaters and adds running around. At the end they managed to kill him, and I collected my gold. My time isn't free, and neither are my consumables and gear.

    So yeah - I'm a mercenary. Tanking/Healing for sale - PST.

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