In the Blog Azeroth chat today an interesting debate was brought forth, and it is one that many players feel very passionately about. It is also a topic which many officers find difficult to comment on, and one in which our guild has personally struggled with on occasion.

The original question revolved around healing styles and preferences, and for ease I’m paraphrasing the thought as: “How do you work with someone who you feel is not able to perform as well as they should in a role because of a refusal to use abilities their class possesses?”

In a way this topic presents two very distinct arguments. First, is this person fulfilling the role they are there to perform effectively, and second is this causing an undue burden on others trying to pick up any slack that may be present?

The best way I’ve found to answer any issues about a player’s spot in any group is relatively simple in theory: Do I trust person one to fill role one?

This is a very complicated question in practice though. Trusting someone to perform their role is very difficult, and relies on a large number of factors. These are the general criteria I go through:

1. Are they knowledgeable on this particular class and spec/role?
2. Are they consistently performing well, or are they relatively spotty with their performance?
3. Do they meet my expectations of a good player?
4. Are they open to feedback and trying new things if what they are currently doing just does not seem to cut it?
5. Do others in the group trust them to fill that role?

Those questions are tough to quantify, especially if it is a new role or spec for someone. This will require some time to show that they can do what is necessary, often using heroics as a proving ground of sorts.

Overall, the driving point that really gets the most attention should be that person’s focus and ability to grow. We all start out rather horrible. Practice makes us better, but the only people who will ever get better are the ones who are willing to try something different.

Let’s go back to the original question now: “How do you work with someone who you feel is not able to perform as well as they should in a role because of a refusal to use abilities their class possesses?”

If the person is performing fine, and no one is under any undue stress because of having to pick up more slack than they should, then you accept the playstyle as a personal choice. Agreed with or not, that is the beauty of a lot of the classes in WoW. There are ways to play each class that are effective, even if not necessarily efficient. Everyone needs to have fun playing their character though, and this is one of the ways to achieve that goal. More importantly, if you trust them to fulfill their role, and so does the rest of the group, then there is no issue.

Things become more complicated when someone wants to assume a different role than that which they have been fulfilling, because the only way to qualify their skill level is to look at their performance in a different role, which is not entirely fair. This is where tension and frustration become introduced into the equation, and where tempers can flare. This is also where the trust factor weighs much, much more heavily, as there are always many more reasons to disprove someone without giving them a fair chance based on subpar performance in some other area, or because of inattention on raids, or personality flaws, or the color of their eyes, or an innate mistrust of a particular date and time in which the sun is in a specific location and they just happened to ask at that time… you get the point.

This is, in many ways, a very rambling-ish post. This is a very, very difficult subject, and one that is passionately defended in all manners across all style of players. Basically, the TLDR version is this: when faced with an apparent dilemma regarding any player choice, the best way to help determine any course of action is twofold. First, is that person a good player and second, do you trust that person to fill the role in which they sit/want?