Saturday, January 9

Rankwatch, some thoughts

Not long ago, MMO-Champion featured the Rankwatch mod on their site and with the pugging and such, many folks have downloaded it.

I am no exception.

I actually enjoy this mod, though I don't really care about it in a 5 man situation. I know some folks were asking the author to add a cross realm feature but it is not an issue for me. Sure, it would be nice to know why the mage who is better geared than me can't get above the tank, but I figure as long as I don't die I call the run a win.

What I was hoping for with this mod was to figure out possible weaknesses in our raiders now that the new wing is open. The gear checks are tight, and it was baffling to me why we had folks who barely dps'd better than me in my offspec.

Caught one of our hunters in a guildie 5 man using a downranked Steady Shot. I have to say we both were embarrassed; me for the spamming and her for the downranking. I have now decided to turn off announcements during 5 mans and leave it on for actual raids, but that's neither here nor there.

Several of us run with the mod now and catch not so surprising folks downranking. One even left the raid to train during a break. As expected, it is not solving all problems. There is still lag, framerates, and general coordination that every raid suffers from occasionally, but the mod does weed out one potential source of whatever issue you are trying to solve.

If you do have the mod, I would stress that it does not give you licence to be a jerk. Calling someone out who as a noob does not help the matter. This is largely why I don't run with it on 5 mans because the potential for abusive behavior is already high in those situations.

I will note that it is great for alts. I was running with a rank 1 SW:Pain, forgot to train in the frenzy of emblem farming, and promptly smacked my forehead when I got the messages again. It is very easy to miss things on alts and the mod does a great job of "fixing" you.

Can find the mod at the curse website.

1 comment:

Meka said...

I downloaded rankwatch, and I love it! However, I'm going to have to look to see if there's an option to make it only watch ranks if you are in a raid group (thus auto-ignoring 5mans).
The cross-realm thing was a bug in wow, not the addon. It's now been fixed so you can whisper cross-realm players if you're in the same group as them.

I'm only using it in raids, but I've recieved mostly positive feedback as I make sure to never mention any of it in raid chat. The whispers I get back after rankwatch spammed someone is usually "I am? f**k. Thanx!" "I <3 your addon" or simply silence.

If people reply I usually whisper them again saying that I'm sorry for spamming them, and people usually comment that the auto-whisper spam is quite respectful and apologetic. Overall it's a brilliant addon, however, just as you say, you have to be nice to people and not call them out for being niblets.