For the love of all that is holy, learn how to play your character
I like playing massive online games more than any other type of computer game. I am horrible at first person shooters, my capacity for real-time-strategy ends at about the time I finish de-foresting and pillaging the environment, and I cannot seem to get the hang of console controllers and their “triangle-left-lower-button” combinations. By all rights I should have stuck with Solitaire.
It is safe to say I'm not the most coordinated, strategic-minded, or dexterous person around. When it comes to optimizing every single point to eek out every single possible advantage, it aint me babe. And when people ask me how I'm “specc'd,” I am embarrassed to say I pretty much just do what seems interesting or fun for me at the time I'm standing in front of a trainer.
And yet. And yet I have never once been told that I need to learn how to play my character. I am so looking at you Mister Tank who lets the puller die because you stand there and let the mob rush past you, and then take your time turning around, and eventually whacking on the mob without taunting. I am also talking to you Madame Healer who decides she will be a tank today, while the entire party is wiped except said healer who runs away with a full power bar.
I am looking squarely at you Mister Stealther who thinks he's a tank. Yeah those critical styles are something aren't they? Of course the tank could taunt from here to Monday and that mob aint turning away from you because you pissed it off so badly. The healer keeps healing your lame ass, and then when you finally drop she has no power left to heal the rest of the group. Smooth move. The same goes for you Madame Nuker.
And here's a tip for everyone: One player pulls. One player fracking pulls, okay? Especially when everything around you is so goddam purple you think Prince and Apollonia are going to ride through the joint anytime now, singing “Let's go Crazy.” If you learn nothing else in your short mouth-breathing life, learn this: One player pulls.
I understand we all have a learning curve, and I'm willing to be tolerant when playing low level toons. But hon, when you've passed 20th level, your ass needs to know that toon. You don't have to know them inside and out. You don't have to have the entire dps chart memorized, you just need to know your role in the group. If your role in the group is to be the dumbass who keeps getting the party killed, then maybe MMOs aren't for you. Have you tried solitaire?