He ran into his first level cap as a Level 2 character, at 49,999 XP; one point shy of the Level 4 XP threshold of 50,000. At that point, the game stopped him from earning any more XP until he talked to his trainer and became a Level 3 character.
Since that time, I've been working on bringing him up to the next level-cap at the Level 5 XP threshold of 90,000. I'd done a pretty good job of running all of the content solo up through yesterday, when I found that attempts to complete the quest Missing in Action on Hard to be much more difficult than "hard." In fact, it required the assistance of a couple of the lifetakers, without whom EmmDee would not have survived the quest.
But that quest didn't bring EmmDee up to the cap. In fact, most of the week, I've been running EmmDee solo through various quests, but I've run into a couple of problems...
First, there's the whole thing with blind invites.
It seems that EmmDee has been the only Level 3 Cleric online most mornings, resulting in a rather preturbing pattern of behavior from some of the folks on the server at those times. Such as incessant blind invites. I've talked about this before... I *don't* do blind invites. I believe in good manners, respect and consideration for one's fellow players. Blind invites exhibit none of these behaviors. In fact, blind invites are rather telling as to how selfish some players are. And, I simply don't care for that.
I realize it's cliché, but there is no I in team.
Well, it's gotten to the point where I've had to squelch a couple of players. Skyrathiel, for one.
*Every* morning this week, the player behind this character has insisted on sending me a blind invite *while* I'm in the middle of a quest.
Usually when I'm in the middle of a battle of some sort. As if keeping EmmDee alive isn't difficult enough, try fighting through a blind party invite!
The first couple of times I tried to ignore him.
The third time, I sent a /tell in return: "Welcome to DDO. It's generally considered impolite to send blind invites to other players. Please send a /tell to ask whether I'm interested in joining your group first."
That shut him up for a while. But, then they started again. Yesterday, they got to the point where he sent *THREE* blind invites in a row, *while* I was attempting to negotiate The Butcher's Path on Hard.
I was fed up!
I sent a /tell in return: "Didn't your momma teach you any manners!?!"
No reply by /tell.
Instead...
Another blind invite!
/squelch add Skyrathiel
But, I was so aggravated by the whole thing, I was telling allied guildies about the whole ordeal in the chat panel. Out of morbid curiosity, I decided to check on the Who panel to see if this character belonged to any particular guild. Perhaps chatting with one of their officers might help clarify the fact that not everyone appreciates a bull in a china shop.
That's when I found this...
Now... *THAT* is pathetic!
*NO* one at Level 4 *needs* a Cleric *IF* they play smartly.
*NO ONE!*
In my view, it's the true mark of a selfish player who can't even bring his own self-healing to the party.
Unsatisfied with the fact that I wouldn't respond to him, Skyrathiel passed the star to another player in his group, who then sent a blind invite to me. I could tell he was in the same group because their group was listed on the Grouping panel, and there was Skyrathiel in the character list for that group.
Some people just don't take a hint.
I was surprisingly close to filing a harassment report.
But, I decided to let it go and continued with my morning's quests.
When I was finally able to return to playing EmmDee late last evening, well after most everyone else had logged out for the evening, I was presented with another annoying situation.
A group had asked me if I'd like to join them to run the Kobold's New Ringleader on Elite. I had only run it to Normal so far. And, as a Level 3, running it on Elite, above level, would earn me a sizable portion of XP toward the ever-so-close level-cap that I'd been working toward. So, I agreed to join them.
And, they zerged their way through the quest.
The only times I saw the other characters all together was when I stepped in, they were all waiting for me so I could throw them some buffs, and again, just before the end battle with the Ogre, for another round of buffs.
In fact, one of the group died because he'd zerged off away from the Cleric. I had absolutely no idea where he'd gone. It took me a while to finally find his soul stone and haul it off to the shrine... while the Ogre was still running around trying to kill everyone.
But, he managed to get himself back on his feet at the shrine, I threw a couple of heals on him and he decided to take on the Ogre again, with only half health, after electing to not use the Rest shrine to recoup his own health.
I see how it is...
Knowing the behavior of the group, though, I elected to remain with them, as they decided they wanted to run the Waterworks on Hard. Something I could really use to close the gap of the final 2,700 XP that EmmDee needed to reach the level-cap.
And, I told them that once I'd earned the requisite XP that I would *have* to level, as the game would not allow me to earn any more after that, and that I wouldn't run a quest for no XP. And, the group leader acknowledged this.
HOWEVER! Once I'd finally hit the cap, and told them I was off to take my level, they jumped right into the next part of the quest chain. Not that I'd expected them to wait for me at the entrance, but I did expect them to wait to open any chests.
Wow, was I mistaken!
I saw chest loot messages begin scrolling across the chat panel and thought WTF?!?
So, I sent a message in party chat asking them what they were doing.
No response.
"Did you not see my statement that I *had* to go level?"
No response.
Okay then... I guess they don't need a Cleric after all...
So, I dropped group and logged out.
And, with no apologies.
They deserved none.
I can see that there won't be very many groups with which EmmDee gets to run. Certainly not PUGs, if that's the way they choose to behave.
You know, I try not to impose too many of my personal principles on the other players in this game, but one principle I WILL NOT compromise upon is respect for one's fellow players.
And I *expect* other players to show me some respect if they want to benefit from my Cleric's services.
And, that's just the way it is.
So, I guess that EmmDee will be left to playing in groups with only allied guildies from now on. But that seems to be my only choice if I have any hope of maintaining the discipline I need to play my characters the way I want to. Because that's what makes playing this character fun for me. Otherwise, I might as well just go ahead and delete him right now.
But, I'd prefer to keep it fun!
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