Quote Originally Posted by Blargen View Post
I've had the misfortune of a few bad groups that had a hate for SMN. I joined one and as soon as they saw me they immediately started talking about how crappy SMNs were, they cant control their pets, horrible players, etc etc. This is before 1 single mob was pulled, and speaking over my head as if I couldn't read chat. I finally replied with "Why don't you wait to see how I play before you critique me." They started some song and dance about pet classes and their pull towards people that can't play "real classes".

We flew through the instance in record time. They were saying how fast it was going, and how quick mobs were dying. Not once did I let my pet break a Sleep, and not a single person died, and at end of the run the two vocal people apologized to me and left the instance. The tank stayed and responded with "You showed them" and left with a /bow.
That's exactly the point I made with my thread. If you had messed up just ONCE (and left your pet on guard, or hit the wrong target, or hit a lag spike and died to an AoE), those players might have responded with something like, "SEE! I TOLD YOU SUMMONERS WERE BAD!" That's confirmation bias, and it's something summoners have to deal with while others don't. We have to be 'impeccable'. We can't mess up. Not even once. Because if we do, it will 'confirm' the stereotype that 'summoners are bad'.

Anyway, it's funny that your group was saying that pet classes draw people who can't play 'real' classes. I don't really see a correlation between what players play what class, but if those people tried a pet class, they would quickly realize that it's not easy in this game. Unlike other MMOs (WoW comes to mind), pets are not immune to AoEs. We have to worry about not only moving ourselves... we have to worry about moving our pet, too. Pets are also notorious for not 'listening' well. We can't command them while casting anything, and they automatically switch back to guard after each encounter. I'm glad that you were able to play impeccably and even got an apology out of them! That's a victory for 'us'. Like I said, though... it's going to be a battle to dig ourselves out of this stigma. =/