I've found theres 4 major sub-types of "bad players". Each has their own reasons for being bad, and some wont stay bad.


The Inexperienced Player

This player isnt well-versed on specific mechanics or intricacies. This could be because they are brand new to the game, brand new to the fight or brand new to the mechanics.

Hell, I've done a few primals once or twice. I would probably look absolutely awful at them until I remember exactly wtf is going on.

This kind can learn, and ends up either graduating out of bad player, or turning into one of the other kinds of bad players.

The Distracted Player

This player has kids that scream. A lot. Or kids that are playing around and get stuck in the dryer. Or they have to chase after the kids to stop spraying febreeze in each others mouths. Or the kids got stuck between the wall and the couch. Or they're stuck in a hamper. Or their house is sick and their dog is on fire.

These are real stories, except that last one, which is also a real story, but for a different reason. This happened in progression raiding in EQ and WoW. I had a ventrilo speech hotkey that asked "Countdown is imminent, are your kids drinking febreeze?".

Kids and progression raiding dont go well together.

Are they good? Maybe when they arent distracted. They can certainly also be not so very good when not distracted. I raided with someone who was fantastic until it was one of those nights he had to watch the kids. He was then auto-benched unless we absolutely needed him, because he was absolutely terrible (and shouldnt have been trying to raid anyway...)


The Purposefully Clueless Player
The Legitimately Bad Player
Theres a lot of overlap between these two, but they differ by mindset.

The Purposefully clueless Player KNOWS when they fuck up. they know when they should be doing something they arent. They know when they arent doing something they should. They just dont care. Its not their problem.


Melding doesnt do anything for me, so I'm not going to bother.

I looked up rotations and i dont like how they work, so im going to hit this combo a lot and you can adjust for my inability to play properly.

You dont pay my sub.



The legitimately bad player doesnt or cant understand. They dont have any idea how to prepare for upcoming abilities, or that a mob with a pull-in followed by a run away or run in closer will require a different action on each of those follow-ups. They cant grasp, no matter how many times you tell them, that they have to esuna debuffs in higher floors of HoH, or look away from eyeballs staring at you (unless they have ?'s sometimes).

A legitimately bad player will do the same content over and over and over and never learn how or why they are failing.

A purposefully clueless player will tell you they dont need to be bothered to learn, because of reasons that make sense only to them.