Suffering From ADHDPS

General, Player versus Player

As always, Saturday was an extremely busy in-game day for me. Within the span of the day, I managed to:

• Get roped into a full Karazhan run that took two hours and eighteen minutes (guild best!);
• Attend Serpentshrine Cavern on my perky priesty;
• Run Heroic Underbog with a Holy-turned-Protection paladin with 10,000 health buffed¹;
• Participated in our weekly Zul’Aman Amani War Bear run²; and
• Decided to return to my roots and hit the Battlegrounds with friends until too late that night.

In particular, hanging out in the Battlegrounds with my friends was a blast. I’ve mentioned in the past that I very much like the competitive nature of the Battlegrounds, enough so that I would spend every weekend in there rather than do constructive things in the game. In fact, I leveled through the 40s and 50s on Eszti entirely in the Battlegrounds and stringently avoided doing anything that would grant me experience because I was determined to stay in those brackets for a while!

Our fun in the Battlegrounds seemed endless, as we went from battlefield to battlefield and have mostly successful matches. I won one of the few Alterac Valley matches that I’ve won since they implemented the most recent batch of changes, we got thoroughly trounced in one match of Eye of the Storm, but then rallied the group in our second match for a smashing victory, and pummeled the everliving snot out of the Horde in Warsong Gulch due to our absolute supremacy in the midfield. In fact, we were doing so well that during the third flag cap³, our opponents lingered around the Horde graveyard rather than engage us.

Needless to say, awesome fun.

There was, however, one particular fight of note that occurred that evening. While accompanying our Affliction warlock to the base of the Horde graveyard during the battle for Warsong Gulch, our Holy priest friend and I stubbornly clung to his side and kept him alive through waves of stealthy rogues, recalcitrant shamans, one mean looking warrior, and a Survival hunter who pestered us to no end. For nearly ten minutes, we kept him alive as he dealt with each and every challenge, our Enhancement shaman⁴ in tow.

Shortly afterwards, a call went out saying that a small contingent of Horde had managed to break through our death-dealing barrier to reach the base of the Alliance flagroom; the Affliction warlock — his heart full of bloodlust — swiftly mounted up onto his dreadsteed, leaving the raid’s only two healers behind to replenish our mana. The Enhancement shaman long since departed, the sudden dearth of damage dealers meant that the Horde was finally free to crawl out of their hidey-holes and slaughter us. While our fight could only be described as epic⁵, we did eventually fall to their blows, prompting the other Holy priest to jokingly claim that the Affliction warlock suffered from ADHDPS.⁶

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Damage Per Second — or ADHDPS — is one of the most common disorders that develop in DPSers on the battlefield. Damage dealing classes with ADHDPS have impaired functioning in multiple settings, including the Arena, on the Battlegrounds, and even occasionally in a raid setting. If left untreated, the disorder can have long-term adverse effects.

Symptoms of ADHDPS will appear over the course of many fights, and can include:

• Impulsiveness: a DPSer who acts quickly without thinking first.
• Hyperactivity: a DPSer who can’t remain in one location for an extended period of time and finds himself moving from one place to another on whim.
• Inattention: a DPSer who is sidetracked by what is going on around him.

Effective treatments for ADHDPS are available, and include behavioral therapy and medications. If you or someone close to you is suffering from ADHDPS, immediately seek the help of a trained individual.

Please, think of the healers.

Related Posts

1. Spirit on Arena Gear — Absurd!
2. Holy is for Killing Blows?
3. Amani War Bear Spotted!