Posted by SaintGermain on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 - 35 Comments
Tags: ai, arcane intellect, blessing of wisdom, bow, buff, buffs, pink paw, wow life lesson, wow life lesson #3, wow life lessons
Whenever I’m running around IF or Shatt or Dalaran, going from mailbox to bank or Cooking trainer to cheese shop, I always pop an Arcane Intellect on anyone I can. Whatever their level or whatever guild they are in, I just top them off with a little AI, and hope they have a nice day. I’d even give it to horde players if I could.
And really, what does it cost me? Not much. I’m gonna be in town for a bit anyway, or even if I’m out and about doing dailies, what’s a little mana here or there? I regen it so quick or maybe I have to eat a Conjured Mana Strudel, but that’s nothing really in the grand scheme of things.
What is something is that 9 times out of ten, that person buffs me right back. I can’t tell you how many pink paws or BoW that I have gotten just because I buffed them.
And it all adds up. Over the course of doing my favorite dailies, that pink paw and BoW help quite a bit, And I’m sure they appreciate the extra mana and chance to crit. All and all, everyone wins when you just buff people.
Now the same is true in RL. Randomly buff people. Go ahead. Do it and see how your day goes.
What? You don’t think you have buffs for people? Oh come on, yeah you do. Here’s just a few:
• A Friendly Smile - Places a blessing on a friendly target, increasing their Spirit by 50 for 15 min.
• A Kind Word - Places a blessing on a friendly or unfriendly target, increasing their Spirit by 20 and reducing their chance to harm others by 20% for 10 min.
• Compassion - Infuses the friendly or unfriendly target with a sense of connection thereby significantly reducing their aggro and increasing their ability to cast beneficial buffs for 30 min.
• Understanding - Places a blessing on a friendly or unfriendly target reducing their chance to attack by 15% and increasing you reputation with their faction by 1000.
• Listening - Increases you reputation with targets faction by 200% and increases the targets health and mana regen by 20% while spell is in effect.
And those are only a few of your RL buffs you can give people. So go out and use them, and see what buffs you get in return. I am certain that you will be surprised with the buffs that you get.
And if you know of any other RL buffs you can give out, or that were given to you, write them in the comments. It’s always nice to know what buffs are out there.
Related Posts: WoW Life Lesson #30: You Can Always Make A Change, WoW Life Lesson #11: Things Are Always Easier With A Good Group, WoW Life Lesson #23 - Learn How To Cook, WoW Life Lesson #7 - /dance, WoW Life Lesson #6: Be Prepared,
By Henry on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Buff it Forward!
By deldin on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
lol nice
By Moose on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
I do the same thing… everyone deserves to be a little smarter….
By G-kuba on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
By rebelrouser on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
This made my day! Great article!
By Eventime on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
When I’m in cities I don’t really buff people (pally here btw) because it seems like most of them would wear off before they’d be useful anyway. But if somebody buffs me I like to return the favor if possible, it just is being courteous and thankful to them :-).
By WML on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
It’s funny if you get buffed from behind, have to spin around real quick, or it creates the whole ‘Who Buffed Me’ situation and I gotta spam everyone I see with PWFort’s and HoTs =D
By Raedonic on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
High Five: Enables the use of “A Friendly Smile” and “A Kind Word” on Un/Friendly targets for 10 Minutes
By Mondryn on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
As a warrior, I always feel kinda sad when I get a random buff while running around, because I don’t really have anything to share.
By Saemundr on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
SaintGerman for president, on this posts basis alone.
or at least a cookie…
By PatrickD on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Spamming - Lowers Spirit by 10 every 15 seconds until death. No debuff.
By Rúna on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
As a shaman i don’t find it useful to buff others with water walking or water breathing, unless it’s needed. Just buffing those in cities makes it seem not worth the effort.
There really aren’t any long term beneficial buff for shamans to give. Considering what shamans are like atleast a 30min spirit buff would be good.
By Shizzman on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
hard when i am shaman……could always invite to group….
By jape on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
@ jacob
instead of trying (not even being first) try to give a more elloborate reaction then nice post… most of the posts here are nice:P
@Saintgerman
this indeed is true and I always do it as it makes me feel good. Just a bid more kindness in the flaming, yelling and uncortious world of warcraft which you get to see more and more nowadays
By Twest on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
So true Saint…I am a Valet at a hospital, and we “Buff” every1 we greet and bid farewell to. In return the Dr.’s in the hospital have a much more pleasant and easier time having the give bad/good news to the patients and they leave with a smile, even though they know they haven’t much longer to live or they are losing a friend/family member.
By Shaun on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
This was very sweet.
By Desifier on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
I really only buff others when I am swimming. Being a lock I get teh unending breath. I dont really see a point in Detect Lesser Invisibility as it has never come in handy before.
The only other time I use my buffs is in Arena’s so in the chance we meet another Lock with a Felhunter we will be ready.
By Grant on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Great post saint this really will make people happy, It made me happy
By Alida on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 7:48 am
As a pally, I also don’t buff people too often in cities because they are so short, but I make a point to buff people in the field. I also drop a heal on people that are in trouble. I roll Horde, and this behavior used to be commonplace, but it seems less prevalent nowadays. It’s too bad. When I was just a little newb with no hat or shoulders my GM took me under his wing and taught me that all Hordies were on the same team, and I should always do what I could. I miss those days.
By Psychia on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 8:15 am
Great post! It made my day to see that (some) people that play WoW are still compassionate and caring. Some days, I have my doubts. Following the “Buff it Forward” principle in game and in RL is something I try to adhere to as much as I can. Unfortunately, as a hunter, I have no buffs to give so I compromise with a friendly /smile /thank whenever someone randomly buffs me.
To all the random buffers out there….
/smile
/thank
You make the world…..of Warcraft a better place to play
By Crazytree on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 10:17 am
This Post made me throw up in my mouth just a little.
By CappyG on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Sad to see how many people don’t get it. Either on purpose or otherwise.
Glad to see the few that do get it. YOU make the world a better place.
By NecroDK on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
SaintGermain <3
By grillbar on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
i was a pala yes thats right i was i quit wow BUT
when i was running around i cast buffs to random people if they were mana users like lock mages and so on they got a bow and non mana users got bom or bok.
i allso healed alot of random people.
if i was running around doing nothing and some poor guy was fighting a mob and not doing gr8 i sometimes run in and help him either kill it or atleast dmg it alot or if im in a hurry just plain stun it.
8 out of 10 people either /w thx or gave a buff back and then there are the last 2 out of 10 who aparently dont give a damn
irl i have a self-buff i use but its not that great
insault: increases agro and reduses attack speed by 10% 30min last instacast its not a good idea to use it around 3 lvl 28 hordes with pvp gear when you a hartfull lvl 22 healer… thank god for bubble and hs
By Zaraken on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
I always enjoy playing my pally or priest and doing this. You get a lot of thank yous, return buffs and even helps for getting invited to a guild since they get a clue about your playstyle from this.
By André on Saturday, December 13th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Funny post
I also agree with your first part. I always throw an AI on anyone I see (well, those that needs it).
I also get a little sad when they dont throw me a buff back.
By piemur on Sunday, December 14th, 2008 at 2:19 am
its sad to think of it Alida but it does seem that people who roll horde nowdays are only in for the killing and torturing of alliance newbs. I miss the old days when you could actually meet a horde out in the field without him going beserk and trying to kill you for no reason. i roll Alli btw im a druid and love to gove out MotW and thorns to everyonr i can when in a city. it just seems to make everyone happier that someone seems to care.
By Alayea on Sunday, December 14th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
@Runa
@Shizzman
As a shaman myself, if I feel that there’d be no point in casting Water Breathing nor Water Walking (even though I have the inscriptions that remove the reagent requirement), I check up on their helth instead. If the player is at 80% hp or less, I heal them up to (or at least nearly) 100%. I can’t even begin to tell you how much that is appreciated and it will almost always result in a buff cast on you.
By Mauphlov on Sunday, December 14th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
/cheers Saint!
fewer people in “our” world do buff-it-forward, i usually did this back pre-BC, and ending up getting a ton of buffs in return, not too late to start it again though =)
And its not about getting a buff in return, just being able to boost their stamina by a few points, even it didn’t last that long, could make a player’s WoW experience a little more pleasant.
re IRL, yes, extending that “Friendly Smile” or “Kind Word”, especially to someone you know adds a certain glow to their faces, and of course it also says a little something about your day. It doesn’t cost much, just flex a few muscles on your face and there you have it! =)
Kind Words can vary from the simplest expressions, like “good morning”, to a compliment like “you look good today”, and can extend to practically anything that would change or add a positive outlook to its recipient.
By GBoW GBoM GBoK on Monday, December 15th, 2008 at 1:00 am
well change the link from BoW from Mark of the Wild to Blessing of Wisdom … u got both the Pink Paws and BoW with same link
By GBoW GBoM GBoK on Monday, December 15th, 2008 at 1:17 am
OK … SRY 4 DOUBLE POST
it would be nice if blizzard would make a minor buff system that would work like that … like the emote commands … increasing stats or something by an amount of your lvl … and any class can cast them …
/friendly smile - Places a blessing on a friendly target, increasing their Spirit by 2x there level for 5 min.
or
/Compassion - Infuses the unfriendly target with a sense of connection thereby significantly reducing their aggro range for 2 min
or another command like /buff Compassion or something …
By Boagreis on Monday, December 15th, 2008 at 7:43 am
I do this same thing. When im on my mage i just buff ppl that run by. Sometimes i dont even realize i just buffed someone its just a habit. Sometimes when im running around in SW on my shaman i have to laugh because by the end of the day ill look over and see i have to run over to the AH and get some more Fish Oil and Shiny Fish Scales. Im not even why i do it at all on my shaman bc chances are that that person won’t even go near water in the next 10 min. I started a pally a while back whenever i got bored i just run around the outer circle of IF and buff everything i saw. Even NPCs.
Great post btw it was pretty funny
By nickyjean on Wednesday, December 24th, 2008 at 10:00 am
I’m a shaman and I created a Battle Cry. %t can now walk on water and an emote stating the target can now walk on water. I always drop a shield (either earth or mana balls) when running by someone.
The water walking was most usefully when doing the daily on the island. Running back from the burning blade boats (or is it burning dawn –short term memory issues) was always fun for people after the quest was done rather then going back to the boat to take the Dragonhawk. I haven’t used it much in Northrend yet but I’m sure I will.
Moving on:
Excellent article. I work for a call center and always need to remember to use that phone smile etc. This is a great work tool and I’m putting it on my desk.
By daken on Saturday, January 3rd, 2009 at 2:14 am
if i could i would*main is a shammy has a rouge worior and dk*but hey totems only work with raids and partys!!I HATE MY LUCK!!!
By Penny on Friday, January 23rd, 2009 at 6:11 pm
nice insight