Multiple Infusions

It's interesting how much things can change in just one moment, I witness it all the time in Guild Wars where one enemy too many and the team goes down. If you don't account for the possibility of another group coming into your team's aggro circle things can go from good to terrible in a split second.

And it's the same in relationships. One badly phrased comment can change the entire dynamic of a relationship. I've watched it happen to friends and even relationships that I've had myself. The dented respect that it creates is impossible to fix with just an apology (if one is ever given), and often the consequences of the bad moment extend far into the future.

Arrogance is a particularly vile reason for breaks in friendships, but a common one. Just like with the aggro, if you're too confident your team suffers. One particular unnamed guildy is so arrogant that me and Ben discreetly refuse to take him to bogroots, not because he's a bad player, but because he has terrible arrogance and blames everyone else for the consequences. I saw the same guildy break a friendship last night with someone who's respect is given freely. Perhaps people would call my friend naive for his free giving of respect to almost everyone, but I applaud him, it's more than I can do, my respect is earned.

I have to say that recently my respect of the arrogant player has been dwindling, as I see him offend more and more of the people I hold with high regard it becomes more and more dented. He's taught me a lot as a player, but perhaps it's time to reconsider him, I'm more or less equal in skill now (though we both play different professions, so it's hard to gauge sometimes) but he still treats me as inferior, as though he thinks that my improvement in skill is simply a surface quality and therefore not worth note.

Arrogance aside, ruptured friendships are hard to mend, and I hope that this one doesn't boil over. The worst part is that the guy that the remark was made against had been really focused on remedying that problem. The monks at the time (myself included) said nothing, because bad things happen, and in this case it wasn't avoidable, we knew that the guy was doing his best. But for the guy who made the remark perfection is absolutely required (never mind that he himself made that mistake numerous times during the remainder of the mission).