I got kicked for using force bubble

Apparently, I committed a mortal sin by pushing mobs against the walls when the tank (the leader) failed to hold aggro.

The team was compromised of a WP/Energy tank (team leader, no taunt, no AoEs), a bunch of squishies (mostly blasters and 1 controller) and me, the lone defender (FF/Sonic). We enter a radio mission against Freakshow and the team is doing relatively well, because so far the numbers of spawn were reasonable in size.

Then we get to the one room in the lab map, the one where there's a ramp leading onto a platform which in turn has two other ramps that lead to a mezzanine that circles and is above the first platform. The tank decides to wade in and bring the entire room to the corridor.

Obviously, it wasn't a good idea since there were so many Freaks and while the tank did manage to get their attention, the Freaks started to scatter and go after the rest of the team once they were in the corridor.

Within a few seconds, a couple of the blasters dropped and the rest of the team was injured. To buy them some time, I threw up force bubble and trapped about 17 or 18 Freaks against the corner of the corridor. Mind you, this was the first time I used force bubble in the entire time we were teamed.

Apparently, this act enraged our tank.

Tank: "Force bubble herding = fail. Stop it!"
Me: "Oh you mean like tankers that can't hold aggro = fail."
Tank: "People should NEVER use knockback on teams."
Me: "They're all in one corner, it's not like they're scattered"

And that was it. I got kicked.

I realize that force bubble can be obnoxious if used badly, but I didn't leave it on the entire time, and given the situation the team was in, I thought it was entirely appropriate. The mobs weren't scattered but neatly stacked in one corner, enough for the blaster to down them with a couple of AoEs. The tank with his weak taunt aura (RttC) and his single target energy melee attacks couldn't hold aggro well enough. I generally, don't tell tanks that they have to take taunt (I have a tauntless ice/ss tanker), but his build really seemed to need it.

I know that my response was a bit on the snippy side, but I found it ironic that I was penalized for using my powers when the tanker couldn't really fulfill his role. I also got the vibe that somehow I, the lowly defender, was infringing the tank's personal territory.

Anyways, that's been the first time I've been kicked from a team in close to 3 years.

Having saved a fair few MoSTFs on my FF/ 'fender with Force Bubble, and not credited for the move's absolute awesomeness when used in the right situation, I wholly empathise with you.

Stick an ignore on him, as that will hopefully bring you closer to the goal of never having to team with ignorant tools

If you pump out happy green numbers? "thx 4 heals"
If you peel the team off the floor with a spatula? "thx 4 rez"

But god help you if your job is to actively prevent damage, or if you make everyone else kill things faster, or if you personally stop a team wipe with creative application of powers. At best you won't get any thanks - TA's EMP Arrow is an awesome "hey guys you might want to rethink that last strategic move" power, but nobody ever realizes you've used it - and at worst they'll come down with an incurable case of Stupid and scream at you for the cardinal sin of doing your job by defending their poor tender faces before they kick you.

Teams that don't know when the defender just saved them by using a power they're either not used to, not expecting, have never seen before, or have never seen used properly deserve to be educated. The ones that refuse said education deserve the frequent hospital visits and the lingering taste of Pine-Sol in their mouths. Simple as that.

Response is a bit snippy, but I can't say I'd do any differently. I just got Force Bubble last night on my new FFer and I'm eager to try it out. I'd say I hope I don't run into many sentiments like this, but I was just on a team last night with people complaining about using Energy Torrent to knock mobs into corners.

To be fair, if you're taking 17-18 enemies out of a fight, unless it's the whole fight, the tanker's not able to agro them all anyways.

I would have kicked you too. Force bubble is nothing but an annoyance for melee ATs. Even if he was an awful tank, you using force bubble only it made it that much harder for him to tank in the first place.

Some tanks have a tendency to get agitated when the team does not stand behind them and follows their lead like trained puppies, even if it's not working. It's worse when a team member takes things into their own hands and does it successfully. They'll shout at you if you do anything they don't expect. In your case, your job to him was to probably cast bubbles on the team every 4 minutes. But, if you do something like what you did or use PFF to rush in and soak up an alpha strike without taking damage, you're doing something horribly wrong!

Some tanks, however, are much better and adaptable. For example, I was on a Terra Volta trial with a friend who was on a FF Defender. She'd Force Bubble everything into the many corners available before the reactor room itself and the tank would taunt them as they slid across the floor, after which mass AoE carnage ensued and we'd quickly have a dead mob with virtually no damage ever taken. And then when we did reach the reactor, she bubbled it and kept Force Bubble up, causing it to never take a single point of damage (at least that I saw) while the rest of the team went around happily killing everything we saw.

You did your job and that tank failed to recognize it. Hopefully, the team wiped after you were kicked due to your lack of being there anymore and he learned a lesson. But, even if it did, he probably retained his ignorance.

Meh don't sweat it. Tankers hate to be shown up in any way - - especially by "weak" defenders. I would have quit the team if you were kicked and started a new team with you...

This kind of thing is why I hate pug's. You never know when you're going to run into some jerk that thinks his role on the team is the most important, and simply can't handle it when someone else steps up when said jerk fails.

Key points:

" Mind you, this was the first time I used force bubble in the entire time we were teamed.

The mobs weren't scattered but neatly stacked in one corner, enough for the blaster to down them with a couple of AoEs

I didn't leave it on the entire time."

If this is as stated is how the usage of an unconventional power played out, then 5 seconds of mob piling is a small speed bump in the usual mission grind. Personally, I like a little diversity and ingenuity now and then to turn things around, but then again I play more defenders than tanks.

Clearly, the defender in this case was booted by the tank because the tank was embarrassed by the quick thinking and prompt resolution of the extra debt potential by the defender.

Why are melee characters so incompetent that they cannot figure out how to hold aggro near walls, corners or dead ends and must establish their deity given right to hold aggro where they damn well please? I have seen tanks scatter mobs with taunt significantly as often as I have seen other players scatter mobs with kb. Sometimes tanks take a tightly bunched group and merely move them an inconsequential distance to a relatively similarly defensible position.

Kicking might have been a bit much...

A few things though. You are a FF defender paired with an unknown controller. Everyone should have been dangerously close to having their defense softcapped as is.

If the controller was anything but Illusion there should have been some AoE Mez/Immobs tossed out already preventing the blasters from being in melee range.

Rather than push everything off the tank... why not simply create a wall somewhere in between the tank and the blasters. If he was losing that much aggro he would have to chase them anyway, but simply pushing forward with Force Bubble ensures that *all* that he was holding is gone.

Like I said, probably an over reaction for kicking. But then again rather than just doing it "Your way" there were alternatives that could have kept the blasters/controller safe while not causing a headache for the melee folks.