The past couple of weeks have been, frankly speaking, an emotional rollercoaster for me. First, about three weeks ago, I was promoted to officer; I promptly used to opportunity to say more on vent in one night than I have in 7 months (~ 10 whole sentences). Then Drug called it quits—aw hell. Then, last week, Aftermath’s GL decides that despite my shining presence in O-chat, he needs to leave the guild he’s been a force in for over 3 years. In his absence, the guild makes the smartest and hardest decision we’ve ever collectively made—we decided to quit raiding (effectively disbanding the raid team). So, instead of writing posts over the past week about the litany of topics I had lined up, I instead spent it writing guild applications. The fruit of my editorial labor is that I’ll be joining a fellow blogger, also one of the players featured in The Raid alongside former Aftermath member Ttocs, in FH (Forgotten Heroes) on Black Dragonflight. It’s a hard thing to do, to watch a Group5 that I’ve collaborated with for so long fade away into the WoW community, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that I’m still a little choked up about it.
But a new chapter awaits, with new surprises. I’m on to a guild that’s been around since the days of Molten Core, so at least I know they have good stories. And who knows, maybe FH puts its healers in Group 3! (/GASP) I’d better go reserve a couple of domains, just in case …
The Circle of Healers Webring, the brainchild of Miss Medicina herself, has been done and gone for just over 4 months now. It was enlightening, uniting and incredibly interesting to follow as a study in information flow. In party form, it would have been the kind where the cops were called, arrived on scene and then decided to join in the fun. Of course, like any basement-nerd worth his or her salt, I shied away from the action until well after things had cooled off, even going so far as to wait for the reminiscing to start before lumbering clumsily into the fray. So here it is, my much-belated, awkwardly-timed, and completely unsolicited Circle of Healing response.
Maybe we should have brought more reinforcements ...
Upon seeing the encounter for the first time, my impressions of the Lich King were many—“holy heck that’s a small throne”, “did he shrink since Wrathgate?” and “oh lord, not more RP”. Looking forward to breezing through this final boss, I was a little bit shocked when we took our first serious attempts at him last week, only to discover, Arthas isn’t a pansy. In fact, over the xpac I’ve come to realize: the hallmark of a great fight is when you can watch it being executed and think “well that looks easy” and then have your arse handed to you 20seconds into your first attempt. If you loved learning Yogg for the first time—WHO IN THE FLYING F— HIT A CLOUD?!—then this is your apex of raiding. For everyone else, stock up on your vice of choice, it could be a long ride.
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All you need is love!
With WoW’s subscription count in the tens of millions these days, and the console market covering everything from Wii Fit grandmas to NASCAR devotees, I think it’s very safe to say that gaming isn’t as closeted as it used to be. But, there still is a prevalent stigma associated with being a dedicated gamer, the slightly raised eyebrow when you declare that you spent your weekend leveling a hunter or farming mats. Aside from practicing some derisive responses–”well at least I’m practicing strategic thinking while you’re watching another season of people giving themselves brain damage”, I think it’s up to us gamers to start pushing for greater levels of acceptance by flaunting our affection for digital entertainment.
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There are times where something looks amazing in theory but falls absolutely flat in application (Bizuri’s Totem of Shattered Ice, I’m looking at you here). And there are other times when something seems okay on paper but turns out to be hugely beneficial (t8 4piece towards the end of Ulduar, I miss you). And then there are times where despite the hype, doubt and hoopla, an underdog emerges triumphant—such is the case for Resto Shamans’ t10 4pc bonus. While t10 2pc was largely touted as a great buy, 4pc was met with grumbles from the community, likened to a wasted hot, and frequently asterisked when ICC gear lists were being assembled. And I’m here today to tell you—all those pessimistic predictions were right, but so very wrong at the same time.
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Excitement ran high this past week as the Frostwing Halls and the Lich King (plus cut-scene spoilers) were finally made available for raiders across the world. Amid some joy, some trepidation, and some controversy, we ventured into ICC’s final wing, intent on besting the last of the Northrend dragon-based encounters—Valithria Dreamwalker and Sindragosa—and possibly getting a look at the villain of the xpac. Healers (read: holy pallies) were especially anxious to try their hand at the “first” healing-centric encounter, while others looked forward to besting Sindragosa, who looked deceptively easy on the PTR. And while I’m still on the fence about whether or not I really like this final ICC wing, I will say that the challenges it provides are very much appreciated.
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Another argument for Imp Reincarnation
If you ever have the inclination to study supply chain management, manufacturing, or production system design, you will likely bump into an evaluation technique called “The 5 Whys”. Originally developed by Sakichi Toyoda and later incorporated into the Toyota Production System, The 5 Whys posits that to find the root of a problem, you generally need to dial down at least 5 layers of causality. I found myself reminded of this method while playing one of my alts this past weekend through a number of PuG instances and raids. The groups wiped, a number of times, for a host of reasons, but I’m sure every healer out there can guess what or who each of the groups identified as the problem. This lead me to wonder—as WoW players, I would argue that we are as familiar with wiping as we are with boss kills; so why are we so awful at identifying why we failed?
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I have something to confess: I haven’t changed my resto spec since I originally dinged 80. Okay, that isn’t precisely true—I have respecced a couple of times to try out various minor tweaks, but, when all is said and done, it almost pains me to admit that I’ve stuck with a standard 0/16/55 spec for over a year. Through a variety of bosses and challenges it has served me well, and been the all-around solution to my healing needs. But, in an effort to shake off my stagnation and explore the wild side of resto, I thought I’d take a look at some of the other viable PVE options out there; there are actually more than you might think.
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Blood Queen Lana'thel - Making Evil Look Good
After a lazy Tuesday of avoiding lag on the population-heavy Mal’Ganis, Aftermath went into ICC and took down the bosses in the Crimson Halls, amid some disappointment, some laughter, rampant BT nostalgia and lots of raid damage. The two new bosses released this week—The Blood Princes and Blood Queen Lana’thel—marked a definite step up in terms of raid coordination. And while the first of the Blood wing encounters actually proved to be one of the easier fights in Icecrown (at least on normal) there are some things you should know when pitting yourself against these foes, including how to make bite flowcharts on the fly!
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People who know me in “real life”, (provided that they can bear my geeky presence long enough), are rarely ever surprised to find that in WoW I gravitate towards healing like a college jock to a kegger. I am someone who, above most else, likes to be helpful. I appreciate a challenge, I can tolerate bit more stress than the average person, and I like working behind the scenes. And since I was accepted into the healing community, I’ve met a number of people who share that same set of traits; people who are confident in their contributions and their place in the larger whole. But recently, I’ve witnessed a ripple in the online healing world, posts and comments characterized by the belief that healers are under-appreciated—blue collar labor in a corporate machine. Overworked and under-recognized, they argue that we toil endlessly for the chance at a sliver of recognition. Brothers, friends, healers … come off it.
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