So I Dropped the Group . . .

Sometimes, you've just got to drop a group.

The other day, I found myself in a random Heroic Halls of Origination.  While I wasn't entirely enthusiastic about the length of the instance, I do enjoy the place, by and large, so I took a deep breath and prepared to settle in for a while.

The group consisted of a warlock, a hunter, and two DKs, beside myself.  I couldn't help but notice the names of the DKs:  Deadlydk (the tank), and Dkdeadly, from the same server.  /blink.  (The thought immediately occurred to me that there was some dual-boxing going on, but as they were talking to each other in chat, and as they weren't in the same guild, I figured that was unlikely.)

The tank immediately proceeded to put all our minds at ease (/tongue in cheek) by saying, "I can't tank this instance."

I figured I'd withhold judgement until I saw him in action.

The first trash pulls made me worried.  The tank's gear did, indeed, make it difficult for him to pull entire groups at once, but no CC was in evidence.  In addition, his dps DK friend must have been under the misguided impression he was a tank, as well, because the two of them seemed to share the duties rather frequently.

Let's face it:  I shouldn't have to burn through half my mana pool on an early trash pull in an Heroic Cataclysm instance by now.  (Chain-casting Regrowths that early is not encouraging.)

We reached Temple Guardian Anhuur, and without preamble, the tank pulled the boss.  Then he said something which more or less struck terror into my heart.  "What are we supposed to do for this boss?"  His DK friend said, "I don't know."

Suffice it to say we did manage to succeed, but only after a lot of confusion and finally some teamwork between the lock and me.  The boss died with the tank, the lock, and myself finishing him off.  Messy, but successful.  (Moonfire ftw.)

We headed off toward Earthrager Ptah, with the tank saying, "Oh, by the way, guys, we're going to be doing all the bosses.  Just saying."  I had visions of me viewing the Setesh fight from the ground.  (Happens often enough with a tank who knows what he's doing . . .)

As we ran up the stairs to the boss' area, the tank asked, "Am I supposed to be riding a camel?"

I whispered him, asking, "Do you know any of the bosses in here at all?"

"Nope," came the reply.  Great.  An undergeared tank who wants to complete the entire place, yet knows nothing about the instance.

Fortunately Ptah is reasonably simple, so aside from me whispering to the tank that it wasn't over yet after the boss' first "demise", he could handle the mechanics pretty well.

We ported back and, as I saw the trash in the next hallway we would be required to tackle, I groaned.  I remembered that trash.  It had wiped many a group when I was geared to the level of the instance, while in groups using CC.

The tank charged in, and, as expected, I couldn't keep him up, despite absolutely beautiful hps.  "I'll brb," he said, as the rest of us worked frantically to down the trash group.  As soon as the trash was dead, the other DK said, "Guess I'll brb, too."

I'd had it.  I knew there was no way, no way at all this group was going to be able to successfully make it through the instance.  In addition, I was doing this tank no favors by propping him up through encounters in which he should have been faceplanting and learning a thing or two.

I explained in party chat that our tank was hard to heal and knew none of the boss fights.  I told the group I had no patience for it that evening, and I wished them luck.  Then I dropped group.

I spent the rest of my limited evening playtime gathering herbs.

Shaking It Off

Last night was a tough raiding night, for me, anyway.

We were working on Alysrazor, an encounter for which I had been pretty excited.  But no matter how much I understood the very simple mechanic of the tornadoes, I kept dying.  (Before anyone asks, no, I wasn't keyboard-turning.  This also means I wasn't healing during the tornado phase, either--just trying to stay alive.)

Out of 25 people, I died the most. It was very discouraging.

It got to the point where if I had had any other healer at all to substitute in, I would have sat myself and gone and moped in a corner.

It got to the point where I started comparing this encounter in my head to Teron Gorefiend.

It got to the point where I wondered if I had any place playing this game anymore, or if I should just hang it up and walk away.

Alysrazor finally died.  And although I finished the encounter dead, as well, to tornadoes, there is nothing I can do to improve my tornado performance further until next week.  My fellow Druids did help me out with a small suggestion which made a big difference:  stick with the inner circles.  I hadn't realized the tornadoes were supposed to take the same amount of time going around the center, which would mean that the inner tornadoes move more slowly.  (Basic geometry.)  I thought they all had the same speed.  It was easier those last attempts, when I stuck with the inner circles, and I often found myself looking at my life bar in surprise after the tornado phase, wondering why I was at full health.  (The last time I died, I managed to try to go in between a couple of tornadoes.  Bad idea.)

One way or another, I need to shake off last night and move on.  Because the alternative would be to just quit.  And drat it all, when the day comes I leave the game, I want to do it on my terms, not because I slunk off in defeat.

Maybe my graphics card will come over the weekend, so I can get my computer fixed, and I won't have to use my husband's laptop anymore. Maybe I'll run a few heroics, so I can collect a few more anecdotes to try to relate in my sometimes amusing voice. Maybe I'll bake zucchini bread with some of the first zucchini from my garden. Maybe I'll knit. Perhaps I'll drag my husband out on a walk, in this beautiful monsoon season. Maybe I'll lose myself playing Enya on the piano. Maybe I'll start a blog on the adventures of homeschooling a mildly autistic teenager in preparation for the GED. (She took a practice GED math test yesterday and scored very well, but I'm not intending for her to really get her GED for two more years, as she just turned 15. Found a great on-line two-year program which preps not only for the GED, but also for college. Perfect.)  Maybe I'll get some badges and be able to pick up my new relic.  Maybe I'll study up on Ragnaros, because I have complete confidence Majordomo is going down next time we meet.

Next week is another chance to do it right.

First Tempest 25-man Alysrazor Kill

More Heroic Adventures!

And the fun continues!  Despite the insistence by raiders much more serious than I am that everyone should be running Troll Heroics to cap Valor each week, I am still sticking with the regular Cataclysm Heroics.  If my guild downs a few Firelands bosses, I can with little trouble reach the cap in this fashion. (By the way, thank you, Kurn, for pointing out I really don't have to do the dailies in Hyjal if I don't want to do them.  I realized there is limited benefit to me at this point in time, so . . . I'm not going to do them unless I just feel like it that day.  No big hurry.)

Truthfully, however, this week I did not cap my Valor points.  One more boss in raid, and it would have been simple.  In addition, I took an evening off of Heroics to celebrate my wedding anniversary by sitting down with my husband to watch Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn in "Charade".  (When you live in the sticks, sometimes your celebration options are limited.)

Chasing the Tank Again, or Not

The other day, I queued and found myself in an Heroic Shadowfang Keep (much to the surprise of my 13-yr-old, who didn't know level 85 characters could run Shadowfang Keep.)  The warrior tank had two of his dps guildies along for the ride, the odd dps out being a DK.  As the warrior had his "Defender" title, I was confident this run would be reasonably simple.

Sure enough, we easily moved from the start through the first boss, without even blinking.  (Talk about chasing the tank . . . chain-pulling like crazy.)  He proceeded to the courtyard and pulled a group back into the room where the rest of us waited, as we expected him to do.

Then he did something we did not expect.  Unlike every other tank of my acquaintance, he did not return to the courtyard and pull another group back into the room.  I think I was the first person in the room, including his guildies, to realize he was down in the courtyard, fighting a group, and about to die.

We ran into the courtyard, but it was too late to save him or us.  As I wisped back to the entrance, I typed out, "Would have been nice if you had said you were going to stay in there."

He figuratively stuck his nose in the air, and saying, "Yea, and it would have been nice if you had been paying attention," he promptly left group with his guildies.

Good riddance.

I talked a bit with the DK, who agreed that the tank was unreasonable (I confess to calling him an idiot), as it was a perfectly normal expectation he would pull a second pack into the room.  (The DK actually contended that every other tank would LoS pull a second pack, but I can't speak for every tank, only the ones I've met.)  We decided to go ahead and refill the group.

To my surprise, our next tank ended up being this DK, which was actually a much better arrangement than the previous one.  Not only did he keep an eye on my mana, he managed to hold aggro so well I could completely pre-HoT him before a pull without worrying about pulling an add on me.  (Which has been almost unheard of in these Heroics lately.)

We breezed through the instance, and before we disbanded, I made sure to tell the tank how refreshing it was to be able to pre-HoT without worrying about pulling aggro.  It made him happy.

Shortcut to Valor

The next Heroic I entered was an Heroic Throne of the Tides.  (Remember how I hate that one?)  As the loading screen disappeared, I found myself with the tank, staring at Lady Naz'jar.

That spoke volumes.

As the dps reached our position, the kitty Druid exclaimed, "Yay, Druid healz!"  I had to wonder what exactly had happened their previous attempt(s) . . . but up to the challenge, I twirled my wrists a couple of times to loosen them and prepared for the pull.

Whatever had happened before, it must not have happened this time, because we managed to get the boss down in short order.  (Sure, there was a bit of tricky healing, but it all ended well.)  We continued on to Commander Ulthok and watched him fall.  The kitty commented that none of his other groups had ever gotten this far.  (Poor kitty.)

Then the tank surprised me.  We took the transporter back, but instead of turning right, down that nightmarish hallway of strange packs and mobs which make you fly in the air before pounding you into the dirt, he turned left, facing the gauntlet and the final boss.

It hadn't even occurred to me that you could skip the Stonespeaker and Mindbender encounter.  I'd never before been in a group which did.  After a little research, I find this is probably more amazing than not, as apparently a lot of people skip that boss now.  (Wow, new surprises all the time . . .)

I was so relieved by the situation that I didn't mind all the mad healing for the gauntlet.  It was a lot easier than the other hallway.

We one-shotted Ozumat, and went on our way.  Start to finish, less than a half an hour, no wipes, and 70 Valor.  Now that is efficient.

Two Bosses In Two Days

Technically, if you count the BH boss, three.

We might be a week late, but Tempest stepped it up and killed some Firelands bosses.

Tuesday evening, fresh on the heels of a couple of 10-man Shannox kills the previous weekend, the official 25-man raid downed the hunter and his pesky puppies.

Excited not to have all that trash on the plains anymore, we headed across the valley toward the lair of the giant Red Widow, Beth'tilac.  By the end of raid, the death of the boss was in our minds as a definite possibility, and we returned on Wednesday with every expectation of smashing this spider in short order.

But it took a little longer than we had anticipated.

At the last minute, our Discipline Priest posted on the forum that he would be unable to attend raid Wednesday evening.  As he and one of our Holy Paladins had been the healers on top of the web, healing our DK tank, it meant we needed to change our arrangements a little.  We sent one of our skilled Resto Shamans up with the pally, the DK tank, and five dps.  Then we pulled the boss.

The tank on the web died.

This happened several times.  The more we analyzed it, the more we realized exactly how much we were missing that Discipline Priest.  Over several attempts, we changed things up here and there, reducing the number of dps on the web, so as not to spread out the healers' efforts, switching a healer at one point because one of the healers wasn't sure his allergies weren't affecting his healing, etc.  But the tank still died.  (And the replacement healer handed the reins back to the original one.)

Finally the raid leader asked me if we should put a third healer up on the web.  As all the strategies I had read indicated three healers would be serious overkill (i.e., if you need three healers on the web, something is definitely wrong), and as we only had six healers to begin with (so leaving only three healers on the ground could be an issue), I resisted that idea, despite it being suggested more than once.

With a little more thought, we decided perhaps things would work out better if the DK tanked on the ground and our bear tank went up on the web.

Suffice it to say that it worked.  It didn't work on the first try, but we started making it into phase two more consistently and, finally, in a very sloppy kill, the spider lay dead on the ground.  The only people still alive were the two tanks and a rogue.

But it was a kill!

We took a peek at Alysrazor--just enough to be excited and energized for the next evening.  (Seriously, who wouldn't like that boss entrance?  And this whole place, with the Druid-y connections, is thrilling for this long-term Druid.  Since the "bad guys" are corrupted Druids, it sort of makes me feel like I have a responsibility as a Druid to clean up the situation . . . Druids take care of their own.)

Two out of seven.  We're on our way!  Grats to the Tempest raiders!

Postscript:  By the way, we're recruiting healers.  Our roster has been depleted by a banning (no idea why--he didn't even log on for 25 days until Tuesday) and people deciding they wanted pvp instead of pve.  We could really use a good priest and another Resto Druid, but we'll consider any class except Resto Shaman, as we already have three.

Heroic Adventures

Running Cataclysm Heroics as a slightly overgeared healer is a lot more fun than running them as a healer geared to the level of the instances.  Even so, I find my adventures.  The main reasons are because many of the other players are undergeared, or else they think they can take more risks, because the healer is overgeared.

Chasing the Tank

The other day, for instance, I found myself in an Heroic Lost City of Tol'vir.  No problem, I thought.  This is a fun instance.  As we went on, I think the tank realized I could manage things pretty well, because he started chain-pulling the trash.  Tanks, no matter how well-geared your healer is, if she has to keep tossing out heals because you or the dps are not as well-geared, sooner or later, she is going to need to replenish her mana.  I found myself dropping on the ground to drink for the four seconds or so I could get away with until the tank absolutely needed another heal.  I commented in Druid chat (in short bursts, because that was all I could manage while casting), "This tank needs a hearty rendition of 'Chase the Tank.'"

After the run, I made a macro inviting tanks to listen to the song, specifying the YouTube URL.  I doubt I will ever actually click it, but it gave me a sense of satisfaction.

Unwelcome Moonfire

Another fun run was a Blackrock Caverns.  As soon as I saw the graphic, I thought, "Oh, this will be easy.  I can heal this one with my eyes closed."  It's a good thing I kept my eyes open.  I found myself in a group with a tank (pally--for some reason, I've had a lot of pally tanks), an Enhance shammy, and two moonkins.  I was quite surprised until I realized both moonkins were from the same guild and probably queued together.  (Lot o' orange on my Vuhdo.)

Everything started out fine.  The tank seemed to know what he was doing, more or less, in pulling the trash in increments.  When the first boss entered the room, the pally paused to wait for him to pat back out, so as not to pull the other group waiting on the other side of the room.  But apparently one moonkin decided he was bored and didn't want to wait.

I watched in amazement as a Moonfire hit the boss, and both the boss and the trash pack immediately beside him charged in our direction.  I wanted to punch a moonkin, but I didn't know which one had tossed the moonfire.  In the mayhem, while the tank feverishly worked to pick up the adds, I managed to die.  A moonkin tossed me a BR, but now I was in the gimped position of having to keep everyone alive through the boss and the extra group with just the mana from my innervate and a quick Mysterious Potion.  I hearkened back to my undergeared days and practiced focused triage healing, keeping the tank up and everyone else at about half health or so, with heavy use of Nourish.  I think I lost a moonkin in the process, if I recall correctly, but we made it through the encounter.  It wasn't the last time one of the moonkins decided he wanted to pull . . . I wasn't disappointed to see the last of them after the instance was complete and I got my 70 Valor.

Drowning Beneath the Sea

Yesterday, I found myself in Throne of the Tides.  My 14-yr-old heard me groan upon seeing the loading graphic, and when she asked me what was wrong, I told her, "I hate this one."

This run ended up being interesting for a couple of reasons.  The tank was playing his pally alt, when he is used to playing his bear main, so he kept forgetting he was undergeared.  And the mage, who happened to be a guildie of the tank, kept standing in stuff.  I spent so much time keeping the mage alive sometimes that I almost made a conscious decision to let him die.  (Lost him a few times, but you can't always keep alive a squishy mage who thinks he can stand in poison.)

We did manage to make it through, but it took a few wipes (lost track of the number--at least half a dozen) and a LOT of mana.  On the gauntlet with the water elementals, it was absolutely crazy trying to keep the tank alive (we did wipe there once because he forgot he couldn't just gather them all up and be fine in his present gear) as well as trying to keep myself alive from everything I managed to pull via healing aggro.  I almost died on the attempt we were successful, but the tank remembered he had Lay on Hands and used it.  I made sure to tell him afterward it was a well-timed move.

At least nobody lost their temper, bailed out, kicked anyone, etc.  We finished the instance with the same people who started it.  (With the exception of the rogue who was afk at the start, but I don't count him.  He never really started the instance.)

Honestly, in these situations, I really don't get too upset or agitated.  They amuse me, and they challenge me, but they don't raise my blood pressure.  Maybe it's because I know I don't really have anything to prove in these instances.  If I succeed, people will take it for granted, because I'm overgeared.  If I make a mistake and we wipe, they will most likely not blame me, anyway, because I'm overgeared.

It's all fun and games, and I haven't yet been denied a chance for Valor.

There's a First For Everything

With the sudden need for Valor points, I found myself running heroic randoms again . . . the first time since I managed to become raid-ready in Cataclysm.  But, as I had only managed to fight Jin'do in the Troll Heroics, I decided it wasn't worth the trouble to try running them at all, when I could run a familiar and lower-level Cataclysm heroic, instead.  Fewer Valor points, true, but a lot less stress.

After one night of this, I started wondering if maybe, just maybe, I wanted to try to run a Troll Heroic.  Break out of my shell.  Try something adventurous and new.  Take a risk.  Something.

Saturday evening, I finally got the nerve to try for a random Troll Heroic instance.  I researched the abilities of the bosses, so I knew what I needed to do and not do, and I even made little notes on a piece of paper with keywords, so I would remember my research.

I looked at my 13-yr-old daughter and asked, "Am I brave enough to do this?"  She nodded and said, "Yes, Mom, you're brave enough."

I smiled at her and queued, just at her bedtime.  /waves bye to 13-yr-old.

Seven minutes later, I was in Zul'Gurub with a pally tank, a mage, a rogue, and a hunter.

Troll instances make me just about as lost as Kharazhan, but I knew as long as I stuck with the tank, I'd be fine.  And things were going well.  I figured out there was something about cauldrons pretty quickly (hey, it wasn't in the stuff I read about the place), and we were making good progress.

We might have wiped on the first boss, but a well-timed Battle Rez saved the situation.  As a matter of fact, we weren't actually wiping at all, and I was having some fun.

We weren't wiping until Jin'do, that is.

I remembered about standing in the bubble in phase 1, and I remembered about standing beneath the chains in phase 2.  So I did these, and easily got killed by the adds.  We wiped.

The mage hollered at the hunter to stop dpsing the boss in phase 2 and get the adds off the healer.  (To be honest, this mage was rather a know-it-all pain, but you meet those every so often.)

Tried again.  Wiped again.  Dratted adds.  Mage hollered at the hunter again.  Tried again.  Wiped again.  Mage was beside himself.  "Someone else is going to have to help dps chains!"

The hunter and the rogue left.  An elemental shaman and another rogue joined the group.

This time, the shaman was to keep adds off me and the rogue was to help with chains.  Tried again.  It was easier to heal this attempt, somehow.  It seemed like it was going to work.  I even somehow managed to return to chains when I was about to be charged, after dancing around nasty stuff and trying to avoid adds.  But we wiped again.  The mage hollered at the rogue to stop dpsing the big guy and help with the chains.

And suddenly, I found I was no longer part of the group.

My jaw dropped.

Never before have I been kicked from a group.  Never.  I couldn't believe what I was seeing, even as I was being teleported out of the instance.  An hour and a half, and I was denied the opportunity for Valor.  It was ripped away from me, after all my efforts to prepare and perform well.

I shared this amazement with a healer guildie in Druid chat, and his response was, "That's why I don't heal Troll Heroic randoms anymore."

I think I am no longer brave enough.  Those Cataclysm Heroics will do the trick, for as much time as I have to run heroics, anyway.

/rips up notes on Troll Heroic research

Trash, Glorious Trash

Although I had heard there was a lot of trash when you walk into Firelands, I wasn't quite prepared for the vast field of trash which greeted my view.  (And we thought BoT should be called "Bastion of Trash" . . .)

We spent almost the entire night on trash.

I'm not kidding.  We cleared trash to a certain point, progressing farther and farther into the fiery field, when Shannox finally spawned.  Then we cleared a little more trash to make some room for fighting the boss.  We got munched by the boss a couple of times.  Then we decided we didn't like our spot, but as we moved back to a spot we decided we liked better, closer to the entrance, we realized the trash was going to respawn.

Great.  Good time to take a break.

After the break, we cleared the trash (again) by the entrance.  There were a few, um, exciting pulls, when someone or another was knocked back or just wandered too close to another trash group.  But finally we were ready to seriously take on the boss.

After some discussion and plotting, we did manage to have some decent attempts on the boss.  The tanks figured out how to handle the stacks, which is definitely progress, so the night actually did end on a positive note.

The discouraging thing is knowing when we get in there tonight, we will have to face . . . the trash.  Again.

Considering I died about 7 times on the trash before we even faced the boss, you can guess my level of excitement and anticipation.  (I have really got to figure out why I was getting killed so often.  I wasn't pre-HoTing the tanks.  I wasn't on the top of the healing meters when they were reported to me, as Recount was out of order, so I couldn't look myself.  Why me?  Was it because I commented to the healers in healer chat that this place looked like a place where healing aggro might be a problem?  The very instance was trying to prove me right while having a laugh at my expense? /sigh)

On the bright side, a lot of people raised their reputation with Avengers of Hyjal to Friendly and picked up their new cloaks.  Also on the bright side, we now know a decent amount about what to do and not to do with the trash.  And I think four leatherworking patterns, including the leather hands, dropped and were picked up by our designated leatherworker.  (And a few purple pieces of gear dropped.)

The biggest bright sides of all:  my addons worked, and we had minimal lag problems!  I can't remember the last time a major patch came out and my important addons were all update-ready and operational immediately.  It was quite refreshing to focus on beating our heads against the trash and boss instead of beating our heads against addons and disconnects.  Yay!

Hokey-Pokey

My husband was talking with one of our WoW-playing co-workers the other day, and she asked him what level he had reached.  She was surprised to hear he had only reached 82.

He embarked on a long discussion of the history of MMOs, concluding by saying he just wasn't interested in playing WoW anymore, except to play with his wife and daughters.  The main reason, he said, was that everything had been dumbed down so as to make it accessible to the largest variety of players, and there was no challenge anymore.

I protested, saying that some of the dungeons I'd been running had been challenging, mostly because I had had to relearn how to play my character, given that a lot of rules had changed.

"No," he said. "You've been able to make it through the instances all right.  What you've been doing is not relearning how to play your character, but learning how to play your character efficiently."

He stated there were no situations in which players had to strategize, thinking about how best to use their characters.  The suggestion that that was what raids were for did not fly. The encounters were too formulaic.  Once you learned a few basic principles, you were in.

"You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out,
You put your right foot in and you shake it all about,
You do the hokey-pokey and you get the boss down."

And that, he said, was what it was all about.

I can see his point, in that there are things which are formulaic.  I'm sure there are only so many ideas developers can come up with before they simply run out and start recycling.  How many times have experienced raiders compared a mechanic in a new fight to a mechanic in a fight they did three years ago?  When I explain the 2nd boss strategy in Stonecore to players new to the instance, I simply say, "Stay out of the stuff on the ground," and everyone knows what I mean.  We've seen it before.

But I've also seen enough encounters in Cataclysm dungeons to know it is not all facerolling.  There are trash packs which will flatten a group if not managed properly.  (The stars in Vortex Pinnacle, for one . . .)  And there are boss fights which still require thought to succeed.  So I can't completely agree with him that everything is too formulaic and simple.

In addition, from what I hear, Heroics will provide a good challenge.  I'm finally getting the hang of current Druid healing, feeling more comfortable with my triage skills.  I still have a ways to go before I will be Heroic material, but I'm looking forward to it.

Postscript:  Tuesday night, my husband entered Stonecore for the first time, with me tagging along to heal him as tank and to explain everything I knew about making it through the instance.  (Which in Stonecore, is quite a bit . . .)  Everything went pretty well until the final boss, where I kept dying to adds.  After a few iterations of this and some brainstorming by the group (two of whom said they had lousy AOE and the third of whom said he didn't dare open up on the boss because he pulled aggro), we managed to get the boss down with two dps alive and my husband's tank barely hanging on to a tiny sliver of life.  As he rezzed me, he told me he was revising his opinion of the Cataclysm dungeons.

Communication in Randoms

Last night, I queued for a random Cataclysm dungeon.  As a matter of fact, I queued for two.  The first one was an "in progress" Throne of the Tides.  It was my first time in the instance, and I was delighted, but it was pretty tough.  The DK tank was a bit squishy, and I actually ended up with mana problems on one of the bosses (Innervate and potion!).  I felt a little wrung out by the end, when the achievement flashed across my screen.  I left group and requeued.  (15 minute wait as a healer.)

After that ToT experience, I was rather relieved to see my next random turn out to be Blackrock Caverns.  I had successfully run Blackrock Caverns three times the previous night, with no real issues, so I looked forward to relaxing a bit more.  However, this was not to be.

All four of the other people in my group were melee in the same guild.  The fact that they were in the same guild did not disturb me.  The fact that they were all melee--a pally tank, two DKs and one Enhancement Shammy--was a little disconcerting.  Having all melee means that every time the boss does a close-range AOE attack, everyone takes damage.  It is much easier to heal a group with mixed melee and range players, where, as a general rule, not everyone will be taking the same kind of damage at the same time.

So we started on our way.  Trash went down fine, and the tank seemed reasonably simple to keep up.  (No desperate repetitions of Regrowths, as I had to employ while healing that squishy DK tank . . .)  Surprisingly, but not impossibly, the tank decided to pull the first boss right away into the hall, instead of trying to clear some of the room.  All was going well until the boss cast his chains.

I had read the strategy, and I knew those chains needed to be dps'd down quickly, so everyone could run away from the immediate vicinity of the boss.  Even as a healer, I had done my part in previous runs, so I targeted the chains, hit Moonfire, and started throwing Wraths.  There was only one problem:  I was the only one doing anything to the chains.  As a healer, I could not dps them down quickly enough alone, and upon the boss' AOE cast, all but the pally tank lay flat on the ground.

Thankfully, I remembered how to run back to that area from my Vanilla WoW days (Thank you, UBRS), and was back in the instance quickly.  I asked the group, "Who else was dpsing the chains?" but there was silence.  I was a little annoyed, thinking it most likely they were talking in guild chat, but not bothering to type in party chat.

This time, the tank decided to do a little clearing first.  Accordingly, he ran to the left and picked up the group there.  This would probably have been a good plan, except that somehow, someone managed to pull more trash, including a caster across the room who decided I was the ideal target.  (I believe that was healing aggro, as I had just cast something on the tank at that moment.)  With the pally tanking the melee and me tanking the caster, there was a lot of healing to be done.  But the real problem began when the boss came back around the corner and saw the caster busily trying to kill me.  Yep--you guessed it.  Boss pull.  Wipe.

Still, I only heard silence from the rest of the group.  No suggestions.  No "oops".  No "Gee, I should have gripped that caster before the boss came around the corner."  I was really getting miffed.  Did these people think I was some sort of automaton?  It was pretty obvious to me that they had not researched the fight a lot.

/sigh.  Ran back again.  I think the Shammy ankhed,  because by the time I returned, the rest of the group was all alive.  With the trash pack from the side gone, the tank went ahead and pulled the boss back into the hallway.  Things were going just fine until--figure this--the chains.  Again, I dps'd the chains, and again, I could not take them down alone in time.  This time, we were all flattened.

As I ran back, I chewed them out in party chat.  (I'm a nice person, so my chewing out wasn't really terribly harsh.)  "You've GOT to dps the chains.  I'm the only ranged, and I'm the healer.  I can't do it by myself."  (I might have clarified, saying, "Even if I do not need to heal anyone, I just don't have enough dps power!  You should see me killing naga as Resto . . . the only reason they end up dying is because they can't kill me . . .")

This time, I was getting really mad.  Even if they did not feel chatty, at this moment we were presumably engaged in a common endeavor, and a little communication on strategy, mistakes, fixing mistakes, etc., would have been in order.

Suddenly, in shock, I saw something appear in party chat.  It was the tank.  He said, "Sorry."  Then he left group.  When the option came to requeue, I declined and left group as well.

It's a given that everyone expects communication in 25-man raids.  But with the ease at which we've been able to accomplish Wrath Heroics lately, people have become accustomed to simply saying, "Thanks for group," as the extent of communication in randoms.  But this is Cataclysm, and it is a whole new ball game, as the saying goes.  Groups are going to have to communicate, and four of the group communicating in guild chat while the healer hears nothing is insufficient.

I think, in future randoms, that I will greet the group at the beginning.  If I see they are all in the same guild, I will tell them up front to please communicate in party chat, as I cannot read their guild chat.  (Obvious, but I think some people need reminding.)  Perhaps if I make the first move, others will feel more free to communicate, and nobody will be left stewing in the dark.

New and Improved Redridge

More lore questing!

To be honest, Redridge was a zone I had done once with my main and vowed to avoid whenever possible.  I hated the orcs which ambushed me from behind the big rock to the north . . . or was it south?  I hated the concentration of bad guys EVERYWHERE.  And the quests were just plain mind-numbingly tedious, so I found every opportunity to quest elsewhere.  (There wasn't always a good alternative . . .)

These residual emotions of revulsion made me a little hesitant to tackle the zone, but as Westfall left me with a couple of quests directing me there and on the recommendation of a former guildie, I decided to give it a try.

Some of the early quests felt a bit familiar, in a mind-numbing sort of way . . . Ho hum . . . But then I discovered the underground fight club at the inn, and everything changed.

If there is ever a quest chain designed to make you feel powerful, this is it.  (/flex)  Not only that, you get to do it with powerful, motivated, and enthusiastic friends.  (Which is clue #1 that they are NPCs . . . just kidding.  I do have enthusiastic player friends . . .)

Again, like the Westfall quests, I found myself becoming so wrapped up in the story line that I did not feel time ticking or take note of the number of quests completed.  I was focused on the mission, which sometimes required me to remember my sneaking skills (who am I kidding?  I'm a Druid!), sometimes inspired maniacal laughter while assisting in extreme violence (I don't play FPS games, so the whole extreme violence thing doesn't usually appeal to me), and made me giggle in sheer delight watching things go boom.  (IRL, I live in a place where we make things go boom . . . on test ranges . . . /giggle . . .)

The ending was nothing short of epic, combining bittersweet emotions with a blaze of glory.  It might almost have come out of Hollywood . . .

If I ever find myself leveling a lowbie Alliance character again, I don't think I will avoid Redridge.

The Motivation to Play

The other day, a co-worker wanted to chat about WoW.  She told me she had taken a character and gone to check out the new quests in Westfall but had been disappointed.  According to her, the quests required too much thought and guesswork.

"When I play after work," she said, "I play to relax, not to have to use my brain."

Of course, she emphasized, she enjoyed the challenge of raiding, but that was different.  She didn't want challenges in her questing.

"I'm just not sure I want to continue in Cataclysm, if the questing is going to be like this," she told me.  "I guess I'll give it a month and then decide."

I don't know what micro-expressions manifested themselves on my face, but I'm sure they displayed something to the effect of incredulity.  Sure, I don't like quests which make me beat my head against the wall, wondering what the objective is, but these days, few quests fall into that category.  After all, objectives now sparkle enough to be seen 50 feet away, and the Blizzard interface has the option to show the general location of objectives, as well as confirm the identity of the target mobs when mousing over them.  (She is still complaining about the demise of Questhelper, by the way.  She says the Blizzard interface isn't enough.  I'm not sure what she's talking about, as I think the Blizzard interface is more than adequate.  But I digress . . .)  If the quester is confused even slightly, websites like Thottbot or Wowhead are there to clear everything up.

I had flashbacks of reading multiple players' complaints on forums throughout Wrath that WoW had become too easy--that the developers had catered too much to "the casuals".  Considering that casual players still pay the same subscription, but may not actually use the resources as much as others, I would think they are better money-makers for Blizzard, so it would make sense they would work to appeal to casual players.  But I had heard the developers had listened to the less casual players, as well, when they worked on designing Cataclysm, adding more challenges.

Personally, I think that overall, Blizzard has done a pretty good job of finding ways to appeal to players with a variety of motivations to play.  (Obviously, or they wouldn't be up to . . . however many million subscribers now.)

The evening after I spoke with my co-worker, I took my Druid out to Westfall, to check things out.  I hadn't really considered working on Loremaster-type achievements, but I was curious to see what kinds of challenges she had faced and not enjoyed.  I found that, yes, many of the quests were linear, meaning that one quest led to another, rather than picking up a half-dozen quests to do at the same time.  And some of the earlier ones did not say exactly how you were supposed to accomplish them, which may be what frustrated my co-worker.  (They said something to the effect of "find the clue", without giving as much detail as, "kill the murlocs until you find the clue.")  But the story line quickly grabbed me, and before I knew it, midnight had come and I had to call it a night.

Unlike the previous quests, which had been something to the effect of, "We're in a war with the Defias, so kill a bunch of them.  By the way, pick up some food," there was more reason to fight things.  Sure, there was some food-gathering, but it was to feed the hungry refugees, and the drop rates were more sensible and consistent.  Sure, we picked up red bandanas, but it was to provide clues to a brutal murder.  There was more purpose to the quests and more cohesiveness to the storyline.

The next night, I went back to Westfall, even before I considered running a random to complete my Gnomeregan Exalted reputation.  I continued on with the quests, following the story to its conclusion, marvelling at the outcome, and getting the Westfall quest achievement.

I don't consider myself hard-core.  But nobody goes into healing if they do not like challenges in their game-play.  Even more, I do like a good mystery or puzzle, so the quest line I found was very satisfying to me.  (After all, I played the Myst games way back when--talk about beating your head against a wall.)  If this is the sort of thing we will be finding throughout Cataclysm, I suspect I will be paying much more attention to the lore than I have hitherto done.

I'm actually looking forward to doing more lore questing now.  Some, anyway.

Everyone Is Writing About Cataclysm

It seems these days everyone with a World of Warcraft-related blog is writing about Cataclysm.  Some are speculating how the new talents and abilities will work out.  Others are deciding which character will be their main in the new expansion.  Still others are making plans for the time between now and the next release, tagging achievements they hope to finish before the world is shaken to its core and a good number of them disappear.

At this point, I'm not too worried about the talents and abilities.  I understand that Blizzard is not giving the Resto Druids a new spell, figuring we have a large enough toolbox already.  However, according to the information available at this point, the Resto talent tree will be reassembled in such a fashion as to require us to take talents which would be seemingly worthless by today's abilities and requirements.  This indicates to me that some of our spells will be reworked a bit, requiring us to adapt our healing style to maximize our potential according to new rules.  This isn't unusual.  They've done it for every expansion.  As one of the guilds on my server likes to say, "Adapt or die."  (Well, in this case, it's more like, "Adapt or don't get invited to the raids while we replace you with someone who really cares about playing their best.")

There is no question for me which character I will be playing through the expansion.  The only real contenders would be my Druid or my mage, and I enjoy playing the Druid much, much more.  I wonder how many people who are running around with five to eight level 80 characters will actually change their mains come Cataclysm.  Of the raiders who were in my guild at the end of Burning Crusade, I think only about three or four changed their mains, and one of them didn't change his until after T8 content.

As far as achievements go, I'm not sure I really have a big goal.  I could work on getting my Vanilla dungeons finished (stealthed into Ogrimmar the other day so I could get the Ragefire Chasm achievment . . .)  I do not know how many (if any) of these dungeons will disappear.  I could work on getting my Vanilla raid achievments, but to be honest, they just aren't that important to me.  BGs will most likely still be there, and the grind to get the BG achievements is too tiring to consider at the moment.  And there is NO WAY I am going to run around getting all the low-level quests for any achievements in that area.  (Sorry.  Tried it once and quit after about 15 minutes of sheer boredom.  Just isn't happening.)

So what am I going to do between now and Cataclysm?  Well, I will continue raiding on my Druid.  I will still continue doing random heroics on my mage, for badges and for the variety.  When my RL friend levels her pally high enough, I will probably run things with her.  And when I am bored, wondering what on earth I can do, now that I've run my random, done my fishing, cooked up fish feasts, mixed up flasks, and generally prepared myself for the next raid, I will sneak over to the Horde side and do low-level questing on my hunter.  (/wink)