Real Life Claims A Good One

It's always hard when someone who has been with the guild for a good amount of time leaves the raid.  There are shared memories, things to laugh over, bittersweet messages to send . . .

But this week, I will be saying good-bye to a healer who has been healing with me for two years.  This one will be hard.

This healer has been a reliable fixture in the raid since he started.  We could always count on him to not only know and understand his class (and every other healing class, for that matter), we could count on him to come to raids, perform well and keep people alive in spite of whatever they stepped in or forgot to do.  He was dedicated to the point where he froze ice packs in preparation for raid, so he could place his laptop on them, to prevent his graphics card from freaking out.  (As it was, he usually saw Sindragosa at about 3 fps . . . He finally got a new computer in T11.)

When I became healing officer and was afraid of what I didn't know, this is the healer who told me, "Don't worry, I'll help you learn the stuff."  He gently gave hints whenever I was confused or uncertain, helping me get a feel for things.  I still run ideas by him if I am unsure, just to hear him say, "Yep."

He sympathized when I had daughters driving me crazy, he checked to make sure I was all right if there were times I had to leave raid early because of an emergency, and he was always there to empathize when something in-game got frustrating.  He knows the side of me most raiders almost never get to see:  the side which gets cranky, annoyed, or irritated at something someone said and just wants to blow up for 5 seconds.

This healer is one of the two guildies I managed to meet in real life, part of the "Leet New Mexican Healing Team", as I termed it.

But, as we all know and hate to admit, Real Life comes first, and Real Life reared its ugly head.  He is still a student and this semester, his classes directly conflict with raid.  He'd managed to dodge the bullet last semester when his schedule required him to be a little late only one day a week.  But when he discovered this semester he would have to be absent two nights a week, he knew he would be unable to continue, in fairness to the raid.

I've known it was coming for more than a month, but even so, when he posted up his farewell post on our guild forum, it made me cry.  He'll still be around in the World of Warcraft, but I will really miss having him in the raids.

Good luck, Fan!  Get those A's and check in often.