Amber at I Like Bubbles posted a link to this one 5 days ago, but I’m just now catching up on reading. Yes, yes, bad me, should not stop reading blogs, etc. Enough chastising me, go read A Single Set of Rules On How To Raid ANYTHING. Yes, it really is a working set of rules on how to raid anything (at least up to Mimiron in Uld10).
I have not yet explored the rest of the blog, but I may have a new link on my list before the night is over.
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Back in Burning Crusade, before I was part of FS, I raided with Roundtable Raiders. It essentially was what TTH is; a group of friends who raid together as an excuse to get together and bs with each other every few nights. It was fun, even though pretty much all we did was Karazhan (simply not enough people for 25s). During one of these runs, we had made it to Netherspite and decided to take a whack at learning the fight. Needless to say, we failed many, many times before everyone got their roles down pat, and I had a new favorite boss. Sorry Chess!
I can’t remember when exactly it happened, but on one fight we had managed to get him down to killable levels when both tanks died. No healers, no DPS dead, just the tanks, a warrior and a bear. “Wipe it, and we’ll try again,” says the raid leader. “Fuck no,” says I. We have me and a shammy healer and the boss is at 20% at the beginning of the beam phase – we can do this! So I jump into the red beam and call for heals from someone, anyone, and assume the role of huntank.
As a side note, I think this is what planted the idea of making a tank alt in my head.
Well, we didn’t kill the boss. People had started killing themselves in void zones and I wasn’t getting heals, so when a zone popped up under me I died in about 3 seconds. But this is a very good example of how I thought back then. To me, there was no such thing as “wiping it.” If the boss killed us all, fine, but damn if I’m not going down swinging! If I ever used Feign Death, it was to buy me time enough to pop back up and get a few more shots off. It just never really dawned on me that FD could save me some repair bills.
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I told you that story to tell you this one.
About two weeks ago, we decided to run Naxx 10 to help gear up a few alts, and had just added a 10th person (our tree druid’s s-priest). Myself and Vic (on his priest) had run out to summon her, and the three of us headed into the Construct and whoops! Up pops a slime and I get that big-ass AGGRO warning across my screen.
/Feign Death! Sorry Alvar, you’re a ded kitty, but I’ll rez you.
Suddenly Vent lights up with the voice of a very irate dwarven priest…
“OMG NOOB GET UP AND TANK IT! I’LL HEAL YOU!”
So I’m faced with a dilemma. I have raided with Vic since RTR, barring the short time in FS or off-server. I know the guy, I like the guy, and I don’t wish him ill. He’s a good healer and yeah, he probably could keep me up. At least long enough for me to resummon my cat, Disengage and begin pouring on the hate.
On the other hand, repairs are getting expensive. And really, he could just run out…
Turns out Vic is the same kind of raider I used to be: Stand there and do your job as best you can til everything’s dead, one way or the other. So right as I decide to jump back up Vic takes on his Failangel form (thank you to Amber for introducing me to that phrase) and Mid begins running for the door, shrieking about how horrible a friend I am in vent and omigodimgonnadie!
…Is it bad that I laughed? No, not chuckled, I laughed. My ass off. And I had no remorse whatsoever, because the reactions were just too freaking GOOD. Nevermind they have both sworn revenge, and nevermind they’re two of our three raid healers 90% of the time. I’d still do it again, just that once. I will strive to return to my Shoot Until Actually Dead ways from now on, but I still feel it was totally worth it.
And in my defense, I was about to jump back up when Vic died.
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Erikka is now level 67, as I have said before, and fully Prot. I’m stoked (do people say that anymore? Or should I stick with excited?) at the thought of tanking, even if it’s just heroics, and even if I fail miserably at it. I think this is partly because our guild’s pally tank Ryan seems to think I can do it. He’s been more than willing to help me with my spec, answer my noobass questions, and generally being an awesome guy about it.
No, she hasn’t tanked anything since Zul’Farrak a year ago. No, she isn’t in blues and purples from Outlands. No, I will probably never main- or even off-tank in raids. But just the fact that Ryan hasn’t squashed my dreams of attempting to tank in raids is enough to keep me dreaming, and satellite connection be damned!