The other night(like a month and a half ago), after a wipefest which saw us not down Thorim or Freya the discussion in Vent turned to our weaknesses and strengths. While the main weakness has seemed to be slow reaction times from DPS, Healers and Tanks alike, our strengths have been a few strong players in a few spots. Most of whom are not around this week. While listing our strongest healers by name, I was mentioned by our Raid Leader along with a Paladin and a Priest.

I have got to say that when it comes down to things like that, I feel that I always blend into the background and tend to not feel that my contributions stand out as much as they actually do. I’ve felt that way about just about every aspect of my life for as long as I can remember. It’s not new with WoW and Raiding.

When I was an officer in Raging Daisies and Kohrruption it was different. I felt that having the Officer title It thrust my performance out there to the fore. I felt that I had to shine and therefore when I did, I never expected praise for it. As an officer I felt that I was supposed to be the best at my job. Now as a grunt in Unemployed, I’m just another guy. I just blend in with the crowd and do my thing. Well, apparently not. I’m one of “our strongest healers”. That felt great to hear.

When we’re raiding I tend to look at what my assignment is, and see how I can do that and more. I never want to just do the bear minimum. I fell that to do just what was asked of me, is not doing all that was asked of me. I always take any assignment and infer that I’m supposed to also do more when possible. “Maer, heal the two tanks” Ok. I’ll heal the two tanks. But I’ll also heal the silly DK who pulls agro, I’ll also heal the Hunter who didn’t notice that he was standing in stuff. I know other people are assigned to those people, and my Regrowth isn’t going to snipe that heal from them, but it may help to be a buffer to keep them alive longer.

Going above and beyond becomes difficult however, when my healing assignment is “everythinglol” <3 Pilz!

Man I miss raiding, but life in general feels so much better now that I'm not stuck at my desk 5 nights a week. Maybe I'll try to sigh up for next Tuesday and see if I'm needed.

As accomplished as I feel I am within this world, I still pale in comparison to those who have come before me.

Take my namesake for example. Maerdred was active years ago and he helped rid the world of some world class Baddies! He helped to Kill Hakkar, he cleared out most of the Molten Core (which I have never even seen) He killed the likes of Kael’thas and Lady Vashj. He’s considered to be the Hand of A’dal for Elune’s sake! He fought Archimonde valiantly! He roasted Teron Gorefiend on a spit.

Sure, he never /spat at Illidan, and never saw Kil’Jaeden, but look at those other achievements! This guy was EPIC. I wasn’t even a Druid yet when he did most of that. I started my training just after Gorefiend went down. Sure, I had a good run. I killed Prince Malchezar a few times. Hydross once or twice. Gruul was no match for me, nor was Magtheridon. But, Archimonde? nope. Illidan? Not even close! I only killed Lady Vashj and Kael’thas when I out-leveled them by 10.

Hakkar? I was 20 levels above him before I ever saw him killed. Maerdred participated in a guild-first kill of that one when he was level 58! 58!!! Do you know how epic that is? I’ve done so little compared to him. I need to catch up!

I’ve already started. The other day, I took six of my friends into Onyxia’s cave and we destroyed her. I later pulled each and every whelp just for fun. -50 DKP for me!

So, my plan is to get a group of people together and see if we can romp through AQ20, AQ40, MC, BWL? Is there an attunement for that one still? I want to see if I can 2-man Kara, Want to kill Illidan and Kil’jaeden also. I want to see what it’s like.

I also need to go in and finish off some of the lesser baddies. I’ve never seen the inside of Maraudon, Uldaman, DM, Scholo… I’ve never finished off ZF, or ST. BRD UBRS, LBRS. I know I can solo all of those. I just haven’t done it. So, that’s another part of my plan. I want to get that done before anything happens to these places like what I hear is going on with Onyxia.

Soon, I’ll be almost as epic as that Night Elf, or maybe even more so. He’s never killed Yogg-Saron, now has he?

Is Effing hard!

I’ve been going through a rough patch recently, and It will be quite a blow to some of the people who read this, but then again, maybe not. But basically, Burnout has hit me. I’ve been raiding almost weekly for the better part of the past three years. It started with Maerdred in ZG, moved steadily up to AQ20 and MC and Aq40 and transitioned to Leveling and Raiding Kara As quickly as possible when TBC came out. Kara lasted months and then the guild grew again and we hit Gruul, SSC, TK. This lasted for what seemed like years, but was actually just a few months.  Mount Hyjal came after that, and The dreaded Black Temple.

As we floundered in the Black Temple last spring and summer, I took the opportunity to level up Maerrakech and start raiding Kara and ZA with my cousin’s guild. He actually hit 70 in June last year and never looked back. We never had the numbers for the larger raids, so we’d team up with guilds for the 25′s and that went okay for a while. Then with Wrath last November, more leveling and BOOM Naxx 10 raiding started in early January. with 25′s coming mere days later. From that point I haven’t looked back, other than the couple weeks between the fall of Kohrruption and my subsequent move to Unemployed.

I’ve raided at least once every week with Unemployed, and most weeks, I’ve raided all three nights we’ve been active. The only week I missed was when I was on vacation in June, and I have one coming up next week.

So, when I explained to a new friend that I was busy every Wednesday and Thursday because of raids, I was hit with what amounted to a quizzical stare and “why not just not go?” At that moment I knew I’d lost her. She was on her own. Video games are video games and you can decide not to play whenever you want. right? “and dont they understand people need to do whats best for them? in the end its a video game.”

This is what she said to me.

I agree 100%. as I am sure everyone in my guild agrees. I’m sure that you, constant reader, agree. It is just a video game. and it’s my $15 to spend how I see fit. and If I don’t want to raid, it’s up to me. Right? Well It’s not that simple. It’s a difficult Decision. It’s one of the hardest decisions a raider can make. When has it become too much to bear?  When is it OK to let your guild down and stop showing up? I joined this guild for one reason. They needed healers to raid, and I wanted to raid. If I walk away, I’m letting them down, just as I am letting myself down. If I step down from raider rank to be casual, how many people get screwed by not having a Tree Druid in their raids? 24. Being personally responsible for 24 other people’s ability to raid at their best is not something I’d wish on anyone.

Try explaining that to someone who doesn’t raid and it’s an alien concept. Try telling someone who’s never witnessed the game? Yeah… three-heads. There’s no way she can understand how frustrating it is to have 23 people show up for a progression night. She has no idea how much it kills me to think that next week, I may be one of the 2 who doesn’t show, causing the guild to backslide. She doesn’t get how I understand it’s just a game. and I can choose to play it when I want, but It’s also SO much more than that.

How do you explain that to someone in terms that they’ll understand? Imagine that I’m the Catcher for my Softball team, and I carry with me all of the equipment for my job, and one weekend I just decide not to show up. Well guess what. None of my friends can play because all of the Catching equipment is in my car, and I didn’t show up. Is that a close approximation to this? I think maybe it is.

Now, the bigger question is this: Why is softball more socially acceptable than World of Warcraft? But that’s news for another day…

Last night the guild and I went back to the Crudsader’s ring thing… I learned one thing about the fight.

Fire = bad.

Oh I learned another.

As a Resto healer with 4pc T8, your healing assignment is summed up thusly…. “everythinglol”

And seriously. it works.

Pay no attention to the gear behind the Armory link. Your Treebound cat has not forsaken you. The Spec and gear listed there are not an indication of anything at all sinister. All that’s going on here is this…

Unemployed needed me to DPS in 10-man Ulduar, and with the help of my Favorite Beercow, I got my gear put together and decided that yes. I was ready to DPS as a Moonkin! She even let me buy those nice bracers and an enchant from the guild bank for 100 Gold.

I’m just sorry that she wasn’t there to see me in my oonkin Glory, as she raided with the other 10-person group this week. 2 Moonkin would have been silly for one group anyway…

More details to come.

Tonight I get to go to Maly 25 for the second time ever…

I am nervous. I don’t think I was the weak link last time, but I seriously had no idea what I was doing. I’ve taken the time to read up and watch videos, but… what if I mess up? I’m still the new guy. Nerves of Marshmallow Fluff. I tell you!

At least phases 1 and 2 are easy. Phase 3 I am a bit under prepared for, but I think I have a firm grasp on what I am “supposed” to do. It’s not that difficult a concept. Ride Drake. Heal Drakes. Don’t die. Oh, and as usual, I will be doing my best to heal the mages.

It seems that while Maerrakech and Fohrbin have found a new home, We are both out of a job…(I love speaking in third person)

Yes, it’s true. I am now Unemployed. This economy is brutal, and not even we hard working folk are immune to it.

I guess there’s a silver lining to the situation. Apparently the Unemployed of Hydraxis have formed a union of sorts and have accepted me into it with the stipulation that I help with Healing for raids on Naxx, Malygos, and Sartherion. So, not all unemployment means no work. It’s just volunteer work, and I’m glad for it!

(and that’s about as close to RP as I get, which shall be changing soon I think)

A few days ago while questing in southern Dragonsblight, I came upon the loveliest creature whom I had ever seen. She was practicing her cliff diving, and I was mesmerized. So much so that I almost missed my chance to talk to her. I was floored by her beauty and elegance, and as she prepared to take her leap, she looked over at me. She smiled and waved, but being as shy as I am, I was frozen. I could feel my face flush, and I turned away in embarrassment and almost fled.

It’s a good thing I didn’t.

See, Cliff-diving is a pretty dangerous sport, and she miscalculated the jump and hit the cliff face on her way down. She was pretty banged up and I had to jump in after her and administer first aid. We got to talking and as I overcame my shy nature, I decided a guy only lives once so I asked her out.

Of course, just my luck she already had a date planned with Ratshag, that insufferable Orc. And, the classy lady she is, she didn’t want to set up two dates. I can understand that, but for her to choose Ratshag? I just don’t know. I tried to convince her that he’s just no good. He’d drop her like a bad habit. I told her how he did the same to Lady Jaina Proudmoore. While disguised as a dwarf no less. No matter how I tried to persuade her otherwise she would not relent, so I let it go. I only asked her that if things didn’t go well with Ratshag, would she consider me?

Well, as luck would have it(for me), last night Ratshag (that cad) left her in the lurch. She was all dressed up and he cancelled on her, last minute like. She called me, crying and when I offered to comfort her, she asked me to head right over. Now, seeing that I am a gentleman who doesn’t kiss and tell, I can’t give you any details of our date other than this. She’s invited me to the Cliff Diving Championships in Nagrand later this month. I won’t get to see her until then, due to her training regimen, but I have a very good feeling about this.

Last night I logged on to find a few guild members looking for an instance run. As they were two of my buddies from the Ally side of things, I jumped at the chance to spend some quality time. So as I finished up the quest I was doing I hearthed to Dalaran, sold stuff and repaired. By the time I was ready the group of Grish, Drew and Maer had added Zaven and a PUG pally healer I didn’t know. So, it was almost a full ex-RD group.

We all decided we’d hit up the Old Kingdom, which I had never done before, so that was fun! I must have spaced my way through there because I have no specific memories of the place other than we went through fast. Grish is 80, and a tank, so that kind of made things easier. I took some screenshots and this blog is fail because I never copied them to my thumb drive to transfer them here to work so I could write this post…

After we finished Old Kingdom we went to Zul’Drak which i had also never been to before. It was awesome. I want to farm it. Drew won an amazing Staff there and I wants it. It’s better than my current mace and offhand, or will e if I enchant it. It is sick. Also, I took Screenshots, but…

I dinged 75 after the first boss in the instance, which our healer didn’t even know was a boss. I didn’t realize it until I saw DBM pop up that we had started a fight. We just pulled him like we were pulling another trash mob. he was simple. Other than that the entire night kind of blurred together on me. My favorite part of the night was the stairs event. Is this the new ZF? haha!

After we were done there I took some me-time and did some achievement hunting. I got my first Dalaran Cooking Award, I finished my 50 daily quests, and I got one step closer to finishing all 5 of the Outland Fishing Dailies.

So, last night I completed 2 new dungeons, dinged 75, got my first Dalaran Cooking Award, Fished up a croc in Org, finished off my 50th daily and I have not a pixel to show you… Fail Blog is Fail.