Medic.

Having an amazing healer along for the battleground ride makes all the difference.

Thank you, my friend.

Awfully glad to see this big Marine,*even if the Marine has purple braids and face tattoos. Semper fi, elf girl.

Luperci on furlough.

Maybe that's where Matty needs to get some healing experience, in battlegrounds: change into some camo, and get out there and take care of business. Our guild needed a healer tonight, and Matty slunk into the shadows and did not answer that call to duty. She was 4-Fand AWOL tonight. To be fair, there was some alt-aholism at play, too. Luperci has a pretty strong desire to be a good tank, and had some beaches to storm.

*Theme song: Camouflage/Stan Ridgeway

Inside Joke.

"Gratz, Toilet!"



Best line, ever:
"Everytime you kill Ingvar the Plunderer, a Toilet gets his wings..."




Theme songs:
Harvey Danger: Flagpole Sitta
"I'm not sick, but I'm not well.."

Rolfe Kent/Desert Ride/Men Who Stare at Goats

Postscript: I would love to continue this journey of leveling with you, but I know schedules and life may demand otherwise. If I could have materialized chicken soup, hot compresses, juice, and tea you know I would have. But damn, you are funny when you're all hopped up on cold meds. I am not interested in leveling Lupe fast, or on her own; I learned more about tanking in those dungeon runs with you than any other resource. Healer, heal thyself - get well soon, and let's see if we can get our own 'gratz toilets.'


...and: the true heroic gratz to you for being the hero to the one who needed a printer cartridge when you were in that condition. Truly a champion, my friend.

Heaven Help Me

I want to sing the praises, shout hallelujah, in honor and benediction of healers, and shine a light on priest healers in particular. The question was raised recently on one of the WoW blogs: when you enter a dungeon, who are you relieved to see?

My shoulders slumped slightly because I knew no one would respond: "Oh, thank Bronzebeard! An enhancement shaman is here to save the day!"Sigh.

But many are quite relieved to see a priest healer. Somehow they manage to meditate the nerfs, the changes, the patches, with the patience of Jobe, and the intelligence and scholarly pursuit of a Jesuit. These priests are smart. Healing is one of the most complicated roles: healers should have an automatic title of "Dr." in front of their name, because they have earned their degrees. Their careful yet lightening-fast diagnosis and triage tactics would make any battlefield medic envious. They measure threat, health, line of sight, all the while watching their own mana because they know in order to take care of everyone else, they must heal themselves, first.*

On occasion, I have met a burnt-out or grumpy healer. A healer who just doesn't dig my style of street-fighting bloodletting. Ones who have left me for dead. But these are rare, and those who know me know I would never intentionally cause any disruption in the healing process. I take my medicine as prescribed. You are my life-line: instead of giving me last rites, you give me leaps-of-faith, make me walk on clouds, and ease my burdens. I walk in a glow of peace and serenity because of you.

So, to my priest healer friends, and the shadowy ones, too (you keep life in balance): you make my spirit fly.

What a blessing.

--Mat

Theme song playing in my head:
First, it was "Personal Jesus" by Depeche Mode, but that is a bit over the top; perhaps "Undisclosed Desires" by Muse works, too, especially the line: "I want to reconcile the violence in your heart..."

The Story of the Grumpy Healer

There is a disorienting effect when you've queued for a random, and the big ENTER DUNGEON pops up, and you're plunked in the dungeon obviously after a fight has ended. This means usually one of two things: Someone disconnected or there was dungeon drama.

Yesterday Mat was witch-house dropped right after the BRC first boss, Rom'ogg Bonecrusher. Mr. Bonecrusher is not a nice boss. Mat has had several experiences with him, some successful, some not. The most successful one was when a skilled paladin gave her a macro to use on the chains that worked beautifully. When she tried to share this macro with some comrades in another run, she was met with some derision. (We all wiped, by the way, though Mat did break free of the chains, but since bosses are not downed alone, well...)

We all know Mat has been working on her DPS. It was fine. She knew this dungeon, and the first obstacle was burnt down. She didn't ask what had happened, and no one offered. But Mat has a key survival skill, and that is to read the mood of a room or group quickly and accurately (another underrepresented stat). She noticed in party chat that one player, she thought was the tank, was being a  critical player - "guess I gotta do it all myself...blah blah blah..." and then she read the chat closer and realized the smack talker WAS THE HEALER. Now she doesn't remember the name or realm, but the image of this beautiful blonde human healer (class? priest? paladin? unsure), talking trash about other people's play and skills was shocking, kind of like if Gwyneth Paltrow started singing country music. (Oh...wait...) Anyway, Mat opened her sweet mouth, and said she thought things went well.

That is when the blonde bully turned to Mat and said: "Tell me where you live because I'm going to come to your house and beat you up after this."

Mat has encountered bullies before. Another survival skill is humor. Weighing Justice/Valor points over a bully's, um, bull, won out. Thinking fast, Mat replied: "Great! Look forward to it! Would you like me to bake you some cookies?"

Perhaps the healer wasn't used to being killed with kindness. But it seemed to soften her up. Yes, indeed "she" (Mat still has an image of Comic Book Guy behind the blonde toon) would like cookies, chocolate chip - Mat: "Ice cold milk, too?" "No, I like juice." Mat: "So you want to get all sugared up?" ...smiley face and a yes....and no more threats.

Sometimes our worst enemies are other players. And they won't all respond to offers of cookies. But you may not want to leave a forwarding address either.




Filing a workman's comp claim on these bosses:

http://www.wowhead.com/npc=39665/romogg-

Me and my hunter friend need a dungeon redemption on this one:

http://www.wowwiki.com/Commander_Springvale

http://www.wowhead.com/forums&topic=180042/easiest-heroic-first-boss-cata-dungeons