body check to the ego

Can I tell you how much I stunk last night in heroic Black Morass? Holy crap. There were BBQed chicken feathers all OVER that swamp. Oi.

So last night I hopped online hoping to get some healing practice in, but again couldn't find a group. However, a guildie wanted to run heroic Black Morass for the daily and I said I'd respec and bring my boomkin. I've done regular BM a couple of times before and have run a few heroics, so I figured I'd be fine. I played like a complete spaz. I managed to (almost singlehandedly) wipe us two of the three runs. The first time through, I sat to eat and drink too close to the first big boss and got my ass stomped, leading to an eventual wipe. The second run through I did essentially the same thing, running towards a normal wave boss ahead of the tank who had stopped for a moment to bandage or something and I didn't notice. They brought me back after getting that Rift Lord down, but from then on we were behind and eventually lost Medivh. The third (and final) attempt we actually did pretty well and made it to the final boss with Medivh's shield intact. Unfortunately we all were in combat after killing the final Rift Lord and couldn't eat and drink before we took on Aeonus. We let Medivh's shield fall to about 8% before we engaged and started okay, but our healer grabbed aggro almost immediately and went down (and my battle rez was on cooldown, so I couldn't bring him back). I tried to heal the best I could in my DPS gear, but it wasn't enough and we eventually wiped. We might have been able to finish the third attempt but I borked up my Chrono-beacon. The times I had run the instance before, we used it to help control the adds. Apparently everybody else knew to drop the beacon next to the portal. *sigh* We were all exhausted by this point, so I logged off after the third attempt and stumbled down to the couch to watch TV with my wife who had just come home, thoroughly down on my game-playing abilities.

Oh well. You live and learn, right? Next time through, I'll know better. Feh. Gotta get some better DPS gear.

After last night, I'm reevaulating my healing experiment. I'm now leaning towards staying as a boomkin and farming some good healing gear prior to fully switching. Maybe I'll heal lower-level Outland instances, but not the 70s.

annoying night

It's nights like last night that are going to make me respec back to balance post-haste and turn a deaf ear to your pleas for healers.

Last night I logged on a little before 7, with a good few hours before raid time. My wife was out for the evening, so I had hoped to run an instance (or two, if we could squeeze it in) and /flex my mad healing skillz. I hopped on guild chat and greeted everybody (like I try to do every time), then asked if anybody was looking for a healer. No response. "No problem," I tell myself, "I'll just go kill those last few naga and get my [Tiny Spore Bat] while I wait."

I go through my next-to-last iteration of Now That We're Still Friends... and ask again if anybody is interested in running anything. I'd rather not PUG it for my first run as a healzor since about level 23 and figured I could find a guild run of something. Anything. This time, a guy currently running Bot responds and says he'd like to do any of the TK instances for the rep. "Hurray," I thought, and suggest Mech. Both the balance shoulders that I covet and the other half of the Arcatraz key are in Mech, so this seems like a good solution. He goes back to finishing the last boss in Bot and I go try to hurriedly finish the naga off.

A few minutes later they're done and he's putting together his group. I announce on guild chat something like, "I need to turn in this quest and I'm ready," and hurriedly go run to the Sporeggar quartermaster to get my goods. New pet in hand (well, backpack), I whisper him and ask if he's gotten the group ready yet and he replies, "Yeah. We're already running. =/ Forgot you were interested. =(" Jerk.

I'll give this experiment a week, then I'm back to balance. Boomkin is so freaking much fun that I'm pained to have left it, but am willing to sacrifice a little to help my guild. Maybe they don't need more healers and I can go back.

As nobody else wanted to run anything in the hour or so prior to the raid, I swapped over to my hunter and tried to get the feel of him again. Having a pet cat is hella fun. I need to figure out how to better set up my UI for him, 'cause it's a mess right now. Buttons all over for all the different traps, poor organization of my hotbar, etc. I screwed around a little in the southern Barrens, doing the Razormane quests down there but mostly getting reestablished on how to play hunter, dinged a level, hit the trainer and called it a night. One week, I say, then back to the glory that is Boomkin.