Mooonfire!

I know, I know, no new posts in almost two weeks.

That’s because it’s flu season! I spent most of last week flat on my back. But!

After five (six? four?) downs, the Curator finally released my shoulderpads.

And tonight, for the first time, KMM/Timeless downed The Prince of Karazhan. Prince Malchezaar met his sticky end at our hands, and relinquished Light’s Justice, which was given to me.

I am thrilled.

I was working my way towards my next upgrade- an upgraded mace, since the bosses we’re downing are generous with all the healing gear except weaponry- in Eye of the Storm recently, when I came to an interesting conclusion.

It works sort of like this:

No, really. I started to notice that the people I was healing were, well, actually sticking with me. I even got a couple comments in /s: “Nice heals!”
“good healing”
“you worthless [profane statement regarding gender, romantic preference, and/or hereditary legitimacy]ers, I’m not going to cap the flag unless you get three towers”

I let that last guy die.

My by-now-decently-sized group moved, at my whim, towards the less-heavily-defended of the Alliance towers. They did not fight to control the center, they did not ‘attack, die/win, run away regardless’. We fought until the tower went down, and since I didn’t move, we stayed until it was solidly Horde-aligned.

Then we started making captures, moving two at a time, me paired with some swifter-moving DPSery type.

I guess the point of this post is to explain that healers really do seem to have a good amount of deciding power in determining the flow of a battleground. I haven’t noticed the effect so much in AV, possibly because it’s so spread out, but I think the phenomenon is worth researching.

And if I get to punt gnomes in the name of research, well, it’s a good day to be me.

What do you think? Are we destined to see a wave of Healers-Generale, or am I just a deluded cow in a tuxedo?

(Got 49 on Monday, the last one Tuesday- Tux’d the whole way. No other gear but a riding crop and a Frostwolf Howler.)

I have a mission. A holy cause, if you will.

This year, for the first time, I am going to get all 50 of the Coins of Ancestry.

I am! Stop snickering.

I am going to do it in a very special way.

I just hit the 44th coin.

As you can see, I’m not exactly wearing uber epics.

Though I admit, I do have one piece of equipment that you can’t see…

…my Riding Crop.

To note: Night Elves should not nuke fluffy taurens in tuxedoes. The humans get it, they smile. The draenei get it, they laugh. The dwaves get it, they /cheer. The Night Elves? They chain-nuke and Moonfire spam you.

In the words of Donald: It isn’t working, it isn’t working, I don’t like it.

There are two goals in this battleground. Goal number one: Take towers (including the corollary- HOLD the towers).

Goal number two: Capture the flag.

A word on #2: The flag? It respawns. Refusing to capture it for five minutes when we have two towers and control center field is not just tactically unsound, but it’s stupid. And it makes me hate you.

No really.

I get that we downed Horseman in fifteen minutes including trash.

I get that we burned Moroes after one abortive attempt (trap broke early).

I get that Maiden chain-fired us and we came back for a second try and pasted her against the wall.

I get that while this was happening we got two epics off trash. I get all that.

(I don’t quite get why this guy actually had these as an upgrade, they seem rather… out of place…)

Anyway. We were in Karazhan today. We burned Attumen with, and I’m going to brag here on other people’s behalf, such accomplished grace we made it look casual.

My nightmares about Moroes from last week? Gone. This week’s group burned down the adds, shackled, trapped, and in general blew a hole in the universe so smoothly that I was actually and honestly surprised at “First down. Second down. Third dropped.” coming through my headset.

Maiden? Well, I’ll be honest, I actually thought we’d down her more easily than we did. But, still being honest, the reason we wiped the first time was because we were too close together on the melee group. Adjusting for one melee more than we had last week was hard, and the tank caught the end of one of her Chain-Holy Wipe-o-Matic Cluster-Killers.

We got her the second time though.

Then there was some discussion. “Well, you know, we could just clear up to Opera. See what it is.” I didn’t mention that it resets and possibly changes after everyone leaves for a half-hour. I wanted to see!

The entire way up, I’m hearing- from the three people who’ve run Opera before- about how nice it would be if we got Red Riding Hood, since that’s both fun and simple.

I also heard how we had a good group for Oz…

…and how we must live in dread of Romulo and Julianne.

“Of course you know,” I said in jest, “Now we’re going to get them.”

Our brave few cast lots to see who would get to strip buff and go out onstage to provoke the curtain.

“Tonight” the stage manager bellowed as Wild shivered in his unmentionables, “we explore a tale of forbidden love!”

My headset lit up. “Crap! It’s Romeo.”
“Can we try it anyway?” I’m not sure who suggested that.

One reasonably-fast explanation later….

“Romulo’s 20, swap to Julianne.”
“Fifteen and six.”
“Keep at it- eight and four.”
“Four and two!”
“Two and one- she’s down, get him!”

“YES!”

I admit to yelling over voice chat. It was amazing. That was two hours ago and only now is the adrenaline draining.

What I don’t get is this.

In two weeks, I have gotten no fewer than five epics.

FIVE.

Gloves of Saintly Blessing. The VERY NEXT DAY, Mitts of the Tree-Mender. This week? Both dropped again (naturally I didn’t need them this time) plus Earthsoul Leggings and Bands of Indwelling.

I don’t get it! Please, give the tanks some love!

No. Really. Wild, you’re my witness here. If the Forest Wind Shoulderpads drop tomorrow off Curator- (because you just know that punk’s going down) I will cry. I mean it. I will actually cry. The Wrynn Dynasty Greaves or a T4 glove need to drop instead. The tanks need some love.

And this is where it all goes kind of sour, you know?

I want- I desperately want- to try a new build. It’s part of the fun of the game for me.

Besides, A: Tree was supposed to be temporary.
B: I hate not being able to see my armor.
C: I want nicer solo viability so I can do some quests without asking people for help or taking nine years/drinking a lake.

So this is what it all comes down to, calculations and so on taken care of:

34/-/27 for the MP5 bonuses and Moonkin when I’m soloing?
27/-/34 for the Swiftmend and Imp. Regrowth?
Or stay as Tree?

Maybe I should just flip a coin.

Of course, we’re just starting Karazhan and perhaps I should wait until we know it bet…. nah.

This, however, is not it.

This is about Karazhan.

I had never been before last week. Oh, sure, I understood that there was sweet gear (Mother of murlocs, there’s EPICS in there!) but I’m in a very laid back, very casual guild.

Well, five of us found ourselves together running an instance.

It went well.

We ran another. It went very well.

We ended up doing the entire Karazhan keying chain. With no wipes. In two days.

We’ve since run several more instances in this five-man, and it’s fun every time. Karazhan, despite our keys, seemed an unattainable goal.

We said to our allied guild “hey, we have some people with Kara keys. If you do, too, you want to poke around in there sometime, wipe a few times, have some fun?”

I figured we’d have a chance to gear up a bit more first.

Then that lunatic Wildhermit got involved and started prodding. We ended up going that very week (four of us and six of them).

We dropped Attumen in one try. We dropped Shadikith in the basement with the same amount of trouble.

We went back the next day and turned Maiden of Virtue into Toasted Woman on Floor, one try. Moroes was a little trickier, but we got him on the fourth attempt.

Karazhan, as it turns out, is fun. Really, really fun. I am looking forward to next week and getting more epics.

I highly recommend Karazhan if you have a chance to go in a low-stress environment. If you can drop Attumen, you’re geared okay. If you can drop Moroes, you’re coordinated enough.

This week we’re going to try for Opera.

P.S. Mitts of the Tree-Mender!