The difference a letter makes

Back to working on my priest.

Log in, enter LFG for WC and SFK.

I’ve already done WC once but it’s still at least green for me and it would be nice to run it again without freaking out about going OOM.

To pass the time I’m out in the Ghostlands. I have a couple of quest chains to finish up and then it will be time to plot which zone I want to conquer next.

I’m deliberately avoiding the Barrens and the Razorfen instances. My camera invariably goes wonky and shows me a screen of nothing but water. I realize that I’m underground, but neither instance is near any water that I can tell. And listening to the piggies squeal when they die grates on my nerves after about the 4th one.

I get an invite to Shadowfang Keep. Awesome, I have 3 quests in there.

But the group is me and a mage. That’s it.

The mage then makes me group leader.

I switch leadership back.

The group disbands.

I get a whisper from the mage, want to heal RFK?

Sure, if you can get a group together.

Instant invite to a new group.

I’m out in the Ghostlands still so I’ll need to get back to Silvermoon, translocate to Undercity and catch a bat to the Sepulcher…

Wait.

Dammit.

>.<

He said RFK not SFK.

R… S… they’re right next to each other in the alphabet…

It’s a full group, I don’t want to be an ass and back out.

I’ll deal with piggies this once.

Pull open the map.

3 members of the party are on Kalimdor, looks like one in Stonetalon, one in Ashenvale, and one in the Barrens. The 4th is in Tirisfal with me.

So… one would think that the 2 people closest to the instance would hop over there and start summoning. Especially since one is high enough level to have a mount and the rest of us do not.

One really needs to stop thinking.

I got to UC so I could pick up the Guano quest, which someone shared with me 2 steps away from the quest giver.

No one on the other continent has moved in the direction of the instance.

Great.

Guess I’ll hop on the zep to Org, fly to Camp Taurajo, run to the instance.

Oh wait, one of the guys is there, the shaman, and a second is almost there… the second is the guy that was on the other continent with me.

“Sry guys have to go be back in 5 min”

You couldn’t have waited 30 seconds for the second guy to show up and at least summon everyone before logging out?

The second guy shows up to the stone, but he’s now all alone.

I’m running down from Camp T and the other 2 people are still fucking around in Stonetalon and Ashenvale.

Summons go out… from the 2 people that were the furthest away from the fucking instance when the party was formed.

Whatevs.

Got a warrior tank (this makes the 3rd tauren warrior I’ve instanced with, must be the new fad), a frost mage, and a hunter.

We’re all decked out in BoA gear so I’m reasonably certain no one is completely retarded.

We are cruising through the instance as a 4-man.

The tank is polite and mindful of my mana, I try to be mindful of his rage and not stop often. He does a real good job taunting off of me when the heals pull aggro. I’m almost to the point where I can pick up talents to reduce my threat on heals.

The hunter is awesome and never loses control of his turtle. I only had to heal the pet once in a nasty pull.

The mage finally admitted halfway through the run that they had no clue what they were doing. I kinda figured that out by the way you’re OOM more than me, doing half the damage of anyone else in the party, and you still haven’t cast Arcane Intellect on me. (It was almost the end of the run before I convinced him to cast it on me.)

My camera did wig out once, but I was able to zoom in enough to make it stop.

The shaman finally logs back in (after much more time than 5 minutes) and rejoins the group after we’ve downed the second boss.

He wants us to run back to the entrance and summon him.

You can run like we did.

“But I’ll have to run from camp taurajo”

I had to run from the other bloody continent.

Everyone agrees that he should run, it would take us more time to backtrack through the instance and get to the stone than for him to just tail it over.

“OMG some people are so fucking lazy”

Aren’t they though?

The irony seemed to be lost on him but the hunter had a good chuckle.

My priest has developed a personality. He’s got more snark and disdain than my mage. Arioch believes he’s better than most everyone else… my priest knows he’s above everyone else. But I can see Arioch kicking back in the Filthy Animal in Dal, a local brew in one hand and a wench in the other. It might be a little rough and tumble, but he would enjoy himself. The priest would be bitching about fleas in the pelts on the floor and questioning the lineage of the patrons feasting messily at the table. He’s also a bit of a chat troll and instigated a Chuck Norris joke frenzy in the Barrens. It would have happened anyway.

The shaman finally joins us and we continue pwning face.

Except now I’m healing 2 people. The tank… and the shaman. WTF?

OK, I don’t know what you’re doing, but it’s drawing a lot of aggro.

The warrior responds, “He’s pulling”

Let the warrior tank.

“oh c’mon don’t be so uptight about a low level instance”

You are making me stress about my mana and I do not appreciate it.

“I can heal if you’re oom”

I made the decision to stop healing him. If he wants to play tank and healer, he can go right on ahead.

Almost immediately I get a whisper from the tank, “just don’t heal him.”

Haha!

I already decided that, but thanks for backing me on it. This was easier when it was just the 4 of us.

“Yeah. It was.”

We finished clearing everything out, did the escort quest, I realized I’m not high enough level to start the quest from the item that the piggy bitch drops.

The mage teleports out without offering a portal. Rude.

My main is a mage, I get to comment on mage behavior.

The hunter invites me to his guild, I decline. But I do think I ended up on the friends list of both the hunter and the warrior.

I hit level 25 somewhere in there.

My heals per second were up to 30.9, twice what I was doing in WC, woot!

Overhealing at this level is a bitch.

I can heal you for 175 over time, 200+, or 400+. You’re at -100ish.

Do I wait for you to take more damage and make you worry that I’m not paying attention or do I just slap a renew on you? I don’t really care about the overhealing so much as the mana consumption. Eh. Just heal you and be safe.

The big learning point of the run was that casting Power Word: Shield draws a fuckload of aggro. I’m still working on getting the timing down so I cast it before the tank runs into the fray, but not so soon that most of it is lost during positioning.

The mouseover macros are still rocking.

The only spell I’m having an issue with is Dispel Magic. It seems like sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t… I can’t predict when it’s going to work and when it won’t.

Equipped my new Robes of Arcana, and I’ll be sporting a Moonsoul Crown next level. Currently over 1K HP and 2K mana self-buffed. /flex

I'm too good to make eye contact with you

Again, WTB turn off glove display. He looks like he’s getting ready to wash dishes.