To a Friend,

Friend

It’s been a long time since I posted anything. Yes, I’m back playing WOW. Not raiding other than LFR and a few heroics. No there won’t be a continuation of the blog past this post. I made some amazing people blogging and being in the community but that ship has sailed.

Like I stated this is my post to a friend. A friend that means the world to me still, and well due to a few things we didn’t get to have the same experiences in game. So, I figured I’d take the time to chronicle it for them.

One of the last conversations we got to have in game, you told me I could tank anywhere I wanted to in the world. That I could be the best, those words never really left my head after you said them. You weren’t the kind of person to make such statements unless they were true. So, for you friend, here is my journey after Resolve…

I had a friend that got me into Arcania Solare. Not a bad guild talent wise but the GL wanted me to be his personal 5 man tank. I never got raid invites as they suddenly had a glut of DK tanks they didn’t know they would have. Then I hooked up with a  few friend in a guild named Reprisal. Good group, we got KT down in Naxx #7 on the server and well before Ulduar came out. We also landed Sartharion with 2 drakes #2 on the server. It took a while to do all drakes. They wanted to expand to 25 man raiding with another guild. You happened to be there ,, and well, I was asked not to raid. At the time, it was the best thing that could have happened. I went to a guild on Thrall (don’t remember the name) but they were amazing. I was tank #3 which was ok, I was getting 10 man stuff and seeing fights in a different light. I got hacked! For some reason, WOW would not open my account back up. I had to call them. During my time being away from game this guild I was in absorbed another guild and we suddenly had like 10 tanks. Being that I was now lagging in gear, I was warming the bench.

Meanwhile, I rolled another toon on SWC, a pally. This was just to have fun with while trying to figure out what to do. I raided a few times with Reprisal in 10 man Ulduar. I ran into a friend I taked with pre-Wrath from Natural Twenty. He asked what I was doing. Needless to say, I got an invite and xfered Chasey (then Kayden) to N20.  We really made some head way in Ulduar. At one point were only behind Pathenon on SWC. We had a tyrant raid leader named Xees who screamed if you made a mistake. No one made mistakes. In one night we got Heartbreaker and Cache was rare. We did this the same day as Honorbound. I was proud to be with such an amazing group. They were great people and great raiders.

Suddenly we hit Yogg. We wiped on Yogg for 3 straight nights. We locked the raid out and failed every time a few time were at 2%. It was so frustrating NO ONE was even talking. We swapped people in and out, we sat people we tried different methods and nothing. The next day I logged on and seen the guild message of the day, it said. “Thanks for the time guys, N20 is calling it quits”.  I think I cried. I enjoyed playing with that guild that much. It was hard core skill wise but friendly amongst the players.

I bounced around for a bit after that. I raided with Reprisal and did a few cool things but it wasn’t where I wanted to be. I had a taste of what solid players were and well, I had no clue what to do.  I xfered to a guild on Killrog called Ouroborous. They were the BIGGEST douche bags in the history of wow. Worse than Mal’ganis. I was there for 3 weeks. I raided their 4 day a week schedule, I was the least geared player in the guild wearing plate and I didn’t win ONE piece. Not even off set. When I finally asked why, I was told being new, I wasn’t going to be awarded gear until all the others there had off sets 1^st. We were in Heroic Colisium fights at this time and I was in T8 mixed gear still. I couldn’t hold agro and was a squishy punching bag. It did, however help my skill at learning cooldown usage. Thankfully, the Asian Gods came a calling again and I was hacked for the second (and last) time.

I was so far behind in gear, I couldn’t find a tanking slot. I had a pretty kick ass Healer off set and a guild on SWC called Refuge said I could heal and OT for them. I became their maintank. We did some amazing stuff for a small and talentless guild or so we were called. We ended up being 3^rd on SWC behind Pathenon and Honorbound to get Algalon 1^st week we could get him too, which at that time was a top 3000 kill. Yes, we were in T9 gear but it wasn’t Heroic T-9. The week after we started Heroic Colusium and the LK came out. We did ok in those raids but never got to Arthus a second time. Our 1^st time was a disaster and it was our best 10 men. Lots of loot drama took place and we started losing people so we just went to 10’s. Which we found ourselves carrying instead of progressing.  Or other tank, named Soten, maybe the best tank I’ve played with in game left to go to Paradigm on SWC and they took our best heals too, Dunghoof. We were, now not raiding.

Off I go, this time to Icecrown server. To an amazing guild called Jinx. A guild full of kids who were good at the game and raid kicked and guild kicked lots of folks almost weekly.  I got my 1^st LK kill there. A 25 man kill too boot. It was pretty epic, I blogged about it. When we got the cut scene, there was me, a few dps and 2 healers alive. That is out of a 25 man raid. LOL I tanked and kited and cooldowned him for about 30%. Yes, we had a 30% buff but they had him down for months before, we were just gearing others up. WE did hard mode on just about every other fight. It was solid raiding like with N20. I finished out Wrath with Jinx. In fact, my blog header is from Jinx.

OH, right before wrath ended, I ran a LFG with a tank who was in heroic t-10 ungemmed and unenchanged and a healer who had the same thing going on. This was with my hunter Zumhug. I thought this was going to be a mess. You remember how fast heroics went at the end of Wrath, right? This was Heroic UP. That thing was just LONG as an instance, not hard but it was long. I’m not kidding you, I never got out of combat and never stopped moving. That ungemmed tank, literally pulled everything in there, we seriously finished heroic UP in 7 minutes. From entry to goodbye.
They raided with a guild called Exodus on Ysondre. At the time they were top 10 in the US and 12 in the world. At that moment, I think I knew my limitations and my lack of skill. These two were amazing, never rushed, panicked or out of control. Simply amazing!

I ended up leaving Jinx after Wrath. Why? They were going alliance when Cata hit. I could NOT make Chasey an alliance toon.  I struck out to Hyjal for a few reason, I found a 10 man guild that raided at the time I could. My kids were getting old enough that they were going to be later.  So I raided on the PST servers. The effin week after Cata hit, we were gearing up to start raids with a guild called Macabre, they split up. Took all the good raiders or the raiders they knew and moved to a guild called Dread. They did rock the raids and heroics, I give them credit. But I was stuck with the casual’s right after moving guild. I scrambled to find a guild that needed a tank after and XPAC hit. NO luck to be had.

Finally, I got a shot with a guild that only needed a fill in tank.  We got their 1^st kills in and were doing good. I was then asked to either DPS or find another guild as their normal tanks were ready to go. Crushed again, I found a lil 10 man guild called AVA (short for some latin shit). They were decent and allowed me to tank. Most I could ask for. I wasn’t running from server to server anymore and just wanted to enjoy tanking with friends. This is where this went back. Maybe the very best DPS’er I’ve ever played with was an officer in this guild. He was GREAT. Putting up huge numbers and far and above anyone I’ve ever seen play the game. He was truly an elite players. In fact, he was British and raided with his daughter on a EU guild that was supposedly one of the top 10 in the world. He would literally berate people in guild chat and officers chat. He would kick people for mistakes in the daily heroic. On top of it he toon hopped about every two months. He was a complete jackass. We had hunters raiding, he stopped raiding with us because they told him at the time we didn’t need a 3^rd hunter. He’d leave raid in the middle after a wipe and not come back for a few days.

Sadly, I opened my mouth on the forums and generalized about the selfish play of some people and he logged on and G/Kicked me. I guess I deserved it. Problem was, I didn’t care, why? My computer was broke and I couldn’t play wow!  Really, my last day I really ever raided was our Cho’Gall kill in May for 2011. It took me a few months to get my computer back. We had a few runs at Thrown of 4 winds but never got Nef down. I did however get rated top 100 in the world in DPS on twin drakes. I blogged it, it was pretty exciting. We were good enough that I could gear for less avoidance and more damage. I came with in points of being top 50 DPS wise.  I never touched, not even LFR firelands.

I was off and on WOW for months. I came back for Siege of Org just to say I killed Garrosh, who I really hated.

I took the time to explain this amazing journey I went thru in really the only thing that brought us together and sadly we didn’t get to do any of it together. Why? I was a mess, I was a bad person and a terrible friend. I seen nothing but my issues like a spoiled child and you, sadly had your own you were dealing with. Take only this away from this BIG long book like note. Thank you, for instilling confidence in me, believe it or not, this crazy game allowed me to be me again. If it weren’t for your words and guidance, I may have stuck on SWC and been slightly less than mediocre.  See when we raided, I was a clicker. Yep, I didn’t start key pressing until Ulduar. It forced me too. I was that good at this game playing half assed. All of that came from the drive that you had me believe. I could be as good as I wanted and in life at that time, being great at this game is what I wanted.

So thank you Wolf. For being a friend and giving me something to strive for, It worked. 

Your pal,

Zum