The Cranky Old Gnome

I tanked something today for the first time since that horrifying heroic ToC run a few months back.  I was mulling about Dalaran, feeling sorry for myself, wishing I had something to do when I got a tell from someone asking me if I wanted to tank heroic Halls of Lightning.  I receive a lot of tells from people asking if I can tank something, but that naturally comes with the territory of being a tank.  In the past little while I have turned them all down.  Partly because many of the requests are for raids I’m not geared for, but most of the time it’s because I didn’t want to be knocked around like I had been in the ToC run.  So my default lately has been to just say, “I’m not geared for it” and go back to working on the Loremaster.

However, now that I’m done with that, I find myself with nothing to do.  Nothing to do, no one to talk to…sorry, didn’t mean to go down the sad road from my last post again…anyway…while most of the time I would have brushed it off, this time I replied, “sure”.

I’m really glad I did.  There wasn’t anything particularly spectacular about the run.  We got in, moved through the instance, down the bosses, had a few wipes on the boss due to a new and still learning healer, and then we were done.  But it felt so natural.  It felt right.  I thought I would struggle to get the run finished and that I would be fighting for aggro against better geared players.  But I managed it will.  Yes, the first few pulls were a little sloppy, and there were a couple pulls where the mobs got away from me.  Mostly though, I tanked it like I had any other instance.

What I’m getting at is I realized how much I missed it.  I love tanking.  I love the challenge.  I love leading the groups through an instance, picking and choosing the path we take, deciding who to take down, setting the pace of things–I really love it.  Despite all the crap I’ve experienced around it I still have this burning passion inside me.  This fire in my belly that nearly burned out.  Like the episode of Doctor Who where they get pulled into an alternate dimension and it looks like the TARDIS has died but they find a tiny little bit of it still alive.  Ok…wow…that was  super nerd moment.  Nevertheless, I stand behind the analogy.

I’m hoping it’s a sign of things to come.  That things are going to start looking up again and that I’ll be excited to “let the dragon smash me in the face while you stab it in the ass.”  The next step I suppose is to find a new core group of friends.  People like Oz, and Wally, and Trin, and even Adelpha.  And find a new guild, one where I can have the happy social experience without having to be the man in charge.

It’s nice to feel like happy things are possible again.

‘[Insert clever sign off phrase here]”

~Fizz

Warning, the following post is less of a blog post and more of a journal entry. I don’t really have a specific point in mind. I just started writing and out this came. I’m not really sure what to do with this entry. I hesitate to post it only because it’s fairly personal and I think at least, gives quite a bit of specific and personal insight into the guy behind the avatar that is Thistlefizz. It makes me feel rather vulnerable because it reveals quite a bit about my psyche. I guess it’s a ‘handle-with-care’ post. But you know what? I’m going to be brave and post it. I’ve been pretty closed of personally and emotionally for a while lately. It would be good for me to open up.

Also, I want to preface this with the fact that I wrote this after being up all night with a headache. I didn’t actually read it. I want it to stand as is. I was afraid that if I looked it over, even to fact check, spell check, or grammar check, that I would chicken out and not post it. So you’ll have to forgive me if this post is a little sloppier than others.

Finally, it’s kind of a heavy post. Not like the two others I posted today. So if you’re just hanging out at work looking for a simple distraction, this may be a little too heavy for that. Like trying to eat steak and potatoes for breakfast. Maybe that’s what you’re in the mood for. But don’t be surprised if you get a tummy ache.

Ok enough prefaces, here’s the post:

So with that, I’d like to tell you the story of my very first world of warcraft friend. What I mean is, the first person I met in the game not via my roommate or the guild I had joined immediately after creating my first character. Their name was Adelpha, a draenei priest.

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I am well aware that getting the Loremaster achievement is a huge time sink.  But I’m finally finished!

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Signs that the lag in Dalaran is getting excessive:

• You can make it all the way into the rival factions area without being teleported out.
• You can sit on your flying mount without being dismounted.  In the bank. While flying.  For 10 minutes.
• Everything loads except for everyone’s clothing.
• Your computer freezes if you even think about hearthing there.
• It’s faster to download the next patch than it is to load Dalaran.
• By the time you get from the inn to the flight path, your guild has cleared Ulduar.
• You get a port there and by the time the city loads, Deathwing has returned.

Seriously.  Enough is enough.  And people wonder why there’s no Auction House, or a Violet Hold summoning stone.

“[Insert clever sign off phrase here]”

~Fizz

I had one of the few positive pvp experiences I’ve ever had the other night while mulling about Silithus.  Usually my pvp experiences are more like this.*  I get the snot ganked out of me.  It doesn’t matter if it’s world pvp, battlegrounds, Wintergrasp, duels–I am terrible at pvp.  At least on my tank.  My shaman is actually pretty decent, but that’s because all I have to do is sit in the back and heal.  And as long as I don’t get too close to the front lines, I seem to do ok.  My tank is another experience.  Seriously.  It’s awful.  It’s like watching a monkey swallow a hand grenade.

Anyway, there I was, minding my own business in Silithus, working on that stupid Loremaster achievement, when I noticed a small pile of goo on the ground.  I picked it up, not realizing that it would pvp flag me.  I command-tabbed over to firefox and searched google for some indication of what it was that I had picked up.  I won’t go into it as it’s not critical to the story, but if you are curious, here is some info on it.  So I picked up this silithyst dust and made my way to the turn in point unabated.  But as I continued on my questing I was burdened with five minutes of pvp-ness.  Since it was 3am and I was in freaking Silithus after all, I figured there wouldn’t actually be anyone in the zone and that venturing out on my own wouldn’t be a huge deal.

Clearly I was mistaken.

I was at the Twilight Post rounding up mobs, when I noticed I was taking far more damage that I should be from this pack of level 59-60 mobs.  And when I kept taking damage after they had died I knew something was up.  Sure enough, there was an undead shadow priest standing behind me, melting my face.  Usually when I get involved in pvp it goes something like this: Crap I’m stunned.  Ok, I’m moving aga…stunned again. Now I’ll get him. Trapped/Rooted/etc. Escape boots! Stunned. Dead.  *sigh*  But this time all I was getting was Shadow Word: Pained and Mindflayed.  This gave me a chance to put the stun lock on the other foot!  Or…something like that.

I whipped around, and charged him.  I popped enraged enraged regeneration and bandaged, getting back a good chunk of health while he was stunned.  Then I hit him with a shockwave, stunning him again and piled on the devastate/shield slam/revenge rotation I’m so found of.  I hit a concussion blow when he got out of the second stun and continued pummling him.  Since my stuns against him were subject to diminshing returns, he got out of that one pretty quick and went to heal himself.  But I shield bashed him right into a silence.  He died pretty quick after that.

It all happened within maybe 10 seconds.  I was really surprised to be honest.  I did not expect to be able to live, let alone actually kill him.  But I did!  And it was awesome.  I’m not filled with some delusion that I have suddenly stumbled on the secret of pvp or will be able to head into battlegrounds and win everything.  But I finally felt like I was getting my vengeance on all the crappy pvp experiences I’ve ever had.  And yeah, it was probably a little unnecessary to camp that guy and kill him 10 more times, but in that moment, he represented every Horde that has ever sneaked up behind me while I was minding my own business, pvp flagged through no fault of my own, and ganked me.  And then camped me.  I was pissed and this priest was going to suffer my wrath.  I even created a /target macro so I could find him easier after he rezzed.  And since he was the one that attacked me in the first place, I really didn’t feel bad about it at all.  Oh, and we were close to the graveyard too, so when he tried to spirit rez, I was right there to kill him again.

Eventually he must have wised up to the fact that if he waited in spirit form for his pvp flag to drop he could rez without suffering my tiny gnomish wrath.  I left the situation feeling very satisfied.  And went about picking up more silithyst, staying pvp flagged.  And no one bothered me the rest of the evening.

“[Insert clever sign off phrase here]”

~Fizz

*Yes, my favorite part is the gnome back-up singers.