The View Through The Branches

Last night was a really, really good night.

We had no raid on Friday, we were a couple of people down, however on Wednesday we’d taken down Lower Spire and Wingus and Dingus (Festergut and Rotface for those not au fait with the lingo). So, last night, we cleared some trash and faced the Blood Prince Council.

And, we got him down.

Our team was made up of 3 exceptional tanks (1 prot warrior, Grags, and 2 bears, Groulinis and Dhearic, Groul of which did an absolutely exceptional job of taking the shadow ball thingies), 2 healers (myself and Zalduun), and 5 DPS (Nyo (moonkin), Kabooms (the mage of the exploding strudels), Hammerhands (hunter), Rydia (Unholy DK) and Shamubar (a melee shammy – neither me or Nyo can remember whether that’s Elemental or Enhancement).

As Zal says, it was a stressful fight. We were all working our butts off, and a few things really helped us on our way:

• There are 2 kinetic bombs on 10 man. Our first few tries we missed the second one, but once we realised there was two, our ranged handled them brilliantly.
• You do not need a caster tank. Take a ‘real’ tank. It is doable with 5 DPS, and the fight wasn’t massively lengthy. The presence of a bear tank with 60k HP on made the pressure on us a lot easier, meaning we could safely…
• Use two healers.

We had a great composition and a great raid, fantastic add management, fantastic tanking, people paying attention and it all came together, netting us the guild first Blood Prince Council kill, and also the BPC section of the meta-achievement.

Congratulations, Flames!

We then, as one would do in this situation, moved on to Blood Queen Lana’thel. Who is spectacular. You know, I enjoy raiding. I love Flames, and I love my guildies. That’s why I love raiding.

But last night? I loved me. Those that know me will know I don’t have what could be ever called confidence in my own abilities. But last night, I rocked. I’ve actually changed how I raid recently. I’ve started paying a lot more attention, being a bit more serious about it all, possibly contributing a little more. And I do feel good for it. Last night was a prime example of that.

Now I know we have the buff. The buff is great. I am all for the buff, and every other blogger in the world has either complained or cheered the buff, so you don’t need my reasons too. I’m not a “serious” blogger in that sense.

So I know the buff certainly added towards last night’s performance, but I’m not going to let that detract from our awesomeness.

When the Lich King was defeated for the first time, and numbers started to be released on DPS figures, HPS figures and whatnot, I took interest.

Now, I’m competitive. I shouldn’t be – if I wanted to blast numbers, I should have rolled a paladin.

I’m comfortable with my niche. My synergy with Zal is awesome – we yin and yang, my HoTs cover the little spaces and his big blasts of light cover the big gaps. I’m used to my smaller numbers. It’s how things work. But Lana’thel is just…amazing. It is the most druid friendly fight I’ve ever seen, and cos of it, I felt like I could shine.

On the try where we actually got Lana’thel down to 10%, I was putting out 7.7k HPS. Now, when Paragon defeated the Lich King on 25man, their top output healer was putting out 4024 HPS. It made me think – I can do this, we can do this.

And I really hope we do.

I was on such a high.

I cannot wait until next week where we get to have another crack at her and hopefully get her down.

The second part of this post’s title is feeling vindicated. I’m the only druid main spec healer in our guild.

I don’t like Elitist Jerks – I’m not good with theorycrafting and numbers. To be honest, I suck at maths. I find the site confusing, complicated, lengthy and…full of obnoxious idiots. Ahem.

My research comes from blogs. I read so many druid blogs that I feel like it comes out of my ears sometimes. I find an idea. I look at that idea. I spend a long time reading everyones opinions on that idea. And then I follow it through.

And also, I have this obsession with socket bonuses. I don’t like grey text on my character sheet. I like my sockets to all make sense.

So. I read about the GotEM nerf. I didn’t understand it. But what I DID understand was that I needed a respec. Because I’d spent a long time working towards a system where I could get 5 rejuvenations into one Wild Growth cooldown. And I wasn’t quite there. So, with this change, I’d be even further away!

So, off to Moonglade I went. Me and the trainer had a chat, and I suddenly became the proud owner of the Celestial Focus talent. And then, the lovely druid bloggers of the world told me that there was this nice round number – 856 – that would mean that my spec could shift from this, back into points I liked having – like Living Seed. So I had something to aim for! So. I spent some money, I bought some gems, and I was at about 600 haste. So far away! I cried. But I’ve inched my way there, and with the purchase of my Vestments of Spruce and Fir, I passed that 856 number. Now, I was casting so fast, I barely had time to move across pitbull to my next person to cast again before the GCD had reset.

I was elated! However not a lot changed. Because our healing team works they way it does, although I personally noticed a change, I highly doubt anybody else did!

But Lana’thel, giving raid healers a chance to shine, allowed me to shine. It allowed me to say YES I am right for choosing this piece of gear and not having the 4set bonus (until testing proves me wrong, I won’t be investing. I favour the haste more than the crit, and to be honest although the 4pc may be fabulous for 25 man raiders, I already HAVE a rejuvenation on every single target almost all the time anyway, making it…a bit crap. FotP is about to embark on some 25 man raiding, and this may make me change my mind, but for now…no thanks), I am right for gemming as I gemmed to get my haste up, for choosing the spec I chose, for enchanting how I enchanted.

I felt proud of my research, I felt proud of myself and I felt proud of my character. That never happens, and I’m still elated and buzzed up today.

Long live haste, long live druid healers and long live feeling good about myself. I only wished it happened more often!

I know my druid, and I’m pleased about it. I just want to say, my eternal gratitude does go out to all the druid bloggers out there whose careful explanations, well written posts and fabulous drawings, because without them I’d have been left totally stranded.