How Things Change

Dato's transformation to the evil (and oh so funny) 27/34 spec didn't just help the cause, it catapulted us up over a 100 points in one week. Suddenly, an 1800 rating seemed feasable. For the casual gamer like us (that roughly translates to "We aren't quite as good, so we need an excuse") we are quite happy with where we have fallen so far. That being said, getting here has not always been uber fun.

Because of the warriors.

Oh, how we hate them. It caused my recent respec. Improving the shield and inner fire seemed like a waste of talent points, and putting 5 points to increase crit just didn't seem worth it either - and the funniest part, I had read that Inspiration could help, so I pumped 3 points there. I felt I might have just specced into the most retarded Arena spec I could find. After the first few fights against melee, I suddenly felt a little better. In fact, I felt a lot better. I was outlasting the other healer by a large margin, and double DPS teams were having so much trouble killing me (who would have thought Spell Warding worked so well? and wait till the resilience nerf to dots! 11% more off with 441 resilience! talk about laughing at Aff Locks...) we razed through the 1600s into the mid 1700s with ease.

We only stopped because we so often push too hard, find a team we can't beat, and lose 50-60 points. Getting 490 points is nothing to the guys in 5v5 teams, but for us it's glorious.

I find in the 1700 bracket the other team just comes barreling at me, ready to alpha stike me into oblivion. How odd that a healer's first and foremost job is take the brunt of the punishment, and if done well enough, completely negates the other team's gamble. It is, to be honest, so nervewracking that sometimes I feel I have let my teammates down. On our 3v3, with Fishhead (a frost mage), I often feel I screwed up and should have lived longer. Improved Death (aka Spirit of Redemption) means I really am in the match for 15 more seconds, and the heals are all uninterrupted, but it's still hard to say on vent, "Sorry, guys, couldn't live any longer..."

But here's my personal favorite. Last night, finishing up the 2v2 for the week, Dato and I were on a nice run. We have pulled up to about 1770ish, and our next match was an affliction lock and a druid. Everything was going ok, just a long, long match to a team we had already lost to twice, and it appeared we might have them. They were lower on mana then we were, but my HP were getting kind of low. Corruption was ticking away, and I knew I had to dispell it before I hit myself and Dato with a nice Binding Heal...however, at the exact moment I hit my Dispell macro it appeared the affliction lock had cast Unstable Affliction. One moment it wasn't there and then it was...as I pressed that fated button.

UA critted.

I died.

I'm still angry that I the timing worked out so. I mean, I BLEW up like a sad water balloon full of epic whine.

Oh, well. It was an interesting week, to say the least. We will finish up 3v3 Monday morning or evening, so we'll see how that one turns out.