One Week Down

It's been one week since we got the last signature for our charter and ventured off into the brave new world of Echo of Fate. So far, I couldn't be happier.

We're still working out details here and there...outlining policies, working on the guild bank, working on the website...but we're off to a great start.

I've decided to delegate as much authority as possible, primarily so I don't end up getting completely burned out a month in and give up on the whole thing. Cheesi is serving as banker, Millea (who posts here as Koalabear) is our raid coordinator, Willy (bro-in-law and former GM) is our recruitment officer, and we've nominated another guildie, Dily, to be the guild "quartermaster" since he has a 450 everything.

Tonight is OS. This weekend is Naxx. I can't wait to start killing some bosses and impaling their smoking corpses with the Echo of Fate banner. We've got a great, talented team and now that we have a new purpose I know we'll really make an impact on our server.

Our biggest need at this point is healers. We have guildies who've rolled healer alts, but the problem with that is if they're healing, we lose really great DPS. It's a complicated balance to maintain.

A Holy Paladin or two would be absolutely fantastic...just throwin' that out there...

But, anyway, life so far is good as a GM.

Honeymoon's not over yet.

Who's Healing Me?

This topic was suggested by Nigiri in the Blog Azeroth forums.

I spend a good deal of time talking about healers on my blog. After all, what's a tank without a healer?

A lot of this I may have said before, so I apologize for repeating myself, but I do believe it's important...at least from a tank's perspective.

Frankly, I don't care what class the healer is. Like the various tanking classes, each healing class brings something different to the table. As far as I'm concerned, there's a bigger issue than the types of heals and buffs they provide.

• Priests: Many of the tank healers I've worked with in the past are priests. Briele and Willy, who I've mentioned, are fantastic healers and they take good care of me.
• Paladins: I've also had the pleasure of working with some amazing Pally healers, like my buddy Vycodin (great name for a healer, right?).
• Shamans: Seriously, who doesn't like the totems? Chain heals are awesome, too.
• Druids: There's something very comforting about seeing a HoT tick away as I'm fighting. A stream of incoming damage getting offset by a ticking HoT is great.

So what's the point? I like them all. I'd take any class into a 5-man or a raid with me, as long as the person at the keyboard is competent. Sure, there are some fights where one type of healer may be better at healing the raid rather than the tank or vice-versa, but, ultimately, if they get the job done, I'm a happy tank.

For me, the chemistry with the healer is far more important than whatever class that healer happens to be. Again, I've touched on this before, but when the healer-tank relationship clicks it transcends class differences.

The healer and the tank are the battery of the group...the pitcher and the catcher. If you watch baseball on a regular basis you'll notice that, once in a while, a pitching change will trigger a change in the catcher position. Also, while the starting catcher may catch for most of the rotation, he may get a day off when a specific pitcher(s) is starting that day.

Why? Because pitchers and catchers get used to one another. They, for the most part, communicate without words. The catcher knows what the pitcher is capable of, and will call the game based on that. The pitcher knows if he can get away with throwing a forkball into the dirt based on whether or not the catcher is capable of getting his body in front of it. It's all about chemistry.

That's why I continue to contend that chemistry is the most important thing when it comes to tanks and healers. It's more important than classes and even more important than gear. It can be spur of the moment, too. I've had healers who I've never met before do a brilliant job because we click almost instantly.

Bottom line, if you're willing to throw some green combat text my way and can anticipate when my tail needs saving I'd be more than happy to tank for you...regardless of class.

People I Miss

K's most recent post got me thinking about our guild a little over a year ago. While the post itself is somewhat unrelated, the comments made me think about the healers, and others, I used to raid with.

I really miss working with these guys, along with some of the other people from our guild who were great people who made those long raid nights full of constant wiping entirely worth it. Some have left the game, some have changed servers, and some just aren't on nearly enough.

I shall now use my public forum to guilt them into coming back and/or playing more. Just kidding.

• Briele, our beautiful Priestess who saved my plate-covered backside on more than one occasion. Leveled Shadow, hit 70 and went Holy. Why? Because our guild needed her to. She'd stay up ridiculously late on tough raid nights even though it made going to school and/or working in the morning a nightmare. She's still around once in a while, but I'd love to see her around more.
• Willy, not only one of my healers, but also my RL brother-in-law (he's Cheesi's brother). His main was a Hunter, and he was a good one. When we realized we were short on healers, he started power-leveling the guild bank toon all the way to 70 and paid for a name change. He got a crash course in Holy Priesting and picked it up quickly. I think he may be on his way back after some RL stuff kept him out for several months. I hope it sticks.
• Vycodin, one of the bravest guys I know. Like Willy, his main was a Hunter. He initially brought a low-level Lock into the guild to test the waters, then brought his main, and finally became one of our most committed, loyal members. He took his Paladin (Vycodin) all the way to 70, like Willy, because of our healer shortage. Like Bri, he stayed up late with us more than once, much to his own detriment. He had to leave the game due to a RL issue that would break a lot of people. Even though I've never met him face to face, I consider him a friend and miss him terribly.
• And finally, there's Nagant. On our first Kara run, which included CoFers as well as members of an allied guild (who were extremely well-geared), Nag topped the damage meters despite being in mostly blues and a couple of greens. Anyone who thinks all Hunters are "huntards" who don't know anything about their class never met this guy...or most of the hunters in our guild, for that matter. If I put a blue square over a target for him to trap, I could always rest assured he would keep that mob out of my hair for as long as I needed him to. Besides his talent in-game, he was hilarious. The witty banter between Nag, Vyc, and another one of my favorite people (who's still active) Eckhart was purely epic. RP's more Nag's thing, so he ran off to an RP server to scratch that itch. Gotta figure out a good way to bribe him to come back.

This was more a personal post than anything else, but I guess I can justify blogging about it by saying that this game, this silly little hobby that a lot of people scoff at, can and often does lead to friendships...real friendships. While all of the people listed here are great players, they're also great people.

The only one of the four I have consistent contact with out of the game is Willy, obviously, but even though I've never seen any of the others in real life, it doesn't change the fact that I consider them my friends. We've worked together, struggled together, and triumphed together. Just because that happened in a video game doesn't cheapen any of it.

Random, disjointed post over.

Tanks and Healers

Keredria posted a blog today from a healer's perspective that got me thinking about the whole tank/healer synergy thing.

I've started running heroics with my guildie Jazharra, a crazy little gnome mage. We're often low on guild personnel, so we usually just pug to fill any empty spots.

Last night, we were running Heroic Violet Hold. We started off the run with a pugged hunter and two former guildies. The run kinda fell apart when we wiped on the second boss, who happened to be Zuramat (one of the "oh crap, not this one" fights). This left Jaz and myself sitting there trying to decide if we should try to pug the other three spots or just call it.

In the meantime, Briele, a holy priest logged on. Bri and I have worked together many, many times but we've both been out of commission for a while dealing with real life stuff. As a result, we're not necessarily the best-geared healer/tank combo out there at the moment.

We pugged the other two dps slots and got started. Aside from one death that was quickly handled by a rez before portal 17, the run was incredibly smooth. It almost felt like it wasn't even set to heroic.

The healer(s) and the tank(s) are the "battery" of the group, and, while gear certainly matters, chemistry and experience working together can often make up for any gear deficiencies. I know when Bri's gonna bail me out or if I need to do something drastic, and she knows when I'm in trouble and she needs to take emergency action.

On a side note, Cyanigosa was kind enough to provide Briele with the Azure Cloth Bindings. Gratz, Bri!