A Dragon point for me.

"Alright, everyone knows the plan right?"
I looked around the depths of the caverns at all the hardened warriors and saw them all nod. A lump developed in my throat.
"Um, I'm disc... so you want me healing a tank right?"
"yeah, just keep Tanky up"
phew, that's an easy job... I can do that even with only the default UI right now. I'll just grab his little block out, and maybe the main tanks too... Throw out some PoMs and I should be okay.
I can do this.

This chant came through my head many times, even when the extremely embarrassing *DING this kid has never been in a 25 man before DING* achievement went off after the first drake and I saw I was the only person who got it. The main tank died on a pull and suddenly I was healing the NEW main tank. I know I really can do this.

Second drake and I got a blue thing around me... I'm going to take an aside to mention that I was in fact paying close attention to what was going on around me, I had seen a shaman stand in it earlier and was perfectly fine even when it disappeared. I had no debuff on me, so I figured I would be fine as well. And I have seen red ones that killed people so maybe blue ones are good, like blue beams from Kara right... Boom I'm dead. *note to self, blue is bad again*

Then I began to notice one of my guildies talking. "Man these guys are taking raid damage like crazy, I'm glad I respec'd holy."
I felt a bit guilty only healing one person, so I grabbed every player box that I knew was melee dps and started healing them too.

Then Saph himself. I only knew the fight through some random videos and the best I knew was that there is a really big fire wall that I need to avoid. Turns out that's All I needed to know. As the fight started I healed everything I could, I think we only had one death probably due to their own stupidity, but I stayed alive, and healed my ass off. In the end it was dragon 0- me 1

Oh, and I got the best trinket in the game pre-ulduar YaY!

Rising Tension

Chapter 2
Reminiscence

"All Rise!" the peon shouted as his master entered the room. As everyone at the main table shuffled to stand their grumbling subsided, they gave their full attention to the elegantly adorned man who entered. "Please sit," he quickly said annoyed with the protocol. Walking across the room he was a true sight to behold. The Lord of Tanks, the master of their craft, his armor gleaming with the true holy power he contained as he moved. Unlike his brethren his armor made no noise as he walked, so fine was the crafting that no weakness was exposed and yet no pieces overlapped. The weapon at his side was a true force of power, and yet it paled in comparison to the man who wielded it. His skills were legendary; from his first day as a guardian of the light he had shown skills beyond that of any of his peers. Every man at the table had nothing but respect for that man, save one.

TheKunkel had come to the meeting, and even though he was presented with a seat at the table, he chose to stand in the corner. Enjoying the darkness he hardly noticed as The Lord of Tanks addressed him.

“I said thank you for joining us Shadow.”

“Oh. Yes, it was not a problem. I just moved a bit of smaller business around, nothing that couldn’t wait until a later time. I mean it’s not every day someone gets invited to attend the meeting of ‘The Lord of Tanks.’ Am I right?” His jest received only raised eyebrows of everyone in attendance.

“In any case, it was necessary to have you here, and I am honored you would attend.” The Lord of Tanks went on to describe the main reason they had been gathered. It seemed a small task force had gone missing on a routine surveillance mission, and a rescue team was sent to recover them. That rescue team was followed by an additional rescue team to rescue the first rescue team, which was then followed by a third rescue team. After all three teams and the surveillance team had been lost the council began to get concerned, so they had plans to send a final expeditionary force of the most capable men they could find. “The plan is simple; we go in and pull whatever we can of our lost teams out. I’m not hoping to stop whatever is in there at this time, but we owe it to our men to at least try to get them, or what’s left of them, home to their families.”

“This all sounds great Lord, but why was it you brought me here?” The Shadow interrupted, bored in his corner.
“You are vital to this expedition. I need the bravest and most dependable healer I can get to handle this operation and I told the committee that you were the only man for the job.”
“HA!” the shadow spurted, “and why should I help some bumbling team of morons try to go into danger and save all the bigger morons? What could you possibly offer to make me want to go?”
“Firstly my thanks.”
“Ha.”
“A hefty sum of gold.”
“Haha.”
“A medal from the Warchief.”
“HAHA.”
“The teams were lost in the depths of Karazan.”
“H… excuse me?”
“The team was investigating into new activity at Karazan.”

"WHAT?" The entire table winced as The Shadow’s eyes flared in anger. “I see,” he said calmly. “And you expect I will just drop my entire life to get revenge on Him. If you were not so attached to the success of the Horde I would blow your brain through your ears right onto this table. I’m leaving.” And he turned towards the double doors only to run abruptly into someone entering at the same moment.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” came her flowing voice.
“You should watch what you’re…” The Shadow stopped struck dumb. If it were possible for a translucent entity to blush, he would have.
“I believe you remember Clara, Shadow.” The Lord of Tanks said with a smirk, “She is leading our final rescue force.”
“Hello, Andrew,” she said.

A Grand Invitation

A shadowy figure sat perched upon his throne. The room dark and smoky from the power practically dripping off of his forearms. His eyes glazed over from years of mindless slaughter. Images danced before him of the piles of broken bodies he had flung to the side as he progressed closer towards his goal. Each of their faces flashed before him as that lasting image, their minds flayed into oblivion.

"SIR, THE PLATE ONES APPROACH!" a voice called out.
"Thank you, minion, please turn your caps lock off now and only speak to me through /w. My, it is hard to find good NPCs these days," The Shadow uttered.

Outside of his chambers the distinct sound of metal shuffling and scraping against itself was increasing. The ground began to tremble as thousands of pounds worth of metal encased meat approached. The faces of the meat sullen and scarred from countless beatings endured. They held their weapons at their sides and ready, although they prayed they wouldn't be asked to draw them. Once they reached the courtyard they spread out in a semi-circle and all descended to their knees in front of the door.
A rustle arose from behind them. A last scrape of metal and their leader stepped from around the corner. He shouted, "I am Arthur, emissary for the Lord of Tanks. I would request you open the gates, I have a message for him!"

"Message for who?" called a voice from the one of the guard towers.

"What?" Arthur replied

"I think hes talking about HIM," came a voice from the other tower.
"I didn't ask you to think did I? I asked him who his message was for," Came the first guard.
"Well you don't have to get all fussed up about it, I'm merely trying to speed things up that's all."
"Um, excuse me." Arthur attempted a word.

"Oh, you mean just like you did the last time? The time when we all ended up in forced silence for a week? You thought that would probably be better did you?" the guard continued unphased by Arthur's interruption.
"I say! You told me that was probably a good idea before I tried it anyway and I remember enjoying the silence anyway," came the reply.

"Excuse me!"

"Well that is the last time I try to be supportive of your ideas."
"Supportive? You usually kick me quite harshly every time I even bring up any of my ideas."
"That's because I hate you"

"SILENCE!!" The roar of The Shadow's voice enough to shake the courtyard and everyone inside it to the core. "I thought our last discussion was enough, but I guess you will be returning to Furblog Camp for Manners."

"Sir is that you?" called Arthur hesitantly.

The doors to the sanctuary then began to open slowly, smoke flowing out over the courtyard and between the array of tanks. Emitting from the smoke was the stench of truth and fear, and as it surrounded the small troop it created beams of light through the cracks in the trees above them. A figure began to emerge from the black depths of the room beyond. The eyes first, glowing in the room like two stars shining in the night. These stars did not comfort though, the glare from these stars revealed the true darkness in one's soul. To look into them meant seeing the evil in one's self. Only one person had stared into these stars of darkness and remained unwavering, but that person was not Arthur.

"I am sorry to disturb you Sir, but My lord requests you join him for a round table in the main barracks." Arthur began. "Also he asked if you might come prepared to... Heal" The last word spoken with a hesitation of a man who knew its true repercussions.

The stars flared in the darkness as the Shadow drifted into the courtyard. His feet obscured by the smoke that poured from his robes. His robes hid what existed of his body, but they seemed to be sewn with the same dark thread that even his skin was created with. He was practically transparent, his figure seeming to drift between this reality and another. His breath condensing in air like a cold winter night he carefully uttered "What?"

As The Shadow enunciated the T erupted with power. In the minds of those present it was as if an explosion had detonated. Arthur saw each of his men flinch in unmistakable fear. Arthur spoke up, trying to seemed unshaken, "He said you should prepare for that possibility," a sharp flash from The Shadow's eyes, "Sir," Arthur quickly added.

After a few moments had passed, what seemed like hours to Arthur's entourage, The Shadow finally replied, "Interesting," and turned towards the depths of his antechamber. As the doors began to seal behind him he hissed his message. "Tell him TheKunkel shall attend."

A different flavor

So, I heard a rumor its nice to take a break... is a weekend a break? If it isn't someone should let me know.

I have been speaking to several people about things and I came to a very interesting realization. All blogs are the same. Everything contains the same information, and all of them have rather unpleasant ways of addressing them. If ANYONE actually follows the crap I do, remember that post a while back. The one about imagination. I realized that the only thing that separates one source from the other is, in fact, that very same imagination. I had fallen short of my own challenge and instead attempted to create a formulaic way of following a structure to create slight entertainment.

I decided I needed to change to something that had imagination. To that end I have begun writing a story. I'm very good at creating stupendous and complex characters in my head and have always failed to move that to any form of substance be it visual art, writing, or anything else. I think I am doing better at conveying what I see in my mind's eye now, and I am going to just shoot what I can and see where it goes. Tomorrow will be the first post, I've almost finished writing it and want to take some time out and review it again before I put it down officially. I hope someone enjoys it because I think that it is very fun to write. My imagination is also thankful as well... It is untitled at the time being, but we will see what happens.

Thanks to everyone who gave me help even though you may not know who you are. And to she who helped, but wished not to be named. Thanks for the Soulstone! :P

Just a heads up! Oh yeah, Ding 78 almost there.

A Ruling Class

So I have been Pugging a lot recently. Its really nice to be playing a healer again because I don't even have to join LFG and I have people whispering me. I was asked on 5 separate occasions last night to heal an instance, sadly I am questing and not up for dealing with Pugged blood DK "tanks." Trust me, a blood DK is not a tank. Anyway, regardless of that I decided I needed to lay down rules for Pugging. I know that I have seen a post on this before and there will be many similar posts to come, but I'm going to do it anyway. Deal

1.Play your class
One of the things that annoys me most is people who decide that because they are wearing plate they are a tank. This couldn't be further from the truth. If I was sitting in LFG claiming I was a healer when I was specced for something different people would get annoyed, and yet somehow the tanks are immune to this. I have a theory that this is because the healers job is to make up for the poor tanking abilities and since they are the only one who could really say, "Hey guys, this is a good tank, he hardly takes damage," they are the ones who mainly complain about bad tanks. Its not because we're whiners, its because if we spam heals for the entire instance you will be waiting for us to drink a lot.
I have a different set of standards for dps. If you are dps I don't care what your spec looks like. I know the differences between leveling specs and raiding specs, and I'm fine with you having better mana regen for less dps. My qualifications for dps is that you are doing more damage than our tank, unless hes a Death Knight.

2.Let the tank, tank.
This is best alleviated by something that I call the three second rule. When the mobs notice the tank is not the time to attack. Wait until they get in melee range and strike the tank, then count to three. THEN you will be able to dump every cooldown you could possibly imagine. If you have the right tank (specced correctly) you will not be able to pull off of them, and the group will survive longer because of it.

3.Don't Stand in the Shiny Shit
Honestly, You don't have to know anything about the instance. If fire starts raining from the sky, or a large hole opens on the ground underneath you your best bet is to get the heck out. Don't finish your spell rotation. Get out. If you are not the tank or healer then you will not be a priority on getting healed so get out and your heal will come in a timely manner. With all of the bosses that do more and more AoE damage the healer will see you are in trouble and be able to address it as soon as the tank is stable.

4.Run back
When you wipe it is no one's job but yours to get yourself back to life. If someone has a Soulstone fine, stay there. But in my experience even if we have a warlock I have to beg them for one (something about how they are out of weed and no one else can be stoned if they aren't, I dunno). It only makes everyone's day longer if you choose to go afk and get something to drink on a wipe. You are wasting everyone's time and no one likes you.

5.Don't ask for something, Don't make anyone ask for something.
If you have a buff that you bring to the fight, buff it. Don't make me ask for it. For things like which pali buff you want its okay to request something different, just know that your getting the cheepy. Don't come to a raid and ask if anyone has water. This if fine if we are just hitting the stone to summon, or someone had to pop by town to do something, have them pick you some up and pay them for it. But when we are in the instance buffed and ready to go is not the time to ask for water. I carry between 20-100 drinks on me at all times and I don't share. Go get your own.

So those are my top 5 rules for Pugging. Surprisingly they are almost the same rules for a raid too. I hope I'm not crazy in assuming that people can handle those rules. Give me some feedback. Do I ask too much? Is this hard for people to do? Do cats actually lol?