Full Circle

Rewind three and a half years. After what seemed like months my Tauren Hunter (yes!) had finally hit 60. As this was the first time I had hit the maximum level in an MMO (not counting hitting 100 in PSO) I was sort of bewildered as to what to do next. Someone said “Gear up for raids!” I didn’t even know that there was a whole end-game prepared, waiting for groups of 40 eager gamers to throw themselves at. So out I went and geared up (I must’ve ran Stratholme 50 times for those double Bone-Slicing hatchets) and we started raiding. I lost interest in WoW for the first time after we finally killed the big dog just before the end of Blackwing Lair, Chromaggus.

All I remember from that fight was the slice of line of sight that I was allowed to stand in and run out of to shoot my tranq shot and a short bit of damage rotation. Hunters had their own (voice- and text) channel to coordinate the tranqs and damage. Looking back at it now, it required perfection. Healers needed to be perfect, in the right place, dps needed to be on the ball, in the right place, delivering their maximum. Look up the abilities for Chromaggus if you want a good laugh.

Fast forward to last night. We killed the Beasts encounter in ToGC on 10man, the heroic mode. Tank switches during Gormok have to be done right, there’s some give, but getting a third stack of the debuff strains the healers. Healers need to be right on it, they have to have the tank healed up, if they get hit by fire and have to move even briefly it can mean tank death and thus a wipe. If they get hit by a Snobold it’s dangerous and dps, who have to deliver their maximums anyway to get the boss down quick already, have to get in there and nuke down the Snobold. Then the worms, they have to be picked up very quick, positioned and moved right and the debuff dispel has to go right in both directions.

What hit me is that it requires almost perfection in the same way. It’s tuned very tightly and requires everyone to perform as good as they can give. Maximum threat, maximum DPS, maximum healing, whilst moving, watching debuffs and not standing in the fire or poison. It really has no right to be this much fun!