And on a completely different note
So I'm in a new guild in World of Warcraft.
They recruited my boyfriend because they were in need of a holy priest, and recruited me as an addition even though 1. I was really rather undergeared and 2. they weren't looking for a feral druid at all. The idea was that I'd be geared up when possible and used as a tank (or as a healer, though more as a tank than as a healer) in Hyjal, Black Temple and eventually Sunwell Plateau when needed, but without a 100% guaranteed spot. I was perfectly fine with that (some raiding > no raiding).
Fast-forward a few weeks, and I'm promoted to member, in 4 pieces of Tier6 (and a blue chest *snort*), decent healing gear as well, praised for my tanking abilities, and so on.
Patch 2.4 is released, and though I've tanked in Black Temple and Hyjal (including main-tanking every Hyjal boss but Rage Winterchill and Archimonde... tank #1 was having connection issues, tank #2 was a paladin and didn't really feel up to maintanking, tank #3 had respecced DPS for Hyjal and didn't feel like going back and respeccing again), I sit out and just watch for Sunwell, as expected. Kalecgos gets killed saved, and the guild moves on to Brutallus attempts. A day of good tries, but no kill.
Then the last days of the reset, there's only one tank other than me available for the beginning of the raid. And somebody pops up with the suggestion that I tank Brutallus for a bit.
So I finish burning through battlegrounds for new bracers so I can replace my chestpiece and remain uncrittable (feral druid in T6 tanking gear = flag-carrying hilarity... unless every single horde decides to pile on me, I'm virtually unkillable, especially if people bother healing me) replace my blue chestpiece with a badge chestpiece (unfortunately the only option in that much of a hurry, though it's a bit of a lousy tanking chest), grab a bunch of flasks, approximately fifty billion Ironshield Potions and stamina food, and get flung head-first at a large pitlord. We get some good tries in, then the other tank comes online and I get replaced. And they kill him. Yay for the kill, though I'm a bit sad I couldn't be there for it.
And then it's Wednesday and the raids reset. We go Black Temple for the first night (due to raid composition and wanting to gear up some people some more); then Sunwell tonight. I'm idly fishing in Terokkar, with flasks and potions and food sitting in my mailbox but not really expecting anything, and up pops a raid invite.
o_O
*looks at guild list*
*sees only three tanks, me included, online*
So I pull consumables from the mail and wander off to Sunwell. A few trash pulls later, I'm staring at Kalecgos and wondering exactly how many times it'll take me to learn the tanking rotation. (It only took three or so attempts at Brutallus for me to get that one down; but I try to never be too confident.) The first three attempts, I mess up somewhat - miss a portal, take a portal too early, that sort of thing. The fourth attempt, the gods of the universe clearly decide it's time to give me a hand... the fight starts, and I immediately get popped into a portal. Wasn't my turn, but okay. Walk in, taunt the demon, tank it, get punted out, taunt the dragon, tank it, have it taunted off me, move off, wait for portal... get popped into a portal automatically again. Oooookay. Taunt the demon, tank it, get punted out, taunt the dragon, tank it, have it taunted off of me, go look for portal... okay, this one I have to take on my own... pop in, taunt the demon, tank it, get punted out, taunt the dragon... ooh look, we won. O_o
Off we go to clear trash packs to Brutallus. I mention to my boyfriend, "they'll need to replace a tank with a dps, unless they want me to dps, but if they're smart, they won't want me to do that". The raid leader starts saying in Vent, "okay, [me], I'm going to replace you with..." and one of the warriors pipes up saying that it's silly to replace me, since a feral druid does more damage than a prot warrior when not tanking, and on Brutallus every little bit helps. And since he got all the drops he possibly could've wanted on the previous kill, he would step out.
o_o
Okay!
So for the rest of the evening, my screen is full of gigantic pitlord. There's a few very close wipes: 1% wipe due to enrage, 3% wipe ditto, a few sub-20% wipes due to Murphy's Law (such as the first, and only, taunt resist I got in the whole raid... grrrr).
And then we pull again - last try of the night, as we're already beyond the time the raid was supposed to end.
And he actually dies.
Best fun I've had in a long while. And I'm still grinning like an idiot that I'm actually seeing Sunwell Plateau first hand, killing things, rather than just watching it from other people's perspective. I'd pretty much accepted as a fact of life that such a thing wasn't going to happen.
And now it is.
(I forgot to take proper screenshots, though. Was too busy bashing keys like mad and trying my damnedest to hold aggro off a full complement of Tier6 raiders going full out. Ahh well... next time.)
