All Stories

I scored a beta key from a friend and guildie today! I’m so incredibly happy! I’ve scoured the Internet and various WoW blogs as much as I could but I could not find much beta stuff from the perspective of a Priest.

Today that will change.

I’ll post a beta journal every few days or so chronicling what I’ve been up to, what I’ve found to work, what doesn’t and such. Master Lume informs me that the name Matticus has been taken. In case my other alternative names are taken, then I’m at a loss as to what I should name my Priest.

In any case, don’t expect too much just yet. I still have exams to write at the end of the week. But after that, that’s when the real fun begins. With luck, I hope I can continue to be a tried and true source of information for all of us Holy Priests as we gradually shift towards the expansion.

Of course, I need to download the client first.

And it takes 5 years.

Canada just got cable TV and running water last week.

Two cans and a string is what consists of our Internet connection.

Hah! Wyn’s not the only one to get stuff this week! I think I’m going to name this bear Wynny the Pooh.

Curse that Batman fellow for keeping Matticus away from his writing pad and past his bed time.

Caught the 11 PM showing 3 hours after my raid ended early (BT cleared after 4:42:36 total from Tuesday and Thursday night).

Ran into a few of my friends. They’ve already seen it before but they wanted to watch it again. Then they’re going to go see it on Saturday at the IMAX theatre downtown in Vancouver.

And they have the nerve to call me obsessed. Hrmph.

Oh and yes, I did make up the 36 seconds.

Right, back to writing my term paper which is due in 12 hours and not randomly procrastinating.

Image courtesy of bluegum.

Most bloggers and writers, when they have their ideas, write their posts first before adding a title. I’m a wee bit different. I come up with the title first before the post. My reasoning has always been that it’s the post title that draws initial interest to the post. This one happened to occur to me while I was listening to one of Madonna’s CDs.

Consider this post an archive of all the mistakes I’ve ever committed in WoW and the regrets I’ve had from Hakkar to Illidan.

• The Raptor boss: Moving and doing things when he gazed at me. I found out quickly that this was not the smartest thing to do. Any actions you make causes him to rip you to shreds. And yes, I moved while the ZG Raptor boss gazed at me.
• Panther’s staff drop: Before I became the raid item optimist that I am today, I was a selfish Dwarf. I wanted every possible upgrade I could get. By being the best Priest I could be, I felt that I could contribute that much more to my raid and my Guild. I had farmed extensively for an Eye of Shadow and I was on the brink of getting Benediction. Yet I rolled on the staff even though are Resto Druid would have benefited more. I did not get Benediction until 5 weeks later.The penance for my greediness, I suppose.
• Baron Geddon: He’s the inspiration behind Solarian. I can’t remember the details, but I was really bitter that day for some reason. What’s a Priest to do when they’re in the mood to kill and just get out of MC? I purposely did not move when I got the bomb buff. Anyway, right when I was hit with the bomb debuff, I feigned a disconnect (closed vent, stopped casting and stood there). The resulting explosion was spectacular!
• Observing a ninja: Our Guild at the time had to merge with another Guild so that both could survive. We were working our way through Blackwing Lair. Razergore was the first boss. When we killed him, the loot was set to free for all. At the time, there was a bug where master looting didn’t properly work. You guessed it. One of the Paladins quickly looted all the items, left the raid, and bubble hearthed. I could not help but laugh out loud. Remember that I had just joined with several others. I never would have gotten loot that day regardless. But at least we killed Vael after.
• Dotting CC: I like to contribute as much as I can to a raid whether through healing or through my limited arsenal of offensive spells. I Shadow Word: Pained a sheep too many times (because I made the unfortunate mistake of assisting a mage). Heck, I even dotted my own shackle more than once. I’m too eager to help and I end up damaging the wrong one. Oops! Sometimes I do it when there’s multiple Priests in the raid. This was before Big Brother was around so the real culprit was hard to find (and I’d pin it on the other guys as a joke).
• Letting my tanks down: It still happens to this day. I end up misjudging the time or I’m too slow or something. I made a wrong decision and the tank died leading to a prompt wipe. I could have prevented it if I had focused more. Sometimes, I wonder if we might be further on progression if I haven’t screwed up so often.
• Blew a Flame Wreath: My streak of not triggering a flame wrath halted a month or so ago. I was playing on my Paladin but I was only partially paying attention. The other half of my brain was focused on the Detroit/Pittsburgh playoff game. I thought I had time to move but I didn’t. I wanted to cancel a heal to get a different player instead. At the time, I didn’t use stopcasting macros and relied on movement to cancel my spell casts. Sure enough, I moved too late and triggered the detonation and went flying after nuking the entire raid. Not all was lost. I did wind up going to Wyn promptly thereafter and made her help me out with stop casting macros (while gritting my teeth, I might add. You should see what else she’s talked me into doing).
• Missing my Lurker jumps: It took me a disappointing amount of time to master the transition from water to platform and back again. I was positioned on the exact opposite side from the main tank to maximize the amount of time I had to get in. Even after that, I’d still get spouted by Lurker even though I had so much advance warning. The problem was fixed when I bought a new computer. I haven’t missed a jump since.
• Cratering: Today another streak was broken. I belonged in the ever elusive Archimonde no crater free fall club. Today I was expelled from the fraternity. I am ashamed to say that I cratered after completely mistiming my Tears.

Everyone screws up. I’m only human. A good healer makes minimal mistakes but a great healer learns from the ones that they do make so they don’t make them again. Usually, most of my first mistakes end up being my last. There’s a lot of things I’ve done in the past as a gamer that I’m not proud of (but I’ve never cheated). Looking back now, I get a good laugh out of reminiscing.

Your turn

What’s the most colossal mistake you’ve ever made that you’re willing to admit to?