So there I was, quietly questing in the Blasted Lands with Kaumalea, who had dinged 60 in Silithus but, remembering Nerfiron’s struggles, decided to stick around in Azeroth for another level or two before going through the Dark Portal, when all of a sudden the ground around me erupted in flames!
I’d been in combat with a hyena and dealt it the deathblow at the same time the fires killed me. During the ~ 7-minute duration of the fires, the hyenas kept respawning and instantly dying, and, much to my amusement, I could loot all the corpses when I finally rezzed.
Perhaps Deathwing has been more active lately; the same week, Kazuliza saw the Barrens aflame, but because she was on a flight path at the time, she did not get burned.
Back when Ketura was madly farming Archaeology Digsites trying to uncover the Fossilized Raptor, she was flying toward a site in the Blasted Lands when she saw that the Tainted Forest was ablaze!
She quickly dropped altitude and got herself crisped before the flames went away.
Once, also while doing Archaeology, Kamalia flew into Winterspring and saw that the sky was ominously red. As her windrider landed at the Flight Master, she saw Deathwing looming overhead.
But the patches of fire were all gone before she could find one to stand in.
It seems, however, that we are out of time to Stand In The Fire, for rumor has it that Patch 4.3 will be going live this week. Dragon Soul, the Deathwing Raid, is upon us.
Well.
In truth, I am a lot more excited about Transmogrification, Void Storage, and the new Darkmoon Faire than I am about the Dragon Soul raid and the associated three new Heroics.
When Cataclysm launched, I wasn’t sure that I would want to keep raiding all the way to Deathwing. It’s really thanks to the wonderful group of people that make up Enveloping Shadows that I’ve even made it as far as Ragnaros-2.0.
I respect and admire Vixsin and Beruthiel immensely, but reading about their struggles with and anguish over Heroic modes — especially Heroic Ragnaros — I have been very, very grateful that ES is a casual, ~ 7 raiding hours per week guild, a guild that felt like one new normal boss kill per week was not just an acceptable, but a great rate of progress through Firelands, a guild where we probably would have gotten normal Rag down on the fourth week of attempts on him even if the Big Nerfs hadn’t happened that week, a guild that is only 3/7 HM in Firelands. Reading their stories has made it more clear than ever to me that I am not cut out to be a hardcore progression raider. I enjoy raiding for the story continuation, the scenery, the sociality/teamwork, and, yes, the challenge and the shinies. I want to perform well enough for my raid team to value my presence, so I pay enough attention to theorycraft to have a good idea of how I should be speccing and equipping myself and what my spell distribution should look like… but I don’t care enough about it to spend hours and hours going through WoL with a fine-toothed comb trying to tease out every little thing that I could be doing better. My enthusiasm for Heroic modes has always been lukewarm at best; I’m happy just to get the achievement for bagging the end boss on Normal mode.
I had hoped, a year ago, that perhaps by the time the Deathwing Raid arrived, I would have the same excuse as Angelya, Lathere, and, in another few months, ES’s co-GM, priestess extraordinaire Zilga, to step away from raiding. Sadly, those dreams have not yet materialized (but I am now seeing a specialist and being treated accordingly).
I really like hanging out with ES folks, so I will go with our merry band into the Dragon Soul. I’ll learn the fights, get some shinies (I am quite amused that the Deathwing Raid gets to be “unlucky” Tier Thirteen), and probably even have quite a bit of fun doing it. After we’ve collectively punched Deathwing in the face (something I haven’t done in the Badlands yet), I’ll continue raiding until ES’s other co-GM, the lovable Rogue Falowin, finishes his Fangs of the Father. But after that? I’d really rather spend the remaining time until Mists of Pandaria arrives questing through every zone of post-Shattering Azeroth as both Horde and Alliance with my herd of alts than in long, tedious months of banging my head against Dragon Soul Heroic modes.
…I should probably make a post to that effect on the ES forums at some point.
I think you should make more outfits for Taurens /nod so that I can look for things to wear on my tauren
But of course there will continue to be fun things to wear here!
Best of luck to you with creating new alts IRL; while they require more management than WoW alts, you do still get to dress them in great outfits – for a while.
I admire your ability to see that there’s only so much time left in the xpac, knowing what you want to see and do, and going out and doing it. See it all!
(Also, more outfits!)
“Reading their stories has made it more clear than ever to me that I am not cut out to be a hardcore progression raider. I enjoy raiding for the story continuation, the scenery, the sociality/teamwork, and, yes, the challenge and the shinies. I want to perform well enough for my raid team to value my presence, so I pay enough attention to theorycraft to have a good idea of how I should be speccing and equipping myself and what my spell distribution should look like… but I don’t care enough about it to spend hours and hours going through WoL with a fine-toothed comb trying to tease out every little thing that I could be doing better”
Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. This is me to a “T” and I’ve never been able to say it exactly the way I wanted to.
You’re welcome. Issy and Elfi have written similar things about how an ordinary raider feels.