Twenty-Fifth

I posted the following on my WoW guild's website just last night - we've had some problems recently with people leaving, and there's been a bit of drama regarding people rolling another alt or changing their spec just so they can level faster, instead of taking the guild's needs into account. Basically, it's intended to explain why I love being a healer, and why I'm not planning to respec my Druid to Feral anytime soon. Tornik is my main, he's a 60 Druid, pure Resto build, right the way down to Treeform. That means he's a healbot. He started of as Feral, because I pretty much solo'd right the way up to 60, but I'd respec'd him to Resto even before I came to BTC, and he'll be staying that way for the time being, and I'll tell you why - because I love being a healer.

I love knowing that it's up to me to keep the other 4 people in the group up. I love knowing that I can generate more aggro than the tank by healing than he can by killing. I love knowing that if someone dies, I'll get the blame - I produce my best work under pressure.

When things go South on a bad pull, and the rest of the group are running around, hammering at the mouse buttons as fast as they can, spamming Taunt, AoE'ing, Feigning Death, doing whatever Rogues do, desperately trying to take down the mob that's slicing them to ribbons, do you know what I'm doing? Do you know where I am?

I'm two steps ahead of all of you. I'm watching the tank, not just his health, but to see if he's got enough Rage to grab aggro again before the Rogue gets mashed into the floor. I'm watching the Mage to see if he needs Innervate before he burns through his mana AoE'ing. I'm watching the Hunter to see if his pet can keep aggro off him just a second or two longer. I'm watching the mob beating on me, to see if it's worth the mana dropping Thorns. I'm calculating if the interrupts from that mob will make Tranquility worthless. I'm not just checking how much damage the group is taking, I'm checking how fast they're taking it, and who they're taking it from, calculating who needs heals the most. And the next second, I start all over again.

When all Hell is breaking loose around us, and the rest of the group are running in circles, trying to grab or drop aggro, desperately trying not to panic, you know where you'll find me? Exactly the same place I was when it all went wrong. Tornik won't have moved, but trust me, my eyes are in several places at once, my hands are dancing over the keyboard, grabbing a new target each second or two, staying just long enough to drop a HoT before moving on to the next lucky soul. And when everyone else does start to panic, I'll be right there, the calm in the centre of the storm, watching over everyone else.

And at the end of it all, when we're all still standing there, just barely alive, but alive all the same, my heart is racing, my palms are sweating, and I feel fantastic, exultant, invincible - for a few seconds, I was the most important player, not just in our group, but in all of WoW. Give me one good reason why I should swap that for the chance to kill another faceless mob that's just going to respawn in 15 minutes. I get to save people, real people. they may not always be thankful, hell, they may even complain that I didn't heal them to the exclusion of everyone else, but I know the truth.

There's no way I'll be rolling Tornik to Feral in TBC for a long time. I won't deny that some of the gear I've seen has turned my head, but wtf, I'm only human, and I'm sure you've all seen gear that has made your mouth water.

One last thing - as proof that I love being a healer, my alt Verbatim is a Priest. Shadow spec just now, but you can believe me when I tell you he'll be rolled over to Holy/Discipline when he hits 58

p.s. - I am well aware of how pretentious the 'centre of the storm' thing is, but it's my post and my rules.