Project Lore

Those of you who have been following my WoW career on Project Lore may recall a priest I made at the tail end of The Burning Crusade.  I cut my teeth healing those late game dungeons, leveling holy from level 60 to 70, but never healed with enough frequency to feel comfortable in her shoes.  I ended up dropping her like a bad habit when Wrath of the Lich King came along.  It wasn't until my rogue had been topped off and geared for raiding that I returned to my space goat.  Thanks to the Dungeon Finder she's been geared up for some weeks now.

For fear of making a fool of myself I eased into healing like I do into a jacuzzi; feet first, acclimate, leg, other leg, acclimate, my precious, acclimate, the unimportant parts.  Guild run dungeons came first, with me rolling on unwanted gear before I pieced together a healing set deemed worthy.  Then I tried my hand at random heroics, hoping, praying that I wouldn't have to heal someone as poorly geared as myself.  After scoring some much needed epic gear there and honing my skills further, I ninjaed my way into a few weekly runs for my first taste of raid healing.  I may have been the bottom of the healing meters, but things went well enough.  That is to say the quests were completed.  After soaking up further badges in VoA and more random raids/dungeons I figured I was finally geared enough to tackle bigger projects.

I wasn't.

The first time I stepped into a raid were everyone wasn't overgeared was a mess.  It wasn't so much my skill that failed me, but my composure.  On my rogue I tend to be highly focused, but I make use of all of my abilities to not only deal damage, but mitigate damage to myself and others.  When I first saw everyone's health plummet something in me snapped.  It was too much, I couldn't do it.  I became the new guy in the corner puking his guts out, the dude crying on the beach in Saving Private Ryan.  It was a sad sight.  I went back to the drawing board. 

Weeks later my alt guild asked if my priest would like to join them on an ICC 10-man raid and I sheepishly obliged.  Unbeknown to me, the team was ahead of my other guild, barely downing Valithria the week before.  I'd never been, on any toon, but they assured me it would be okay.  As long as I didn't mind wiping.  I reminded them that I've raided since vanilla, so they knew I would be in for the long hall.  We wiped around 10 times and never actually downed the Dungeons & Dragons boss (came close three times).  Nevertheless, I was told that I performed admirably and was asked to make future appearances.  Being wanted is certainly a new feeling.

During Valithria's (awesome) encounter I learned how to use Grid to its full potential.  For the first time I managed to keep my composure under the pressure of constantly falling numbers and shifting targets.  Basically, I learned how to heal that night.

And I love it.