We've Had Our Time To Shine

A wise boss once told me, "As a manager, you should no longer expect to do the fun and interesting stuff. Our staff members do that now. We've had our time to shine. Now it's their turn."

I've been thinking that way about WoW recently. I think I might have had my time to shine.

I didn't hit max level until a while after BC was released. So, I missed raiding in classic WoW and, by the time I did hit 70, people were mostly past Kara and into Sunwell. I went into Kara on my hunter a handful of times, but my focus wasn't raiding back then. It was mostly leveling alts, doing dailies and saving lots of gold. During that time I also leveled my priest. But by the time she reached 70, her gear was completely inferior to that of other healers. I couldn't get into a heroic or raid to save my life, except for one or two Kara runs.

Then Wrath was released. Everything changed. The best decision I ever made was to level my Priest first -- and to do so as Holy the entire way. Even though I had only one epic from BC on her, her healing skills were definitely needed and appreciated. I found groups easily and, by the time I hit 80, my friends list was full of people to group with. I flew through Heroics long before most of my guild mates. And I was the first in my guild to get into Naxx. Even before I had cleared 10-man, I started going to 25-man Naxx.

Naxx was difficult at first, but I loved it. It felt like Kara all over again. As my gear improved, it got easier. I became a very well geared priest with a reputation as a good healer. I was getting invites right and left from various guilds (as you can see by reading previous posts in my blog) to run with them. I was on the top of the world.

Then Ulduar was introduced. Everything changed again for me. I've been on a handful of Ulduar runs and have only been able to down the first boss. The second one seems close to impossible, at least with the groups I've been running with. The other guilds I was running with are either deep into Ulduar without me or still doing Naxx, but on alts now.

And Eye of Eternity, I've only tried it a few times and it has been beyond hard. Just this past weekend I tried it again and I kept running out of mana. I just couldn't keep up with the damage. And then the part where you mount the dragons? I'm completely lost during it. I am simply uncomfortable with being forced to play in a way other than that which I have chosen -- I'm a priest. I want to cast my spells, not sit on the back of a dragon and figure out how to target and cast its spells. (One thing to note is that some of the difficulty I have with it is that I have no easy way to target players. Using Grid/Clique and with party frames off, I am unable to select players easily. Next time I go there, I'll have to make some adjustments.)

People have said for a while that Naxx is easy mode. I shook my head at that at first. But, seeing how difficult EoE and Ulduar are, I'm beginning to see what they mean. Naxx is not easy, but it's simple. The strategies are not complex and, given the right gear, they are simple to execute.

But, Ulduar, ugh.

As I look back on the month following Wrath's release, I see myself in my glory days. I felt like I was on top of the world, raiding every chance I got, getting shiny epics right and left.

Now, a few months later, I'm still in Naxx, unable to move into Ulduar.

Perhaps I've had my time to shine.