Found it.

Found what? Since I don't have car keys to lose, nor any dignity to speak of, I am naturally speaking of that insubstantial "challenge" I've chased since I realized Gnomeregan is ridiculously easy, falling damage aside.

No, tabbing back and forth between browser and WoW every sixth second does not constitute challenge.

I found a proper challenge in SM Library.

Naturally, this means I dinged 30, which was fantastic; Earthliving weapon is nice, a second glyph slot is very nice, and nature's swiftness is twice as wonderful as I thought it would be. That two minute cooldown really makes it a different spell than the druid version.

Oh, and grounding totem. God damn it is hot, and having access to something that can eat a spell without the potential of missing is great.

All in all, though, dinging didn't change too much. Despite these new toys and ranks, my healing toolkit is still rather limited, and the lack of chain heal and riptide* is quite well pronounced now. As ever, I lean on my healing stream totem to cover the splash - lil' thing's ticking for 25 now!

But yes. New Toes, the L30 edition, proper healing imbue on weapon, thus set out to fill her second glyph slot. Let's browse the potential candidates, discarding LHW, ES, CH, Mana Tide and Riptide, as I don't have the relevant spells for those yet.

That's a long list.

Earthliving, Healing Wave and Water Mastery.

That, however, is a short list. Color me unimpressed. I've no idea what color unimpressed most resembles, but I think it's something vaguely fuschia.

Being a manly man, I have no idea what a fuschia is, or how it tastes, by the way.

Lacking any proper active AoE healing, feeling that 4.5 mp5 wasn't terribly exciting, I opted for the healing wave glyph, and set out to conquer the Scarlet Monastery, now with new and improved Library taste.

If you're one of those people who read every line, you may already have received some hints as to whether or not I was challenged, but of course, the fun doesn't end there! We must analyze and overthink!



First, the dramatis personæ of these two Lib runs in rapid succession;

The Paladin Tank; An important character of the first part of the story, this handsome chaps buffs with a smile, does a smashing job of tanking, and occupies the dark, handsome silent type personality. He is a blood elf.

The Mage In The Background; Delivering fantastic dps, buffing, and never standing in the fire, this heroine is as competent as she is a feature of the scenery. In the hardcover book version of this story, she has a scene wherein she utters a word. This word did not make the cut to the blog adaption. She is also a blood elf.

The Druid DPS And Tank And Healer; Towards the second chapter of our story, this lovely female bovine becomes the main driving force of our likely** band of heroes as stellar dps, tank of the second half, and healing when our main character suffers under the curse of Oom. Being a tauren female means mad love, too.

The Warlock; At once occupying the realms of comedy and tragedy, this third blood elf takes the reins of comic relief, as well as sparking a devastating intra-party conflict between the two acts. He is naturally a blood elf as well.

The Second Warlock; After the Warlock's departure, this replacement, apparently the identical twin in all but color on Recount of The Mage In The Background, does actually know how to play.

Our Hero; On a quest to discover who she really is, and test out a really slick new glyph, this restoration-specialized shaman is terribly skilled and good looking to boot.

Act One

Party, except for Warlock: Hi, excellent looking and no doubt fantastic people***!
Warlock: go go go go go go go go go go go go
Warlock: go go go go go go go go go go go go

Our heroes bravely vanquish the first dozen of soldiers in a monumentally big battle wherein grounding totem proves its worth numerous times. Toes discovers to her pleasure that the glyph of healing wave proves perfect for situations where there is heavy tank damage and some casters have aggro on her.

Toes: Mana break, please
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
Warlock: k
Party, except for increasingly disliked Warlock: please stop spam?
Warlock: k
Warlock: k

The party continues to smash apart the Library wing of the Monastery, destroying many thousands of gold coins worth' of books, something that would have saddened Toes if she could read. The eminent healer notices that the warlock, possessed of slightly more than half her hit points, has a penchant for hellfiring regardless of the number of enemies faced. This causes her much consternation.

Toes: Warlock, could you please cut down on the hellfiring when there's lots of damage going around?
Warlock: okay i dont do hellfire

This would turn out to be a lie. Faced with such skullduggery, Toes remained resolutely silent, noticing that the Druid was shifting out to assist healing far more often as a result, which, while appreciated, was making her wonder if they thought her a bad healer.

The warlock proved his mettle, or lack thereof, by judicious amounts of standing around afk as his companions yelled for help, and by helpfully running into new rooms and around corners to die. He was much appreciated by the party for this.
So much, in fact, that they decided that the warlock, after such an intense effort, could have a break, and let them do the rest.

Not, however, before the last remaining human in the Library was slain, where Toes learned to appreciate the newer expansions where 8-10 second silences are considered a little rude.

Party, except Warlock who just got a one way ticket out of party: We like eachother, and we will do this again.
Party, still not including warlock: Yes we do!

Act 2

As Act 1, minus warlock, with druid tanking instead.

End.

On a more sincere and straightforward note, it is fantastic to heal, pulling every trick (and grenades) out of your bag, and realize at the end of a fight that if I had not been a troll, with my fantastic 20% haste panic button, the tank would have splatted.
The glyph did nearly 60% overheal, but I still consider it highly useful.
Nature's swiftness saved our arses more often than I thought, and was always off CD when I needed it.

If anything let me down, it was earthliving - I didn't really know what to expect, and 2-3% healing done isn't bad, but I suppose it's more a chain heal + blessing of the eternals thing than it is tank healing condusive.

Last, I've finally met a "bad" player of the kind you always talk about. I'm not pleased about it, nor displeased: He didn't hurt our run too much. If anything, I'm a little sad that he got kicked, all things said. I think that's for another post though. This is already ridiculously long, so I'm gonna end this riiiiight-

Here.

*Not that I have healed a lot on my 80 shaman, but I have tried it and I know the holes when I see them.
**We queued through the LFD. It doesn't get likelier than that.
***This may be a slightly liberal transcription.

Goddamn footnotes.