Leather Is Not Bark (and other stories)

I was healing in an AB the other day, and the druid who was topping me on the meter (I was #2, but by a comfortable margin) calls me out in BG chat to say something along the lines of

"You know Ihra, you should stay on the fringes...I keep seeing you getting pounded on."

He speaks the truth of course, and this is something I've always had a problem with. It's even more important now, though, since most of the time we are not sporting that pretty 120% armor boost from ToL. Standing in the center of a maelstrom of combat in a BG is the PvP equivalent of standing in Bad (tm) in pve...don't do it. Especially because

* People tend to tunnel-vision and hit what's next to them, so if you're in the back you're less likely to get hit.

* You have to use some cast times which renders you more vulnerable to being kicked, punched, slapped silly, mind-****ed (sorry, "frozen"). If Oombulance's guide is any indication, and it seems like a viable position, we'll be able to safely shift away from the cast time heals when the gear is sufficiently improved.

I queued into a BfG yesterday that had us down like 1300-400. We turned it around and won, qualifying us for an achievement. I think, on balance, this is easier than the AB equivalent -- AB requires you to wrest more bases from your opponent to turn things around (because let's face it, if you were down 500 resources you were probably being 4-capped), and in addition to that AB's resource count has been cut to 1600 so you have less room to maneuver in.

Anyway the point of mentioning it was to say...that I am once again on the back of the wagon, because I'm working through a Gilneas post only to find that Cynwise and Gnomeaggedon have gotten ahead of me and posted stuff already. /nerdrage. Oh well...as usual, I'll let the Professionals handle the guides, and go back to providing helpful statistical numbers :-).

Back and better...though blind

85 has been attained. Quickly, run to respec reglyph etc. Accidentally hit my tree shapeshift in stormwind before I had picked up the proper glyph to use Old Tree Form. Now blinded, but still hankering to kill. Tactical note for druids : glyph this. New tree form shouts "I'm a healer kill me!". Old tree form still 95% shouts that...but you have the same model as boomkin treants. And those few seconds of confusion if you use it right (= when a boomkin casts force of nature)could obscure your presence as a healer long enough to do something useful. Grab any edge!

Incidentally, on that killing subject? Twilight Highlands is a great place to ding 85...because the whole zone is like HORDE ARE BASTARDS KILL THEM ALL NAOW. So I was frothing ready to do just that as soon as I hit 85.

Ran a Battle for Gilneas before being called to work. In two pieces of resto gear, the rest all feral pve levelling junk, and I did this :



That ain't right peeps...get it together. Especially when in addition to junk gear, I was basically hitting random buttons because the only heal I used levelling was lifebloom and that feral-procced free instant healing touch. Not a good training on the new differences between spells, btw.

Having a get-out-of-jail card is still king. I mourned its absence on at least six different occasions during the BG.