The Spellweaver Has Been Slain

Tonight, the raiders of Dead on Arrival laid Malygos to rest. With a little help from Alexstrasza and a lot of help from Lady Luck, we managed to slay the leader of the blue dragonflight some 30 seconds after he had already become enraged. Let me just tell you, it was the most epic raid I have ever been a part of and it will for some time to come be what I consider to be my crowning achievement as a druid healer.

I would like to recognize all of the awesome people that made up the raid team tonight (in alphabetical order - for your WoW Armory searching convenience) :

Blueperson - An Officer of DoA and our Main Tank tonight; a Druid who defies the saying, "Jack of All Trades, Master of None." Tank, DPS, and Healer - He does them all well and tonight he soaked some hits that would have made any Warrior's butt pucker!

Brinbanhorse - A Veteran Raider; a Survival Hunter who always seems to help us through a tough raid!

Diesal - A Veteran Raider; a Feral Druid who can Tank and DPS and impress you no matter what role he is filling.

Eaus - A Veteran Raider; a Warlock who never says die... unless he is talking to the bad guy. He's gonna curse you up, sweetcheeks!

Holypoke - DoA's Guild and Raid Leader; a Paladin without equal in any aspect, and an all-around awesome guy who brings together our group week after week to accomplish the impossible!

Hotshock - A Veteran Raider; a Shaman who can crank out some serious DPS (and some fine heals when she wants to)! Storm, Earth, and Fire definitely heed her call!

Kethara - A Veteran Raider; our Number One Huntard Extraordinaire who proved tonight that he can manage some serious DPS when he pulls his head out of his ass! Great job tonight, bud!

Liferoot - An Officer of DoA; What can I say, I'm the Root of Life! Don't you wish your healer cast HoTs like me?

Polymyxin - An Officer of DoA and my favorite Co-Healer; she has single-handedly put my faith back in the priest class!

Skullur - A Veteran Raider; Crit Chicken, Boomkin, Laser Fowl... call him what you may (I call him Dad), he rocks the socks off the DPS chart!

Guys, you rock! There truly is nothing else to say about it! We have come so far in such a short amount of time! Hard work and dedication have paid off and have prepared us for Ulduar!

So, more on what it is like to heal this raid...

First off, tough does not even begin to explain this fight. The HoTs definitely made it happen tonight - at least from a Druid healing perspective. Rejuvenation and Lifebloom (and Wild Growth - despite the cooldown) were definitely my friends tonight. Overall raid healing is critical to the success of the group when it comes to taking down The Spellweaver. But then, of course, Malygos likes to beat your tank like he owes him money. I had to whip out the ER combos several times tonight - Nature's Swiftness+Healing Touch and Swiftmend, FTW! The Tank healing is where healer coordination is critical. If it hadn't been for Polymyxin focusing on the tank and helping me with the raid party, tonight would never have happened. All the HoTs in the world don't replace a well-timed and desperately needed, Uber-Powered Greater Heal.

However, it was not awesome healing that completed tonight's raid, nor was it an uber Tank, nor was it Quad-Damage style DPS... it was teamwork. Bring together your core people and raid with consistancy and learn each other. Even the mightiest foe will fall to a team that functions like a well-oiled machine.

Polymyxin and I have been healing raids together for about 6 months or so now and in that time we have become very familiar with and very comfortable with one another's healing style. Yes, I said it, healing style - believe me or not, everyone has a healing style and some people play a class using a healing style that was not meant for that class.

Healing Style is one of the things that I will be discussing in greater detail with later posts. I still have 3 other healing class toons to level. My Priest is just under level 80 (let's say 74), my Paladin is level 67, and my newest healer, my Shaman is level 26. Can you tell that I like to heal? I cannot say that I fully understand the healing mechanics of Priests, Paladins, or Shamans - so please take any advice I give to those classes with a spoon full of common sense; however, I am fairly certain that I would give most any other Tree of Life a run for their healing money... That includes Bob, the Shadow Druid - You know who you are!

So, it has been a slow start with my blog... what can I say... Life and Liferoot have been crazy lately. However, I will be adding more eye-candy and I will be writing more posts in the near future. I am not planning on going in the number crunching, theorycrafting style direction with this blog; if that is what you are looking for, you have my apologies, but the closest I am going to come is a link to a well-respected forum or site. However, if you are looking for fine tuned advice, practical healing tips (screw those quadratic formula style equations), and some good old fashioned fun and humor, then you have come to the right place.

Goodnight all and R.I.P. Malygos!