What an appropriate quote from The Beatles' to describe last evening's furious couple of hours.
Last evening was a special one for several reasons. Not only did Azariel pay a visit on the 'wussie side' and chat with me (read: mock and abuse me), but everything seemed to click into place.
First of all, the fishing and cooking dailies were one shots both. I found a helmet from a quest chain I hadn't finished which alone helped my defense to come closer to my aim.
And I learned that the defense caps are a myth to normal 80's instances, providing you have a good group.
You see, I was minding my own business (dailies in Dalaran) when there was a question in guild channel, offering a gear up run in normal Trial of the Champions. Me, being the carefull and concerned bugger, volunteered to join if my presence wouldn't ruin the fun of the rest of the group.
During the meantime I made the Argent Tournament's dailies, learned a bit more about the jousting (which I hate even more) and finally we entered to the instance. My first 5-mans at lv80.
Trial of the Champions, normal.
Anyone who has been there knows that the beginning of first stage is... Jousting.
The end is tank and spank with emphasis on grouping the mobs and not standing in the muck. I've learned from Outlands already, that anything on the floor is bad and should be avoided. Except the dead mobs, of course, but anything else is BAD.
The second part is more grouping exercises and avoiding aoe and turning your back to the boss.
Third is the Black Knight with his army of exploding ghouls.
The group being that of our guild's finest I was lead from stage and encounter to another in a very civil manner. Needless to say, the first run was spectacular: everything worked lovely, we cleared stage after stage without a hitch and the crowd was cheering. In a way I was amazed how my lacking defense wasn't an issue at all, not to mention the fabulous drop I got. My first lv80 purple. (Don't ask me now what it was, I'm relishing the moment, not looking at the Armoury!)
After a successful run we decided to do another. The other players had their alts (or alt's alt or something) and it was obvious they really knew how the encounter works and all. Like I've commented at some point, it's a pleasure to run with a group of professionals: the mentality strikes at all levels and makes you perform yourself at higher level.
The second run wasn't as easy, and we wiped a couple of times. This is where the professional, achiever mentality shows even more: there was no calling on who lacked and who sucked. Instead, everyone more or less analyzed their own performance and what they did wrong THEMSELF and tried to find the reason WHY the wipe happened. And adapted on the next run.
Needless to say, we cleared the instance with flying colours, I was very happy camper and owned two shining pieces of purple gear. I was pretty pleased on my first run on a lv80 normal, even though my defense was 499 after the loot and 'miscolored' gem.
As the whole instance run was so smooth, the whole group agreed to do it again today. Provided all are at the computer: after all it's friday.
And guess what: by receiving this kind of welcome, I'm bound to the guild even stronger.
I'm there to help others when they need. Suck that, Gevlon, with your M&S speeches. This provides continuity to a healthy guild and makes it sure that the guild which is strong from inside will continue to exist beyond the 'next guildbreaker' expansion.
Now I'm hungry for more guild love. :P
