Karazhan

On Friday, November 30, Deressy headed into Kara for the first time....in a raid for the first time, completely clueless as to what to expect.

Fishbane, the guy who took her to Black Morass to finish her attunement, was the raid leader and main tank. The first few pulls were a bit shocking, as we worked our way in to Attumen. Despite all the scary stories I had heard about Kara, I was clearly in a group that knew what it was doing...Attumen down, Moroes down, Curator down.

Despite that I was brand new, and not even a member of the guild (yet), I got some nice loot to take home: Forest Wind Shoulderpads, Gloves of Dexterous Manipulation (for my dps set), Harbinger Bands, Ribbon of Sacrifice and the Signet of Unshakable Faith.

Saturday, we went back. Maiden down. We went to the opera and quickly finished off the Big Bad Wolf. Finished chess. We started on Nightbane but one of our healers had to go a bit early and another player kept getting disconnected.

Remain Resto or Respec?

Having leveled resto from Day 1, I have had many an opportunity to run instances - they were sometimes the easiest way to gain XP as well as a good opportunity to meet new folks. PUGS R US. With a few exceptions, I have been in some awesome PUGs - I find that letting folks know up-front the PUG rules/expectations works really well.

So I managed to get all the way to level 67 without a spec-crisis. I was on travel (you never know how hotel lag is going to be) and was vehemently asked to heal for a PUG going to Sethekk Halls. I'd never run that instance before, didn't know anyone in the group, but was assured it would be cake - we were running with two prot warriors. Well, it wasn't cake. We managed to inch our way to the last boss, despite my plethora of problems - pulling aggro, occasional lag, and general unfamiliarity with the instance.

However, we couldn't down the last boss. After several wipes, I was typing out a suggestion that they might be better finding another healer (my lag wasn't preventing the healing, but I couldn't seem to get out of the boss's AOE in time) when I was unceremoniously kicked from the group. Ouch. I would have gladly left on my own and was just suggesting that very thing.

At any rate, the experience was demoralizing and I lost confidence in my ability to heal anything. I stayed away from instances for more than two weeks, finally only agreeing when Dorchah, a shadow priest and good friend of mine, insisted they needed me. I was quite tempted to respec to something (anything) other than resto. The problem was, I generally really enjoy healing and the challenges it presents.

I stuck to getting Kara-attuned and running dailies for a while. A few weeks later, still hesitant about my spec and my direction, having achieved all but the Black Morass step of Kara-attunment, I was running dailies up in Og'rila and grouped up with some folks I hadn't met before to get banishing over with quickly. Oddly enough, in that one short session, I ended up with two invitations to join raiding guilds.

One of those guilds, Ásgård, took me down to Black Morass and helped me get attuned. Then they proceeded to invite me to run Kara with them that night. Keeping in mind that Essy is my main (not Deressy), and really I wanted to join a raiding guild with *zul so we could raid together, I was hesitant to make any sort of commitment until he and I had discussed it and he'd had a chance to get to know the guys from Ásgård and decide for himself.

Lucky for me, the guys (and gals) from Ásgård are a quality bunch and were happy to have me run Kara with them for a couple of weeks while the *zuls got to know them better. As you've probably noticed, not only did I not respec, but I joined Ásgård as did Hunzul.

Doin' the Dailies

Shortly after reaching 70, both Essy and Deressy ran their prequels and, alongside a core group of regulars, started running daily quests. Skettis, then Og'rila, anything they could do to increase the bank account (leveling two toons to 70 nearly simultaneously makes that epic flying mount a bit daunting). A week ago, with about 6000g among all the *Essys, a tough decision had to be made. Buy the epic training for Deressy so she could start the 17-step quest chain for epic flight form, or send the money to Essy so she could immediately start using it, herbing & questing her way as quickly as possible to another 5000g. Essy won out. Having unlocked the Netherwing Dailies and making herbing much more efficient seemed a better path. Now we're back to running dailies, dailies and more dailies...and then doing it all over again on Deressy. Along with all of this, we are in the hunt for some serious upgrades for Essy and some key upgrades for Der.

The Stealthin' Who?!

Welcome to the home of the Stealthin' *Essys (no relation to the Swirlin' Eddies). The Stealthin' *Essys (and their distant cousins, the younger, Gee-I-Can't-Stealth-ZOMG *Essys) are residents of Runetotem and have been since their birth at the end of June, 2007 (Essy) and mid-July 2007 (Deressy) and beyond (the cousins). Who are the *Essys, you might wonder? After nearly a year of watching the *Zuls wander around Azeroth & later, the Outlands, it seemed high time for Essy to make the jump from BZFlag. Seeing as how the rogue was Essy's favorite in BZFlag, it seemed fitting to begin her career in Teldrassil as a rogue. Essy was also terribly excited to have discovered that part of her new jumping ability as a Nightelf rogue included some really cool flipping abilities.

Essy started her leveling with Terzul (yes, a Nightelf hunter of *zul fame) and continued with him basically until they were finished with Bloodmyst Isle. At that point, Terzul stepped back in favor of Hunzul, a dwarf hunter. Essy was terribly disappointed to have to hang out with the exceptionally short Hunzul...that is, until she discovered he made an excellent obstacle to jump (and flip) over (and over and over and over...all the way to 70 and beyond).

A month or two after Essy's inception, Deressy suddenly emerged in Tedrassil... a Nightelf druid, Deressy was doomed to level alone - mostly without the assistance or companionship of any *zul. Despite this odd circumstance and Essy's rapid march to 70 (she hit 70 in September), Deressy was hot on her heels, leveling all the way to 70 as a resto spec about a week or two after Essy made it. She made lots of friends along the way and spent a good bit of time with guildmates (from Kiss of the Bodhisattva), among others.

We'll spend a little time talking about history and the cousins, as they slowly grow up, but a good bit of this space will be focussed on the Stealthin' Essys and their current and future exploits.

Welcome and enjoy your stay here.