On Wednesday afternoon I tried to log in to Wild's account and discovered that the account had been frozen. I'd been on my other account with Happy and Philly with no problems, so this came as a big surprise. After sorting through the online account management process, I made sure that both accounts were set up for subscription and payment through Battlenet, but that didn't clear the frozen account. I tried the 800 number, but that was a complete waste of 45 minutes of my time and I never talked to a human person (or for that matter a troll, or tauren, or orc, etc, either).
Eventually an email arrived from Blizzard which told me what I already knew, with the additional tidbit that if an account payment fails for any reason, all information about the account is wiped as a hacker protection. And so, despite forcing us all into Battlenet because it would make account management easier, I had to go back into the online account management and re-enter all that information for that specific account.
Everything is fine now. Nobody has kidnapped any of my toons, and they are all still equipped as I would expect. I still don't know why there was a problem to begin with.
With that settled, I took some time (out of my very busy real life, you know) to do some additional research on the ICC bosses so that I was up to speed on the healing meeting that should be coming up, hopefully soon.
But, I'm going to put that aside for now since it's getting close to raid time.
The first thing I learned when Wild logged in was that the raid leader for the MM raid would not be able to make it. He contacted Wild and said he had some family issues and that the shaman healer in our raid would be raid leader. No problem. He asked about my hand, and I gave him the whole story, and told him I was about 90% ok, but couldn't be sure if the hand would hold up over a three hour raid.
In the meantime, Wild's guild was getting ready for the ICC25 raid. Both the MM group and the guild raid are having login problems. As 6pm passes and starts heading for 630pm I'm starting to get antsy. The shaman leading the MM raid logged in, and then out, in and then out, obviously having trouble. The guild raid decided to detour over to Wintergrasp and take on the brand new boss in VoA, Toravon. The guild was also struggling to fill, but they were closer to being ready to go than the MM group. So when the guild raid leader asked in guild chat if anyone else wanted in on the VoA run, he got some yes's from the guild, and also a yes from Wild, who whispered him directly to give him an update on my hand. Wild even flew to Wintergrasp so that I'd be right there if needed.
The MM group shaman finally got in game, and Wild explained his situation to him. "Well," he replied, "I'm not sure I can get a raid together, but if we can I definitely want you to come, gimpy hand or not." That made Wild feel good. I never got an answer back from the guild raid leader one way or the other, and they headed into VoA short of a full 25.
More time passed and the shaman leading the MM group finally had to admit that the login issues and lag had kept raiders away and that he was calling the raid. We joked that we'd tell our missing raid leader that we had cleared ICC and that he needn't come on Thursday, and then the shaman could lead the raid. Wild headed back to Dalaran (or "lag"-aran as it was being called). Wild hopped on his ice mammoth, which Wild likened to his security blanket. The monster sized mount, with his large sized tauren rider, won't fit through most doors, but Wild likes to just sit on his furry friend and watch the world go by out in the open passageways of the city.
Wild and his Ice Mammoth
I was thinking about opening Dungeon Finder and seeing how the hand would feel moonkin-ing our way through a 5 man heroic, when a raid invite from the guild popped up. At the same time Wild got a two word whisper from the guild raid leader, "for voa." Wild accepted the invite, and noted that half the raid was dead and making their way back from the graveyard. Well, an invite after the raid has already started is still better than no invite at all. Perhaps the raid leader didn't invite Wild earlier cause he didn't want Wild stressing his hand injury. Maybe he thought he had enough healers, but then the normally moonkin raid leader was decked out in tree form and healing. Whatever, I was in, and I was seriously ready for some action.
Wild's Game Face
Since I came into the middle of the raid, Wild had to catch up to what was happening on the fly. Toravon's room has a number of white, sparkly spheres on the ground about the size of the base of a snowman. Torazon stands in the center. As the raid moved in to start the fight, it was obvious folks were staying separated, so Wild found an open spot between two spheres. Wild was tank HoTing and raid healing. Everything seemed pretty manageable at first. A really pretty sphere formed on the floor behind Wild and then broke free, sending out white tendrils which engulfed Wild and nearly killed me. Wild escaped, but other new spheres formed and attacked the raid. There were quickly too many to handle and the raid wiped.
There was a lot of discussion about how to handle the adds (the spheres). Apparently the spheres attack and then move on to another target, so healing through the hits without trying to run away sounded like the better approach. That allowed the DPS to converge and kill them quickly. On the next attempt Wild held his ground, and was hit three times by different spheres. Wild had to use emergency heals each time, but the spheres did move off and Wild stayed alive. In a relatively short time Toravon fell. Very cool.
That was going to be the end of the raid. The ICC run was called off because the raid leaders did not like the makeup of the raid for the boss they were on (Saurfang) and so didn't want to bang their heads against a tough boss they weren't optimally set up for. Before everyone left, though, we did agree to go ahead and tackle who, until Tuesday, was the newest boss in VoA, Koralon. We got off to a bad start on our first attempt and wiped, then came back and easily killed him.
Wild was pretty pleased with his performance in the raid. I was able to use my right hand well enough, and although it might be a little sore tomorrow I don't think I stressed anything too much. Wild was third out of 6 healers, doing 3319 hps to the raid leader's 3912. Our new transfer pally healer wowed us with 4776 hps. Nobody else broke over 3k.
Wild returned to Dalaran and climbed up on my ice mammoth. A few folks in the guild still on decided to get a ten man together to do the weekly frost raid. This week it was Ignis, in Ulduar. Wild raised his hand, his good one. Yep, I want to go!
To make a long story longer, we had two tanks who had never tanked Ignis before, and it's a kiting strategy that takes some practice. The management of the adds is also somewhat complicated, requiring an off tank, an off tank healer, and a ranged DPS. We had only two healers, so we had to split duties with tank and off tank healing, as well as raid and Crotch" healing (when Ignis grabs a raider and drops him into the pouch at his crotch). Wild had earlier in the day decided to make some fish feasts, which is a food buff that can be shared with the whole raid. I don't usually do that, and I don't know why Wild made them this time, but Wild was the only person who had any so they came in handy.
We "practiced" five times and then killed Ignis on our sixth attempt. That was a little more action that I had anticipated for the evening, but it certainly proved that I had no problems with using the wounded hand.
As for loot? I'll work backwards from the end. Wild didn't get any loot from Ulduar - I think all of it got sharded. In VoA, Koralon dropped a pvp pair of leather caster gloves. We had three druids in the raid. One already had them, so that left Wild and a moonkin. Wild didn't need them for either healing or moonkin, but the moonkin didn't want them either. Wild ended up taking them, so now I guess Wild can say now that he has pvp gear - well, one piece anyway.
Torovan, the new boss in VoA, dropped [Santified Lasherweave Legplates]. These are leather healing pants specifically for druids. Wild rolled a 25, which turned out to second best as the moonkin druid rolled a 31. However, since the pants were healing spec pants, not moonkin spec, Wild won the gear.
The Sanctified Lasherweave gear are the high end Tier 10 sets. They are a massive upgrade. Wild now has his third piece of ilevel 264 gear, and his first T10. Wow, what a nice surprise on a night when it didn't look like Wild would be raiding at all.
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