Ode to My Warrior

I call them my warrior because while I am healing them they are, in fact, mine.  Who has the ultimate power?  Me.  The tank may think they have all the power but they don’t…just don’t tell them that. 

It reminds me a bit of a classic PA comic.  This, of course, holds very true for PvP but still is relavent here.  You see, without the use of good healing people die.  It sounds obvious enough be it’s amazing how often it’s over looked.

A few nights ago we decided to do Emalon10 and Ulduar10.  I was asked if two healers would be enough.  My response was that it was possible if people move well and the two healers are good enough.  We had a pally and myself healing and our pally is a good player.  So, we made quick work of everything.  Easy mode.

How is this an ode to the warrior?  Because we had a warrior as a main tank.  This ode is not an acknowledgement for this particular Emalon/Ulduar run.  No, it’s a realization I came to while reading healers bitching about tanks.  I hate healers who bitch about tanks.  If you think the tank takes too much damage you need to be a better healer.  Period.  I digress.

I have noticed a trend among the tanks I heal though.  Paladin tanks seem to be all or nothing to me.  I don’t know what it is.  Either they can absorb it all or they take a knee to the crotch – down.  Druids are very spikey.  You will see a string of 20 dodges followed by OMGIJUSTROLLEDYOURFURRYFACE.  DKs are very cool down dependant – in many ways they feel like the bastard child of the paladin and the druid.  If the DK has cool downs available they are pretty easy to heal; otherwise it’s a happy no-have-a-shield-I-break-a-your-face.

Warriors are the most consistent tanks.  In my experience they take damage at regular, healable, intervals.  There is no surprise healing a warrior.  I prefer them most for progression content.  Their abilities give them the most mobility and the most predictable damage intake.  During the Emalon fight our warrior tank did something that was really cool.  I enjoy seeing what others do that is particularly impressive.  I am very good about seeing who is doing what.  For the life of me I can’t figure out how I do it.

True story:  When I was in college I saw my roommate water a plant prior to his departure for the Christmas break.  I noticed the plant and inquired about it.  “Oh, when did you get that?”, I asked.  This plant was on a shelf and hung down over his desk and was approximately 6 feet long.  He looked at me amusingly and said “I’ve had this since the day I moved in”.  Seriously, I had lived in a 12×14 dorm room with a 6 foot long plant and hadn’t even noticed it for 4 months.

Trust me, these stories are not few and far between.  Some of them are so unbelievable nobody believes them.  This last weekend I had to deal with a tree that had gotten blown over during the nasty storms we’ve been having here in the South.  It was lying in my gutter and I didn’t even know where it came from.  I saw the stump in my yard where it had broken and I asked my girlfriend “was there a tree here?”.  I’m not bullshitting you, I swear.

On a positive note I heard that oblivious behaviour is a sign of genious.  Yeah…I’ll go with that one.  I also prefer the color green.

Well, back to my point.  You see how I can be surprised by my ability to notice what people do so well.  Considering I don’t even see plants that are larger than I am.  So, I see our warrior tank pull off a pretty nifty move.  During Emalon’s shock AoE I see our tank intervene to me.  That in and of itself isn’t impressive…I see tanks do that all the time.  In fact I’ll purposefully run 20 yrds in front of warriors carrying flags in PvP so the smarter ones will think to intervene to me.  Well as soon as this particular warrior intervened out of the AoE damage he immediately charged back in.  It was quite literally one motion.  That wasn’t too impressive either.

Well what was so impressive?  The impressive part is that he intervened, immediately charged so that it looked like one motion and he did it all in the split second during the cast.  You see, he was able to time the intervene so he was out by the time the AoE went off.  Then he was able to charge back in – in what looked like a single motion – to be back on Emalon after the AoE went off.  That’s basically a .1 second interval of execution.  That shit has to be well timed.

No other tank can do that.  Too often do we neglect to show appreciation to our tanks.  I’d like this opportunity to thank my warrior tanks.  Hats off to you, my friends.  You have made my job as a healer much more enjoyable.