So this week, since I'm back home house-sitting for my parents, I was able to raid both Tuesday and Thursday. My guild's raids are starting to become really random luck-of-the-draw types of things again because of the high amount of new 70's we've got with us. Some of them are actually played by fresh players (as opposed to the same people with new toons) as well. It was strange having to actually try on Maiden. It was strange to find the trash mobs actually challenging.

I had fun with it. It was fun to experience Karazhan where I had to be on top of my game for reasons other than saving face in front of the Kara-jaded veterans in my guild. There's a portion of people who have run it so many times they're sick of it and won't do it any more, and there's a much larger portion who just approach it as duty (seemingly). Many of those types have chosen to cope with it by leveling alts to 70. Often multiple times.

I guess the point I'm trying to make, rather than sounding accusatory, is that my experience with raiding Karazhan has gone from being carried by the experienced types to feeling merely competent but still ultimately expendable.

This week I felt crucial. Especially last night. Last night I was definitely the primary healer. Tuesday I shared the duty with a druid who's sort of my rival in the healing department. It was nice to feel like I was needed for my skill and not just because "we need another healer" or "we have an open slot." It was fun to feel like I was one of the people carrying the raid.

My Warlock is 63. I'm quickly approaching the day where I will enter Karazhan for the first time as a DPS and have to start raiding with my thinking cap on. Healing is easy; you don't really need to watch your threat at all because if everyone else is doing their jobs right, it won't matter (and even if they're not, it's not like you can stop healing).

As a side-note, people who drop from raid groups 30 minutes before the end of the raid are usually punished (justly so) by having gear they sorely need drop off the boss they skipped. That always kind of annoys me. Especially when we wind up having to blow those pieces up. I mean, if you get added to a raid at the last minute, unless you're the same class as the person you're replacing, you're kind of wasting your time. You know that Fate is just going to screw your predecessor over by dropping the gear karma dictates it should. So you're kind of just setting yourself up for disappointment.

I'm looking forward to being carried again, and also to experiencing a different side of raiding.