That's What it Feels Like

The first few times in ICC, that is when it was first released and I wasn't as well geared as I am now, I ran as my preferred spec...Enhancement Shaman. It was great, we wiped on Marrowgar over and over, but that was ok. As a guild we were inexperienced and undergeared, but we had fun trying.

Quickly people began gearing up more and a few top geared people got experience with other guilds for a few weeks, experience they brought back to us lowbies (how generous). It was about this time that my guild lost some people and I was called on to heal.

I had only commenced down the road of Restoration shortly before this request was made. True, I had been saving some gear for the occaision, but never intended to use it. But I was either going to heal in this guild (as there was no active recruiting going on) or I wasn't going to be a part of any raiding unless I wanted to pug or /gquit.

So Resto I went, and continued until Saturday. We organized a pug 25M, mostly with my guild and one other with a few scattered true puggers to fill it out. I was given the chance to DPS.

I was so nervous I made a deal with a druid to heal the first 3 fights then switch to Enhance while he went heals from the 4th fight on. Good thing it was Saurfang, I just had to stand there and bash my axes into his rear side. (As an aside, it would hurt to be hit in the butt with axes, daggers, swords and maces. I and my wife like my butt).

It was great, my kids loved it, it felt like the good'ol days when I was doing what I loved the most. We got to Rotface and wiped (btw I was around 5-7th on dps). Suddenly there were voices on vent saying:

"I think we need Gronthe to switch back to heals. Absolutely no offense to your dps, it's just that I don't think we can do this without your absolutely kick @$$ heals."

There were a few other comments along those lines. My kids hated that! But I realized as soon as it happened that I had just been paid an incredible compliment by these people. As a healer I can't stress enough how underappreciated we feel. Rarely do people mention us unless they wish to complain about not healing enough, or blame for a particular wipe is laid on our doorstep. To be shown such appreciation and admiration for something that I never wanted to do in this game...EVER...made me feel like I had finally made the transition, and that makes healing that much more palatable for me.

I still love to play with my Enhance spec, I run my daily random as DPS just to keep up with the feel and play of the spec. I wouldn't want to forget how to play him, you know, just in case I was asked to DPS in, let's say, ICC on a random Saturday!

For as grateful as I was to have earned the compliments of my healing prowess, it was nice to know how it feels to contribute in a more brute force sort of way to raid success.