A Not-So-Valiant Champion and Healing in Battlegrounds

Argent Tournament

I finally completed enough dailies to get my 15 Aspirant’s Seals, open the next level of tournament quests and received the “Argent Valor” and “500 Daily Quests” Achievements.

Now that I’m a Valiant of Darnassus I get to ride a cat instead of a horse.  This opened up more daily quests including The Grand Melee where I have to challenge (I believe three) Alliance Valiants and win to complete the quest (anytime I read “Melee” it makes me cringe as a Hunter.)

I lost four times in a row.  I suspect I couldn’t beat a Valiant Champion if he or she had no armor or weapons and was riding a bunny rabbit.

I almost won the last one by a hair but I was kicked off my cat at the very last moment so I decided that was enough for one day.

Completed the rest of the daily quests without a problem until I tried At The Enemy’s Gate.  Flew over to the Court of Bones and was immediately owned by every Boneguard mob and even aggroed a couple of Commanders.

After the inevitable graveyard run, I re-read the quest text and realized I had to use my lance and get a mount from a nearby camp.  Destroy the Lich King’s minions with a lance?  You’ve got to be kidding me.

Oh well.  I’ll give it another try but considering my performance with the Valiant Champions I’m not very hopeful for success.

I might be stuck at this quest a very long time.

On the bright side, I’m only three Cooking Awards away from purchasing the Chef’s Hat.  Maybe I’ll wear it next time I take on the Lich King’s minions – certainly couldn’t do any worse.

Healing in the Battleground

After my dismal failures as a Champion, I switched over to my Priest.  I didn’t have another three hours to spend in a random instance (assuming the worst) so I queued for Warsong Gulch instead.

The battles were the usual mix of win a few, lose a lot, die every 2 minutes with the expected percentage of the idiot factor but I kept plugging along healing when I could and killing a Horde or two on my own.

However, I was quite surprised when I entered the third battle – a few players called out my name and thanked me for healing and/or keeping them alive during the previous battles.

It made me quite happy (sniff) to know my Priest was doing her job and (hopefully) doing something right.

Moments like this are what motivates players to improve their game, not swearing and calling them names but rage-idiots will never understand this simple concept.

Another interesting surprise was when one player “whispered” me that according to Recount, I had used a Lesser Heal instead of a Heal at one point and I should be using the “higher” level heal.

Now, that really made me laugh almost as much as gearscores.  Recount in a 10-19 level battleground?  The next thing I expect is someone raging that my Priest is doing too much healing, not enough DPS and by the way, my gearscore is below the curve.

It’s a low-level battleground guys – players might be new or learning to play a new class – lighten up and keep the Addons to yourself, please.

I can see everyone’s stats at the end of the battle and I’m usually first or second in the Healing column and yes, once I was even at the top of the list for honorable kills (finally killed that annoying, over-geared Orc hunter!)

Not that I particularly care about stats at this level but the “twinks” probably find it interesting.

Just for the Record

Recipe: Delicious Chocolate Cake – 0
Jeweled Fishing Pole – 0
Bone Fishing Pole – 0
Reins of the White Polar Bear – 0
Reins of the Green Proto-Drake – 0

What I Got Instead…

Stinky Cheese – 0
Snowballs – 4 (I’ll now spend a few moments throwing all the snowballs I get at Gretta – very satisfying)
Large Hoof – 1 (for crying out loud already!)
Sharpened Fish Hooks – 2
Worthless Glass – 3
Mysterious Egg – Still Hatching