My guildie healers always complain that its too easy for them to heal and I tend to get sloppy about standing in stuff when I hear that, or even intentionally stand in stuff just so they have something to do. I’ve even played “spin the dragon” a few times by getting a DK to pop army.

I’m not yet close to burning out, but only because when we do guild runs in heroics we tend to do stupid stuff on purpose just to keep it interesting and fun. Misdirect to the healer is one of my favorites, it at least keeps me on my toes to keep them alive.

Is this attitude of ‘gogogo’ purely boredom? It’s guaranteed to ensure I make people wait a couple of minutes before I start. But you also get ‘Need to run fast, I have raid in ten minutes’. Well yes, some of these things can be run in ten minutes. But not all. CoS? What would people do, just drop the moment they enter? Why yes. Yes, they would.

Boredom is, in part, an issue of the player’s own creation. I had much more fun pottering through three back to back heroics with Spinks on various alts yesterday than if I’d gone alone. LFG doesn’t *replace* running with friends. And having a friend or two means you can laugh at those moments again. Or at least have moral support as you quit the party in disgust. Enjoy the social interaction as you go. Those moments of laughter can make the whole thing much more enjoyable.

I just wish that a few other random people I’ve grouped with could take it a little less seriously and at least enjoy the scenery and comradeship on their travels. The fights/instances are currently boring. My friends? Never.

That and the Druid Tank with 26k health fully buffed in Heroic HoL have been the only real healy challenge I’ve had outside of raids recently. For a little I did start getting sloppy (Sorry Mrs Spinks!) but then I buckled down and said – I’ll stay healy for it all unless its CoS or VH and we have a maintank along and do my job right. I find myself more and more letting alts heal the ‘Uber runs’ and dropping my healer into low geared alt-tank runs or flat PuGs just to keep my game up….that Druid had already lost his first healer and must have thought X-mass had arrived when the full t10 Resto Shammy ported in.

Now I say this not becuase I’d be rude or ‘cos I think a 9 year old cant play well (I’ve seen 9 year olds who are far brighter, mature and capable of skills and abilities than a lot of folk, including myself) but becuase I know several parents that let their kids play and it worries me. I mean there are some real scum out there and some of them play WoW. ‘Deeprun Tram is a nest of ****philes’ to mis-quote Penny Arcade. Ofc the only one I followed up on had Dad in attendance and chat turned firmly off! But still. I recall my wife helping some newbie out and getting the kid stalk her, tell her he was 9 or 10 and his real name. Now my Mrs used to work in schools and is still CRB (Criminal Records Beureau) registered as a person safe to have around kids/sensative data…so she told them to a)stop following her and b)never ever tell people online your name or age! But heck its worrying. I in no way impune your parenting here Kanobi….just an unease about kids in WoW.

For instance: back when the expansion first launched, people would struggle to get Anub’arak down fast enough in Azjol-Nerub to get the achievement. Now, it happens almost without trying, so much so that my wife’s freshly-80 healer picked it up during a routine run.

Equipment has always had a bit of a deforming effect upon WoW’s endgame, but never moreso than this expansion, where T9 has now become almost the baseline for players, and any subtlety to the fights is lost amidst massive health pools and damage portions.

Standing in things is irrelevant, as healers can power through the damage.

Damage spikes are irrelevant as tanks have soaked up huge amounts of health and damage reduction.

Add are irrelevant, as they can be slashed to ribbons in seconds.

The only way most bosses get to use any of their special abilities is by fixed timers that prevent players from speeding past them, a la King Ymiron’s boats. And even then, it’s unlikely in the extreme that most of the abilities will amount to anything.

We’re now all strutting about in equipment far ahead of the actual difficulty curve in Heroics. We’re bored because they’ve stopped being even remotely challenging and started being badge pinatas with a full set of tier equipment as the candy within.