Posts Tagged ‘Real Warriors’

So, this is one of the few times that Sr. Fran is actually writing an article! I’ve been long skirting the issue, having been asked many times to write something, and I rarely given in. The reason for me dodging the issue is I don’t think of myself as a “gamer” per-say. I am what Paul Barnett calls, “a non-gamer gamer”. For me, gaming is fun, it’s a hobby, an activity I do to blow off a little steam, and share some fun with other people online. I game usually at night, about 2 – 4 hours, but not every night. I seem to go through cycles, I give up games for a while, then I go back just a couple hours a week, then increasing to many hours a night. Last year for Lent, I gave up gaming COMPLETELY for 40 days (the 40 days of Lent) and then when Lent was over, I really didn’t go back right away, because I had found many things that needed my attention over the course of the 40 days. But the lure of World of Warcraft just was too much, I went back, and now I’m on it every night, which makes me a little aggravated. Aggravated because I thought I had “licked” this addiction! But no matter how long I stay away, it always seems to lure me back, like the sirens call to the sailors at sea. Recently, there is an even bigger reason I enjoy going back, night after night…I AM A TANK!

I have 4 toons actually, an 80 DK (death knight) Blood Elf, an 80 Troll priest, a 72 Blood Elf Warlock, and my latest toon, a 60 Tauren Warrior (tank spec). Well, the toon I’ve had the longest has to be my warlock, she is over 4 years old. WoW just recently had their 5^th anniversary, and she was created after WoW had been around for about 8-10 months….so she’s definitely my oldest toon. I remember when Sr. Julie and I first started the pod cast, and we were discussing Death Knights because they were just added to WoW, and we were talking about that quest you have to do as a Death Knight, where you have to kill a bunch of villagers. I was appalled! I was saying how “I could NEVER do THAT!” Julie just laughed at me and said “how can you justify being a nun playing a WARLOCK then?” and I replied that my warlock is like “Glenda the good witch!” much to the amusement of Sr. Julie and our listeners. I played my warlock and I enjoyed it to a certain extent. What I didn’t like was being so squishy that I got “one shotted” all the time in battlegrounds, and if a boss ever hit me it was over. Battlegrounds were actually such a sore point with me that a few times, I ranted pretty bad in battleground chat, and got myself kicked out of whatever guild I was in! I guess you can’t use the “f-word” in WoW without someone noticing (needless to say, no one knew who was actually saying those words, or they would be horrified)! It got to the point with me and guilds that every week I was in a different one. Plus it didn’t help that in every patch WoW was nerfing Warlocks into the ground. Then with that whole “keying” thing [EDITORS NOTE:  For those new to WoW she is talking about getting the keys to instances in outlands] and everyone pulling out their measuring sticks and shouting at me that I was supposed to be the top of the dps chart and wasn’t, well that didn’t help me want to play my warlock any either.

So, maybe 2 years ago, as a reaction to all the grief I was getting, I rolled up a Drenai Warrior. I liked seeing the new Drenai lands, but once I was out of the new lands into the “old” lands grinding away, it was hell. It got so bad that I abandoned my warrior completely when DK’s came out. Well, I got over the whole killing the pixels/villagers thing and rolled up a Death Knight. I rolled Blood Elf, in the new, “good” guild I was in, The Older Gamers, or TOG as known to many. I was REALLY happy with my DK! Finally, I had STAMINA, AND STRENGTH, AND PLATE ARMOR!!! Woo Hoo…I could even TANK instances and not get us killed!!! I was having fun, especially in Battlegrounds! But then Blizzard went and nerfed DK’s to the point where they make terrible tanks, and their dps is usually the lowest compared to mages and warlocks…so here I was again…stuck without a tanking toon. So, I went back to my “old” Drenai warrior. Almost as soon as they allowed faction changes, I went from Alliance to Horde. I do think that Horde is the side where it seems more reasonable people play. I have run into a few pugs that want to make kick them all in the butt, for the most part however, I really am happy I changed to Horde. Plus I changed from a Drenai to Tauren.

I had tried Tauren when WoW first came out, but didn’t like them so much. But with my Warrior, it’s different. Taurens LOOK like Warriors/tanks! They are big, they have that stomp ability that stuns the targets – it just works. I was also leveling up my priest, which I still play for raids, since priests are ALWAYS needed for raids. But aside from raiding with my priest, I’m playing/leveling my warrior. I never realized that the toon I really wanted to play the most was a tank. Now that I’m horde, in a good guild, and playing a tank, I’ve never had so much fun in WoW! I’m sure that other Warriors will tell me the drawbacks to being a tank, but so far, I can’t see any. Probably the ONLY thing that irritates me to no end is when I do PUGS and they pull out the measuring sticks. I’m always second to last on dps charts. But then last night I had a realization…tanks are supposed to TAKE damage, NOT GIVE damage. They need to hold aggro, which can be a challenge with some of the AoE happy mages/warlocks out there, but once I realized that, it didn’t bother me about them pulling out the measuring sticks. And what I have found is that when there are others who want to “off-tank” or more like “be the tank” but don’t have the stamina, gear, or talents for it, I just back off and let them tank…see how long they last…usually it’s not too long resulting in the complaint that I “didn’t hold aggro”! Well I’m not the one who charged in there wearing cloth armor, am I? The best part about being a tank, is that I just don’t have to put up with the BS that pugs give. Too much BS from someone in a pug and I’m outta there…faster than you can say “pug”!

You know, I have thought about it, and it seems to me that each of my 4 toons in WoW have some part of my own personality…I can be, and have been a healer in my life. I CERTAINLY have been a witch a time or two! I’ve got a side of me that I don’t like to show, which is the vindictive Death Knight side. But who knew, that I would most like, and most relate to being a Warrior/Tank! Years ago, I was going through probably the most difficult period in my life. I had been dumped by my fiancé who left me for a married woman he worked with, who’s own marriage was failing. I had dreams of being a wife and mother, and a graphic designer…it just all crumbled to the ground like old buildings in an earthquake. I remember very fondly, my mother who I had a strained relationship with before, came to my rescue. She couldn’t walk very well, she couldn’t breathe very well, and here she was at my Chicago apartment, struggling, puffing, up 3 floors of steep stairs in order to help me clean out my apartment and move back home with her. She helped me pack, she washed and cleaned, she held me while I cried, she was this tiny, frail, thin, sickly, monster-warrior soul of a woman who just would NOT let life’s troubles beat her down, nor her precious daughter! She put up with so much abuse from me in the past, yet here she was by my side, fighting off the depression that might have killed me if she had not been there. She showed me then, how much she loved me. But it wasn’t until I was her caregiver in the last 5 years of her life, that she showed me what a TRUE warrior is…she suffered ailments, and humiliations because of those ailments that would make most people crumble into a pile of insanity! Yet, she handled it all with such Grace as I have never seen. Yes, she had her bad days. She even yelled at me in a restaurant one day, something that made me burst into tears. But I realized that I was the ONLY safe target she had to unload on. All the suffering that life was throwing at her, she had no way to unload it, except onto me, the daughter she loved and fought with, and fought FOR …for so long. I forgave her; because she forgave me for all that I had done to her. That’s what a warrior is…someone who can take a beating and still smile – Someone who can take a beating and realize that we are all only human. Someone who knows that forgiveness is NOT just an option…it’s a shield, not just for the warrior, but for the person who’s hitting as well. So, of all my characters in WoW, I think I like being a Warrior/Tank the best, because I was shown by my mother, what it means to be a good warrior, to fight the good fight, and not let the sadness or suffering make you bitter and angry and mean.

To my mom, the best warrior I’ve ever known. Mom, I only hope that I can one day, be as good a warrior as you were! I love you.

Sr. Frances

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