/gasp /breathe

Okay, so.

Y'all know I'm guildless right?

Well, I did apply to one guild. This guild is called Sunder, and is a higher progression guild, working on BT and Hyjal.

I killed Bloodboil with them just about four hours ago. I got focused on twice, and I died twice. I was the only one in the raid who did...I was mortified. You see, I was invited to the run after applying so they could scope me out, see if I was worth their time.

I wanted to be worth their time.

No one said anything about my Bloodboil deaths. I assume this is because they saw me pop barkskin each time, stack all my HoTs, and do everything I could to stay alive, but to no avail.

Still. Archimonde? Terrifying. He is a very, very complicated fight. Not in how many different things he does, but because if one person dies, it's hard to recover. It can also cause chain deaths, and then you need to run into the fire and kill yourself so that everyone can run back in.

Ways to impress others in Mount Hyjal, on Archimonde:
1) Do not be the first to die.
2) Carefully manage your trinket cooldowns.
3) Maintain a level head, even after three hours of wiping.
4) If you die because you messed up, learn from it.
5) Check for your tears.
6) Carry more raid consumables than the guilded healers.
7) Share your consumables with the guilded healers.
8) Check for your tears.
9) If you die to something that was honestly, completely and unavoidably not your fault, explain the situation if you are asked. Apologize even though it wasn't your fault.

I never was the first to die. I got yelled at once, and only once, because I was feared far, far away from everyone else, and was afflicted with a curse. My trinket was also on cooldown. And I lived. As soon as fear was off, I popped a health pot, a decurse, and then a piece of lock candy, threw up my heals on myself, and ran back in. I didn't complain, I didn't get upset they yelled at me.

We never downed Archimonde. It was a progression run, and people learned a lot. We were doing consistently better, and were far ahead of the enrage time. He was down to about 45% in 4 minutes; that's great.

After the run, I thanked them all for the raid invite, and left the raid. Not more than fifteen seconds later, a box popped up over my head. I had been invited into Sunder.

I accepted. I'm on two weeks trial period. If they like me by the end of it, then I'll become a real raider and start earning DKP. For now, I just gotta stick it out before I can get phat loots.

I was nervous and scared and anxious the whole run. I had read into Archimonde extensively; Bloodboil not as much. The guild I ran with was nice and put me in a stationary group. I never had to run to the back or do something other than heal the main tank.

They worked with me, waited for me to jump off the cliff about twenty times, and positioned a rezzer at the bottom for the one time I killed myself. I never died to fall damage on Archimonde; possibly due to cat form. I never even took more than 100 fall damage. I avoided fires and when I couldn't, I healed myself through it. I healed the other resto druid through hers, too, and the hunter by me. I topped off who I could and healed the tank when I could.

Despite being intimidated and terrified beyond all reason, I performed well enough to receive a guild invite.

/collapse