My History of Healing

I've been an MMO player for a very long time, but I haven't spent a lot of that time healing. In EverQuest, I started out with a Magician because I thought it was cool. I eventually tried a low-level healer but never got very far with him, as by that time most players were max level and I had trouble grouping with anybody.

It was Dark Age of Camelot where I first tried a healer, playing a Bard. It was more of a mezzer than a pure healer, but it showed me that I enjoyed healing as I got to do that. Only my fear of PUGing kept me from carrying that Bard to maximum level, and I still got about half way.

I played a number of other games along the way, including Star Wars Galaxies for some time. In SWG one of my characters was a Doctor/Musician, and while I wasn't combat healing I skilled up the character by healing wounds. This too, I enjoyed quite a bit, and this character I took to maximum skill. Unfortunately, I only got to maximum shortly before the Combat Update, after which I left the game for a time, only to come back right before the NGE, which took things to a point where I gave up and changed him into a full-time Entertainer. (If you haven't heard about the NGE, it should be easy to find. The internet is full of rants about how it ruined Star Wars Galaxies.)

Finally the time came for World of Warcraft. I first tried it out during the stress test before launch, and during that I played a Dwarf Priest. When I could find people to group with I loved it, but I was dying a lot with it solo so when I finally got the game a couple months after launch, I went Hunter. And I played that Hunter for some time. I did some other classes, including levelling up a Paladin for a while as Ret, but it was my Hunter I took to maximum level first.

As time went by, however, I felt the itch. I'd tried healing before on other games and I loved it, so why wasn't I doing it in World of Warcraft? So when some friends asked me to join them on another server, I dug out that Paladin and started levelling him and healing in dungeons, first only with my new guild and then branching into PUGs when the dungeon finder was released. I realized that I'd never truly enjoyed the game like I did now. I took that Paladin from regular 5-mans, to Heroics, to raids. When I'd never gotten past early Naxx on my Hunter, I took my Paladin into ICC first as a tag-along on an alt run, and then on to a full alternate for the guild's main raiding team. I was even invited to join the team full-time, but my schedule just didn't allow it.

And that brings me to today. I've come to realize that there's nothing I enjoy in World of Warcraft, or MMOs in general, more than healing. This has made me decide to start levelling healing alts. I dug out an old Draenei Priest and started levelling him in the dungeon finder and started another priest on another server with a RL friend with the intention of doing the same. Once Cataclysm comes out I will level a Shaman and a Druid as well, to experience the new content. I've also decided to start this blog, as it allows me an outlet to discuss this so enjoyable element of gaming. http://chum.ly/n/445ace