K's 2009 Year in Review

I was tagged by River to do this meme on reviewing this past year. I've also asked Tam to infect me with a syphilis like blogging topic (long story, go read his post). He has asked me to blog about "top tips for controlling a wayward tank, and reminding them who *really* wears the platemail in the relationship". Ah a juicy, juicy topic my friend. Hopefully I'll get this posted later this week.

But for now, here's my year in review:

What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you’d never done before?

I've become quite involved in arenas, on 2s, 3s, and 5s. It's been quite a learning experience. Our team makeups have fluctuated a bit, which is always takes a learning curve. I think we are definitely improving and I am getting pretty darned good I think at timing my cyclones. Yay cyclones.

But I think I have to accept the fact that a lot of these arena folks have been playing for numerous seasons... and that I have to level my expectations. I definitely swear a lot though during arenas, and our losses are usually closed out with me saying "F*********k" in a long, drawn out, sad, pathetic way. Who knew the F word has so many u's?

What was your favorite new place that you visited?

My favorite place bar none that I saw this past year is the area leading up to and the room inside with General Vezax. The stained glass, the streaming light... beautiful. Ulduar in general is very beautiful and artistically well done.

What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

Two words. Gold cap. That is all. If things go as planned, I'm looking at Feburary/March-ish.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Hmmm, I guess I could say tanking, if you call that an achievement? Heh. No, but seriously, I have always been incredibly intimidated by tanking. I forced myself this past year to give it a go and have been pleasantly surprised. Sometimes I'll start to feel my face itch, and I know that its time to tank and give my face a bit of a workout. I then go through the following steps:

1. Wash face
2. Place face on middle of keyboard
3. Roll face to the right, then left
4. Rinse and repeat

Yay, tanking faceroll! I would like to say that tanking requires some skill but I know a number of tanks who read this blog, so the tanking faceroll is my story and I'm sticking to it.

I may actually be needing to update my tanking gear and skills more often now, as our guild seems to have found itself with the strange, never before seen phenomenon of having enough healers and not enough tanks. I actually even tanked Onyxia 10 recently, which was definitely a learning experience.

What was your biggest failure?

I would agree with Megs on this one that I never fail, and if I do, it was a tank's fault anyways. And if I'm tanking, uh, I blame... dps? Circle of blame is... circuitous? Though if I had to pick one, I would choose the fact that we never went back to Ulduar to finish off Yogg. I still hold out hope that we can go back, but I don't know if it'll happen.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Dual specs. I really love that I can either play around with two healy specs or pick up a tanking spec. But I'm going to be selfish here and say that I would really, really, really, really be excited if we got triple specs. As a druid who is raiding resto, doing arenas, and now tanking, I would love it. Please Blizz? Can I be selfish and ask for triple specs? Please? I'll pay for it!

What do you wish you’d done less of?

Hmmm, I don't know if I would say that I necessarily regret it, but I've sometimes thought that I should farm less (herbing, fishing) and run instances more for the badges that now drop like candy. (Seriously, how crazy is it that in a span of a week, Badges of Triumph are dropping from instance bosses?) But then again, I get tired of running 5 mans over and over... plus I like mindlessly farming while my focus is occupied elsewhere.

What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?

Mmmm, I don't listen to podcasts, but I do have a ton of blogs in my reader. A favorite blog? Um, maybe I'll just take the easy route and go with Jess' blog for brownie points? However, when does a healer ever need brownie points from their tank? I mean seriously, come on! It's always the other way around, no?

Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009?

The lesson that was just reinforced for me this year? There are real people behind those toons you see in game. This question and my answer reminds me of a topic that I had wanted to blog about in a separate post. Perhaps I'll flesh it out more, but will start it here. There's been a lot of posts within the blogosphere lately around guild drama. Here's my take on this.

Guild drama does not call into question your ability or authority or credibility or any thing ending with "-ity" of your capabilities as a guild leader or officer. Think about anything involving a group of people... be it your family, work, spouses/significant others, friends/social circle. Have you ever been involved in a group of people where some amount of drama has never surfaced?

So why would our guilds be any different? Guild drama for me just reinforces the fact that there are real people playing these pixelated toons, people with different personalities, backgrounds, mindsets, and points of view. Sure you want to limit the drama, but I think its normal and natural for guild drama to rear its ugly head from time to time. What distinguishes your ability as a guild leader or officer is not whether guild drama arises, its how you deal with it.

This was actually kinda neat to think through these questions about this past year. I won't tag anyone, but would invite any bloggers to do their own year in review.