A successful defeat

It was Aeonus that brought us down. A time stop in the wrong moment and suddenly the tank went down. At least that's what I think happened - suddenly Omen was flashing: aggro aggro aggro and the giant dragon was rushing towards me. In that situation there are no six seconds to go invisible. I was dead faster than a pig blinks, as its said in the Swedish children book Emil in Lönneberga, I could see that the tank was in the graveyard too, and soon enough the rest of the party, except for our healing paladin, who still was in the instance. A situation that made it impossible for anyone else to come back into the instance and take down that reptile once for all.

You could think that the ending of this Black Morass heroic run, which so far had offered me anything I can ask for from a playing night, was a bit disappointing.

The party was a good mixture - warrior, warlock, rogue, paladin and my mage - only people that I really like to play with, each one with a well deserved spot on my friendlist.

The forming of the party had been instant. Of course I had snared the tank and the healer in advance, but the dpsers turned up like sent from heaven, suddenly available although they're usually occupied doing other things. Now we came together from three different guilds. Sometimes you're just lucky.

Then I had only to throw myself on the next flight to Tanaris. It was all so quick and efficient. No "I'll just..."-runs to AH, repairing, letting out the dog, getting a snack or other time consuming activities. Soon enough we could sum, buff up and start cleaning the trash.

No explanations were necessary, everybody knew what to expect: half an hour of focusing. That's what I love about BM: the intensity, the speed. There's no room for slacking or hesitating, brb is out of the question. It's like one single wonderful, prolonged boss fight, except for the allowed mana pauses after the bosses.

Once upon a time I feared this instance, probably after my attunement run in a pug group, when I was put on add service, and didn't have a clue of how to do it. In short it was hellish, a thankless slavery from the beginning to the end: just standing there alone in behind, fighting wave after wave of small dragons, even after the rest of the portal was done. While the others had a decent mana pause, I was fighting alone, nervously watching the shield. That was how things were that time, and I developed a phobia and avoided BM ever since, if it wasn't absolutely necessary. Nowadays I appreciate BM, especially in a company like the one I had the other night.

Right after we had started the first portal I went into that wonderful, trancelike stadium, the very same that has made me so crazy about raiding and instance playing. There's that total concentration and focusing on the task, the adrenaline rush coming, while I in an other level is completely relaxed, feeling an ice cold tranquillity. The fingers instinctively finding the right key strokes, the eye view passing over different kinds of meters. The cooperation of the group, one word or another on ts, just as much as you need for communicating, but never as much as it's disturbing. There's no place for the thoughts to flap away somewhere else, here and now it what it's all about. In short it's the WoW nirvana. You who have been there will know what I mean. In that happy state we sort of floated through the instance, portal after portal, ever so easily. Until it all suddenly stopped at Aeonus.

Normally I could have become a bit annoyed after missing the end boss, the uttermost jewel of an instance run. But not this night, it was a side issue that just ran off me. It was a mere accident that we wiped, not lack of commitment, bad cooperation, incompetence or some kind of technical mishaps like lag or dc. And what did we miss? One badge, a few points of reputation and a loot that probably just would have been sharded anyway. There was no reason to turn off the pc in anger, sulking under a blanket. We had got some entertainment together and I had got my nirvana dose.

My more competitive pala friend took the loss harder and admitted how he before going to sleep was sulking in his loneliness, wondering what he could have done differently. Should he had bubbled the tank, letting number two on the aggro list (me) die? Or maybe he could have made a taunt, died and used soulstone?

And when you think about it it's a honourable attitude. To never settle for the next best, to always try to reach a bit higher, to always learn from experiences and then, at the next time, pull yourself to the next level. Out of the sulkiness comes dedication and longing for revenge, an attitude that is needed if you want to progress in the game.

To me the defeat in Black Morass was a success. I enjoyed every single second. And when I meet him next he'll go down. Easily.