Need for Speed?

It's been quite quiet for me recently, almost by accident I've gained a few levels and am half way to level 58...portal time! I have put serious play on hold though due to the absence of my warrior bodyguard, Aggrion.

I am beginning to wonder if Aggrion is actually traumatised following a recent trip to Blackrock Depths in the bowls of Blackrock Mountain. This was certainly the last time I saw him outside of Ironforge!

We were accompanied by a Rogue, Shadow Priest and Feral Druid. I probably should have seen the warning signs from the start when the druid, upon joining the party and seeing the make up asked if she should tank. No was the reply from Aggrion. Should she heal? No, was the reply from our priest Iskaral. I was half expecting her to offer to sap, pick locks and backstab, but we finally agreed that cat form dps would be best.

Of course she maintained this role for all of 5 minutes before she was launching fights in bear form, switching to cat and then out into nelf form to support Iskaral's desperate attempts to keep her and the rest of our party alive due to her hectic style. Aggrion began to cry "Give me time to build some aggro please..." over and over again until it became more mantra than request.

As this area is heavily populated with humanoids I had summoned my succubus Jhorlia (much to Aggrion's pleasure) , but she was barely able to do a thing as any attempts at crowd control were dashed as our druid rushed into combat or ignored raid markings in her hurry to set some sort of instance speed record.

You know me, I like to wreak miserable havoc wherever I go. I take pleasure in bringing down those that would oppose me. I get a pleasant shiver from seeing the corpses piling up before me. Don't get me wrong. But, I also like some organisation and control to the process. And in this run, there was none.

As the Rogue tried to get a sap in and Aggrion tried to maintain some levels of aggro, whilst Iskaral tried to work out which of the two tanks he needed to heal it became rapidly clear that this run would end in disaster or tears, maybe both!

I hear a lot of people shouting 'Hurry up! We can do this in 20 minutes" and I can't help but wonder at what repair cost?

Death is a part of the circle of life, especially in Azeroth where that circle keeps on spinning like a merry-go-round. If I die, I die. I don't sulk, I just run on back and pick up from where we started. But I do see it as a mini failure. To me, a good party won't wipe, or at least not through foolish errors. But the mentality of so many people seems to be that perceived speed is more important (and fun!?) than a clean, practised, chilled-out run. I'm not actually sure if you timed the two 'styles' that there would be much difference.

What I do know is that rushing in and racing about is not my style. I like to stop and smell the fresh blood. To admire the handy work of my party as we cut a path through our enemies.

I am beginning to think that I need to coax Aggrion out of the safety of Ironforge to slay the ghost of this bad experience! And maybe there's no better time than the present!