Go for the Gold

I don't think I've mentioned this, but I've been struggling with Loihi. I've been struggling hard. I mentioned how my dps was deplorable the one time I ventured into SoO with my guild, and it wasn't getting better. I've been kicked out of two heroic groups for having terrible dps. It's really frustrating because I have the item level and the silver proving grounds achievement that say I'm allowed to be in heroics. I wasn't causing wipes, and we were killing bosses. People just like to be asshats.

Ever since Elitist Jerks stopped being the go-to place for information about how to play my class, I've been using Noxxic. I stumbled upon Noxxic on a Google search, and I've never really felt like I could trust it. I couldn't quite put my finger on why. I think it was mostly that I'd never heard anyone else mention it, whereas, everyone had talked about EJ.

Last week, someone in trade chat said, "Noxxic is the Fox News of WoW." I went, "AHHHH I KNEW IT!!!!" Hahaha. So it became a discussion and the consensus seemed to be the Icy Veins was the way to go now. I, of course, immediately went to check it out. My talents were a little off. My priorities were a little off. Everything was just a little off. I literally read every word that Icy Veins has to say about destro warlocks, and I learned a lot.

My guild has a requirement that you have to get gold in the proving grounds to be allowed to raid. I had really struggled with silver, so I was not looking forward to attempting gold. With my new information came new-found confidence, so I gave it a whirl. And I failed. Repeatedly. I kept getting stuck on wave 6. The AoE was killing me. I didn't want to look up any strategies. I wanted to do this on my own. After all, it is called the proving grounds. (Although, when Josh mentioned the proving grounds over the phone to his friend, the friend replied, "You mean 'prah-ving' grounds?" Uhh, no, I mean 'proo-ving' grounds...) I'm supposed to be proving my ability to play, not my ability to Google.

I used what Icy Veins had taught me and reworked my talents again. I gave it a little more thought and came up with a better strategy on my own. And this time I made it all the way to wave 10. I didn't beat it, but I saw every wave. I was so excited. I gave it several tries before I decided I needed a break. We went out to dinner and then ran an errand. We came back, I gave it a few more tries, and BAM!

I don't think I have ever been as proud of an in-game achievement as I was of that one. I truly was starting to think it would never happen. It was such a weight off my shoulders too; I wouldn't be sitting on the bench while the rest of the guild goes off to Highmaul. There were still several people after me who hadn't done it yet too. So, YAY LOIHI!!