In The Incredibles, Dash is the young son who can run and move very very fast, like the Flash. There’s a scene where he’s running away from some mercenary villains, through a jungle. So he’s zipping between trees and jumping over logs, but his visibility ahead is limited because the jungle is so thick. Suddenly the forest ends and there’s a tiny bit of beach before a large bay of water, with him barreling towards it far too fast for him to safely turn away. Dash clenches his eyes closed, expecting to wipe out spectacularly… and then opens them to learn that he can run across the water’s surface. Surprise! He lets out this mischievous, joyous, relief-filled laugh, then zips away. It’s a great scene. (Brad Bird for overlord)
In World of Warcraft, my wife and I have had that laugh many times.
Our most recent one came with my wife’s feral tank. We were doing the daily quest for Shattered Sun atop the Black Pyramid, where you’re killing a billion orcs to get some armaments to go cleanse (or whatever). Many large, nasty demons with big, ugly two handed swords patrol that area, and there’s nowhere that you can find these orcs for the quest without risking contact with the nasty demons. My wife and I, on other toons, had died at the hands of these demons many times before. So inevitably, we ended up making an error and one of them lumbering toward us. Death was certain…
…except that it wasn’t. Feral druids in bear form dominate pure-melee monsters of all sizes, from raid bosses all the way down to the demons wandering around the quest area atop Black Temple. So that first time it surprised us, she tanked it feverishly, expecting to die in the first five seconds, then the five seconds after that… but after about 30 seconds, she let out this great laugh that reminded me of Dash, followed by “He can’t hurt me fast enough!”
After the fight was over, I asked her, “So are you enjoying your druid tank?”
“YES!”
We continued questing, and the next elite demon that came close to us, which we could have easily avoided… she charged it gratuitously.
“He might have added!”
Inside, she was still laughing, and thoroughly enjoying the unexpected contrast between getting stomped so often by that mob in the past and the new experience of turning the tables on it.
WoW is a great game. Seeing it from multiple angles (that is, multiple classes) brings about joy and surprises above just playing one class all the time. Altitis is good fun. (and also good reading)
2 Comments
Druids are… just so much fun!
I used to hate PvP, tried it on a warlock and a rogue and a warrior. Just… never liked it.
I’m having a blast with my druid, both in resto-balance form and in my ‘PvE tank spec’.
*giggle*
Altaholic’s unite!
Awesome story (and I love the movie tie-in)! I think that as long as we can still experience that feeling in World of Warcraft, the game is worth playing.