You know, the first time I went to Karazhan with Grezzk, I was geared up appropriately, ready to go, and yet… I didn’t outperform anyone.
I mean, I did my job, and I didn’t screw up (too much: I saved that for my second run), and I filled a role that needed filled and did the damage that needed to be done. But that was it. I wasn’t posting chart-topping numbers, I wasn’t three-times higher than the next higher damage-class, and I wasn’t doing as much damage as all the other teammates put together.
Eventually, I manage all those things in Karazhan and Heroic-level dungeon teams, but not that time. I was the new guy. I was decently geared for entry-level, but that was it.
And that stage… being the new guy with “good-enough” but not actually “good” gear, and not knowing what I was doing and actually gimping my performance simply because I was focusing so hard on just not screwing up? That stage was a LONG, LONG TIME AGO.
Note that I say “was” a long time ago. As of last night, I’m back in that same place again. I’m the guy with “good enough, but not *good*” gear — the one who needs to learn the fights before he relaxes enough to really open the throttle up — the one who died about 2/3rds of the way through every boss fight. I did the job I was brought in to do, but it wasn’t A+… it was … maybe a B-, maybe a C. “Shows promise, needs to focus” writes the teacher in my new class — not nearly as ‘easy’ as my old class.
A friend from my old guild who convinced me to join him in this new guild told me that he really wanted me to come in and just blow the doors off some of the cockier members of the guild. That didn’t happen last night.
But it will.
I like this new pond. It’s a lot bigger.