A guest on the Oprah Winfrey show was being interviewed as the newest inductee in Oprah's Book Club. Oprah called his work amazing, not only because it was a great novel 'a prefect slice of Americana', but it was also, remarkably, a palindrome; a word or phrase spelled both forward and backward the same way. From beginning to end.

Oprah lauded this genius author with praise and asked him, 'what was the most difficult part of writing such a literary and intellectual masterpiece?'

He thought for a moment and responded with a grin, 'Well, the first half was really tough. But after that, the rest just pretty much wrote itself.'

*****
It's terrible, I know. But it came to me in a dream. Totally original. Promise.

Amberale and I were kicked from our last guild (No Limits) because the guild leadership did not like me. The guild raiding style was to schedule random raids at set times. People wouldn't show up, so each day the guild would have to determine new teams and dungeons to raid. Each night, this took about 1.5 hours of scheduled raid time.

I am a patient person, but I do not like spending half my scheduled raid time waiting for the guild leadership to make decisions that should have been made before the raid started. I decided that I didn't really want to run with this guild since I could get a PUG started in less than 1.5 hours = ( The guild policy was to not pug raids, but come Sunday evening, when half our raids weren't started (and there were no plans to attempt them), Amberale and I would pug and finish them.

As an act of spite, No Limits leadership invited Amberale and I to a 25 man TOC, saved us to one boss, then G/kicked us so we couldn't finish the raid. We were actually happy to be G/kicked because we are fiercely loyal and would have continued to toil in No Limits, had we not been removed.

This was the first time either of us had been g/kicked from a guild or not invited back to a raid (as guild members or as PUGs).

We left our previous guilds (<Rusty Bling>, and <Citadel> [The Scryers]) after the guild leadership collapsed. In both cases, the guilds began to hemorrhage its top players. We stayed till the guild leaders were joining other guilds. Once it was pretty much just the two of us, we knew it was time to move on.

In the case of <Citadel>, the guild leadership was dragging weak players along (sub 2k dps). The stronger players grew tired of this and left. Progression stopped. In the case of <Rusty Bling>, during a rash of absenteeism the guild leader and other top players decided to g/quit.

We are looking for a stable raiding home of dedicated and quality players.

I am fiercely loyal and serious about playing and being the best at my class/role. If there's an aspect of my game I can improve, I do it. From adjusting my bindings to accommodate Wind Shock, to respeccing healing for an encounter, I'm dedicated to bringing as much as possible to every raid.

In addition to this, I try to learn from anyone who can teach me. Better players, theorycrafters, and raid leaders have all been key to my play improvement.

I bring my own potions, foods, and flasks to every raid. Usually for every talent spec I play (ele, and resto- I have enh too, but I really don't think it's that great, though I'm willing to run it if it helps).

If I don't know an encounter, I watch the tankspot and bosskillers videos. I read up on the strategies so I never go into an encounter blind.

I follow instructions well and I am also a capable raid leader, if the skill is called upon.

In addition to those you mentioned, I also use grid and clique. This allows me the opportunity to throw quick offheals and dispels in the raid. It also makes me more aware of raid debuffs such as Snobolds, Paralytic Toxin/Burning Bile, and Penetrating Cold.

I run recount to analyze my dps, but I am not addicted to damage meters. Downing bosses is more important than aggro-stealing dps performances.

Bartender has always been good to me and I can't really imagine playing without it. My bartender layout mirrors my key-bindings so I have a visual cue for reinforcement.

I lead a lot of pug raids, so I use gearscore often as well.

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Eonar&n=Malnewt

(I'll try to log out in my ele gear- but I heal often)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2649/4005590997_0921dde787_b.jpg

Sorry, I don't really save WWS parses. This screen shot is about the best I have at the moment. It has both Amberale and my dps results from a 25 man TOC, Northrend beasts.

Some of our previous guilds ran WWS, some didn't (it made the weaker players feel bad). This screen shot is just one I took from a random 25 man TOC PUG. I think it was mostly Muteki that night. I have posted higher, but I did some off healing.

Criticism, no matter how harsh is rooted in improving the one being criticized. I'm a fair hand at gleaning the useful information from even the harshest of critiques, and raising my game as a result. Having been through basic military training, I doubt there is any level of criticism you can dish out that I can't take.

Nobody tolerates verbal abuse.

I usually push 5k dps on single target bosses with raid buffs and no gimmicks (gimmicks like on Thaddius, Hodir, Twin Vlakyrs).

Today, healing a PUG Ulduar 10 man, I posted 3.5k HPS 2 healing Auriaya.

I use macros to keep my dps cooldowns together and rolling as much as possible.

For DPS, I like to get flame shock up as soon as possible, then lava burst (LvB). Fill in the LvB cooldown with lightning bolts and chain lightning when it's off cooldown. For single targets, I've found chain lightning to put out slightly higher damage since the coefficient change in 3.2.2. When I'm on the move, I try to use my few instants- flame shock, thunderstorm (if it doesn't disturb the mob) (and fire nova in patch 3.3- I can't wait!).

I also will keep interrupt targets on focus so that I can use windshock as necessary. I try to pay attention to times when the primary interrupt classes cannot do their jobs (ie legion flame in Jaraxxus) so that I can pick up interrupt duties.

As a resto shaman, I keep my earthshield on my primary target, and generally a riptide as well. I try to keep riptides rolling throughout the raid- when I'm not chain healing. I'll save my nature's swiftness for damage spikes or times when the tanks don't have cooldowns.

No matter what spec I play, I always keep my appropriate totems ready for each fight (tremor, cleansing, mana, healing, resistance, etc)