I have much the same relationship with a shirt, hairy dwarf ret pally. We were both picked up entirely seperately by the same guild when we first started playing some time shortly after Wrath hit. Yeah, I'm one of those.

I have no hesitation in admitting that I had no idea what I was doing back then; I was a combat Rogue quite happily wielding two fast daggers. I know, right?

Anyway, one evening whilst wondering out loud how long it would take to save up enough loose cash to buy my first epic mount, I got into a discussion with said Pally given that not many people were occupying what came to be known as the 'midnight shift'. An hour later, completely out of the blue, the required gold appeared in my inbox along with a simple message - "Go buy a mount. It's on me." Naturally, I was touched by such an unselfish and outward display of generosity from someone I had spent a grand total of about half an hour talking to.

After we started talking more, I began to get an idea for the wealth of knowledge this guy had somehow managed to amass, partly due to having an exceptional memory for facts, npc names, towns, material locations. He rocketed up to 80, while I sort of shuffled along twenty or so levels behind. When I eventually made it to the top, we began a gearing cycle of teaming up to run dungeons together, eventually progressing to the point that Heroic modes no longer held anything of interest. Deciding a purely social guild was no longer what we needed, we began to seek a raiding guild. He found our next home through an advert for a ret pala on /trade and responded, saying he was willing to join if his Rogue buddy could come as well. Already having a bit of a developing rep on the server, his offer was accepted immediately and I was dragged along. Entry by association. That was also how I got into ICC the first time; my semi-decent dps vouched for by the guy gunning 10k single target on relatively low gear.

From there the partnership was solidified and the pair of us began to develop a rep in the guild and outside of it as being a package deal. We would regularly hold contests á la Gimli and Legolas in the LotR Trilogy during battle to see who could get the most kills and do the highest dps in a given raid, almost always fighting over the number one and number two spots on the charts. He would usually get number one and took great pleasure in asking me for recounts, knowing he had won. Through guild splits, team divisions, server changes, faction changes we have remained together and continue to do so out of a mutual respect, admiration and generally nerdy sense of humour.

Undoubtedly, despite his dwarven stature, it is he who casts the shadow in this team. That's never really bothered me though. I mean, come on. If I wasn't happy to lurk in shadows, what kind of Rogue would I be?

Reply