Shared Topic: A Conversation With Your Character  

Azryu of The Arcanery posed a Shared Topic at Blog Azeroth for this coming week that I thought I would tackle. It’s a bit unorthodox, but I decided to take the questionnaire from Miss Medicina’s blog and alter it just a tad so that it could be answered by my character rather than me.

• What is the name and profession? Dristanel Xukuth, physician and apothecary.
• What is your primary group healing environment? Somehow I’ve been called upon to assist as a field medic, more or less, in groups consisting of nine to twenty-four comrades.
• What is your favorite healing spell and why? I’m not entirely sure how to answer that. Whatever keeps someone from being dead, generally. I have a difficult time exerting any form of bias when it comes to such things.
• What healing spell do you use least and why? Well. I suppose that involves a bit of backstory. On a foray into the Citadel, we came across… Saurfang’s son, I suppose is a tactful way of putting it. I did my best to keep everyone fit for battle, but the Light decided it had other plans. It… intervened with an orc warrior who was none-too-pleased. Perhaps my ‘Light don’t let her die…’ had something to do with that. In any case, she blamed me for being unable to fulfill some form of orcish oath. Things were a bit hectic for a week. Now, of course, she’s back to sitting on my lap, much to my wife’s displeasure. …But in any case. I’m sorry, what was the question again?
• What do you feel is your biggest strength and why? Patience. Or so I’m told. It’s probably very fortuitous no one hears the things going on in my head. But yes, I do tend to tolerate a bit more than most. Six younger siblings lends itself well to that.
• What do you feel is your biggest weakness and why? I tend to… try to rationalize things. Obsess over them. Control them, if you will. Before meeting my wife I can say I had very little faith invested in the Light – and honestly I still have my doubts. It’s… a learning process. Sometimes a difficult one.
• What do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you? Behind a counter selling elixirs or in a side room sewing up cuts. Truly.
• What healer do you enjoy healing with most and why? That’s difficult to judge. I try to pay attention to my work and making sure everyone is still alive. But I suppose Daciana has been the most patient and understanding, being a paladin herself. I think she wishes to leave the Citadel more than even I.
• What healer do you enjoy healing with least and why? Well, Vimm tends to insist I not wear pants, so I would have to go with that. I find not wearing pants to be very impractical in such places.
• What is your worst habit as a healer? Overthinking, most likely. Or is it obsessing. No, it’s most definitely overthinking. But…
• What is your biggest pet peeve while healing? Is death really something one could consider a ‘pet peeve’?
• Do you feel that you are well balanced with other healers? Well-balanced? I’m not sure how to qualify that. The other healers are far better at the heat-of-the-moment repairs, I mainly handle the trauma afterward.
• What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer? I’m told by… certain people that I should simply be happy if ten or twenty-five people go in and they all come out. But things have been getting tense, and the margin far too close for my liking. I fear the one time I won’t be able to help someone it will mean the difference between the Scourge army and our own.
• What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing? I’m not… made for this kind of work. I was never meant to be a ‘hero’. I’ll be glad when this is over and I can return to being ‘just’ a physician.
• What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers to learn? I assume you mean combat healers? Considering I am still learning myself, I suppose I can offer some insight. One thing I am… trying to learn is that the margin for error is not something one has time to consider. Out of combat, I can take time to make certain everything is done to a certain standard. But here… well. I suppose I just have to pray.
• If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer, what sort of patterns would they see? Having no idea what the hell I am doing there in the first place, then going home to drink myself to sleep? ...I’m kidding. Mostly.
• Haste or Crit and why? I… what? Oh. Enhancements. The latter is often unreliable, and I would prefer to get aid to someone quicker.
• What healer do you feel you understand least? Jezuine. She keeps pulling out a staff and yelling ‘Abracadaver!’ before every fight. And occasionally she can… protect everyone in what appears to be bubbles? But then she complains about it.
• What do you use to aid you in healing? I have a standard kit of supplies. Potions, elixirs, bandages. And my wife isn’t aware of it, but for the combat healing, I have a trinket I… borrowed from her.
• Do you strive primarily for balance in your healing, or do you place importance higher in some things than others, and why? Oh what I wouldn’t give for some semblance of balance and normalcy in the field…

For my out-of-character answers to this survey, click here!