My Archmage dinged 28 on Averheim last night. I’m still fairly balanced between scenarios and PvE leveling, although I have begun to encounter the dreaded empty PQ phenomenon as I’ve moved out of Avelorn and into Saphery.
I really enjoy Scenarios, though, and they usually pop fast enough that I just use PvE leveling to gather crafting components and to crank out quests between scenario pops. Friday and Saturday were both good nights, with a good variety of scenarios popping in T3.
I don’t think I’m a great healer. I do a decent job of getting my healing numbers near the top of the charts in the Scenario summaries (by healing scenario team members who need it, not by dropping HoTs nonstop on everyone in sight), but I put myself at risk too often, die too often, and that hurts the scenario team. I’m trying to be more conservative, hanging back a bit, giving my teammates a chance to keep me alive when I get assist-trained by tanks or DPS classes, but I have a lot to learn still.
All of my counter-tactics for surviving Witch Elf ambushes came in really handy Saturday night in Tor Anroc. I had been killed up near the top of the volcano and respawned alone. Instead of waiting for teammates to respawn, I rushed back to the action, trying to get some healing power back in the equation.
Unfortunately, as I jumped off the ledge from the spawn cave, a Black Orc and Witch Elf were hiding around the corner and ambused me. I knew my chances of surviving were pretty thin, but I ran forward anyway, hoping to run into retreating teammates so they could assist me.
I’m getting faster on the “Holy shit, it’s a Witch Elf uncloaking right behind me!!” drill. Detaunt WE if possible, shield myself, HoT, potion, run. Keep re-hotting as I run, and hope I don’t die before I get help. It wasn’t working this time, though…as I passed the big rockand turned onto the path between the two lava lakes heading for the top of the volcano, the orc and WE had me slowed and were chipping away at my health.
There were no teammates in sight, and I knew I wouldn’t survive long enough to to make it to the volcano. I only had one chance left. I turned, tried to line up the onrushing opponents, and used my Knockback. Perfection! I caught them both in my blast radius, and they were launched far into the lava. I healed up and waited long enough to confirm both were cooked by the lava, and I ran back to my group, cackling the entire way. It’s pretty rare that I survive getting jumped by a WE without help, let alone a WE and a teammate. A WE plus a teammate usually results in a very fast, very bloody death. Score one for the squishy Archmage!
It was immensely satisfying.
/random 
I had a similar experience playing a new squid herder over the weekend. I was playing Nordenwatch, trying to help take the LH when an engineer runs up and punts me off of a cliff into the ocean. I didn’t even figure out what happened until half way down. I lived, but it took me ages to swim around and get back into the action. “Hey, that’s a pretty good idea!” The rest of my Nordenwatch runs I managed to punt at least one guy off of a cliff each match, often to their bloody doom depending on the cliff in question.
Good fun 🙂