A little story to cheer you up if you’re having a bad day.
There is a notorious quest in Tanaris, best done by characters around L48-49 called The Scrimshank Redemption.
This quest has you descend into a tightly-packed labyrinth full of bugs, all on a fast respawn timer, and many of whom are on wide patrols in order to retrieve some equipment deep in the hive.
One of the bug types is called a Swarmer, and as the name suggests they spawn dozens of tiny minibeasts that, if you’re not careful, will overwhelm you. These are one of the most deadly mobs a Shadow Priest can encounter, as we have zero AOE capability. Holy Nova appears not to be a trainable skill in Classic, and is rather, talent-based.
I’ve had experience with this quest before on my Hunter, and knew how damned nasty it could be, so decided not to take any chances.
First I removed all my gear allowed myself to die outside the hive so that I could explore the interior fully, and safely as a wisp - so that I would know exactly where to go.
Second, I tried fighting a Swarmer from a safe location outside the hive so that I could get a handle on the best way to engage them. The trick is to nuke down relatively quickly, but break off to periodically wand the little swarmlets as they appear with Shield up at all times. No problems there.
Third I took even more precautions with an Elixir of Wisdom and Elixir of Superior Defense, to give me an edge. Probably overkill, but I had a couple to spare. Coupled with food buffs and my own buffs I was good to go.
Down into the hive I went, cautiously, carefully. Doing everything perfectly, judging patrols, taking fleeing mobs into account until I came to the famous ‘butterfly room’, so-named (in Wowhead comments) because it somewhat resembles a purple butterfly shape on the minimap.
Once again carefully pulling out the mobs one by one, judging patrols… until it came time to engage the Swarmer.
Pulled the Swarmer.
Engaged, DOTted, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Wand… etc…
BANG BANG BANG!
“There’s someone at the door!” (my wife was in the bath)
“But, but…”
“Answer it for God’s sake…”
So, I had to stand up, physically leave the PC as Lorran was being wailed on by a damned Swarmer and answer the door, which was pretty hard to do let me tell you. Honestly leaving a character to die like that it’s not as easy as it sounds, even if (as my wife was quick to inform me) it’s just a stupid game.
The caller a was a delivery guy who had the wrong flat. He actually wanted the one downstairs.
Getting back to the PC I was surprised to discover I was still alive, albeit at around 10% HP. Tried my best, but by that time my mojo was gone, my rhythm all broken. Retreated, respawns immediately popped in on top of me. Death.
Spirit ressed, as no way of getting back into the hive to get my corpse surrounded by respawns, pots wasted, repair bill, and my shift at work due to start in 10 minutes, so no point trying again.
So, you know how sometimes you fail at something though sheer stinking dumb luck and it just puts you in a rotten mood afterward?
…
I defy anyone to beat that with a tale of worse luck.