The other day I was in the bank, as usual trying to squeeze in some more items to my slots, which is hard since I stubbornly refuses to let go of any pet I have, no matter how common and trivial it is. Then I suddenly got a whisper from a hunter standing beside me.

"Wow, you're mana pool is so huge" he said.

"Oh, you really think so? I don't think it's that special, it's got to do with my arcane spec" I replied.(A short interruption here to explain a bit: the other day I wrote Fire mage is a way of life. Which it is. Still I'm currently testing an arcane/frost spec 40/0/21 and so far I'm happy with it. It's never too late for a change...)

It turned out that this hunter had a level 63 mage. And he seemed to be quite fascinated by me as he inspected me. He'd never seen a spec like mine (cough... it's just ordinary raiding spec, I told him, trying to explain a bit about the idea of it) and he all but fainted when I told him about my bonus damage.

"Please show me! Duel me outside of SW. I'd like to see what you crit for".
OK, since I had nothing better to do (except for farming, which I gladly tried to get away from) I agreed and we went out for some demonstrations.

This was the first and last time I won any duel - it turned out he didn't do any resistance at all, he just wanted to see my damage. So I nuked him down with three frostbolts. Then I demonstrated Arcane Blast as well, but also told him about the disadvantage about it - the insane mana cost.

He even recorded our duels, saying he wanted to keep it for further reference. And then he started to beg me for advice about his level 63 mage. Should he go for my spec now?

"Honestly no", I told him, arcane isn't great for levelling purposes. But his current fire spec seemed a bit odd in my eyes. Blazing speed...? Well if you're truly dedicated to PvP but else...? After a discussion he ended up respeccing to deep frost.

"Is it OK if I add you and ask you about things in the future?" he asked. "You've been so kind taking your time. It's the first time anyone does such a thing to me".

"Please do", I said. "I'll try to answer you, unless I'm in a raid, then you probably won't get any reply".

When I logged out I had ended up spending up to an hour on helping this guy. This was time that I could have used to get gold or consumables. Did I feel like had wasted it? Absolutely not. I had a big smile on my face. I just couldn't believe in the first place that someone was thinking that I was a person worth asking. It was really flattering, once I had realized that he actually wasn't making fun of me, which I thought at first. This guy was less experienced than me and he wanted to hear about what I knew about the mage class.

Me! Newbie-Larísa, who is still attending the primary mage school, trying to figure out how to make most out of her class, reading as many forums as she can manage to widen her horizon,. Larísa, who usually is the one asking for advice from experienced players. Now I suddenly was in the opposite role, being someone who was supposed to share her knowledge. OK this guy could probably have found many mages who could have given him better advice than me, but at least I gave him some attention, which he obviously hadn't got before.

Lesson learned:

From now on I'll try not to feel so bad when asking for advice. Now when I've just for once been on the other side I see how rewarding it can be. Not in gold but in boosting your self-confidence and in feeling that you're a quite a nice person. I just hope I'll get the opportunity to do it again.

PS - brief progress report

Tonight we downed Hex Lord for first time and I was there. It was the first time we ever faced him. We had a first try to understand the fight. Wiped. And then we nailed him at second try! I just couldn't believe my eyes. Just a shame that I was so thrilled that I forgot to take any screenshot.