I set a few goals this tier for how I wanted to handle keys going in – I wanted two KSH characters, 3 additional KSM characters on top of that, and for my Monk to hit KSM in Week 2 and KSH in Week 4.

I’ve made great progress – my Monk hit KSM on day 8, my Priest (my second KSH character target) hit KSM this week (week 4), and my DH is on track to be my third KSM this season on Tuesday, with my Devastation Evoker and Protection Paladin north of 1,000 rating and capable of being pushed into their remaining dungeons for KSM.

But that leaves one goal I haven’t attained and am on a track to not obtain – the 4-week KSH push on my Monk. So what happened?

In my post about the 8-day KSM turnaround, I noted a feeling of bittersweetness in having reached that goal so much earlier than I had anticipated, that maybe I had not been aggressive enough in goal setting. That feeling has largely been wiped out now, but I don’t feel regret over it – I made a choice to set that 4-week goal, and then I made choices that stood in the way of it, and so with week 4 ending tomorrow as I write this, I know I’m not going to get there. Because it comes from the choices I made, I’m okay with that.

So what choices did I make?

Well, first and foremost, I let off the gas once I hit KSM on my Monk, so I could apply that energy to other characters. I pushed pretty hard on my Priest in week 2, 3, and this week, doing more keys on him than on my Monk. I tanked for guildies – but mostly on my DH, not my Monk, so my highest tanked key this season is on the blog-namesake DH and not my current raid main (and main tank). I did two weeks worth of pushing at least one key per character, which meant, in line with my goals, for two weeks in the season I did a minimum of 50 keys each week, which was…a lot. I had fun, didn’t burn out or regret it, but as goals started to snap into alignment, I dropped pushing one-minimum per level 70 character, and that has made my push feel better overall – they’ll get focus as I can get to them, the season still likely has 5 months to go.

Then came the week 3 launch of Final Fantasy XIV patch 6.4. I have separate thoughts on that, but it was a fun diversion and I made a point of staying raid ready on both of my raiding characters there – farming out the crafted item level 640 gear sets, completing MSQ twice, completing the new Pandaemonium wing on each, and some EX trial attempts at the new fight there. Could I have done less there? Maybe, sure – but I was done with the MSQ on patch morning within 4 hours, and a cutscene-skip run on my raid alt only took about 90 minutes, with the raid series quests taking about 3 hours including fights on my main and a whopping 45 minutes with cutscene skip mode engaged on the alt. It was time well-spent and while sure, it could have been more keys, I am perfectly content with the diversion.

Ultimately, then, I come back to that original goal setting, the week 4 KSH, and ponder out loud – could I have done it? Sure, I think I could have. I could have listed my own key to DPS, signed up for 17 and 18s as a tank (Brewmaster is pretty good this season and I’ve got gear and practice), or put more hours into signing up for every rating-granting key I could find – but I think that better level-sets how I can tackle season 3 for myself. I think I am still having a lot of fun this season, and it largely comes from having pushed myself harder as a player. I’ve made no secret of the fact that I enjoy skill-based challenges and pushing harder and further, seeing the progression of my play skill unfold as I continue to play a game, and the thing that WoW offers me quite readily that does that is keys – I can rapidly push against new walls and test myself.

This season has been a delight for me because I set hard goals and because they stretched my learning in a good way. I’ve DPSed and tanked keys before, but only sparingly healed them and usually lower keys at that. This season, I started seriously healing keys on my Priest, and not just with the easy-to-heal Holy spec – I challenged myself to push harder and went Discipline, learning one of the harder healing specs in the game, one that requires forethought and planning in an environment that often doesn’t offer as much planning as a raid – and yet I got KSM in short order and I feel very confident that I can finish pushing to KSH on my Priest too. I tanked higher-level keys than before, including a very clutch +16 on my DH, and I’ve been far more confident in my ability to tank and lead a dungeon. My early preparation has paid off because I’ve been able to just focus on running keys – spinning up a character isn’t a thing any more, because all my level 70s are laden with consumables, loaded Plater profiles and UI tweaks, and I’ve gotten the level of gear across my level 70 characters up quite a bit higher – my lowest item level character is my second Monk I play Mistweaver on, who is 394, and only one other character of mine – my Rogue – is below 400. It’s not much, I know – but at the same time, this is a far better place than I was in for Season 1 and with everything leveled, I can now focus in solely on running keys and doing gearing activities for each character.

Another big component of why I’m pretty okay with not meeting that ambitious KSH goal is that I’ve allowed myself to be distracted by having fun for the sake of it. I got really into healing keys as Disc on my Priest, and it is the purest “challenge” role I’ve played consistently in keys. Even on my tank “mains” like my Monk or DH, I end up doing at least some keys as DPS, and usually higher ones, but on my Priest, I gave myself no out – all keys healing, all the time, and I went all the way as Disc even. Granted, in keys, Disc is stronger right now when played well, but it has a higher skill floor and I think that’s a part of what made it fun for me – getting to the point where I felt skillful at Discipline was a really good feeling and something that I was delighted to have click for me.

Where does that leave me now? Well, my goal is still to have two KSH characters in my Monk and Priest and 3 additional KSM characters (my DH, Evoker, and Paladin), and I’ll start checking off things from the list this week, as my DH hits KSM and the rest will be able to get there in short order. I’m debating about what goals come next – focusing alts, maybe pugging raid on alts – but either way, I’m pretty happy with the progress I’ve already made this season, KSH goal or not.

And hey, I suppose there’s always season 3…