in loving memory of valiaa

i first met val doing FRU pf when i was still an ulti nooblet.
at the time, i was trying to parse better while not letting my teammates die.
i had a persecution complex that my cohealers would blame me for chadding them all the time.

i met and played with a lot of cohealers in my journey,
but val stood out to me because not only did he not accuse me of chadding him,
he called my healing comfortable.

we would go on to get many clears and c4x’s together, constantly getting oranges as cohealers.
we even held on to rank 1 combined healer DPS in patch 7.3 for a while until some EU guys took it.
whatever, we’re still rank 1 NA for that patch forever! so much for rDPS jobs, right?

val taught me that when you and your cohealer are in sync, neither feels like they’re being
chadded by the other. and he taught me that you can be “good at the game” and everyone can be happy
without needing to sacrifice someone’s damage or putting the party’s lives in danger.
he gave me the confidence to continue raiding and PFing and to become a better player.
and in the space of ulti, he was welcoming to me at a time when i didn’t know anyone else.
for this and more, i will always be thankful to him.

finally to val, just four words: i’ll miss you buddy.

thanks for reading today’s post.
in memory of james, valiaa masume. 1990-2026