Monday, March 1, 2010

March 1, 2010

Once again, a long time between posts. I really need to get out of the computer lab during the day. Although I'm doing good stuff in there, I'm neglecting my diary duties. :-)

Pally Leveling
So...my pally has been the object of my attention this past week. The 50s were tough, as I didn't like heading to BRD for the random dungeon, so most of my xp came through quests. It would have been simple, but I was picky about the zones I wanted to spend time in...and I didn't want to do any green quests. But, yesterday afternoon I finally dinged 58 and headed to Outland! Then, after a dozen or so quests and a couple runs through Ramparts, I dinged 60 and got my flying mount!

Now that there are more abilities to use, I'm enjoying playing her much more than I did when she was much lower level. I still don't prefer melee, so I won't be surprised if I bench her after I reach 80 and get a few pieces of heroic gear. But, at least I will have enjoyed the different play style and will have a toon that can make Eternal Belt Buckles. Hehe...I know the belt buckles aren't really a good reason to put time into getting a toon to 80. But, like I said, I am enjoying the change in play style, even if it is not ultimately my "thing".

Shaman Leveling
Before raids started, I hopped on my shammy. She was so close to 72 that I could taste it! A couple quick quest turn ins and ding! I was excited to train some new skills, only to realize there were only restoration spell upgrades. Upgrades are nice, but it was a little underwhelming.

I'm having a little hard time with her. While soloing I'm not doing as much damage as I would want to do...and I'm dying quite a bit. I suppose the deaths are partly due to the fact that I'm using the heirloom staff and not a shield and one-handed weapon. A shield would probably increase my survivability, but the extra xp per kill makes me stick with the staff. This is only an issue when I'm soloing, obviously. When I'm in groups, I rock the DPS meters, so I know I'm playing her right in that situation.

They do say that Enhancement is the soloing spec. But, I like the ability to switch between Elemental and Resto since it doesn't require me having two sets of gear. So, I suppose I can just suffer through my low survivability. Though I can't help but wonder if I'm playing her wrong. For example, I go back and forth in my mind regarding which Water totem to put down. Do I use Healing Stream Totem to keep myself alive a little longer? Or do I use Mana Spring Totem to extend my time betwen breaks? Or does it balance out because I use that extra mana to cast healing spells on myself anyway?

I queued last night and got Azjol-Nerub twice. I hated healing that instance on my priest and I hate doing so on my shaman. That first encounter is just insane. The first time I got the instance I was DPS. The poor healer couldn't keep us alive -- or was it that the tank couldn't keep the mobs under control? The second time I got the instance I was Heals. I couldn't keep us alive -- and the tank couldn't keep the mobs under control. In both instances the tank was a DK. It does remind me of how much I hate healing DK "tanks". I am still not convinced that they are really a good tanking class.

But anyway...why did I get put into AN at lvl 72? Even with my Cleansing Totem up, the party took too much damage. I always thought that a shaman would do much better healing that first encounter than I was ever able to do on my priest. I'm not sure why I couldn't heal it. Was I too low at 72? Was the tank not up to par? Was it just bad RNG?

I turned around and healed Nexus right afterward and didn't have a single death. So, even though I find the healing style of Shamans more difficult than that of Priests, I clearly can do it.

Icecrown Citadel 25 (Priest)
Last night we went back to ICC and continued attempts against Queen. Still no success. I do enjoy seeing my healing numbers soar into the 8k-10k range. That's fun. :-) But it wasn't enough.

After a couple hours there, we gave up and headed to Valithria Dreamwalker. It took us only a couple attempts to get her down. Easy encounter, once you get the rhythm of it. There was a little tension at the end when our egotistical pally took credit for the success (I'd say "kill", but that's not appropriate for this encounter). He's so full of himself. But our Raid Leader called him on it and made him take back his words and acknowledge that it was a team effort. Yes, he healed the most, but that wouldn't have mattered if the rest of us hadn't healed the raid, while popping heals on the dragon as often as we could.

I have to say I like the Valithria encounter. It's a refreshing change from the norm.

Oh and last time I posted I expressed doubts that we really have Professor on farm. Well, we wiped a couple times this week, but we got him down. I'm not sure if "farm" implies no wiping. But, I'll say it does not. We have him on farm, even though we might wipe a couple times while getting him down.

Icecrown Citadel 10 (Priest)
Nothing new. Still getting down bosses we have on "farm" (including professor putricide). We didn't raid a couple of our normal nights this week, which put us behind schedule.

I'm not sure what we'll do tomorrow night. Will we extend our raid id and try to reach the Lich King? We only have Queen and Sindragosa in our way. Queen is pretty easy with our group. Sindgragosa will be a new encounter for us. We'll probably start from scratch -- if anyone gets a piece of new gear as we work our way to Sindragosa, we'll be better able to defeat her. But, with our limited time to raid 10 man each week, we might never have enough time to clear the whole place.

I want the Kingslayer title and I want it now, daddy!

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