Tuesday, March 9, 2010

March 9, 2010

I took a few days off work this past week, which meant I spent time playing and not blogging. :-)

Shaman Leveling
In a recent post I mentioned my frustration with my damage and survivability while questing. Well, I spoke with a shammie in my guild and she convinced me to try out Enhancement instead of Elemental. My biggest concern was equipment. Being Ele/Resto was easy because I didn't have to worry about changing equipment. But I realized a few things:
  1. With my abundance of Conquest and Triumph Emblems, I could easily afford to by the heirloom items -- two maces, chest piece, and shoulders.
  2. All those non-spellpower enhancing quest rewards that were ending up being vendor trash? Why not choose the Agility/Melee ones to build an Enhancement set? Honestly, this was a big realization for me. So many times I've gone for quest rewards and felt dismay over having no viable options for my current spec. Countless items have become vendor trash seconds after being rewarded. Now, with a melee and a caster spec, I can actually use more of the items!
  3. At this point in the expansion (almost the end!), people are less likely to complain when you roll on off-spec stuff in instances. I'm still healing dungeons, but I'm rolling need on Enhancement gear when it drops. Of course, I'm first waiting to see if others roll need first (like hunters or actual enhancement shamans). If they do, I pass. I figure they deserve it more since it's their main spec. But, if they roll greed or disenchant, I figure it's mine!
So how do I like Enhancement so far? I love it! I still have my general neutral feeling about melee. But, compared to Elemental, it's so much easier to solo. I don't even have to put down totems if I don't want to. And there are only a couple buttons to mash. Questing is now going to be a breeze again.

As mentioned above, in instances I've continued to heal. Mostly because it's easier to get into groups that way. But also because much of my gear is still spell power focused. I'm a bit self conscious about going into a dungeon and meleeing with caster gear on. Maybe if/when I get a full set of melee gear I'll be more comfortable doing so.

Which leads me to my question, what will I do when I hit 80? Will I bench her? Will I raid with her? If I raid, will I focus on Enhancement? Or will I give in and be resto? When I was leveling my druid I really thought I'd do more raiding with her than I've done. But, she has pretty much become my flask creator and gem transmuter. I'm willing to accept that I might bench her at 80. Honestly, the fun of leveling up a different class is satisfying enough. Once you hit 80 the game play doesn't really change; it's just your dps or hps that you focus on increasing.

We'll see...she's 75 now, so only 5 levels to go.

Paladin Leveling
My Pally is now 71. When I finally got her to Northrend and bought her cold weather flying, my focus became what I suspected it would...gathering ore to level blacksmithing. Yep, the fun with her is the profession leveling, more than the game play. What can I say, she's melee. ;-)

I've got her to 401 Blacksmithing. It's that phase where many of the recipes require a mix of cobalt and saronite. Of course, I can't wear any of the stuff I'm making at this point. But, who cares? I'm having fun making it. I'm putting some of the items in my bank for possible future use and sending the rest to my mage for disenchanting. I remember while leveling alchemy that I reached a point in the process when I had to gain a certain character level before being able to continue further. I'm not sure if that will be the case with blacksmithing. But, no worries, I'll get her to 80 eventually, though not as quickly as I will get my shammie. Unless...I get in the mood to hide. Then the pally will be my only play option.

Icecrown Citadel 25 (Priest)
Last week's Icecrown Citadel runs were interesting. We finally got down Blood-Queen Lana'thel. Though it was by the skin of our teeth (pun intended). I think only 2 or 3 people were alive at the end. She enraged, killed almost everyone, but those who remained were able to get in the final bits of damage to bring her down.

A kill is a kill! :)

Our new challenge was Sindragosa. Having practiced it on 10-man (more below), I was able to execute the strategy fairly well. In fact, as a whole, we did great. We got her down to 12%, I believe. Not bad for the first night of attempts. But, that's pretty much where we made it in 10-man. I'm going to have to read the posts again on healing that fight. Something about that final phase is killing us and I can't seem to figure out how to heal through it.

Despite not getting her down, we were still very happy with the progress we made. The question of the day is, will we reset the instance tonight? Or will we go in with our raid id from last week and continue to attempt to get Sindragosa down? I hope it's the latter. We're so close to the Lich King, we can taste it. And, considering how our defeat of Blood-Queen Lana'thel was pure luck, I don't want to risk getting stuck on her again this week. We should count our blessings and push through this week. Hopefully the officers agree.

Icecrown Citadel 10 (Priest)
My ten man team is doing really well. We now have two Blood-Queen Lana'thel kills behind us, so she's "on farm" for all intents and purposes. We're now on Sindragosa too. Like I mentioned above, we've gotten her down to about 12%, just like in 25-man. So, the key really is figuring out how to heal that last phase.

We've had some tension recently in our 10 mans. Perhaps we're spending too much time together? Perhaps we're all not getting enough sleep because we're so focused on progression in both 10 and 25 mans? Whatever it is, it's causing a lot of bickering and arguments. I hate to suggest we take some time off, because that would delay our progress, and we're soo close to the Lich King. But, I'd hate to see our group dissolve because of resentments. Hmmmm....

Well, tonight we have the same question as with our 25-man: Do we save the raid ID and keep pushing until we get down Sindragosa? Or do we start from the beginning to get folks badges and possible drops?

I vote for the former, but I'm also one of the lucky ones who needs nothing from 10-man. So, my opinion might be a bit biased. I want the "Kingslayer" title now! Before the raid-buff goes up so much that anybody can get it! :-(

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