Dear BG QQers

If you're too busy typing out your opus of how much we suck, you're not helping.

Also, if you're obnoxious enough, I won't heal you.

No love,
Your Friendly Neighborhood Tree

Ding!

I love the smell of sleep deprivation in the mornings.

Well, I do when the sleep deprivation has a good enough reason, at least. Meet my latest level 80. (Yes, the pic is vintage 70, standing outside of Kara and all, but I didn't think about doing a screen shot at 1am when I hit level, and I've always liked this pic.) I stayed up LATE last night, because when we went off to Naxx last night I was over 75% of the way there. Every Thaddius wipe, I was thinking to myself, "Self, this is time you could be spending leveling Inara. So step up your game, and don't miss the platform again, noob!" Yes, Self, I know that, thank you....

So, here we get to a character that proves a sense of obligation can sometimes be more motivating than having fun. That's not to say I don't love my little priest to bits and pieces! It's just that I still don't know how she ended up my third 80. It might have something to do with wanting to get it over and done with as fast as I could. Or, it could just be that when I get stubborn, things get done.

I mentioned my first priest a while back. He was a night elf, and he was my first character, and he was made of fugly. Oh, and he got deleted at 20.

When I started playing, I was in The Browncoats. A few people had characters named for Firefly, and since the good names were taken I decided to mix up the last names with who they were obviously paired with. I had a dwarf paladin named Kayleetam, which got confusing since our guild leader was named Kayleefrye. Anyway, that's where Inara was born. Inararnolds. She was supposed to be Inarareynolds, but the name wouldn't fit. So, I ended up with this mishmash that people only get when they squint and look at it sideways long enough. I wasn't sure how I'd like having a priest again, even if this one was a lot nicer on the eyes than the last one, so I didn't mind the mangled name. I knew what it was, and that's what mattered.

At first.

That's what mattered at first.

You know. Before I started meeting new people, expanding my horizons, and caring about whether my name was memorable (or even pronounceable) to people who might think about inviting me to more than one group.

But I digress...

I was never sure about my priest. I threw jewelcrafting at her just because I needed a character to be a jewelcrafter. It also seemed vaguely in character, since the character she was named after was rather classy, and WoW doesn't have "companion" as a profession.

Ultimately, jewelcrafting is what kept me from deleting her in the mid-20s. It's such a gold sink that I felt too guilty to delete her when I'd put so much into her profession. I even had a friend provide me with mithril he wasn't using, and that cinched it. That was such a rare and precious commodity that I couldn't disgrace his generosity by getting rid of my priest. In fact, now I was obligated to level her!

I had a few priestly mentors, as well. People I could look up to. People I could be intimidated by. Most of all, people who could help me and sympathize with how difficult it is to level a priest. Over the course of 70 levels, I tried all three specs. Disc was fun, but it just didn't click with me for some reason. It's got great talents in it, but it wasn't my favorite for leveling. Holy was a LOT of fun, and I loved the dps I could get, but I hated how inefficient the mana of the damage spells were while I was trying to level. I was a bit hesitant about shadow, because that's what EVERYONE did for leveling, and I wanted to be able to heal an instance at the drop of a hat.

Now, I'd already leveled a shaman to 70 at that point, and most of that was resto. I had three heal buttons. A big heal, a little heal, and a chain heal. When I started taking my priest into dungeons to heal them, I was a little overwhelmed.

Strike that.

I was a LOT overwhelmed!

There were so many buttons to pick from! Big heals, little heals, HoTs, group heals, bouncing heals, medium heals, efficient heals, quick heals...HELP! Add to that all the talk about downranking at the time, and I just wanted to crawl into a corner and rock back and forth until all the heal buttons went away.

That, and an interesting Underbog run, left me with shadow. I'd tried it a few times, but it was always one of those things I flirted with and felt guilty about afterward. I didn't want to be "that" priest. The selfish one who won't heal when there's a healer shortage. The noob priest who specs shadow just to piss people off. You know. THAT priest.

By then, though, I'd started raiding on my shaman. Lo and behold, I learned that shadow priests weren't necessarily a parriah. A good shadow priest was a spell-slinger's best friend! Come here, little purple mana battery, let me drink of your manalicious returns.... So, bolstered by the opinions of my newest set of friends, I took Inara through the last few levels of Outlands as a shadow priest, and I haven't looked back. You can't get me to try holy now. Get thee behind me, buttons! You want heals? How 'bout a little vampiric embrace while I lay on the DPS? How's that for heals? Sure, she was an aggro magnet, but the warlocks loved me.

Shadow. It's what's for dinner.

~~~

As an aside, Naxx last night was interesting. We dropped down to two healers. My tree, and a paladin friend of mine. It was a bit stressy, especially since I'm the type of healer that takes every death personally. I was beating myself up all through Loatheb even though we didn't lose anyone. I think the only Naxx deaths I don't take personally are the Heigan dance deaths and lag frogger deaths. Nothing dropped for me (Loatheb hates me, the shoulders will never be mine), and we had two DKs come in.

At the end of the night, I was nearly in tears. I cried on my pally friend's shoulders after the raid, lamenting and ranting about my poor neglected DK. He's a young teen player, so he's all full of "I'll find a way to fix it!" Much as I'd love to see it fixed, I'm not sure there is a fix. It's a dumb situation, my DK is supposed to be my main, my druid isn't even in the guild, but it doesn't matter to our raid leader, and we've been over it and over it and I don't want him to know just how much it upsets me. Why? Because I love my raid leader to little bits and pieces. I don't want to put him in a bad spot.

And, after the pally logged off and said he'd think of something, my raid leader whispered me and made me feel all warm and squishy. He praised my healing, going on and on about how awesome we were, and I couldn't stay mad. I still want to raid on my DK, where there's not so much pressure. Where I don't have to be on my toes at all times or PEOPLE DIE. But, at the same time, DPS never gets that warm and fuzzy feeling of being needed and that sense of a job well done.

Nothings more rewarding than being told you're an awesome healer.

Nothing.

D&D (Death and Decay)

Meet Weeinsanity, my baby Death Knight. Isn't she cute?

If you scroll down/look through the archives, you'll see how much I worried about creating a Death Knight in the first place. I AGONIZED over it for months, before I got a beta invite and got to try one "for free". It was a throwaway character, at first. I wasn't sure in the least that I'd be happy with the class, especially after the druid tanking fiasco I was still recovering from at the time. Top that off with never having gotten a melee dps class up past 20 and I was ready to resent having to take up a character slot with a death knight.

Fast forward to beta. Here I was, playing around on Northrend with my shaman, my main, my baby. I loved all my characters, but Shavra was special. We had something, some spark, that made all others pale in comparison. But, I couldn't play her all the time, especially since Northrend wasn't entirely stable. So, I bit the bullet and made a DK. First, I made her a gnome, since I knew I wouldn't be able to keep her after beta ended. No problem! Everybody hates gnomes. They're for punting. I just knew I'd never love a gnome so much that I'd be sad to get rid of her in a few months. Auregwynn was born, and terrorized Outlands whenever Northrend was unplayable.

I didn't think too much of her at first. Sure, the starting zone was fun enough. I knew I'd be making a DK on live, and I knew I wouldn't regret it. It was different, and it took a bit of getting used to, but on beta I had a lot of the best minds to pick from browsing forums or doing the occasional instance. Some people had gotten in on merit rather than luck (like me) and I was happy to learn at their feet!

In that time, shamans started getting the shaft. In particular, elemental shamans were being left in the dust, and Shavra was as elemental as they got. I played around with enhancement on her, in beta, and while I liked it well enough I just wasn't happy. So, I spent more and more time escaping to Auregwynn. With this fresh new class, the game was fun again! I got big crits, and I was learning something that would put me ahead of the game! I could be useful and innovative! Hell, that's part of what attracted me to Shavra in the first place. As I leveled, most Alliance players didn't know a thing about shamans, so I got to break new ground! I get a great deal of satisfaction from that.

I planned on sticking with the name Auregwynn on live, and playing a gnome had grown on me (like some sort of fungus, I suppose.) I sat around, waiting for Raven to bring home our copies of Wrath, and a gnome warlock friend of mine sat around talking with me about names and plans and stuff. I mentioned that the only other gnome I'd played before had been a warrior that got deleted at 20 named "Weeinsanity". He laughed over the name. My sis-in-law, Sindorella, also got a giggle out of it. And, in an instant, Auregwynn became Wee. In the back of my head she's still Auregwynn, and Wee is her nickname, but since I'm not on an RP server it's a little hard to get that idea across.

My DK is still my favorite. I love her little dead heart to bits and pieces. Oh, and trust me. She's quite dead. Er, undead. Whatever. I went with one of the dead faces to hammer home the point. Nothing like gnome rot in the morning!

Of course, everyone is playing a DK these days. Death Knights are the new "huntards". I'm awesome at playing her, of course, but it's hard to get a chance to show it. It's going to take a miracle for her to get a piece of raid gear. Seeing the inside of Naxx is just out of the picture. But, she's my main in my heart, where it counts.

Keep on striving, my wee little Wee. At least you're good for farming... /sigh

DROOD!!!

My altitis extends to specs, when it comes to my druid.

Ceraan was the character I had the hardest time getting into, that didn't end up getting deleted after a while. Being a druid at first was a little frustrating for my tastes. It's not so much that I died or anything. It's just that the first 30 levels were more tedius than any other character I've ever leveled. I can't even explain how. She languished at under-30 for a year and a half. I think I kept her mostly because she was pretty, and I really liked the character I named her for. I was in love with the idea of playing a druid, but the reality blew chunks.

When I hit 30, all of the sudden I had travel form. I could suddenly go faster, without having to wait to cast it! I could be running along and BAM! All the sudden I'm a cheetah! OMFG! What could be cooler than that? And, a whole ten levels before I'd get to ride! I'd loved the hell out of my shaman's ghost wolf ability, so druid travel form was like that only ten times better for me.

From 30 to 60 went by in a handful of weeks. I relied on rested exp to get me by, but other than waiting for my bar to fill with blue again I was blazing through levels. I spent more time on my druid than any other character. I'd stuck to feral below 30 for the extra speed to my regular kitty form, but at 30 I decided to switch to what I knew my strength was and do caster dps. So, balance it was!

Around that time, I also got a random whisper asking me to heal SM. I explained that I wasn't resto, since only masochists level as resto. (Remind me to tell you about my shaman some time...) They said it was okay, the tank was a bit high for the instance. So, away we went, with me in my scraped together caster gear. And, surprisingly, it wasn't a complete disaster. It also helped solidify my fondness for the class.

So, from about 30 to 60 I leveled as balance, and I LOVED being a boomkin. My SO, Raven, hates the boomkin dance with a passion, so I'd dance with him at every chance just to freak him out. I don't think I was very good at it, but I had fun.

Then came Outlands.

I got out there and decided to go resto for practice. I had an elemental shaman and a shadow priest at 70 at the time, and I wanted to have a healer at max level without having to switch either of them. It was great in theory! I knew another awesome druid who had done the same thing, when I was leveling my shaman. I'd been impressed by that druid's skills, and a bit intimidated by him, so I turned to him for advice.

"If you're going to level resto, go out and moonfire, hit yourself with rejuv., and then go bear and kill it."

...

I stuck with that for about three levels. What can I say? I'm stubborn.

Sometimes, I think I'm a masochist as well.

I was spending so much time in bear form, I figured I might as well go back to feral for leveling! I hated questing as resto, and I just couldn't stand waiting in LFG for a tank all the time. One under-leveled and failed trip through Mana Tombs later and I was switching my spec to feral. I headed back out to Zangar to sweep through quests I hadn't done, and I fell in love with mangle.

Mangle.

Say it with me.

Mangle.

It was OMGly. I was a happy kitty! I was even a happy bear! Feral rocked my world, and I couldn't imagine wanting to change, ever.

I hit 70 with all four kitty paws on the ground and running.

"Hey, Shavvy, wanna hop on your druid and tank for us? We're doing heroic UB. Got the key?"

oshit

I'd done a few regular instances as a kitty, and I wanted practice tanking. I had decent blue gear, at least. So, I pointed out that I didn't have practice tanking, and since these were my T5&6 geared guildies I warned them that they'd have to be VERY careful with their threat.

We wiped our way through, including a few runs out for repairs, but we beat that damned instance. I don't know how they found the patience for it. I was about ready to cry a few times. But, we got it done, and I learned a LOT. I improved by leaps and bounds, and stepped down to tank or dps some regular instances for the Kara key. Within a week of hitting 70, I was OTing Kara.

I actually didn't do too bad, and I continued to learn.

Mostly though? I learned that I didn't like being a bear tank. @_@ I didn't MIND it, but it intimidated me. I was all that was standing between nine of my best friends and certain doom. If my armor wasn't up to it, there wasn't a healer in the world who could keep me up. And if they died? It would be ALL MY FAULT!

meep

I switched to boomkin. And then went tree. And then back to boomkin. I couldn't decide! And then I saw that after the new talent trees came back pre-Wrath, my boomkin in blues was out-dpsing my spriest in T5 epics. UGH!

When Wrath came out, I went back to feral for the OMGly mangle until I hit 75. But, I went back to my plan of druid healing at 80, and for questing I switched from feral to balance for the last few levels, so I'd be picking spellpower items for quest rewards. Boomkins are FUN at later levels! I hit Naxx as a boomkin at first, and then I stayed true to my plan and went resto (without warning my raid leader first even though we had two dedicated healers. I may or may not have been trying to force him into taking my DK who was SUPPOSED to be my main.)

Tree druids really are a lot of fun, even if they're almost as stressy as bears. Healing and tanking are high responsibility jobs! But, they're also really rewarding, when you know you've done it right.

Of course, being the healer sucks, when you've screwed up and everyone starts bitching about repair bills.

But, I digress...

In the background of all this, there is one thing that makes druids AMAZING!

Flight form.

It's so FUN to walk out of Naxx as a tree, step off that ledge, and switch forms half way down! Remember how I mentioned that travel form made druids playable for me at 30? Flight form/epic flight form made druids AWESOME for me! Not having to dismount to pick flowers gives me warm fuzzies. Being able to fly away when a mob paths too close while I'm picking said flowers makes me giggle.

I love my druid, in all her forms, in all her specs, in all her glory. Stressy or not, playing a druid is amazing, if you can get past the drudgery of the first few levels.

Where do I begin?

It's been a while.

Not that anybody's reading this but me, but I shouldn't just abandon my baby blog! What a horrible fate! So, let's dust this off and try again.

Beta was awesome, and it sucked up all my time. I loved my baby DK Auregwynn so much that I made another gnome DK on live, and I named her Weeinsanity. I got Wee to 77 and...ran out of gold! I'm sorry, but I couldn't run around Northrend without my epic flying skill. I'd have cried. For serious.

In comes my druid to the rescue! She's an herbalist/alchemist, and she can make money in her sleep. I got her to 80 in no time, got my DK's epic flight and got her to 80 a week later...and since my druid hit 80 first, she's my designated raiding main.

Let me tell you, folks. This is NOT WORKING AS INTENDED!

If I could go back in time and change the order there, without the frustration of flying the friendly skies on a floating snail, I would in a heart beat. My druid isn't even in my raiding guild!

But, what can you do except go resto and use the DK for questing fun?

It's irritating, but it's life. Ah, the perils of altitis.

In better news, I got my warlock to 61 a minute before summoning the demon for her epic mount quest. If I get my warlock to 80 before my shaman, who used to be my "MOAST FAVORTIESTEST CHAR EVAR!!!" I'm going to have to laugh. A lot.

Yes, I am living proof that shamans can only be pushed so far. Shavvy is sitting at 72, and I'm just not thrilled with leveling elemental, even though that's her best gear set. Enhance is pretty fun, but I feel disloyal to my spec. Does that even make any sense? Oh well, maybe it'll actually be better at 75, like everyone keeps telling me. If I don't spend the next few weeks just pushing my warlock along.

There's my great, grand, grandiose and erratic update of the last few months. I swear I won't forget this place again, now that my WoW life is back on even ground.