The Totem Thrower

Even today, my guildies still call me Shavra. She was my first 70, and for the longest time I identified with shamans the most. Forums, lists, info, the first section I'd read on patch notes...it was all about the shaman.

It was all about THIS shaman.

She's still sitting at 72 right now, and leveling her is somewhat more of a chore than a pleasure. It's an obligation.

Actually, really, it's more of an afterthought.

Before BC came out, I'd been playing for a few weeks and I thought for sure I'd never play an draenei. I'd seen the males, and I couldn't imagine that the females would be any more attractive. I was hung up on the blood elves, and I loved playing Horde even though everyone else I knew was Alliance. With the blood elves, maybe I could get a few people to follow me in switching sides? Well, that was my hope. I had my tauren shaman that I loved to death. Seriously, he was the first character that I enjoyed playing. The peaceful philosophy of the tauren, the "in touch with nature" nature of the shaman. Everything was perfect for me. This was my class! It was like it was made just for me!

Well, since everyone I knew did play Alliance, I had to at least try one of these monstrosities. We got the disks delivered about mid-day the day BC came out, and Raven was still at work. We'd already talked about starting blood elves together, so I installed the game and poked around at the draenei.

I had giggle fits. There was this tall, curvy, mature-looking race, and I could get pigtails! I loved it! I played around with the options a bit more, seeing everything available, but the pigtails were a must-have. In fact, my new shaman was a lot prettier than I thought she would be.

I played around with the starting zone, bolstered by the fact that most people out there didn't know any more about what they were doing than I did. I was in my element, discovering new things rather than following others and hoping I didn't come across as too much of a noob. (And oh, was I a noob back then. I couldn't even figure out how to speak in the general chat channel! It was day two of leveling my shaman when I finally played around enough to figure out how to do that. And yes, that's after a few weeks of playing before BC came out.)

The best part for me, about playing my newborn shaman, is nobody could come up behind me and tell me I was doing it wrong. It was a great boost to my ego! So many Alliance players were so unfamiliar with shamans that everything I did was amazing. Within a week my draenei had far outstripped my tauren in levels, even with fighting the rest of the BC opening day crowds. If you were there, you know what I mean. If you weren't, I can't begin to describe just how bad it was that first day. The fighting over mobs was insane, at least on Moonrunner. The starting zone kill quests took at least half an hour, each, while waiting for mobs to respawn and hoping you could tag it first.

Or, maybe I just wasn't enough of an asshole back then. I'd sit back, philosophically, and wait for others. I was in no hurry.

Yeah. That didn't last long.

I started out enhancement, because that's what all the guides said to do for leveling. I got to my mid-20s and was getting a run through BFD, and a nice staff with loads of spirit dropped. It was only me, so I wasn't rolling against anyone. My first character had been a priest, so when I saw spirit I thought, "Oh, healer weapon!" and I respecced resto that night. /facepalm In retrospect I'm only glad I wasn't rolling against anyone and depriving a poor priest or druid of a good weapon.

I learned. I kept reading. I had a group I leveled with/instanced with in the evenings, and I healed them. It was pretty fun, and I didn't know just how slow I was. I thought resto was awesome because I could put my earth shield on myself, hit mobs all day, and end up with full health and mana by the end of the fight!

At 63 I went elemental.

Lightning Overload stroked my libido every time it procced. I was killing things so much FASTER now! I had no idea being a shaman could be like this! I suddenly felt powerful, and happy, and strong!

It was my spec of choice after that. Oh, I went resto a few months when I was learning to raid, because I wanted to be more helpful to the guild that took me in and showed me the ropes. But, there's something about playing an elemental shaman... *_*

When I started playing on beta, I still loved my ele shaman and flinging lightning bolts and knowing what totems to put down and when and and and...

And then...

...at some point, my level 72 epicced out shaman on beta was doing less damage than my freshly dinged 70 druid.

They'd introduced lava burst, and nerfed lightning bolt severely.

I went from thrilling at how amazing it felt to decimate my enemies with the all-powerful force of sky-fire, channeled through my body, laying waste to all who stood before me...to what elemental shamans are today.

I never reached lava burst.

I don't know if it was actually worth it.

I will some day. I swear.

Maybe after I level my warlock. She's actually fun.

But, right now, Shavra is still 72. And I don't know when I'll bother getting her higher.