Shaman-ing for the win!

So, the other day I had this conversation.

me: Okay, DH is all leveled up.  What next?

guildie: Shavvy.

me: Yes?

guildie:  No!  Shavvy!  Shavra!  Level your shaman next!

me:  OH!  Duh...

It should have been a no-brainer.  In my guild I'm still called Shavra after my first main ever.

However, it isn't always so cut and dry.  There have been a few expansions where I just can't get into the shaman play style, no matter what spec we're talking about.  I learned to play a shaman in BC, and the class was a whole different animal back then.

Resto in BC: Earth shield on the tank.  Little heal, little heal, little heal, OHSHITINSTANTBIGHEAL, little heal, little heal, done.

Elemental in BC: Lightning bolt x 5000, flame shock on cool down.  Forget you have earth shock unless you're watching Omen like a hawk.  Chain lightning if there was more than one thing and you trusted your tank until you ran out of mana.  Get yelled at for putting down a mana totem.

All shamans in BC: Listen to everyone tell you which totems to throw down, be told you're a scrub no matter which ones you plant because someone didn't get the buff that would help them the most.  Watch your totem timers like a hawk.

I didn't touch enhancement in BC, but I gather it was auto attack a lot, cast a couple of things, watch your totem timers, and pray to the windfury RNG gods.  Oh, and interrupt shit, which is why I avoided that spec.  It sounded like too much responsibility to me.

Holy crap, Legion is different!  It happened gradually, sure, but where'd my totems go?  What do all these extra buttons do?  If I were a time traveler and went from BC to today I'd be so lost.  Thrilled, but lost.

I gave up playing elemental and resto in Wrath, because in Hyjal I saw Thrall call forth his ghost wolves, and when I heard I would be able to do that to it was my greatest goal in the game.  (Temporarily, of course.  Seeing Arthas for myself eclipsed it pretty fast, since I was devouring lore at the time.)

All that is to say, Legion hit me in the shaman feels pretty hard and super fast.  Shavra is up to level 104 currently, and I'm awed by the state of the lore as well as how playable the class is.  I have totem laments, since I was proud of how often people complemented me on my totem-slinging skills.  However, the class is more streamlined now.  I don't feel paralyzed by too many choices that ultimately finish in a wash on the DPS meters.  I'm not juggling six or more timers all the time.  I'm just playing.

I haven't grouped up with my shaman much yet.  No instances, no raids, just solo questing and conducting missions for my minions.  So, I don't know how it feels to be the shaman without being told, "Lay me down some of that sweet windfury love!"  It was a request I got even though I didn't have access to that totem until I switched specs in Wrath.  I've quested as both elemental and enhancement so far in Legion, though, and I just can't decide which I enjoy more.  They're both fun in their own ways.

Part of me wishes I still had my original Tauren shaman around so I could do a contrast/compare on the Horde/Alliance feel of just how epic it is to wield Doomhammer.  Going back to the Exodar on my Draenei and seeing the Legion trashing my home was a punch in the gut in ways it's hard to describe.  Either you're an oddball like me and sympathize with your characters, too, or you don't.  I like to go for immersion in the story to a point.  Not to the point of joining an RP server, just to the point of looking at events unfold and imagining  the "what if" of the moment.  I've done the event on four different characters now, and my shaman was the only one I got emotional about.  So, there's that.

I'm sure I'll get to the resto weapon quest one of these days.  I haven't even toyed with the idea of healing on my shaman since BC, even though that's where my roots are.  Perhaps that's why I haven't.  It's a feeling I'll never have back, a feeling I can never capture again.  Resto is my shaman's past, not her future.  I'm open to persuasion, however.  But if you try, make it good.

Next week I'll have a few things to say either about my paladin or my mage.  They've both been loads of fun in their own ways.  I've spent more time than I expected on gearing up my DH, though, so I might put those off if something amazing happens.

Happy leveling!