DPS?

A thought keeps popping in my mind while playing Namaqua, why am I  not primarily Elemental?  The only time I'm going Resto is to run a random heroic, of which  I've only done one since dinging 90.  The rest of my time I'm in Elemental.  That includes scenarios, leveling and the couple of guild runs.  I would estimate 95% of my post-90 time so far has been doing DPS.

So, let's look at the pros and cons.  One big pro is the amount of time I spend soloing.  The stronger I can make my Elemental spec, the faster I can quest and more DPS I can supply to groups.  I can also then focus on one gear set instead of having to do a little of both.  On the other hand, I really like healing,  especially on the Shaman.  The other thing to note, I swithched to Feral on Bobbylou and have pretty much stopped playing him.  Yes, I leveled him as far as 86, but after I decided Druid healing wasn't for me, the toon lost a lot of it's appeal.

So, while I doubt I'll give up healing yet, it is something to think about.  After all, it's holding me back.  I guess I could go back and level a hunter, warrior or warlock. (Each has crossed my mind.)  I just can't imagine starting over with leveling right now, especially as all DPS.

Namaqua Dings 90!

The story should have some big build up with a flourishing ending.  Rarely does WoW work that way.  I killed a turtle on my way back to turning in a quest and dinged 90 Thursday night.  Only one person in the guild was even online to give me a "grats".  After months of grinding, I'll admit, it was a bit of a let down.

On the other hand, the end game is awesome.  I've run 3 scenarios and loved each.  Short little DPS story bits with a little bit of loot at the end.  Very cool.  I even ran a heroic PUG during a moment of weakness.  The tank died during a long pull and I popped my earth elemental and we eventually got him down.  (Next time I have to make sure the tank doesn't go down.)  Even the dailies aren't as bad as everyone makes them out to be.  I'm also finishing out the Dread Wastes to get some last questing gear. Okay, I'm not high on that zone.  Blue with bugs?  Really?

In other news, I ran a dungeon with Vigoda last night as well and dinged twice to 25 and 26.  Waiting to run him until he has massive rested xp is definitely the way to go.

It looks like the guild is also going through some drama.  One of the guys I really enjoyed chatting with either quit or was gkicked.  I saw the last of his alts go yesterday.  Being not very active, I don't think I'm the one to ask what happened, but you can tell there's some tension over it.  Here's hoping it was a mutual thing, but as quickly as it happened, I tend to doubt it.

An Interesting Evening

So, last night after the weekend off, I get back into WoW.  I log in around 9:30 which is a little later than usual with the goal of running a dungeon and doing some leveling for 90 minutes.  I jump into the queue as a healer and it's 15 minutes.  I'm not really wanting to run around Elemental, see the dungeon pop and quick try to rush convert to Resto.  So, I decide after a few days off, I'll just leave the queue and level some as Elemental.  It's just faster than dungeons.

So, around 10:45, in guild chat there's a call to run normals.  Hey, there's my chance and I chime in to go.  I end up with 4 raiders in the guild with one working on a tank alt.  In short, I'm the n00b.  I'm okay with that as we are all guildies, but then we find out that three of us are in as healers.  Being the new guy, I'm trying to fight my way through Mumble and get in.  So, I agree to either role and end up with DPS.  This is fine, but I'm still speced Resto and now my mic is giving off eerie breathing sounds in Mumble.  Crap.

Now it's time to either deal with this or bail.  I don't want to bail as I've been trying to get more involved in the guild, but I couldn't have asked for a bigger disaster.  So, I rage quit on Mumble as the first pull goes.  That's when I realize, I haven't ever been in a dungeon as DPS on my shaman.  I've quested, but that's it.  Then, as I try to get going, I noticed my bars were off.  UGH I'm still in Resto!  If I had Mumble, I could yell this out, but no, I'm trying to type, use off-spec bars and DPS for the first time.  I can only imagine them laughing at me.

We get the first boss down (like I say, this group knew what they were doing) and I respec to Elemental and things calm down.  I'm not doing anything in DPS, but at least I know what buttons I'm pushing.  That's when the group types into chat, "Nam, you mad at us?"  How can I be mad?  I'm the problem child without Mumble, doing very little DPS and they are carrying me.  I type "No" in chat and let them know I'm the "new kid without a mic".

After multiple runs, lots of easy xp (I dinged 89 on the last run) we call it a night and I troubleshoot Mumble.  The first time doesn't work.  I can hear them talking about me troubleshooting.  Nothing bad, just mentioning "Push to talk".  I finally get in and talk with them for a minute or two.  They apologize again.  One of the others even whispers me to make sure I'm okay with what happened.  I assure everyone I'm fine.  Shoot, I have no idea even what happened and I refuse to get upset about something I don't even know about.  Perhaps someone in their past did.  Or I got called a n00b.

Oh well, it was 12:15 and the alarm goes off for work at 5:50.  Perhaps I can get into my now properly configured Mumble and figure out what happened.

A Weekend Off

Sometimes life gets in the way of WoW.  (Rarely does it ever go the other way around.)  Last weekend was an example.  I spent time with my kids, had my parents come to town for grandparents time and I frankly had little motivation to even login.  You know the best thing about taking a weekend off?  More rested XP!

BTW- last week Namaqua dinged 88 and is about 60% into 89.  Here's hoping I can get to 90 soon!

Healing in Pandaria and a New Monk

It's been awhile since I updated, so during one of the rare quiet moments now at work, I thought it was time.  Namaqua is now level 87 and about half way through the tiller zone.  (I can't seem to remember names of zones in Pandaria yet.)  Last night, I ran the last of the four dungeons I can run at 87, Shadow Pan Monastery.  It was an okay run, but you sure needed to know the mechanics of the fights.  I hadn't read up in advance and it's obvious most of our 5-man PUG hadn't either.  I healed through it until the Sha of Hatred.  We wiped and 2 of the 3 DPS dropped.  How will you learn if you just drop?  The tank knew what he was doing, so why not continue.  I learned how the hatred mechanic worked, the orbs worked and how to heal through it.  Too often people just drop when they wipe and I really don't get that.  I'd rather push through until it's obvious we can't do it.

Also, I've been leveling a mistweaver undead monk, Vigoda.  I'm only Level 23, but that has taken very little time.  Between a few guild heirlooms, the guild perk and the daily monk XP buff, it's 2-3 levels per hour.  I know it will slow down, but this is the best way to level a new character class.  Shoot, Vigoda may beat some of my Ally characters to 90 at this rate.