Finishing Up 5.1

Okay, I probably won't be finishing much in 5.1 for several weeks into 5.2, but I'm at a good place in WoW right now.  Namaqua has an iLevel of 467 and will likely hit the 470 point some time this week. However, I'm considering delaying it a week as Valor prices in 5.2 are half off and I have a couple of pieces to buy.

I really like the change I made to DPS.  It has made LFR a matter of just me doing my job.  I don't have to worry about tanks doing something dumb or me doing something dumb.  At this point, most of the tanks and healers are over-geared (especially for MV) so it's really just a face roll to the loot.  Well, it would be if the loot would come, but at least I'm getting VP.

Speaking of VP, the places to spend them are slowly opening up.  I'm almost Revered with Shadow-Pan and Klaxi.  I've been alternating them to get them up along with daily working on my farm.  What's the value of being BFF with tillers?  Oh well, they are so much easier as Elemental.  Oh, I forgot to mention, I'm Exalted with the Dominance Offensive. Now there's how dailies should be done.

Lastly, I started leveling my Panda Warrior, Guyuk.  The name is from a Mongul warrior in ancient China.  I really like how the Warrior plays at low levels and it's a perfect alt with double rested xp.  It gives me something to do, along with Vigoda's healing, as a break from end game DPS.

Namaqua is Elemental

Wow, it's been over a month since I posted here.  In any case, over the holidays I was having issues deciding what I really wanted out of WoW.  I had hit Level 90 and was doing end game, primarily by myself.  Yes, I would do a guild run dungeon or scenario, but most of the time I had to move to DPS.  Healing just wasn't something I was doing and didn't fit into my goals.

Well, I'm finishing some dailies to get enough Valor to get the last piece to hop into LFR.  Meanwhile, there's a guild member panicing about running LFR.  They were afraid to heal it, mess up and get yelled at.  I could relate.  A veteran member of the guild stepped in and said, "Relax.  I heal for the raid team, but I still run LFR as DPS.  It's just not worth the stress."  She had a point.  I don't think she ever got through to the scared healer, but it pointed out something to me.  If I'm not going to heal LFR, why am I stressing about getting a set of gear to run dailies, scenarios and LFR and only using my healing set on 5-mans.

So, off to DPS I go with Namaqua.  I've cleared MV on LFR and am working to increase my DPS.  It's a different challenge, but I still like it.  The best part is, dailies are 100 times easier when I don't have to worry about spec and gear changes.

The other little thing to mention here is, I can still heal characters I'm leveling.  Vigoda is now in the low 40s and healing on a Monk is a ton of fun.

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.

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.