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.

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.

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.