RAWR!

You might remember that I've been playing a hunter since Jon got me hooked on WoW... well for the past few weeks I've been experimenting a bit, and I decided to try out Shaman.

I LOVE IT.

I get this huge rush just playing it--not that she's overpowered, if anything I think the Shaman class has a lot of issues, but it's FUN. Jon started up a new character so we could do battlegrounds and such together, and also ran me through Wailing Caverns about a zillion times so I could get my Embrace of the Viper armor set. Still haven't gotten the leggings, which I NEED for that +10 Int bonus from the full set, but it's been good.

But that's old news.

Anyway, I decided to try out battlegrounds for the first time tonight--Jon was raiding on another server, so I went alone and ended up with a pretty random group. First battle lasted over 40 minutes, we lost after a couple of the better players had to leave. WAY longer than I expected, though--I was thinking 20 minutes or so, with us winning since Alliance players always complain about Horde winning BGs. I was soooo wrong.

I ended up going in 4 times on my own (2nd and 3rd with pretty much the same people, once with me and a priest and like 8 rogues), and losing every time. After the first time, I took another look at what I'd been doing, and decided to re-spec to Restoration for the faster healing since that was obviously needed. Gold, luckily, was not an issue (seriously, guys, I had enough to BUY MY MOUNT already, at level 19!) so I picked out some talents that looked good and figured I'd go back to Ele/Enh later for questing.

Anyway, 5th try or so at Warsong Gulch we had a nice balanced group, and Jon was along with his mage. It took over an hour, but we actually managed to win--TOTALLY awesome! It helped, of course, that the Alliance had a bunch of lower levels--some 14s and even an 11--but they fought HARD and at one point I was sure we weren't gonna make it. But we WON! Yay! /cheer

After that, though, we tried another couple times and did horribly both times. Strategy and teamwork were a bit lacking, a lot of people seemed to think that because we had 3 paladins and I had a shiny green shield, I did not need to be protected. This, while I was trying to heal their sorry butts and getting swarmed by half of the Alliance side. I really don't like rogues... and I HATE gnomes, rogues and warriors and all. It's so freaking hard to target them--they're so tiny! On the other hand, Tauren are AWESOME. Sooo easy to click on and heal... of course this probably means they get hit more, too, but still. Awesome. Especially druids in bearform.

Eheh. Back on topic...

After we left the bg (last group we fought was all extremely well-geared twinks, and our side not so much, so rather hopeless) we decided to do another Wailing Caverns run for my pants. Picked up a group and went in... me healing. The druid was a bit miffed that he was expected to go bearform and tank instead of me ("But she has a shield! -I- can heal!") but the others stood up for my healyness before I had to, which was nice. And he was Balance anyway, which I don't believe is the healing spec?

Things went well, except for the fight with Lady Anacondra where I was OOM and couldn't heal so the tank and dps got killed...I ended up doing a fair bit of damage, though, and Jon took care of her with his mage once I died. I rezzed the people that needed it, though, so I don't feel bad.

Now here's the thing--I was having so much FUN healing that after we killed Cobrahn and the rogue Needed the leggings and won, I just laughed about it. I wasn't mad or anything, and the rogue was good enough and didn't mind running it again to try for the pants (and seeing how bad they looked on him was hilarious!) that it was all okay. Jon got pretty upset, but he managed to find a hunter to fill in for the druid when he left, so we could go again--hunter and warlock pets tanking, and I think I did a pretty good job of keeping everyone alive. Though the hunter had poor gear (I did give him some shoulders that dropped) and the warlock had no idea how to handle his pet. Hunter got a LOT better as we moved through, I was really impressed, but the warlock had to leave... we got a Pally tank instead, after which things started getting really good. I was happily standing in the back healing my little Orcish butt off, we only had one death (the hunter) after which everyone got much more careful, and we even had time to kill the giant murloc. Who didn't drop anything too awesome, iirc, but was fun nonetheless.

Leggings didn't drop, but I'm okay with that. Getting to know the instance well enough that I feel fine running through with a group, and I LOVE the healing. It's my new addiction, just like the Shaman class...

and the best part is, I'm not squishy! Well, maybe a little... mostly crunchy, though. And a blue staff dropped with extra healing, which will be awesome since I'm totally going Resto all the way. Yayz!

If anyone wants to bother looking up my Armory page, the name's Tanakyll--the only one, so far--and server is Dragonmaw. :)