/flex
Things have been going quite a bit better since my last post--Tana is now kitted out in almost full epics (still got a blue ring and trinket in there, but the Meteorite Whetstone is darned sexy), I've been doing 2.5k and up pretty consistently depending on the fight, and I went and bought a helm enchant from the Wintergrasp vendor so I don't feel quite so silly anymore. I've run Vault of Archavon on 25-man, including the new boss (I hate Koralon so much), and was alive when each of the bosses went down. People who died halfway through tried complaining about not getting Bloodlust, and I was able to point out that I was still sated, and so would they be if they didn't suck at not standing in the fire. I mean, I'd never done Kory before, and even I figured it out after our first five wipes. Not that hard.
(Yes, I refer to bosses by cutesy nicknames. I can't imagine how this could possibly come as a surprise to anyone.)
Anyway, while I had trouble breaking 2.5k DPS in there, the fights were rough on melee, and I know that I was doing my best simply because I didn't die and made sure the melee were covered by my totems at all times. I even won some nifty new pants--Elemental stuff, but as the only Shaman remaining, I got them by default, and they're going into my rather minimal healing set for emergencies.
Naxx 10-man was a lot better--I was breaking 3k on some bosses, top 3 for DPS on some of them too--though unfortunately we never made it to Patchwerk so I couldn't get a really fair estimate of my real raid DPS. I still had fun, though, and if the main group hadn't failed so hard at switching on Four Horsemen I would have been able to call myself a real Shaman tank: I was assigned to the back of the room (as Resto of course) and did a pretty good job if I do say so myself. We wiped repeatedly because the front group refused to switch bosses when the tanks did, though, getting up to about 8-9 stacks before dying. We ended up just calling it a night after the third attempt since no one was really awake enough to focus. I'm hoping I get another chance at shammytanking next time, though!
So, now that I'm feeling a bit more positive, here's what I'm looking at:
1. I need a new weapon. Yes, skill > weapon damage (I watched another Enhancement Shaman with Angry Dread barely manage 1.7k DPS--if you're not going to use it, give it to me! <.<) but I feel like I'm reaching the limits of what I can do with Greed and Pride. Besides, I want to replace my weapon chains with Accuracy, and if I'm going to shell out the gold for that, I'd prefer it to be on something that's a little higher quality.
2. I need rep. I was originally going to go Resto at 80, so I'm Exalted with the Wyrmrest Accord, but I never bothered to get my KotEB rep up past Neutral. I've been Enhancement long enough that there's not really any excuse for me not having ground it up to Revered yet--sometime this week I'm going to have to bite the bullet and go do the opener quests.
I'm going to start in Zul'Drak, though, so I can pick up a few stacks of Bitter Plasma for any healers who don't bother to bring drinks and then beg for water. Yummy!
I also need to get my Sons of Hodir reputation up. I'm doing a bit better on that, though, as I'm already nearly to Revered. I killed the Wild Wyrm on my own for the first time today, hooray!
3. Enchants. I've got almost everything covered already, but my cloak and chest still need to get zapped. I just keep forgetting. >.<
4. I want to see if I can tweak my spec to pick up Earthen Power, maybe even just one point. I've been in a few situations, not just PvP, where I could definitely see it being useful. For that matter, my Enhancement spec could probably use a bit of fine-tuning in general--it hasn't changed since I was leveling. I just hope I don't end up having to give up instant Ghost Wolf!
