For whom the totem tolls

So...Rhommel is finally 80!!!! ZOMG! I know it's about time that I finally posted something about my shaman since I've been so busy with school, wow, job seeking, considering selling stuff on ebay, planning landscaping stuff for our backyard, proving that .9999 does in fact equal 1, solving crime part-time, coming up with excuses for not posting sooner, etc. I believe it took me about a month or so to level from 1 to 80 and looking back on it, there was never any period where I was bored or lost interest in my shaman. He has been fun since day one. Well it has been a rough few weeks while I was grinding out the levels on my little enhancement shaman and I am glad that now I can grind out gear on him to get him to be the ultimate killing machine that I know he can be.

So now I have to figure out:
1. What stats I should aim for first. What I mean by this is what finding out what hit rating I need, what expertise I need, what is my stat priority once these two stats are reached.
2. What should my spec be for maximized damage and what glyphs should I be using for that spec.
3. What is my rotation at 80.
4. What gear do I need and where can I get it.

I should hopefully be done with that list and post it sometime this weekend once I'm sure of the information out there so keep an eye out for it.

On other but just as awesome news...MMO-Champion has started releasing info about the beta including a talent calculator! So far only a few classes have been updated with new and awesome talents but resto shaman and druids have a few sexy goodies waiting for them, spriests and boomkins also have some awesome talents listed. Sadly mages and paladins don't have anything updated yet but I am sure that will be corrected soon enough!

Let's do the Totem Warp again!

So...my darling shaman Rhommel is finally in Northrend! I know I haven't been posting much but it's because I've been busy with writing papers for school, looking for a job, and leveling Rhommel. Leveling in Outlands was fun and pretty easy but the LFD tool kind of sucked. I say this because it kept placing me in lower level instances like Ramps and Slave Pens, even though I was 67 and was eligible for higher level instances. I suppose there are more lowbie groups running ramps and sp then there are groups running the other instances.

The truth about Totems!

So I haven't been able to really post too much about my sexy shaman Rhommel lately because I've been so busy leveling him and also because of RL getting in the way. But I'm a mere 3 levels from being able to enjoy the wondrous, amazing, spectacular zones of Outland, with its amazing quest rewards that put anything I am wearing to shame! GO GO GRIND FASTER!!!!

Well in between the last shaman post and this one I've run...a lot of random dungeons...A LOT! I've been in some pretty fun groups with people who made the runs fun and I've been in groups with complete morons pulling everything by accident and wiping us for no reason other then the fact that they claimed to be bored.

First class previews

So now that the priest preview was finally posted, we have had the first three of ten class changes previewed. Priests, shaman, and warlocks each had their post explaining what players can look forward to if they play these classes in the next expansion. I read each preview and cheered for some talents and boo'ed for others. So far of the three classes posted, Shaman looks to have made out like a bandit with priest coming up second and warlock being last. I suppose that is probably because shamans and priests have two class roles, dps and healer, so they need slightly more work then the single role warlock.

I am looking forward to Shaman's new abilities:
Unleash weapon - having weapon buffs like windfury, earthliving, and flametongue have an extra effect when you use this ability seems pretty cool.
Healing Rain - YES! FINALLY AN AOE HEAL!! Nuff said.
Spiritwalker's grace - being able to move and still cast a huge heal? yes plxx! Before people start claiming that this move is OP please keep in mind that it only lasts 10 seconds and has a 2 minute cd so you can't just spam it and then run around the room spam healing.

Priest's new cool moves:
Mind Spike - Yay something we can use when a mob is going to get killed before we can get a full rotation done on it. Nothing worse then having low dps because your dots didnt tick fast enough on the mob before it died.
Leap of faith - Hello deathgripping a party member who is too focused on killing a boss to realize he is standing in fire! I can see this being really popular in arenas. It has a 45 second cd so people cant just stand in fire while dpsing and expect a priest to pull them out of it.
Power word barrier - Group wide shield? Can you say awesome?! Toss it up on aoe damage heavy fights and it'll make healing just a little bit less hectic. Can't wait to see it in use.

Warlock's new awesomeness:
No more soul shards!!! Their new use is interesting but I am just happy that I wont have to spend my time farming for shards before a raid or make bag space for said shards.

Well...those are the things I'm looking forward to for the three classes. Yes I am aware that warlocks had more stuff posted for them but honestly most of it sounds kind of weak to me. I just couldn't get excited over green fire : /

Warriors, rogues, and  death knight class previews are scheduled for today and I know warriors were posted as I was writing this post. I'll probably post either tonight or tomorrow on the previews. Cataclysm is looking to be pretty fun so far and I can't wait to start seeing info from the beta!

Totally Totems

So...thirty...the big three oh. Obviously Rhommel hit 30 tonight...and picked up the awesomeness that is WINDFURY! Oh how I missed thee windfury for you are the epic enhancement ability. Oh I do love you so windfury. Have I mentioned that I <3 windfury?

Well onto the nitty gritty, leveling to 30 was interesting. I say it was interesting because I did it with very little random LFD rewards. Why did I do this you may ask? Well...it's because I HATE gnomer. It is the bane of my existence and has been since my mage first went into it way back in vanilla WoW. I hate it so much I have never gone back into the instance since then...ever. Until the other day when it randomed me into a group that was on the last boss. After a wipe and a run back we killed it...and I decided to just avoid the random LFD for a few levels. I just manually queued for specific instances which worked well.

Now the fun part is getting the remaining rep that I need to get exalted with SW so I can pick up an epic horsey at level 40. Fun times indeed!

Talking Totems

Hmmm still working on that title but I'll get it eventually. For the moment: Rhommel is now 20! I've been questing AND using the LFD tool to get the xp I need. The LFD tool has produced some...odd group compositions. From tanks who chain pull like it's a heroic to hunters who melee and don't have a pet. It has definitely been interesting but I've gotten to 20 without any serious issues. I am gonna complain about the free satchel you get for running a random, it's supposed to give you a random blue piece of gear but it seems that all I got from it was belts for the 5 levels I've been randoming instances.

Oh well, such is life. I am really looking forward to 30 because that's when I get my air totem...and soon after I GET WINDFURY!!!!! <3 Windfury! Bag space is still an issue as I haven't had the luck to get another bag to drop off random mobs so I've had to juggle items in my inventory. I am also putting off getting a mount because I am not a fan of the elekk mounts draenei have access to. Since I am doing quests in human territory I am also accumulating SW rep so I'll end up getting a human eventually. Until then I can go go ghost wolf form! Well back to the grind I go!

Totems, Totems, Totems!

Hmm still working on a good title for blogs about my little shaman. I suppose I'll eventually stumble across a title I like. Well on to the meat of the matter: my shaman is the awesome. That is correct ladies and gentleman, my shaman has run his very first dungeon using the LFD tool. Honestly...it was a very interesting experience.

After waiting for like 15 minutes(I know, 15 whole minutes ew!) I finally got placed into a group. I zone in and find that I am in Ragefire Chasm with 4 other lowbies. The tank a paladin...could not for the life of him hold agro, the hunter ended up tanking more often then not, the healer ditched the group after a few pulls. We then requeued for another healer...who then joined the group for 10 seconds before ditching the party. After another healer did the same thing, we ended up with a shaman healer who apparently had taken a graveyard rez and therefore had rez sickness. Since his mana was reduced due to the sickness, he was constantly oom and bailed on the group after a few pulls...even after his sickness had gone away.

Finally we got a priest healer who was able to not only heal the pally "tank" but he was keeping up the hunter and his pet, who were doing the real tanking. We downed the demon boss and got the achievement for completing the instance but we were going to go kill the other boss for a chance at some more loot. The pally left the group and we 4 manned our way to the boss who went down faster then Toyota stock. I got a nifty belt from the lfd random reward bag and some xp. I had a good time honestly, even with the bad tank and constant stream of pugged healers.

And so concludes my first instance. It was definitely a good time and I will continue to use the LFD tool along my way to 80.

A new look at enhancement shaman

So I've decided to level a new shaman character and to level him as enhancement. Not only that, but I am going to level him with no BoA gear, no run throughs from higher level friends, no special help from anyone. This alt will be played just like someone who has just started playing the game. The only thing that I will do that a new player cant do is that I will put the new shaman in my guild. I think I would lose interest real quick if I didn't have access to my guilds chat lol.

I have decided on a name already(after a few hours of trying to come up with a good one): Rhommel. This name is the closest I could get to the original Rommel's name. What can I say, I'm a history nerd as well as a WoW nerd. I'll be doing my best to document how my progress is and how different it is to level again with no outside help. One thing is sure, it's going to be interesting.

Hello world, meet Rhommel:

Shaman healing is more then just chain healing.

Flashback to the night The Burning Crusade was released, I had just gotten home from Walmart and installed the expansion while taunting my guild mates in vent who hadn't gotten the game yet. I decided to make a shaman and run him around Stormwind instead of leveling him just because I could and because everyone else who had a shaman was busy actually leveling in the starting zone for the Draenei. Clearly being the first shaman in SW, Westfall, Redridge, and Darkshire was more important then actually leveling. I leveled as enhancement until 60 when I switched him to resto and raided for the rest of the expansion as a chain healing shaman. With this new expansion and dual specializations I decided to level my shammy to 80 as elemental and switch to resto for raiding. Now with the introduction of the Icecrown Citadel raid, I've had the luck of being able to get into several ICC pugs and been even luckier to get gear from these instances. Now as a resto shaman player, I see so many other shaman doing things that just make me shake my head and wonder why they are doing it wrong.

So I think this entry will be half rant about nub shamans and half helpful tips to reduce these bad habits people form. Will it work??? Don't know, but I suppose we'll see.