Where has Salanthe been?

I have been playing my fresh level 80 protection paladin. About the last time I posted here, I found a new appreciation for my then level 37 paladin. A month later, he dinged 80 and I've been gearing him up to tank heroics and maybe some Naxxramus!

As far as Salanthe herself is concerned, she's been in Naxx a handful of times. My new little 10-man guild, Nocturne, has been a bit slow in getting started and I haven't been interested in pugging on Salanthe.

I have gained a new appreciation for Healing Way, as my spec does not have it. When our talent points are refunded with the next patch, I may try very hard to pick it up, particularly as it will take only one application to gain the full benefit instead of three. Healing Way makes an enormous difference in 5-man instances.

Now that I have an 80 tank and healer, the debate begins as to which alt I should level next. Zgu, my dps warrior, is level 71. Miothe, my perpetually respecced druid, is level 74. And lastly, my death knight, Miyasi, is level 68. (I also have a 53 mage and a 35 priest.)

The obvious choice would be either the druid or warrior for dps. Then I can complete the holy trinity - tank, healer, and dps. However, I am tempted to level up another healer so that I have something capable of filling in for extra Naxx runs when Salanthe is saved to guild runs. When one takes into consideration the fact that the druid is also my farmer for Salanthe's professions, things definitely look stacked in her favor. The druid fulfills all of those ideals - dps, healer, and farmer.

We'll see what happens. The paladin (affectionately dubbed "Sally Pally" by my friends) wasn't even on my leveling priority list before I started playing him again. I may end up power-leveling a brand new rogue!

Death Knight Love and Other News

I promised myself I wouldn't succumb. I swore I wouldn't roll a death knight until I had leveled all three of my 70s to a decent level. I vowed that I wouldn't be one of the masses when Wrath of the Lich King released.

I failed.

BUT SHE LOOKS SO GOOD!

Miyasi Ironhide, fallen shaman and Knight the Ebon Blade.

I am in love.

In other news, I haven't leveled Zgu at all. I ran into this problem where I couldn't bring myself to level another character before Salanthe. So instead I'm playing a death knight while waiting for my collector's edition to arrive from Wal-mart so I can unlock WotLK on Sal's account and start playing her. I'm very anxious to get that process underway. Hurray up Wal-mart!

As to the big news I alluded to in my last post, well, I said farewell to my guild of almost a year. It was very hard and I've been agonizing over it for a couple months now. I wanted to cut back on raiding and retire from 25-mans though, which meant leaving my guild.

I was with them almost one year and witnessed 10 guild first boss kills with them. I started as a back-up restoration shaman and rose to the highest officer rank and healing class lead by the time I left. I originally joined because they were willing to give me a chance to prove myself when no other guild would. I owe them so much and it was so very difficult to leave. But I haven't left the server and I only hope that they don't hate me for leaving and will still talk to me. I made good friends that I don't want to lose.

So in tribute, thank you, Ascension, from the bottom of my heart. It was an amazing experience and I owe you everything for taking a chance on a poor resto shaman that no one else wanted. I wish you all the best of luck in the expansion and may you see many server first boss kills. Much love.

Pre-WotLK Update

Just a few quick notes before the expansion is released.

Salanthe is in a holding pattern until I get my collector's edition. Her account will get it, so I won't be able to play either Sal or Miothe until it arrives in the mail. Go, go Wal-mart!

Zgu will get the standard copy of the expansion, so I will be leveling her first. Along with my little mage, Keiaz, and my shiny new death knight. I spent some time working out a background for her and deciding on a name. Miyasi Ironhide will be a former shaman (tauren, of course), turned into a death knight. I can't wait to mess around with her!

I also have some big news and a big change in the works, but I don't want to spill the beans until I follow through. Soon, though.

Zgu Hits 70!

Just in time for the expansion, my little twink warrior finally made it to level 70. I'm so proud! She's the one character that I actually enjoy playing because I like the style. I love running up to something and beating on it without worrying about my health bar. Titan's Grip is lots of fun and I'm burning through things... Warrior is just a fun class.

Zgu is also exalted with the Mag'har and has their tabard and a tan talbuk. If I could give her brown skin, I'd role-play as a Mag'har orc. She also got the Arcanite Ripper last night in Karazhan so she can rock out occasionally!

Random Musings

I have a lot to write about regarding the expansion, but not the will to do so just yet. The one thing on my mind most recently has been to figure out how to organize totems amongst my shaman, since they're going raid-wide. It's trickier than it sounds.

I also want to discuss some of the resto shaman talent trees and talents. I made a post on my guild's website with several different spec ideas, but haven't received any feedback yet.

Basically, I need to do some more research before I write about some of the things rattling around in my head. When I do, I will certainly update the blog.

In lieu of any meaningful posts regarding the patch, beta, or the expansion, let me talk to you about a dare of sorts. As you are well aware if you follow this blog at all, I have a healing problem. Both my 70s are restoration and I have an interest in leveling all four healing classes so I can learn how to heal on them. It is one of the things I find most enjoyable about the game.

I also find it to be one of the most frustrating things and my complaining inspired a friend of mine to suggest that it might be a good idea for me to have a class that cannot heal. Yes, I have the warrior, but she's been stuck at level 66 for a while now. It's not that I have no interest in leveling her; I just have more interest in other things at the moment.

That is how Keiaz the mage became the focus of my efforts. At my friend's encouragement, I've been working hard at leveling her. She's a tailor and enchanter, of course, and I've had brief thoughts of possibly making her my main come the expansion. There are so many reasons I can't picture it though; namely that she is a troll mage and not a tauren shaman. She is a good diversion though.

In other new, I was promoted to a full officer and healing class lead in my guild. Huzzah.

Learning to HoT

I randomly decided to respec my druid to restoration yesterday. She was feral and was supposed to tank. I'm still not sure what inspired me to switch, but I am inspired to play her for a bit.

I chose the standard 8/11/42 pvp spec, since pvp is the only way she's going to get gear. It's also a good way to learn to heal on a druid because healing battlegrounds is less stressful than pve healing. The group isn't going to fail if I can't keep one member alive. Once I get some decent gear and learn to manage Mio's mana, I'll probably try some pve healing.

It certainly is about time I set out to finish that goal I made ages ago. I want to learn to heal on all the classes. I have a 70 druid; I may as well start with her. Then it might be time to level my paladin and priest.

Zgu

My little orc warrior hit 60. I've been working so hard at leveling her (what else do I have to do between applying for jobs). There's talk of weekly Naxxramus runs and the Dreadnaught armor (T3) look SO badass on a female orc. I would kill to have a full set for Zgu. So I'm killing myself trying to get her leveled enough to be able to participate.

Not only that, but she's actually fun! I mean I haven't gotten bored or frustrated yet. I just don't understand. Warrior is the last class on earth that I would have picked for myself, but it seems to have clicked. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do in the expansion (switch mains or specs), but I'm really having fun with this little toy in the mean time. And I am seriously tempted to switch mains despite it all. I just need to try warrior dps out in raids to see if I really do enjoy it. I really like soloing though!

The problem I see with switching mains to a melee dps warrior is that I will be fighting the armies of death knights for, well, everything. Gear, raid spots, group spots... Thinking ahead, I'm much better off sticking with shaman and switching specs if I really hate resto that much. It would be much easier to get gear and easier to get a raid spot. The class really is not very popular and I don't think that will improve with the expansion.The problem is that Zgu is more fun than Sal right now. =/

Well, I suppose I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Looking Ahead

I've been bad. I haven't been playing beta much at all. Instead, I've been leveling my warrior like a maniac. I logged off with her at level 52 this morning. I think a week ago, she was still a 39 twink.

Since I've been making such amazing progress on her, I've started thinking about what to do with her at 70. I made a couple lists tonight; one of pvp gear she'll need at 70 and the other a list of materials to make Bloodmoon and 2 Wicked Edge of the Planes. Both lists are pretty insane, but right now I feel like I can do it. It's just a matter of planning. And spending time on Sal farming materials.

The list for weapons:
14 Primal Fire
14 Primal Water
24 Primal Mana
26 Primal Air
26 Primal Earth
40 Primal Shadow
24 Primal Nether
15 Nether Vortex
4 Hardened Adamantite
36 Felsteel Bar
22 Eternium Bar

The hardest part of that list will be the Primal Nether and Nether Vortex. If I bought all the Nether Vortex with badges, I'd need 225. That is a daunting number since I don't bring in a lot of badges on Salanthe anymore. So I think I need to start running heroics to get the primal nether and badges. I need a tank friend to help me out! (The irony is not lost on me. *sigh*)

As much as folks complain about how Blizzard has made it really easy to gear up characters, I'm glad that I can do that with Zgu. It will still be a considerable amount of work and honestly, I wouldn't be able to do it nearly as easily if I didn't have a 70 shaman decked out in T6.

With the expansion so close, I'd almost like to retire Sal from raiding and work on Zgu instead. I'd like to get my little warrior in excellent shape for the expansion so I can take her to 80 easily. The one thing that confuses me is how did this unknown class take over my beloved Salanthe?

Either way, I still intend Salanthe to be my main in the expansion. As much fun as I have on Zgu, I don't understand the class well and I don't play it well. I have yet to tank on her as well. I'm much more likely to play enhancement on Salanthe (or restoration if they fix it). But it is fun to mess around on a warrior and I do want to get her as much pvp gear as possible before the expansion, as well as those amazing weapons.

The Leveling Grind

I took a big step tonight and dinged level 40 on Zgu. That's right, her 39 bracket twinking days are officially over.

I was bored earlier and decided to work on my mage's professions - enchanting and tailoring. Well, I logged on to her, opened her enchanting window, prepared to level enchanting, and realized I didn't have a truesilver rod.

Since Zgu is my blacksmith, I switched to her and ended up spending a TON of gold leveling her mining and blacksmithing up. After all that money, I decided that I simply had to level her.

Now we'll see if I continue to enjoy her as I slowly grind towards Outland.

Twinks and other things

It's been a while since I last posted, so I thought I'd better say something, even if it's nothing of consequence. Tl;dr, right?

Well, my little warrior twink has been coming along quite nicely. She's about as good as she's going to get now. Yeah, there are a few little things I could upgrade, but I'm kind of anxious to level her again. I don't want to put any more gold into her.

I did try out arms again, just to see which I liked better. The nice thing about arms is that Zgu hits a LOT harder. I had an execute crit of 770-something this morning on another warrior. She's also doing much better on damage and HKs as arms. On the other hand, it takes her forever to kill something because her axe is so slow, she's constantly rage-starved, I miss piercing howl like no one's business, and her killing blows are low. I'm just not sure which I prefer.

I've been working on earning honor for level 70 pvp gear. I actually got her Vindicator's Plate Bracers the other day. I've already got her level 40 plate gear, too. I'd like to get her Guardian's Plate Belt, Merciless Gladiator's Plate Chestpiece, Merciless Gladiator's Plate Legguards, and Merciless Gladiator's Plate Shoulders before I start leveling her again, but it's almost an impossible task. She would need 67,299 honor to get all of that. On a good day, I can get 1,000 honor on her, so that's 68 days of grinding out 1,000 honor to get that stuff. A little over two months. Which means that my time for leveling her to Outland before Wrath of the Lich King comes out will be very limited.

I don't know... I'm really torn between keeping her as a twink and leveling her. So in the mean time, I decided to level a new 39 twink. This allows me to delay leveling Zgu until I have a replacement ready for her, which means I can continue earning honor and reputation on her (I'd love for her to be Conqueror Zgu, since Zgu, Hand of A'dal won't ever happen).

The new twink will be a shaman named Zrii, a female orc. I've already got some twink pieces for her and I've got most of her gear planned out already. I just need to level her up! Unfortunately, that's the case with all my characters.

Leveling is really burdensome, sometimes. I'd like most of my alts to be at least level 40 by the time WotLK comes out so they don't have that much further to go before the new level cap of 80 is in place. The alts in that category are: Zgu (39 twink warrior), Heneli (29 shadow priest), Keiaz (20 fire mage), and Mirothan (35 ret paladin). I also want to get Miothe to level 70 and get her epic flying skill. She's 65 right now; nearly 66. I just need to spend some dedicated time on her!

I know it's really not that much. 5 more levels on my druid, 1 more level on my warrior, 11 levels on my priest, 20 levels on my mage, 5 levels on my paladin... And the leveling goes fast for those alts under 40! Part of my issue is that I haven't found a dps class that I love yet. Salanthe is absolutely painful to play outside of groups now because she kills things SO slowly as restoration. I'm to the point now where I won't drag my low level alts or do dailies on her at all until Friday or Saturday, which are our raiding off-days and I can afford to respec her to enhancement or elemental. It puts a serious crimp in my efficiency. If I played a dps class, I could do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.

The solution, unfortunately, isn't to level Miothe up either. I don't like dpsing with her as feral and I'm going to bet that balance won't be my cup of tea either. Zgu wouldn't be a fair solution either, and not because I don't think I could grind on her the way I can't with Mio. The problem with both of them is that they are tanking classes. I worry about being "guilted" into tanking. See, Salanthe was supposed to be elemental ages ago, but the lack of healers on the server forced me into healing my way to 70 and now I'm stuck. Don't get me wrong; I adore healing. It's just that sometimes I wish I could respec enhancement for a week and get away with it. I could get ridiculous amounts of stuff done if I could have a week as dps.

Off track a little. I am worried about the same thing happening on Zgu, which is one of the reasons I hesitate to level her. She is a warrior. She is the tanking class. I want to kill stuff when I play her though, not rely on others to do things for me. I get that enough with my main.

Honestly, I don't know what my issue with Miothe is. I never intended Salanthe, let alone the shaman class, to replace my little druid. Ever since I started playing the game three and half years ago, druid has been my favorite class. Until Salanthe. Now when I hop on Miothe to pick herbs or skin leather to supply Sal, I resent playing her a little. She's not as efficient at killing things. I hate how quickly she takes damage and how slowly she kills things compared to Sal. I detest seeing her health bar fall. She's so inefficient and unwieldy in comparison. The only thing that gives me some enjoyment is tossing lifeblooms and watching them bloom when I'm trying to recover health quickly between mobs. And lord knows, the very last thing I need is another healer.

Suffice to say, I'm not sure what to do about any of my alts. I think I would adore healing on Miothe, but she will never catch Salanthe. I would love so smash face with Zgu at 70 and I like to harbor a dream that she will be decently geared and have decent rep with all the factions, but she will never catch Sal either, even if I'd rather she were my main. Then there's Heneli, the priest... Lately, I've been healing Black Temple and wishing that I played priest. Casting a chain heal and wishing it were Circle of Healing. Wishing I had Prayer of Mending and Renew, even Lightwell. I'd simply love to get Heneli to 70 so I could learn to heal and gear a priest. I'd even be alright with her being moderately geared compared to Sal. But that fourth character is just such a stretch...

Eh, I suppose it will sort itself out in time. I predict that Miothe will reach 70 and get her epic flight form; doomed to following Salanthe around and farming for the rest of her life. Zgu will probably stay twinked at 39, unless I get the shaman twinked to replace her, in which case she'll likely make it to the mid-50s before I abandon her. Heneli will likely gain a few more levels; possibly stalling out in the mid-30s, maybe making it past 40. Keiaz might make it to 30, but probably not, and Mirothan might reach 39 twink-dom.

If you made it through all of that, you deserve a cookie! *gives out cookies* I'm still working on that series of totem posts I talked about a while ago, so I promise actual content sometime in the near future!

Gold

I need to make a rule for myself. No Zgu until after my dailies are done.

I respec two to three times a week on Salanthe, so I need the money. Elemental is my pvp spec and restoration is my raiding spec. Sometimes I respec to elemental (pve) or enhancement to make my dailies go a little faster, or just for fun.

All that money spent to respec was fine while I was still rolling in gold, prior to falling in love with my warrior. Zgu has sucked dry all that extra cash on Salanthe though. From leveling her blacksmithing and mining to buying epics for twinking to making sure she has enough for her first mount... Well, let's just say that Zgu has been a very expensive little toy.

Salanthe on the other hand has suffered from lack of attention. Being the hardcore raider that she is, repair bills are high. She's an alchemist and herbalist, so she doesn't need to spend money on that, and her cooking and fishing are maxed out as well. Those profession skills help a lot, but only if I spend the time farming materials to use them. Which I haven't been doing because I've been spending so much time on Zgu. Coupled with the outrageous respec costs, well, let's just say that I've run Salanthe a bit dry.

I'd like to have about two thousand gold on Salanthe, so I have enough to splurge on something cool on the AH. Right now, she's sitting at a measly four hundred. I have lots of work to do. It's not like Zgu is going anywhere or will suffer if I give some serious time to Salanthe... It's just that I don't want to. I love my alt and I want to get her to 70 so badly!

Alts Explained

This is supposed to be a blog about a shaman, right? I mean, the title is Totem of Wrath.

Well, it is a blog written by someone who's main is a resto shaman. So yes, there is plenty of shaman-related stuff here. But this person is also an altaholic, so those alts will get some pen time too.

On the sidebar, I have a little section dedicated to the Armory. My main and most beloved resto shaman is listed first, Salanthe. There are a bunch of other names beneath her though and I may as well tell you what you'll find before you click the link.

Miothe is my druid. She was the druid I originally rolled on Ysera and leveled to 40 before coming to Moon Guard and rolling Salanthe. Since playing a shaman, I have a great deal of difficulty getting back to druid. I keep trying to level her, but she just gets stuck until I go on another leveling spurt. I also can't decide what spec to make her, so she's stuck perpetually in feral. I've seriously contemplated resto, since druids are OP, but I'm starting to burn out on healing and the idea of having another full-time healer is, well, unappealing. I'm also a bad tank and I don't particularly enjoy boomkin or kitty dps. At least she finally has an epic mount.

Zgu is my current love, next to Sal. She's an orc warrior and I'm addicted to battlegrounds with her! I never expected to find this class so enjoyable, but there you go. I never expected to enjoy shaman either. There's just something about running around aimlessly killing alliance and not worrying about anything. At the moment, I'm trying to decide if I should twink her at level 39 or level her up. Time will tell.

Hravan was my first character, a hunter. Poor thing is three years old and is only level 46. Also destined to become a farming alt if she ever gets to 70. About the only time I play her now is when a friend needs an extra dps for Uldaman or Zul'Farrak or I feel like taming a new pet.

Mirothan was an experiment. I decided that I would love playing paladin not long after I started healing full-time on a shaman. Healing style is very similar, wears plate, has better buffs and more dispels, etc. Well, she just never took off. Now I'm not so sure I'd enjoy the class, so she rusts away in Silvermoon City, waiting until I get back to her someday.

Keiaz is my next planned project. A troll mage, tailor and enchanter. Once I settle out on Zgu, I plan on power-leveling Keiaz to 70 so I have an AoE farmer, enchanter, and vending machine of my very own.

Dolendae was originally rolled on Laughing Skull. Yes, the Leeroy Jenkins and Epic Mount Girl server. She's an alliance draenei shaman. I made her to play with this guy I was sort of seeing in real life, but the interest fizzled and I decided to transfer her to Moon Guard. The problem? I don't like playing alliance.

Salbi is a Moon Guard original. Rolled because I thought a gnome warlock would be fun and because I was trying to escape my ex-boyfriend (who plays horde on Moon Guard). Salbi is fun, but she's alliance. No amount of fun can overcome that.

I also have a little level 8 undead priestess that I plan on leveling at some point. Maybe after Keiaz is power-leveled. For now, she lacks an Armory page and also a link, so this will be all the mention little Heneli receives until it's time for her to rise from her grave.

It's one thing to explain all your alts and another to explain why they exist. The reasons are so varied:

1. Might be a fun or interesting class
2. Want to learn to heal on this class
3. Need the utility or profession to support a main character
4. Real life friends want me to play on their server
5. Escape from main character or people from your faction or server

What are your reasons your alts exist?