I HAS A SHIELD!

Yes, yes. The unlucky streak was finally broken this evening when Anetheron dropped the beautiful Bastion of Light. Even ungemmed, it was an upgrade over my old shield. I am at last content. *happy sigh* With the proper gem and enchant on the new shield, my unbuffed +healing is 2402.

Now I won't feel obligated to apologize for my gear!

Moon Guard Versus Illidan

After my guild defeated the Illidari Council, we opened the Black Temple up to role-players. Our guild leader lead a quick tour through the temple (ever wonder where Draenic water comes from?) and then we confronted Illidan just for fun. Apparently the brief attempt was captured on fraps and the result is this little video. Giggles ftw.

Luck

I'm on a lucky streak. Whilst farming leather the other day, The Green Tower dropped. This morning, while farming Obsidian Warbeads for Consortium rep, Four of Blessings dropped. Then I went to Shattrath to do a transmute for someone and I discovered how to transmute Primal Life to Primal Earth!

I am hoping that this lucky streak continues tonight when we head into Hyjal (or failing that, ZA) and the Bastion of Light drops. I will be the happiest shaman in existence. It's probably too much to hope for, particularly considering my luck. But one can always dream.

It's been a very busy last few days. Switching to leatherworking has been expensive and time-consuming. I'm stalled out at 338 leatherworking until either more leather goes up on the auction house (Moon Guard is a small server with a bad economy) or I'm able to farm more leather with Miothe.

I managed to accomplish two of my reputation goals for Salanthe as well. She's now revered with The Consortium and exalted with the Keepers of Time. Now I only need to hit exalted with Thrallmar and she'll be set. It would be nice to hit exalted with Sporeggar too, but that's a distant dream.

Miothe is nearly level 65 due to all this leather farming, which was what I hoped would happen. With any luck, she will ding this evening, unless I spend all night on Sal.

I also lucked out and picked up a few epic leatherworking patterns from Black Temple last night. Once I reach 375 leatherworking, I will be able to craft Bracers of Renewed Life and Living Earth Bindings. If you've read prior posts, you may recognize that the Living Earth Bindings are the ones I'm hoping to upgrade too. With any luck, enough Hearts of Darkness will drop tonight so that I can have my bracers made!

Unintended Consequences

One thing I did not intend upon being promoted to a guild officer was being forced to carefully consider what I put in my blog. I don't want to air the guild's dirty laundry across the Internet for all to see. On the other hand, typing out my situation is the best way for me to think through whatever issue it is that I'm dealing with. I'll have to think carefully about what I type.

Regardless of all that, I'm finally being forced to step into my role as guild officer. I'm not sure why I thought things wouldn't change once I had that new rank after my name, but I did. It's disconcerting to find myself taking responsibility for other people again. It's been so long since The Earthwalkers disbanded that I've forgotten what it feels like to be in a leadership position. Here's hoping I still have the ability to do it well.

On an unrelated note, I finally got Miothe's herbalism up to Outland level. She can pick almost every flower Salanthe needs now. Upon reaching that mark, I decided that it's time to drop herbalism on Sal and pick up leatherworking. After buying out all the thick leather on the auction house this morning, Salanthe is stuck at 269. Let me tell you how irritated I was that I couldn't get that last point!

I will have to spend some time farming rugged leather with Miothe so I can continue leveling leatherworking on Salanthe. Hopefully I'll have Outland patterns by the end of the week.

For Posterity

Because it's a little hard to see, the first screenshot is of one of my crit Healing Waves, which landed on a warlock for 9895. Almost 10,000 health in one shot.

The second screenshot is of our last raid where we spent 4 hours wiping 19 times on the Illidari Council. It's total raid healing for the entire night. What you're seeing is that I did 17% of the total raid's healing and that my nearest competition is a full 1.5 million behind me in healing.

The sad part? I thought I was doing a horrible job last night. As a caveat to those numbers, I did have a shadow priest in my group, so mana was not a huge issue. No matter how well I performed, there are plenty of things to work on. Most notably, I have a real issue remembering to blow Bloodlust on my own. I have to learn to do that without being told. Additionally, I still need to work on my positioning. I could be doing a better job of placing myself so that more people are in range of my heals.

I did practice being more reactive in my healing like the new resto shaman, and I think the results paid off. My overheal is surprisingly low on heals that I primarily cast at full rank, like lesser healing wave and healing wave. That shows that I was healing intelligently and reacting quickly. Not quickly enough for my own tastes, but the numbers show that I was doing better than I thought.

On a related note, Nature's Guardian is definitely worth the five talent points and I won't be respeccing from my standard raiding build any time soon. This WWS parse proves its effectiveness, I think.

Delicious Shaman Tears

While reading about the Illidan encounter, I discovered that during the most healing intensive phase, Phase 2, shaman totems are bugged and cannot be used. My response:

WTF BLIZZARD

I QQed about it on the Illidan strategy thread on our guild forum. One of my friends posted a reply to me saying, "Shaman tears are delicious." Which makes me think that Blizzard rather enjoys the taste too. Other classes don't have to remove all their buffs.

This makes me so upset that I can't even write about it. It will be an incoherent rant about anything and everything that Blizzard has screwed up about my class and I'd rather not subject you to that. Suffice to say that I'm pretty angry right now.

To-Do Lists

When I left my old guild and joined the one I'm in now, I was determined to improve Salanthe and prove myself to the new guild. I spent hours researching and ended up with a very long list of goals, including maxing out professions and weapons skills, hitting exalted with various factions, farming primals, and other more mundane things.

Several months later, I've checked off almost everything on that list and am reaping the benefits. Having maxed out cooking and fishing is completely worth the hours I spent power-leveling them from zero to 375. I have both a netherwing drake and a nether ray to choose from. I have every single talbuk (they all look so pretty!). I can buy flasks from the vendor in my bank and I can get my gear repaired just about anywhere without worrying about the extra cost.

Now that I'm redoing Salanthe's professions, I'm secure in knowing that I don't have any reputation grinds to do. Once I max out leatherworking, I can fly to each vendor and pick up all the patterns I could ever desire. It's very freeing.

My advice to folks leveling up a character for the first time: Take your time and do it right. One particularly well-cared for main character can support all your alts with ease. Yes, you may have to do reputation grinds on alts, but you can neglect secondary professions like cooking and fishing. It saves a lot of time and effort in the long run.

My current list for Salanthe (and Sal-related goals for alts):
Do dailies to have at least 2,000 gold on-hand
Max-out herbalism on Miothe
Max-out skinning on Miothe
Get Miothe her flight form (level 64 to 68)
Train leatherworking on Sal and power-level it to 375
Exalted with Thrallmar on Sal
Revered with the Consortium on Sal
Splurge on twinks!