Horde-Side Dallying and Other Updates

I’m actually doing a decent job at fitting in some other hobbies in my life – I’ve started drawing a little, and last week we went for a photo expedition to a nearby arboretum. I also made progress on a few wedding-related projects. This of course means my WOW time is suffering, and furthermore, my blogging time (which as you can tell is nearly non-existant).  

Raiding progression has ground to a bit of a halt. It’s going to be a battle against schedules now, as well as the three remaining bosses in ICC. We haven’t even gotten attempts in on Valithria in several weeks.  

Other than raiding, my WOW playtime has been dedicated to the Horde side. My lovely blood elf priest is level 61.  The goal of seeing the Horde-side Old World content before Cataclysm is complete. Leveling with 2x heirlooms and the dungeon finder is incredibly quick. I’m glad though, because a lot of the horde quests… well, they suck. 

Passing Through The Dark Portal

 I’ve found far less memorable quest lines on the Horde side. Am I missing something, or are they really just lacking?  The most recent interesting one involved desecrating Uther’s tomb. That one was pretty awesome – not the desecrating part, but Uther’s response. 

 My feelings toward the Horde have only been solidified. The undead are evil bastards who poison puppies. The blood elves are lovely, but they’re just emo drug addicts. The orc are mostly brutal creatures. The trolls are… odd. Tauren are the only race that really speak to me – I definitely enjoyed questing in any Tauren areas, which were extremely similar to Night Elf areas – seek out corrupted nature, cleanse, etc. 

I think we’ll continue on leveling these toons Horde-side, so we can see the Horde quests in Outland and Northrend. Having less resources is tough, but it’s interesting to get a different perspective. My plan is to faction transfer her eventually, either at 80 or 85 depending on the timing (I hope to have her become a Worgen). I will really miss my shadow-chocobo though. 

 The Horde AH on Kael’thas is quite nuts. Minor Glyphs are going for 70g a piece. I really wish I were more motivated, as I’m sure I could make a killing doing some cross-faction smuggling of goods. 

I’m truly in love with the Priest class itself. Both Holy and Shadow are really “clicking” for me. The following are some random thoughts on what I’ve learned about priests:   

• Shadow priests can get replenishment at level 50, with the talented spell Vampiric Touch. Unfortunately it makes no sense to cast this spell if you’re in a group while leveling, unless it’s on a longer boss fight. The mobs die so fast that it doesn’t tick long enough to give you back mana.
• Vampiric Embrace on the other hand makes me squeal with glee. It allows you to actually solo as a shadow priest – you heal yourself the more shadow spells you cast. It’s absolutely brilliant. It’s also a nice thing to have in raids – one of our guild shadow priests made life quite a bit easier for the healers on Blood Queen.
• Healing as Holy is like having cake and eating it too. I currently have a HOT, an instant group heal, a big group heal, and a nice spammy one. Watching everyone’s health go back to full after a Circle of Healing makes my heart go pitter patter. I’ve always had resto druid envy, but the Holy priest style is feeling nice.
• Spirit form ftw. It’s not as awesome as Rebirth or Reincarnation, but those extra free heals can be enough to keep the group up. This happened to me awhile back in BRD – my angel time ended just as the last mob went down, and the group was able to rez me and keep going.
• Having such a big healing toolkit is awesome, and keeps things interesting. I’m even learning to use my panic buttons properly.
• Combined dispels please! With such a large toolkit I am running out of mouse-buttons. Having separate binds for Abolish Disease and Dispel Magic sucks

The dungeon finder continually challenges my faith in humanity. A few groups are alright – even willing to do more than is needed for the Random-bag-of-crap. Others are truly abysmal – like the tank that ran a long way ahead after I said “mana” in chat, got himself killed, and left the group (although I felt better that the rest of the group decided to stay with me).  Others are just irritating, such as those that continually brag about their DPS or AH conquests, or whatever – like the  resto druid that talked up what an awesome healer he was, but then completely ignored the long poisons ticking on most of the group.

That’s my update for the moment. I hope you’re all enjoying the lull before the Cataclysm news starts back up in full force!