My little priest is growing up...

I have been grinding like crazy on Kady for the past two days to get her to Outland and the day has finally come! Not only did I get her through the Dark Portal early yesterday morning (about this time actually, lol) with the help of my hubby and another guildie (they ran me through Strat a couple of times), but I also got her up two more levels today while in Outland and she now has swift riding!

She's such a big girl now, I can hardly believe that only a few short months ago I hadn't even picked out her first talent points. The other day while I was grinding with her in the Un'goro Crater, I spoted an undead rogue the same level and immediately started drinking mana and put the bubble up. Of course the idiot had to try and gank me, he was a rogue and that's what they do best, pick on poor "defenseless" priests and other lowbies just for the fun of it. But since I knew he was coming, I was ready.

I had my bubble up and as a human I get the racial move "Every Man For Himself" which let me out of his sap. Once free, I quickly used my new favorite PvP spell: Psychic Horror. If you are a shadow priest you simply MUST put a point in it because it has saved my butt numerous times. It's cost is 16% of your base mana which can be expensive, but again, totally worth it. What it does is cause the target to tremble in horror for 3 seconds while they drop their main hand and ranged weapon for 10 seconds. In that time, I quickly used Shadow Word: Pain (again, so awesome), Devouring Plague (I have points in Improved Devouring Plague which increases the damage done), and spammed Mind Flay which is not only a DOT (you have to channel it which is the only downside, it's very cheap mana-wise though) but it also slows your target's movement speed by 50%. Movement is kind of a big deal for rogues, so naturally this guy did not stand a chance against me with all that damage being done. I did have to heal myself, and he popped a couple of potions or something because his health bar did jump back up rather quickly, but nevertheless, my wonderful little priest took care of him completely. I then mounted up and ran off in case he had level 80 buddies in the area, but that's neither here nor there ;)

I was extremely proud of myself for besting a same-level rogue, especially since I have an awful time dealing with them as Ladelyia, despite my traps, pet, and Hunter's Mark. Ladelyia is simply not geared for melee-anything, especially against someone who is geared soley for melee. Every Man For Himself is such a great move to have, I use it quite frequently as Kady and am sad when Ladelyia get stuck in something and can't get out, lol. Although, Ladelyia does have Feign Death (something else I use all the time) and I often find myself trying to Feign as Kady and of course that doesn't work either XD

Totally Forgot!

I totally forgot to mention that not only did I go raiding Friday night after work, but I went with BK to Ulduar and got some gear! I got replacement boots and a new one-handed sword, both look very cool. BK had cleared some bosses already, and knew some of the fights, so the first couple of bosses went very smoothly, so I got credit towards a couple of those achievements. I also got Hot Pocket which is one of the best names for an achievement, lol.

I missed Naxx with my guild Saturday night, but there were two quarters left Sunday night that I did get to help clear. There was a discussion in the group after we defeated KT because he tropped the token for the epic headpiece for the hunters. Besides myself, there was another hunter there. The discussion was whether we should roll for it or give it to one person based on what kind of upgrade it was. She was wearing a leather helm, but it was epic. I was wearing a blue helm that was mail, and I also had one or two pieces of armor that were better than hers (I have the valorous chestpiece from 25-man VoA). The general feel was that it was technically a better upgrade for me, I said we should just roll on it and let Blizz decide, and she said to go ahead and give it to me because, as she pointed out, we would be back. This also means that if hunter gear drops while we're raiding together, she gets first dibs, but that's totally cool. I have one more piece towards Epic and my Cryptstalker set is complete :)

Shadow Priest Update

I got Kady up two levels yesterday, and one the day before that, she's now up to 48 and very much eager to get her cloth-wearing butt over to Outland to start grinding there. I had a bit of trouble motivating myself to get her past 45 because she only had a few quests in Tanaris, which is right around her level, and I thought she needed help with them. Turns out she didn't, lol. She did the quests just fine, picked up a few more and got a level out of it. The plus side to taking a break from Kady turned out to be that she was rested well into the next level (or three, she's still rested now!), which aided in leveling from the additional exp gained from killing mobs. She was killing mobs that were three and four levels higher than her.

Eventually, I flew her up to Aerie Peak, in the Hinterlands, and stated questing up there. That was where we got the other two levels and where I've currently got her grinding. She picked up a couple of quests for the Sunken Temple, which she's been through once before but not with quests, but they're red right now, I might wait until they're a little easier before attempting them, just so she can get the most out of them. She also picked up the hammer that you use to get the mallet of Zul'ferrack (or however you spell it), so I might have her heading back that way again.

It's been so long since I've actually leveled a character to this point that I've actually started reminiscing about leveling my hunter. I think I was right around this level when one of my guildies had just hit 58 and was able to go through the Dark Portal and I was sooo jealous because I wanted to get to Outland as quickly as I could! I remember him changing the guild message to read something about the red sands of the Hellfire Peninsula or star gazing. I have a some-what leveled DK who's gotten to Outland and whose hearth is set to Shattrath, so some of the memories of just starting to grind there are kind of fresh again, but I really want to take Kady into Ramps and see what she can do! I need tons of practice healing, I need to get her into more dungeons, hopefully with guildies so if I fail and we all die, I won't be ridiculed too much ;) The last dungeon that Kady healed was the Stockades, so yeah, it's been a while. The other dungeons she's been in, she went in with my husband's level 80 pally and he did all the work.

I really want to practice so that when she hits 80 she can start healing heroics right away. She'll definitely be practicing on normal Northrend dungeons so that I can get used to healing those particular fights, but I want to be able to run Naxx or Ulduar with our guild and our I-don't-know-what-to-call-it-but-it's-somehow-related-through-a-mutual-guildie guild, Broken Kingdom (or BK for short) in the same week. The mutual guildie has several level 80 characters who are all well geared for those raids and can therefore go with both guilds in a single week, it just depends on who he wants to take where. I would definitely like to be able to do that. Not to mention that as a Shadow Priest who has duel-spec'ed to Holy, I could go between DPS and healing based on what we need for that particular fight. At the time I started actually leveling Kady, our guild needed more healers, we had two. Several of us started leveling healers, but I think I may have been the only one to keep going. My husband's pally is duel-spec'ed to be a healer too, but he started leveling that before he had even heard of duel-spec and I don't remember if it was his plan to eventually be a healer. One of our other guildies is also leveling a tank because she was tired of being low on the damage meter (although with three pallys in the group, everyone's low, lol) and wanted to try something different, so we'll have three main tanks which will be awesome, and eventually our choice of healers. A couple of people are also leveling druids, so we'll have those for an option as well! :)

Off to bed now, more about Kady later!

Ring of Blood & Kurenai Rep

I did the Ring of Blood and Amphitheater of Anguish a couple months back for the achievement. I had to have my pally husband help me because at the time, I was not dual-spec'ed and therefore my only tanking pet was Colbert (my gorilla). Colbert was good but not great, having a pally definitely helped.

Tonight I was farming Kurenai rep in Nagrand when a 66 DK whispered me and asked if I could help him do Ring of Blood. I agreed because I really wasn't doing anything better and when I was leveling there were plenty of high levels that I would give props to if I could remember their names. Since I am now duel-spec'ed as a BM and survivalist, and we now have the lovely "Call Stabled Pet" feature, I have an instant tank just about whenever I need it. You guessed it, I pulled out Worm and he rocked the house. The DK had apparently defeated the first boss already because we started with the twins and my worm had no problems holding their attention while we DPS'ed them down. I didn't even have to heal Worm all that much. The only time we ran into trouble was on the last guy. The DK wiped and then the guy killed my worm (the boss was doing a crap load of damage) so I had to feign death and wait for him to phase out. The DK came back and agreed to stay far back this time, since it had been a AOE that had killed him. We made it, barely, but we killed him on the second try. When Super (short for Supersamerai, my husband's pally) and I did it, we were both level 80, as was Colbert I believe. This time, I did it with me, Worm, and a 66 DK, and I definitely owe Worm a big hug because he's the reason we didn't keep wiping. I love that Acid Spit and that he can hold aggro as well as he does. The duel-spec was worth the 1,000g just to be able to have Worm around when I need him.

I also hit exalted with the Argent Crusade today, which means I also got the Argent Vanguard achievement (exalted with Argent Crusade, Kirin Tor, Ebon Blade, and Wyrmrest Temple). I was excited because I knew I was close but I didn't realize that I would ding today, I turned in a daily and there were the two achievements (that sound that plays is the best sound in the game, I think). Garaba and I are competing to have the biggest epeen, so I'll have to make sure he sees that. He's got something like 20 exalted reputations which is ridiculous, but he also is ok with doing mindless, boring things over and over again. I like to be doing something. I like farming rep with the Kurenai because I get to kill as many things as I want and get rep. I went from being mid-way through honored to revered in under an hour (minus the side trip to Ring of Blood) from killing ogres and turning in the obsidian necklaces (10 for 500 rep is not a bad deal at all!). This way, unlike doing dailies for rep, is great because I can do it whenever I feel like as much as I want. I can kill tons of ogres until I get tired of it (or just tired in general, it is now 1:30am) then go and turn in all the necklaces I got. I'm now 3K into revered already and that was just turning in necklaces. I got 1,500 earlier when I didn't realize I had so many necklaces and went "holy crap! 500 for 10, sweet!" and that was when I decided I liked farming Kurenai rep ;)

I'm also farming rep for them for the Leading the Cavalry achievement. I currently need 9 more mounts and I get the Albino Drake. Garaba has it already, he pretty much got that in one day because of all his exalted reputations and because he's an alchemist, so he makes a killing on the AH in one day. I also like collecting things and being rewarded for it. I got Stinker the skunk, from having 50 pets and Ladelyia two bank bags full of clothes that I think are cute, lol. :)

More later, I'm off to bed because I open tomorrow morning, but that means that I'll have Friday night free for WoW. Raiding tomorrow night...?

Ulduar: WTF?

Our guild's first official journey into Ulduar was definitely interesting. I'm not a fan of vehicle quests/dungeons/raids, at all. So Flame Leviathan was not fun for me at all. He's the first boss and we didn't defeat him at all tonight. The next scheduled guild run is this Saturday and I'm working, whether they'll try to continue with Ulduar or just do Naxx will be up to the people who are able to show up. My restaurant job is interfering with my WoW schedule ;)

So I was a driver for the Salvaged Demolisher and it was pretty cool. It's a DPS position so I was fairly comfortable doing that since all I had to do was move and shoot. But the reason I dislike having to use vehicles for things is that I don't get to use the moves I've practiced and the things I'm good at. What kind of test of skill is this, besides how well you adjust to something new, when you can't do what you've been practicing? As a hunter not being able to use my pet, I'm almost completely at a loss of what to do for damage. What good is honing my skills if I don't get to use them in difficult dungeons/raids?

Reading and guildies who have gotten farther on other runs have said that the other bosses are fought "the normal way" and thankgoodness for that. One of our guildies was having so much fun because she loves seige vehicles, and that's great, my opinion isn't the consensus of the guild, at least someone likes that fight. It's going to be interesting to see how we fare against the other bosses. It took a while for us to clear Naxx in a single lock, mostly because we needed the practice against the bosses.

25-man OS

I ran my very first 25-man Obsidian Sanctuary tonight. We didn't wipe at all, which was great. My guildies and I run the 10-man almost every week, so I could do that raid in my sleep. The issue I had tonight is the same issue that I pretty much have with all 25-man raids: too many people! Lol. A lot of times it's an entire group of pugs, not even a significant part of it is people from the same guild or whatever, this means it's sometimes unorganized and a lot of time, you'll end up with jerks. My particular complaint with tonight's pug is that the token for my (and the other hunters in the group) epic gloves, the valorous gloves, dropped. Technically it's not just for hunters, but seeing as we're the better class, we should get first dibbs ;) A warrior got the token and yes, it's for them too, but he also rolled, and won, on another piece of gear. In a 25-man raid, where the amount of loot doesn't really increase in quantity, one person got two things? That's not cool. Sartharion drops a dragonhide bag and a satchel of spoils which everyone (provided you don't already have a dragonhide bag) can roll on, so everyone has an equal chance of getting loot. Then drops the stuff that's specificly for particular classes and not everyone can roll on that. While it's true that your chances of winning increase based on the number of things you're able to roll on, but does that mean you should, especially if you've already won something? Grabbing two things in a 25-man raid seems like more than a little greedy.

Kady, The Shadow Priest

Kady (I pronounce it like "Katie" with a long "a") is my alt. One thing I do when I get bored with Ladelyia, or I'm just playing her too much, is I start new characters. More often than not, they get scrapped and I don't do anything with them after level 10 (I do have a pally who's 23 and besides Kady, she's the exception). Our guild has 9 actual people in it, with 50 characters between all of us, and at one point, we only had one healer. I started Kady ages ago, thinking she was going to end up like all my other spur-of-the-moment-"I'm bored" toons. I don't ever delete them right away, just in case I want to come back. That's what happened with Kady. I knew priests were hard to level, so when I got her up high enough for talent points, I went with Shadow straight away. It helped that the other girls in our guild had created new characters also (druids) so we were all the same level for a while, which helped give us all motivation to grind. We even did many quests together.

Kady was the first character that I leveled to 30 and I sent her money from Ladelyia for her mount. Once I got the mount (a black stallion from Menethil Harbor, I'm riding Black Beauty ;) ), it was a lot easier to do multiple quests since I no longer had to run everywhere. Shadow Priests do a TON of damage. I was questing around Southshore when I ran into a Tauren Hunter who was two levels higher than me. He thought I didn't see him from his hiding spot behind the tree, but I have names of enemy players turned on, so even if I can see the character, more often than not I can see the name XD But anyway, while he was hiding I was able to get a drink in and mana up. I knew that if I was going to survive this encounter at all, I needed my mana at full. Sure enough, over he comes. Must have been his first hunter because he sent his pet over first, but he sent his pet over late. He was within range of my spells before his pet got to me. So I hit Pyschic Scream to send his pet away, knowing how squishy hunters are without their pet ;), and let loose all my DOT's (Damage Over Time for you noobs), bubbled and healed whenever possible, popped potions, and somehow managed to kill him just after his pet came back after Pyschic Scream let up.

A hunter, with a ferocity pet (he had a cat), who were both two levels higher than me, and I took them down. He wasn't the only higher-than-me player that I encountered and walked away from. I was finding out just how deadly I was and loving it! I'm still not much of a melee or PvP person, but when I was just starting with my hunter, there was no way I would have been able to take on another player who was two levels higher than me, unless they were super squishy (or afk, lol). Part of the reason I'm good with Kady (besides the fact that I've now been playing for several months and am way less of a noob) is because she can heal herself. There are times when I've taken out mobs of two or three people, I usually run out of mana halfway through the second person but I increase spirit whenever I can to help mana regen, so I use bandages, Lifeblood (thank you herbalism), and potions whenever I can. Psychic Scream is nice in that it uses very little mana, and I can use it to send enemies away then use a bandage while they're running. By th time they get back, I have more mana either for a DOT or a healing spell, or even my precious bubble. As long as I have health, I'm doing damage.

Kady's 45 now, she can levitate and do the purple shadow mist thing, which makes her even more dangerous to mobs and Horde :) I got the glyph of levitate so that I don't need feathers and that was money well spent. I used levitate the other day to run on water away from a mob that was kicking my butt. Of course, they hit me and I fell, but I managed to regen some health and mana in the meantime and that helped a bit. I also like levitate, it's fun and cool and bottom line is WoW is a game, have fun. Don't take it too seriously or you'll wind up a snobby jerk.