First of the month...

Beginning of a new month, the continuation of Voicless and his attempts at gearing up for raids. I only have a few more pieces to get a hold of before I start raids. I need a new off-hand piece of gear and a new piece of headgear. I am still wearing Frostsavage in that slot, much to my dismay. everything else I have is iLevel 200+. The thing is I don't take much stock in that, except when I know the player is pretty decent without that gear. If you can fulfil a role without the gear, then you have my vote.

I also have no gems really socketed, and NO enchants yet. I want to get my gear locked down and then do that. It will let me know what I need. It feels like I need to create a larger mana pool, I seem to burn out of mana pretty fast. Or I was thinking of going Disc... I seemed to have gotten the message that it is actually more mana-efficient, but I am definitely keeping my shadow spec.

Yesterday we did a Heroic, and basically if I had not been around, we woulda wiped. I say that with pride. Our healer, a Druid in tree form, got knocked off halfway thru a fight. I had to switch roles quickly in midfight, and pick up the heals. Needless to say, we got thru. I kept up my DOTs and continued with healing. I was so glad we were able to gains the emblems and call it a success. I enjoy those little victories!

HTOC and the like...

I find myself getting invited to a decent amount of Heroics, and I loathe finishing them. I hate it that a Heroic can only be done once a day, it makes me tear.

In good news though, I did receive that nice knife you get from HTOC, the Kris. I was wanting that for some time and was happy to watch it drop. Only thing was, I didn't get to roll on it, because someone started looting before I returned... But the guy who won it was nice enough to pass it to me, since he rolled for an off-spec. Also a guildmate passed on a neck-piece that was a small boost to what I already had. Awesome!

Gear is slowly movin up, but I have 3 pieces from the Frostsavage set still on me. I just haven't seen drops to replace them yet. If I have seen them, it is often someone else who wins them. No biggie, but there isn't much I can do about it until they drop. I just want to be appropriate for 10 and 25 mans. I wonder if the guild is interested in running an Ony sometime in the near future.

Daiz and Naz from took me along on a Heroic earlier, I can't recall which one it was. It was the place with all the spider webs and giant beetles everywhere. It went pretty well, I was not disappointed at all. I didn't get any gear, but badges and such were received and I was happy for that.

Anyway, waiting for tomorrow to run HTOC again. Hoping no clothies show up on the group, that way I can pretty much be guaranteed some good stuff!

No gears...

*sigh* did the daily today, which was Heroic HOS and got not a thing out of it. Also did some TOC, but no gear drops for me. I need to get into a 10-man TOC to try and get some gear. I may try to do that tomorrow, mostly because I want to be an asset to the guild. Only problem, not as many people on at the times I play. Most of this has to do with me working nights, but in a few days I will be on a day schedule, that means I can nail down some raid times during the week. Should be awesome!

My DPS today was pretty good. Against several mobs, I topped the charts, mostly has to do with the Mind Sear AOE spell. Love that thing. The tank was doing a good job, I think his name was Lumine. That was during HOS.

Now during TOC I was at the bottom of the charts. When I mean that I was at the bottom, I mean I was way down there. The tank was killing me, but what did I expect from Nazakiel, who is an overgeared Prot Pally. He is pretty much at his end game. Daiz did a wonderful job of healing, I applaud her for her work!

I wish that Holy Priests had such a nice HOT for the group, but I think we do a good job on a single target like off tanks or main tanks. But we do have some group heals, like Lightwell and POH. I do enjoy healing though, but for some reason I love feeling like I am contributing to the entirety of the group by doing a bit of DPS(around 1.5k-2k currently) while at the SAME TIME being able to support heal the entire group.

Anyway, looking to do some more heroics and TOC tomorrow! Will/should be fun!

Level 80...

I did it! Level 80 has been attained and I am feeling a big sigh of relief! Now the fun begins... Or so I thought...

One of the biggest reasons I came to this server was the low pop, mostly so I could enjoy some PVP but also so I wouldn't get ganked too often. I like PVP, but not while I am doing something PVE related. So why join a PVP server? Mostly because it was low pop...

Anyway, that is one of the downfalls of low pop, it has fewer people, and thus a harder chance of coming across people who want to run any raids/instances.

Now I am a newbie to the Heroics and level 80 content, so I am immediately looked upon with disdain. Ugh! I wanted to run some level 80 content, and I know I am not geared for any hardcore Heroics. Someone in my guild, Jodah, recommended running some of the simpler Heroics, perhaps something like Naxx. So I followed suit, and put out I wanted to give it a go. I made it very clear I was new to the Heroics, so it wouldn't seem I was trying to just stow away and get carried.

Well I got hit up by Kardai, another guild member and right nice guy, and got an invite to go to 10-man Naxx. Yay! First time! Patchwerk or whatever his name is, and his cronies. We cleared that side up till the friggin (+) and (-) thing. We had 10 men intitally, but two dropped off, and we were able to 8-man it initially. But then when it came to the polarity shift thing, people didn't understand the concept initially. That's fine, 2 wipes down, and on our third try. We got into a groove. Awesome! Note, I got some decent praise for almost saving the day! I took over healing(I was DPS) when the main healer died, and almost saved the day. But the fact that I took the initiative while on SHADOW SPEC to take up heals, it was awesome. Problem was, a friggin slime slapped me down out of nowhere. Not the tanks fault, he came from nowhere! But cheers of "Go Voic, GO!!!" was awesome! Unfortunately we still wiped, he was down so low too... Oh well, I think I got a little respect for that bit of work I did, mostly because it was unexpected. But I loved it! I love being reliable and jumping in to save the day/almost save the day. It just showed the possibility of a Shadow Priest being an awesome utility class, master of none, but a jack-of-all-trades.

Big problem though, our DPS was shot, we couldn't output enough to bring the big guy down. What a drag, he was down to 1/10 of his HP and slowly going down, but he outlasted us. Another 3.5k DPS woulda been helpful, but like I said, we lost 2 guys after our first 2 wipes. Oh well, live and learn right?

Anyway, afterwards, I got hit up by Kardai to try my hand at Heroic healing on Gundrak and took him up on that offer. I needed the practice. And we cleared it, not clear wipes, just close calls. Sometimes the tank missed an aggro, and being an undergeared clothie, I was slapped down. But the pally was able to rez me no issues. But my job as a healer went off pretty well!

Then I got invited to H UK, awesome! Cleared that one as well. I think I got knocked out once, mostly because I didn't know the rules for the 2 guys at the bottom of the stairs. I got slammed, but I kept throwing heals as a big-ass angel, and it worked out.

Anyway, it was nice. I then jumped into a WG and ISle of Conquest BG, and we won both. Friggin awesome! My gear is still subpar, but that is part of the whole concept of getting geared.

But I was lucky last night, mostly cause people were willing to take a chance on me initially. And once they saw what I was capable of in the gear I did have, I was reinvited. The thing is, getting that initial invite. But my guildies are awesome, and they will probably invite me again, *crosses fingers*.

Jen wanted to test my healing ability today, but I didn't have time, plus it was her b-day, so she wanted to go out and wished me a good day. Happy b-day Jen!

The wife was feeling a little sick last night as well. I hope that she is ok, if it gets any worse, off to the hospital we go. I am not taking any chances on her. Hope she is ok.

Anyway, level 80 was awesome, and the wife watched when I hit it and laughed while I threw a little fit! The guild chat was a wall of spam, and I warned them it was gonna happen when I capped! Plenty of Gratz and good jobs went around, and it was a good feeling.

79...

Level 79! My goodness, I cannot believe I got thru to 79 so quickly today... Spent 75 Gold on upgrading my skills, which was affordable, but hear level 80 is a bit of a cost. I started the Holdir stuff today, so they say I should be able to get almost all the way to 80. I should be able to grind my way there after I finish the Holdir content. I noticed the HUGE difference in gear that is level 80 as opposed to 78. I cannot wait to get there.

Another topic, ToC. I participated in 4 of them this past day. W got to the second boss the first time we tried it. But had to stop, we didn't have a high enough DPS output. I was on heals, and people were staying alive for a long time, but Jen noticed that it took FOREVER to down anyone. DPS meters showed that only 1 person was consistently above 2k. If we had 2 members hitting around 1.5k, everyone else would be tolerable at under 2k. But that was not the case.

Second attempt, had a guildmate Swalla in there. It went VERY well. We had a 3.5k DPSer, and one 2.5k+ DPSers. I was on as DPS support and heals backup. The Tank was excellent, pulling over 1.5k DPS as well being an excellent tank. He controlled aggro very well. The healer was well accomplished and consistently kept every good to go. I pulled around 1.6k on average and provided plenty of support heals along with the occassional bubble on the tank. It went so well we did it twice. I got a necklace, but that was all.. No cloth drops or replacement weapons at all!

Final attempt, remember we did it twice with the same group as above. This group though was totally different. Everyone was pretty much either new to 80 or not level 80 yet. I was 78, and one of the members, a shaman, was level 78. Needless to say, this did not go well. We wiped over 5 times and the repair bill was costly. We did beat the first two bosses, and got thru to phase 3 of the Black Knight. But the finaly incarnation of the Black Knight was AOE damaging all of us, even with Shadow Prot it was doing a pretty nasty amount of damage. I did however get 2 drops, a nice set of shoulders and a nice belt! ;-)

Seriously, I am liking this road to level 80, and can't wait to raid as level 80. The guildies were happy when I dinged 79! Plenty of gratz from the guild members and plenty of "hurry and get to 80 so we can raid!" as well. I love this guild!

Current status...

Well I took some screenshots of my stats at this time. I am pretty happy with the way I am sitting. As I said in one of my previous posts, I have no enchants on my gear, all of it is basic with no upgrades. So once I get some enchants, I should see an increase.

As you can seeon the right, well if the pic is not too small, my stats are giving me 1121 in bonus healing/damage. Which is not too shabby in what I am wearing. Now the next pic has me buffed with stamina and spirit.
On this second pic you can see that there is a slight increase in my bonus to heals and damage. I jump from 1121 to 1268. So a 147 point increase, not too bad right? My thing is, where should I head to next with enchants? What enchants should I go for next? I don't know if I want to head for more intellect or if I want to try and hit up spellpower. Or perhaps even haste. In all regards, I read that SP is top of the list. Then crit, haste, spirit, int, and finally hit. But if I am headed in a healing direction, how do I know when I have enough of a bonus to heals that I can switch into intellect for a larger mana pool? Or should I be going for haste? Or is all of this based upon preference? Do you just playtest it and adjust accordingly? I have no clue!

I am looking to playtest and work towards a happy medium! I want the following:

1. To have a strong heal base. I mean that I want to be able to heal exceptionally well and basically keep everyone in the 75% or higher range of their health.

2. I don't want to run out of mana while only 50% of the way thru the battle. So a large enough mana pool would be nice.

3. I still want to be viable as DPS. Now Shadowpriests are in a peculiar place, because they are not exceptional deeps, and have a hard time topping charts on single targets. Now on multiple targets, a slightly different story. What with DOTs and Mind Sear, we can do a decent job in DPSing. So I still want to provide a noticeable amount of DPS if asked to be Deeps.

4. I need to be decently quick at spellcasting, this calls for haste. But I need to find a happy medium where it fits into a kind of pattern on casting.

5. Mana regen is slightly important, but if my mana pool is large enough, is mana regen all that important? I mean consider the use of pots or drinks for those times I "OOM" between pulls. If I am prepared with drinks and whatnot, I don't see a need for large amounts of mana regen capability. But a large mana pool, that IS something I want!

I just want to have utility. I know, I will probably have to obtain two sets of gear, hopefully the guild will have some opinions on my play while raiding. If they can tell me what I need to work on, it will be able to tailor the use of equipment to my needs. I will also be able to work on my style of play.

I will make sure to get with the guild members on this when I log back on.

Status update on ... We have hit over 90 members, with probably over 2/5 of the guild being at the 80 cap. It could be as much as half by the end of tonight. Afterall, several members are at around 77+ and can grind their way to 80. It will be great! We are trying to get a guild that can run 25s with pretty much NO inclusion of PUGers. Although there are a few toons walking around in the server who I would be happy to have along for a raid. Namely Daiz and Naz. Both are great people, and Naz has been at it for some time. Daiz is an ambitious healer, with a level 80 Druid. Both are from the guild and were very helpful to me when I first joined the server!

Oh well... More to come later on...

Screenshot...

Halloween is coming... And Blizzard is celebrating. Voicless took the time to pose next to a Cyclops-style pumpkin!

They have a few quests coming out that are Halloween themed and I took part in a couple, but had to log off soon afterwards. I will try to do a few of them tomorrow, but I more inclined to work towards my lvl 79 goal! And yes, the 2xExp bar is full, so level 79 is definitely doable in a few hours!