Well last night I gave Disc spec a solid try. Not that I had never tried it before, obviously, but this time I had a new air of determination... this time it was NOT going to be "spec for a day", or, "if this goes badly, I'll just go back to Holy"... No. I had decided that no matter how miserably I flailed about waving hands full of bubbles, I was going to stick it out, and learn how to do this damn thing properly. I will no longer permit myself to despair, and run back to the safety and comfort of my Circle of Healing when things get tricky.

It went... alright.

True, this was not raiding. I felt it was best to start with some five mans. My guildmates and I spent an hour in heroic ToC, all of us learning a bit more each time. I've run it dozens of times on my priest, as holy... but my guildmates had only done it a handful of times, and I was certainly not as comfortable as a Disc Priest. I had, in fact, even tried it once as Disc... and the results provided the basis for my present day hesitance towards Disc Priesting.

Of course, that was before I had a lovely Meatloaf Macro.

There were a few things in particular with which I struggled, though I improved on the way.

• You actually CAN bubble too much - who knew? Or rather, bubble improperly. I began having mana problems due to bubbling other members of my party who never took any damage... therefore Rapture never kicked in. After I realized this, I started bubbling only myself and the tank until I saw others begin to take damage.
  

• I need an addon that lets me know, in a non-annoying way, that the cooldown for Penance has passed.
  

• Pain Suppression can be a tricky little bugger. After using it on the tank, I guess he must have lost aggro on the hunter, because the troll quickly shot me down immediately after I used the spell. As a matter of fact, Pain Suppression is one of those spells that has me convinced that Disc Priests can handle certain types of raid healing - just not in the way to which most of us are accustomed, a la via strong AoE heals. To me, PS just screams "use me on the mage! The MAAAAAAGE!" It's definitely no Guardian Spirit.
  

• Now that I've mastered the art of remembering to use Divine Hymn (well, most of the time... it saved our butt at the end of the Black Knight), I now have Inner Focus and Power Infusion to remember. I've heard that others use macros for these... such as a combination of Inner Focus and Penance. I'm not sure if I want to bind Power Infusion to a macro, however. Any suggestions?
  

• I still do not have a solid rotation down for healing the tank. I am not utilizing Borrowed Time to its fullest extent, for certain. However, I don't believe I will really get to learn this well until I am assigned to heal the tank, and only the tank - as opposed to in a five man where I persistently need to break my single target rotation in order to heal other members of the five man. I was certainly unable to maintain Grace on the tank for the entire duration of any fight.

So there you have it. My intial deep thoughts about converting from Holy to Disc and the 5 man experience. It helps that I know a lot of the theory behind Disc Priesting, though my hands on experience was insubstantial (Look at me, I'm Hermione Granger! Bushy hair and all...).

As a final thought on this topic for today, I would like to add that if you start getting bored with your toon, be it priest or otherwise, a solid respec will breathe new life into the journey. It feels almost as though I'm playing a completely different class, though many of the spells are the same. Though the spells are the same, their use is almost completely different... and in some ways, that's even trickier than playing an entirely new class.

Taking a break from the lolsmite regime for a day. I have most of the rest written, but I did actually want to talk about some other stuff too.

I wrote this ridiculously long three page rant about what it's like to be one of those rare magical creatures in Azeroth known as a “female”, continuously subjected to the giant bloated egos of arrogant males all around me. I decided I wouldn't subject anyone else to it this early in the morning. Suffice to say, I have just about had it with the ridiculous amounts of arrogance bouncing back and forth between raid members and officers and boys thinking they SHOULD be raid leaders and yada yada yada. I am at the end of my patience with it. Do you boys think it's cute? Or endearing? It's not. Total turn off in every sense. And, in WoW, I've only seen it be a problem with the guys. Oh and Ful, being an engineer is so not an excuse for everything you know. Nor is being a blogger!

Now that that's off my heaping dwarven bosom...

I have been spending a lot of time doing research and write-ups justifying the lolsmite spec, and this has led me to ponder other class specs that are subjected to so much ridicule. Case in point, I am having a difficult time leveling my shammy and my druid. Everyone tells me to level them enhancement and feral respectively. But I truly do suck at melee. And now I’m wondering if it even matters if leveling one way is fast when I hate it so much that I don’t even bother to play the character anymore.

So I’ve decided screw what everyone else is telling me I need to do. They’re my toons, and I’m going to do it my own way. Hell, I leveled a priest all holy, all the way, and that spec is undoubtedly considered one of the most challenging, if not THE most challenging, spec for leveling.

There are two problems with this decision I have made regarding leveling my shammy and druid alts...

The first is that against my better judgment, when I purchased the heirloom items for my shammy and druid, I purchased items for melee, with attack power and agility and all that jazz. So it is sort of a waste of the items I purchased. And now that those emblems are so useful for really nice high level gear for my Priest and Pally, I can’t justify spending them on an alt. Oh well, what's most important about the items is the XP bonus, and they do have stats like intellect at least.

The second problem is that I just can't figure out the right spec. So I challenge you, my dear readers, to help me with this. Link me up your recommendation for a good caster leveling spec for a druid and one for a shammy. Wild and creative ideas are encouraged. Specs that give me plenty of exposure to the different healing spells I will have at 80 are also encouraged.

Bring it. In the words of Sir Cadogan, "A QUEST!!"

Edited to Add: Also, I like how I completely ignore all major things WoW related. Like the expansion leak storm. Or, you know. BLIZZCON. There is actually a reason for this. I have nothing to say that is original about it, and nothing informative to add so... why bother? While everyone else is pitching in their two cents I kinda just go off and do my own thing if I don't have anything particularly insightful to add.

What? You want real content?

...

Do you have ANY IDEA WHAT DAY IT IS?


Snape Commission by *makani on deviantART

In honor of my favorite Harry Potter book being released as a movie today (oh yes, my geekiness extends to multiple factions, dear friends – there is no end to my fangirl idiocy), I wanted to go completely and unapologetically off topic and share my love for Severus Snape. However, I can’t even express my ardor in words… so pictures will have to suffice.

...Can you tell I'm a fan of Makani?


hermione has issues by *makani on deviantART

If you are trying to find ways to keep yourself entertained with HBP content while you eagerly wait your chance to sit in a movie theatre... HERE YOU ARE

Tomorrow... back to the WoWniverse... but seriously, what did you expect for today?