Shealin - Level 29 Fire Mage - 6/28/10

I worked on Shealin some tonight and got her to level 29, she is coming along nicely. I did a few quests but mostly dungeons.

I did a couple runs through Stormwind Stockade, a couple more through Razorfen Kraul and a couple through Gnomeregan. I get a lot of XP out of the dungeons, that is how I was able to get 6 levels tonight.

I had to leave one of the runs in Razorfen Kraul I was in because I was lagging so bad I couldn't loot or cast. I was having some serious problems with lagg earlier in the day but it straightened out later on. It was so bad that I would try to loot something and it would take up to 2 minutes for the loot window to open. When it finally did everyone disappeared because they were not lagging and I had to go find them. I would try to cast a spell at something and I would just stand there with my hands flaming until it finally said my target was dead without me even casting anything. I got sick of that pretty fast and logged off for awhile. When I got back on it was better.

We had a really bad time in one of the Gnomeregan runs I was on. I lost count of how many times we wiped but it was a lot. We had a so-so tank and a Hunter that kept pulling stuff. At one point he pulled what must have been 20 mobs at one time. We were towards the end and I didn't even think there were that many mobs left alive in there. Needless to say that was another wipe. Then, all of a sudden, the Hunter left. We didn't have any more problems after that. By the time we finished I had two pieces of gear that were red and two that were yellow. I came across a couple graphics glitches in Gnomer and have attached one.

I am in no hurry to level this one up and am having a good time playing it so I think I will keep doing mostly dungeons to get my levels as they are the most fun.

Shealin - Level 23 Fire Mage

I figured it would be quite awhile before I started another toon, I was wrong. I got bored the other day and decided to try a Mage. I made Shealin, equipped her with the 5 pieces of BoA (Bind on Account) gear, I had from Brieonna, and started leveling it.

It is funny that I am excited about hitting 60 DPS after getting almost 5,000 DPS out of my Shaman Breeonna.

I am not putting any kind of time frame on getting this one to 80, I am just going to level it and enjoy it, no pressure. I figure I will still get it to 80 in 10-12 days /played anyway, that seems to be the casual time for me to get a toon to 80 now.

I have been doing a lot of rendom dungeons on her and have been topping the DPS meter in most of them. Of course I have about 1,000+ gearscore over most the people I am doing the dungeons with so I should be topping the meters.

I got a mount yesterday when I hit 20 and that makes a lot of difference, it sure beats running anyway.

I will be leveling this toon after I do my daily heroics and some daily's on my other toons so it will probably take me awhile to get to 80. That's ok, there is no rush.

Brieonna - Level 77 Holy Priest

I got Brieonna to level 77 tonight, only 3 more levels to go. The good news is I might be healing a raid next week with my guild. It will be my first raid on any of my toons. Good healers are in high demand. Once I get a few raid achievements under my belt I will be able to do a lot more raiding.

I have hit crits as high as 14k on heals and that was when I was still level 76 so I am getting there. My HoT's are ticking over 1400 every 3 seconds now and I was able to heal a Druid tank through one of the bosses in Gundrak tonight using only HoT's. That was a good tank though, there are some tanks that I have to throw everything but a medic at just to keep alive. Healing a tank like that is exhausting.

My top priority now will be getting geared. I need to start looking at gear with mana regeneration (MP5) on it so I don't run out during long fights, or with tanks that are in a hurry and don't give me time to drink. I had my share of those tonight.

I should be 80 this weekend and I can start doing random heroics to get badges for gear. Hopefully I will be able to get a few pieces of gear before the raid on Wednesday.

Brieonna - Level 75 Holy Priest

One thing I have very little tolerance for is people who queue for dungeons but don't have enough time to do them. They then expect everyone else to rush through the dungeon so they can finish it before they have to leave. My philosophy on that is, if you don't have enough time to do the dungeon correctly, don't queue. I am sick and tired of rushing through dungeons, not being able to loot because the tank is already attacking the next mobs, and wiping because we are moving too fast.

I just now bailed on a group of those people. There were 3 from the same server who figured they were going to do a "power run" through Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom. I said at the start, as we sprinted from zoning in to the first mob, that I wasn't buffed and neither was anyone else, are we in a hurry? The reply was yes. After I died because the tank was pulling way more than he could hold aggro on, I told them good luck with that and left. I will take the 30 minute debuff rather than die repeatedly, try to sip mana whenever I am out of combat for a few seconds and not be able to loot.

That makes 3 groups I have bailed on in The Old Kingdom tonight. The other 2 were a bad tank that couldn't hold aggro on anything, and another group where everyone was pulling. Either way it adds up to me dying a lot and it is just not worth it and I'm not going to waste my time. If the tank can't hold aggro, or you get a hunter that pulls then feigns death, or a rogue that pulls then vanishes, it is the healer the mobs go for.

I did have some good groups today though. You can tell a good group by the fact that the tank is the only one pulling, the tank is the only one taking damage for the most part, and I am not dead. I have an ability called fade where I can fade out and drop aggro if something comes after me but it has a cooldown so I can't keep spamming it in the case of a bad tank or everyone pulling then dropping aggro.

I did manage to get Brieonna to level 75 though, only 5 more levels to 80.

Brieonna - Level 74 Holy Priest

Brieonna is level 74 now and still doing dungeons. I am up to Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom now. I have a bit of variety of dungeons I queue into now so it is not as boring as when I was stuck just doing Utgarde Keep.

I win new gear almost every day, on rolls, and have been upgrading as I go along. I am usually the best geared person in the group with the exception of level 80's that sometimes end up in our groups. I was better geared than our level 77 tank we had tonight.

I only had one really bad run tonight and that was with a Warrior tank. I could not keep him alive no matter what I did. As usual I felt like it was my fault. Eventually he was kicked from the group and the rest of the group told me there was nothing wrong with my heals, it was the tank. He had a pretty good gearscore so he either wasn't in the right gear or he wasn't using the right spec, either way he was taking massive damage fast and dying quicker than I could cast. Usually when that happens we all die and this was no exception. We got another tank in and it was a breeze from there on out.

The only quests I have been doing lately are dungeon quests and they pay some pretty good gold. I really need to start doing more questing or I am not going to have reputation with anyone when I hit level 80.

Brieonna - Level 71 Holy Priest

I was hoping when I got Brieonna to level 71 I would stop doing Utgarde Keep and move onto other dungeons.

I did get another dungeon to do, the Nexus, but I am still doing the majority of my dungeon runs through Utgarde Keep. It is getting a lot better, I have had a lot more luck grouping with competent players but it is just getting old. I want some different scenery. I did 2 runs through the Nexus and that was great. I got a nice wand and a nice pair of boots from there. I was the only caster so I didn't have any competition for them.

I am still questing in Borean Tundra between dungeons but I have really slowed down, burning out a little. I need to get on my 80's and do some daily's so I can get some gold together for 300 riding skill for Brieonna and the Tome of Cold Weather Flight for Breeonna so she will be able to fly when she gets to Northrend. Being able to fly as soon as you get there makes questing and leveling go so much faster.

Brieonna - Level 70 Holy Priest

Brieonna is level 70 now and questing in Northrend.

I have been doing some of the Northrend dungeons too. Well, only one really, Utgarde Keep. The first run I had through there was great, we didn't have any problems and I didn't lose anyone until the very end where I ended up dying. Everyone said the last boss is really tough to heal and he is, he has this staggering smash thing he does that really deals out a lot of damage if the tank does not have him turned away from everyone. We had a Pally tank in that group.

After that I ended up in groups with one DK tank after another. None of which could hold aggro, all of which were losing about 3/4 of their HP every hit. It is hard to keep them alive when they take damage so fast and you are also trying to keep everyone else alive because they can't hold aggro. I ended up bailing on a couple groups.

We had one really bad run today in UK, it wasn't the tanks fault, we had a Pally tank and he was doing a good job. It was this Hunters fault. This Hunter, Whinn, from Frostwolf, was pulling mobs. They were the reason our first 3 tanks left, the last tank was putting up with them. They really had no clue what they were doing and it was making everyone's job a lot harder than it had to be. Finally in the end, after everyone told them what they thought of them, they aggro'd the last boss and left group... Good riddance but the boss bugged and we never got to finish. Losers like that shouldn't be allowed to group much less play.

I had another good group after that with a Druid tank and we finished that one out. I was starting to get a complex, from some of the previous groups where I couldn't keep them alive, until I grouped with some guildies and we did a run. It went really well and proved to me that I wasn't the problem.

I have run UK so many times now that I am really looking forward to level 71 in the hopes it will put me into a different dungeon.

Brieonna - Northrend

I got Brieonna to level 68 and can now start questing in Northrend. I got her the Tome of Cold Weather Flight, for 1,000 gold, and she learned that so she can now fly as soon as she gets to Northrend.

I am looking forward to doing the dungeons in Northrend (WotLK). I will not be eligible for the Ice Crown dungeons, Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron or Halls of Reflection, until I do the preliminary quests. I think I will hold off on that for awhile when I am eligible because I don't want to rush right into healing Halls of Reflection.

I had a few runs through Sethekk Halls and I really don't like that place. It is one wipe after another. It seems like everything in there fears, and when they do, people get feared into other groups of mobs and things just get out of hand in a hurry. I will be happy if I never see the inside of that place again.

Brieonna - Level 67 Holy Priest

I got Brieonna up a few more levels, to level 67 now. I am less than 10 bars away from Northrend. I haven't completed any quests except dungeon quests lately, dungeons are all I have been doing.

I have come across a few good DK tanks in the last few days and a lot of bad ones. For the most part it is still my opinion that most DK's can't tank. They can't hold aggro like a Warrior, Pally, or Druid tank can. That is most of them, not all of them. There have been a few that held aggro great and it was a pleasure to heal them.

When a tank can't hold aggro it makes my job a lot harder. Instead of just keeping the tank healed, which I usually can do using only HoT's, I end up having to spam heal the entire group every battle. It is tedious and nerve wracking. Usually those tanks aren't very well geared either so they take a lot of healing too.

I am up to, and have completed, Sethekk Halls. That is the last one I did tonight and it was brutal. It seems like you can not do a normal pull in there, the tank tries for a small pull and ends up with half the room. It seems like everything fears too. I put fear ward on the tank when it wasn't on cool down but others ended up getting feared into other groups of mobs and it was just brutal. We finally did complete it though and I got a nice cape off the second boss. I can't wear it for one more level but I enchanted it and it is ready to go. My gearscore is up to 1905 now and my HoT's tick for around 800 every 3 seconds.

I got a nice pair of pants from a quest I turned in from Mana Tombs which I was able to put 3 +19 Spellpower gems in, that brought my spellpower up nicely.

I will be in Northrend tomorrow, I just don't have the energy to get the last 10 bars tonight, and I will be into a whole new set of dungeons there.

Brieonna - Level 63 Holy Priest

Brieonna is level 63 now, 5 levels away from Northrend. I just haven't had the motivation to level her as much lately so it is slowing down.

I have been doing more questing than dungeons lately. I am finding that the people in the dungeons at this low Outlands level are not really geared enough to handle it, they are mostly still wearing Pre-BC gear and it doesn't help. It seems like a lot of these people have waited until Outlands to start doing dungeons too, they don't seem to be very experienced. The dungeons I have been in haven't been too bad though, just a little harder than they should be I think.

I am questing in Terokkar Forest now and getting good XP there. While I am there I will quest in Bone Wastes then move on to Nagrand, which is where I will probably hit 68 and head off to Northrend. It won't be long now.

Brieonna - Level 58 Holy Priest

I got Brieonna to level 58 tonight and am now in Outlands. The first thing I did when I hit 58 was abandon all my quests in Azeroth, I won't be needing them anymore.

I did some daily's on Brieanna tonight to get some gold together for Brieonna's 225 riding skill and mount. Ever since I got hacked I don't keep a lot of gold on hand, I earn it as I need it. Blizzard restored all my gold, with the exception of 1,500, but if I get hacked again I don't want them getting any gold, or very little.

I grabbed a few quests when I got to Outlands but haven't started to do any yet. I am not sure which dungeons I will be queuing into there, the top end Pre-BC ones or the BC ones. It really doesn't make a difference, there is good XP to be had in both.

I did a few runs in Lower Blackrock Spire tonight. Some were good, one was not. In one of them we had a Pally tank that could not hold aggro. On anything. I came into that one in progress, their healer had left. It didn't take me long to realize why. In the first fight I was the first to die. I threw a HoT (Heal over Time) onto the tank, a very low level, low threat heal, and all the mobs came off him and right over to me. He had no threat, he couldn't hold aggro. Usually in a wipe the tank is the first one to die. I went through 2 wipes with that group, which were only 2 fights, same mobs, before I bailed. In both wipes the tank was the last one to die, what does that tell you? They weren't interested in him at all, the tank, the guy that is supposed to be holding aggro...

I did have a couple good groups though, with good tanks and those were a breeze. We got the instance done and I got my achievement.

Brieonna – Level 56 Holy Priest

I got Brieonna to level 56 tonight. I finished up and turned in a couple quests in Un’Goro crater in Kalimdor then headed to Western Plaguelands to quest, and did a couple quests there. I would much rather quest there as it is a lot closer to the trainers when I have to train and a lot closer when I hearth back to Dalaran. When I was questing in Kalimdor it took me 10 minutes, or more, to get back every time I had to train or hearthed for any reason.

I did some random dungeons, I am up to Dire Maul East now. I did 3 runs through Upper City in Blackrock Depths and 2 through Dire Maul East. Those were good for a lot of XP.

I did a Priest quest in Azshara that was part of a chain. The end reward was, I thought, a nice wand. When I checked it against the wand I recently received, as a drop in BRD, it wasn’t as good. The final quest called for me to go into Sunken Temple, which I am kind of past now, so I dropped it. I would have had to queue specifically for that dungeon and it just wasn’t worth it.

I am now less than 2 levels away from Outlands, I am going to have to start doing daily’s again on my 80’s to get some gold for flying lessons and a mount.

Brieonna - Level 54 Holy Priest

Brieonna is level 54 now and I have done very little questing lately. I have been getting all my experience from doing random dungeons. I got 2 1/2 levels today doing them.

I am only 3 1/2 levels away from Outlands now. I am now pretty much only queuing into Blackrock Depths and Sunken Temple, although my days in Sunken Temple might be over now, I queued into BRD the last 5 times I queued. I stayed with one group through 3 runs in there. The part we are queuing into is the prison. The boss in there is not that far in and you can really get it done in 5 minutes or less. What we were doing after that is going through and killing all the other bosses we could kill at our level, spending another hour to an hour and a half in there each time. The XP is incredible doing that and that's how I got my levels and bars. I also got some enchanting mats from disenchanting items so all in all it was definitely worth it.

There is a scheduled shutdown, so after that I will be back to the dungeons and more levels. I hope to have Brieonna in Outlands within the next day or two.

Brieonna - Level 50 Holy Priest

I have been working on Brieonna and got her to level 50 now. I have been doing a combination of questing and random dungeons, mostly random dungeons. In a dungeon it is my job to heal and keep people alive.

I am up to Sunken Temple and Blackrock Depths now. I still have some good groups and some bad groups. I love the good groups and usually bail on the bad groups. I can not believe how under geared some of the "tanks" are that actually have the guts to click on the tank box in the dungeon finder. It takes more than being a plate wearer, or Druid, to be a tank. You have to have some gear and at least a rudimentary clue what you are doing. If you are grossly under geared don't pull 10 times more than you can handle, and if you can't hold aggro, don't pull large groups of mobs, this isn't rocket science people...