You're on notice, Arthas!

Server: Khadgar (US) - PVE
Character: Keleili (80 human priest)
Friends: Katria, Bigswede, Deathsarbs, Olorin (guildies)

Last night, I collected 4 other of my most able-bodied companions...

• Katria, warrior tank
• Bigswede, arcane mage
• Deathsarbs, death knight of blood
• Olórin, retribution paladin (and off-healer)

And with them I, Keleili, discipline priest healer, set my sights on Ice Crown Citadel. This is our story.

Our first challenge met us before we even entered the citadel - finding it. Olorin was familiar with the layout of the icy fortress, but even so, it took a very chaotic 10 minutes for us all to find our way in. This was complicated by a strange realization that Olorin was invisible to the rest of us while right outside the citadel. This is a concept known as phasing, but no one was quite sure what Olo might have done to cause it, since we had all completed all of the missions in the Ice Crown area. We are heroes, after all. Or, as Jaina says, champions. *stands a little straighter*

Once we reached the Frozen Halls, we met up with Jaina in the Forge of Souls. She gave her speech, blah blah blah, then we turned to stare at the pair of 9 foot tall skeleton guards standing a few feet away.

Katria: "Are you guys sure we want to do this on heroic?"
Olorin: "Please, can we change it?"
Me: "I don't mind changing it, but Gimini did it on heroic the first time - I saw her ding the achievements in guild chat last night. And if she can do it, as awesome as she is, I think we can do it, too."
Bigs: "We can do this, guys."
Deathsarbs: "Let's just try it on heroic and if it doesn't work, we can change it to normal."
Katria: "Oooookay.... Olo, you know the fights, right?"
Olorin: "Sort of..."
Katria: "Alright... here goes..."

Katria pulled the skeletons and we burned them down. Afterwards, we stared at the corpses.

Katria: "That was too easy."
Bigswede: "They are just trash."
Katria: "But they are guarding the freaking door. When guards go down that quickly, you begin to suspect a trap."

Not to be dissuaded, we headed into the forge. We found the second pull to be slightly more challenging.

Me: "Wow... I can't remember the last time I actually burned half my mana bar in one pull! This is awesome!"
Bigswede: "I know what you mean, Kel. I haven't used that much mana since I began heroics!"
Me: "Heeheehee - fun!"
Katria: "..."

We pushed on, wiping up glowing skull grenades and taking out two more skeletal guards until we came to a group of 4 necromatic-looking casters and a shade. We paused to let Kat mark.

Bigswede: "I can sheep one."
Me: "I can shackle the shade."
Olorin: "I can cast repentance on one."
Katria: "I really don't like using CC, because then I break it and with my thunderclap, and it's just not pretty. It rarely works.
Me: "It's okay. We can take these guys."
Katria: "Hmm..."
...
Katria: "Who pulled!!"
Deathsarbs: *points at Bigs*
Bigswede: "Wha-at?!"

It was messy, but it worked and no one died. We moved on and shortly after found ourselves facing the first boss. Olo explained the mechanics. Unfortunately, most of our detailed questions were met with, "I'm not sure - I was too busy healing. And it was on normal." Ooooookay, let's just give it a shot.

We did give it a shot. The first time Bronjahm used his Corrupt Souls ability, we were unable to burn down Deathsarbs' "Soul" before it reached Bronjahm.

Katria: "Holy, crap, it healed him back to full!"
Me: "Well, shit."

The second time, Katria was able to kite Bronjahm around in a circle away from the soul and Deathsarbs found that he could ice chain it to the ground. After that, Bronjahm didn't stand a chance.

Me (Yelling): "SOULBOUND ROCKS!"

We continued on to the second boss of the Forge of Souls - the Devourer of Souls. And as we stood there, eyeing the massive floating stone head, I had a vision. In the vison, I was in a different world. I think this world might have been called Final Fantasy II. I was in an underground land of monsters, meeting with the queen of monsters - which of course included a fight to the death. This queen had 3 faces and each time she turned to a new face, she had a different ability. One face could heal, the others could deal damage. Strange...

And why I had that vision as I was staring at a floating head, I don't know. It turns out that my vision was more of a foresight than I realized...

As I came to, I realized that Olorin was talking.

Olorin: "There are two things that you need to know about this guy. First - he's an ugly bastard. And second - he has a retarded voice. You'll understand when you hear it."
Me: "What does he do?"
Olorin: "Oh, right."

Olo explained the fight and we charged in. From the beginning, as the healer, it was not pretty. We had an army of specters coming at us and then people just started taking damage and I couldn't keep up. Afterwards, Katria checked the auto-log of the fight.

Katria: "Well of souls? That's what killed me. It must have been that purple thing on the ground."
Me: "The adds were a pain in the ass, too."
Bigswede: "They weren't adds; they were bombs or something - we couldn't target them."
Me: "Bombs? Hmm... AOE bombs?"
Bigswede: "Dunno..."
Me: "Okay, your healer votes that we spread out, in the case that they are AOEs."
Katria: "Sounds good. And stay out of the purple circles on the ground."

The second time, we wiped the ground with the Devourer's faces - all three of them.

As the Devourer of Souls crashed to the ground, Jaina came running in with reinforcements. She opened a portal and we hopped through, finding ourselves in the Pit of Saron. Ahead of us, there was a massive frostwyrm and some other mobs. And no Jaina.

Bigswede: "She's supposed to be right here."
Me: "Is it having trouble loading? Olo? Where is Jaina supposed to be?"
Olorin: "I... don’t know. I haven't done this wing."

Finally, Katria (I think) discovered that we have to move forward to get Jaina and her reinforcements to come through the portal. When she did, she sent her regiment charging at the dragon, which one-shotted them all. Then it raised them as skeletons and sent them back to us to say hi.

Me: "Oh, shit."
...
Me: "Wow, Jaina might actually do more dps than you, Bigs."

And with that intro, we headed down into the Pit of Saron, knowing that this time we'd have even less guidance since Olorin was as new to the dungeon as the rest of us. There were some sticky but funny moments, and shortly after we started, Deathsarbs had a vision not unlike the one I had before the Devourer of Souls. I heard him say, "Skeletor" and had to laugh.

Me: "What is this, He-man meets Warcraft?"
Someone else: "By the power of Grey-scourge!"

This conversation spiraled down into a discussion another old vision, "Master of the Universe" (classic live-action He-man movie) and then to Beastmaster and finally to why my D&D druid characters always have ferret pets.

Katria: "I love you, Kel."
Me: *blush*

Eventually, we managed to make it to the first boss, Forgemaster Garfrost. Olorin cheated by snagging a short description of the fight from some mysterious source, and so we didn't go in completely blind. Even so, it was a sticky fight. And when we finally downed Garfrost, I had only one observation.

Me: "This line of sight shit SUCKS."

We moved on, rescuing more prisoners.

Deathsarbs: "Eww, the dwarf I just rescued offered to kiss me."
System emote: (Some random prisoner) needs a big man-hug. (If anyone has this actual e-mail, can you pass it to me? It was priceless, but I didn't write it down)
Me: "There totally needs to be an emote for giving "big man-hugs".
Katria: "YES!"
Bigswede: "Hey, guys, we have a friend."

Sure enough, there was a chick running around with us - a female human mage. She was helping us burn down the trash mobs.

Me: "Where the hell'd she come from?"
Katria: "I think she's one of the people we rescued."
Me: "She's wielding an ice pick and shooting magic missiles. Awesome!!!"

Moving on, we found a large flesh golems... 5 or 6 of them in fact. Behind them was Krick and Ick, bosses. Olo began researching them while Kat pulled the trash and we dpsed them down. Deathsarbs took offense to the flesh golems.

Deathsarbs: "He's dragging around a... giant... foot."
Golem: *throws down green nasty stuff*
Deathsarbs: "Ugh, I'm getting nightmare flashbacks of ToC."
Me: "I've never seen one of these guys dragging around a massive foot in ToC."
Deathsarbs: "No, the green stuff!"
Katria: "ToC has poison. This isn't poison. It's bubbling. It's, like, acid."
Deathsarbs: "It hurts!"
Olorin: "Then don't stand in it."
Deathsarbs: "..."
Me: "There's a quote somewhere about how human beings are remarkably creative in coming up with different ways to destroy one another. I think this qualifies."

A little bit later, after we took down Ick, I wiped Deathsarbs' corpse off the floor with a rez.

Deathsarbs: "...creative ways to destroy one another. Right."

As we moved up towards a spiraling pathway that would lead to what Olo warned us was a gauntlet, we realized that one of our long-lost guildies was back on-line.

Deathsarbs: "Yeah, Elzy got the bouquet of white roses that I sent her."
...
Me: "Wait. STOP. DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200."
Deathsarbs: "..."
Me: "You gave Elzy a bouquet of white roses, but you only gave ME a single red one?! YOU ARE SO FIRED!!!"
Katria: *ROFL* "Busted!!!"
Deathsarbs: "...I need to learn to keep my mouth shut..."
Olorin: "Can I take his place?"
Deathsarbs: "No!"
Katria: "The gauntlet has been dropped."
Deathsarbs: "grr... that's it, Olo, after this pull, we are unequiping our weapons and having a smack-down, 1-on-1."

Isn't it fun when the boys start fighting over you?

Anyway, were was I? Oh, right, the gauntlet.

Right before the gauntlet, we got to a pull of 4 melee skeletons and 2 casters. They were all undead, so sheeping (or turtleing, as Bigs corrected us), was out, but Olo and I both offered to repentance and shackle the casters. This allowed Kat to pick up the melee mobs while casters stayed in place and let us CC them. It went... BEAUTIFULLY. I didn't realize how much I had missed using my shackle undead ability. <3!>

My personal opinion was that the gaunt was fun. Not too hard, but challenging enough to keep you on your toes. I enjoyed it. And when we got through the tunnel, we found...

Scourgelord Tyrannus.

Behind us, Martin Victus led the rest of the prisoners that we had rescued into the area.

Deathsarbs: "Reinforcements!"
Me: "Do you remember what happened the last time 25 alliance reinforcements charged Scourgelord Tyrannus? He one-shotted them, then sent them back to us as scourge."

Lucky for us, we got to take on Tyrannus without the help of our friends. The first time was a very quick failure. As we headed back for a second try, Olo explained a new tactic that he had just picked up through his cheating. As we rebuffed...

Deathsarbs: "I want Martin's shield."
Katria: "Holy crap, that is one bad ass shield."
Me: "I don't get it. This is the guy who was leading the prisoners and met up with us still wearing his rags at Gorefrost's forge. How did he get a bad-ass shield like that between then and now?"
Katria: "He's obviously a bad-ass blacksmith."
Me: "...you're right! When he gave us that quest, all the other prisoners were running in to work at the forges. They must have been making all their new gear, including his shield." *pause* "That's some seriously quick work."
Katria: "Remember - this is Warcraft. It only takes like 5 seconds to make a piece of armor."
Me: "Oh. Right."

On the second attempt, using Olo's strategy, we were able to deftly smash the scourgelord's face in. Triumphantly, we headed to the next dungeon...

Only to find ourselves sucked back into the tunnel and dazed while everyone else exploded.

Katria: "What the hell? Why am I stunned?"
*mass of confused muttering and freaking out*
Jaina: "blah, blah, the ice queen is gone, blah blah..."

We realized then that the ice queen was Sindragosa - the Lich King's personal frostwyrm mount. And she had basically done a fly-by ice storm that one shot everyone who wasn't safely inside the tunnel. While Jaina mourned the death of Martin Victus and the rest of the rescued prisoners, we charged on into the Halls of Reflection.

Upon arriving in the Halls of Reflect, Katria verbalized everyone's reaction perfect, and this is a reaction that I think everyone will have upon first stepping into the hall:

Katria: "Ooooooohh..... SHINY!"
Deathsarbs followed up with an equally profound statement: "Holy shit, it's Frostmourne!"

There was a lot of "blah blah blah" between Jaina and Uther - AND I WANT TO KNOW HOW UTHER'S SOUL WAS CAPTURED BY FROSTMOURNE!!!!!!!!

No, actually, it was an awesome scene, and we were all talking excitedly as we listened and read. I won't ruin every one's experience with my own group's suspicions. Eventually:

Me: "Olo? Olo, are you listening? Am I right about that? Are you being quiet because you already know?"
Olo: "Huh? Sorry, you guys were ruining my lore moment, so I put you all on mute."
Me: "..."
Deathsarbs: "Hey, look guys, boss 1 and boss 2."
Katria: "And... trash incoming!"

Moments later, we were all dead. When Olo explained that this fight was supposed to be waves of mobs, according to his cheat-sources, we stepped back in and prepared to give it another shot.

Katria: "Everyone stay back down this hall. I'll pull them back to you."

We did as we were told and when Kat pulled, we backed up further. I was just close enough to see the door slam shut in my face when the event began...

With Kat and Olo on the inside, and Sarbs, Bigs and I locked on the outside.

...oops.

Needless to say, that is one of the funniest wipes I've ever experienced. We laughed so hard we were crying. Hysterically.

The next attempt led us to face the only weakness of the warrior tank. Kat was having trouble picking up agro of the random waves. Kat was getting frustrated, and I don't blame her.

Katria: "Seriously, guys. Do not attack until I get agro. I'm serious."
Deathsarbs: "That was two seriouslies."
Me: "Seriously, don't mess with Kat's seriousness, it's seriously important that you seriously not pick up the adds until she seriously has serious agro. Seriously.
Katria: "Seriously."

In the end, we decided to drop the instance back to normal mode and head in again to get an idea for the fights. We managed to get through the waves and both bosses, then facerolled the third boss before reaching the Lich King. Jaina had a sliver of her life left, trying to beat the Lich King with a stick.

Me: "What... do we do?"
Jaina: *ice blocks the lich king and takes off out the side door."
Deathsarbs: "Run?"
Bigswede: "RUN!"

We ran. Unfortunately some of us (*glare at Sarbs and Olo*) ran too fast, and ended up on the wrong side of the ice wall. Kat, Bigs and I took down the adds while the Lich King approached. At each following wall, he got closer. On the third (fourth?) wall, we died.

Ow.

At that point, it was very late in the night, so we called it. But, all in all, I consider last night a very successful experience for all of us. Even if I didn't get any loot. :)

A new look, a new you (er... me)!

Server: Khadgar (US) - PVE
Character: Keleili (80 human priest)
Achievements:

• I am a pilgrim!
• I have completed 500 daily quests and earned 500 dungeon/raid emblems
• Salt and Pepper (10-man)
• Explored Darkshore
• Timear Foresees (All the normal daily dungeon quests)
• I Cleared the Antichamber and Siege area of Ulduar and have earned assorted achievements there-of (10-man Ulduar)
• Fishing Grandmaster (and Skills to Pay the Bills)

That's, of course, the short list. I know I have been slacking on the updates. So, let's see... where to start?

I've continued to raid as much as possible. This week, I was able to down Onyxia in both 10-man and 25-man style. I didn't get any loot, but that's okay - I did get emblems which I am saving for my T9.5 piece.

I also got into an Ulduar 10-man group which went really well! We made it all the way to Freya in one night. That's right, we downed 7 bosses: Flame Leviathan, Razorscale, Ignis, Crybaby (XT-002), Kologarn, Assembly of Iron, and Aurelia. We wiped a couple times on Freya before calling it a night. Pretty perfect, right? Well... almost...

I got the feeling that the other healer (a druid, who happened to be the raid leader's wife) didn't think much of my healing. I don't know why, I just... I don't know. She was nice, but... eh. Anyway, afterward, the raid leader said that he would send out calendar invites for another attempt to finish up Ulduar later that weekend. And, just as I suspected, I never got an invite. That's kind of a bummer, but oh, well. I believe that I did well, so I'm happy.

I also got into a 10-man ToC, and this one ran smoothly and quickly. Yay! I did not, however, find a 25-man ToC group this week. Oh, well.

This week was also filled with Pilgrim's Bounty activities. I got my title and my turkey (guess which one I'm more excited about), and ate lots and lots of food. Two of my guildies helped me clear Oculus up through the constructs, which let me finally finish the last of my Timear daily quests. Then I looked at my achievements and... I realized that I don't have the Proof of Demise achievement - I thought I did! :( I'm missing the Gundrak one, but I didn't realize I needed it, or I would have saved it. Ugh. So, now I'm crossing my fingers and praying that Gundrak is a heroic daily sometime before Icecrown Citadel opens - because when it opens, that achievement will be forever out of my grasp. *crosses fingers*

Make New Friends but Keep the Old

A message from the Queen of Kelis!

We'll return you shortly to your scheduled broadcast, but first...

I've noticed lately that a lot of the really nice websites that I grew up with have become... not as familiar to WoW players today. Hmm... this is partly a curiousity, since they are still awesome websites, but partly sad in my mind, as... well, they are still awesome websites. Hmm... Maybe I should start a website about all of the cool websites out there. How redundant would that be?

In the meantime, here are two of my favorites:

The Crafter's Tome

The Crafter's Tome is a great little website that lists all of the recipes available for all of the professions, as well as where to get them, the reagents, and the stats of the resulting product. It is also filterable so you can search for items that fit a certain item slot, for example. Check it out - it's a good reference website!

Wow-Pro

The link I've included goes to Wow-Pro's class guides which, I believe, is the best part of this website. True, wow-pro is the home of Tourguide, which is one of my favorite addons, but if you have the addon, you don't really need the leveling guides that came before (which, I admit, are just as awesome). However, the class guides are phenomenal. Whenever I hear someone asking for help with a new class, I direct them to these guides. They aren't perfect, and they aren't for raiding (at least I don't use them for that), but the leveling guides are made in an easy to read and easier to follow format that allows anyone to get their feet wet playing a brand new class. They are, I think, the perfect starting point.


Those are two of my favorite websites that most people don't know about. What are some of yours?

Becoming a raid pug healer!

Server: Khadgar (US) - PVE
Character: Keleili (80 human priest)
Achievements:

• I cleared ToC10 (healing)!
• I almost cleared ToC25 (healing)!
• I am having fun!!

I haven't updated recently... I guess I should do that, huh?

So, last week, I was able to make another go at ToC.

Wednesday - I got into a great ToC10 group. The leader was amazing and we managed to clear the entire raid without a single wipe. In fact, we only had a couple of deaths. Considering we were 2-healing it, I'd say I was a good healer! And I had a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to joining another group tonight.

Thursday - I actually got into a ToC25 man group on Thursday. We did well, but we didn't have the dps to take Anub down. Oh, well, it was good experience and I got a trophy! Now I have to save up 75 emblems of triumph to get a tier 9.5 piece.

I also got into an Ulduar group, but we didn't get it cleared. Still, I got more experience, so it went well. I'll keep doing it until I get it cleared, just to say that I have cleared it.

...and that's pretty much it. Pilgrim's Bounty began on Sunday. I have finished most of it, but I still need to peg a troll rogue with my turkey shooter, sit down at 2 horde tables, and kill Talon King Ikiss. Then I'll get my turkey! Whoot!

All in all... I'm doing well. I really feel like I've found my sweet spot. ToC10 was... amazing. I was pushed to the challenging edge of my abilities, but I pulled through. Last night, I spoke with a friend on another world, Vanata, and she told me how she got into a ToC10 group for the first time as well. She is a druid healer, and she said that as much as she dislikes raids, she had fun being a highly geared healer and being pushed to the edge of what she can do. That's pretty much it exactly. That's exactly how I feel. So, yeah, I can't wait to get into ToC10 again.

Getting my feet wet

Server: Khadgar (US) - PVE
Character - Keleili

The Plaguechill guild got a server-first on Khadgar this weekend. But since I'm not in Plaguechill, this post is about my personal Kel-firsts that happened. ;)

I decided late last week that I wanted to raid, so I started joining pugs with a vengeance this weekend.

Thursday - I healed 10-man Onyxia. I'd done this raid before, but I did get a nice caster cloak. :)

Friday - In the afternoon, I researched 10-man ToC, and you girls even helped me understand a few confusing fights. But when I got home, I found myself constrained by the curse of "link achievement, or no invite!" *sigh* So, I was invited into a 10-man Ulduar raid instead. Which is fine, except... I stepped into Ulduar and realized that I hadn't bothered to research THOSE fights... I had no idea WTH I was doing! I tried to tell them that I hadn't done this raid before, but then they were getting in vehicles and driving off and leaving me behind and I had to just leap in a vehicle and follow behind and hope that I figured it out as I went. O.O In the end, it was a sort of rough raid, but we managed to take down Flame Leviathan (Shutout) and Razorscale (whom we 1-shotted) before the raid fell apart. Still, I had fun, and I can't wait to go back.

After Ulduar, one of the same raiders invited me to join them for 25-man Naxx, and since I had nothing better to do, I decided to go along. It was... interesting. But mostly because I think most of the raiders were rather drunk (it was late on a Friday night). I did get the achievement for clearing the arachnid quarter (The Arachnid Quarter) and another one because we weren't really strategizing (Momma Said to Knock You Out). After that, it was late and I had to bow out of the raid.

Sunday - In the afternoon, I logged on to immediately hear someone asking for a disc priest for 10-man ToC. Excited, I offered to join and was invited. I flew to the tournament and then realized... that this wasn't ToC. This was ToGC. *Cue me silently FREAKING OUT*. They had already gotten up to the champions the day before, so we started there. I should have backed out of the raid, but I was honestly too busy freaking out to do so. So, we made it through the champions and then the twins. At Anub, they decided to 2-heal it, so they asked me to go shadow. I warned them that I didn't have a gear set for shadow and so I wasn't hit-capped, but they wanted me to dps anyway. So... I tried. Honestly, I tried. In the end, they had to replace me because I was most definitely the weakest link. I bowed out gracefully, but it was still kind of depressing.

After that, I tried to cheer myself up by doing something easier. I joined a 25-man VoA pug, which went okay (Heroic: Koralon the Flame Watcher), then I grouped up with some guildies to 5-man the heroic daily. And in that I learned a valuable lesson. I learned that one of the most important roles of guildies is that when you are feeling down about your abilities in a pugged ToGC raid, they can cheer you up and make you feel like you are a worthwhile healer once more. Seriously - I LOVE MY GUILD.

However, there is one very cool thing about ToGC. When the twins fell, they dropped Enlightenment. And I won it. I, honestly, feel guilty about winning it, especially when some people offered to buy it off me, but... good or bad, I kept it.

TL;DR - I healed a lot of failed pug raids this weekend, including a 10-ToC, which turned out to be ToGC, and they asked me to dps, but I didn't have the gear, so I failed, and they replaced me, which was depressing. Then some guildies ran HHoS with me and made me feel good about my healing abilities again. I <3 my guild.

Circle of Healers (or I can't believe I'm doing this...)

Okay, I give in. I can only hold out for so long.

What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer? Keleili, 80 Human Priest, Disc-specced (on Khadgar!)

What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans) Primarily 5-man heroics, with an occassional 10-man PUG or 25-man Kittenraid.

What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why? Penance. It has no casting time, so in a pinch, I can start healing people immediately. And the 'shwoop' sound is awesome!

What healing spell do you use least for your class and why? Heal and Lesser Heal. Greater Heal & Renew only get used out of combat, when I'm topping people off or healing up the party after a wipe. Flash heal and Penance get used in combat.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why? What Lilitharien said - damage mitigation (in fact, I'm going to agree with her on most of these questions, I'm sure). I much prefer stopping damage before it starts because it makes my life less stressful - I can keep shields up most of the time and not have to feel my blood pressure spike when the damage spikes. Also, PWS is awesome for catching a dpser who takes a little bit of agro/AOE damage. It is instant cast, so I can immediately get back to healing the tank, and I trust it more than a renew in the case that the dps takes a bit more damage (I have no idea if he/she will take more damage than the renew will heal). Throwing a renew on top is just the icing on the cake, but isn't usually necesary if the dps is decently geared/played.

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why? Healing the raid. Not just raids, either. Put me in a 5-man for heroic ToC that is made up entirely of melee dps, and I will cry tears of blood.

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you? Tanks, definitely, but I would even say that I prefer MTs over OTs. I have a habit of shielding anyone who is taking damage, and if I see the MT taking damage when he/she doesn't have the weakened soul debuff, it drives me crazy. That's damage that could have been prevented from ever happening, guys! (To explain, I HATE it when someone else shields my target - it takes away my bonus healing - so I try not to shield a tank unless I know there aren't any disc priests healing them).

What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why? Priest. I've done a little healing on my lvl 70 shammy, and even less healing on my lvl 62 druid, though, so I don't really have enough experience to compare them.

What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why? I tried healing on my shammy during BC, and just couldn't get into it, but that might change later if I gave her another shot. I'm working on getting my druid up to 80 and then will probably go resto with her. But I have no desire to try a holy pally.

What is your worst habit as a healer? Probably that I can zone out if things get boring. If I'm running with a good group and a well-geared tank, I can get bored enough that I zone out and then come back to, "Oh, crap!" To this day, I have never let anyone die, but... *shrugs*

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing? Most of my experience is with 5-mans, but I would have to say that my biggest issue is... the whiner. I can't think of a better name for them. And it's not any one thing that they do that makes me angry, but rather running with them exhausts me and puts me in a bad mood. Let me see if I can come up with some points of distinction for them:

• They usually are not well geared for the instance being run
• They are impatient
• When they type, it's never in complete sentences
• When they type, they rarely say anything that benefits the group/run
• If things don't go the way they want (such as you decide to bow out due to wipes), they beg

I can't describe it better than that right now, but I have come across this type of person so many times and I have seen how they will suck the energy right out of me, and leave me feeling like a raging zombie. In short, not fun.

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing? Yes, and no. In 5-man, I think the class is very well balanced. With the exception of HToC, I have never had trouble healing AOE damage in heroics. In 10- and 25-man raids, the tank & raid healer distinction comes into play. Most raid leaders seem to understand these distinctions, but I've run into problems several times where I am competing with other disc priests for raid spots in PUGs. Disc healing appears (at least on my server) to be more popular than Holy healing, and that is making it difficult. So, it's not exactly a balance issue, but a popularity issue.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer? Honestly, I don't have any. I just heal... and if my target(s) don't die, I have succeeded as a healer.

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class? Hmm... I don't know... in the world of 5-man heroics, I haven't come up against many true misconceptions. I guess sometimes I have to explain to tanks in heroics that I heal partly through mitigation, and that I'd rather shield them before they pull than heal them after.

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn? For me, when I hit 80, the challenge was grasping what gear I needed and what stats I wanted. Disc priests are unique enough that what is right for just about every other healer might not be right for disc priests (gear-wise).

If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see (i.e. lots of overhealing, low healing output, etc)? Low healing output, most likely, because I don't think recount has figured out how to measure damage absorbed by PWS as healing - has it?

Haste or Crit and why? Crit crit crit crit. I've actually just started adding some haste to my gear, but I prefer crit over haste when I'm given the choice. Why? Of my three most commonly used spells (penance, flash heal, PWS), only 1 has a casting time. But all three have added benefits when they crit.

What healing class do you feel you understand least? Hmm... druid, I think. Despite the fact that I have a druid and have no wish to play a pally, druids are almost as different from priests as you can get, and I haven't actually started healing on my druid.

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing? VuhDo is <3!!!>

Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why? I'm at a point where I can finally start tweaking my gear based on what I need. I can't remember the last time I went OOM, so I've started to sacrifice MP5 for spellpower/crit. I'm also starting to add haste to my gear, though it's a slow process because I'm not willing to sacrifice much crit (or any SP) for the added haste.

PUGs and Laziness

Server: Khadgar (US) - PVE
Character: Keleili (80 Draenai Priest)
Others: Keliki (60 Nightelf Druid)
Achievements:

• The Hallowed title
• Chasing Marcia Achievement
• Keliki hit 60!
• Keliki learned her flight form!

On Sunday, I hooked up with a PUG for Heroic Trial of the Champions. It was myself (priest), hunter, pally (tank), mage, and balance druid. Hmm, I thought. Mostly ranged. This should be EZ-mode.

Well, we made it through without any wipes. No wipes, but there were plenty of deaths. The catch is that everyone in the group was VERY well geared. So, what went wrong?

1. No one bothered to mark the champions during the joust. We were all picking on different champions, which allowed the different champions to pick us off one by one. Luckily for us, it's a short flight from the graveyard back into the instance. I was one of the unfortunate many, and I admit it was kind of hysterical to watch me get dismounted by one champion, then immediately trampled by another before I could hit the ground. So, I died and hurried back in, grabbed another mount and made sure to stand on the tauren champion so that he couldn't remount. Even then, with 2 champions left, it took us several minutes to finish them off, leaving me to wonder why. What took us so long?

Then the champion fights began. We were lucky enough to get the troll AND the orc. Joy. However, I took comfort in the fact that we had twice as much ranged as melee. This should be totally easy. Besides, at least we marked them?

2. Then the pally decided not to move the champions out of the poison. *sigh* I healed him through it, but it was close, and the hunter's pet died. Then the mage started taking damage. WTF? looked up from my health bars and realized... the mage was standing in poison. Just... standing there... casting. Not bothering to move. Hellooooooooo?! I almost let her die - because my priority is keeping the tank up. But she survived. (Darn.) Then the hunter started taking damage. When I realized that HE was standing in the poison - not bothering to get out of it - I actually had to do a double take and make sure this was the hunter and not the mage. Surely I wouldn't have 2 stupid people in one PUG? I know, I know, that's a silly thing to ask, but if you are geared enough to kick butt in H ToC, then one would assume that you know how to handle the fights? Again, I almost let him die, healing the pally first (because, of course, the pally is still standing in the poison), but the hunter lived, as well.

So, while we finished the champions without anyone except the hunter's pet dying, I was left exhausted and... baffled. Did I have party members who were being totally lazy or did they seriously not know how to handle the fights? The problem is that I can't imagine how they could not know. I mean for one thing, if you have DBM, it screams at you - "POISON! MOVE YOUR ASS NOW!" How can you miss that? And for another thing, if you are watching your screen at all, you should notice that there is a BIG GREEN BLOB at your feet. In what universe does BIG GREEN BLOB = HAPPY BUNNY LAND?

So, why, you ask, does it matter whether my party members were stupid or lazy? Because, I have to admit, that it actually makes me angrier to think that they must have been lazy. Being lazy means intentionally making me work harder. Yes, I am well geared. Yes, I *can* heal you through it. But comparing the effort it takes me to heal you through it vs. the effort it takes you to MOVE... let's re-evaluate this, shall we? >.<

I'm not spitting mad or anything, but I admit to being slightly annoyed. Rude people tend to annoy me, and the way I see it, the only explanation can be that my party was being lazy and inconsiderate and rude. Of course, it didn't end there.

3) Luckily for us, we got Eadric. EZ-mode, right? So, why, pray-tell, were my party members getting stunned by Eadric's flash of light? How hard is it to turn around during that attack? Honestly? Every single flash caught at least 2 people stunned. Honestly? *facepalm*

4) Do you think the Black Knight would have gone any better? Hah, you'd be wrong. Phase 2 was a nightmare. I don't think there was any AOE, which is strange considering we had a hunter, a mage, a balance druid and a pally. O.o I spent the entire time getting ganked by ghouls with my fade on cooldown (because I was using it every chance I had), and the rest of the party was equally fighting off ghouls one by one. ONE BY ONE. It was so bad, that there were so many ghouls left that the BK couldn't explode them all, leaving one to continue to beat on ME (ME! THE HEALER!) during Phase 3. Did anyone bother to take it off me? No. When the BK went down (miraculously, with only 1 death), I was still getting beat on by that ghoul while the party looted the BK. *facepalm*

I left the group feeling stressed, exhausted and... baffled. What was up with those people? Did they think it was funny? Were they so confident in their leet abilities that they could be lazy and let the healer take all the stress? The thing is, the people were nice. But the way they played their classes and the way they handled the fights... I was not impressed.

The lesson to take away is this - please. On behalf of all of the healers out there. DON'T BE LAZY! Unless you know the healer and have made arrangements with him/her ahead of time, don't assume that leet gear overrides proper playing tactics!!

Halloween and the RNG of FAIL. :(

Server: Khadgar (US) - PVE
Character: Keleili (80 Draenai priest)
Accomplishments:

• Masquerade and all basic Halloween achievements EXCEPT the sinister one
• Some exploration
• Some PVP
• A couple new pets

It's been almost a week of Halloween celebrations, and I'm beginning to get worried that I won't get my title. I have done everything else, but I cannot seem to find the hallowed hood, or whatever it's called. I have never even seen the thing drop. I've killed the headless horseman every day, and I've trick-or-treated every hour. I've even gone back to do the Saving Halloween quests every day because there's a chance that those rewards can drop it. Nothing. I don't even know what it looks like, and I only have one more week to see it drop and then win it. *sigh* I see other people in the guild get everything they need and I try oh-so-hard to be excited for them, but why-oh-why does the RNG hate me so?!

Meanwhile, I had a frustrating experience with the Headless Horseman when I was running with friends, so I'm only running it with PUGs now. It works better that way - there are no hard feelings if you roll on something that someone else wanted, and you don't have to worry about never having it out when they are around (because it's likely that you'll never seen them again).

My other issue with Halloween is... the candy. WHY is there SO FREAKING MUCH OF IT?! I mean, seriously, I must have collected almost 100 of each type of candy from Trick-or-Treating around Azeroth, and when I kill the headless horseman, I get 100 pieces of tricky treats every day. Then when you add in the wands and the broom (WHY isn't it a proper mount like everything else?!), you can find yourself spending almost 15 slots of space in your bags on halloween stuff. My off-set gear doesn't even take up that much space!!! It's rediculous, honestly.

My bank isn't looking much better. I'm going to have to totally clean it out one of these days. But every time I try to, I... ugh... I look at things and go, "What if I need this some day?!" And then there's the holiday stuff that I've been saving from previous years, the Naaru know why. I have preserved holly and valentines and fireworks... And, yeah, 3 masks. Because I have to collect 30-some-odd masks to get the major mask achievement, and that's going to take me several years.

I guess that's my mission this weekend. Spring cleaning of the bank. Possible tactics include:

• Turn all of my cloth (I have 1 stack of each type) into bolts. Buy enough cloth to make a stack of 20 bolts of each type, then sell the rest. Don't keep any more than 1 stack of bolts of cloth of each type. That should be plenty to make something for a lowby if I need to. This will help condense things, because I currently have a stack of bolts and a stack of cloth for each type.
• Get rid of stuff that I don't *have* to have for events. Used valentines tokens? Gone. Fireworks? Do I really need those? Well, I could use them at guild events... OMG, I'm such a packrat! No! Get rid of them!!
• Cooking materials for anything less than Northrend recipes. I've gotten credit for the recipes, not get rid of the food.
• Old gear (like, from Kara). GET RID OF IT!

This isn't going to be pretty. I need to use the "if I haven't touched this in 1 year, I will never again touch it, so make it go away" philosophy. Wish me luck?

Keleili, Dragon-killer

Server: Khadgar (US) - PVE
Author: Keleili (80 Draenai Priest)
Other characters: The twins! (36 Bloodelf hunter & priest)
Achievements: (Where do I begin?)

• I'm a brewmaster!
• I have a dragon!
• I am *this* *close* to becoming a crusader!
• I am a Northrend Dungeonmaster!
• I am a Northrend Dungeon Hero!
• I am a Northrend Dungeon Hero Healer! (Okay, that's not a real achievement, but still...)
• I have killed Onyxia!
• I have killed Taerar!
• I am geared well enough to heal 25-man Naxx!!!!!!!! O.O O.O O.O
• The twins are now lvl 36!

Okay! So, a lot of stuff has happened. XD I better try to organize it.

Brewfest!

I completed all of the Brewfest achievements, and have successfully become a brewmaster! Unfortunately, I still have not seen either of the brewfest mounts drop from direbrew, which makes me sad. I shall continue to kill the evil little munchkin until he gives me my mounts or Saturday rolls around and Brewfest ends, whichever comes first. -.-

Dragonlover!

On Friday, I healed a timed run through the Heroic Caverns of Time: Stratholme. We managed to complete it and I won the reins of the bronze drake! So, now I have a pet dragon! He's so cool! We fly everywhere together.

Heroics AHOY!

On Saturday, I went to a LOT of heroics. LOTS AND LOTS of heroics! Saturday night, I got asked to join a group that was farming badges. We went to MORE heroics! I got the awards for completing every 5-man dungeon in Northrend AND every 5-man heroic dungeon in Northrend. And then I got my wispcloak AND my T8.5 robes!

And then guess what! I glanced at my abilities and realized that I'm actually geared well enough to heal 25-man Naxx!!! This is a big deal!!!

Dragonkiller!

On Sunday, I joined up with a group of strangers intent on killing the black dragon brood mother, Onyxia. We almost didn't do it, but we pulled it off in the end. And I won the roll to take her head! I now have the head of the massive black dragon, Onyxia bouncing around in my bags. Ewww....

Later, I joined some guildies and strangers in taking out Taerar, a dragon that had taken up shop in Twilight Grove in Duskwood. We killed him pretty good. Whoot, the other dragons better watch out - I'm a certified dragon-killer now!

Crusader-to-be!

Lastly, I have been working hard on my valiant quests, and tonight's the night! I shall be getting the last 5 marks that I need to become a champion of Ironforge. Which will make me an exalted champion of Ironforge, a champion of the alliance, and an exalted champion of the alliance! I'll be a crusader!

...and once I'm done, I don't want to see the tournament again for a long time. Like, maybe a week. Except for participating in Trial of the Champion, of course.

I shee pink elekksh... hic!

Server: Khadgar (US) - PVE
Author: Keleili (80 Draenai priest)
Achievements:

• I have a wulpertinger ...hic!
• Uh... I don't remember what elshe ...hic!

Sho, here'sh the deal. I don't usually get drunk ...hic! But itsh a shpecial holiday in Azeroth. It's Brewfesht! And thish holiday comesh with petsh and mountsh, like all the others. ...hic! It ish alsho a requirement for the year-of-holidaysh meta-achievement that Kelidara and I are working on. ...hic! Sho, I've been dutifully getting drunk each day to get the brewfesht coinsh sho that I can dance naked - err, drunk - in Dalaran. I got my wulpertinger, but I have to wait until I shell back my dressh before I get my pink elekk. ...hic! In the mean time, I want to kill Coren Direbrew ash many timesh ash posshible sho I might get one of the mountsh that he dropsh. ...hic! All in all, itsh a fun holiday... hic!

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to play much the pasht few daysh. ...hic! But before that, I ran many inshtances and got much loot. I am now wearing much awshome gear and am hoping to make another attempt at healing Trial of the Champion. ...hic! If I feel comfortable with that, then I can shtart PUGging it and getting even more phat loot. ...hic!

All in all, thingsh are good... but they will be better when I get my pink elekk and a brewfesht mount! ...hic!

Did you know that the mail boxes are refrigerated?

Server: Khadgar (US) - PVE
Author: Keleili (80 Draenai priest)
Achievements:

• I healed ToC!
• I'm an ambassador of the alliance!
• I am an exalted champion of gnomeregan!

Okay, so last night was super busy. Let me give you the lowdown.

I was looking for a group to do something with and got sucked into a PUG for H.CoS which was trying to do the timed run for the drake. I warned them that I didn't know how great my dps was, but they accepted that. Once we got started, however, I was stunned to find that my dps... was actually pretty awesome! The only person who beat me in dps during the boss fights was the DK tank. I really was able to hold my own. :) Unfortunately, we got some unlucky locations of pats during the timed run and then Arthas was being a jerk and taking his sweet ass time getting to the inn where we were to meet him. This meant that we reached the eternal dragonflight boss dude 30 seconds before he had finished his portal, and we couldn't quite get him down in 30 seconds. :( Such a close call. Still, it was an awesome run. Even if I didn't get any loot.

Then I was finishing up my dailies and a ToC run was set up in our guild, so I offered to go along and try to heal, since I'd gotten new loot and upgraded my gems and stuff. It was a very rough attempt, and we wiped once, with several more very close tries. But we did in fact take out the Black Knight and all of the bosses leading up to him. :) This made me a very happy priesty. Of course, I had help - Golaith, our shammy, tossed out various chain heals to give me a boost when I needed it. Unfortunately, I didn't get any loot there, either.

Finally, I ran down to IF to turn in some cloth. I was so close to getting exalted with gnomer, and it turns out that I was closer than I thought. I hit exalted with a single turn in, WHOOOOT!!! Now I am Ambassador Keleili! XD

And that's about it. Oh, after that I wanted to show my guildies how much I loved them, so I made the trek down to the racing track in 1000 needles and bought them all ice cream. I tried to wrap it, but it wouldn't let me wrap anything that can be stacked, which is stupid if you ask me. Instead, I just sent the ice cream to all of the guildies who were online through the mail - and I'm told it made it without melting. Yay for refrigerated mailboxes!!

Guilds and Lulls - the good, bad & ugly.

Server: Khadgar (US) - PVE
Author: Keleili (80 Draenai Priest)
Achievements:

• Uh... nothing?
• Oh, I became an argent champion for the gnomes.

So, my world has kind of hit a lull. Part of it is because in another world, another part of my consciousness is busy doing other things.

I started getting a little frustrated with gear, so I made a nice spreadsheet of all the gear that I need and where I can find it. And then I got stuck in several days of accomplishing nothing while my alter-ego took night classes and exams and stuff. Yuck. I did, however, keep up on the argent champion dailies and I finished all the dailies needed to become a champion for the gnomes. Do you know what that means? It means that I was able to turn in all the tokens to get extra rep for Gnomer, knocking me to 1500 rep away from exalted with gnomer. That means I'm only 2 days of argent tournament dailies away from:

• Exalted with Gnomer
• Exalted with all of the alliance race factions
• An Exalted champion for Gnomer

Wow... so, yeah, hopefully I'll get that tomorrow. Meanwhile, I am working on the Darnassus valiant quests. Then I just have dwarves and humans. In 2 weeks, I will be an exalted argent champion.

In the mean time, I was working on those dailies yesterday, when I commented to my guildies that I was planning on digging up some PUGs to make a run through HCoS. And I got like 3 replies back to back of "I'll go with you," and "Hey, just let me know, I'll go." Awww, shucks. :)

So, that's the goal tonight. If we can't hit CoS, then I'll find a PUG for it, because that's where most of my upgrades are.

On Mounts and Epic Mounts... and tank'n'spankin'.

Server: Khadgar (US) - PVE
Author: Kelidara (80 Human Deathknight)
Other Characters: Keleili (80 Draenai Priest), Kelidin (1 Dwarf Priest bank alt)
Friends: Olorin (80 Human Priest), Morganaa (80 Human Deathknight)
Achievements:

• Keleili learned Artisan Riding!
• Keleili gained Exalted Rep with Ironforge and Stormwind!
• Keleili gained achievements for Lots-O-Mounts and Lots-O-Pets!

So, I'm sure you are asking - if this post is about Keleili, then why is Kelidara writing it? And so I shall answer - because Keleili is too busy riding around on her new epic mount to stop and write an update post!

Kel has been very busy the past several days. She quested through about half of Ice Crown and got a good start on the Argent Tournament champion dailies. Then this weekend, she decided to take a detour and work on her reps with the dwarves and the humans. It didn't take her too long actually - mostly because she was already well into revered with Ironforge, and her Stormwind rep was a hair from exalted already. It would have taken me a lot longer to get to exalted. So, then Kel decided to get all of the mounts available to her - all of the cats, all of the horses, all of the rams and all of the elleks. This gave her the "filling up the barn" achievement, which is cool, although I don't understand why people have this obsession with mounts. I mean, you can only ride one at a time, can't you?

Anyway, Kel also lucked out when she discovered that the epic flight trainer in Valgarde Keep is alligned with the Alliance Vangarde, so she got a discount based on her rep with them. It only cost her 4250g to learn her artisan flight. Then she spent the rest of her money getting all of the griffons and making herself a magnificent flying rug. Again, I ask - what is this obsession with mounts?

At any rate, Kel has also been spending time healing all sorts of instances, most of which have been of the heroic variety. I'm so proud of my sister. I, however, had the chance to tank a Trials of the Champions (normal) run last night and I learned something vital... Well, 2 things.

1. I am not a good tank.

2. I don't really like tanking.

Go figure. I think I'll let Keleili stick with the social calls in our guild.

P.S. Kel did get a new dress, which looks super sexy on her. I'm not jealous. Really, I'm not.

Mommy, WoW! I'm a big girl now!

Server: Khadgar (US) - PVE
Author: Keleili (80 draenai priest)
Other Characters: Kelidara (80 human deathknight), Kelidin (1 dwarf paladin bank alt)
Achievements:

• Whoot - level 80!
• Um... level 80!
• Did I mention that I hit level 80?
• I healed Halls of Lightning, and dps'd Halls of Lightning
• Oh! I hit level 80!

Yes, I have reached that precipice of training that every man and woman of the alliance or horde dreams of. I have hit the 80th season of my adventures. I have trained for the last time (until my trainers release new seasons in some distant future, that is). I have wiped my experience bar clean.

The last time I did this, at level 70, before the attack on Northrend, I was all aflutter, not knowing what to expect, what to do. This time, I am a bit more confident. Confident at healing and confident at being max-leveled. So, here are my plans:

1. Keep questing

• I need to finish Storm Peaks and do all of the Ice Crown quests
• These quests will give me much more gold in place of experience - yay!
• These quests will also help by giving me rep - yay!
• And, of course, these quests will help me unravel the story of Northrend and the Lich King - yay!

2. Get my epic flying mount

• I need 5000g to train, and I have 2500g
• Quests and herbalism will help me earn the rest of it
• I need to decide whether I want to buy an epic griffon or craft an epic flying rug. Hmm...

3. Get my moonshroud robes. I have a specific plan of attack for this:

• I have 6 pieces of moonshroud currently
• My ebonshroud and spellshroud cooldowns are up tonight.
• I will make moonshroud, ebonshroud and spellshroud until I have 12 pieces of moonshroud
• (12 moonshroud needed - 6 moonshroud currently on hand) / 2 moonshroud per crafting = 3 moonshroud crafting cooldowns * 4 days per coolday = 12 days til I have the moonshroud I need
• Also: 3 moonshroud craftings + 4 ebonshroud craftings (including tonight) + 4 spellshroud craftings (including tonight) = 11 tailoring skill points
• I am currently at tailoring 429. 429 + 11 = 440. I need a tailoring skill of 440 to learn to make the moonshroud robes. WHOOT!
• If I do not get 11 points from the shrouds, I will make frostweave bags for the extra points.
• Meanwhile...
• At tailoring 435, I will learn to make moonshroud gloves and make them (using 4 moonshroud)
• Then at tailoring 440, I will learn to make moonshroud robes and make them (using 8 moonshroud)
• The only thing I'll have to buy will be frozen orbs! And then I'll have 2 of my best epic pieces (and be very close to ready to run heroics!)

After that, my plan is simple:

• Run instances for loot.
• Run heroics for more loot.
• Be an awesome healer. \o/

Rising in the Ranks

Server: Khadgar (US) - PVE
Author: Keleili (77 Bloodelf Priest)
Other characters: Kelidin (1 dwarven paladin bank alt)
Achievements:

• I gained 3 levels, going from 74 to 77.
• I earned the achievement, "Veteran of the Wrathgate" and then helped conquer Undercity (twice)
• I finished questing in Howling Fjord and Dragonblight, gaining both achievements
• I started questing in Zul'Drak and Shalazar Basin
• I attempted to heal a guild-run through Oculus. We failed, but not until the third boss.
• I earned almost 1000g towards my epic flying mount

So, it was a very busy weekend. One of my guildmates, Nasisah, challenged me to a race to level 80, which I accepted. It was good, too, because it got me out of my sticking point and I'm now on a roll.

There's not a whole lot to talk about...

I haven't had a whole lot of luck earning money. Our enchanting friend has disappeared recently, so I haven't been able to get my items DEed, and I haven't gotten many greens to DE to begin with. Without infinite dust, I've been unable to make my tailoring items to sell. And herbalism has been mediocre in making money, but thankfully I'll be moving into the areas of higher level herbs soon, so that should improve.

I'm starting to think about gear that I'll need when I hit 80, so that's a challenge.

I was invited to join some guildies in an Oculus run, which turned out badly, but we did okay until the third boss, and afterwards our tank complimented my healing. Considering how underpowered I was for the instance, that was nice.

So, now, confession time...

The truth is that I'm kind of dreading level 80 as much as I'm looking forward to it. :( Why, you ask? Because I am not looking forward to the repetitiveness of the dailies. *sighs* I can only hope that if I run enough instances as a healer, I can get rep that way and hopefully gear, too. *crosses fingers*

I can fly, I can fly, I can fly... in Northrend!

Server: Khadgar (US) - PVE
Author: Keleili (74 Draenai Priest)
Other characters: Kelidin (1 Dwarven Paladin Bank alt), Kelidara (80 Human deathknight)
Achievements:

• Nothing special...... YET!
• Except... I made my first two pieces of Moonshroud?
• And I visited the Wyrmrest temple for the first time!

So, last night I diligently quested throughout the northwestern part of Howling Fjord. I quested and quested and quested some more. And I got about half a level worth of experience. I should hopefully level tonight. However, I also got a couple hundred gold on my own and I sent all of the flowers that I picked to Kelidin, my broker. She was able to find buyers for most of it last night, including the two pieces of Moonshroud that I made before going to bed. And this morning, when Kelidin checked out her auctions, guess what! Between the two of us, we had over 1000g! In only a day and a half of questing, I'm super impressed! So, Kelidin sent her gold to Kelidara and I sent my gold and Kelidara went to Dalaran and bought this nifty book that will allow me to learn cold-weather flight!

WHOOT! It's in the mail and when I get to the mailbox tonight I'll be able to fly!!!! YAY!!! XD XD XD I still just have my normal flying mount, but that's okay. At this rate, I'll be able to get my epic mount in a week!

Shadowform, shadowform, how I missed thee!

Server: Khadgar (US) - PVE
Author: Keleili (74 Draenai priest)
Other Characters: Kelidara (80 Human deathknight)
Achievements:

• I gained the Dual Specialization achievement!
• I (re)learned Shadowform!
• I got my tailoring to 420!

Greetings. I haven't written in this journal before, so I should properly introduce myself. My name is Keleili. Age-wise, I am one of the oldest of the Kels, having entered the clan shortly after Exodar crashed off of Kalimdor and the dark portal opened to the outlands. I'm not THE oldest, by far, but I've been around the block once or twice. During my time in the outlands, I became a primary healer on our raids into Karazhan. I do love healing. However, when Northrend opened up, I switched back to a shadow specialization in order to continue gaining skills and abilities in the new world.

I came to Khadgar to be with my new sister Kelidara. She has since surpassed me in ability and has become quite a formidable deathknight. In the meantime, I have been spending my time working on my tailoring, with the amazing help of some of my guildmates in Soulbound. Recently, I respecced back to a holy specialization to join my guildmates in a nastalgic run through Karazhan. And I realized that I missed healing. Unfortunately, healing doesn't kill monsters. So, I thought perhaps I would dual-spec so that I could heal AND melt faces. Finally, with Kelidara's help, I was able to do just that.

I am now back in the game, with my soloing shadow build and lots of face-melting shadow power! I didn't get much experience last night, but I did get about 75g in 2 hours of questing. My goal is now to get my cold weather flight training, and Kel has agreed to help me get there by doing her dailies every day. Of course, we both know that we are in debt to Olorin who helped Kel get her stuff, but he keeps saying that he's not in any hurry to get his money back, so we'll be able to pay him back when I can fly around and quest all the faster!

Playing with pretty stones!

Server: Shadow Council (US) - RP
Author: Kelidara (58 Bloodelf Deathknight)
Achievements:

• I can mine all thorium now!
• Journeyman jewelcrafting!
• 600g earned! (flying mount, here I come!)

So, I broke down and did it. I got my mining to 290 (I think) before finally deciding to drop skinning and pick up jewelcrafting. I did sell all of my ore and bars to make sure I'd have enough for my flying mount. Then I started over with basic jewelcrafting.

It started out pretty easy and I got a ton of copper. Now, though, I'm on the tin section, and... ugh. Just... ugh. I'm mining all over 1000 needles and getting copper (which I don't need) and iron (which I can't use yet) and a little bit of tin (which I need both for prospecting and for making bronze bars). *sighs* But I'm determined now, and I must push this through. The good news is that once I get out of tin, I'll have a LOT of iron to work with!

And so far, I've been good. I haven't spent a load of money on ore on the AH, although I am keeping an eye on ore or gems that are super cheap. *nodnods*

So, yeah. That's it in my world. Just mining my brains out and making dinky little mood rings. I'm not even trying to sell them - just sending them to Keleili to DE. And, so far, between her tailoring, my JCing, Kelirien's LWing and our friend Mathras who is taking them through instances, Keleili has managed to level up her enchanting without spending anything on the AH (beyond the required runed bars, etc.). I'd say we're doing alright.

In which Scarlet Commander Mograine drops his pants...

Server: Shadow Council (US) - RP
Author: Kelirien (35 Bloodelf hunter)
Other Characters: Keleili (35 Bloodelf priest)
Friends: Mathras (80 Troll warrior)
Achievements:

• Gnomeregan conquered!
• Keleili and I reached level 30!
• Scarlet Monastery conquered!
• I learned expert skinning!
• Keleili and I reached level 35!

Wow... umm... I can't even remember everything that has happened since we posted last! Mathras has been awesome. :) First, he took us through Gnomeregan twice! Then as soon as we hit level 30, he started taking us through the Scarlet Monastery. Once we finished all four wings, we went back and cleaned out the Cathedral two more times. On the third run, Scarlet Commander Mograine dropped the scarlet mail trousers as loot. And all of the sudden, I heard Mathras screaming, "OMG, he dropped his pants! I can't believe it! He actually dropped his pants!!"

...I knew that trolls had fetishes, but I guess they come in all forms... *inches away from the troll*

So, yeah, Kel and I are at level 35 now and we need to hit level 40 so that Mathras can take us through Uldaman and other cool instances! :) But we're halfway to 60!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, Hi Ho Hum...

Server: Shadow Council (US) - RP
Author: Kelidara (58 Bloodelf Deathknight)
Achievements:

• Artisan Mining!

I had some trouble getting my mining up last night. I was looking for mithril and it felt like I was competing with every other person in Azeroth for it. *sigh* Eventually, I got it, though, and when I could mine truesilver I found several nodes of that to mine and then smelt. I'm now a couple points away from being able to mine small thorium... but I'm thinking of sticking around with mithril for a while. I have heard horror stories about trying to level off of thorium.

To end on a good note, I sent all my loot to my personal banker and this morning, she had already earned 150g from it. That puts me at 350g, more than halfway to my flying mount. Not bad.

Queens of the Razorfen!

Server: Shadow Council (US) - RP
Author: Keleili (25 Bloodelf priest)
Other characters: Kelirien (25 Bloodelf hunter)
Friends: Mathas (80 Troll Warrior)
Achievements:

• My twin and I hit lvl 25!
• I got my enchanting and tailoring to journeyman status!
• We also got the Razorfen Crawl Achievement!

Yesterday was AMAZING! Vanata's friend, Mathas offered to take Kel and I through Razorfen Crawl. He just ran through and slaughtered EVERYTHING and we followed behind picking up the pieces. We learned so much from him, too! And got lots of loot! It was, like, instant education! I've never had so much fun!

Mathas offered to take us through Gnomeregan, too, but he got called away to help his friends conquer heroic Ulduar. *dream sigh* Some day I'll be able to do heroic quests like that.

Afterwards, I took some time and leveled up my tailoring and enchanting. I made good progress, too. I need to nag Kel about working on her Leatherworking tonight.

Brave New World

Server: Shadow Council (US) - RP
Author: Kelirien (22 Bloodelf Hunter)
Other characters: Keleili (22 Bloodelf Priest)
Friends: Vanata (80 Tauran Druid)
Achievements:

• My twin and I hit 22!

Yo. Kelirien, here. Writing from the hot and dusty Barrens. Kel and I just arrived last night, from the Eastern Kingdoms. We flew into Ogrimmar from Undercity, then started picking up quests and flight points. We made our way through the Barrens to Thunderbluff, killed a bunch of boar-like humanoid creatures, and are now stepping into Stonetalon Peaks.

Our mission to gain experience quickly and efficiently was waylaid a little last night when we met up with a new friend, Vanata. She's a druid. A really powerful druid. She even rides a really big armored bear. Kel and I agreed that we need to work even harder at growing so that we can play with Vanata sometime. I wonder if Vanata would be willing to give us a tour of one of these dungeons around here?

There have only been a few other setbacks to our mission. For one, I need to concentrate a little more on my skinning. We keep getting into areas with enemies that I'm not able to skin yet. Of course, skinning's really easy to level, so it's not hard catch up when I need to. The next kink in our mission is the fact that we are following a special guide, but the guide doesn't take into account how adept we are at learning. We're going to outgrow the guide too fast. Oh, well, we'll just play it by ear I guess.

Oh, and btw riding on a hawkstrider is really cool!

To Craft or not to Craft...

...Jewelcraft, that is.

Server: Shadow Council (US) - RP
Author: Kelidara (58 Blood elf death knight)
Achievements of Note:

• Artisan Skinning!

So... I want to craft jewelry. Actually, no. Let me rephrase that. I want to prospect gems out of ore. That's the real reason why I want to be a JC. But... I'm deliberating. I took mining and skinning because I need money for my flying mount - and I'll need money to support my two adopted blood elf twins. So... argh. I can't decide.

Option 1: Keep skinning and mining forever.

Pros:

• I can sell ore and bars and get lots of money!
• I can save the old world leather (since it doesn't sell for much) and give it to Kelirien for LWing.
• It's probable that the Outlands and Northrend leather will sell for a decent amount.
• I gain crit chance and stamina from the two professions

Cons:

• Booooooooooring.
• Nothing for me (except money)!

Option 2: Get Mining (and Skinning) to 300 and get enough money for flying mount, then drop Skinning for JCing

Pros:

• I still get to sell the ore and bars for money and get my flying mount.
• I still get to send my old world leather to Kelirien for LWing.
• Prospecting! (eventually)
• I can make jewelry for the twins (and me!)
• I can send extra jewelry to Keleili to DE for her enchanting

Cons:

• I have to go back and mine Copper --> Thorium again to level up JCing
• This puts off my arrival in the Outlands
• JCing WILL cost some money
• Is JCing viable in Northrend? (armor with gem slots aren't as common)

Option 3: Drop skinning NOW and pick up JCing

Pros:

• Don't have to backtrack as much to mine for JCing
• Prospecting (NOW)!
• Get to Outlands sooner (than option 2)
• Make jewelry for myself and the twins
• Send extra jewelry to Keleili for (eventual) DEing for her enchanting

Cons:

• Will cost money
• Won't get money from selling ore and bars
• Won't get any more leather for Kelirien's LWing
• Is JC viable in Northrend?

The Blood Elf Intern Program

Server: Shadow Council (US) - RP
Author: Kelidara (58 Blood Elf Death Knight)
Other Clan members: Kelirien (20 Blood Elf Hunter); Keleili (20 Blood Elf Priest)
Achievements of note:

• Kelirien and Keleili both hit lvl 20; got their Hawkstrider mounts
• I reached Expert level in both Skinning and Mining.

"For ONLY a gold a day, you can sponsor a young Blood Elf as they step out into the great wide yonder!"

Only a gold a day? Pft. Alright, sure. Why not? Heck, I'll sponsor 2!

My name is Kelidara, but I'm usually referred to as K2. Why? Well, it's kind of complicated. Suffice it to say that through some distant portal in some distant world, I have a twin. Of sorts. I've never met her, but I know she's there, because everyone refers to me as the second.

Anyway, back on topic. I'm a Blood Elf and a Death Knight. Fun times, right? Yeah, sure. So, we just finished taking back Acherus and now I'm off to make a name for myself... no pun intended... ^^; I got wind of a pair of blood elf girls, twins, who needed a sponsor. Someone to support them. Sure, why not? I'm just here grinding ore and leather. Why not? I've never met them, but I get letters from them, with pictures of their adventures. The hunter's name is Kelirien. Her sister, the priestess, is Keleili. They are both level 20 now, and they have just gotten their very own hawkstrider mounts. Hmm... I'd say that I remember being that young, but the truth is... I don't. Sometimes I feel as though I was born a level 55 death knight.

So, yeah, this is my introduction post, I guess. Hi.