The Game Dame

My new laptop was getting all grody in my backpack. I would clean the nice shiny black surface and then after putting it in the backpack it would come out all smudgy. The backpack is old and goodness knows what’s flaking off on the innards of it. But it was an expensive Eddie Bauer pack and I didn’t want to spend money on something to tote the laptop in when in all other respects, this is a dang nice backpack. The solution? Slip the laptop into something that will keep the smudges off of it while in the pack. Buy it? No flippin way. I did some measurements and used my late mother-in-law’s extra yarn (she loved blue) to knit up a nice little sleeve for the laptop. Remember, it doesn’t have to function for anything but as a jacket in the pack…

Laptop sleeve album

Is where my Gnaked Gnome race toon finally meets her shadow hero, Ratshag, and he saves her from Scarlet Commander Mograine and where I gets the Hypnotic Blade and Whitemane’s Chapeau which are very phat lewtz even though I cannot wears them for a few levels. Thanks, Ratter!

My new project! The Game Dame’s Shaman Wiki! Inspired by BRK, as usual. I’m gonna start cranking on it, but feel free to join in whenever you want — like now! I’m so excited about it. Let’s get it rockin’ and get the word out there!

Man, I had to make my own research project to figure out what kinds of PvP gear I want to go after! They are available in so many different places and even on the Armory you have to hunt and peck to find ALL of them that might be helpful to you. Of course, I have no idea what adding any of these will do to my stats, except by guessing. Am I making this too complicated?

It’s almost a catch-22: I do horrible in the battlegrounds because my gear sucks, but I can’t get better gear until I win more battlegrounds. And with the high Honor prices of some of these items, how do people really have time to play enough to get them? Especially on Drenden… which seems to have much fewer Horde than Alliance. Maybe it’s time to move Slig again??

Oh, and I joined an Arena team that wants me to switch to Resto. I’m mulling it over. I did get a nice set of healing gear (+949) but all my talents are tilted toward casting DPS.

‘Tis very amusing!

One whole evening questing with Resto spec and I’ve had it. Today I went back to my Elemental spec, at least until I finish up these leftover quests. Not only did it take me FOREVER to kill things, but I guess I just don’t understand the spec well enough because I died A LOT MORE than I did with Elemental. If I stayed Resto, it would take me years to finish off these quests. So I’m going to stay Elemental for a little while longer.

Now, if someone could help me not get pwned in battlegrounds or in world PvP, I’d really appreciate it.

Woot! I did it! Thanks to you guys for helping me out with your comments on the last post. I respecced Resto and I feel all shiny and new now! I’ve got some awesome powers that I’ve never had before and I’m itching to try them out. (Man, I hope I can still fight things with this build. /scared.) I really appreciate all your help. I’m studying Elitist Jerks and also Loot Rank for help with gear next. However, with the loot I already had been saving, I got my bonus healing up to 775 which is higher than it’s ever been by over 200%! So here’s the build for all to see. I’m so nervous and excited! Will let you know how it works out for me. I think there’s a lot of practice in my future. Heh.

So, one question. I now have 3 elemental shields: Water, Earth, and Lightning. I used Water mainly when I was Elemental. Do you mostly use Earth now as Resto?

Respec plan - Click to enlarge

Thanks for the great comments on my last post, everyone! I had been leaning towards resto anyway but you guys helped me feel more confident in the decision. I’ve already mapped out my talent tree and have been spying for new equipment. I feel like I’ll miss my crits and my Elemental Mastery. It will be an interesting adjustment to no longer be the lightning bug. Still, I’ve had experience healing at lower levels and it was fun so I have more confidence in my ability there than to play Enhancement anyway. You can check out my gear on the Armory and if you have any recommendations, let me know. I tried Be.Imba but it keeps giving me an armory error message.) The tricky part is that I haven’t done an instance since… wow, since Blackrock Depths (and I didn’t even finish that one). So I have no idea how I’d get the drop-type gear. Actually, I have no idea how I’d get ANY gear that you can’t purchase. Anyway, just keeping you up to date.

Updated: The Be.Imba report finally came through. It looks like at least I was right-on for leveling and grinding. It also looks like I do need some gear improvements. Okay, a LOT of gear improvements.

So, believe it or not, I leveled Slig as an Elemental spec. I love it. I has WAY too much fun playing with lightning bolts. Unfortunately, though, I’m discovering that at level 70, Elemental is just not very good for PvP (e.g., trying to take Nagrand) and I figure if I’m going to do any instancing, I’ll probably get more invites if I’m Resto. My problem is that for 70 levels I’ve been trained to think in terms of Spell Crit and Spell Damage when choosing gear. I need to start over collecting some gear for the switch in specs. Any advice out there?