…Penance, Power Word: Shield, PvP, and Pwnage.
So I’ve done two things in the past month that I thought I’d never do. I stopped drinking coffee (at least regularly…but black tea ftw), and I have a dedicated PvP toon.
Muriel was my holy priest that was my main alt back in TBC. I used her to heal in Karazhan and Zul’Aman when we were short heals. She also did many heroic runs. I enjoyed her thorougly and after I leveled Jess to 80 and had some extra time I brought Muriel to Northrend. But somewhere around level 73 she stalled out. I leveled holy for a level or two, and then shadow, but could never quite get into it. I still can’t get into shadow. Maybe it’s because I don’t like the new “silly string” version of the mindflay animation. I missed Muriel and envied other priests, but had no desire to level another healer as I am quite content playing a resto shaman as my healer alt right now. However I did find myself fascinated with the new discipline tree. I wanted very much to try it, but I didn’t want to get tied down healing PUGs, and again I had no desire for another 80 healer. The solution? Alterac Valley. There I could heal to my heart’s content but with more flexibility since I could enter or exit a BG whenever I wanted.
So I specced her disc and leveled from 74 to 80 largely from experienced gained in AV. While waiting in the queue I would quest in my smite spec. Like a few other odd priests out there, I have a strange fascination with smite. Healing in a BG is great fun. Before I was never much into PvP. I did some BG with Jess during TBC to get some shoulders, and a decent staff for my frost mage, but that was it. More recently I’ve taken Jess into BGs off and on and I enjoy doing PvP as an arms warrior, and Keredria even talked me into doing arena for the first time the other night (5v5…don’t ask). But lately I’ve been enjoying pissing off Hordies with my little clothy. A disc priest has quick heals, single target and AoE dispels, an AoE fear, and of course bubbles bubbles bubbles. I might even dare to say that I might have gotten a little good at PvP. And it’s interesting to have an alt that is entirely dedicated to PvP. The nice thing about doing non-arena PvP is that I don’t feel that I need to invest quite as much in this toon. Of course I am spending her honor as it accumulates and I have two pieces of the satin Deadly set, but I’m not buying her epic gems, uber enchants, or purples. I haven’t even purchased cold weather flying for her. I only splurged for the dual spec so that she’d have something to do while waiting for another BG.
Oh and I did switch her off-spec back to shadow, just to give it a fair chance should she get a chance to do abysmal DPS in a 5-man guild run sometime. But it’ll just make me sad. WTB glyph so that mindflay looks cool again.
I’ve been raiding on my shadow priest for the last couple months now. My DPS isn’t stellar, but it is steady and solid. I do miss having the burst capability of my rogue and hunter. Once 3.3 hits, though, I’ll be pretty much an unstoppable face-melting machine.
I leveled as Disc, smiting my way through Northrend with reckless abandon. More than once, I scared my roommates with the maniacal giggling that my reflective bubbles would cause, especially when they killed mobs. If I could tolerate PvP for more than a few seconds, I might make a foray into a BG, but, really, PvP is the least interesting aspect of the game for me.
I think I had a point in there, I forgot what it was…
Heh. Well my posts usually don’t have points either.
Yeah it’s not really the viability (or lack thereof) of shadow DPS that is an issue for me. Of tanking, healing, and DPS, the latter has always been my least favorite in a group scenario. But I do usually find that I enjoy DPS leveling, but since 70 shadow just didn’t do it for me. I have nothing against shadow at all…it’s just an issue of personal taste I guess.
Shadow did and still really does nothing for me, as well. I make nice numbers and help with the healing. I really like Disc and originally wanted to be a Disc priest, but my guild needed a good shadow priest more than another mediocre Disc priest, so I respecced. I’m best at DPSing, but I also love tanking. Problem being, I don’t get a lot of practice, so I’m not very good at it.
Ah well, so it goes…
Thanks for the link to my blog, Jessika!
Shadow DPS has never been my cup of tea either (although I am running raids this week just so I know how it works in Wrath; I can’t very well make a comparison if I don’t know how it’s done. Ulduar last night was just as Shadow-frustrating as ever.) Holy DPS definitely has its strengths in PvP, but I otherwise like to Holy heal whenever I can. I Holy DPS/smite because our guild is overflowething with healers!
Hi Kourtnie. Thanks for your comment. I very much enjoy your blog and reading it inspired me to get back into smiting again.
Yay, that’s awesome! That was my second goal for starting the blog! (The first was just to keep track of my own research and progress, hehe.) Glad to know the smite disease is spreading.
[...] extra news: Jessika the Tank has a PvP priest that’s been inspired to smite thanks to the blog. Hurray for another smite [...]