My World of Warcraft journey continues to be fun. My druid is ilvl 860 and equipped for Mythic +4 (that is where my confidence stands) as a healer – I still don’t know the fastest routes through a lot of the instances to feel comfortable tanking. My tanking set is, of course 859 with the synergies that now exist in gear and while I have done a Mythic +2 as a tank it was in a guild group – so I had a lot more confidence that I could be carried through it. I did fine, and as I practice more I am sure I will end up tanking more often. It wasn’t my keystone and I wasn’t prepared to screw that up for someone.
Leather Fetish
As the title of this piece indicates I recognized that I had this. With my main on cruise control, and my Rogue also in maintenance mode I started looking at a yet another alt to bring to 110. My two favored choices were Monk and Demon Hunter because I wanted to try something new and I wanted to be able to tank and/or heal – role unity continues to be a pain point with my Rogue. I started with my monk (starting at 40) and realized that if I went that route, I would be staring at the exact same looking gear sets for the journey. Same with the Demon Hunter. That is a clear and large lack of differentiation and I decided I needed to go another way. Back to my Paladin it was. I am also tired of the quest line after two runs through so I decided to test a full XP dungeon run as a leveling opportunity. I have read it wasn’t a thing in Legion, that it isn’t xp efficient. Turns out 25% to 30% of a level at 102 isn’t so bad. I really enjoy 5 mans and zero queue times. I can have my cake and eat it to.
{Filthy} Casual
I joke around here that being a {filthy} casual is my new lot in life and I am fine for it. Maybe even all the better! Then I started paying attention to my gameplay and motivations and realize perhaps I am not all that casual after all. Sure, I am not raiding or tackling top tier content but I am doing things very uncasual-ish (new words for the win) and have very uncasual results. For example:
- Pretty much every 5 man I lead in DPS when playing a DPS character. I push to maximize my output. Often against better geared teammates.
- I have healed the group through damage they should have died through. They say you can’t heal stupid. Seems that isn’t entirely accurate as I have done a lot of it in PUGS.
- I flask, rune, use stat food, etc.
- I read healing, tanking and DPS strategies. Watch videos. Read class forums. Optimize my talents and gear for my favored activities (5 mans)
- When healing, I do DPS when I have excess mana and a safe group. I try to assist on things such as roots on adds. I use my full kit.
- I use cooldowns on trash mobs. Most are 1 to 2 minutes, so why save them for bosses only? You can use them to speed up the run and they are still available for boss.
- I pay attention to DPS, HEAL, interrupt counts, meters etc.
I’m not sure if everyone is doing those things or if it is just the ex-raider in me that pushes that forward. I do do all of that really friendly – I am one of those players that realize everyone is here for fun at their own pace. If I am in a group and someone is pulling terrible DPS I don’t really care – it’s not the end of the world, just 45 minutes of fun if I let it. I realize my own efforts can make up for the lack of someone else’s and hate people calling people out. I haven’t gemmed or enchanted my gear yet but I am replacing pieces daily, so feel like that would be a waste of cash at this point. Maybe that is the one big thing that points to my casual-ness. One of the reason why I run meters is so I can make good decisions. If two people die, who am I using my battle rez on? The 300k dps’er or the 150k?
Pretty Pictures
The world in Legion is beautiful. World designers did a lot of little knick knacks throughout to make it feel believable. From a shoe at the top of a mountain, to beds with night side tables, there is just a lot of lived-in going on. This is the first expansion I have noticed these things, and have taken some shots of things I found that I appreciated. Click on them to make them bigger!
