WoWness

I have been rebuilding my empire over on Suramar, Horde side. Of course, if I wanted to get up to level cap and max out all my professions faster, I'd pick up my Alliance toons over on Kael'thas.

But I'm in no hurry.

I have two characters on Suramar that are somewhat special to me: Rysteranch, the Troll Hunter and Daxea, the Blood Elf Priest.

Rysteranch is my very first character. He started out on Spinebreaker with my son and his friend. He's been shuffled around a couple of servers and has finally come to Suramar as a final consolidation of my Horde toons. He just dinged 74 and shares Heirloom equipment with Daxen, my Blood Elf Hunter. This guy is my Skinner/Leatherworker.

Daxea, formerly Daxe, was my Pox Arcanum priest. I've continued to level her as Holy and mostly in instances thanks to the LFG function. I did grab a second spec as Shadow a while back, so that is also an option for playing, although I haven't played it very much. Daxea is 62 and is my Tailor/Enchanter.

As I love to have all the professions covered, I have several characters that I've started the last time I played on this server:

Daxynn, the Blood Elf Paladin is a Miner/Blacksmith. She's level 42 and spec'd for tanking.

Daxen, the Blood Elf Hunter is a Miner/Jewelcrafter. She's level 69, spec'd Beast Master, and just made her way to Northrend. For some reason, I prefer to play her over Rysteranch; I think it's because Jewelcrafting is beneficial to all of my toons, whereas Leatherworking is only good for some.

Daxenos, the Tauren Druid is a Herbalist/Alchemist. He's 43 and spec'd for healing. I'm enjoying healing as a Druid, but I'm sad that I won't see Lifebloom until the mid 60's.

Vancomyacin, the Undead Death Knight is also an Herbalist with Inscription as a second Primary profession. Vanco is spec'd for tanking, just dinged 60, and has completed Hellfire Ramparts successfully. Yay on her.

Daxxy, the Blood Elf Rogue is a Miner/Skinner, but is more famously known as my PvPer. She has over 6K confirmed kills in the battlegrounds as well as a whole host of PvP achievements.

Smoochie, the Blood Elf Paladin is a banker.

Daxeo, the Goblin Mage, is my newest alt and fulfills the Miner/Engineer spot in my empire. He's level 13, just completed the Goblin starting area, and is headed out to Azshara.

I have a slot that I filled in with an Orc Shammy, but I'm not sure if I'm going to play her or roll another class.

So far, there have been things I've liked and disliked about the Cata expansion:

I like the Priest Chakra thing as well as looking for special procs while healing. I find that I'm able to heal the way I enjoy most (Heals over Time or HoTs) and like having the added mini game of using a Flash Heal or Greater Heal to keep the Renew flowing due to the Chakra thing.

I don't like the Druid healing changes as I don't get Lifebloom until 64, which makes me a very sad cow. Also, the change of Tree of Life from a permanent form to temporary one makes me very, very sad. I mean, DPS kitties and lazerchickens get to stay in form for their dpsing, and bears get to be bears for tanking, so why couldn't trees continue to be trees. I really could care less about seeing my cow with his purdy armor. I'd rather see a tree...

I'm leaning toward dislike for the Hunter changes. I really didn't like them when I first started playing, but after some experimentation, I've come up with some strategies for managing my focus. I don't really like having to play the way I do, but I still enjoy the Hunter, just not as much as before.

I'm not sure, but I think that Pally tanking has gotten easier for lower levels. The addition of Avenger's Shield for low level, dedicated tank specs is a huge plus, and I find that if I cycle through the mobs, I can pretty much hold aggro fairly easily. Of course, when other players start pulling packs, either through proximity or on purpose, then tanking becomes a big challenge. But in the WoW community, we'd never have people that would do that, would we...

I like flying in Oldlands. 'Nuff said.

Anyways, I'll post more about my impressions of the expansion, but that's enough for now. Tootles!