Fighting Through The Downfall (normal)

Hello everyone! One of todays posts will be my little view and guide to healing Blackfuse and the paragons! I have finally caught up with progression on my slightly under geared shaman and now on 13/14 Normal kills and instead of going over bosses as I have explained before hand, (flex mode), I thought I would go over two of the three bosses of the last wing.. Why not Include Garrosh? I am raiding that beast a full duration tonight, lets hope for a kill! GO TEAM EQ! Let's dive in too see what I have learnt over the course of these encounters. 

Siegecrafter Blackfuse - In my opinion, this is one of the most crazy encounters in terms of healing output, There is so much to look out for and you need so much personal awareness to deal with most of the mechanics, this will cause a lot of random spiky raid damage going out. First thing to be aware of is the saw blades, they hit for around 200k, which is a fair amount of damage out right, so group them together and move accordingly. This is a great time to blanket some riptides and drop your healing stream totem and just push out some chain heals. You then have to deal with the bombs that explode periodically and eventually cover the room, they have a huge initial damage and you will also receive fall damage too, so what I did when things got a little though was maybe save a Healing tide during these moments (if group is somewhat close together) This can be rather hard due to the next thing to be aware of. You will be fixated by bombs that will chase you at some speed, these can be slowed so use frost shock to help out, and Earth-bind/capacitor totem in the middle of the room. You will also have to deal with a considerable amount of Off tank damage as well when picking up some of the adds do be aware of that. This encounter really does display how well shamans have come along during this expansion and we're able to help out a hell of alot in this encounter, I for one, Love it.

Healing output through out the Blackfuse encounter.

This is just an indication of the healing power we can produce. Im currently in like 524 gear while the monk was considerably higher. Push your spread healing and watch the numbers fly. 

Paragons of the Klaxxi - Another great fight for shamans. With the fact that the tanks won't really need to move that much, You can keep a really strong coverage of healing rains back to back. Also make use of chain heal here as a lot of the time, the group will remain some what stacked together unless of course you have to spread from the connected beams. But with mechanics like stacking to eat an Aim and such there really not as much to do or watch out for unlike the previous encounter. Use healing stream totem on cooldown and your larger cooldowns efficiently. There is a ton of mechanics to this fight to be aware of as other rolls like tank and DPS, I went in to this encounter only knowing what I had to do as a healer and we one shot it. So just focus on what you need to do and reap the rewards. It's very predictable unlike Blackfuse so you can sort of save cooldowns for specific moments in the encounter.

Below shows a Restoration Shaman POV on this encounter and what to expect.

Restoration Shaman | SoO Flex | Basic Guide | 11/14

Hello everyone and welcome to my rather basic healing guide for some of the bosses in Flex SoO! Its been a while since I posted anything related to the shaman healing POV and with an awesome flex run last night, I wanted to follow it up while the idea is still fresh in my mind. I really did love healing all the way through my leveling experience and now I'm in SoO it feels so great. Shaman healing in general is in a really great spot right now and have so much utility on every encounter, it really does show how much blizzard have worked on the shamans finally! Of course Smart heals are taking over in this current day in age but we still are regarded as one of the better healers this patch/teir. Below will show the tips and tricks on each boss that I have encountered, Note: This is not a strategy guide on how to kill X boss but what you as a healing shaman can do per boss.  REMEMBER GUYS, I'm new to Shaman healing in MOP so the things I say may be odd, but its just my perspective. I'm not a good player, but make this so others may learn something and help me document things as I go in my healing journey to make me a better player. 

Special Mention to my guild EQ for letting me tag along and hopefully be moving in to normal modes soon! Was an awesome first raid with them and hopefully see more in the future and in WOD! 

Immerseus - Ahh the good old introduction fight to this Tier. I rather enjoyed this fight for healing compared to  being a DPS, I found myself using chain heal a lot more and more on single target healing. My duty here was to focus on the tanks and the ally blobs that spawn around us. I used Healing rain on the tanks (Don't stand by the tanks.. I learned that the hard way) but either to the right or left of them on another platform and use Chain heal as your filler here, spot heal with Healing wave if you need too. I also saved my Tidal wave procs for my greater healing waves on the blobs to get them to full health in about two heals. Use Healing stream on cooldown and save your Healing tide for the last or second from last reform to counter the aoe damage. Spirit link is not really worth it here as the raid is spread all over the place. 

The Fallen Protectors - This encounter plays extremely well to the Restoration Shaman and I for one love healing this! Throughout the fight the raid will be taking damage, so your smart heals here will be sniping away, So keep Healing stream on cooldown, try and keep two riptides on the tanks as they will both be taking some serious damage, use chain heal off of each tank to maximize its output. I use the Primal elemental Talent most of the time if not all of the time and I used it on the first stacking phase with empower and dropped a instant healing rain with a Unleashed Elements before hand to get the maximum effect. Use chain heal here on cooldown. Soon as each phase ends make sure to refresh your healing stream and Use Healing rain on cooldown around the melee or whichever boss is being focused (Make sure you use Unleashed Elements before each Healing rain). On each stacking phase try to use one cooldown and not stack them so much; you will get more output in doing so as each one of ours is extremely good here. Example: First stack, Powered healing rain with Elemental empower. Second, Ascendance with  healing stream and healing rain. Third, Use healing tide with another Empower and healing rain. Spirit link is great on this fight, use it wisely, I found using it when stacking on the adds works great. 

Norushen - Another fantastic fight. At first I was not sure if this would be any good for us Shamans with the amount of moving you do when moving from each beam, but again, smart heals and some clever use of spells can work wonders here. Same as before, try and manage riptides on both tanks. Earth shield on which ever one is tanking. Use healing rain on cooldown around the tanks or along the path your raid takes when moving from the beam. Again, healing stream on cooldown and use call of the elements to place another down ready for the moving. To me, it seems the raid takes more and more damage as the raid goes on so use spirit walkers grace when you need to move and ascendance if things get tricky just to spread your healing. When you get moved in to the other realm and having to heal the protectors, just use greater healing wave combined with tidal waves to heal them up and yourself before you leave. Soon as you're out drop a healing tide or healing stream to top people off.  (Primal Empower is also great here for the moving phases when used with spirit walkers grace and Healing rain)

Sha Of Pride - Love love love this fight for healing! Through out the whole encounter the group will stay stacked and only spread for swirling pride and the add spawns. This encounter plays to every one our our strengths. Use Earth shield on the main tank and cast chain heals, with chaining they will reach back in to the raid (keep riptide on him 100%). For each Swirling mechanic you can have an empowered Healing rain ready to rock so do so through the whole fight. Use healing stream on cooldown as usual and save your oh crap totems for towards the end of the fight or when people sort of fail at moving out a little. Also an important mention, only dispel the debuffs on players when you have the Titan buff. 

Galakras - To me, this is a rather boring fight till the last phase. During the encounter as a shaman you tend to stay at the bottom at all times, ccing when you can and keeping up the spread healing. On the last phase that's were things get interesting. The ranged group and healers are forced to stack, which brings in our fantastic stacked healing in to play. Healing rains, Healing tides and ascendance work great here but spirit link is the savior, save this for when damage really starts to kick it up a notch. 

Iron Juggernaut - I was not a huge fan of this encounter to start with and not exactly great for shaman healing here. Before the shocking pulse we can really put out some huge heals on the tanks taking damage, our only problem is when we do get that knock back, it can really punish our output - Why? We only have spirit walkers grace once during this encounter generally, and the knock back can be huge IF you don't get in a decent position and recover quickly this can happen 3/4 times. I tend to keep riptides switching on the tank currently having the bosses attention and use healing totems like healing stream right before a pulse. A fun fight and a great way to test your imagination to prevent as much knock back as possible! Healing rain works great here but I tend to keep it in and around the melee dps and tanks as the bomb pick ups can hurt! 

Dark Shamans - An awesome healing fight, although something that will really really annoy you as a shaman! It is the amount of movement the tanks have to do. Our healing Rain is one of the top healing abilities when used and placed correctly, but due to the amount of movement it makes it a rather waste of mana using it on that section of the raid group so I tend to use it central of the fighting zone and in and around the ranged/healers. I use riptide on the Main tank with earth shield and spot heal with healing wave and chain heal when needed.  Another problem is Spirit link totem, of course it will only work with players in the totems radius and due to the nature of the beast, the fight counters it, so again use it well, I yet have found a perfect time to use, so please any feedback would be much appreciated! 

General Nazgrim - Ahhh Nazzgrimmm! You beauty! I loved this fight on my Windwalker and even more so on my Shaman. Healing here is a real breeze as long as the DPS don't fail on the defensive phase. A simple fight here, dont stand in the fire, move from swirling axes and if you have a rogue hitting you, dont stand there.. Cast spirt walkers grave and get healing! Use Healing rain between the tanks on DPS phases and range don defensive phase and when the adds are up. The add s do hurt so silence them, slow them as much as possible, I tend ot keep an earth bind totem down just to help. As usual, Healing stream on cooldown and use ascendance when huge aoe damage comes. Simple stuff really. 

Malkorok - Ughh.. Just Ughh.. For other healers like priests and druids Im sure this is an awesome fight. With the absorb affect much like on heroic Tortos, they can boost out some insane healing at the start by using huge cooldowns to heal the whole raid, Us shamans don't do that.. WE DO NOT DO IT BLIZZARD! So your healing tides wont work here as it works as a smart heal, so don't freak out when you see your heals ticking for 1 and 1 and more 1s. We come in to play when we stack after the three hulk like smashes and the raid take a considerable amount of damage. Again healing wave with a boost from Unleashed elements work well here and spirit link totem is a gods send, this will happen two or three times during the whole encounter so use your cooldowns effectively and not at once. Think smart... much like our smart heals. A side note: But Astral Shift works well for soaking pools! 

Spoils Of Pandaria - I adore this fight, there is always something to heal here and so much to look out for. I wont go in to details on what to keep your eye out for and such, there's plenty of guides around to do so, But for Shaman healing, your healing stream is your best friend here. With the glyph you also receive a magic damage resistance which works fantastic here. Keep riptide on your tank, the groups will be split up and on flex/10 mans 2 healers per side works well. Anyway.. Healing rain can once again be used here when the tanks stay stationary for a brief moment so try and work out were he is going to smash some boxes next and pre heal that zone ready for when he is there, that's how I took a better use out of it! There is not a huge amount of moving to do unless your dropping some bombs off so just be careful were you stand and were you're running too here.  If there is a ton of adds up which can happen with the new tanks, Primal Elemental works great here with that extra amount of healing you receive from the empower buff, a great help here for your spread heals! 

Thok The Bloodthirsty - This is what I'm talking about! A Jurassic like Dinobitch with armor and a really good amount of stamina to chase people down all night long! This is a AWEEESOMEEE fight for us shamans! The stacking phases are perfect for our rotation of cooldowns like healing stream, Ascendance and such. Keep an our out for the nature lock though, it can be a real killer but as long as you have a Healing rain ticking away and some totems up, You will be covered! When you're being chased, kite him while in Wolf form and make sure to run the correct way! If you're on dispelling duty like I was, as well as being chased by the Dino your dispels will suffer so make sure every healer do this. I tend to use spirit walkers grace, Healing tide and Ascendance towards the end on the fire phase. You're required to move a hell of a lot which may slow down your output so think smart about when you will be moving too,  were to drop a healing rain etc. Remember Glyph of healing stream is your friend, that further reduction to fire damage can really help here! 

Mana management -  Noticed in each of the bosses I did not mention the best way to save mana and such? Well as I have learnt it is pretty simple to work around. Even at my gear level which is rather bad, I still have no mana issues and are yet to oom in an encounter, Granted I could drop some spirit but Im using crit as my main regen stat. It makes it so our crit heals refund a small amount of mana back, thanks to resurgence. I also Use call of the elements to recover my totem, with the glyph once I recall the totem just before it expires I get a full refund of the mana used to cast that totem which is huge! This is even before I get my legendary meta! Also mana tide totem here is amazing, Instead of saving it towards the end, Use it once when you're around 80% mana and again when you or someone in the raid needs it, this enables you to use it twice, and twice is better than once. I always use a mana potion as well during a Mana tide for that little extra boost, Its not vital but something I like to do. 

A little side note: Again thank you for my current guild for letting me take part in last nights raid, Has a really awesome time and I hope my apparently rather good Pingu impressions put you guys off! :P Also I just bought a new pet for my collection as seen below: Grab yours today! 

Restoration Shaman | Playthrough | 80 - 85

So we're almost there! Looking back at the very first blog post about this little shaman, I did not know what to expect, but since that original post my blog has sky rocketed and I have met some great shamans out there. I'm so happy with how its evolved over the past month or so, It really has created a connection with this character of mine and I really do enjoy playing it! Again, a quick thank you for the people who have helped me with some information and my blog in general. A big thanks too Katherynne, Nyxrinne, Vanskus and the Monk Meditation podcast. It's time to dive in!

So Deathwing has arisen, The aspects in complete chaos and thrall has taken up his Shamanism heritage full time and left Garrosh in charge of the mighty horde.. A decision that would cost many lives including Thralls closest Tauren friend Carine Bloodhoof. With so much geographical changes to Azeroth, It was up to us to put an end to the madness and destruction that Deathwing and the Twilight Cult brought to our world. Cataclysm did not really bring many dungeons in this bracket but its okay! They were pretty decent but not blizzards best work. Most of the best ones unlock at 85 and more were introduced in to a later patch, but I will leave those out and as usual mention the ones I healed. Lets see what we jumped in to! 

Blackrock Caverns - The carved labyrinth that was built by Deathwing homes The twilight cult and a ton of demonic creatures. It also homes the technology made by the twilight cult to teleport the elementals from Mount Hyjal to the cavern to harness their powers. At the center of this cavern is a forge that is used for crazy experiments transforming cultists in to twilight dragons. Their ideas to forge their own destiny really does go to the utter end of madness here and I loved healing through it! 

The Stonecore - Deep within the temple of earth in the middle of the maelstrom that was ripped open by Deathwing lies the Stonecore. It was within these sacred walls that the twilight cult managed to build and attach armor plates to Deathwing that ultimately lead to him flying through, causing the maelstrom and breaking the world pillar that holds our world and Deepholm together. The people of Deepholm, will not let the twilight cult continue the destruction of their land so the earthen ring have stepped in to replenish the damage and fix the almost destroyed World pillar. This instance was truly awesome to heal. Some of the hallways have a large amount of mobs constantly walking around so pretty much every time I ran this we always had ninja pulls and made extensive work out of my cooldowns. The bosses here were also dynamic and different which I really enjoyed.  

The Vortex Pinnacle - Ahh the Vortex, in my opinion one of the most beautiful instances we have come across so far. This place dwells in the mystic region above Uldum called Skywall, surrounded by mists and magic this has recently been overrun with Tol'Vir as well as Al'Akir, the lord of the wind.  Our job is to make sure the barrier between Azeroth and Skywall is closed so the Tol'Vir can not reign down damage from the skies on to Azeroth. I loveeeee this place! The instance is awesome, boss mechanics are great and a ton of CC and multi healing going on, Definitely one of my favorites! 

Grim Batol - Deep within the Twilight Highlands and not to far from the wetlands meeting point of the two zones lies a beautiful mountain, but don't be fooled. Deep within these jaw dropping mountain ranges lies a deep and dark secret. A once lustrous stronghold for the Wildhammer Dwarves it has been overrun with Orcs creating a prison for Alexstraza, The life bender. With the Twilight cult, black dragon flight and twilight dragon flight all within this mountain, it will be a challenge to stop the damage being done, but with a little help from the Red dragon flight, there is a possibility of victory. This was an *ok* instance to heal. If the dragon part is done correctly were you mount up and kill as many packs as you can, there wont really be much to heal. But the design was awesome and a great finishing point for me before I got 85.  

So lets jump in to the new spells and see what we have acquired during this bracket to help us heal our way to the top! 

Unleash Elements - This spell focuses the elemental power that your current weapon imbue has in to a usable spell that's an instant cast and has a 15 second cooldown. As we always use Earth living, this is mainly used to buff healing rain. I would ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS use this before a Healing rain every time. Why? It boosts its effectiveness by 30%. Some shamans forget that, and it can make a huge difference so I got in to the habit early of using it every time I want to use healing rain and pump out some serious aoe healing. The more the better right? 

Spiritwalker's Grace - This great spell calls forth the spiritual guidance of the ancestors granting the player the ability to cast while moving. It lasts 15 seconds and has a 2 minute cooldown so use it when you absolutely have to. I will use this as much as I can in raids, shamans don't have the luxury of healing while moving like a druid or a monk so this helps with that. A great spell, and a cool spell effect. 

And that's all folks! That's the play through's complete! You may be thinking.. *Hang on a minute what about 85 - 90?!* Well I did some research and found a way to level faster recently without having to quest OR dungeon. I wanted to test it out for myself and IF it worked, Create a basic guide for it.. so did it work? HELL YES IT DID. It's an incredible spot and my next post will be all about that! Video guide included.

Again I just want to say a huge thank you for the people supporting me and this little blog. Too all my Monk friends out there, I do understand the shaman has taken up alot of my time and posts and its not as expected but I want you guys to know, That I have totally enjoyed playing my shaman and blogging as I go, I have built a connection to the game again I thought the Lich king stole from me and that's enjoyment out of this game again. I will no doubt be maining this character next expansion, who knows, But I will always be posting monk news and such. So thanks again, keep well and stay up to date with my blog! This is were the real blogging begins. Inc next expansion guides for monk and shamans - Vay.  

Restoration Shaman | Playthrough | 70 - 80

Hello ladies and gents, I have had such a busy week as usual with the competition I have set up and some other promoting things going on I have really been tight for time, But I thought I would cover the next bracket on my playthrough series. Documenting and sharing information as I go has really made an impact on how I see things now and I think its made me a better player because of it. So enough waffle from me, lets dive in to the frozen depths of Northrend!  

As our adventure continues, we now have caught up to one of the most Iconic expansions so far, Wrath Of The Lich king. After the burning crusade, alot of players were unsure of this expansion, It seemed to be more user friendly and easier than the previous expansion, this was the year in which Blizzard saw its largest increase in new subscribers. I think it was due to the fact of making more things accessible for others not just the hardcore, which rejuvenated the older players to re sub, and give it a shot. Instances were easier no doubt but what I enjoyed about this expansion was the lore. 

At first, I was not that interested in it, I wanted to level fast, get raiding and see some progress, and that's what I did for the entire expansion. I played as a Enhancement Shaman back when this was in its golden days and lore was the least of my concern, It was only recently I bought the Rise of the Lich King book written by Christie Golden that made me really appreciated the work put in to this expansion. Anyway enough of that, lets have a look at the instances I healed through to reach 80. 

Utgarde Keep - This will be one of the first dungeons you will be faced against upon reaching level 70. The keep is guarded King Ymiron who leads the new race introduced to this expansion called Vrykul. Their mission is to prove to the lich king their power and be worthy of working alongside the lich. The Keep has a number of open hallways and then a upper tier that forces you out on to the very top of the structure to fend of proto drakes and face the evil king.

The Nexus - Is an ice structure unlike most you would have seen, the underground networks were forced by magical energies that Malygos harnessed during his time of madness to all focus on this region. Coldarra itself has been buckled by these recent events which make this dungeon a formidable and interesting experience. The frozen halls, shattered rifts and plant like creatures, this place has a huge variety of things going on within this zone. One of my favorites.

Azjol'nerub - This dungeon is extremely short and can be cleared within a very small amount of time, that being said it is still an extremely important instance, lore wise. Azjol is a series of tunnels that was used for the Nerubian to transport Arthas underground to the icecrown citadel were he would ultimately fight Illidan Stormrage. I liked this instance, the structure of the place is awesome and the fact you have to go deeper inside this zone to face the last boss gave it a different feel too the typical instance layout.

Drak'Tharon Keep -  This old stronghold has some deep and dark secrets. Home to the Trolls surrounding grizzly hills that were forced too look for new ways to help the Lich, a number of creatures now house this place also. Dinosaurs and undead are but a few that roam these halls and stairwells.  Drakuru, the troll leader of this hold is being tested for his loyalty to the Lich king and as you venture towards the end of the instance, you will see what the Lich has in store for poor old Drakuru. This is a great instance, but in terms of healing, there is not much to do.  The last boss for example forces you to transform into Skeletons and use the new abilities given to you, something I find annoying when I want to pump out some heals. Nonetheless an awesome zone. 

Gundrak - My favorite of this bracket by far! Home to the Ice trolls that hunt within Zul'Drak are constantly in battle between the scourge, so its unclear if we're cleansing this place from a curse or what not, However this instance is the one I enjoy most. Its corrupted bosses which include Elementals, trolls that transform to naga or a mammoth are so different to what we're used too.  The Trolls here have contacted their Loa to grant them strength against the hordes of Scourge but with a terrible backlash. You will fight your way through twisted halls, Infested waters, submerged chambers and in turn you will revitalize the Ice troll that dwell here. 

Caverns Of Time/Culling Of Strathholme - The final 5 man instance within this bracket that I experienced before getting level 80, what a way to end the bracket. Here we learn of how Arthas, The lich king became so torn and twisted. It all started with the Culling. He was lead by a evil force that was pushing him beyond his limits and made him believe the best way to cleanse a city, was to eradicate it. Disobeying the orders from Uther to investigate more, he destroyed every living being that stood in his way. During your time here you will be guiding him through the city streets, inns and secret passage ways to kill the demon Mal'Ganis who he believed to be the one behind the tampered grain that was turning people to scourge.  His hatred for this demon was what forced him to hunt for Frostmourne and eventually turn Arthas, A once noble paladin, too the lich king.

Although there are other instances you can jump in to, I only mentioned the ones I had experienced on this shaman. So for more information on the other instances head over to wowhead. Now for the Shaman/healing stuff! In this section I will go over important spells that will be useful to my healing output and which talent I took as well as the final set of glyphs. 

Grace of Air (Passive) - This gives all surrounding raid/party members a 3000 mastery buff, SO LONG BLESSING OF MIGHT, WE GOT THIS!

Mastery: Deep healing - This increases the potency of our healing spells by 24% based on the current health level of your target, the lower their health, the better the heal. Now I'm not to sure about this one, For progression, this stat seems to be great, for hard hitting bosses.. like a good way to stress test the damage your raid takes. BUT it only works when players are low, so the rest of the time it seems to me that its over shadowed by other class healing mastery's. Some testing and research will have to be done, as on paper it looks good, but I'm still unsure.

Rushing Streams (Talent) - I LOVE THIS! Your healing stream totem now heals two players for 15% additional healing, Beautiful! Short and simple. As I have this on CD Its an all and all healing increase.

Glyph of Totem Recall - This causes our totem recall ability to refund all the mana cost of the totem that was placed. I love this, I have got in to the habit early of using this spell and its great for mana.  I would recommend getting for your level 75 Glyph.

So that's it for this playthrough, as I have said before, I loved this bracket. Its an incredible moment in warcraft history.. well to me anyway, maybe because I love the book so much, BUT WHO KNOWS! Until next time guys and girls, Take care. Vay. 

Restoration Shaman | Playthrough | 60 - 70

Bonjour! Greetings readers and fellow healers alike! It's that time again to update you on my progress on my little shaman, Vay. I have had a really busy week as usual so I have not had much time to plan this little play through as I have been on my monk a little bit more as well as playing some Hearthstone and some Guild wars. Really do enjoy a number of games right now but i could not wait to stick my teeth in to another shaman post so here goes. 

So we are finally out of the Vanilla section of wow and now diving in to the zone which we held close to our hearts as the best expansion to date and also the first! Outland. I have always loved Outland for a number of reasons. The zones were so diverse and different from the things we experienced on both Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor, the questing and factions were so diverse to what we was accustomed too which made it so refreshing. To me this was my favorite expansion, Most of my raiding experience started here and I still to this day enjoy the sheer amount of dungeons this expansion had to offer, so lets dive in and get to know the places I visited. Note: There are many other dungeons in this bracket but I will mention the few I did get to heal while leveling through. 

Hellfire Citadel - This we were we begin our outlandish adventures. This Citadel is home to three dungeons however the following two are the ones I was leveling through. Hellfire Ramparts which is the first dungeon of the zone, this is believed to be the military barracks of the Keep, the front line defense so to speak. Here you will face against fel orcs, wolves, demons and of course more fel orcs, which will all know are bad news! The second dungeon is called the Blood Furnace here Illidans minions have captured Magtheridon and are using there cunning sorcery to drain his blood to build a larger army. This again, is not the best of news you want to here when just visiting this place, however, with more of a demonic feel to this instance you have to get through a maze of orcs, a number of gauntlets to finally get to the bottom of this problem. I love this zone, it was the first real challenge for me in terms of dungeons back in TBC days and was looking forward to finally healing them on my shaman. Lots of aoe packs through the zones made my healing alot better.  

Coilfang Reservoir -  So we have gone from boiling heat, demonic gateways and unforgiving hallways to the underwater habitat of the Coilfang. Again this is home to a number of instances, one of which becomes available at 70 but I only managed to level through two of the instances here. This is a large artificial lake embedded under the tainted waters within Zangermarsh. Under the murky waters holds home to a group of Naga over seeing a subterranean Pumping station. Each dungeon consisting of huge caverns interlinked by pipework powered by huge crystal Capacitor. The Slave Pens is the first dungeon within this zone that holds a number of passage ways that lead you past some lost Naaru. The second dungeon is the Underbog, this place seems to hold the last remaining inhabitants of this zone that have not been totally overran by the Naga. I have always loved these instances and I still enjoy them to this day, I testament to blizzards work!

Auchindoun - The home to the not so holy, This was originally a sanctuary for the fallen heroes within the Draenei community. Now home to a number of factions this zone is housing four instances, three of which I had to heal though. The first instance you enter will be the Mana Tombs, The ethereals are seeking to gain more power to use against creatures within the twisting nether, however this is now over run by currupt beings and a leading figure, Prince Shaffar (sounds like something out of a Jeff Dunham show). The second instance Auchenai Crypts. These are the demonic minions giving this whole play a bad name. Workers, of the burning legion resurrecting the fallen to fight for them, and nothing in their mind will stop them in doing so. Here you will find a number of undead creatures being used as tools to fend off others during their rebirth.
The final instance I dipped my paws in too was Sethekk Halls. Another tomb like structure homing the bird like humans, Arakkoa. Here they are practicing their dark magics, perfecting there evil spells to gain a larger understanding of the world as they believe to be the true colony of the Arakkoa.

Caverns of time/Escape from Durnhold Keep - Ahhh The caverns of time, I have recently gained a new respect for this zone after reading the hour of twilight book this week and this zone is incredible. Guarded by the faithful and powerful Bronze dragon flight, the keepers of time. There are a number of instances and raids within this zone that sends the players back in time to previous historic events that have shaped the world we adventure through today. The Escape from Durnhold is no exception. It goes back a number of years to when Taretha Foxton is creating a diversion to help Thrall escape from the evil grips of Aedelas Blackmoore. Thrall, Also the name for Slave uses your help to create such a diversion that then leads to his escape and eventually the retaking of the keep and the death of many humans and Blackmoore and going on to become the warchief of the horde. WE LOVE YOU THRALL!

Now on to the shaman bits!

Some more goodies to play with! Shamans just get better and better.

Healing Tide Totem - Finally! I have looked up so much on this beauty and I was so pleased once I got this little gem. This is an incredible totem and should not be used so like mindlessly as too Healing Stream Totem. Once this is placed it will heal 5 players every 2 seconds for 11 seconds, The amount it heals is insane and I can not wait to try this out in the big raids! I use this when I know I wont be able to heal the group in time and when I know of huge incoming damage.

Bloodlust - Our most sort after spell as a shaman. Why blizzard gave mages and hunter pets this ability I will never know.. Anyway this spell will grant all party and raid members a 30 % melee, ranged and spell haste for 40 seconds. It does have a 5 minute cooldown and you may think that's a tad crazy for such a powerful cooldown but it also will give the player it affected a sated debuff so that player can not gain that type of buff such as time warp for another 10 minutes. Use this on bosses, in raiding this will tend to be used at the start of the encounter or at the last 25 - 30% depending on the boss mechanics.

Spirit Link Totem - Another one of the Restoration shamans signature tools to the kit! This is an absolute beast of a cooldown and one of my favorites by far. This totem once used will reduce the damage taken by all party and raid members within 10 yards by 10%. Also every one second the health of all affected players is redistributed such that each player ends up with the same percentage of their maximum health, Lasts 6 seconds. When used properly, a stacked up raid/party taking an incredible amount of damage, this beauty will not only reduce damage taken be even out everyone's health without causing any over healing making it one of the most powerful cooldowns and works great with healing rain and other totems.

So that's it for my dungeon/shaman spells update! I do however have a little bit more information to share with you all. I have had such a great time working on my playthrough and my shaman and have been lucky enough to come across some great players one of which deserves a special mention. Katherynne has I presume been looking at my posts now and then and actually commented on a forum post I made a while ago, offering help etc with shamans and end game healing. Recently I have received some awesome tips and tricks on what spells to use, what stats to aim for, what glyphs will be good for raiding etc and alot of things have already improved me as a healer, as a shaman. I just want to say a quick thank you for the information shared with me, I truly appreciate it. - Vay.

If you have stuck around this long then enjoy the clip below. It's me healing through Blood furnace with some ridiculous Chain CC going on from enemies. GIVE ME BUBBLE BITCH! 

Restoration Shaman | Playthrough | 50 - 60

Hello everyone, hope you're all having a awesome weekend! A quick little IRL update.. I went out last night to see Turbo with the girlfriend which by the way was totally not my idea... :3 I'm going on 23 and I still want to watch dreamworks films? I refuse to grow up just yet! Anyway, I have to say it was one of my favorite animated films, Was so awesome. It's that time again! Lets see where our little Shaman went in this bracket and get to know a little bit more about the dungeons and why I enjoyed them.

So we finally reach the classic vanilla end game bracket and as you would expect, we was faced with some pretty huge instances to grind through. Some of the most loved and noticeable instances are within this bracket and for me on of the most diverse. The zones are huge, with so many different routes to take, shortcuts to be found etc, I really did enjoy this bracket in terms of healing. The huge pulls, interesting fights and not to mention the locations, It makes this post really exciting for me to write. 

Black rock depths/Spire - This to me is one of the greatest ideas and such a large scale of an area to hold some of the most game changing experiences in my World Of Warcraft playtime to date. Blackrock holds home to some of the most memorable encounters and incredible game development. For new players and people who were not too fond of dungeons per say, This location has been dramatically changed in terms of difficulty and ease of access. With the introduction to Looking For Dungeon, with a click of a button and depending your wait time you will be transported to this location and have quests to guide you through as well as Dungeon maps and can easily get through this in a decent amount of time and not to mention, heirlooms making everything that tad easier.

However, for seasonal players many will either hate this place or love it just like myself. This was the real turning point for me with my gaming Experience. First of all, Black Rock Depths (BRD) Looking for players to run through this place in trade chat was hard enough! But to finally get a team to delve into the depths of this dwarven mountain, each player knew they had 3 to 5 hours worth of challenges to tackle and overcome. With no real clear route to take, with tasks to complete to open gateways, huge dwarven doors and such, this really turned new Players to Veterans. With most people entering with Green/blue gear, backpacks full of potions and back up gear they did not need to repair, the night was set to defeat the mountain. There was also Black rock spire to attack once you reached level 60. This twisting maze of orcs, Dragonkin and trolls made this place even more epic. You heard rumors of this place, but nothing beats that feeling as a new player stepping in to this incredible Dungeon knowing this was the first stepping stone to the legendary Molten Core (MC)

Sunken Temple - The Temple of Atal' Hakkar, also known as Sunken Temple (ST) was a real challenge and used to take a decent amount of time. As mentioned above, with the new changes this instance has been made a tad easier than it used to be and a lot less time consuming. A skinning heaven this place was which made me see my first 500g back in the day, this was considered a lot! with so many twists and turns this maze full of Dragonkin and trolls was one of my favorite experiences. What this place also held was my first Epic item, Dragons call. which at the time was a huge thing, not many people were lucky enough to see one till raiding back then and when we did finally get that rare, mystical Item, We felt good! Even though I was a hunter and every melee weapon available we went for!

Blizzard seem to have put so much effort into the old content, not all of it was accessible to everyone like it is now days, so again looking in trade for a ST run was never easy, it was more of a guild thing, which back pre TBC days, being in a guild was more a privilege than a perk boost like it is becoming today, which I think is a shame. *Sad face* but nether the less, this place held so many good moments. I will never forget the Snakehead puzzle to summon the twin dragons as well as the summonable secret boss.

Now moving on to the shaman stuff! here I will mention each new spell/talent I gained

Tremor Totem - This beauty is great for moments such as boss/mob fears. If yourself or a player gets Feared, drop this and it removes the effect. Simple and yet, so very effective.

Mana Tide Totem - Another water totem to our disposal! This awesome thing gives your raid/party members 200% of your spirit for 16 seconds! It does have a 3 minute cooldown but this is great for low mana situations and no doubt will be used when needed within raiding, One thing about shamans is that you can always rely on there utility. This is just another gem to the bag.

Earth Elemental Totem - Use this and a huge earth like Golem is called forth to punch the things for a minute. This can be used with Fire elemental and I'm pretty sure gives you a buff once you pick a specific level 90 talent. We will have to wait and see.

Greater Healing Wave - Our last real main healing spell we have unlocked, this spell does have a longer cast time than others and is rather mana intensive but it does pack a huge healing punch so I tend to use this only when needed, and mostly used with the next Talent I shall mention.

Ancestral Swiftness (Talent) - Your next nature spell with a base cast time of less than 10 seconds becomes instant cast, Great when used with Greater Healing Wave, a real oh crap button when a player takes serious damage. It also gives you a passive 5% spell haste and 10% melee haste. Of course the Melee haste is ignored here but the spell haste is great, It helps with the lower end Haste break points so I hear and helps for lower gear levels.

Healing Rain - I LOVE THIS SPELL! It's received some love recently This is a blanket heal on a specific area and anyone who stands within the rain will be healed every 2 seconds for 10 seconds.  Great for stacked aoe damage and I also found great with healing tide totems and chain heals. Some great Aoe healing right there. ( This can also be instant cast when used after Ancestral Swiftness)

On to the glyphs! 

Glyph of Healing stream - This applies a 10% reduction to fire, frost and nature damage for 6 seconds to the player healed by the totem, It works great in dungeons and will be great within the raiding when moving out of fire and such becomes more frequent.

Glyph of deluge - This gives our chain heal and new cosmetic effect, Instead of a bright light (much like the mass resurrection effect around the caster) it turns it in to a torrent of water around our hands, Looks awesome!

So there you have it, some more detailed information on the dungeons and why I enjoyed them, as well as more information of the new spells I have acquired! It all helps towards the aim of becoming a decent heroic raider and hopefully a frequent blogger on them too. But don't worry my brew drinking monk friends, I have some information I will share soon with you all! 

I would just like to thank Nyxrinne for my new awesome blog layout, I was so pleased with the outcome I couldn't believe how great it was and exactly to my liking. To find out more information on her, she also has a great blog so please feel free to check it out at:

http://touch-of-death.blogspot.co.uk/