A Trip Down Memory Lane..

Greetings adventurers and explorers alike! This post will cover two incredible Raids. Us PVE players have always gravitated around raiding content and what makes it worth all the hours of progression and the strive for gear and downing bosses for the good of our guilds. It was so hard for me to choose these top two, but in my mind they are the few that are most thought out and enjoyable throughout my entire seven years raiding experience. 

Without question, Karazhan was my most memorable experience in terms of proper progression raiding. Even though I did touch on Vanilla raiding in MC and two bosses in Naxx, This for me was my real chance to strive for top end raiding. With over ten bosses to face, some of which were on an RNG type system where you had the chance to go against 1 of 4 bosses (I.E Opera Event) it was one of the most complex and incredibly thought out places to delve into. Its geometric structure was unlike anything I have seen before.. I mean c'mon, A haunted castle, also known as Medivh's Tower who was the last former protector of Tirisfal. With spirits reawakened and Medivh himself still cascading down the haunted halls, you generally felt the epic scale of the place. Ley lines from each magical sector all pointed under Karazhan, from the mages in dalaran to the high priests of Stormwind..  and to me, still holds the title of the most epic Raid to date.

My second top raid would have to be without doubt one of the most awesome raids the dev team worked on after the burning crusade. With a wobbly start to re opening Naxx, Blizzard blew every PVE player out the water with this one. Ulduar, With 13 bosses and 1 extra to go up against, this place was incredible. From Titans to huge gnomish like constructions, old gods and the odd dragon, It was one of those places where everyone had something they loved here. The size of the halls, different sections like the huge conservatory and halls made out of ice, It was beyond the scope of any of our imaginations and to this day is still farmed for the mounts and just to feel the nostalgia of the mighty Ulduar. With the helping hand of Brann Bronzebeard who believed this place to be an old Titan city, we few mortals who dared to enter had one hell of a story to tell the rest of the guild and hold Ulduar close to one of the great raiding memories of all time.

So, these are my top two raids, what was yours?  

Vaylen, Ragnaros EU.

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.