Greatest thing in WoW?

Easiest question in the world...Druid Swift Flight Form! Having levelled Brahmin through Outland after the release of Wrath I hit Northrend as soon as I hit 68. This means I never got to use flight form at all other than to return for some herbs and with two other toons with epic flight normal flight form felt painfully slow.

Wizz forward 9 levels and upon hitting 77 I'd managed between all of my toons to accrue just under 7000g. With Brahmin now effectively my main there was never any thought of not getting Swift Flight so off to Dalaran I went for Artisan @ 5000g and Cold Weather @ 1000g; expensive but worth every penny. Whilst epic flight on Daxaar and Nefaros was pretty sweet, Swift is just divine due to the instant cast and ability to herb without switching form.

Those Snowfall Glade Pups for Planning For The Future don't know what hits them when I swoop in every morning. And I apologise to any frustrated player below 77 on the ground when I'm around but hey, I suffered for a couple of weeks at the hands of others.

Of all three toons I now have with Epic flight this is the one for me that truly is EPIC. Rather amusing since it's the only one that doesn't actually share that name.

Yes I know I haven’t been around for ages

It's a long story, but one that predominantly consists of boring house renovation so I'll spare you the details. On the more interesting subject of WoW there have been some pretty major changes in the camp. Allow me to summarise:

1. I am bored of DPS
   
2. Daxaar my Gnome Fire Mage is no longer my main. See above.
   
3. Brahmin my Resto Night Elf Druid is now my main.
   
4. I LOVE healing. See above
   
5. Northrend is a definite improvement over TBC but still IMO a little too much of the same.
   
6. The Refer-A-Friend system is imba!
   
7. There are two new toons on the roll call. Naxaar a 60 Gnome Warlock and Nadaar a 62 Prot Pally. See above.
   

With one too many bad PUGS over the summer period I became very despondent towards the game to the point where I left and played EVE for a while. Yes it really did get that bad! Being an multiboxing altaholic I decided the RAF programme was too good an opportunity to pass up. So a third account was created and from it came Naxaar my little Gnome Warlock and my first female toon. I must admit I had a lot of fun levelling this two upto 60 but Naxaar has now been parked to be replaced by Zuukar the holy spec priest for dual-boxing duties with Nadaar. AOE grinding on a prot pally with a backup healer is pretty sick. Those three packs of Buzzards in Hellfire have never had it so hard.

Farewell Daxaar

Well, I found that upon hitting 70 with Daxaar I pretty much dropped him like a stone. At the time I wasn't sure why I didn't enjoy playing him anymore but once I started healing in groups on Zuukar around level 40 in ZF and then Brahmin once Resto at 60 in Ramparts I realised why. I had absolutely no interest whatsoever in making Daxaar a better character. 1000+ dmg 1000000 +dmg to me was utterly irrelevant. I was a damage dealing class who paid no attention to the damage meters! Once I started healing and discovered the responsibility of keeping players alive in the group I realised I was becoming more interested in upgrading my gear and subsequently more interested in grouping to get those drops. Before anyone gets on their soapboxes, I'm not saying the healer is any more important than the dps it's just the healer IS more important to me.

I know the above may seem ridiculous to many. The idea of having played a mage to 70 without any interest in the dps but I'm one of those strange people who actually enjoy levelling so dps was just a means to an end. In this case getting to the next quest and ding. I'll probably level Daxaar at some point in the future but for now he's staying at 70 and only coming out for the odd Utgarde Keep run or to offer up portals to my other toons.

 

Enter Brahmin

HOT HOT HOT. I've converted to the Wack-a-Mole style of gameplay. Anyone that understands this reference either is or has been a healer. Anyone that wonders what the hell I'm on about should be grateful of the people that do understand. J

My first taste of healing in an instance was with my Holy Priest Zuukar on a run through Zul'Farrak. I don't mind admitting I was nervous running an instance with a PUG for my first attempt but things went really well, we had no wipes and I realised just how enjoyable and satisfying the play style could be. However, as many probably know, once you out level ZF nowadays it's pretty impossible to get groups for places such as Sunken Temple and BRD. Therefore my instance healing was put on hold until Outland.

Fast forward about three months to mid December 2008 and Brahmin hits Outland first, five levels ahead of Zuukar, so I decided to spec Resto from Feral. Luckily my introduction to healing on a Resto Druid was made significantly easier by the introduction of the Death Knight. Firstly, finding a group in Outland mid December as a healer is dead easy and secondly the DK class is so imba that even when played badly they are a piece of cake to heal.

Shortly after respeccing I had a few days off work whereupon I played the crap out of WoW for the first time in 12 months. I hooked up with a few good DK's over this time and before I knew it I was level 66 and Lifebloom FTW! The DK's had moved on to Northrend having hit 68 but I still found plenty of groups to get myself over 68 soon enough. I even managed to squeeze in all the Nagrand Nessingwary quests to get my hands on Harold's Rejuvenating Broach.

Last night I hooked up with a great PUG and having cleared Azjol Nerub in about 15 minutes we decided to hit Old Kingdom straight after. I was rather pleased with myself for getting them through being only 72 (dinged 73 in there) with only one death on Jedoga which was sorted with a Rebirth.

Enter Nefaros

Remember this little fella? Well he's my now 73 Dwarf Prot Warrior and with the new changes to Prot he's suddenly become a lot of fun to play. I've been predominantly levelling him and Brahmin together through Northrend which is a pretty potent force easily able to complete quests such as Last Rites as a pair. Thunderclap, Shockwave and Hurricane FTW.