Character Profile: Jeamyr at Level 70

No offense to those of you who play a Shaman as your primary character, but I have to say that I found Shaman to be my least favorite World of Warcraft character class. First of all, the first 40 levels were torture! Fighting was so slow & dealing with multiple targets was really tough. Things got much better once Jeamyr reached his mid 40s. With dual wield & stormstrike, his dps increased dramatically. I’d have to say that enhancement is the best leveling build, at least from level 41 to 70. Perhaps an elemental build would have made the first 40 levels easier, but I doubt it. As far as the elemental shaman, I found it to be the most boring play style I’ve encountered in the game. Maybe I was doing something wrong, but spamming lightning bolt over & over just got too dull for me.

I think the Shaman class suffers a great deal from the Jack of All Trades, Master of None mentality. You’ve got a lot a different play styles to choose from: Enhancement for Melee DPS; Elemental for Spell DPS; and Restoration for healing. However, to me the shaman did not seem that powerful in any of these rolls. For melee dps, I’d rather play a rogue or fury warrior. For Spell DPS, I’d rather play a mage or warlock. For healing, I’d rather play a priest or druid. I have to admit though that the utility factor of a shaman probably makes up for this somewhat with all of its Totems that provide nice group buffs. Please keep in mind that I never played Jeamyr in a group or raid setting, so my perspective is slanted by my experience soloing and leveling Jeamyr up to 70. However, I still feel that for a hybrid class, it is the weakest. As hybrids, the Paladin and Druid classes are much stronger than the Shaman. I don’t think I’ll play Jeamyr much in the future unless it is to group him up with my Paladin & Mage again when the expansion comes out. I’m a little disappointed because I thought the lore behind the shaman (especially Orc shamans) was so cool. I hope the Shaman class gets a nice revamp soon =)

Jeamyr turns Level 70!!!!!!!!

Jeamyr hit level 70 today! He becomes my 9th character to do so! I have finally accomplished my goal of having a level 70 character for each character class! I can't believe my quest has finally come to an end. Next week, it will be a year since I started writing this blog & truly decided to undertake this mission. In that year time, I have leveled 7 characters to 70. To be fair, I guess that number is really 6, since my Warlock (Faerolin), who was my third character to reach 70, was almost to the level cap when I started this blog. Still, that is a lot of leveling in a year's time =) I'm happy to be done with this project & think I'm going to take a break from leveling any new characters for a while. I plan on focusing on Devarien & my druid, Aeldina. I have really been having a great time playing with my guild & experiencing new content. In the next couple of days, I plan of writing a post on my final thoughts of the shaman class & I'm sure I'll have some more things to say about my quest to 70. Then I guess I'll just keep on writing about things that happen in the game and hopefully when the Wrath of the Lich King expansion comes out, there will be a whole new quest to undertake =) Talk to you soon!!!

Only One More Level to Go!!!!

Jeamyr turned level 69 today! That means I only have one more level to go in order to complete my quest to have a level 70 character for each character class! I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel =) Hopefully, level 70 will come soon. Jeamyr is in Netherstorm now & the quest experience in that zone is amazing! I can't believe I am almost done!

Jeamyr turns Level 68!!!

Only two more levels to go! Jeamyr is almost finished with the Blade's Edge Mountains' quests & then it will be off to Netherstorm. I've been pretty happy with Jeamyr's restoration spec. So far, it seems that Shamans can heal extremely well. The combination of Protection Pally, Fire Mage & Resto Shaman is powerful & I am having fun three boxing my horde trio =) I'm playing with the idea of taking these guys into a mid 60 level instance to see how I do. I'm up to the part in the Hero of the Mag'har quest line where I have to go into the Auchenai Crypts. So, maybe I'll try that, but I'm worried that the boss encounters will be too difficult with trying to control 3 characters at once =(

Only Three More Levels to Go!!!

Jeamyr turned level 67 over the weekend & finally finished up all the quests in Nagrand! My Horde trio has been working out extremely well =) I was able to 3 box all the group quests in Nagrand including Durn & the 1st three rounds of the Ring of Blood! I couldn't kill the voidwalker boss in the Ring of Blood because my Paladin kept loosing aggro & the boss would wipe out my other characters. I think if I gave it another try I might be able to do it. I just need to time my Paladin's Righteous Defense ability better. However, I'm ready to move on to Blade's Edge Mountains so I might just skip over the rest of Ring of Blood. The end is in site...hopefully I'll be able to get Jeamyr to level 70 by the end of this month!!!

The Eagle Boss Goes Down!!!!

My guild's second attempt at ZA and we downed the Eagle Boss!!! This time we brought 3 healers & that really seemed to help. It seems that the key to this fight is being able to time the lightning storms correctly. The Boss will select a player at random who is thrown up in the air. The rest of the raid must get under this individual to avoid massive damage from the storm. The trick seems to be that if the raid doesn't collapse upon the boss before he selects his target, then a ranged dps could be selected & it becomes difficult to reach safety in time. However, if you collapse too soon, you can take massive damage from his static disruption ability. I have to thank our great raid leaders who were able to get the timing down perfectly, which allowed us to finally beat this guy!!!!

Not much happened in way of leveling Jeamyr this past week. I was on vacation so I didn't have the set up to try out my 3 box experiment. I did get to play my horde guys a little yesterday & the trio of my Paladin, Mage & Shaman seemed to work out well. I hope to get some more time in with these guys this week & finally get Jeamyr out of Nagrand!

Level 66 & Jeamyr gets another Spec!

Jeamyr turned level 66 over the weekend & I switched his spec yet again....lol. I'm finally going to try 3 boxing my paladin, mage & Jeamyr. As a result, I changed Jeamyr to a restoration spec so he can be the healer of the group. I'm going to test out the combination by doing all the Nagrand group quests. I think the combo of Paladin, Mage & Shaman should do really well. With it, you have a tank, dps & healing. I just hope I control 3 characters at once...lol.

My First ZA Run!!!

My guild attempted its first run of Zul Aman last night & I was lucky enough to be able to tag along! I have to say, it seemed like the difficulty level of ZA is amped up compared to Karazhan. We only attempted the first two bosses: Bear & Eagle. We were able to down Bear on the first try & he dropped the Pauldrons of Primal Fury for me!!! However, Eagle was just too tough. I think we may have to bring 3 healers for our next attempt. Eagle just does too much damage to the whole raid & the healing becomes too intensive for 2 people. I can't wait until we give it a try again!!!

As far as Jeamyr's progress to level 70, not much has happened in the past week. He has been stuck in Nagrand at level 65. However, I have off tomorrow & plan to work on him! Hopefully, I can get him to level 66 and into Blade's Edge Mountains.

Devarien gets a Sunfury Bow!!!

It was an amazing night in Kara! I still can't believe that the Sunfury Bow of the Phoenix dropped for me last night!!! I'm so happy =) I really want to thank my guild for letting me come with them on their Kara runs. I'm having such a great time & really enjoy grouping with them =) Thanks again!

On a different note, Jeamyr reached level 65 over the weekend! Half way through his 60's & almost ready to start Nagrand! At the rate he is leveling now, he might reach level 67 by the time he is finished with Nagrand. This is a little ahead of the pace from my last couple of leveling runs. I think it has to do with the fact that I am soloing him most of the time, instead of two boxing him with another character. Anyway, I'm not complaining =) With all the fun I've been having with Devarien & my guild, the whole leveling alts thing is getting kinda old. I'll be happy when Jeamyr reaches 70 and my leveling project is finally over.

Jeamyr switches back to Enhancement

I decided to change Jeamyr's talent spec back to enhancement. I just needed to do something to revitalize my interest in the Shaman class. Let me tell you, it worked! I forgot how much I enjoyed dual wielding & the Stormstrike ability. In addition, I love the great burst damage of an enhancement spec. Leveling with an ehancment spec is soooo much better than elemental....at least for me =) I think I got bored of just spamming lightning bolt all the time with elemental. Luckily, I was able to fully gear Jeamyr from some quest gear I saved up & was able to purchase some more from the auction house. The only problem is that I don't have any trinkets for an enhancement spec =( Hopefully, there will be some quest rewards on the horizon. Jeamyr is just about to start all the quests in the Bone Wastes & then it is off to Nagrand!!!

Jeamyr hits Level 64!!!

The progress has still been slow, but Jeamyr has gained another level & is working in Terokkar Forest. The main reason for the slow-down in leveling is that I am having so much fun playing Devarien & grouping with my guild =) However, another reason is that I'm just not that into Shaman. I have to say that I think Shaman is my least favorite WoW character class.

As a hybrid class, I think the Shaman suffers to a certain extent from the Jack of All Trades, Master of None mentality. A Shaman can do many things: melee dps, spell dps, healing & support. However, in my opinion, the shaman does not excel or beat other classes in any particular role. For melee dps, I'd rather play a rogue or fury warrior; for spell dps, I'd rather play a mage; for healing, I'd rather play a Druid or Priest. For me, Totems are a mixed bag. On the one hand, I can really see their utility in a group or raid setting. For soloing, I'm not so sure. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I don't find myself using totems that often....maybe on hard fights. All in all, I'm not really digging shaman right now, but I am determined to stick with it & get Jeamyr to 70 =)

Jeamyr turns Level 63!

After what has seemed like forever, Jeamyr has finally gained another level! Just a few more quests to do in Zangarmarsh & it will be off to Terokkar Forest. I'm really looking forward to level 64 as Jeamyr will get the Wrath of Air Totem! This totem seems to be a perfect match for Jeamyr's elemental build! It increases spell damage &, since it is an air totem, will combine with Totem of Wrath, which provides a bonus to spell hit & spell crit! This one/two punch should be amazing!

I've still been playing Devarien a lot! I've gotten his leatherworking skill up to 375 & have been able to make some really awesome armor! All I can say is thank goodness for daily quests....lol. Without them I would be completely broke ;-) The materials for some of these recipes are crazy! One required 16 primal fire & 16 primal shadow! I was able to farm some, but I just couldn't stand the grind necessary to farm 160 motes for each kind! So, I had to buy some from the auction house & that cost me! However, after a couple of days of daily quests, I was able to make up the money I lost...phew! The thing I'm most excited about is that I might be going to my first Kara run with my guild tonight! I can't wait!

Instances are Fun!!!

Well, I've been focusing a lot more on Devarien these days & doing stuff with my new Guild! As a result, the leveling progress with my shaman has slowed down quite a bit. Jeamyr is level 62 now & is working in Zangarmarsh. Hopefully, I'll get him to 63 by the end of the week.

I am really enjoying running instances with my Guild. They are really great to group with! So far I have been able to get the key for Arcatraz & am on the last step for a Kara key! I know I don't need to have a Kara key anymore to be able to go, but it was a very fun quest chain & by doing it, I got to check out some really cool instances. Right now, I am trying to get Devarien to 375 leatherworking so that I can try to make the epic dragonscale leatherworking armor for hunters. He is currently at 369, so I'm getting close. I'm also working on fishing & cooking. I neglected these secondary professions before & am now trying to max them out. For hunters, cooking is really cool. I hope to be able to make warp burgers & Kibler's Bits for my pet!

I'm still determined to finish my quest to have a level 70 of each class, but it just seems that my last character might take a bit longer to finish then usual =)

Jeamyr gets his first Outland's Spell!

Jeamyr turned level 62 over the weekend & was able to pick up Water Shield. This spell is perfect for his Elemental spec! It lasts for 10 minutes & gives a ton of mp5, even when casting! This will definitely make Jeamyr more mana efficient & will hopefully reduce the down time between fights when leveling. I've been grouping Jeamyr with my friend Jim's mage, Athame. Things are going well. We finished up Hellfire & are just starting Zangermarsh. I was able to 3 box my paladin, mage & Jeamyr in order to get all the Hellfire group quests done!

Jeamyr hits 60 & gets a new spec!!!

After 60 levels of being an Enhancement Shaman, I finally thought it was time to try out a different spec. I decided to give Elemental a try and respecced to 41/0/10. Don't get me wrong, enhancement is an awesome leveling build, but I was just itching to try something new. Another part of my decision was the fact that many of the Outland quest rewards seem to be geared towards elemental shamans rather than enhancement shamans.

My first impressions on my new elemental build is that I'm not sure I like it...lol. I was expecting it to play a lot like a mage, but it's nowhere near as efficient as a mage. Unless I'm missing something, as an elemental shaman, you have no way to snare your target. As a result, as soon as you pull, you don't have a lot of time before the mob gets into melee range. I'm only able to get off 2 or 3 lightning bolts before the mob starts beating on me, then it becomes difficult to cast a lightning bolt because you keep on loosing casting time. Another problem is that a shaman has no way to root a target to gain some range again. I guess the idea is that since you have mail armor & a shield, you should be able to take some damage and finish the mob off with melee attacks and your shocks. So far, this spec seems fairly mana inefficient. However, in 2 levels I will get Water Shield, so maybe that will help.

I'm not going to make a hasty judgment, so I'll try this spec out for a few levels before I give up on it. The good thing is that all the gear I get should be helpful if I decide to switch to a restoration spec down the road.

Jeamyr dings level 55!

So, Jeamyr reached the mid-way point of his 50's yesterday & still has a bunch of quests left in Un'goro Crater to do. He hasn't even set foot in Felwood, Winterspring or the Plaguelands, so reaching level 60 should be no problem at all. If you've noticed, Jeamyr's appearance hasn't changed much in the last couple of screenshots. That's because I really haven't been able to upgrade much of his gear since he turned level 40. There has been a trend I have noticed for the last couple of characters I have leveled where low level items have been ridiculously expensive on the auction house. I mean green items in the level 40 to 50 range are selling for 8 to 10 gold a piece! There is just no way I am going to spend that kind of money on items I know I will replace on the first day I start questing in the Outlands. There also seems to be a smaller supply of lower level items. Maybe that is driving up the prices? There is also the problem that since you are leveling so fast, you outgrow your gear before you have a chance to save up the gold to buy replacements. I also think that the quest rewards in the 40 to 60 level ranges need to be revamped so that they scale better with the leveling enhancements from the last patch.

Character Profile: Jeamyr - The Last!

My Orc Shaman hit level 40 this week! Assuming that my warrior & druid hit level 70 first, Shaman represents the last class I'll need to level to accomplish my goal of having a level 70 character for each character class in WoW. I'm not really sure why shaman ended up being the last class in my progression. Jeamyr isn't the first shaman I've created. Over a year ago, I started a Tauren Shaman, but never stuck with him. I picked the Tauren race for its cool War Stomp racial skill. However, I just couldn't get into the character. He was soooo big and cumbersome, it made his running speed seem extremely slow compared to the other races. My Tauren didn't last too long and was eventually deleted and having a shaman went on the back burner.

Several months later, I read the excellent Warcraft novels "Rise of the Horde" and "Lord of the Clans", and I just had to create an Orc Shaman. I think from a lore perspective, having an Orc Shaman is the only way to go! I loved the story line of how the Orcs' original shamanistic way of life was corrupted by demon influence and how Thrall was able to redeem the Orc race and bring them back to their shaman ways. I was really eager to give Shaman another try. Unfortunately, leveling a Shaman to 40 has been the toughest of any of the classes I've tried!

I did a lot of research on the best spec for leveling a shaman. My conclusion was that an enhancement shaman was the way to go. The first 30 levels were really tough. An enhancement shaman is primarily a melee class, yet you only get to wear leather until level 40. Also, you do not get any special melee attacks. My usual encounter would consist of pulling with Lightning Bolt, casting flame shock and then auto-attacking until the mob was dead reapplying an appropriate shock when the cool down was up. As far as weapon choices, you can go with a one hander and shield or a 2 handed weapon. With the 1h and shield option, it just took too long to kill enemies, so I went with a 2h axe to take advantage of the Orc racial trait. Still, with no special melee attacks fighting seemed to take a long time when compared to other classes. A shaman's ability to deal with a multiple mobs is not too good either. The only option that seemed to work for me was dropping a Stoneclaw Totem, which will taunt away the add and has a chance of stunning it. You just have to hope you can kill your current target before the Stoneclaw runs out or else you'll have multiple mobs pounding on you and certain death. At level 30, things got slightly better with the skill of Windfury Weapon. Windfury adds a significant amount of dps to your attacks. The only problem is that its' proc rate with a 2h weapon seemed to be low. I found myself hoping it would proc during each fight and being disappointed if it didn't.

Then you reach your 40's and the Shaman class changes night and day. You get to wear mail armor, you get to dual wield and you get the Stormstrike melee attack. With Windfury on both of your weapons, it seems to proc multiple times during each fight. Stormstrike is a strong melee attack and having mail armor increases your survivability. I find that fights go much quicker now and I am really starting to enjoy the Shaman class! Once Jeamyr reaches his 60's, I might switch him to a restoration spec, but for now I look forward to continuing as an Enhancement Shaman.