Healer Musings

I've been leveling my new Priest, Ariadust. Discipline healing through dungeons.

First of all, I have never had good experiences with Bear tanks until today. I had my first good bear tank today! Usually they don't hold aggro, but this one did! That was actually a really smooth run.

Also, no matter how many times I do Shadowfang Keep, I don't think Baron Ashbury's Asphyxiate will ever stop being unsettling. Watching everyone's HP drop to 0 like that is really stressful! That, and the room in Deadmines with the Foe Reaper 5000. When people get into the other Harvesters, and their HP is really low, but it doesn't let me heal them...I always panic!

5LP: Octofish level 5!

And this is my wonderful new Draenei Warrior, Octofish!

5LP: Decorum Level 10!

Okay, okay, so I skipped the level 5 post for her...

Anyway, here's my lovely level 10 Dwarf Mage!

With her foot clipping through the ground, of course.

I picked Fire Mage as my spec, but I'm kind of torn between that or Arcane. Well, that's what dual-spec is for, right! She's wearing the cloth heirlooms for head, back, and legs. So that's what? 25% bonus exp? That's pretty good!

I really need to get another int heirloom cape. It's annoying to constantly send it back and forth for when I want a healer and when I want a mage or something. I have two agility cloaks, for some reason, so I just need another int one!

5LP: Izaria Level 5

Go go go!

So...new WoW characters

Basically just reset my Tanaris characters. I want to start from scratch because I lot of things happened that contributed to me not playing for a while, so starting over seems like a good plan.
The only "original" character I have now is Theeriyi, my level 90 Windwalker Monk. On Tanaris at least. I still have, like, Quintella and my Horde characters on Earthen Ring, and all my actual original characters on Nazgrel.

So now I've got (all at level 1):

Ariadust - Draenei Priest
Octofish - Dwarf Warrior
Decorum - Night Elf Mage
Archanique - Human Warlock
Glamaraa - Draenei Shaman
Pannya - Worgen Druid
Tsumini - Gnome Rogue
Izaria - Draenei Paladin
Shoutiger - Human Hunter
Novelii - Draenei Monk

Didn't want a Death Knight.

My plans are:
Ariadust - Disc/Shadow
Octofish - Arms/Prot?
Decorum - Fire/Arcane
Archanique - Affliction/Destruction? Maybe the other way around?
Glamaraa - Resto/Ele
Pannya - Balance/Resto
Tsumini - Sub/don't know yet
Izaria - Holy/don't know yet
Shoutiger - Marksman/don't know yet
Novelii - Mistweaver/Windwalker

5-Level-Project is going to come back properly. I'll actually document it this time! I know I was getting lazy last time I played.

Really?

Hi! I'm playing WoW...again...for the fire festival...

I've been playing WoW for about six years or so, and I always get back into it at the time of the Fire Festival. I think it's the only event I ever have really played for.

Getting real sick of throwing fire torches.

Every. Single. Year.

Still leveling along!

Leveling feels a whole lot slower now, which is certainly troubling, but Lady Elza is now level 32!

I'm still loving her, so that isn't an issue. It's probably the first time I've ever been completely happy with a character's appearance, which is probably primarily due to the Dry Bones set dyed to Emerald and Envy...so we'll see how I feel later, but regardless!

Now I just wish I could like my other characters so much! In particular, I really want to be happy with a Mesmer.

I'm still worried about end-game with my Necromancer, since I keep reading that they're not very well-liked in dungeons, particularly if they use primarily conditions, which happens to be what I use on her. I have a dagger as my alternate weapon, but I just don't like it as much. I play and enjoy my Necromancer because of the play-style I get from using a Staff. Does any other class have a play-style that is similar? I would happily play a more "accepted" profession if I can use a similar play-style, but I don't think there is one, so I'm stuck with this. If I could do the same thing on a Mesmer I would! I love the concept of the Mesmer class so much more, but I just can't find a play-style that I enjoy as much as Staff Necromancer.

And I want to be able to do dungeons. That's kind of what I'm looking forward to. That and WvW, but dungeons appear to have nicer rewards (I want the Twilight Arbor set so much!).

Characters!

New pictures of my new characters!



First off, here is my darling Necromancer, Lady Elza. She is level 30! She uses a Staff and Dagger + Dagger.



This is Mari Snapdragon, my Guardian. She uses a Greatsword and is level 4. 

This is Willow Twigsnap, my Engineer. She uses Pistol + Pistol and is level 2.

 

This is Iris Sunpetal, my Mesmer. I haven't decided what weapons to use with her yet (aiming towards Scepter + Sword again), but she is level 2.
 

And this is Dahlia Pebbleroot, my Elementalist. I haven't decided on a weapon, but she is level 2.

Updates!

My Necromancer is now level 30! Yay!

I am having zero issues with her besides the usual leveling rut. Despite that, I have yet to feel the urge to delete her. I could not be happier with her appearance, especially since she really rocks Dry Bones armor. I almost don't know if I'm excited or not to switch to racial armor in five more levels! It just doesn't suit her. If I ever get to 80 with her I'm probably going to transfigure (is that the word in this game? I know it isn't transmog) my armor sets to use the Dry Bones skin because it's gorgeous on her if you use deep greens. It matches great with her dark purple skin and hair!

Despite that, the rest of my characters = gone. For the first time I am actually happy with how my character looks, and I would like that to work for the rest of my characters as well. Therefore, I'll keep them at level 5 or so and just contemplate their appearances. If I don't like them, I'll delete them and try again. I'm sure I'll come up with one that I like sooner or later.

My new Iris Sunpetal is a Mesmer, and I'm quite liking her. Like her predecessor, she has bright yellow skin, but I did a skin pattern as well so her hands and feet are white, which is interesting. Her hair is also white. I'm using mint green and banana yellow as the color scheme for her outfit. I messed with the face settings, and she looks quite different and nice.

My new Willow Twigsnap, an Engineer again, is also quite nice. She's a periwinkle color with the usual tree head. I gave her pink eyes instead of black and she has a less tree-like face. Her color scheme is pastel blue and purple.

The rest...eh, not too fond of yet. Mari Snapdragon has been reborn as a red Elementalist, and Dahlia Pebbleroot is now a Guardian, but I'm not feeling their appearances so much. They still need work. And I'm still iffy on having an Elementalist at all, but I can't think of what else to make, so it's the next best thing, basically.

Yes, I should probably be leveling Lady Elza, but I need these distractions from time to time or my interest will wane! It's important!

At last!

Ignoring the fact that I just posted that last update because I forgot to click Publish...

Level 26! I've never been out of Kessex/Brisban, but here we go!

Still making steady progress!

I love my Sylvari Necromancer!

I love her because she's a Necromancer, mostly. But having her as a Sylvari also helps because when I was playing as a Human I kept running into people that had the exact same face and hair as me. I  have yet to run into anyone identical to me as my Sylvari except for myself (since my Ranger looks exactly the same, except yellow instead of purple).

For equips right now I have:
Improved Watcher's Helmet, Mighty Magician Mantle of the Lich, Seraph Country Coat, Mighty Magician Gloves of Grenth, Stealthy Country Pants, Improved Watcher's Shoes, Bag of Worm Food, Stolen Bandit Fork, Terebinth Loop, and Mighty Ring. Staff is Shadowed Researcher's Staff. Scepter is Shadowed Researcher's Scepter. Focus is Shadowed Researcher's Focus. Spear is Hunting Harpoon.

Still using a main Staff. I'm thinking of switching to Dagger + Dagger or Dagger + Focus for alternate though, since I'm just not feeling Scepter + Focus.

My Healing skill is still Well of Blood. Utilities are Signet of Spite, Signet of the Locust, and Plague Signet.

Basically, I put down all my Staff marks, and then spam with auto-attack. If I get into a bit of a pinch I'll pop Signet of the Locust. If I need to down, say, a Veteran enemy I'll pop Signet of Spite to stack even more conditions. I have Plague Signet there basically to remove any conditions I have on me, although the group utility is a nice plus. I could put Well of Suffering there instead, or even something like Seed Turret, but I'm happy with this for now. I go into Death Shroud whenever I feel like I want to/need to. I'll sometimes pop in there just to use Life Transfer and Tainted Shackles and then go back to normal form. I love Life Transfer.

I very, very rarely switch my weapon; only really when there's a lot of melee enemies and my marks are all on cooldown and Death Shroud isn't ready. So, not usually.

I've got to say, the experimenting I did the past couple of days with using different professions has really enlightened me into just how much I enjoy my Necromancer. I just kept on dying on my other characters! Nothing beats the sheer survivability of my Necro. Sure, I die occasionally, but not nearly so often, and if I managed to get back up from being downed I can often pull myself together and still make it. Very rarely do I actually die, and that's only against Champions and the occasional Veteran (or being swarmed by Nightmare Court. Yeah, I still have problems with them).

I just know how to play this character. Necromancer was my first profession in GW2, and it seems like I made a good choice at the start. The other professions almost seem boring in comparison. I enjoy the ground targeting and applying conditions, and keeping an eye on my Death Shroud meter. I quickly figured out what to do for all the situations that the game has thrown at me so far.

If I put all Vitality on my equips can I be a Necrotank? Purely out of curiosity. Like, Vitality + Condition Damage or something. I'm just guessing here. I actually don't really understand stats in this game at all. I can't tell if my damage is coming from my conditions or my auto-attack spamming. Or if I'm just delusional and everyone else can kill things ten times faster than me. That's possible too. It always seems like it, but the people I see killing much faster than me also appear to be a much higher level, just dropped down for the zone. So I take it with a grain of salt. I might just be delusional though. Entirely possible.