The Girl Plays WoW: Level 85 baby, yeah!

Where do I even begin?

Cataclysm hit us on the 7th December and as of 10.30pm on the 12th December I dinged 85:

Now I can release a sigh of relief and breathe...finally since I started playing in October 2010, I have finally reached the level cap...and what a journey it has been! Highs, lows, laughter and even tears...and now the hard work truly begins...getting myself at a high enough standard to do raids and enjoy them.

So the round up of the first week of Cataclysm week is as follows:

First dungeon I completed was the Blackrock Caverns, found it difficult at first, but on my subsequent runs managed to prevent anyone from dying. Of course, the very nice trinket Witching Hourglass drops on our first run and I roll need, and a mage rolls need, and I lost, but I got it on our third run which made me a very happy Priestess indeed.

Second dungeon we did was Throne of the Tides, I think its not only the prettiest instance, but one of the prettiest places in the game, in fact the whole of Vashj'ir is beautiful. I've done it a couple of times now and find it to be very hectic healing wise, and quite draining on of the old mana...but its so stunning, I forgive it.

(and yep I got the needy achievement whilst in there too)

Third dungeon I did was Vortex Pinnacle, and goodness me...damage taken was shocking...Unfortunately I hadn't got my 85 ability leap of faith (which I adore...and I'm annoying the husband very muchly by constantly pulling him towards me...I try and time it just so he's doing something like choosing a quest reward...such a bad wife! ) and so we lost a death knight when we have to run into the grounding field. However, jumping into the whirlwinds to get from one platform to another was super fun:

Fourth dungeon was Stonecore, strangely enough, I can barely remember the instance and its probably because I don't think there was anything particular special about it unlike the vortex pinnacle with the whirlwinds, or the beauty of Throne of the Tides, the only thing I remember about it is thousands upon thousands of mobs, in fact the quest was to kill 101 of them...but they didn't hit hard. The dungeon went without any problems and I think, the reason I don't remember it is because it was so uneventful, and so I'm unsure as to whether or not this a good thing?

Finally this week we did our first run in Grim Batol....my least favourite dungeon so far. We wiped 5 or 6 times, and this is on normal mode...I cant imagine how hard it would be on heroic. It didn't help much that one of our guildies on the run with us, has very low DPS. He was originally specced as a tank and he is now in the process of respeccing to damage, he's also had a long break from the game and so is learning the new rotations etc, but it does make my life harder as he takes so much damage, and it makes life harder for the other DPS, who get annoyed, try and kick him out and then quit when the vote fails. Forgive me, but wasn't everyone new once? How are you supposed to learn how to play if more experienced players have no patience...why is it that dungeons are such a rush, why cant I take in what is going on? What gives a person the right to be so conceited and arrogant...are we not all on the same playing field now that cataclysm is here? It's the one thing that annoys the hell out of me, and lessens my enjoyment of the game (rant over, phew!) I'm sure on my second run through the instance it will go much better because I will know what to expect, and so will the tank and everyone else.

I tried as much as possible whilst levelling to visit the new areas, Vashjir is a lot of fun, Uldum is definitely my favourite. Deepholm has some interesting graphics but I find it a bit bleak, and we also saw the Twilight Highlands, at first I found it my least favourite of all the areas, and then somewhere in the middle is the cut scenes with Deathwing and that made up for it completely! That is one thing I'm loving with cataclysm - the cut scenes, they are really enjoyable to watch and give you a reason for doing the things you are doing, if like me, you are not fully aware of the lore and of course, the references to pop culture always make me smile...

and of course, I had to complete the Crucible of Carnage...its terribly bugged and wiped a fair few times, and I was fairly disappointed with the reward, but never mind - we did it!