Last week of Cataclysm

Nachtmystium the death knight is level 85! I feel particularly good about this achievement, having resurrected her from the cobwebs of Outland, powering her through the last 20 levels, and coming out at the end feeling like I really, really like the post-patch DK. So much so that I think she'll be my first toon into Pandaria. So here she waits in Orgrimmar by the mysterious Pandaren encampment with adventure just around the corner!

So what to do this last week before the expansion? No point it endgame activities, so I began playing Panthalassa the elemental shaman in hopes that I could get her to level 60 and buy her flying mount, making future leveling efforts a bit easier. She started out at level 47 and is now at 54. My thoughts so far:
1. pre-50 was awful. Why are my talents so dull? Awful damage, three buttons, oh, my totems! I hate lightning bolt spam, so slow and so little damage! I can has Fireball?

2. post-50 is a bit better. Lava Surge and Earth Shock procs! Getting the hang of totems- think of them as DOTs, cast the appropriate ones before you start your rotation. I still hate lightning bolt spam, beware quest mobs I will NIBBLE YOU TO DEATH!

The elemental shaman exercise was also a prelude to figuring out enhancement again so I can get Wapsi into Pandaria in a timely manner. The opening of the Theramore scenario on Monday seemed like a good time to blow the cobwebs off of Wapsi and get used to her rotation again. My thoughts on this process are as follows:

1. Shaman talents- still kind of dull. Can't wait for Ascendance, Blizzard, I have FAITH that you are balancing wet noodle pre-90 shamans around this AWESOME talent!

2. Theramore as Horde. I zoned in a bit late and the other 2 people in the party were already sabotaging ships. Not too hard to follow the map and instructions to get up to speed though. I seem to be getting more oomph from my healing spells which came in handy. Still doing decent damage but then Wapsi's ilevel is over 380. Overall the scenario was kind of a faceroll and since I haven't read the book it didn't make a lot of sense. I might run it again on my mage for the Alliance perspective but that's about all.

3. Ran Madness on LFR to get a little more playtime in on Wapsi. Whereas I was usually in the top 5 on DPS for this fight, this time I was hovering around 10-12. Short Searing Totem stinks, need to set up an add-on for reminders. Dropping 2-4 totems at a time rather than all in one keypress is messing me up a bit too. My biggest complaint though: Enhancement to me used to feel smooth and deadly, bam bam bam Laaaava Burst bam! bam bam...now it feels clunky, with a lot more dead space. The instants don't seem to "fit" as well as they used to, and no more Lava Burst? Am I missing something I should be doing when everything else is on cooldown? So yeah, I'm not happy with enhancement now. I hope the rotation smooths out for me during questing from 85-90.

Something good did come out of that shaman-y evening, something that NEVER, NEVER happens for me: I got a random pet drop! Panthalassa was killing oozes in Winterspring and found this!

I believe my exact reaction was something like this:

I don't even want to know how much I could have sold this guy for on the AH. I learned him immediately! Cute fat little dragon!