Dranei love

Boy oh boy do I love my newly dranei shaman! I've been healing dungeons with her and just decided to level 88-90 as elemental. While I'm still not sold on the elemental playstyle (I hate Lightning Bolt), Calyx sure does look cool while she's doing it. The dranei casting animations are a wonder to behold. Coolest of all is the animation for Unleash Elements, which is just kind of a meh swooshy thing on my tauren, but is an all-out YEEAAH on Calyx, with flame bursting up around her. I

Like my enhancement shaman, however, Calyx is rather squishy during questing, even with pretty decent gear from dungeons, the AH and a hand-me-down Klaaxi staff from Mnium. I've heard it said before on the official forums, and I completely agree that shamans are rather hampered by the lack of an instant cast self-heal or bubble, something that many other classes have. I was amazed at how much less damage Calyx received when she had her Earth Shield from Ban Bearheart at the beginning of Townlong Steppes. Why do only Resto shammies get to have Earth Shield? Not only would it be extremely useful for dps specs, but it looks cool as heck swirling around at the same time as Lightning Shield like a little planetary system!

I just began questing on Calyx again recently, because the past few days I have been a bit obsessed with leveling her engineering skill. This is for one reason only- goggles! They look damned cool, and I have wanted to be able to equip them on one toon or another ever since I learned they existed in game. So here are her first transmogrify-able goggles, a BC recipe. Leveling engineering hasn't been as difficult or expensive as I thought it would be, since Calyx is leveling her mining at the same time. She has just begun Cata-era recipes, and will be looking for Obsidium in Mt. Hyjal as soon as she has finished leveling to 90.

Leveling as elemental hasn't been so bad, despite my not being too enthused with the rotation. Maybe it's riding around on a yak, her cute little sporebat pet from back home, or her lovely new duds, but I'm enjoying watching Calyx run around slaughtering all the things. I'm reminded once again of how important visual aesthetics are for me- one of the biggest reasons this game has sucked me in is that I just really like how it looks. I may not currently be in a creative phase where I am making art of my own, but every time I log into WoW I feel like I am participating in a piece of art. Without this visual appeal, no amount of content and achievements would have kept my interest for so long.