Tada! She's back!

I've finally started playing my Shadow Priest after parking her last June (2008) over Shattrath on her flying mount. I did pull her out and manage to go 1% into level 70 over the past year, but just didn't have any interest in playing her. Now that Sithi is 80, in a raiding guild and is going to try the whole raiding scene, I thought it was time to get Sas out and start leveling her.

She's far far behind on the achievement list, her guild is full of the alts of the people she played with as they've progressed on AND I had to relearn how to play a Shadow Priest after a year.

Having not played her in so long it took about two hours of looking at her talents - trying to remember what and why - setting up keybindings, then finding a rotation that worked but didn't drain mana. We've settled on SW:P, Mind blast, Mind Flay for most single targets, bubble/wand if needed. Rarely using the other DoTs on single target as they're dead much to quickly.

She also needed glyphs, enchants too, so drained what money she had saved! So, lots of catch up!

Fortunately she doesn't have any difficult professions to level (mining/herbing were both maxed, fishing still low, but doable), the worst has been getting her cooking caught up. This dictated a side trip out to Silithus and Felwood to grind out those last levels killing and cooking worms and bears until the Outland recipes came up. Fishing/hunting in Outlands was short and sweet, so she's caught up to Northrend cooking already - yeah!


As this was one of my favorite PvP characters (maxed honor two and half times before level 70), I'm looking forward to diving back into that once she's hit 80. (I tried Winter Grasp and Strand of the Ancients - those are fun!) I've always enjoyed the battlegrounds in WoW - actually glad they keep adding them.


I'm actually trying a new leveling process - following Jame's leveling guide over at Wow-pro.com . So far it's working fantastic! The directions are clear, the circuits may seem odd, but saves lots of back and forth running and the xp has been rolling along. He's really got the kinks out of the process. I've read many of his instance guides (and other contibutors on wow-pro), it really helps make sure you have all the quests and don't miss out on xp/loot. I know some people are against guides, but you still have to do the work, it's not automatic, just simplifies the routes.

In three sessions (this includes the run to Silithus and Outlands recipe chasing) we knocked out Howling Fjord, started our Kal'uak rep dailies (I have a lust for their Mastercrafted Kal'uak Fishing Pole!) and have made our way to Warsong Hold in Borean Tundra.

Fighting the Scourge, and seeing Kel'Thuzad (he's that freaky model I've run into in Northrend - just creeps me out!) while flying on a magic carpet - full of win!

It seems to me that Shadow Priests are either much easier to play than I remember or else playing all the other characters has made me a tad more confident and - dare I say it - a better player, as we're having no trouble in chain pulling or handling multiple mobs (3-4 same level), something I never tried in the past.