Intro to Shamanism and loot drama. . .

Well, first of all, the intro to shamanism I'm talking about is not "walk with the earth mother" . . .maybe thats druid. . .I get the tauren confused, damn hippies, all look the same anyways. Anyways, I am talking about a fresh 60, have a chance to have a tree mostly filled out, and how things play out.

Enhancement:
I hadnt planned on sticking with enhancement. I mean I like it, dual wielding is fun, but my goal was always dual spec Elemental/Resto at 80. I figured 60 was a good time to make the switch. And then I discovered the awesomeness that is spirit wolves. Now, my goal is still to stand back and hurl lightning in a raid setting, prolly heroics too, but for everything till then, I'm going enhancement all the way. I remember when leveling my warrior, I would get overwealmed very quickly. 2-3 mobs and it became a war of attrition I would lose. Now, I pop magma totem, earthbind totem (for those pesky runners), mana spring totem, and spirit wolves. I've taken down 7 mobs at once my level, and I don't think thats the upper limit. Hit shamanistic rage and it's like free mana and health all the time. In short, I just feel like enhancement has too many tools for leveling to give it up at this stage. That may change if I decide to try leveling by BG's as my friend Ruhtra suggested.

Restoration:
I am starting to think that the most complicated part of healing is learning the abilities and getting healbot set up how you want it. I will be honest, I'm not there yet. I think I got to the point with my druid that I knew what to do when, and it was just a question of gear. Shaman healing is. . .different. I don't even have a full set of resto gear yet (I'm 62, it will take some time), but I am pretty impressed so far. Earth shield and earthliving weapon are solid bonuses, and I seem to be able to do a decent job with riptide/lesser healing wave on the main tank. My biggest issue seems to be over casting (I'm too used to druids who cast lil HoTs constantly) and running out of mana. I think once I get used to it, I will love druid healing and my orc still looks like he could kick some ass in his resto gear, which is a bonus.

Loot drama:
Oh how I love loot drama. Wait, I don't. So my newly 60 shammy is running around hellfire, and I see someone in general looking for DPS for blood furnace. Now I despise that instance, but for clothies or shammies, its like required. ossum lewts in ther. Anyways, so our group consists of a warrior tank, a tauren deathtard, me, a shadow priest, and a resto druid healing. Now, I hate being in instances with tauren. They are too big, get in the way and I can't target around them. That having been said, we get to the first boss, and he drops the necklace. It has strength, stam, and agility on it. I'm still wearing a level 50 quest item, so I need on it, as does the deathtard. I win the roll, and proceed to equip the necklace. Then the warrior starts spouting off about how its a tanking necklace blah blah blah.

Begin rant: douchebag, they have not yet instituted the change where shammies do not benefit from strength for attack power. Furthermore, your deathtard buddy got a necklace from questing way better than what I was wearing. Also, while I don't get a huge benefit from strength, he gets about an equivalent benefit from agility. If it was a tanking necklace, it would have defense on it, and then I wouldn't have rolled. How about you try to know what the hell you're talking about before you say in party chat "learn how to gear your class". End Rant

I did pull somewhat of a n00b move in a different run. We were in ramps, and the hammer drops. Now I could have sworn that hammer was one handed so I needed on it. I'm sure it's been two handed the whole time so it is worthless to me, but no one else in our party could have used it, so I don't feel too bad. I did win a greed roll on the leather waist which got gemmed and will be my belt for my enhancement set :-)

So in summary, shammies are awesome, douchebags in pugs, and I'm semi oblivious.