Life has been busy these past few weeks, but I’ve been thinking about what I’d write when I had a chance to sit down and make a few entries.

Besides the bustle of Christmas and New Years (which were wonderful, hope yours were too), there were a number of in-game opportunities to raid and do heroics with my relatively-new guildmates in this raiding guild I joined a month before WoTLK came out.

Our guild council decided long before WoTLK came out that we wouldn’t officially start guild raids (25 man, that is) until the New Year, giving everyone 6 weeks to get to 80 and get a bit geared up for re-entering into the End Game experience.

Having hit level 80 three weeks after the expansion pack came out, however, I was ready to raid a lot earlier than the New Year, as were many of my guildmates.

We ended up fielding a number of 10 man raids over the holidays, generally running two groups at the same time because we were a few shy of being able to run with 25. We also got two nights of 25 man raiding in, during the same week even, but none of those raids were official.

In the mean time, everyone was allowed to PUG as they saw fit, but most of us saved our ID for a guild run, since there were enough outside of the Officer core who wanted to run things on a weekly basis.

Documented Priestly Process

One thing I thought would be highly valuable was the thought of documenting a lot of the “just hit 80, getting ready for my first Naxx run” things I went through, so I took the time at the crucial moments to record pre-Naxx stats, gear lists + sources, and other things I was learning about what Consumables and what Enchants and Gems are best for me in my current (Holy) spec.

I spent a lot of time researching information about the Holy Priest in the new WoTLK era, especially because until recently I had been the only level 80 Holy Priest in our guild and there was simply nobody to turn to for advice. I spent hours pouring over information on various websites in order to gather this information together.

If you’re looking for that kind of detailed data, consider checking out my new mini-guides on various Level 80 Priest Gearing topics:

• Level 80 Holy Priest Consumables List
• Level 80 Priest Gearing Guide
• Level 80 Holy Priest Gemming and Enchanting Guide

Loving Heroics, Loving The Raids

I’ve had a great time with this expansion, with all the new dungeons and the new raid zones I’m going into.

I feel like the Heroics are like mini-raids in terms of their fight complexity for the boss fights – sure, some fights are way easier than others, but things like avoiding the Dragon’s Breath in Utgarde Pinnacle reminds me very much of the Felmyst fight in Sunwell, and Loken’s Lightning Aura that kills so many players in Halls of Lightning has raid-like dynamics, too.

Each of the bosses that require special dances to take down (partially because we’re not all overgeared right now) are especially delightful to me.

Painful PUGs, Delightful PUGs

One of the things that is going on right now in the game is that people who got into Heroics and Raids after the big 3.0.2 nerf of raids and buff of characters are jumping straight into Heroics and Raids as soon as they hit 80, because it worked for them at 70 and they know that’s where the great gear is.

Unfortunately for them, Heroics and Raids are actually challenging right now, and especially in the Heroics range, if you can’t pull your own weight then it’s noticable in the party.

THIS is why I got into a good raiding guild just before WoTLK came out. While I still PUG a lot and some are painful and some aren’t, it’s always nice to have a fall-back group of people who I know WON’T provide a painful experience.

How’s your WoTLK coming along?