The Big Update Post

Shaman Update
Yep, still waitin' for Patch 3.08 to drop so I can stop referring to my Shaman's spec as Lolemental. Sure I could run back to Enhancement, but I've been having too much fun standing in the back and slingin' spells around. It's just fun for a change, and truth be told, my "unoriginal DK alt" has taken over the melee role quite nicely (more on that later).

Got to Honored with the Sons of Hodir for the basic shoulder enchant, so now begins the long road to the fancier version and sweet ride. Just a few heroic runs away from Exalted with Wyrmrest which I'm pretty excited about, too. Now I just need to find a few random world drop epics so I can fund wings for the alts.

The guild will be attempting our first official Naxx10 run in a few weeks, so I'm doing my best to get ready... With gems and stuff I've reached the hit cap of 264 (assumes Shadow Priest in the raid), but if I'm reading this chart right, I may be gimping my overall non-raid-boss DPS by having too much hit for regular instances/heroics and trash encounters. I may drop a hit gem for a SP one and munch on hit food prior to a boss fight. Hmm.

Of course, if we wind up short on heals it'll all be somewhat moot as he'll go Resto. I've got a few nice pieces that work well enough for both specs, and with a few MP5 bits in the bank, hopefully I'll be ready for facerolling-chain-heals if needed.

On the profession-front, Jewelcrafting remains the dud it was in TBC. Trainable patterns run out rather rapidly in the early 400s, and you're forced to buy new ones using shards or worse yet, tokens from doing dailies. Ugh. In Blizzard's defense, the array of cuts available to learn is much greater than before (along with some really nice JC-only cuts), but the grind has increased too. Stuck at 422.

Death Knight Update
Currently rocking a mostly-frost-tankish build with some DPS talents, he's been able to do both roles reasonably well as he makes his way through the mid-70s. While melee DPS'in is always fun, I've really grown fond of the tanking role. There's an added sense of responsibility I'm enjoying as you lead the group through a dungeon, making tactical decisions and holding mob's attentions while your team beats them to virtual pulps.

He's two bubbles shy of 75 at this point, and I gotta say Blacksmithing has really paid off for him (currently 426). The new craftable tanking gear is really nice (Cobalt "set" for lower 70s, Tempered "set" for mid-70s). Eventually looking forward to the Tempered Titansteel stuff at 80, along with the recently-announced tanking weapons that will be introduced next patch. I'm just bummed that the Axe has defense while the Sword has parry... but I'll still probably go for the sword for the aesthetics and make up for the lost defense by adding sockets to armor pieces.

Priest Update
Haelus is secretly my favorite alt. The little guy just has so much attitude it cracks me up. He gets all my other toon's cloth drops, and has manged to get up to 423 tailoring or so at level 74. Not too shabby. His second profession (lol 220 mining) is way under Northrend levels, so that'll need to be rectified at some point. I powerleveled mining on the DK at great expense, but may have to do the same for the priest.

Anywho, he mostly just sits near a mailbox in Dalaran waiting for cloth to arrive; or answers the occasional guild-chat call for a mid 70s healer.

Druid Update
Sigh. It's true, I do miss the changeling. He's currently languishing at 70, without really a role to fill in my stable of toons. /sadface. So until I figure it out, he'll be doing jello shots, telling bad jokes, and making passes at the barmaids at Valguard Keep Inn.