I have a confession to make

I'm leveling a resto shaman.  Fast.

My brother whispered me from his druid the other night:

[Brother]: Weren't you 72 yesterday?
[Me]: Yep.
[Brother]: And you're 76 now?
[Me]: Yep.
[Brother]: Wow.

In my defense, it was a four day weekend — for me, anyway.  I have a week and half of vacation time to use or lose before the end of the year, so I'm taking Thursdays and Fridays off for the rest of the month. 

I spent the better part of two days leveling my shaman in Howling Fjord, Dragonblight and Grizzly Hills, in attempt to power myself to 80 and help alleviate the healer shortage currently afflicting my guild.

My guildmates think I'm doing it because I'm a team player.  I put the guild's health (which is tied to its progression; nothing dooms a raiding guild faster than stagnation) above my own enjoyment of the game — which is true.  To an extent.   I'm invested in my guild (it is, after all, my guild) and want it to succeed.  If I have to shelve my beloved 'lock for a while to make it happen, I will.

But, to be completely, 100% honest  ...

I love healing. 

No, really.  Would I lie to you?

(Okay, I would.  But I'm not.  You'll just have to take my word for it.)

One of my guild's former resto shamans, now a Death Knight, posted this in his blog the other day:

Raiding as a healer is exactly the same every time.  Watch the tank's bar and don't let anyone die.  Every encounter is nothing but 25 different bars.

Bet you didn't even know I read your blog, Faelan.

Maybe this is just a "grass is always greener" situation, but I disagree.  I healed briefly on my shaman at level 70 — she was a back-up healer for BT farm raids towards the end of The Burning Crusade — and had the opposite experience:  far from behing exactly the same, every fight was different.

As a DPSer, I have a routine.  It doesn't change much from fight to fight.  Run in, Shadow Bolt, DoT, DoT, DoT, DoT, DoT, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, DoT, run here, run there, DoT, DoT ... over and over again. 

And this is as Affliction, a playstyle I love so much that I wrote a song about it.

As a Destrolock, it was even worse.  Run in, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Bolt, run here, run there, Shadow Bolt, Soul Shatter, Shadow Bolt.  If I was very lucky, and our Affliction 'lock had a late table and missed the raid, I might get to cast a Curse of Elements every two minutes.  Or Soulstone a healer if she was targeted for some kind of gimmicky YOU HAVE 30 SECONDS TO LIVE! RUN OUT! RUN OUT NOW! boss attack.

As a healer, not only do you have to master the movement of the fight, but you are also charged with the responsibility of keeping 24 other people alive — none of whom are ever doing exactly what they did last time. 

Your perspective of the fight may be reduced to 25 health bars, but those health bars are dynamic, damn it.  You have to know your role, and your priorities within that role, and act accordingly. 

I don't want to replace my 'lock as my raiding main, especially now that I've named my blog Fel Fire, but I'm determined to have a viable healing alt for those raid nights that we're down one and neither the ret paladin nor the enhancement shaman is willing to step up to the plate.