Tank like a girl

79.5, that’s where Kadomi’s at, followed by my shaman at 76. I probably won’t hit 80 tonight, as I work til 11 pm today, but tomorrow it’s going to happen. I just finished off the last quests in Zul’Drak, hitting the quest achievement, so I am going to hit 80 in Sholazar Basin, which is cool, I can do massive mining sessions right after hitting 80. To my shame I haven’t gotten a single bar of Titansteel yet, I am short one ore to smelt my first one.

I have professed my love for Dragonblight before, because the quests there felt so epic, so full of story, and then when I hit Grizzly Hills, I was really disappointed. Like all zones so far, Grizzly Hills has a story, but it wasn’t anywhere as captivating as Dragonblight. I do like the elements of the corruption of Vordrassil, and it’s my wank that the mysterious unnamed raid instance for 3.3 is going to see Yogg-Saron as end boss. The one redeeming quality for Grizzly Hills though? The quest chain introducing Drakuru. That was just freaking cool. As usual, a quest NPC makes you jump through hoops, and it’s your fault for having created an evil troll overlord to conquer Zul’Drak for the Lich King. Very nice touch.

Which takes me right to Zul’Drak, which I completely and totally loved. It’s my favorite zone so far, quest-wise. The Scourge-side had the great Drakuru quest chain where you spend your time as ghoul. So much fun. I cursed a lot in the final event but eventually got the hang of it. All those vehicle and pet quests make me feel like a loser. Speaking of vehicle quest, how cool is it to ride on the back of a giant and squish Scourge, pick them up and throw them around? Very cool.

Moving on to the live troll side of Zul’Drak on the next tier, you get the story of a troll empire, where the Drakkari were so desperate to battle the Scourge that they killed their animal gods and absorbed their power, leaving only one animal god behind. I so loved that quest chain, and really had a lore-squee moment when the Zandalari summoned the ghosts of Halazzi, Nalorakk, Jan’alai and A’kilzon for advice. I am such a troll lore fangirl. I am sad that I am done with Zul’Drak, and I can’t wait to see Gundrak.

Naturally, I loved Drak’tharon Keep as instance. It was beautiful, and the mechanics of the last boss were pretty neat. I am not fully sold on Violet Hold. I probably just need to run it more often to get as comfortable with it as I was with Black Morass. I have yet to find out where those emergency switches are. Not that we ever needed them. It was a bit rougher to heal than to tank in there.

Gear-wise, I am pretty happy on Kadomi. I think the gear plan is well under-way and I am sitting at 20.5k armor, 18.5k health unbuffed and 521 defense now. I have zero enchants, and very few gems, so I really think 540 is not going to be a problem. From my shopping list, I got the Stratholme trash shoulders from a guildie, the Wyrmrest cloak and the Argent Crusade pants.

I need to start making light plans for our first 10-man ventures. Based on our current roster, it’s possible I’d actually heal before tanking, as we just lost a healer. Which would make me a little bit sad. Despite my love for shaman healing, tanking will always remain my first love and favorite spec.