I still have a rather distinct memory of when I decided to roll Tamaryn, though the “whys” have since largely been lost to the mists of time. I do remember saying in guild chat something akin to “I’m bored, I think I’m gonna roll a druid”, then making one and whispering an officer and being chucked a guild invite within ten seconds of my new character’s existence. I also remember a fellow guildie coming and making a druid alongside me. We did the starter quests together and were soon joined by this random naked hunter who kept challenging us to duels (I always won, because I never let him have range. Class experience for great justice.) When me and my buddy couldn’t shake the guy, we went into the deepest part of this spider cave and got as lost as we could, then hearthed simultaneously, leaving him behind. Good times.
My friend stopped playing his druid once we hit level five or so, and to the best of my knowledge he never played the character again. I kept playing, though, largely because of the sheer nostalgia of playing through the night elf starting area for the first time since Tawyn, my first character.
Upon hitting level ten I put my first tentative points into the Balance tree because I figured I probably would not like melee as much as casting. Leveling was slow going, though, and honestly I probably would have lost interest in the character (as I did all my non-hunters) once I got out of the nostalgia kick that was Darkshore… were it not for that fateful day when a bunch of guildies got on alts all about my level and asked me to heal Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep.
I was very nervous; I had never healed before, ever, well, outside of Mend Pet. Because I was so worried about it, I ran to Darnassus, found the druid trainer, cleared all my talent points, and put them into the Restoration tree. My plan was to respec again and put them back into Balance afterwards.
That didn’t happen.
Because that day, in Deadmines and SFK, I became fascinated with healing. It was like reverse-huntering! It was a completely new experience, so very different than what I’d been doing all this time on my hunters, and I was hooked.
And so, with the exception of a few flirtations with Moonkin-ing (once at level 40, and then again permanently when dual specs came out when I was level 74 or so), I leveled my druid full resto. I RestoKitty’d through the occasional quest, which was slow but effective, but the vast bulk of my leveling was through instances; I kept myself constantly in LFG and shoved myself into as many healing roles as possible. This culminated in a rather unique experience to put on my WoW résumé: I healed almost every five-man instance in the game. At the appropriate level.
It’s been ups and downs, really, but mostly ups.
There was the very slow process of learning about the delicate art of not-healing-too-fast so as not to pull aggro.
The little “squee” I emitted upon running into a group of roleplayers in Southshore when I was leveling there and letting Tamaryn put her fledgling skills to use to aid a “dying” character.
The joy of getting Tree of Life form mid-Maraudon run and using it right there and immediately bursting into /dance.
The rush of winning a single Alterac Valley game (by a hair… literally something like two reinforcements) at level 60 after dozens of losses, and looking at the “healing done” chart afterward and feeling like I had made a tangible difference in the outcome.
There was the perplexity I felt when first learning Lifebloom, because it kept changing all the time– first I was never supposed to let it bloom, then I was, et cetera… not to mention I couldn’t figure out how to use the dang spell, so I quickly resorted to my “healing fetal position” of Rejuvenation + Regrowth.
But then there was the thrill of first hitting 1000 spell power, and soon after, the deep satisfaction of doing Azjol’Nerub and Violet Hold and pulling up the healing meters and realizing that Regrowth had pretty much been completely replaced by what else but that oh-so-stubborn spell Lifebloom– I was, at long last, a bona fide HoT healer.
Yeah, it’s been a pretty crazy ride.
…and yes Virginia, after all these years, Pike finally has an endgame character that isn’t a hunter.
NOW ONWARD TO EPICS!
Congratulations! I hope you like your druid as much as I do mine, although I am admittedly a tank most of the time. But congratulations none the less!
PS. Come back to VeCo, we miss you.
I get it. “Turning over a new LEAF”. Haha.
Congratulations on hitting 80. And I am very impressed with the way you leveled. You really did it right.
GRATS GRATS GRATS! Also, yay for healers! (I know you’re a hunter forever and all, but healing is so much fun, isn’t it?)
I wish you a wonderful journey! The Tree of Life is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?
Grats Pike. Kind of makes me want to level my Druid, but I have too many alts on my plate as it is at the moment.
Grats! Wish I could but I honestly get bored after lvling a non-Hunter to lvl 5 or so, heh. What I love about the ding shot is that it says “You feel normal” at the bottom… when I’m pretty sure you felt like bursting into /dance again!! lol, happy healing!
Grats Pike!! I wish you tons of fun healing, I always enjoyed it:)
Gratz gratz gratz!
Have fun healing! I’m leveling my own pally healer at the moment and love it! Hope you have fun!
Congrats Pike! My first character was a druid, Resto. You almost make me want to play him right now…. I still remember healing with Llan in ZA the first time after proving myself in Pugs just so they’d let me heal (in full blues! XD), and my first time in Naxx, just a few days after the patch, pugged up and healing again in full blues, still coming out on top.
Druid healing is a delightful art. I hope I get interested in mine again, I miss playing Kieran sometimes, but for some reason playing him grates my teeth, and has for a couple months, which is why…er…. I leveled my hunter and started raiding on her. XD Fun reversal, eh? <3
Grats on your healer!
(Also, very cute RSS icon) 😉
*lurker out of the woodwork*
Grats on your drood hitting 80! 😀
Oh god I thought you were quitting from the title! =O
Grats on 80!!! 😀
Gratz on 80 Pike. You’ve reawoken that nagging little voice in the back of my head urging me to roll a druid, as I;ve always wanted to. I might wait until my main’s hit 80 and grabbed some heirloom items for him though…
Grats!!! Druid was my second 80 too, after my hunter. >.>
And yes, healing on druids is fun. I almost want to level another healer to 80, but hunter/druid always pulls me back.
Wooooot!
Yay! Congratulations Pike!
Yeah \o/
Congratz Pike ! Have fun with your little tree ! I can’t wait for your story about healing your first Naxx !
Lategrats! Druids are fun. 😮
I am a hunter at heart, but my first toon, the one I rolled when I was on the trial account was a tauren druid. I thought shapeshifting would be really cool. But, when I was on the trial I knew NOTHING about anything in the game, I was leveling to 30 with a botched balance spec with which I was going bear/kitty and killing stuff with. (yeah. :/)
But my sister rolled a rogue and wanted to level through the troll area with me, so I rolled a hunter and promptly forgot about the druid and leveled with my sister ’till mid 40s when she quit playing due to college. I leveled my main (Artemes the hunter) to 80 and geared her through heroics before I got a bit bored and decided to respec my druid feral and attempt to heal some stuff until I got to 40 and could duel spec.
I did.
And I loved it.
I’m still loving it. Maybe it’s something about being a hunter who has next-to-nothing in the way of buffs to help a group to a resto-druid who’s goal is to heal and keep everyone from dying. From being a DPS where you basically have no pressure (just shoot and make stuff die) to a healer where you have to keep the tank alive or you wipe.
I don’t know. I just love healing, maybe even slightly more than DPSing. Regardless, my druid is level 72 now, slowly inching up to 80. I’m terrified of healing the more interesting fights in Naxx (Lotheb /shiver) but I have a wonderful guild with at least four very good trees that can help me through it. 😀
I think…the majority of hunters have an affinity for healing, to some degree. (My sister’s hunter has become a a banker while she levels her priest)
Congrats! Healing is a blast, I’m glad you enjoy it 😉