To the future!

I'd like to celebrate the first week of this blog by sharing my writing and WoW related goals. I want Enhancement by Night to be a journey that we undertake together, dear reader. To torture an old saying: "the journey may be more important than the destination, but wandering around aimlessly makes for pretty poor reading." Indeed, can it even be a journey at all if there wasn't some final goal to travel towards? To give you an idea of what to expect on this (hopefully) long and strange trip, here are my resolutions.

In WoW I want to transition from a primary healer to a primary damage-dealer at least part of the time. There are three obstacles to overcome on my way to this goal. The first is a lack of hit rating on my current enhancement gear. Right now I have 100 points of hit rating on my gear, and my target is to have a minimum of 130. The second is to replace my current dual wielding weapons (a pair of fast daggers) with a set of much slower axes or maces. (Look for a more indepth exploration of +hit and weapon speed mechanics next week!) The third obstacle is a lack of real-world enhancement experience. I need to develop that skillset before I would feel comfortable asking to be counted as a damage dealer.

My goal for the blog is to bring regular content to this page. If I don't have regular updates, then I don't deserve regular readers. Simple as that. I'm aiming for 3 substantial posts each week, and at least a short post every weekday. I'm hoping to cover all aspects of the shaman class at least in passing, though the emphasis will likely be on the Enhancement spec.

I'm excited to have finished one week in the WoW blogging business, and I'm looking forward to what will hopefully be many more.

What's in a name?

I began playing Prankapple to put another healer into my guild's healing rotation. You see, I had tried to level up a priest before with no success at all. Casting's just not my forte, and the little priestlings would never make it past level 20. So I was thrilled when I heard that TBC would bring shamans into the Alliance. My plan was that I would Enhance my way to 70, respec into Restoration and take some of the load off of our poor healers. Unfortunately for me, somewhere along the way I fell in love with enhancement.

Prankapple's been 70 for a long time now, and most of that has been spent with at least 41 points in Restoration. That said, my favorite thing to do with a shaman is to respec to Enhancement, grab a big ol' two-hander and start smashing people. Before TBC I played, among other things, a hunter and a fury warrior. Enhancement combines the hunter's wicked huge crits with the warrior's flurry and adds neat things like Frost Shock, Windfury and totems. How could you not love that?

"Enhancement by Night" sums up this shamaning experience. My day job is healing, my after hours passion is dealing dps. This blog will detail my experiences and lessons in both roles.