My application to the seminary was accepted.

I figured that one of my ongoing problems with Amava is a lack of other people who want to group up. I mean, who really wants to talk to another Night Elf Hunter? To the masses, Amava seems just like any other huntard. Its only a small group, that's hopefully growing, of people who think of me as a hunter worthy of invites, rather than just another joker.

I know I'm always hoping to have a priest join my groups. So why not try that out. A Draenei Priest. This time a male toon, so as to avoid the gender confusion when people hear my voice. I want people to group with me because of either my class (acceptable) or because they've learned that i'm good to work with (way better), not because they want to flirt with a RL girl (poor).

I made a promise with myself. This toon is not meant for end-game content. Sure, maybe someday. But the primary purpose of this toon is to enjoy instances and 5-man work at all levels. At any point that I feel any pressure or urgency to level him up, I promised myself that I'll log off. There shall be no levelling pressure with this guy.

Started off questing in the Draenei intro area. Definitely took a minute or two to get used to a different style than a hunter. Going slowly and cautiously, I was pretty much solo at first. Like any toon, the first 5 levels or or so went really fast. Took up herbalism and tailoring. I'm usually an advocate of dual gathering, but with Amava raking in the big bucks, this guy has less financal pressure since his big sister is pretty generous. I did tell myself that I'll only fund this guy with petty cash and not any of the savings.

Pretty quickly, I felt myself getting into the groove of playing the priest. Just lots of fun. With no real urgency at all, just questing and running around gathering herbs, I found myself at lvl 10 in a hurry. Sweet, I wasn't even paying attention, other than to hit the priest trainer at each even number. Some cool spells, and pretty good survivability. Decent DPS to kill mobs, not quite as fast as a hunter, but pretty good. And between the Power Word: Shield and my healing spells, I was able to take on 2 or sometimes 3 mobs at my same level.

At every opportunity I could, I grouped with who ever I could find. Only once did I get somebody who said "no thx, more XP solo". Paired with maybe 5 or 6 people during the first 10 levels. Some times working on quests that I was on, but mostly just going along with people for fun and to help them. No pressure for XP, no pressure for herbs, no pressure for quest objectives.

I had tons of fun with that. I can honestly say, with Amava, its a passionate drive to lvl her and to excell in the game and in general, a huge sense of urgency and pressure. With Amava, I can't say "its just a game". Some internal thing is driving me nuts with her. This was awesome though.

Without really paying attention to it, I ended up at lvl 20 by the end of the weekend, which I think is pretty quick. Lots of grouping, and it seemed that everyone was willing to go out of their way to work with me. Just a ton more patience from the general masses for a priest than a hunter.

Shadow...for now. Although I'm not applying pressure to lvl this guy, I'm also not a glutton for punishment. The only thing I was not enjoying about the priest at first was the mana, or lack there of, at the end of a battle. The first 5 points into Spirit Tap fixed that, and so I'm sticking with Shadow. Someday, please email me a link back to this post to throw it in my face, but I am hoping to switch to mostly Holy at some point. Especially if I ever end up doing instances and feel like I can't heal well enough. When I want to do DPS, I'll play Amava. This guy is a healer.