Changing Gears, And Improving Gear Without Changing Gear

The past few days have been pretty light for me on the WoW front. A new work schedule makes playing the game very difficult, as I only have an hour or two to play most nights. What little time I do have to play has been, for the most part, spent dicking around with Nimank, my Dorf Warrior in Single Abstract Noun (note to self: Victory Rush = OP at level 6).

There are a few reasons I've not played Nimala for more than a heroic or two plus dailies. Firstly, whereas I do have a WoWable computer, it is by no means a good computer. Dalaran lags me out and I rock a steady 6-7 fps throughout my entire playtime (9 if I put out first). Nim not make 4 gud heelz under these conditions. On top of this, Nimala is still unguilded. Who cares, right? Well...I do. I'm a very social person in WoW. I like to talk to people while I play. It makes the menial chores much more tolerable. Without it, I have very little desire to do anything on Nimala.

Queue Single Abstract Noun. There hasn't been a time while I was online where there were less than 15 people on, all blog readers and/or writers, all talking. It's much more fun to grind an alt in the company of others than my former option. If you haven't checked it out yet, please do. It's truly a lot of fun.

In any case, the former problem should be fixed very soon, assuming my glorious tax return money comes in on time. When it does, I want to be ready. I am, for a currently non-raider, well geared as a Resto Shaman. I am not, however, properly gemmed or enchanted, and I need to re-evaluate my glyphs. My I'm-lazy-so-I'll-just-use-the-devault-UI-addons need to be upgraded as well. I want to be ready when I apply for a guild.

RE-GEMMING
I am currently rocking full blue gems. At first, this was a money issue. Purple gems are expensive if you don't know a Jewelcrafter. Now, though, with almost 2000 gold saved up, I have no excuse. That's not my only gemming problem, though. I am a big fan of haste. It is my stat of choice to a fault. No, I'm not over the haste cap (My sweet, unreachable goal), but I am choosing haste at a detriment to my other stats.

I'm going to need to find a healthy balance between Runed Cardinal Ruby and Quick King's Amber, as well as the best blue/purple/green gem to use to complete the meta for Insightful Earthsiege Diamond. Royal Dreadstone is probably my best bet, giving me spellpower with a touch of mp5. I was thinking about Int gemming, but Wow.com's Joe Perez (Lodur of World of Matticus) says not to, as your gear should cover you plenty in the intellect department. I figure he probably knows better than I do, so I'm going to try it his way. Looks like I need a belt buckle, too, for that extra gem.

RE-ENCHANTING
I have been very lax with enchanting my gear. Some gear has a lower-level enchant, while others don't have an enchant at all! I'm going to blame this on money, too. Enchantments are either very expensive via scrolls, or very time-consuming via finding an enchanter to enchant your shit. A lot of gear enchants are pretty obvious, but some are more difficult to decide on.

Helm: My helm is...currently unenchanted. Whoops. I used to use Arcanum of Burning Mysteries under the (apparently false) impression that crit was more important to a Resto Shaman than mp5. Again, I'm taking Lodur's advice on the subject to see where it gets me. I will be going with Arcanum of Blissful Mending this time around.

Shoulder: Being an Inscriptionist, I get the bestest of the bestest in shoulder enchants. Once again, I am currently using Master's Inscription of the Storm for crit, but will be changing that to Master's Inscription of the Crag.

Cloak: Clear choice: Greater Speed.

Chest: I have the choice between Greater Mana Restoration and Powerful Stats. Neither option really screams "I'm your man" to me. I'm always reluctant to choose an enchantment that improves all stats. Sure, it gives a bonus to everything you want (and don't), but the bonus is marginal for them all. On the other hand, though, I rarely have mana issues, so the mp5 enchant might not be the best choice for me. This decision will largely depend on whether or not I'll actually benefit from the extra mp5. Since I'm opting for mp5 buffs in both my helm and shoulders, I don't think I will.

Legs: Another clear choice: Sapphire Spellthread.

Boots: I'm in a similar aquatic flotation device here as I am with my chest enchant. I can take Greater Vitality if I need the mp5, but I feel I'll benefit more from the stam given to me by Tuskarr's Vitality. Plus, you know, run speed increase.

Bracers: Gimme Superior Spellpower.

Weapon: Only choice: Mighty Spellpower.

Shield: Greater Intellect.

RE-GLYPHING:
There are quite a few major glyphs that can really benefit a Restoration Shaman. Unfortunately, you can only pick three. I'm having a very hard time deciding which three I want to use. Fortunately, as an Inscriptionist, it's cheap and easy for me to test glyphs out to see which ones are the best for me.

I'm currently using Glyph of Chain Heal, Glyph of Lesser Healing Wave, and Glyph of Water Mastry. As you can see, I'm trying to get the best of both raid healing and single-target healing right now. It's a pretty safe assumption that I'll usually be on raid healing when I raid, so the CH glyph is staying. The LHW glyph is great for instances, but not nearly as useful for raid healing. I could say it'll help for "All heals on the tank" situations, though. I want to replace the Water Shield glyph if I don't need the extra mp5 (I'm not looking to end a battle with 100% mana; as long as I have enough mana to cover the entire fight, I'll be happy).

I'm looking at Glyph of Healing Stream Totem and Glyph of Earth Shield as well. The first is good for giving a HoT-esque heal every 2 seconds to everybody in my party, assuming they're within 30 yards of the totem and I don't need to do excessive cleansing. The other will make tank healing easier, even if I'm not designated to tank healing. I should be keeping ES up on him anyway, right?

I'm thinking the best choice for me would be the Chain Heal, Healing Stream, and Earth Shield glyphs for raid healing. If I'm lacking for mana at that point, I'll replace Earth Shield with Water Mastery.

Minor glyphs are much easier to decide on. Glyph of Water Shield is the only glyph here that really sticks out, as it gives and extra water orb. Glyph of Renewed Life is great for me since I'm always having bagspace issues, and this clears up a space (I know, I know. This is Ankh = Life, and I don't even carry Ankhs! What is wrong with me?). I opted for Glyph of Water Walking as well for the additional bagspace.

ADDONS:
Since Vanilla WoW, I've been using the default UI. Recently, I upgraded to XPerl, though for completely aesthetic purposes. Everything was still positioned where the default UI was. I'm used to it, I'm comfortable with it. I'm not effective with it. It's time for a change.

With that in mind, I am not addon-savvy, or addon-patient. I know next to nothing about UI addons, and I truly don't enjoy spending 20 minutes setting up a new addon, so this'll certainly be a "fun" experience trying different addons that would best suit my style. I'm going to need to do a lot of research (another thing I "love" doing) to find some good potential addons for me.