Twitter is an interesting animal, especially if you find the right two moderately-bored Twitteratti attempting an impromptu turn-based story told 140 characters at a time. Some persons like … oh, say @Rhoelyn and @Arcania. Were you to find such a situation with similar individuals, you might end up with a little off-the-cuff, random tale that looks something like this:

@Arcania … and then she trips and falls and the ORB OF ULTIMATE POWER slips from her sweat-drenched hands. Who will pick it up?!

@Rhoelyn A bird flies in and grabs it. A Druid of the Cenarion Circle, of course! ;)

@Arcania Rhese grins to himself, thinking of all the ladies he can impress with an ORB OF ULTIMATE POWER as he banks hard… ^_^

@Rhoelyn The girl shoots an arrow past him and seems to be yelling. Among other words "Not fair!" is heard. ;)

@Arcania Rhese cranes his head around for one last look. Who knows? She might be a hottie. As he does so, he plows right into (c)

@Arcania (c) the spongy cap of a Zangarmarsh mushroom and careens off to the side, stunned. The ORB drops from his talons…

@Rhoelyn A broken male picks it up and looks at it curiously. His eyes go to where it dropped from and then to the yelling a distance away.

@Arcania The girl runs toward the little broken, her pet teramoth flitting in her wake. "Hey! That’s mine!" she screeches in rough Draenish.

@Rhoelyn The broken smiles remorsefully, "I believe it is the other way around, child."

@Arcania The girl blinks at the unexpected response. "Umm… right. So, give it back?" Dismissing his words, she holds out her hand.

@Rhoelyn The broken sighs. "You claim things without knowing what they are, child. It will be your death." He holds out the item to her.

@Arcania The warning is enough to give her pause, and the hunter peers at the broken, her hand hovering over the ORB. "Wh-what do you-" FWMP

@Rhoelyn The bird swoops in once more and grabs the ORB in a claw. The force is enough to knock both broken and the huntress to the side.

@Arcania His caws of laughter ring from the distance by the time she clambers back to her feet, but she whips out a Mark just in time.

@Rhoelyn Stringing up another arrow the lithe huntress lets loose with a well aimed shot. She would not let him have it!

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Aaaand, we’re back with the second half of a look at everything you’ll need to know to make the transition to a Shadow Priest. In the previous installment, I talked a bit about the building blocks of Shadow – the talents that turn you from a healing monster to a just plain monster and the spells that you’ll use to assume the face melting position. Today, we finish up our discussion by digging in to the details of how to melt those faces and just what the sophisticated priest wears to the mind-blowing party.

We have a lot to cover, so without further ado, let’s get sexy and dig into the glorious world of …

Glyphs, Gearz and Glam.

1. Glyphs…

   New with the Wrath of the Lich King‘s introduction of the tradeskill, Inscription, comes the ability to enhance your spellbook with ‘scrolls of power’ called Glyphs. If this is news to you, then think of Glyphs like Enchants for your spells instead of your gear. By the time your toon is level 80, you will have unlocked the ability to use 3 major and 3 minor glyphs, and you will want to fill those spots to the best benefit for how you want to play.

   WoWHead does a great job of singling out your options (Priest Class Major Glyphs, Priest Class Minor Glyphs), but we probably can tell at a glance that those glyphs that helped us as Holy priests or otherwise healers are not necessarily good choices for our new, shadowy role. Let’s look more carefully at the ones that will help us liquefy faces.

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Does anyone remember that little post from a while ago where I proudly displayed Rhoelyn’s shiny new Loremaster achievement and said a few words on the nature of accomplishment? If you don’t, I shan’t blame you, as I’m the first one guilty of skipping the toot-my-own-horn posts. (And… you may… want to just move on… >_>)

I just want to remind you of one thing I said there:

I’m a Loremaster. I’m raiding ICC, looking very much forward to seeing the only progression boss we have left … the Lich King, himself. I feel that I can now rest easy in the confidence that I’ve played the game. When it changes to a new game and the old content is no more, I will have no regrets.

Tonight, our ten-man raiding team took one last gamble, extended our lockout one last time, and took just a few more shots at the Big Bad Boss himself. Three attempts and 45 minutes later, we accomplished the last major goal we’d set for ourselves in Wrath.

Say hello, my friends, to Rhese the Kingslayer.

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Anea over at “Oh, Look! An alt!” shared this fun idea with the WoW Twitteratti. The idea is to pick a screenshot from your voluminous (if you’re me, at least, and probably 3/4 of the WoW bloggers out there) screenshots folder and match it up to appropriate song lyrics.

The moment I saw this old shot from Winter’s Veil 2005 (omigosh, did I just date myself?!), I could hear exactly who was singing in the background.

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For many priests, it’s never a temptation. They sit in their Holy spec all the way to 80 and beyond, happily healing every Leeroy that comes their way. They embrace Flash Heal and Prayer of Mending like their own children, loving them and the well-being they generate with a single-minded devotion. That’s fine. It’s good, in fact. Every single player in WoW above the level of 10 knows that you won’t get very far without the heart-sure healers and their willingness to watch the green numbers fly instead of the yellow ones.

But healing is a burden. No ifs, ands or buts about it – it’s hard, stressful, often undervalued, and always a target for finger-pointing when something goes wrong. It can get… old. Exhausting. Not fun.

Luckily, as priests we have another option. For those of us who tire of giving and never taking, who don’t want to stand in the spotlight as the target for critics and criers, or perhaps who are just looking for a different experience with their second spec, there is a path to a different kind of glory: Shadow. It’s a world apart from our Holy or Discipline roles. As such, that first step can be a doozey. A whole new bevy of spells; crazy, dark talents; a vital new stat to gear for and understand; even new priorities and roles in a group or raid. It’s priesting as a wild, new animal, and I want to give you the information you need to hit the ground running.

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