For many years, I struggled to level any character in the shaman class. I think the first shaman I ever made was a female draenei and I played her for a while but lost interest around Legion. Then I made a vulpera shammy that I was sure I was going to level all the way because she’s so adorable, but nope. I even tried a male Zandalari shaman as an homage to Zappy Boi/Zekhan and while I liked his looks and such, that still didn’t work.
Then a few weeks ago, one of my Warcraft friends, Baltim, posted on Twitter asking about a class people have struggled with for a long time, but then finally clicked with. I responded that I hadn’t clicked with shammy or monk, despite several efforts and that I wasn’t sure I’d ever get the hang of either class. But my confession of defeat actually served as motivation for me to try again with a shaman. Monks are still beyond me, but I’m okay with that.
Although I still had that draenei shaman I gave up on in Legion, I thought it was better if I started fresh with a brand new draenei shaman, so that’s what I did. I confess that I had to delete a toon to do this, but well, that worgen mage was probably never going to get played again anyway. As I love all the new customizations for normal draenei, I didn’t go the lightforged route like I did with my paladin Kriarii. I also chose the light green hair color for the first time ever because it’s what the random hair color was when I started making the toon and I liked it.
I already had a name picked out for my new shammy, Fiadeya, and it’s the name of one of the many female heroes in the fantasy novels I’ve written. After settling on a look for Fiadeya, I entered the game and hoofed it all the way from the starter area to the closest inn. I made her in the morning before I started work because I was suddenly really eager to do the shammy thing again, and thus parking her at the inn would give her a little rest experience before I could play again that evening.
Following dinner that evening, I logged into Warcraft and started my latest journey into shammy-ness. I haven’t played shammy much since around the middle of BfA, so I didn’t remember much about them and therefore, didn’t really know what changed about them for Shadowlands. Having a clean slate like that though seemed to be a great thing because I fell in love with playing Fiadeya rather quickly and genuinely enjoyed trying out the different specs.
I thought I might try healing on Fiadeya, and I have played the resto spec on her solo and found it fun, but I know me. As much as I love my priest Srirajah and wanted to heal, healing just doesn’t seem to be within my abilities. I love throwing out heals on my pallies and now my shammy when I can, but being the main healer isn’t fun for me. Again, I have the utmost respect and gratitude for any and all healers because I know it’s a really tough job!
I leveled Fiadeya really fast, probably the fastest since my demon hunter Srilari, although she didn’t start at level one like Fia did. I took her into Draenor at level 10 and played through the entirety of Shadowmoon Valley on her and it really helped me bond with who she was as a character even more.
I feel like Fiadeya, and draenei in general, suit my personality quite well because they have a great laugh, sassy sense of humor, actual hips, and a love for life.
After finishing Shadowmoon Valley in Draenor, I took Fia into Legion to do the shaman campaign, which I’d never done before and which really impressed me. The shaman order hall is one of the first order halls I’ve figured out how to navigate pretty fast and don’t get lost in all the time. Doing Legion gave me a deeper appreciation for all things shammy and I love hurling the elements of fire, water, earth, and air with Fia and her elemental companions. It’s a refreshingly different feeling of power having such deep ties to nature and being able to take on baddies with it.
When playing solo, I usually use the enhancement spec because I’m a melee lover now thanks to my pallies Resora and Kriarii. But in dungeons, I prefer elemental because being ranged is a nice change from always being right in the thick of it on my pallies. I have a new vantage point of the fights and can generally stay out of the bad a bit easier.
Now that I love and enjoy Fiadeya so much, I wish I’d chosen shammy for my Alliance side main instead of another pally. But Kriarii has still proven useful in dungeons and thus, leveling her wasn’t a waste of time.
One of the things I always struggled with most on shamans was their totems and what they all do. That issue was somewhat solved with the totem mastery talent but that’s gone now in Shadowlands and I was forced to figure it all out again. But I think I have for the most part and I enjoy slapping those totems down all over the place and receiving and sharing their boons. Fiadeya is Kyrian and gets another totem as her Covenant ability and that’s fine by me.
While leveling Fiadeya, I started calling her my totem goat because I just liked the sound of it. I’d post screenshots of her periodically in the Strawberries group and after posting one and calling her my totem goat, one of the clever members of the group suggested the term goatem. I rather loved the term and that’s what I’ve been calling her ever since. Someone else in the group, our extremely awesome draenei and vulpera shaman healer, GrandadOWow, even picked up on it and suggested it be an official thing now and I agree!
It took me a really long time to find a shaman that I click with but I finally have and I can say with great confidence that I’ll be taking Fiadeya all the way to max level, which right now is 60. She’s level 54 now and I’m doing Threads of Fate on her because I got tired of the linear timeline after doing it at least five times. Threads is a bit more random feeling and seems to take longer, but it hasn’t decreased the fun I’m having on my go-getter goatem. No matter how long it takes to level her (which won’t be long) I’m always going to love how much butt she can kick with her partially braided green hair, beautifully groomed hooves, and bejeweled tail.
Srinity 