T-Minus 100 and counting

The Kentucky Derby was Sunday and Legion finds itself in the homestretch. In less than 100 days, we'll start Battle for Azeroth.

Both my Paladin and my Hunter have their +15 Mythic achievement, class mount and Mage Tower appearance. I'd still like to clear Heroic Antorus on one of them, but my guild has had some attendance issue and we've pretty much stalled out at Heroic Coven. 

I managed to push my Alliance Druid's ilevel up to 934, but it wasn't enough to get the Mage Tower down. I got some great advice on Twitter. The Lightblood elixir was a big help, but I'm still getting behind and dying even before the boss reaches 50%. Clearly, I need more skill, and by skill, I mean gear. My guild has let my Druid in on some M+ runs which should help.

My Tauren Druid has been spending some quality time in his Garrison leveling up professions in preparation for Battle. He's going to be Inscription/Herbalist. I've done World Quests on him to get his gear level up. Any improvements I make on him now will make leveling easier.

I'm still trying to decide on my Alliance main for Battle for Azeroth. Working on both of my Druids has shown me having the same class as a main for both Horde and Alliance isn't going to be something I enjoy.

I decided to try out a Monk. They can fill all three roles and I've always wanted to play one. I made one on the Beta servers, then made a trial character on Live. The trial helped with learning the spells and in retrospect, I wish I had done the trial and then the Beta. Still, trying to learn the whole spell book all at once felt like too much. Next, I decided to level one up. Lightforged can't be Monk and I don't have any interest in Void Elves so I made him, wait for it.... a dwarf.

I've made it to level 40 and tried out all three specs. It's been great for learning the spells one by one and getting to know the class a little better. I love the mobility of the Monk class. I can whisk myself all over the battlefield in ways I never could as a Paladin. I healed a couple of dungeons as Mistweaver, but people too so little damage I ended up DPSing as much as healing. I don't understand Brewmaster tanking. I never died or even came close to dying, but it's going to take some time to understand Stagger and how to use all the various Brews.

I also tried out the Survival Hunter on Beta. I had no idea what I was doing. Most of the videos are more explaining the changes. There isn't really a consensus yet on the best way to play it.  Survival is now more of a hybrid of melee and Ranged, but mostly melee. You fire a couple of shots from range, harpoon in, and do some DPS. If its about to get messy in melee, you can pop Aspect of the Eagle and DPS from range for about 10 seconds, then harpoon back in to melee.

While the numbers turning will help, the crux of the decision (Hunter v Monk) is do I want the option to heal/tank. While my guild would never pressure me into a role, if we're missing it, and I can fill it, I'm going to pressure myself.