Damage

At times, when I am not healing with Elewë in instances, I step in to dps. El has a set of gear, and a talent specialization she can switch to, which allows her to turn into a moonkin, a sort of giant, antlered, owl-like creature. In this form she has access to special abilities and her damage spells become more powerful.



To demonstrate what it looks like when a few kinds of dps fight a target, I took three characters to the target dummies in the Alliance city of Stormwind. The characters here would use these abilities in instances, or out in the world on hostile beings.

Elewë, as a moonkin:




Luinil, as an elemental shaman:




Epicharis, as a destruction warlock:



As you can see, I favor caster-dps. XP

Instances

So, I realized that before I could really introduce Elewë, and what she does in the game, I would have to explain instances and raids. :P

While there are many things a player can do in the World of Warcraft, the activity that offers both the most difficult challenges, and the best rewards, are "instances". Instances are also referred to as "dungeons", or "raids", and are private zones with enemies who can be engaged with 5-person groups in some cases, or a "raid group" of as few as 10, or as many as 40 players. It is more common for 5-man instances to be referred to as "heroics" or "dungeons", and for 10-40-man instances to be referred to as "raids".

There are three roles to be filled in all dungeons and raids. There is the role of "tank", a player who will seem to enemies, through talent specialization and use of abilities, as the biggest threat, and therefore keep enemies attacking only him or herself, and not other group members. Also, there is the role of "healer", a player who focuses on healing other players while they are taking damage from enemies. And the last role is that of "dps"(damage per second), a player who must focus on doing as much damage to enemies as possible in order to kill the enemy and end the fight quickly.

Desolace

One of the most special places in the game, to me, is a zone called Desolace, on the continent of Kalimdor. The majority of the zone is quite bleak with dark, dirty skies, and ash-like, dusty earth. Most of the trees are long dead, and nothing much grows here. The wildlife mainly consists of scavengers and herds of large animals that seem to make their way here for the purpose of dying in the graveyards of their ancestors.



Desolace is bordered by the zone Stonetalon Mountains to the north, Mulgore to the east, Feralas to the south, and an ocean called "The Veiled Sea" to the west. And it is on this coastline that Desolace is transformed. The coast is covered in wildflowers, lush grass, soft sand and green trees. The sky above these small patches of coast is clear blue, dotted with small puffs of white cloud. You will also find the ruins of buildings built long ago by an ancient race of elves. That a place so warm and beautiful could exist in such a dark land is heartwarming.



When I miss someone I've lost, or feel sad in some way, I come here, where serenity and beauty exist despite all the surrounding bleakness.

Nagrand at night

Nagrand is my favorite place in the game. Throughout the entire "zone" of Nagrand, floating in the air, are little islands dotted with trees and, on occasion, magically flowing waterfalls. When I first visited this zone, I could only ride around on a "ground-mount", so when my first character learned how to fly and flew into the air here I was so excited to find all these little islands, they seemed like the most special thing in the game, to me, at the time. And now that I have leveled far past this zone, on most of my characters, and don't have projects to do here anymore, I still come back to relax and enjoy it's beauty.