Wrath Of The Lich King Shaman
I know I’ve mentioned before how your avatar and style of
play in World of Warcraft has a
gtendency to reveal a lot about who you really are and how you find your play
in your everyday world. In my case,
nothing brought this fact home more clearly than discovery of the option to
become a shaman. Because I naturally become “the team mom” of every group I
join—even if it’s a group of team mom’s, go figure—I always become the
caretaker, confidante, healer, and rescuer.
So, it came naturally that, in Wrath of the Lich King, I
should become one of the shamans. Ibn
this role, I enhance all the powers of all the warriors in my party, collecting
mostly stationary totems for myself. In
other words, just like in real life, I do a whole lot of good, but I never
become the star polayer who scores all the winning goals. I’m okay with that—totally okay with
that. I would caution, however, warriors
with big-egos and really cool mounts shouldn’t take-on a shaman’s role. The role requires the ability to subordinate
your own ego and skills to the whole party’s needs. If the party has no leading scorer, all the
shamanism in the world isn’t really gonna get us any further toward defeating
Arthras and keeping the world safe from the plague.
The shaman’s role requires working knowledge of almost every
aspect of the game. Setting aside the
requirement for exceptional strategic, protective, and healing powers—which
ought to come naturally for any wanna-be shaman—the role requires general
knowledge of everybody’s role rather than specialized knowledge of any single
function. Before she gets even to that
place, though, the shaman must prove she’s trustworthy. As the party advances toward its goals,
everyone in the party must depend on the shaman. Only a really evil player would try to go
rogue in this role.
My party’s shaman, I have potential to bring three talents
into the mix—offensive spell-casting, melee combat, or healing. I control and adapt my rewards to build the
skills that best suit me. For me,
offensive spell-casting and healing just came naturally. When I skillfully, strategically combine my
talents and totems, I can use them offensively within my fifty yard radius, or
I can use them defensively to help establish perimeters around members of my
party.
The naturalness of my role as shaman yields a great lesson
for all players: Given that you will play the game pretty much in-sync with how
you wage your life, you definitely should choose and develop the character that
seems most genuine—natural and authentic—to you.
