There are two brother suns in Kazimar… Or in this case sister suns, since male Blood Elves look much too silly to stare at for long periods of time. (Take that you stupid ‘name is not available’ popup!)

In-between cleaning last holiday weekend I sat down and started up a new pair of alts. As much fun as the hunter-hunter and druid-druid pairs are, they require a lot more brainpower and I wanted something simple and fun.

And I am totally not addicted to starter leveling zones… nopenopenope.

I wanted a distance attack pair (no Melee) without pets (no Warlocks), but with heals (no Mages). Since the attempt at dual-boomchickens was a rousing failure, I decided to go with Priests. I’m out of room on my Ally server (Fizzcrank) so I rolled Horde (Shandris). Since I have Tauren and Trolls, I figured I’d round out the pretty with a little elf.

Thus I have a brand-spanking new pair of Blood Elf Priests named Illysu and Illysa, named after the suns in Kazimar.

Level 1

Abilities: Smite (15% of base mana, 30 yd range, 1.5 sec cast), Arcane Torrent (Racial) (Silence all enemies within 8 yards for 2 sec, restores 6% of your Mana, Non-player victim spellcasting is also interrupted for 3 sec, 2min cooldown)

Macros: I’m slowly but surely hashing out a default set of macros as I dual-box. These macros and keybinds are the same across all toons, which makes it easier for me to remember to hit the keys. (0 is ingrained at this point and ~ is fast becoming so.)

Follow The Leader

• /follow Illysu

Share Target

• /assist Illysu

Party-up

• /invite Stringtheory
  /script SetLootMethod(“freeforall”, “Illysa”);

Keybinds

	Illysu	Illysa
~	—	m:Share Target
1	Smite	Smite
9	Arcane Torrent	Arcane Torrent
0	—	m:Follow The Leader

Basic Strategy: Smite-smite-smite… What, you think I’m kidding? Level 1 lasts all of fifteen minutes and Arcane Torrent is about as useful as dirt at this point. Later on I’m sure I’ll appreciate the mana boost and the silence, but right now it serves no purpose.

This is normally where I’d bitch about the fact that the mobs are all yellow– but I think you’ve gotten the jist of my complaints from the other starting area guides.

Level 2

Abilities: Nothing new

Macros: Also nothing new

Basic Strategy: No change, heck I didn’t even bother to hit the trainer (not really much point until level 3). I’ve actually run starting areas without bothering to level until the very end, but I’m being a bit more proactive this time through.

Level 3

Abilities: Flash Heal (28% of base mana, 40 yd range, 1.5 sec cast, Heals a friendly target for 152 to 176.)

Macros: This is a simple healing macro to start with, but will get more complex as I pick up other spells.

Heal Me :

• /stopcasting
  /target self
  /cast Flash Heal

Keybinds

	Illysu	Illysa
~	—	m:Share Target
1	Smite	Smite
7	m:Heal Me	—
8	—	m:Heal Me
9	Arcane Torrent	Arcane Torrent
0	—	m:Follow The Leader

Basic Strategy: At this point, the heal really doesn’t change things much. I’m not getting hit often enough (or hard enough) that the post-battle recovery rate needs any help. Add to that the fact that it’s impossible to unexpectedly aggro things and the starter zone is as easy as pie.

Level 4

Abilities: Shadow Word: Pain (22% of base mana, 40 yd range, Instant, DoT 18sec)

Macros: Nothing new here since I’m using Share Target instead of building in the targeting to the spellcasts.

Keybinds

	Illysu	Illysa
~	—	m:Share Target
1	Smite	Smite
2	Shadow Word: Pain	Shadow Word: Pain
7	m:Heal Me	—
8	—	m:Heal Me
9	Arcane Torrent	Arcane Torrent
0	—	m:Follow The Leader

Basic Strategy: Ah, stacking DoTs, how I love thee!

Shadow Word: Pain is a nice DoT so I’ve switched my attack pattern to pain-smite-smite-smite. Normally I’d cast the slow spell first and then the DoT, but since Pain has a longer range than Smite it’s useful as a pull.

Also nice is the fact that a double layer of Pain is enough to kill a mob by itself. Thus I can hit up one target with the DoTs and swap to another target for smiting. Two mobs dead in half the time is always a bonus, even if I take a little more damage doing it.

Level 5

Abilities: Power Word: Shield (34% of base mana, 40 yd range, Instant, 3 sec cooldown, Absorbs damage, lasts 15sec, spellcasting will not be interrupted by damage. Once shielded, the target cannot be shielded again for 15 sec.)

Macros: This macro is the flipside of the Heal Me macro above and will also get more complicated as things go on. With the two of these combined, the damaged party picks up a damage sponge to help keep them alive until the heal hits.

Heal Them :

• /stopcasting
  /target Illysu (or Illysa)
  /cast Power Word: Shield

	Illysu	Illysa
~	—	m:Share Target
1	Smite	Smite
2	Shadow Word: Pain	Shadow Word: Pain
7	m:Heal Me	m:Heal Them
8	m:Heal Them	m:Heal Me
9	Arcane Torrent	Arcane Torrent
0	—	m:Follow The Leader

Basic Strategy: Nothing has changed.

Level 6

Abilities: None

Macros: None

Basic Strategy: Nothing has changed. I hate empty levels! Rrr…

Level 7

Abilities: Inner Fire (A burst of Holy energy fills the caster, increasing the armor value from items by 60% and spell power by 7. )

Macros: Nothing new here since it’s a self-only spell. Alt is the easiest modifier key for me to reach, so it’s the one I tend to rely on for rarely used spells.

Keybinds

	Illysu	Illysa
~	—	m:Share Target
1	Smite	Smite
2	Shadow Word: Pain	Shadow Word: Pain
7	m:Heal Me	m:Heal Them
8	m:Heal Them	m:Heal Me
9	Arcane Torrent	Arcane Torrent
0	—	m:Follow The Leader
ALT and ~	Inner Fire	Inner Fire

Basic Strategy: Nothing has changed.

Level 8

Abilities: Renew (17% of base mana, 40 yd range, Instant Heals the target for 30 every 3 sec for 12 sec.)

Macros: I did warn you that things were going to get complicated… Renew costs less than Flash Heal (17% vs 28%) so I start with that and a sheild. However if things get messy and I need more than that, hitting the keybind again will get me a second renew and starts off a longer heal.

Heal Me :

• /stopcasting
  /target self
  /castsequence reset=combat/15 Renew, Flash Heal

Heal Them :

• /stopcasting
  /target Illysu (or Illysa)
  /castsequence reset=combat/15 Power Word: Shield, Renew

The macro will reset after 15 seconds or when I leave combat.

Keybinds

	Illysu	Illysa
~	—	m:Share Target
1	Smite	Smite
2	Shadow Word: Pain	Shadow Word: Pain
7	m:Heal Me	m:Heal Them
8	m:Heal Them	m:Heal Me
9	Arcane Torrent	Arcane Torrent
0	—	m:Follow The Leader
ALT and ~	Inner Fire	Inner Fire

Basic Strategy: Nothing has changed here other than the new an improved heal macros.

And that wraps up a Playtime of 0 days, 2 hours, 13 minutes– Not bad for almost hitting level 9!