Attack of the Killer Hybrids.

So last night I did some group quests with Ulushnar and a couple of friends Iome (a Druid) and Hanumen (a Shaman). Between us we had all three of WoW's main Hybrid classes and we were each specialised in a given role, Ulu was specialised in Tanking, Iome in healing and the Hanumen in damage dealing.

The Shaman/Paladin combination is something that wasn't available before The Burning Crusade, but I find the pairing to be excellent. The Shaman is naturally geared towards an aggressive playstyle, whilst the Paladin excels in defense. Throw in some great healing from the Druid and there was no challenge we couldn't take with ease. That said, we were all able to add something outside of our speciality; Ulu's damage output was not insignificant and I was able to offer emergency heals, Hanu could keep an extra mob busy if he got aggro and Iome cast more than her fair share of damaging spells. Hopefully we'll manage a few more runs together whilst levelling, since it really breaks up the monotony of solo grinding.

Last night was the first real test of my tanking ability, and I think I did ok. Not brilliant, but that'll come with practise. With his new Plate armor and Holy Shield spell, Ulu has no problem dealing with multiple physical damage-dealing mobs. His main weakness is dealing with spellcasters who ignore his impressive physical defenses and strike at him from outside his limited range. I'm also finding it difficult sustaining his mana over longer fights, since he needs to use his spells to keep mob aggro. I'm keeping my eye out for more Plate with Intellect bonuses to mitigate this problem somewhat.

Still, he hit level 41 last night, and if I can keep up this rate of levelling, I'll be happy. My current, post-40 goal is to get a level per night and two per day at weekends up to 60.