Phaelia: Armory via Warcrafter or Phae’s Menagerie | Guild: Aegis Hestia | Server: Scarlet Crusade

About Phaelia

Phaelia was created on the Icecrown server on the first day of release. I levelled her up fully Restoration-specced and, in spite of a brief dalliance as an Undead Priest, she’s always been my main character. Never attracted to a hardcore raiding guild, we were nonetheless some of the first — if highly unsuccessful — players to enter Molten Core. Tensions over a lack of progress caused one guild after another to implode until we finally gave up and transferred to Azjol’Nerub in hopes of making a fresh start. Not long after, my husband convinced me to reroll as a Horde player because of Battleground queues. I levelled an Undead Priest to 60 but found I despised my avatar to such a degree that I had no interest in logging on (it was about this time that I started campaigning for the addition of Blood Elves to Horde). I stopped playing for a period of five months. Meanwhile, several real life friends were gathering on the roleplay server, Scarlet Crusade. With only a little bit of coaxing, I rolled a Rogue named Gwynna to pass the time with them while I waited anxiously for the ability to transfer my Druid. I didn’t have to wait very long. When Gwynna hit 41, server transfers opened and I reclaimed my Druid (whose gear was woefully out-of-date).

My Progression

We joined Aegis Hestia, a mid-sized guild counting many of our friends among its membership. While Aegis wasn’t strong enough to field its own 40-man raids at the time, it was part of a larger conglomerate organization called the Conclave. As with most organizations of this nature, there was an unfortunate amount of drama — stemming at least partially from the fact that, while our guild made up the majority of the core raiding force, there was not enough room to support all members interested in participating. Eventually our guild leadership made the decision to strike out on our own and we slowly freed ourselves of many of the ties and obligations joining us to the Conclave. As a newer but very active member, I was elated.

With the release of the Burning Crusade, a guild no longer had to field a 40-man raiding force. 10-man content offered a viable option for guilds in which members level and progress at variable rates. Among the first of my guild to reach level 70, I was also among the first to enter Karazhan, the source for much of my starting raid gear. Our guild is currently in SSC, working to put Tidewalker on farm and having recently killed Hex Lord of ZA for the first time. We’ve also made our first successful forrays into Tempest Keep, killing Void Reaver.

Goals

As a player, my goal is to be both well-informed and a valued contributor to my guild’s (and, in turn, my friends’) progression. While my character progression is firmly tied to that of my guild, I participate in activities outside of raiding to help progress beyond with is otherwise available to me (Arenas, tradeskills, and Heroics). This is helpful to my guild in two ways: 1) I am better geared than what might necessarily be expected for our guild’s level of progression and 2) I need collect fewer upgrades from raiding, making them more accessible to less-geared members for whom they would be a larger improvement.

About the Player

I graduated from Louisiana State University in 2003 with a B.S. in Information Systems. I am currently employed as a VB.NET developer for a massage tradeschool. In 2005, I married my former EverQuest guild leader, a PhD student studying population genetics. We have a dog named Ariel (named for an episode of Firefly, not The Little Mermaid) and spend much of our free time together in Azeroth. One of the original motivations behind the creation of Resto4Life was personal education. Through research and exposition, I become a better Druid. I also really enjoy the cohesiveness of the Druid community and have always felt that our class includes some of the kinder, more nurturing players. It means a lot to me to be able to be contribute to said community.