We spent most of last night wiping on those damn Jormungar in the new 10 man raid. Gormok was ridiculously easy after a few shots – chasing Snobolds down quickly became routine. We just couldn’t get the Jormungar down. That fight has got to be a prime example of where 10 mans are more difficult than 25 mans – if someone dies, which is very likely to happen, then your entire attempt is pretty much doomed. Guh.

I’ve kind of lost steam on Ilthiran – not really that interested in playing him right now. In fact, I’d say after that brief period of revival, I’m kind of bored of WoW again. –shrug- Anyway, I did manage to get to level 71, and thus, Swift Flight Form;

I also managed to finish the Nexus – we had absolutely zero problems this time, so, ha, suck it, Kyp, it was totally the healers fault last time!

Faulsey received a brief revival as well. He had 26 Emblems of Heroism, which were just sitting there, annoying me, so I ran a few HCs to get up to 40 EoH and 200 SKS, to spend on an heirloom chest and shoulders for my Paladin – he’d previously been using some mail shoulders.

Logging onto said Paladin, I had a case of “hey, I should have read the patch notes” when I noticed that A. My Judgements were returning a flat 8% of my Base Mana when cast, despite there being nothing in the tooltip to suggest they would do so, and B. Hand of Reckoning now does ridiculous damage if used to pull a target. Geez, as if leveling Ret Paladin’s had to be even more powerful! –grin-

And random cool screenshots:

(So Algalon is kind of old news by now – I’d never seen this, and didn’t expect any of the scrubs on my server to have been able to take him out!)

With the flurry of Cataclysm information unleashed by Blizzcon, most people are looking ahead to the future of WoW. However, as someone who doesn’t expect to be playing WoW when Cataclysm is released, I’ve been looking to the past.

Though it hasn’t be obvious, I’m sure, I’ve kind of lost interest with WoW recently. Actually, I’m amazed at how long it held my interest! Back when I played FFXI, I had a sort of 3-4 month on, same off way of playing… I kept burning myself out. But with WoW, I played regularly from August last year, when that blasted fool Kazura sucked me back into it, until the start of June this year – ten months!

Can’t deny I enjoyed myself during that time – I experienced the wonders of Northrend with friends, discovered my true love of Shamanism, and met some fantastic people in raiding guilds. But if I’m truly honest, the best time was when I was a newbie, when everything was totally fresh and new.

One of the strong points of WoW, in my opinion, is how the game begins. Compared to FFXI, my previous MMO, rolling a character for the first time really feels exciting. In FFXI, you get a brief intro scene, some random citizens of your nation give you a quick hint about something, and then you are deposited in a random section of the city, without any real idea of what you should do first.

In WoW, you get that lovely little intro, sweeping across your starter area, with a brief history of your people as a voiceover.

Once that is complete, you are immediately faced with the famed Golden Exclamation for your first quest, giving you an immediate goal in the game. Over the new few hours, you quickly grow from the small starting village, into a larger town, before finally, around level 10 for most new players, wandering into your capital with a sense of awe. That build up – village, town, city – is much more fun, to me, than being dropped slap in the middle of a city!

Before you know it, you’re leaving the familiar surroundings of Mulgore, or Teldrassil, or wherever, taking your first steps into the wider world of Azeroth. As you grow, there’s that sense of anticipation, wondering what the next area will look like, what creatures will live there, and what jobs you’ll be able to do, and as you enter zones like Thousand Needles or Nagrand, there’s a sense of awe.

(My very first character, pictured here with an earlier incarnation of my beloved Erethia, on the famed Wetlands run. While the link straight to Stormwind saves a lot of headaching, it’s almost a shame to have lost such a rite of passage.)

(While not my first time –in- Ashenvale, it wasn’t until I go a full account and my Hunter into the 20’s that I truly experienced the zone, and I loved it. If I do play at some point during Cataclysm, it’s going to be so sad seeing the zone deforested!)

Of course, being an MMO, a huge part of the appeal is that you can experience this with your friends. Kazura, an RL friend, makes for a pretty good WoW companion… I guess. –grin- We had our fair share of adventures adventures as we made a push to Outlands (and beyond!), including the classic “OH SHIT A DEVILSAUR RUN!” moment.

But when you reach the level cap, the game is never the same – at least, not for the rest of that expansion. I don’t ever get the same sense of awe on seeing new raid zones and bosses as I did on that first night in Northrend, taking the turtle boat from the Borean Tundra right over to the Howling Fjord. In a way, expansions make everyone a newbie again, returning them to the excitement they had on first starting the game.

Unfortunately, that very quickly wears off. The places may be new, but it’s still the same game. Boredom creeps back into it. Though, in a way, that could make Cataclysm a very successful expansion – quite aside from the new zones, and updated old zones, classes like Hunter and Warlock are getting huge overhauls, as is the talent system – a core and almost unchanged aspect of the game. If I am playing, Cataclysm may revive some of my love for the game…

But you know what I’m really looking forward to? FFXIV. I want a fresh world! Azeroth’s history is interesting and fun, but I really do love the idea of going into a vast new world without any preconceptions, like I did with WoW (though that is part of the appeal for others – being able to truly explore the world of Azeroth they grew to love in the RTS games.)

Hopefully FFXIV learns a little from WoW, when it comes to being a newbie. I don’t want to be dropped right into the middle of civilisation – I want to start somewhere remote, somewhere it’ll feel right to start my adventure. I’m also looking forward to a new style of play – unfamiliar combat systems, different classes – though I’m kinda worried at the moment about FFXIV’s class system – there seems to be a distinct Physical / Caster split… But I want to be a Close Combat Caster, like I am in WoW as an Enhancement Shaman!

Hmmm.. Being new will be exciting. Hey, SE, WTB FFXIV now, PST.

What about you guys? Do you miss being new? Or is endgame what you live for – do bosses give you more of a thrill than they do me?

Yes, I can make a blog post out of anything. It passes the time!

With 3.1.2 hitting the EU realms today, I was able to spend all those Champion’s Seals I’d saved up. From the release of the Tournament until 3.1.2, I’ve had numerous different plans…

First I wanted the Hippogryph for Faulsey, and the Turbostrider for Ellaria. Then, I got irritated with the 3-man daily, so Faulsey’s goal was dropped to a Moonsaber. Then, they announced the overhaul of the mounts, so I aimed to get a plethora of Tabards, pets and mounts. Then, finally, we heard the Gryph would be dropping to 150 seals, prompting me to decide to pick that up on Ellaria.

Here’s my haul:

Look at me, all Darny’d up. Faulsey only had 55 seals, allowing for the purchase of a Darnassus Tabard and a cheapish Moonsaber.

Ok, so it’s not the omgawesome pure white hippogryph we’d originally expected before 3.1 was even released, but it’s not too bad. Ellaria now has a whopping three flying mounts, but they are all pretty unique. Roflcopter, Bronze Drake and now this. Won’t catch her riding a Gryphon, no siree!

Turbostrider! With flames omg yes. Now, all I need is some sort of Tabard with a flame on it, and my Flame Warden title, and she’ll be the hottest Shaman around. …

I apologise for that terrible joke.

Also, thanks to Rilgon, I am now actually considering doing another eight days of torture Argent Tournament dailies for a Mechanopeep, since I now imagine it to be somewhat like a mechanical Roadrunner.

MEEP MEEP! –raspberry, zooms away-

We interrupt this normally coherent blog for this important thought.

OMGWTFFINALLYYESIHAVEAPOLARBEAR!

No more yeti cheese for me, you big blue witches!

It’s taken, what, four months of grinding, and I’ve long since stopped even hoping when I open my spoils… but this morning, I opened them up and squee’d!

Finally omgyes!

It’s really the epitome of a vanity mount, to be honest. Hunter is no longer my main, I fly everywhere, so the only time I’d use him is in Dalaran or when visiting the AH, but damnit, I’m so happy I finally have my bear!

Isn't he just so awesome?

This makes up for the fact I won’t be getting Tournament Mounts on Faulsey, I think. Though I really do enjoy jousting, so I may trundle along on two Champion’s Seals a day, and eventually get something. Want a Darnassus Tabard with my first 50, though.

Tangent: I have a feeling Siha is going to grow to loathe this tournament. She’s an avid collector of both mounts and tabards!

I freakin’ love my Shaman. I’m having so much fun on her right now. Much more fun than I am having on my Hunter, and I’m also performing better than I was as Hunter.

So it’s pretty much official that yes, Shaman (of the Enhancement flavour) is my main.

I’m not abandoning Faulsey, not at all. I’ve decided he’s still gonna be my “achievement whore” – he’s started the nice mount and pet collection, he’s going to continue it. He’ll get to do the fun stuff outside of raids, and when I’m tired of Shammy, I’ll bring him in to raid, too.

Now, I really, really need a new blog name. The thing is, I always expected Druid would be my second to 80, if I ever got a second 80… I surprised even myself with how much I’ve come to enjoy Shaman. I expected talking about alts to be a minor thing – this was meant to be a Hunter blog. Oops.

I still intend on talking about my Hunter a lot on here, and no doubt I’ll QQ about Hunter changes, but for end game purposes, Shammy is my focus.

So, it looks like the patch is going to hit tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow. EU servers get the patch on Wednesdays, as that is our maintainence day. Hopefully, that will appease the idiots that were QQing about EU getting Wrath a few hours earlier than America, and thus, a better chance at world firsts. So sorry we’re ahead of you, time wise. It’s cool, you get your world firsts on Ulduar! -eyeroll-

Err, random “idiots irritate me” tangent aside… I’m not ready for 3.1! As I’ve mentioned many times before, I really still need stuff from Naxxramas on Faulsey. T7 Head/Shoulders, for one thing. The 2 piece bonus is tasty for BM, and while they are the same iLevel as my current pieces, they are epics, whereas current ones are rares. I also really want the gun from Kel’Thuzad, what with it being so much better than my Crossbow.

Given the similarity in stats, I could probably scrape by with what I have in Ulduar, armour wise, but I really don’t think my weapon would be up to scratch. Sigh. Damn you and your not dropping the gun, KT!

-

With regards to dual spec? I’m thinking about just giving it a miss. I am not a take one for the team person. That sounds bad, but seriously, I am not going to play a spec I don’t really enjoy just for the benefit of having Replenishment (Faulsey) or being able to heal (Ellaria) – particularly given I am really bad at healing. For people who enjoy multiple specs, or who have to change spec constantly for raiding, Dual spec is nice. For me? Pass.

Speaking of specs though, I’ve been quickly putting together specs for both Faulsey and Ellaria. For Faulsey, the spec is identical to the current patch. I’m still not sure about putting points in Focused Aim, even with it now being of benefit to pets, because as a BM Hunter, it means sacrificing Pet boosting talents in favour of more self-boosting stats on gear. I’ll probably put points into FA as required by fluctuations in Hit Rating, but unless it’s proven to be much better for BM, I’m more comfortable with Cobra Strikes.

Ellaria, however, is seeing quite a bit of tweaking.

On the Elemental tree, I’m dropping the two points I had in Convection that I used as filler to take me up the tree, and the point in Elemental Focus, and shifting them into Call of Flame, to boost my Magma Totem damage.

In Enhancement, I’m still picking up points in improved totem talents – I like to have a well rounded talent spec. Dropping two points in Ancestral Knowledge, Improved Ghost Wolf, and Unleashed Rage is being dropped from 5 pointer to a 3, giving me 6 points, which I’m placing in Static Shock and Improved Shields and should more than make up for the AP loss from dropping those points in AN.

Mana talents like Convection and Ancestral Knowledge are being dropped because I don’t see mana being a huge issue with the change to Improved Stormstrike – it now gives 20% of your base mana every time your use SS. That’s around 880 mana every 8 seconds, which is a whopping 550 MP5. That’s delicious. Add on Mana Spring Totem*, which is becoming 94 MP5, and Enhancers are going to be drowing in mana.

-

Oh, and… I really need a new blog name. As you may have noticed, it’s especially prominent in this post, this isn’t really a Hunter blog any more. There’s a lot of Shammy stuff sneaking in. The name is now a lie! I’m trying to think of a new name, but it’s just not happening. Anyone got any ideas? Enrage Timer comes to mind – fits with my PvE focus and I like the fact it also works well with Shammy and Hunter who have “enrage” abilities in the form of Bestial Wrath and Shamanistic Rage. -shrug- Thoughts?

* It’ll also become exclusive with Blessing of Wisdom, thankfully. Yesterday, doing OS10, there were two paladins and two Shammys – myself and an Elemental. We have mana bars, so we got Kings and Wisdom! Woo! Except… for bosses, I really would quite like BoM because I’m melee DPS. Yes, Paladin, I know your greater blessing of Might will erase both shammies Wisdoms, so give me a damn 10 minute Might. I need Might more than Wisdom, it’s one boss fight, please give it to me. Apparently that was far too much to ask, so now I’m in control of the MP5. Suck it, Paladins! Now you HAVE to give me might. -Rant over-

The sky darkens, lightning strikes all around and rain lashes brutally at your skin. A short distance away, a small tornado swirls rapidly, sucking nearby shrubs and small animals into the sky… From inside, you can hear a female voice, cackling, shouting “I AM INVINCIBLE! AHAHAHAHAHA!” as more lightning splits the sky. Suddenly, the extraordinary elemental activity ceases, and a slim Draenei lass standing in the centre of the destruction coughs delicately.

What? I got a little carried away, ok?

Ellaria gives you a meaningful look. You decide not to say anything – she has a pair of carved bear heads on her belt, and the fangs seem very, very sharp. Knowing that she has frightened you into silence, she grins, pleased to have someone to brag to.

Hah! It’s about time I upstaged that old fart, Faulsey. All he does is sit in Dalaran all day, whilst I do all the real work. You know what I did today? I wiped out an entire stash of Twilight Dragon eggs, and their guardians. Me! Ok, and maybe nine other people, but it was mostly me. Big black dragon or not, still keels over when I’m smashing him upside the thighs with my Bear Hands!

Ellaria begins to laugh, but is interrupted by a strange buzzing from her nearby flying machine. She sighs as she runs over to silence it.

Eugh. I’m needed on Wintergrasp. Seems they can never find enough Goblin trained sappers to break into the keep. I’d better go, but I’m sure that lazy oaf, Faulsey, will fill you in on the exact details.

-

Yeah, it’s been a while since I did an IC post for Ellaria, so I felt like doing something silly for that. Anyway, let’s get down to business.

As I mentioned, I ran OS10 (just Sarth – tried and wiped twice on 1D. PUG luck.) on Ellaria today. Yes, I know I said I wasn’t going to raid on her, but given OS is a very, very short raid, and with no drakes up offers only a sidegrade weapon in terms of loot, it doesn’t quite count. Plus, I wanted to see how Enhancement Shaman worked over a long battle, compared to the minute long HC fights.

Fat dragon ass obscuring most of the screen, with my bags ruining the rest. Whoops!

It works very, very well. Despite the fact around 65% of Faulsey’s damage can’t be dodged or parried (it shouldn’t have a chance to be parried, but in total I had 19 parries. Uhm. Oops?), whereas the same amount of Ellaria’s can, I did 600DPS (2.9k total) more than I’d done on Hunter. This was in a group with no replenishment, meaning I was sparing in my use of Magma Totems. I was pretty suprised. I was half pleased, half… irked, too, I think. I don’t want my Shammy to be so much better than my Hunter! I want them to be equal! D:

That said, Enhancement Shaman is officially totally awesome sauce for raiding, in my opinion. So much fun, plus we bring tasty buffs to the group. Unless there’s a blasted Frost DK ruining my party with his Icy Talons, and another Shaman filling the Wrath of Air role, then I’m left wondering exactly what to do with my air totem. (Lulzsentrygogo!)

However, now that I’m totally done gearing Ellaria up for raids, she’s going to be left for a little while. As I’ve said before, Faulsey is still in need of some loot from Naxx (T7 Head and Shoulders – kinda sidegradey, until you take into account omnom gem slots and omnom set bonus – and the gun from Kel’Thuzad, which is a straight forward upgrade.), so I’m really going to need to do something about that soon. I must admit I’m irked at the items currently available for Hunter – the gloves and chest T7 are pretty meh for BM, yet for Enhance? That chest piece is so very, very tasty. If only you could buy the shoulders or Helm with emblems – I have 82 of them wasting away in my bags!

At this rate, I really don’t think I’m going to be ready for Ulduar. -sigh-

Edit: It’s amazing how two weeks of not playing a character can affect you. Did OS10 on Faulsey today, too… a whopping 1.8k DPS. Erethia died so many times (I hadn’t noticed she was on defensive, so when I was calling her back to avoid flamewaves, she was running right back into ‘em.), so all my mana was spent on reviving her. It was not at all pretty.

The past two days, I’ve said a sad farewell to my big, woolly Rhino Vetr and my fierce yet slightly camp Devilsaur, Mokelembembe (Moko for short!) In the case of Vetr, it because I’d basically only tamed him for the hilarity that is Rhino Bowling, and since Stampede is being changed in 3.1, I decided to let him go. (In Darnassus. Take that, suckas!)

Since I was replacing him with a wolf, my pet count went from two Ferocity, Two Tenacity, one Cunning to Three Ferocity, one Tenacity and one Cunning. A bit too ferocious, I felt. Besides, since I’d just tamed a new “top DPS” pet (or it will be close in 3.1), I didn’t need Moko anymore, who I’d only tamed for, gasp, DPS. There’s a reason I stopped using him – that’s not how I work. Yes, OK, I said it myself, the wolf is gonna be awesome next patch, but… I like wolves. They are awesome animals. Besides, I figure I’m only going to use him when/if I first start doing Ulduar, give myself as much of an edge as possible without having to use Barney the extremely noisy dinosaur. When I’m comfortable with Ulduar, Erethia will be coming back out of the stables.

So, to replace Moko, I got an… unconventional pet. A serpent, to be precise. Honestly, how many serpents have you seen? One, maybe two? They look awesome, and they are slightly different from other pets I’ve had due to having a ranged attack.

Now, names. Something any good Hunter should take great care with. No offence to people with cats named “Scratch” or anything, but, seriously. What? /slap! Your choices for pet names are deadly serious, or extremely silly, not plain stupid! -shakes fist, then coughs-

The Wolf… Well, the wolf hates me. His name is Cusídhe, which is (amusingly, considering) an Irish-ized version of Cusith, which means “Fairy Dog” (A la Caitsith, Fairy Cat.) Despite Sith being Scottish and Sidhe being Irish, I just like the way Sidhe looks better, to be honest. If that wasn’t embarrassing enough, it’s pronounced Coo-shee. Oh, he’s gonna rip my throat out first chance he gets!

Cusídhe

The snake? The snake has a fun name. First, I want you to look at this screenshot of Trizophenie’s Hunter. Notice the name of his Gorilla? Uh huh. So, can you guess what my snake is called?

If you guessed Trizophenie, you get a cookie.

Muwahaha! -flees-

And, of course, both pets fit into my theme of having white pets. Couldn’t be breaking that now, could I!

In other news, Ellaria has one piece of HC boss gear and one piece of Emblem gear, and then she’ll be raid-ready. I got four upgrades yesterday, and another two today thanks to a lucky if slow HoS run. Most important of todays upgrades is… BEAR HAND!

Yus! Dual Bear Hands ahoy!

Got enough emblems for my Offhand pair to Greed – Pride! Does she look awesome, or does she look omgwtfawesome? I also died a little inside when I managed to complete HoL on Ellaria, yet haven’t on Faulsey. Nature Resist totem, pile under boss (we were just eating the novas), and with Heroism up, we got the achievement for killing him quickly, too. Bah!

Something I’ve noticed on Ellaria is that tanks often forget about us poor melee DPS. I did 10 Man VoA yesterday, which of course has Archavon Fart Clouds to avoid, and in HoS today there’s Maiden with her big void zone things. Both times, the tanks had an alarming tendancy to position the boss so that they were barely out of their own nastiness.

As a melee DPS, we like to be behind the boss so that we don’t lose DPS from parries, which in turn result in more DPS for the boss! So tanks, quit forgetting about the melee until you get parry gibbed, and drag that things ass out of the gunk, or face my Shamanistic Rage!

When Ellaria is fully geared, I’m not really sure what I’m gonna do. I still need some 10-Man Naxx gear on Faulsey before I feel I’d be ready for Ulduar, but at the moment, I can’t really raid. In fact, unless I get a guild that only does one or two raid nights and is happy to do only ten mans, I’m pretty much scuppered. Stupid random work schedule and daft preference for 10 mans!

Second full Naxx clear last night!

8 people from Nautilus, with a pugged healer and DPS.

We one shot all of the Military and Plague wings, and much to my joy, I survived the entirety of the fight with Heigan!

Look! I live! ... Ok, Erethia didn't...

And that is because Heigan has a ridiculously sized hit box. Large enough that Erethia happily sits inside the previous safe zone whilst she claws at him, which results in death. D: But hey, I lived! I was so pleased with myself. (Though a lot of credit must be given to Mcitra, our uber tree, who was dancing like a pro and slapping HoTs on me when I did eat an eruption.)

We also tore through the Arachnid Wing with ease, aiming for the achievement there. We managed to get that with about a minute remaining on the clock… despite our mage being webbed out of the room entirely. Oops.

:D

We were aiming for Make Quick Werk of him, too, but we didn’t really have the DPS to pull that one off. I think we missed that by well over a minute. Grobbulus was our only wipe in the place, mostly due to starting the fight when a couple of people were AFK, and getting overwhelmed with slimes. Gluth and Thaddius went down without any real problems.

Nabbed the Hundred Club achievement from Sapphiron, who also yielded my sole piece of loot from the entire run; Key to the Focusing Iris. There’d been a Bow drop earlier, which was inferior to my crossbow, and the Claymore dropped again, but that was it for Hunter drops. The vast majority of stuff was cloth… and we had one clothie. D: Most of it ended up in the Paladins mountainous off spec pile.

An exclusive club, with absolutely no members benefits! D:

KT was… embarrassingly funny. I was a bit too close to a healer, and one of us got frozen… and it caught the other. Obviously, healer was more valuable, so they got the saving heals, and I died. Recieved a battle res from a druid, and continued on my merry pewpewing way…

Until the OT /w’d (no vent.) me, asking if I could MD the adds onto him when they spawned. In the couple of seconds it took for me to reply OK, I got hit with the first Shadow Fissure that’d been targeted at me on either of the two runs, and died. Again. -mortified- I spent the rest of the fight on the floor watching health and mana bars to pass the time.

Was good fun, though given about half the loot was basically useless to any of us, it wasn’t the most rewarding run. Wondering about possibility of Sartharion (Plus a drake. maybe?) or Malygos this week… though I’m not sure I have the gear for Maly. -ponderponder-

-

Me and Kazura have also kind of dusted off our blood elf duo (Prot Paladin and Shadow Priest). Whilst she was making her way to Thousand Needles (I’d already arrived), I suggested she just jump off the lift and I’d bubble her before she hit the bottom, just for a fun shortcut. It… didn’t quite work the first time. Oh, I bubbled her. The instant she hit the ground. Used up my bubble, and she still died. We found this hilarious, so gave it another go.

Achievement incidental to original plan.

Heh. Silly blood elf fun ftw!

First things first: I was accepted into Nautilus!

The guild isn’t actually big enough at the moment to field an all guild raid team, even for ten mans, but we have enough people with various classes that it’s a case of grabbing 3-4 people from LFG, until we’ve recruited more people.

It’s better than where I was before (Raid wise! Not saying anything bad about my friends from Akatsuki :3), especially given most of the guild members are fun and friendly.

Boring stuff out of the way: Did 10 and 25 man VoA today. Wewt.

Mmm, cakewalk.

More exciting stuff now: I finished Naxx! /dancedance. It took a few wipes, a lot of alt/main swapping, and far, far too many dips into Viper, but I did it! I’ll spare you the constant stream of boss screenies this time, and instead just show the major ones.

We’d done the two most difficult wings last night, and we continued the trend of working down in difficulty by beginning with the Plague Wing. Noth died. That is all the information you require. It’s Noth.

Heigan was… an embarrassment. I died on the first fast dance. I got caught in an eruption, and meant to Shift-1 for Mend Pet. Instead, I hit Alt-1 for Disengage, and lept back into an eruption. Because those keys are so close together, amirite? /facepalm. Fortunately, about half the raid survived long enough to kill him.

Loatheb was good fun. It’s fun watching the majority of your hits crit. I imagine it’s a lot less fun for healers, who only have a 3 second window out of every 20 to, y’know… heal.

Another wing completed!

So, we’re left with one quarter to go: Arachnid. It’s meant to be the easiest one in the instance, right? Anub’Rekhan is meant to be a cakewalk… but still, half of the party managed to wipe on him. D: At this point, I was having pretty severe mana issues. Our Ret paladin from Plague Wing had disappeared without a trace, so there was no replenishment to be had, and at 12.5% of your mana every minute (well, with 100% uptime), that really adds up. So there was rarely a time when I had enough mana to take care of those blasted corpse scarabs. Not fun at all.

The Grand Widow was another fun fight. The tank for the worshippers made a slight mishap, and killed one of them before they needed to be killed, so she was in her frenzied state for the last 30% or so.

The final boss of the Spider Wing is Maexxna, a lovely big spider with a wealth of nasty abilities. Cocoons, spawning baby spider adds, poison, raid wide stuns – the lot. Hatehatehate. But, she died, and I think apart from my death on Heigan, I survived for the lot. We one shot everything, so things were looking good.

Last wing finished

Then the Frostwyrm Lair opens up and one of our healers DCs. D: We’d already been running with 9 people for the Spider wing, and Sapph isn’t exactly a cakewalk, so we were in pretty dire need of more people.

In the end, Skolian, who had been our MT, swapped over to his Lock, and let the OT DK pick up tanking, and Lexzie, the enhancement shaman, swapped over to her druid. We picked up a fourth healer and a DPS, and tried the fight. We wiped three times, I think (I think twice with three healers, then once with the four), before beating him – without Heroism, no less.*

I'm in ur lair, kickin' ur bony posterior!

Much to my joy, he dropped a Cloak of Mastery, which I know Rilgon is going to kill me for D: **

After another brief shuffle (Healer going onto tank since OT was leaving, another guildie coming in), it was off to face the big boss himself – Kel’Thuzad. I have no idea what the hell happened our first try. We sort of got through the waves of adds, though at the end the mini skeletons were quite numerous, then there was a flash and stuff happened and we wiped.

Second try was much better. The undead at the start didn’t overwhelm us, and KT himself isn’t particularly difficult. However, I think this fight (and Sapphiron, actually, though that was totally my own fault – I was lax in swapping over to Viper during air phases.) were where I was most taxed, mana wise. I think I only did nearly 1.8k DPS on both fights, which is a bit ouch. Goes to show that Blizzard are serious about the need for Replenishment.

Victory!

Effectively, this is my first proper raid clear in WoW. It was pretty difficult at times, but it was also probably the most enjoyable experience I’ve had so far in the game. I was also rather pleased with my personal haul of 3 shiny epics, though the Resto Druid that we’d had since the start was sitting on quite a mountain of gear. It actually got to the stage where he was pretty miffed when we politely suggested he may want to start passing on some things so other people could get a chance at loot. Heh.

I’ve still got OS10, as the very least, to do this week, but the next two nights I have work, so I doubt I’ll get to do it until Sunday, if I do it at all this week.

*Much to my amusement, when we pugged 10 man VoA last week, one of the party members kept insisting our last member be a Shaman, because we needed Heroism. For VoA. The most difficult raid instance in the game, amirite? We did Sapph and KT sans Heroism, you can bloody well do Archavon!

**Also, has anyone noticed what I consider to be poor itemization in terms of DPS Capes and Two Handers? It seems everything has Agility and no strength, which has Hunter all over it (Everything is Hunter loot!). Tonight, for example, the DPS DK actually asked me “Is that your main?” when I rolled for the cape, clearly disappointed I was rolling on it. And the Claymore I got last night, according to WoWhead, is a good Paladin weapon… despite complete and utter lack of strength. Waitwhat?

Blizzard. Fix it. I don’t object to sharing pole arms with druids, or capes with druids/rogues, or everything with Enhancement Shaman, but seriously now D: