Recap

After last Wednesday's..."issues"...with ICC, we walked in on Saturday and one-shot all the content we had previously cleared. We then two-shot Saurfang.

The Turned Champion isn't really that bad of a fight when you get down to it. It just requires communication, especially when things don't go according to plan. If, for example, a Blood Beast starts gnawing on melee for some reason, don't panic...just say something to the ranged responsible for picking them up. There's not a ton of room for error, but you can get yourself out of a fix if you stay calm and just talk to each other.

We took a look at Festergut and are going to give him an honest effort tonight if we can manage the personnel. There was a lot of "do we have the dps for this?" talk, but I think we can do it. The mechanics on that fight aren't as complicated as some of the other ICC fights, so our dps crew should have enough room to work without that much distraction.

I also learned that I can't tank Heroic Halls of Reflection, specifically, the waves at the beginning. I gave it my best effort, but simply cannot pull it off. If the mobs all came from the same place, I could manage, but because they're coming in from all over the room it's a little too much for this poor, old, beat-up Warrior to handle. I also get a bit of lag sometimes when dealing with AoE, so when a rifleman drops a frost trap on top of whatever AoE the group is doing I end up with a couple seconds of a frozen screen only to return to find a dead healer.

I'm sure I could do it, but it would take some practice. The problem with practicing a unique set of pulls from a specific instance, though, is that four other people are paying for it, too...both with time and repair bills.

All in all, it was a good weekend in Azeroth. Got my Ashen Verdict ring and even managed to putz around with the holidays. I don't think I'm gonna get titles out of both of them, but I'll settle for some achievement points and vanity items. My banker is very happy with her new Lovely Red Dress, but keeps bugging me about the black one.

Hopefully we can take out Festergut tonight and cross another boss off of our progression list.

Believe It Or Not

...people are still showing up here on a daily basis.

Might as well give them something to read.

After my last post, I logged in and made several overdue and well-deserved officer promotions (Millea/Tatia being one). They offered to hold down the fort while I did what I needed to. I love my guild.

I've been online more in the past couple weeks. Messed around this past Saturday with holiday achievements, got in a raid that didn't get far, and got to see the new 5s for the first time.

The new dungeons are simply beautiful. Kudos, Blizz.

I also dabbled in the new random dungeon system. Pet or not, I hate PuGs and will probably not be volunteering myself for it on too regular a basis. I have to say, though, that I got very lucky with PuG members the first time I tried it. The dungeons were easy and the folks we picked up were solid players. Quite painless, overall.

I suppose it helps to be the tank, but that doesn't stop people from pulling for you as I've learned in the past. I like to set a brisk pace (assuming the healer is keeping up), but I will slow down if necessary to maintain control over the pulls. Must not have been too bad for our cross-server groupmates, as nobody complained about it.

I picked up the T9 shoulders with Triumph emblems. I could have waited a bit and picked up the higher ilvl non-tier shoulders, but I was in need of an upgrade and the shoulders provided much-needed expertise. I'm hoping I can get some runs in this week to pick up another emblem upgrade and, possibly, grab some items from the new dungeons.

It's good to be back.

Moron, Meet Chat Log

Dear Idiots, if you are going to attempt to ninja a shard at the end of a run by claiming that someone rolled and received an item that you actually rolled on and received, remember that we can frickin' see the chat log, too.

Last night Tatia and I pugged H-UK. We picked up three dps: a Warrior, Shaman, and a Mage. Tatia asks if anyone is an enchanter. The Shaman answers in the affirmative. Cool, if you need any BoP blues or purps that drop, hit need. Otherwise, the Shaman will pick it up, shard it, and we'll all roll for the shards at the end. Pretty basic.

No one needed any of the blues, and the Mage needed the epic ring that dropped off of Ingvar. Easy instance, nice and smooth. Time to roll on Dream Shards.

Warrior takes off. Mage rolls, Tatia rolls, I roll, Shaman rolls.

Shaman: Tatia, you needed on the second blue and got it.
Tatia: No, I didn't.
Shaman: Check your bags, I remember you needing on the second blue.
Tatia: I just checked my bags, I don't have it.

This ensues. Mage gets a shard, I get a shard, Shammy takes off with the last one.

I don't remember how the stock UI chat box works, but Chatter will let you scroll waaay the heck back. So I did.

"Shaman in Question" receives loot: [Blue From First Boss]
...
"Shaman in Question" receives loot: [Blue From Second Boss]
...
"Mage" receives loot: [Shiny New Ring]
"Shaman in Question receives loot: [Blue From Third Boss]

It's all there. Plain as day. Why on earth would you sit and argue about something that we can scroll back and see?

It could have been a loot glitch, I suppose. I've had issues where I've greeded/needed on an item, won it, and actually had to go pick it up. Still, though, don't go accusing somebody of doing something like that when it's recorded and we can scroll back and see it.

"Shaman in Question" is probably on the realm forums bashing us or something. Tatia and I both ignored him, so if he's doing it in trade I have absolutely no idea and I don't particularly care.

If that Shaman is reading this (a) you're a ninja...and a pathetic one at that considering all you gained was a friggin' Dream Shard...or (b) you probably should have paid more attention to what actually happened before you started running off at the mouth, considering we can all backtrack and get a good look at the truth.

I swear, WoW needs a minimum age.

Crap I Did Last Night

Now that title represents blogging at its finest.

Actually, last night was quite a busy one. I logged in later than I usually do after working late and then walking our new American Bulldog puppy, Delilah. We've had her for several weeks, and she's almost 4 months old. 30-something pounds of determination and she's going to get up to about 100-120 lbs. Gonna be a whole lot of dog.

But, anyway, here's the WoW stuff:

• Did three Heroics: CoS (reg daily), VH, and Oculus (heroic daily).
• CoS: Grabbed some nukers and made it a drake run. Cleared it with about 3 or 4 minutes to spare and, since everybody else had one, I got the drake. That made me happy.
• VH: Ran this one because it was...well...right there after we turned in the regular daily. Nothing terribly notable, except Vel, one of our 1337 Shammies, got enough emblems for the upgrade he was after, so he grabbed it before we hit Oculus.
• Oculus: A couple of pulls in, I hit exalted with the Knights of the Ebon Blade and got the achievement for that as well as the Northrend Vanguard achievement. I also learned why everybody hates Oculus. Wiped a couple of times on the last boss, but finally managed to make it happen. It'll be smoother next time.
• The emblems I managed to pick up allowed me to get my glove upgrade. Now I've gotta figure out what to aim for next as far as Conquest, Valor, and/or Triumph emblem purchases go.
• And finally, I did my fishing daily before I logged off, turned it in, and got the Battered Jungle Hat. After running around a bit in it, I had an idea. With the hat on, I equipped my defense trinket and took a look at my stats. Aside from the huge armor ding I take without my headpiece, my stats aren't that bad. I opened Outfitter and saved the outfit under the name "Pimp."

Sometime in the near future, I'm going to grab some guildies who are as crazy as me, flip over to the Pimp outfit, and do a Pimp Run in one of the easier heroics.

If it happens, you'll read about it here. I'll take screenshots.

Call It Like It Is

Sunday I picked up the heroic and regular daily quests, which both happened to be Utgarde Pinnacle. Didn't get to it on Sunday, but I held on to both because it would be easy to kill both birds with that one stone.

Ran it last night and, finally, got the Red Sword of Courage. At face value, it may not look like much of an upgrade compared to the Teldrassil Protector I've been using forever, but I rolled on it (even though we had a DK in the group with a tank spec...sorry, Landel) because (a) it's just a teeny bit faster, which I like in a tank weapon, (b) because it give me a little more stam and, most importantly, (c) because of the Human expertise racial.

I lose a little strength, defense, and parry, but I'm not really fretting over any of that because I'm probably going to grab the Gauntlets of the Royal Watch tonight which will upgrade my T7s. Parry still suffers, but I'm not terribly concerned.

Worked up my sword skill last night from 375 to 399 doing AT dailies and then tanked H-VH with it. I think, based on the results, that I made the right choice...even if I end up upgrading it sooner rather than later.

But that's not the point of this post.

The point of this post is the quest item that needs to be obtained for the Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle daily: the Locket of the Deceased Queen.

Cute.

They make it sound like she passed away peacefully in her sleep. Nice, gentle, PC approach to it.

If you quested through Howling Fjord, you "deceased" the queen in a violent fashion right in front of King Ymiron.

They should call it the Locket of the chick you killed in your low 70s for a couple gold and a soon-to-be-replaced quest reward.

And Bronze Drakes For All

Counting the run last night, I've done Heroic Culling exactly three times. Wasn't a fan of Escape from Durnholde, not a fan of CoS.

Why am I not a fan of these glorified escort quests?

Because I'm the tank. Hear that, Thrall and Arthas? Quit facepulling everything, you n00bs. I'll lead, you try to keep up.

And Arthas, you self-righteous douche, quit saying "make haste" and then walking like we've got all freakin' day. We want a shot at a Drake and don't have time for your endless, nauseating pontification every time we step on a plagued roach.

There. I feel better.

Last night was my first time actively going for the Drake from the get-go. We succeeded in beating the timer, and Tatia (or Millea, or Koalabear) won the Bronze Drake, so big gratz to her.

I decided after the run that Echo of Fate would actively pursue getting everybody in the guild a Bronze Drake. As much as I hate that instance, I'd love to see everybody get the achievement and the mount. I'll tank it every night I'm online if I have to until everybody's got it.

Nothing wrong with hunting down a vanity item or two, right? They're a great group of people and they deserve it.

I Am Not Needy

A little clingy at times, maybe, but not necessarily Needy.

We didn't have enough people to raid last night, so we settled on some easy heroics for Emblems. First we hit Violet Hold, where I finally got to fight Moragg. So, after running VH 137,256 times, I got the achievement.

25 minutes or so. 3 easy Emblems. What's next?

Well, Briele and I both needed to log at about 11:30 server, and since we didn't start Violet Hold until a little later than we had hoped we decided to run a quick Nexus. That's become my favorite Emblem farming instance.

Fairly standard run. More easy emblems.

We did have an amusing moment during the Telestra fight due to unfortunate sheeping. Her favorite targets last night were Bri and me...which is a tad bit frustrating. During her first split phase, we lost a DPS. During the last one, we lost the other two DPS.

Still, with no one left but a Prot Warrior and a Holy Priestess, she died. Took a while, but she died.

I've fought Keri a bunch of times, and each time the Flame-Bathed Steel Girdle dropped there was a DPS plate-wearer in the group who needed it. Finally, since Eck's Pally already had it, I was able to Need on it and add it to my off-set.

And that's when I blew my load. Rolled a 100, got the Needy achievement, and ensured that all of my rolls in the near future will be single-digit.

Still, it was a very fun, productive evening.

This weekend I'm hoping to do some ToC farming for The Black Heart and any other tank stuff I can get my grubby hands on. I also want to grab as many Emblems as possible to make up for the time I lost this week.

Trial of a New Guild

When I decided that I wanted to pull the trigger and start this new guild, I knew that a couple of people expressed interest in coming with me. As it turns out, a very large number of former guildies have joined me, including my bro-in-law (Call of Fate's GM).

Ignoring all of our alts, we're a very lean, streamlined guild. Still need to get some depth in the roster, though, to avoid having to PuG and, eventually, get two raid teams running simultaneously each week.

It means a lot that so many people joined me in this crazy experiment. I told them all in /gchat last night and felt like such a mushy idiot, but I meant it.

~*~

Tried the new 5-man over the weekend for the first time. Ran it two times in a row: first on regular, then on heroic. Overall, I didn't love it and I didn't hate it...kind of a middle of the road feeling about it. I just wish there wasn't so much Light-forsaken talking. Can we just fight already?

Round 1: I've done so much jousting over the past couple of months that Round 1 wasn't too terribly bad on either reg or heroic. Had some issues with people getting to fresh horses after getting dismounted in heroic, but overall, not many hiccups.

The little "run out of the arena after the bosses are down and you get dismounted so they reset and are easier to pick up" trick is probably not going to work for long. I have a feeling Blizz will nerf it. Still, it makes the round easier and we'll get as much mileage out of it as possible.

Round 2(a): Eadric the Flashbulb...err...Pure. Come on, Blizz...not every fight absolutely has to have a gimmick. "Hey, let's make him get really bright so you have to turn around mid-fight!" Fire the guy who said that. Got Eadric on reg, fight was easy.

Round 2(b): Argent Confessor Paletress. Got this little tart on heroic. As a woman of the not-so-much-cloth, she should be stripped of her priestly robes...if she were wearing them, of course. This fight turned into "How many tricks does your party have to break fear." Other than that it wasn't that bad at all. I really want to fight my memory of Hogger, though...and soon.

Round 2 (addendum): I've seen both of these individuals in the AC tent on the tournament grounds. I've gone to Eadric countless times to pick up the dailies, and Paletress and I have played "confess your naughtiness" on occasion (she calls me "Uncle Mis," incidentally). Bottom line, I'm familiar with both of these NPCs.

So, please, explain to me how they're two feet taller when you fight them in the arena. I call doping. WTB drug test. There's some HGH floating around the Argent Crusade camp and I demand an asterisk by all of their titles because they earned them with the help of performance-enhancing drugs.

Round 3: This is, without a doubt, one of the toughest 5-man fights I've ever done. Our first go at the Black Knight on heroic had me, the final group member standing, die when the little prick was at 200 hp!!! Second go, we died in phase 2...not pretty. Third time was the charm, though.

Again, not my favorite instance, but it has its charm. I got two excellent upgrades...to my PvP set. No sweet tank love, but that's cool.

New guild, new instance, new drive, new purpose. Feels damn good.

Advice for the Next Generation

Gather 'round, kids.

Have a seat on Uncle Mis's lap and let him give you some advice.

When you finally hit your 80th season and decide to start running those heroic dungeons or raids to get all that fancy gear you've seen folks in Stormwind walking around in, here's a couple of things you should know. Now, they may seem pretty obvious, but there are plenty of folks out there who didn't have an old battle-worn tank to tell them about it, or they just didn't pay attention.

I know you've learned plenty from others of your class, and I know they've been giving you good advice about how to do the most sustained damage you can. If you wanna get on your tank's good side, though, and stay alive long enough to finish the fight, listen closely:

Be Patient

You're gonna be in situations where a tank is gonna pick a fight with a bunch of big scary bad guys, and your first instinct after fighting through 80 seasons is going to be to jump in and start laying into them.

Just hold off a second.

Your tank has a couple of things he needs to do first. If it's me, I'm going to start by hitting one of them, likely a caster, with a Heroic Throw. That'll silence the caster and get them to run at me so I don't have to do anything fancy to invite them over for a tea party.

Once they get close enough, I'll Thunderclap to let 'em know I mean business, yell at them to make them feel bad about themselves, then pop off a quick Shockwave to make them forget who they are and why they were running at me in the first place.

After that, jump right in the fight. Hit 'em hard and often.

If you get a little fidgety and start doing your thing before I've gone through that little song and dance routine, there's a good chance that they'll decide you'd be a more enjoyable target and start beating the living nether out of you.

Stand Behind Them

Now I know you've spent a very long time standing toe to toe with those big, mean, scary people....or things....or whatever, but from here on in, that's gonna be my job. That means it's time for you to get to know their heels for a change.

The first reason it's a good idea to stand behind them is because these guys'll parry attacks from anybody standing in front of them. If they parry one of your attacks is just going to make their next attack come quicker. Since I've hopefully done a sufficient job insulting their mothers and they're looking to pummel me first and foremost, those quicker attacks are gonna land on Uncle Mis's pretty face. You don't want that, do you?

Secondly, some bad guys have a tendency to cleave or do something else that may affect any number of people standing in front of them. If you're behind them, you'll be safe from getting hurt by something like that.

Oh, and let's not forget about dragons. 99.9% of the time dragons are gonna breathe fire or something else that's pretty painful...that's kind of their thing. A dragon that doesn't breathe fire is pretty much just an over-sized lizard. Standing in front of dragons is very, very bad. Here's the kicker, though: dragons also have really big tails they like to swing around, so don't stand behind them, either.

When fighting a dragon, then, stand to the side. All of their vital organs are there for you to poke at and you're pretty much safe from getting fried or frozen or knocked into next week.

And there you have it. Next time you run off into a heroic or a raid keep these things in mind. It'll make your tank very happy and keep the healers from having to waste a bunch of their mana resurrecting you while muttering under their breath.

Run along now, kids. Aunt Cheesi made cookies.

Stratholme - Present Day

Since I've acquired my epic flight skill I've decided to start collecting mounts. I started with all of the Alliance ground mounts, slow and fast, and I'm going to try and get all of the available gryphons. Eventually, I'd like to get the Albino Drake.

To reach 50 mounts, though, I'm going to have to get lucky and/or creative. So last night I ran into old school Stratholme...well, I guess old school Stratholme would technically be the Culling...but I....ah, screw it, you get the point.

Anyway, my target was Baron Rivendare. I was going to ask him (with my axe) if I could have his horse. Well, I asked, and he refused, so I asked repeatedly until he collapsed into a bloody pile on the floor.

But all of that isn't the point of this post. The point is, Stratholme is huge. WotLK dungeons are small and linear, and were designed to be so. Vanilla WoW dungeons, on the other hand, were sprawling, non-linear, and would take a whole afternoon if you ran it at an appropriate level. I knew this was the case, don't get me wrong, but it's still kind of shocking when you zone in and get reminded of it.

During the week, I have limited play time. I have a couple of hours between work and sleep to do what I need to do. The smaller dungeons, therefore, appeal to me. It's nice to be able to get in, get out, and get to bed at a reasonable time. I'm getting older, after all.

Still, I admire the effort they put into those old dungeons. They really were pretty epic and well-designed.

The other, less important point to this post is...how is that city still burning? Seriously. It's been years since Arthas ran rampant through the place, yet the buildings are still standing and they're still on fire.

Sometimes it's best not to think too hard about stuff like that.