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.

ICC Tonight

And I'm jacked up for it.

We only have like an hour and a half to work, but I think that, given our success last weekend, we can get quite a bit done as long as we get started on time with the full group. This will set up real "progression" this Saturday, which is exciting.

In other news, I caved and started monkeying around with the Love is in the Air holiday. I'm batting 1.000 on holidays since Thanksgiving, so I'm trying to keep up that momentum and maybe get an exceptionally ugly mount for my troubles by November.

I'm hoping that I'll have some good news to report regarding our progress tomorrow.

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.

Hallowed Be My Name

That post title felt a little blasphemous.

I don't usually do holiday stuff, but Cheesi and I spent a lot of time last year racking up Hallow's End achievements. When this year rolled around, I was only about 5 away from the title.

By the way, Blizz, thanks for getting rid of that "get 428 masks by trick-or-treating" achievement.

Anyway, my wonderful guildies put up with me last night long enough to help me get the "Hallowed" title. We killed the Horseman over and over and over and I managed to pick up the Squashling and the Hallowed Helm thanks to a couple of lucky rolls.

Eckhart/Sunfury is desperately seeking the Horseman's mount. I don't particularly care if I get it or not, so if I have the chance I'll try and help him get it. He'll have one less roll to contend with that way.

I'm really just happy with the title. Of all the holiday events, Hallow's End is my favorite. Who knows? Maybe actually accomplishing this one will convince me to be a little more active with the holidays on a go-forward basis.

We'll see.

The Stamfest Trinket

Thank you, Vene, for posting what I was thinking and proving to my brain that I wasn't wrong.

Here's my take:

When I logged on last night just about my whole guild was in BRD doing the Brewfest quest and picking up trinkets or, in some cases, mounts. I'm not a big holiday person, so I told them I'd just run some dailies while they were doing it. After a while (when I realized I wasn't going to get to do the daily heroic with guildies until they were done anyway), I conceded and went along.

We were able to fight the guy four times, and two stamina trinkets dropped. I grabbed one and our former RL roommate Tassh grabbed the other for his Warrior.

If you armory me right now you'll see that I'm currently wearing that stamina trinket. Will I continue to wear it as part of my "normal" tanking set? No. Will I keep it in my bags? Yes.

My other stamina trinket option is the Black Heart. I will lose 440 health if I run with the Black Heart rather than the Mug. However, the Aegis proc on the Black Heart is incredible...really incredible. It happens a lot and is a significant increase in armor during the duration. Plus, you get a cool little crown over your head (Warriors don't have a lot in the way of animations aside from Shockwave and Devastate, so crap like that makes me happy).

Most tanks who are ready to jump into heroics or raiding have at least 25K or so health (ballparking...willing to be wrong...don't flame me). If you've been heroicing or raiding for a while you're likely over 30K. What am I getting at? 400 health is, to borrow a term from my day job, immaterial. The armor proc from the BH, on the other hand, is material.

Should you ditch the Mug entirely? No. Should you be less stubborn than me and take advantage of the holiday to get what really is, all things considered, a pretty good trinket? Yes. Run it until you get it if you have the time because, if you're in a fight where having a dodge or other avoidance trinket isn't going to do you any good and you need raw effective health, stacking the Mug and the BH will, together, hand you almost 3K health and a nice, reliable armor proc.

Regardless of all of that, having a lot of trinkets to play with is always a good thing. I'm very hesitant to get rid of trinkets and I'll usually roll on them if I have the chance and nobody else needs them more (i.e. the Repelling Charge, which doesn't help me now but, if I need to build a resistance set, will come in handy). They're quick and easy ways to tweak your stats to prepare for a given boss fight.

I really need to stop being so hard on the holiday events. Live a little, Mis...live a little.

Happy Brewfest, boys and girls.