Special - (29 Aug) Wild and His Resto Gear

Special - (29 Aug) Wild and His Resto Gear

A raider with the guild recently posted on the guild website his assessment of guild raiding. He didn't paint a very pretty picture. This is a raider who has done theorycrafting for the Elitist Jerks site and counts himself an elitist player who tired of it - which is how he came to be in our guild.

He offers a wealth of knowledge about raiding, providing you are willing to put up with serious attitude issues and accepting abuse along with the advice. This is second hand knowledge, I admit, but from more than a couple of sources. This raider claims intimate familiarity with many classes and specs, including resto druid. Wild is considering getting some advice, as much to see whether he is actually being helpful to those who seek him out as I am to see if he has anything to tell me I don't already know. Wild accepts good advice no matter how it comes to me.

One good outcome of that post is that Wild knew he should take a look at all aspects of his game before coming to see that raider. Wild's first look is a gear check. Short of Firelands gear or Heroic Raids, where can Wild still upgrade? I used the Wowhead site to check out available upgrades, and this is what I came up with.

Slot - Current - Upgrade
Head- i353 Amani Headdress - i359 Stormrider's Helm (Nefarian Token)
Neck - i365 - Nightweaver's Amulet - i378 Firemind Pendant (1250 VP)
Shldr - i378 Flickering Shoulderpads - None
Back - i378 Flowing Flamewrath cape - None
Chest - i359 Scorched Worming Vest- i378 OA Robes (2200 VP)
Wrist - i378 Smolderskull Bindings - None
Hands - i359 Stormrider's Handwraps- i378 OA Gloves (1650 VP)
Also BH Occu'thar drop
Waist - i378 Firescar Sash - None
Legs - i359 Stormrider's Legwraps - i378 OA Legwraps (2200 VP)
Also BH Occu'thar drop
Feet - i359 Fading Violet Sandals - None
Ring1 - i365 VG Band of Dominance - i378 Soothing Brimstone (1250VP)
Ring2 - i359 Security Measure Alpha - i365 Spirit Fragment Band (Molten Front)
Trnk1 - i365 Moonwell Chalice - None
Trnk2 -i359 Darkmoon Card: Tsunami - not really, Brewfest
Weap - i365 Lightforged Elem. Hammer - i378 2H Spire of Scarlet Pain (maybe)
OH - i365 Globe of Moonlight - None
Relic - i365 Relic if Elune's Light - i378 Singed Plume of Aviana (700VP)

OA = Obsidium Arborweave T12 resto druid set
Ethereal Leathwerworking requires both chaos and living ember, out of reach.
VP = Valor Points

So, 17 slots. Seven of those slots are solid. The other ten can still be upgraded.

If Wild runs Baradin Hold (BH) every week, he may one day win the T12 gloves and legs. Then there are 4 items that Valor Points will buy, at a total cost of 3200 VPs. Finally, Wild has to decide if buying the 2H +hit on the AH is actually better than the Hammer/OH combo Wild already has.

Wild can earn a max of 1250 VP per week. That requires a minimum 11 Heroic runs, combining ZA/ZG and Heroic Dungeons. Wild has about 900 VPs, from raiding. In fact, Wild could buy the i378 relic right now. But I would think the Chest piece would be the more valuable buy, a week's work at minimum.

Three weeks of maxing out Heroics would give Wild more than enough VPs to buy all the T12 pieces that he cannot get any other way. Wild HATES Heroics. It's a gut deep HATRED that causes the sweats when he even thinks about signing up for one. There is NOTHING in those dungeons that Wild cares anything about except for the VPs the final boss kill offers. It's mind numbingly boring while still deadly enough for there to be wipes and problems.

I really wish we were farming raid content, because that is how I prefer to get VPs. We'll know how it goes this week.

Wild got into Mf's BWD/FL raid on Monday. Wild was happy to get a spot in the raid, but after two weeks of very good attendance, the raid was back to it's old tricks. It took us 45 minutes to fill the raid even though ten guildies had signed up that they were coming, but in order to fill we had to bring two under geared DPS into the Firelands because half the signed up raiders didn't show - including the raid leader. We two-healed it with no problems, but after clearing trash for a couple of hours and bringing Shannox out to play, we were short a healer and lacked the DPS to take on the Firelands Boss. Wild's shaman friend from FS, Bf, finally moved over to the MM2 guild. It's funny. It was Bf who first jumped guilds, and Wild who followed. Now he's following Wild. I remember Bf more as a resto shaman than a DPS, but when Wild asked if he wanted to switch to healer so we could try Shannox, he said no, that his healer gear was not good enough. That ended our raid.

Mf's raid will try again on Tuesday, but Wild is signed up for Lady Hunter's raid on that night. I have no idea who will show up or where we will be going, if anywhere. We are in that terrible place where the guild is bored with current content (BWD/BoT) but isn't good enough for the new content (Firelands). And until the guild brings down a boss in Firelands, it is going to be hard to convince guildies to raid.