Tuesday (13 Mar) - No'Kaled, The Elements of Death

Tuesday (13 Mar) - No'Kaled, The Elements of Death

No'Kaled is the name of JB's pair of dual wielding axes. Enchanted with Landslide, the earth of Azeroth forever pours from her blades, marking her passage. Some would say she resembled Pig Pen from Charlie Brown. JB prefers the analogy of the graveyard, a sod of earth for every kill.

JB got the second blade of that pair on Monday night. On Tuesday JB put them to good use.

Daeth was there for JB's first paired blooding of the blades, in Shadowfang Keep. We had a tentative tank, but he was better than those that had vexed, frustrated, and annoyed us before. Progress was slow at first, but when Daeth, who knows more about the dungeons of Cata than he'll admit to, took the lead for more than half the fight, the shamed tank stepped up the pace. The dusty old Keep was no match for our group. JB did 19.6k DPS. Not only did the blades help, JB felt she was getting her spells off quicker, and was starting to get at least a bit of the intuitive feel of a fight that Wild lives and breathes when he heals. Daeth was second with an impressive 13.2k DPS (the 3rd DPSer did 11.2k). Daeth has commented before about the power of a mage's Arcane Blast, but it was shocking to see that 94% of all Daeth's damage came from that single spell.

Much later in the evening JB joined a Siege of Dragon Soul raid. For once JB was the only melee shaman in the raid. JB had her best night ever against Dragon Soul. Overall, JB did 23.7k DPS on the four boss kills and related trash, finishing 5th in total DPS. Her single best DPS came against the first boss, Morchok. JB did 38.3k DPS, the 4th best total in the raid. JB's worst DPS on a boss was still over 22k (Hagara).

All of that led up to the best news of the night. At long, long, long last, JB won her tier shoulders! JB came close to throwing those old i377 pvp shoulders she was wearing in the trash, she was so happy. The stats on the new Spiritwalker Spaulders were perfect for shaman, too, with both +hit and +expertise. That gave JB the flexibility to get rid of a tarnished i359 ring and replace it with a valor point purchased i397. Some reforging is still required, but JB moved up from i380 to i384 gear score. The look of those shoulders took some getting used to (they look like large brown larva with fangs), but then again it does seem to fit the graveyard look. The shoulders also give off an ethereal bluish image of wolves every now and then. JB is liking that.

JB's Growling Shoulders

A Landslide of Graveyard earth

JB also acquired two new mounts. During the Shadowfang Keep run JB reached Exalted with Ramkahen, which offers a mount to brown and tan colors. JB bought them both. So, what kind of mounts are they? They're camels. Here's JB on the tan one.

JB and her Camel