Weekend (11 Apr) - Heroics and Perky Pug
Wild spent a boring Thursday evening going over his gear and agonizing over whether to spend the 60 frost badges he'd laboriously collected. There are three types of gear frost badges are used for: The i251 Lasherweave set; the i264 Sanctified Lasherweave set, which don't directly cost badges, but require a turn in of the Lasherweave i251 in order to get the Sanctified (along with a drop from ICC); and then there are select non-set items of i264 calibre.
Wild has two pieces of the Sanctified (shoulder and legs), which gets me the two piece set bonus. Druids are not all that impressed with the Sanctified set, which is sad because this is the Tier 10 set. Wild spent most of his badges on non-Tier gear once I had the two piece set bonus. The four piece set bonus is fairly nice, too, but the gear itself is sort of ho hum. So, while there are some i251 Lasherweave gear Wild could buy one of with his 60 frost badges, none of it is much of an improvement over non-set gear Wild already has. When Wild finished his assessment, there were three gear slot priorities, two of which cost 60 badges and one that cost 95.
The only Lasherweave piece Wild still wanted were the gloves. However, my best bet there is to wait until Wild gets a Sanctified drop in ICC before buying them. The other 60 badge item is the trinket [Purified Lunar Dust]. Wild is wearing a +98 spell power trinket, and the new one has +179 spell power. Kind of a no-brainer there, but the older trinket also had a chance to increase +haste. The large spell power upgrade outweighed that and Wild ended up buying the trinket.
Wild will now be saving up 95 frost badges to buy an i264 chest piece that is far better than the Sanctified chest equivalent. Slow but steady, Wild is getting there gear-wise.
On the moonkin side, Wild is building up his triumph badges to buy the higher end +hit trinket, which will allow him to use more crit gear instead of all the +hit gear he has to wear now. Wild can break over 3k in base spell power on his gear and over 20% base crit, but that is only for Heroics basically. Trying to hit a level 83+ elite in ICC, however, requires a lot of +hit in order not to miss, and when that is taken into account Wild drops to around 2900 spell power, but, more importantly, his crit falls down to under 14%, not good for a DPS class that is heavily dependant on crits.
Friday night was our pvp night, of course, and it was a good night to be horde.
We started with the 30s bracket team of Ando (level 39), Lao (38), and EZ (31). We make a pretty balanced team, with Ando doing the druid healing thing, Lao dealing ranged caster death as a shadow priest, and EZ mixing it up in close quarters as a melee shaman.
Our first match was in Warsong Gulch. EZ quickly became the favorite player on the team - the enemy alliance team, that is. At level 31 they just couldn't resist her, and one rogue in particular made it his sole task to lurk in stealth, waiting on EZ so he could backstab her and then slice her to shreds. We did kill that rogue a few times, but he spilled EZ's blood all over the field. It was a bit of a frustrating match in other ways, too, as the allies did what's called "turtle-ing" for much of the battle. "Turtle-ing" means keeping almost all of their team in or close to their own base, and basically playing only defense. It is almost always a fail strategy, since attacking and capping flags is what wins matches, and we did eventually win the match, 2-0, when time ran out.
An Arathi Basin match followed. When the match started a knot of horde headed for the nearby farm to capture that while our team, along with several others, made for the mine. Both are nearer to the horde starting point than the alliance. The battle at the farm went quickly in our favor, but the mine . . . Well, the alliance team hit it in force. It was one of the largest pitted battles I've seen in an AB match. Friend and foe mixing it up in a huge firefight. It was awesome! We lost the skirmish and the mine, but the team that had grabbed the farm also took the stables while the allies were busy at the mine. AB is all about holding on to resource areas, and we were one up on them.
There was another series of pitched battles at the blacksmith that raged over most of the latter half of the match. The allies were determined to take it, and the horde, with more resources ticking us toward victory, were determined to take a stand and stop them. EZ again shined as the favored player, this time by the horde. Why? Because EZ became the bait. Like WSG, the allies could not resist the "easy" kill of a level 31. However, EZ (with Ando's healing help) did not make it easy. EZ would drop a set of four totems, which included totems designed to slow the allies down and exploding totems to irritate them. The allies would charge us and EZ would wade in at the front, taking on all comers. EZ would die, of course, but not before the rest of the horde defenders had started decimating the distracted allie attackers. EZ led in deaths (ie, dying) and even healer Ando put up better DPS numbers, but it was good strategy and EZ loved it. We won.
With a Wintergrasp battle coming up, we switched to the team of DER (level 80), Philly (79) and Sis (78). Since patch 3.3.3 WG seems to have become even more popular than before as it can give a good chunk of honor - honor points are now even more important than before in pvp. I'd never been denied entry into WG because the raid was full, even one already in progress - until recently when Philly experienced that for the first (and so far only) time. All three of us got into the WG battle, but a few minutes into it Philly and then Sis were kicked out of our raid group to make way for level 80s. We got to stay in WG and continued to fight, but not being in a raid meant that we were not sharing in the spoils from kills or to meet quest requirements. I didn't even realize that's what had happened until DER explained it.
After WG Sis called it an evening. DER was after a new heirloom weapon and still needed some triumph badges to get it. Time for some Heroics. Philly went to bed and Wildshard joined DER. By the way, Philly is 37% of the way to level 80.
Wild usually does Heroics in moonkin form, and I was itching to see what that new +179 spell power trinket would do for Wild's DPS numbers, but it would be a lot quicker getting a group if Wild were healing. So Wild signed up as a healer, and we only had to wait a couple minutes for our first group.
The pally tank kept things moving a little too well. After our first boss kill Wild got distracted and his group left him behind. Now, I know Wild is easily distracted, but most groups figure out by this point in their lives that leaving the healer behind is not a good idea. They all died, and when they got back from the graveyard they made sure Wild got to where we were supposed to be. Wild apologized for getting lost, and one of the DPS left, but DPS are easy to get and we had a new one almost instantly. The pally still tended to over-aggro things, and Wild's detour didn't seem to phase him as the pally still managed to get too far ahead of everyone else, so Wild was constantly catching up on the healing. But that made things interesting, and it was a pretty fun run.
Wild and DER did one more Heroic. The tank in this one wanted to get an achievement, don't ask me which one, and it took us a bit longer to do than our usual rush through. Wild did die once when I got hammered during one of the boss fights. It was my fault completely for not getting out of the line of attack soon enough. The rest of the group were pretty amazing, though, hanging in there brilliantly. Only two were standing at the end, but we didn't wipe.
We called it an evening, and DER had his dagger. Wild also had is own surprise. In his mail was a new vanity pet, a little dog called Perky Pug. DER, I learned, already had one, which you win once you have done Heroics with at least one hundred different players. Pretty cool.
Philly's grind continued on Sunday - now 59% of the way to level 80.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Wednesday Part 2 (7 Apr) - The (Sort of) Fun Stuff
Wednesday Part 2 (7 Apr) - The (Sort of) Fun Stuff
There really was a raid Wednesday night, and Wild was a part of it. At raid time we had only 24 signed up, and when the clock struck 6pm only 19 of those had made it in game. More raiders filtered in, and we took out the trash with 23 raiders. By 6:15pm or so, we were at full strength. Still, the raid is supposed to be in place and ready to go at 6pm for invites, and to ensure that, the invite time may be moved back, to possibly 5:50pm. Our healer group wasn't exactly balanced among the classes, either. There was Wild (druid) and Sb, one of three priests who most often heals, and then there were four shaman. At least there will be no lack of totems (a shaman specialty).
The Tuesday raid had taken down the four bosses in the Lower Spire, of course, as well as both the Princes and the Blood-Queen in the Crimson Halls. Six kills. We would be starting in the Plagueworks.
Wild had made some changes in both his healing and moonkin specs earlier in the day. Specifically for healing, Wild moved talent points around in order to get two talents called Celestial Focus and Nature's Grace. Both of these talents improve Wild's +haste, which I am getting a bit desperate to improve on. Wild also paid a staggering price for a belt [Professor's Bloodied Smock], an i264 drop in ICC that was for sale on the AH. It's the most expensive thing Wild has every purchased, but it was a huge upgrade and usually sells for a lot more. And it came with +80 haste (+90 haste after Wild socketed three gems).
On the trash mobs there was a noticeable improvement in the speed of Wild's spell casting. It is no where near equal with the other guild druid healers, but it made a difference. Wild put out over 4700 hps on the trash.
The addon that tracks dps and hps was a bit flaky on the night, and Wild had to reset it after each encounter. That made it a little more difficult to assess Wild's progress.
The first boss was Festergut. Wild got a new assignment for this fight. Usually Wild is assigned to one of two ranged groups that stand on the outer circle. A critical element of the fight is to get to a Spore when they spawn, which happens many times over the course of the fight. There are two spots on the outer circle where we gather around a spore, as well as a third spot at the center of the chamber where the tanks and melee are. This time Wild was assigned to position in the center with the melee and the tanks. I knew that spores could spawn on any raider, but I also assumed that spores spawning in the center should be held there so the raiders there could group around it. On the very first spore spawn, Wild got tagged with a spore. I held position, and then the raid leader started yelling at Wild to move. To be honest, I still don't fully understand under what conditions the center raiders must move with a spore to the outer circle. Three spores always spawn, but not always where each of our three positions can take advantage of them. I suppose that if I happen to get a spore, I need to look around and see which spot doesn't have one. Hard to see if a second spore is in the tightly packed center, though, with my own spore in my face. Nonetheless, Wild was supposed to bring his spore to the outer circle, with all the melee following. I tried to get to them, but I was too late. The explosion from the spores is not a problem, and in fact is essential. Exploding spores inoculate raiders from a stacking shadow damage debuff. The raiders Wild failed to reach would need a lot of extra healing until new spores spawned.
We were able to heal through it, no one died, and Festergut proved to be no match for the raid. Festergut went down.
Rotface was up next, and proved no better challenge. Rotface went down. Wild's hps on those two bosses put him in the bottom half of the healers, but the numbers were improving as Wild got used to the new casting speed.
From there, we had only two choices - Putricide (ugh), or Dreamwalker (please). We headed for Putricide.
Wild has gone over this fight more than a few times. It is gruelingly difficult. A single mistake is a near sure wipe. We've fought this maniac dozens of time - and killed him only once. It is the worst kind of fight for Wild. Almost constant movement, not just away from stuff, but toward stuff as well. Bad positioning won't necessarily kill you, but it will kill others, because being out of position puts other raiders at risk. It is an absolute nightmare. Wild certainly wasn't the only raider making mistakes, but I was cringingly aware of every one that Wild made.
Things actually started well, surprisingly. On our first attempt we got Putricide down to 14% health and Wild finished third in healing with 3891 hps.
One of those single mistakes (not Wild's) brought the raid down early on our second attempt. And we went at him again. And again. There are three phases to this fight. We were good enough to get to the third phase nearly every time, spending our blood over and over again in the extended battle, and then falling short.
We had single digit near kills of 8% and 6%, but we could not finish him off. After eight attempts we had to call it a night.
Wild averaged around 3200 hps over the course of those eight attempts, staying in the 3rd or 4th positions in healing each time. Given the nature of the fight, I was well pleased with Wild's healing. I still suck at positioning, though, and I certainly inflicted more than my share of pain on the raid. It was a rough night. But you know what the real irony is? [Professor's Bloodied Smock] drops from the Putricide fight. I can't kill him, but I did buy his belt. :-)
There was no announcement regarding using the lockout option to balance the encounters between two raid nights, but these things tend to move slowly. Getting input and making a final decision is subject to the availability of the raid officers, and getting a consensus takes time.
There really was a raid Wednesday night, and Wild was a part of it. At raid time we had only 24 signed up, and when the clock struck 6pm only 19 of those had made it in game. More raiders filtered in, and we took out the trash with 23 raiders. By 6:15pm or so, we were at full strength. Still, the raid is supposed to be in place and ready to go at 6pm for invites, and to ensure that, the invite time may be moved back, to possibly 5:50pm. Our healer group wasn't exactly balanced among the classes, either. There was Wild (druid) and Sb, one of three priests who most often heals, and then there were four shaman. At least there will be no lack of totems (a shaman specialty).
The Tuesday raid had taken down the four bosses in the Lower Spire, of course, as well as both the Princes and the Blood-Queen in the Crimson Halls. Six kills. We would be starting in the Plagueworks.
Wild had made some changes in both his healing and moonkin specs earlier in the day. Specifically for healing, Wild moved talent points around in order to get two talents called Celestial Focus and Nature's Grace. Both of these talents improve Wild's +haste, which I am getting a bit desperate to improve on. Wild also paid a staggering price for a belt [Professor's Bloodied Smock], an i264 drop in ICC that was for sale on the AH. It's the most expensive thing Wild has every purchased, but it was a huge upgrade and usually sells for a lot more. And it came with +80 haste (+90 haste after Wild socketed three gems).
On the trash mobs there was a noticeable improvement in the speed of Wild's spell casting. It is no where near equal with the other guild druid healers, but it made a difference. Wild put out over 4700 hps on the trash.
The addon that tracks dps and hps was a bit flaky on the night, and Wild had to reset it after each encounter. That made it a little more difficult to assess Wild's progress.
The first boss was Festergut. Wild got a new assignment for this fight. Usually Wild is assigned to one of two ranged groups that stand on the outer circle. A critical element of the fight is to get to a Spore when they spawn, which happens many times over the course of the fight. There are two spots on the outer circle where we gather around a spore, as well as a third spot at the center of the chamber where the tanks and melee are. This time Wild was assigned to position in the center with the melee and the tanks. I knew that spores could spawn on any raider, but I also assumed that spores spawning in the center should be held there so the raiders there could group around it. On the very first spore spawn, Wild got tagged with a spore. I held position, and then the raid leader started yelling at Wild to move. To be honest, I still don't fully understand under what conditions the center raiders must move with a spore to the outer circle. Three spores always spawn, but not always where each of our three positions can take advantage of them. I suppose that if I happen to get a spore, I need to look around and see which spot doesn't have one. Hard to see if a second spore is in the tightly packed center, though, with my own spore in my face. Nonetheless, Wild was supposed to bring his spore to the outer circle, with all the melee following. I tried to get to them, but I was too late. The explosion from the spores is not a problem, and in fact is essential. Exploding spores inoculate raiders from a stacking shadow damage debuff. The raiders Wild failed to reach would need a lot of extra healing until new spores spawned.
We were able to heal through it, no one died, and Festergut proved to be no match for the raid. Festergut went down.
Rotface was up next, and proved no better challenge. Rotface went down. Wild's hps on those two bosses put him in the bottom half of the healers, but the numbers were improving as Wild got used to the new casting speed.
From there, we had only two choices - Putricide (ugh), or Dreamwalker (please). We headed for Putricide.
Wild has gone over this fight more than a few times. It is gruelingly difficult. A single mistake is a near sure wipe. We've fought this maniac dozens of time - and killed him only once. It is the worst kind of fight for Wild. Almost constant movement, not just away from stuff, but toward stuff as well. Bad positioning won't necessarily kill you, but it will kill others, because being out of position puts other raiders at risk. It is an absolute nightmare. Wild certainly wasn't the only raider making mistakes, but I was cringingly aware of every one that Wild made.
Things actually started well, surprisingly. On our first attempt we got Putricide down to 14% health and Wild finished third in healing with 3891 hps.
One of those single mistakes (not Wild's) brought the raid down early on our second attempt. And we went at him again. And again. There are three phases to this fight. We were good enough to get to the third phase nearly every time, spending our blood over and over again in the extended battle, and then falling short.
We had single digit near kills of 8% and 6%, but we could not finish him off. After eight attempts we had to call it a night.
Wild averaged around 3200 hps over the course of those eight attempts, staying in the 3rd or 4th positions in healing each time. Given the nature of the fight, I was well pleased with Wild's healing. I still suck at positioning, though, and I certainly inflicted more than my share of pain on the raid. It was a rough night. But you know what the real irony is? [Professor's Bloodied Smock] drops from the Putricide fight. I can't kill him, but I did buy his belt. :-)
There was no announcement regarding using the lockout option to balance the encounters between two raid nights, but these things tend to move slowly. Getting input and making a final decision is subject to the availability of the raid officers, and getting a consensus takes time.
Wednesday (7 Apr) - A Change of Heart
Wednesday (7 Apr) - A Change of Heart
It was said in all sincerity, but I couldn't really explain what emotions ran through me when I heard it. "She only stays in FS because Wild is still there."
Lady Hunter and Wild managed to find ourselves in game at the same time for the first time in many days, even weeks. The subject always leads back, eventually, to enticing Wild to come over to the MM guild. As I've said many times in the past, it's nice to be wanted. At one point she asked Wild if the reason I stayed in FS was because our once Guild Leader, P-Jo, had stayed when many of her close friends, including her husband, had left FS. Jo is certainly a main reason Wild has stuck with FS for so long, as I'm as fond of Jo as anyone can be of someone I've never met in person. Lady Hunter, who I'm pretty fond of as well, told me that Jo remained in the guild at least in part because Wild was still there. I didn't really have an answer for that. We all make our own decisions, for our own reasons.
It was a strange confluence that Lady Hunter chose this night to say Hi, and ask after Wild. I am coming close to making a decision about whether I want Wild to continue raiding 25 man ICC. I'm a very laid back kind of person, but there isn't really much room left in guild raiding for folks like me. Raid progression has gotten to be pretty serious business in FS; it's not a hard core raiding guild, but it is far, far from the more laid back raiding mindset that FS was previously known for. That is neither a good thing or a bad thing. FS raid progression has never been better, and we (Wild included) can be proud of how far we've come in 25 man ICC, the toughest dungeon in the game. There are twelve boss encounters in ICC, and FS has beaten ten of them at least once. The eleventh boss, Sindragosa, is all that stands between the guild and the Lich King himself.
That said, much of the pure fun is missing from the raid. Wild is a good raider, but I'm the first to admit that lots of raiders are better, and make fewer mistakes. Wild at times can be quite a frustration to a raid leader. Once, Wild's gaffes were cause to chide and joke about it, help figure out what went wrong, and move on. Now it's analyze, assess, and correct. It's all deadly serious business. And it's getting harder to convince myself that Wild and FS are still a good fit.
Back to the question at hand, which is should Wild change guilds, things may look pretty clear cut, but they aren't. That other guild, MM, that Lady Hunter moved to many months ago now, does not sound like the same guild they were when Wild was happily running ten man Ulduar and ICC with them. Lady Hunter told Wild that the MM guild no longer has a 25 man ICC raid. When Wild asked about the status of MM's ten mans, she said that both she and Bd had ten mans going again. That was encouraging, but after discussing it a bit more I learned that both raids were still in the forming stage and weren't yet sure about when they would run.
So, there is no clear cut choice. What does Wild want? I want to see the Lich King, before ICC gets nerfed to kindergarten status with the coming of Cataclysm. I don't care whether it's in 25 man or ten man, I just want to see it. Right now it appears that staying with FS is the best path to get there, but that is only if the guild truly wants Wild to stay.
Wild's other priority is to find a way to spend more time with such great friends as P-Jo, Lady Hunter, Bd, and others. One way or the other.
I plan on talking to raid leadership as soon as I can catch one in game this week. Essentially, the question for the guild is: If Wild decided to remove himself from 25 man raiding, would that be a problem? Or a gift? In either case, stay or go, Wild will pursue getting into one of MM's ten mans.
Lady Hunter had another surprise up her sleeve. She some how learned that Wild had a shadow priest alt. I don't know how she learned about Philly, but she's good at that sort of thing. She does have access to these posts, so maybe she's been peeking in now and again. Anyway, she flat out asked Wild if my shadow priest could be convinced to join MM, even if she couldn't get Wild to join. Philly was very intrigued with the idea. She would be giving up some freedom, perhaps, but it would also be a way to see how things were with MM from the inside. Wild knows a dozen or more MM guildies, half of which once were part of FS.
So there you have it, a lot of rambling on and on. Lady Hunter is going to get back to Wild on the how the two ten man groups are shaping up, and Philly is going to work on getting to level 80, and possibly striking out on her own with MM.
Wild got his invite to the Wednesday 25 man ICC raid, by the way. Coming up in the next post.
It was said in all sincerity, but I couldn't really explain what emotions ran through me when I heard it. "She only stays in FS because Wild is still there."
Lady Hunter and Wild managed to find ourselves in game at the same time for the first time in many days, even weeks. The subject always leads back, eventually, to enticing Wild to come over to the MM guild. As I've said many times in the past, it's nice to be wanted. At one point she asked Wild if the reason I stayed in FS was because our once Guild Leader, P-Jo, had stayed when many of her close friends, including her husband, had left FS. Jo is certainly a main reason Wild has stuck with FS for so long, as I'm as fond of Jo as anyone can be of someone I've never met in person. Lady Hunter, who I'm pretty fond of as well, told me that Jo remained in the guild at least in part because Wild was still there. I didn't really have an answer for that. We all make our own decisions, for our own reasons.
It was a strange confluence that Lady Hunter chose this night to say Hi, and ask after Wild. I am coming close to making a decision about whether I want Wild to continue raiding 25 man ICC. I'm a very laid back kind of person, but there isn't really much room left in guild raiding for folks like me. Raid progression has gotten to be pretty serious business in FS; it's not a hard core raiding guild, but it is far, far from the more laid back raiding mindset that FS was previously known for. That is neither a good thing or a bad thing. FS raid progression has never been better, and we (Wild included) can be proud of how far we've come in 25 man ICC, the toughest dungeon in the game. There are twelve boss encounters in ICC, and FS has beaten ten of them at least once. The eleventh boss, Sindragosa, is all that stands between the guild and the Lich King himself.
That said, much of the pure fun is missing from the raid. Wild is a good raider, but I'm the first to admit that lots of raiders are better, and make fewer mistakes. Wild at times can be quite a frustration to a raid leader. Once, Wild's gaffes were cause to chide and joke about it, help figure out what went wrong, and move on. Now it's analyze, assess, and correct. It's all deadly serious business. And it's getting harder to convince myself that Wild and FS are still a good fit.
Back to the question at hand, which is should Wild change guilds, things may look pretty clear cut, but they aren't. That other guild, MM, that Lady Hunter moved to many months ago now, does not sound like the same guild they were when Wild was happily running ten man Ulduar and ICC with them. Lady Hunter told Wild that the MM guild no longer has a 25 man ICC raid. When Wild asked about the status of MM's ten mans, she said that both she and Bd had ten mans going again. That was encouraging, but after discussing it a bit more I learned that both raids were still in the forming stage and weren't yet sure about when they would run.
So, there is no clear cut choice. What does Wild want? I want to see the Lich King, before ICC gets nerfed to kindergarten status with the coming of Cataclysm. I don't care whether it's in 25 man or ten man, I just want to see it. Right now it appears that staying with FS is the best path to get there, but that is only if the guild truly wants Wild to stay.
Wild's other priority is to find a way to spend more time with such great friends as P-Jo, Lady Hunter, Bd, and others. One way or the other.
I plan on talking to raid leadership as soon as I can catch one in game this week. Essentially, the question for the guild is: If Wild decided to remove himself from 25 man raiding, would that be a problem? Or a gift? In either case, stay or go, Wild will pursue getting into one of MM's ten mans.
Lady Hunter had another surprise up her sleeve. She some how learned that Wild had a shadow priest alt. I don't know how she learned about Philly, but she's good at that sort of thing. She does have access to these posts, so maybe she's been peeking in now and again. Anyway, she flat out asked Wild if my shadow priest could be convinced to join MM, even if she couldn't get Wild to join. Philly was very intrigued with the idea. She would be giving up some freedom, perhaps, but it would also be a way to see how things were with MM from the inside. Wild knows a dozen or more MM guildies, half of which once were part of FS.
So there you have it, a lot of rambling on and on. Lady Hunter is going to get back to Wild on the how the two ten man groups are shaping up, and Philly is going to work on getting to level 80, and possibly striking out on her own with MM.
Wild got his invite to the Wednesday 25 man ICC raid, by the way. Coming up in the next post.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Tuesday (6 Apr) - Another Home Project
Tuesday (6 Apr) - Another Home Project
Wild might get an invite to the guild 25 man ICC raid Tuesday night. The idea that there should be a more even distribution of boss fights between the two raid nights seems to be taking hold. Using a raid feature called Lockout, some parity between the two nights of raiding looks possible. It would work like this. Normally a raid "resets" on maintenance day (Tuesday). That means that no matter how far into ICC we got on the previous Tuesday/Wednesday, come the next Tuesday night the raid will be "fresh" and we have to start with the first boss again. However, if you use Lockout after the Wednesday raid and before the following Tuesday maintenance, the raid will not be refreshed. The bosses downed the previous week will still be dead and the raid would pick up where they left off. So instead of facing the farmable content on that Tuesday, that raid would be facing the more difficult bosses. After that Tuesday raid the guild would "unlock" the raid, allowing ICC to be refreshed, and so the Wednesday raid would arrive to a fresh dungeon, with all bosses (even the ones on farm) available to tackle. By doing this consistently week to week, both nights would get opportunities on both farmable content and the tougher progression bosses. Since Wild initiated the idea of evening up the two raid nights, there was a chance Wild might get a Tuesday invite.
There was a second, even better reason for Wild's improved chances to get into the Tuesday raid. The Tuesday raid regular druid healer had reported on the guild website that he would not be able to make the raid. He is typically the only druid healer assigned for that night. So on this night a spot for a druid healer would be available.
However, we started a new home project on Tuesday, and I wasn't sure if I'd make it to the raid.
The project - finishing the garage. We also had a side project that fit quite nicely into the garage work. We had planned some maintenance for our RV, so it would be out of the way at the RV shop while we did the garage. Everything was planned out and ready to go starting Tuesday morning.
We had rented a truck, and were planning to pick it up at 10am. Before doing that, we needed to move our 27 foot RV from our driveway to the street, to make room for the truck. That's when we had our first problem. One of the interior tires on the RV was flat. Not just low. Completely flat. The truck had to wait while we got the RV over to the tire company. We lost almost two hours time.
Once we got to the Budget rental place to pick up our truck, they originally gave us the wrong truck (10 ft instead of the 14 footer we needed), and we lost another hour getting that straightened out.
Finally, with the RV at the tire shop and the truck in the driveway, I was able to get started. My job was to completely empty the garage into the truck, so that we could start work on the garage. We have a full garage, and it included two large 4x4 kennels for two cats we are fostering, as well as a heavy treadmill, a freezer, and of course tons of junk accumulated over the years. And this was after I had spent a week clearing out stuff that we really didn't need. That took all day and then some. The tire company had bad news. I would be buying more than just one tire, and not only that there were brake problems. Adding to that is that we found an electrical problem in the garage (amazing the things you discover when moving things around) that had to be fixed before we could start work on anything else. Luckily we have an electrician we've used for years, and he made a special trip to help us out. But it cost us more time.
At 5pm I left a message on the guild website that I was not likely to make the raid. It was after 7pm by the time we finished the "getting ready" part. Wild did not make the raid.
On Wednesday the real work starts - drywalling and insulating the walls, painting, and also finishing the ceiling. We still have to get the RV, back from the tire company, to the RV shop for maintenance. I wonder what surprises are still in store.
Wild might get an invite to the guild 25 man ICC raid Tuesday night. The idea that there should be a more even distribution of boss fights between the two raid nights seems to be taking hold. Using a raid feature called Lockout, some parity between the two nights of raiding looks possible. It would work like this. Normally a raid "resets" on maintenance day (Tuesday). That means that no matter how far into ICC we got on the previous Tuesday/Wednesday, come the next Tuesday night the raid will be "fresh" and we have to start with the first boss again. However, if you use Lockout after the Wednesday raid and before the following Tuesday maintenance, the raid will not be refreshed. The bosses downed the previous week will still be dead and the raid would pick up where they left off. So instead of facing the farmable content on that Tuesday, that raid would be facing the more difficult bosses. After that Tuesday raid the guild would "unlock" the raid, allowing ICC to be refreshed, and so the Wednesday raid would arrive to a fresh dungeon, with all bosses (even the ones on farm) available to tackle. By doing this consistently week to week, both nights would get opportunities on both farmable content and the tougher progression bosses. Since Wild initiated the idea of evening up the two raid nights, there was a chance Wild might get a Tuesday invite.
There was a second, even better reason for Wild's improved chances to get into the Tuesday raid. The Tuesday raid regular druid healer had reported on the guild website that he would not be able to make the raid. He is typically the only druid healer assigned for that night. So on this night a spot for a druid healer would be available.
However, we started a new home project on Tuesday, and I wasn't sure if I'd make it to the raid.
The project - finishing the garage. We also had a side project that fit quite nicely into the garage work. We had planned some maintenance for our RV, so it would be out of the way at the RV shop while we did the garage. Everything was planned out and ready to go starting Tuesday morning.
We had rented a truck, and were planning to pick it up at 10am. Before doing that, we needed to move our 27 foot RV from our driveway to the street, to make room for the truck. That's when we had our first problem. One of the interior tires on the RV was flat. Not just low. Completely flat. The truck had to wait while we got the RV over to the tire company. We lost almost two hours time.
Once we got to the Budget rental place to pick up our truck, they originally gave us the wrong truck (10 ft instead of the 14 footer we needed), and we lost another hour getting that straightened out.
Finally, with the RV at the tire shop and the truck in the driveway, I was able to get started. My job was to completely empty the garage into the truck, so that we could start work on the garage. We have a full garage, and it included two large 4x4 kennels for two cats we are fostering, as well as a heavy treadmill, a freezer, and of course tons of junk accumulated over the years. And this was after I had spent a week clearing out stuff that we really didn't need. That took all day and then some. The tire company had bad news. I would be buying more than just one tire, and not only that there were brake problems. Adding to that is that we found an electrical problem in the garage (amazing the things you discover when moving things around) that had to be fixed before we could start work on anything else. Luckily we have an electrician we've used for years, and he made a special trip to help us out. But it cost us more time.
At 5pm I left a message on the guild website that I was not likely to make the raid. It was after 7pm by the time we finished the "getting ready" part. Wild did not make the raid.
On Wednesday the real work starts - drywalling and insulating the walls, painting, and also finishing the ceiling. We still have to get the RV, back from the tire company, to the RV shop for maintenance. I wonder what surprises are still in store.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Sunday (5 Apr) - Earthquake!
Sunday (5 Apr) - Earthquake!
Yep, on Sunday afternoon we had an earthquake, measuring 7.2 on the richter scale. We got some pretty heavy shakes at our house in three jolts over about thirty seconds. I had scampered downstairs just in time to get a good view of the master bedroom and our newly installed thirteen foot headboard set rattle and shake. I am ever so glad I anchored the bed to that thing. The mirrors undulated, but didn't break. It was the strongest quake we've felt since coming to live in San Diego. The epicenter was about 120 miles away, in Mexico. There was some damage done closer to the epicenter, but only minor damage and no injuries reported here. We've felt three minor aftershocks since then. Just another sunny San Diego Easter day.
In some quarters the blame for the earthquake was levelled at Philly. She did the unthinkable by entering the daily random dungeon, which turned out to be Gundrak. And yes, she even went as the healer. We had a DK in frost spec as our tank, with a moonkin, rogue, and mage as our DPS. We had gotten off to a rocky start as one of the DPS left right as we started on the first set of trash mobs. With one player missing it took longer to bring them down and Philly was pretty busy right off the bat. Which probably helped sooth the nerves. Philly didn't have time to be worried. We quickly got another DPS (the rogue) and kept moving.
The rogue and mage were aggro magnets. The tank was doing well, and the moonkin dropped the AoE Hurricane enough times without drawing mobs for it be clear it was the rogue and mage's fault they were getting hit, not the tanks. They were lower level than us other three, and that didn't help them avoid angry mobs, either. As long as Philly could spare the heals while keeping herself and the tank going, those two stayed alive. The moonkin hardly needed any healing at all.
Philly has been practicing her spells, and barely had to look at her cheat sheet to see what spell was where. Philly is learning to love both her Penance and Prayer of Healing (POH) spells. Penance is just awesome for single target healing and POH - well, the first time I used it, with the whole party near 50% health, the AoE heal raised them all to near full health. POH is a mana drain, and it has a long cast time, but when it hits everyone benefits.
Philly used her mana regen abilities regularly and only twice asked the tank for a mana break, and those were before the 2nd and 3rd bosses. Or maybe it was the 3rd and 4th bosses, I lose track. He was happy to oblige, and it also helped the mage, who was really struggling.
The final boss, Gal'darah, gave us a little trouble. The damage is very spikey, since the boss can whirlwind and also turns into a rhino and impales people. Philly was a little slow to realize that I should be pre-Shielding the whole group. The poor rogue decided to stand inside a whirlwind and he died less than halfway into the fight. Philly was busy keeping everyone else alive, but I don't think the moonkin rezzed him. We'd have lost more DPS from the moonkin having to stop DPSing and battle rez than we would have gained back by having the rogue alive, anyway.
It was tons of fun and we only lost that one rogue, so Philly felt pretty good about the run. No loot for Philly other than a wonderful bow that all the hunters could drool over, only there wasn't anyone in our group that could use a bow. Philly vendored it.
In terms of her healing, Philly's health per second (hps) was 1046, which I'm pretty happy with. Note that all that Shielding Philly did, absorbing incoming damage before it could become damage, is not counted in that number, which otherwise would have been higher. Philly did all of the healing for the entire fight, other than one health pot the tank used the one time he got a little nervous. But Philly had him Shielded at that moment, and the heal was on it's way, so he needed have bothered. The moonkin, the only other healing class in the group, didn't heal a single time, trusting in Philly's heals (and his own ability to avoid aggro).
Philly quibbled over the fact that she might flash heal a little too often and too soon, as that made up 49% of her direct heals. Penance, mostly on the tank, grabbed 26%. Did I mention how much I like Penance? Awesome spell, with a really cool visual as it sends three heal pulses at the target.
The moonkin (1357 dps) and the DK tank (1225 dps) did almost all of the damage dealing. The hard pressed rogue did 875 and the mage, poor soul, did 558. We got the job done, though.
I guess Philly should also mention that the Gundrak run got her 14% xp and Philly DINGED! to level 79 (Earthquake time!). One more level to go, baby. Without the earthquake this time.
Yep, on Sunday afternoon we had an earthquake, measuring 7.2 on the richter scale. We got some pretty heavy shakes at our house in three jolts over about thirty seconds. I had scampered downstairs just in time to get a good view of the master bedroom and our newly installed thirteen foot headboard set rattle and shake. I am ever so glad I anchored the bed to that thing. The mirrors undulated, but didn't break. It was the strongest quake we've felt since coming to live in San Diego. The epicenter was about 120 miles away, in Mexico. There was some damage done closer to the epicenter, but only minor damage and no injuries reported here. We've felt three minor aftershocks since then. Just another sunny San Diego Easter day.
In some quarters the blame for the earthquake was levelled at Philly. She did the unthinkable by entering the daily random dungeon, which turned out to be Gundrak. And yes, she even went as the healer. We had a DK in frost spec as our tank, with a moonkin, rogue, and mage as our DPS. We had gotten off to a rocky start as one of the DPS left right as we started on the first set of trash mobs. With one player missing it took longer to bring them down and Philly was pretty busy right off the bat. Which probably helped sooth the nerves. Philly didn't have time to be worried. We quickly got another DPS (the rogue) and kept moving.
The rogue and mage were aggro magnets. The tank was doing well, and the moonkin dropped the AoE Hurricane enough times without drawing mobs for it be clear it was the rogue and mage's fault they were getting hit, not the tanks. They were lower level than us other three, and that didn't help them avoid angry mobs, either. As long as Philly could spare the heals while keeping herself and the tank going, those two stayed alive. The moonkin hardly needed any healing at all.
Philly has been practicing her spells, and barely had to look at her cheat sheet to see what spell was where. Philly is learning to love both her Penance and Prayer of Healing (POH) spells. Penance is just awesome for single target healing and POH - well, the first time I used it, with the whole party near 50% health, the AoE heal raised them all to near full health. POH is a mana drain, and it has a long cast time, but when it hits everyone benefits.
Philly used her mana regen abilities regularly and only twice asked the tank for a mana break, and those were before the 2nd and 3rd bosses. Or maybe it was the 3rd and 4th bosses, I lose track. He was happy to oblige, and it also helped the mage, who was really struggling.
The final boss, Gal'darah, gave us a little trouble. The damage is very spikey, since the boss can whirlwind and also turns into a rhino and impales people. Philly was a little slow to realize that I should be pre-Shielding the whole group. The poor rogue decided to stand inside a whirlwind and he died less than halfway into the fight. Philly was busy keeping everyone else alive, but I don't think the moonkin rezzed him. We'd have lost more DPS from the moonkin having to stop DPSing and battle rez than we would have gained back by having the rogue alive, anyway.
It was tons of fun and we only lost that one rogue, so Philly felt pretty good about the run. No loot for Philly other than a wonderful bow that all the hunters could drool over, only there wasn't anyone in our group that could use a bow. Philly vendored it.
In terms of her healing, Philly's health per second (hps) was 1046, which I'm pretty happy with. Note that all that Shielding Philly did, absorbing incoming damage before it could become damage, is not counted in that number, which otherwise would have been higher. Philly did all of the healing for the entire fight, other than one health pot the tank used the one time he got a little nervous. But Philly had him Shielded at that moment, and the heal was on it's way, so he needed have bothered. The moonkin, the only other healing class in the group, didn't heal a single time, trusting in Philly's heals (and his own ability to avoid aggro).
Philly quibbled over the fact that she might flash heal a little too often and too soon, as that made up 49% of her direct heals. Penance, mostly on the tank, grabbed 26%. Did I mention how much I like Penance? Awesome spell, with a really cool visual as it sends three heal pulses at the target.
The moonkin (1357 dps) and the DK tank (1225 dps) did almost all of the damage dealing. The hard pressed rogue did 875 and the mage, poor soul, did 558. We got the job done, though.
I guess Philly should also mention that the Gundrak run got her 14% xp and Philly DINGED! to level 79 (Earthquake time!). One more level to go, baby. Without the earthquake this time.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Weekend (4 Apr) - Rolling Through the Week
Weekend (4 Apr) - Rolling Through the Week
More home projects crowded out WoW over the past few days and will continue through next week. It involves emptying out the garage and a lot of other hard labor better suited to prison chain gangs. And baseball season is nigh upon us and the Padres are making things interesting enough to distract me further. One would think I actually have a real life.
Still, there was some modest action going on in game.
Philly came close to maxing out her pvp honor, but finally got around to visiting the pvp gear npcs, buying level 80 pvp gear to add to her set once she hits level 80. She bought bracers and cape. Her next purchase will likely be the belt, although she is looking at trinkets as well. In addition, Philly and Wild have been making gear for both pvp and pve via Philly's jewelcrafting and Wild's tailoring. Recently Philly added a ring [Runed Mana Band] and a necklace [Sky Sapphire Amulet] to her collection of crafted gear waiting for Philly to get old enough to use them. Philly is 70% of the way to level 79 as of Saturday morning.
Speaking of tailoring, Sis gave Wild a challenge when she asked Wild to make a pair of [Shadowweave Pants]. The level 37 trousers were for Lao. Wild checked his tailoring patterns and he didn't have it. Usually that means there was some requirement (faction rep, dungeon run, quest, etc) required to get it, which Wild must have never got around to doing. Wild did some digging around, which led him to the Undercity. There is a cubbyhole in the Magic Quarter of the Undercity where the tailor npcs hang out. Wild was very familiar with them, though, and knew that he already had every tailoring pattern they offered. Yet Wild's research showed there was another npc there that Wild had never heard of. Wild found the npc on the opposite side of the canal from where the rest of the tailors were (a canal runs in a circle through the Undercity, bisecting the lower floor into an inner section and an outer section). Wild located the npc, and discovered that he offered a whole set of shadowweave gear, including the pants Sis had asked for. Wild has no idea if that npc has always been there, but because he wasn't located where the rest of the tailors were, I never knew to go look for him. Or the npc could have been added after Wild was long past looking for patterns when he arrived there. In any event, Wild got some new tailoring patterns and Sis got her pants for Lao.
Wild is also now working on crafting the largest craftable all purpose bag available, called a [Glacial Bag]. Bags come in a large range of sizes, starting as small as a 4 slot bag. As the game has progressed, bags have gotten larger and larger. Every player gets a standard sized backpack with 16 slots, and has room on his gear to tote another four bags. Probably the most commonly used bag for levelling players is the 16 slot Netherweave bag, which is a cheaper version of what was once the premiere bag in the game, the 16 slot Mooncloth Bag. Note that these bags are the same size as the backpack. The backpack size has never changed, but bags have continued to get larger. Imbued Netherweave bags have 18 slots, and were the largest common all purpose bag in the game until WotLK came out. The new bags with that expansion include the Frostweave Bag, which has 20 slots and is the bag of choice for most level 80 players. The Glacial bag was also introduced (breaking tradition by NOT calling it an Imbued Frostweave Bag, which is kind of what it is). The Glacial bag has 22 slots, and is VERY expensive, in the 500-700 gold range.
With patch 3.3.3 the making of Glacial Bags changed. Prior to the patch the moonshroud and ebonweave mats for the bags could only be crafted once every four days, so it took considerable to time amass the mats needed to make one. That restriction is now gone, and Wild can make as many of those mats as he can afford. However, there is now a restriction on making Glacial bags. A tailor can only make one Glacial Bag - per week. Wild will make his weekly bag, but I haven't decided whether to just sell them, or use them myself.
Oh, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that there is an even larger all purpose bag out there, the largest in the game. There is no crafting involved, and no effort involved in getting your hands on one other than stopping by to visit and paying the price. The bag is sold by Haris Pilton, located at the World's End Tavern in Shattrath. Yes, you read that name correctly - Haris Pilton. Along with some very expensive, useless jewelry, she sells a 24 slot bag called [Portable Hole]. I know it's cheap fun thinking up the worst kind of punch lines for that, but of course I would never do that. By the way, it costs 3,000 gold, or about the cost of five 22 slot glacial bags. Some folks just have to get hold of at least one or two of Haris Pilton's holes, though.
Wild recently stopped by the tavern to say hi to Haris (not that there is anything going on there).
On Friday night we had a short but pretty intense pvp evening. Philly, Sis, and DER fought an excellent Wintergrasp battle. We were on offense and I think taking the fortress by storm is always more fun than defending it. Then the teens crew came in game (Neeky, Staar, and Java) for a Warsong Gulch match that was pretty intense. We crushed them, even though Neeky struggled with lag and Staar struggled with an uncooperative user interface. At the end of the match Staar unexpectedly DINGED to level 20, and his days as a teen pvp god were over.
Philly, Sis, and Sin returned for a 70s bracket WSG. The match was already in progress. The fact that all three of us got into the match meant that the horde team had been short that many, and the results were pretty obvious as the horde was already down 0-2 in flag caps. We made the alliance work hard for that last flag, and gave them some desperate moments as we fought to capture the allie flag, but the match had been long lost before we ever got there.
Wild's suggestion to the guild to rotate raiders between Tuesday and Wednesday nights has generated a few comments, including one that might actually work out so that the Wednesday raid could see those earlier bosses the Tuesday group always clears. Some of the other suggestions were in the area of speeding up the raid in general, and focusing even harder on getting the content down. Wild's suggestion may end up ninjaed by other raid concerns and suggestions, but at least guildies are talking.
More home projects crowded out WoW over the past few days and will continue through next week. It involves emptying out the garage and a lot of other hard labor better suited to prison chain gangs. And baseball season is nigh upon us and the Padres are making things interesting enough to distract me further. One would think I actually have a real life.
Still, there was some modest action going on in game.
Philly came close to maxing out her pvp honor, but finally got around to visiting the pvp gear npcs, buying level 80 pvp gear to add to her set once she hits level 80. She bought bracers and cape. Her next purchase will likely be the belt, although she is looking at trinkets as well. In addition, Philly and Wild have been making gear for both pvp and pve via Philly's jewelcrafting and Wild's tailoring. Recently Philly added a ring [Runed Mana Band] and a necklace [Sky Sapphire Amulet] to her collection of crafted gear waiting for Philly to get old enough to use them. Philly is 70% of the way to level 79 as of Saturday morning.
Speaking of tailoring, Sis gave Wild a challenge when she asked Wild to make a pair of [Shadowweave Pants]. The level 37 trousers were for Lao. Wild checked his tailoring patterns and he didn't have it. Usually that means there was some requirement (faction rep, dungeon run, quest, etc) required to get it, which Wild must have never got around to doing. Wild did some digging around, which led him to the Undercity. There is a cubbyhole in the Magic Quarter of the Undercity where the tailor npcs hang out. Wild was very familiar with them, though, and knew that he already had every tailoring pattern they offered. Yet Wild's research showed there was another npc there that Wild had never heard of. Wild found the npc on the opposite side of the canal from where the rest of the tailors were (a canal runs in a circle through the Undercity, bisecting the lower floor into an inner section and an outer section). Wild located the npc, and discovered that he offered a whole set of shadowweave gear, including the pants Sis had asked for. Wild has no idea if that npc has always been there, but because he wasn't located where the rest of the tailors were, I never knew to go look for him. Or the npc could have been added after Wild was long past looking for patterns when he arrived there. In any event, Wild got some new tailoring patterns and Sis got her pants for Lao.
Wild is also now working on crafting the largest craftable all purpose bag available, called a [Glacial Bag]. Bags come in a large range of sizes, starting as small as a 4 slot bag. As the game has progressed, bags have gotten larger and larger. Every player gets a standard sized backpack with 16 slots, and has room on his gear to tote another four bags. Probably the most commonly used bag for levelling players is the 16 slot Netherweave bag, which is a cheaper version of what was once the premiere bag in the game, the 16 slot Mooncloth Bag. Note that these bags are the same size as the backpack. The backpack size has never changed, but bags have continued to get larger. Imbued Netherweave bags have 18 slots, and were the largest common all purpose bag in the game until WotLK came out. The new bags with that expansion include the Frostweave Bag, which has 20 slots and is the bag of choice for most level 80 players. The Glacial bag was also introduced (breaking tradition by NOT calling it an Imbued Frostweave Bag, which is kind of what it is). The Glacial bag has 22 slots, and is VERY expensive, in the 500-700 gold range.
With patch 3.3.3 the making of Glacial Bags changed. Prior to the patch the moonshroud and ebonweave mats for the bags could only be crafted once every four days, so it took considerable to time amass the mats needed to make one. That restriction is now gone, and Wild can make as many of those mats as he can afford. However, there is now a restriction on making Glacial bags. A tailor can only make one Glacial Bag - per week. Wild will make his weekly bag, but I haven't decided whether to just sell them, or use them myself.
Oh, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that there is an even larger all purpose bag out there, the largest in the game. There is no crafting involved, and no effort involved in getting your hands on one other than stopping by to visit and paying the price. The bag is sold by Haris Pilton, located at the World's End Tavern in Shattrath. Yes, you read that name correctly - Haris Pilton. Along with some very expensive, useless jewelry, she sells a 24 slot bag called [Portable Hole]. I know it's cheap fun thinking up the worst kind of punch lines for that, but of course I would never do that. By the way, it costs 3,000 gold, or about the cost of five 22 slot glacial bags. Some folks just have to get hold of at least one or two of Haris Pilton's holes, though.
Wild recently stopped by the tavern to say hi to Haris (not that there is anything going on there).
On Friday night we had a short but pretty intense pvp evening. Philly, Sis, and DER fought an excellent Wintergrasp battle. We were on offense and I think taking the fortress by storm is always more fun than defending it. Then the teens crew came in game (Neeky, Staar, and Java) for a Warsong Gulch match that was pretty intense. We crushed them, even though Neeky struggled with lag and Staar struggled with an uncooperative user interface. At the end of the match Staar unexpectedly DINGED to level 20, and his days as a teen pvp god were over.
Philly, Sis, and Sin returned for a 70s bracket WSG. The match was already in progress. The fact that all three of us got into the match meant that the horde team had been short that many, and the results were pretty obvious as the horde was already down 0-2 in flag caps. We made the alliance work hard for that last flag, and gave them some desperate moments as we fought to capture the allie flag, but the match had been long lost before we ever got there.
Wild's suggestion to the guild to rotate raiders between Tuesday and Wednesday nights has generated a few comments, including one that might actually work out so that the Wednesday raid could see those earlier bosses the Tuesday group always clears. Some of the other suggestions were in the area of speeding up the raid in general, and focusing even harder on getting the content down. Wild's suggestion may end up ninjaed by other raid concerns and suggestions, but at least guildies are talking.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Wednesday (31 Mar) - The Good news and the Bad
Wednesday (31 Mar) - The Good news and the Bad
Wild is beginning to feel a bit like a regular raider - at least on Wednesdays. Wild was again a confirmed invite for the 25 man ICC raid. Tuesday's raid had cleared the Lower Spire (4 bosses) plus two in the Plagueworks (Rotface and Festergut). The Tuesday raid also took some shots at Putricide as well, but didn't get him, so our guild has still not downed that boss.
For Wednesday, we decided to leave Putricide for another time, and moved purposefully to the wing called the Crimson Hall. We got off to a little bit of a late start as we were short two raiders. We eventually cleared the trash with 24 raiders, and then waited a bit more for our 25th.
The first boss encounter of the night was the Princes. Wild is getting some good experience on this one. On previous visits, Wild has been both a raid healer and the tank healer for Prince Keleseth. On this night Wild was the tank healer for Prince Taldaram. The battle went pretty smoothly and the Princes went down on our first try.
The other encounter in Crimson Hall is the Blood-Queen, but the raid leader opted to bypass her and go instead to the fourth wing, the Frostwing Halls. Perhaps I should explain how the wings work in ICC. The first wing, Lower Spire, must always be cleared first before any of the other wings will open up. Once that is done, the other three wings become available and the raid can choose whichever wing they want to. However, all four wings have to be cleared before we can access the final encounter in the Frozen Throne - against the Lich King. So, since Lower Spire was cleared on Tuesday, we could go pretty much anywhere we wanted with the exception of the Frozen Throne.
The raid leader chose to go after Valithria Dreamwalker. We had shocked even ourselves last week when our Wednesday raid got a guild first when we won this encounter for the first time. We were hoping we could do it again. Wild learned a lot more about how this fight works, too.
Dreamwalker is a dragon, already near death. The Scourge use her for ghastly experiments and our job is not to kill her, but to heal and free her. I didn't really understand this last week when I was an "outside the portal" raid healer. As usual, three healers were chosen to go into the portal along with other raiders. Instead of DPSing the boss down like we do in 99.9% of all boss encounters, it's the task of the three assigned healers to heal the dragon from 50% to full health while waves of mobs attack her and the rest of the raid. Wild was assigned as a tank healer this time, and had to run half the length of the chamber to get into position at Dreamwalker's tail on the northern side in order to heal the tank. This is one of the rare times when standing at the dragon's tail is NOT a bad, bad thing to do. Essentially, two tanks must get aggro on every mob that comes calling to keep them from attacking Dreamwalker. There are five different types of mobs and the DPS has to know the kill order to ensure the most dangerous mobs die first.
On our first attempt Wild kept his tank alive, even though it got a little tricky at times. Late in that first attempt the tank mentioned that he needed someone to dispel a stacking disease debuff that was causing the damage he was taking to spike higher and higher. So that's what was happening. Wild can't clean diseases, but the raid healer on Wild's side of the room was a shaman who could drop a cleansing totem.
We wiped on our first try. I wasn't sure of the details, but apparently there is a stacking issue with the healers that wasn't going well. Inside the portal are Nightmare Clouds that stack additional healing, damage, and mana regen. The three healers must keep a full three stacks up at all times inside the portal, and there were some problems with that.
On our second attempt Wild had no trouble keeping up the tank, and even had time to help raid heal as long as the cleansing totem stayed up. We wiped again, however, when the southern side of the assault came unglued.
For attempt #3, the raid leader swapped healers around, asking our cat druid to switch to healing and take over for a paladin as one of the three portal healers. I'd never seen him heal, before, and he was impressive. The raid leader was pretty hard on the paladin that was swapped out to raid heal, but the raid leader's a pretty gruff guy anyway (usually). We got Dreamwalker up to 96% health but just didn't quite have enough to save her, wiping a third time.
While we were setting up for a 4th, and what the raid leader said would be our last attempt on the dragon this evening, the raid leader whispered Wild.
"You're healing is pretty low, is there something wrong, or something I can help with?" Frankly I was a bit worried about that, too. Part of the issue early on was that I was getting used to how to heal the tank for this particular encounter, and I am pretty conservative about throwing heals elsewhere until I'm sure I have the measure of the tank healing I need to do. It's also in part that I tend to heal what needs healing, unless I'm raid healing where I can spam heal without worrying about keeping a tank up. Third, I had changed Wild's gear around and I wasn't sure how that was going to work out. I'm getting really frustrated at how slowly Wild heals compared to other healers who have double and more in +haste than Wild has. So I intentionally lowered Wild's base spell power and mana regen to add some +haste. Based on the results, that didn't work out too well. The added haste wasn't enough to overcome the loss of spell power, and I found that Wild needed both his innervate and a mana potion to keep my mana up. The raid leader offered some suggestions (he's a druid moonkin/healer too) which did help on the next attempt. We plan to get together to talk about gearing, tactics, fight mechanics, etc, which I think would be very worthwhile.
We saved Dreamwalker on our 4th attempt, getting our second ever victory against this encounter.
Maybe we could go kill the Blood-Queen now? Please? She's a lot easier than the other choice we had. Nope, it would not be the Blood-Queen. We headed for Professor Putricide, who laughingly reminded us that he was still undefeated.
The raid leader had been studying this fight, and decided to change things up a bit, since we were still zero for forever against this guy. Instead of six healers, he figured he could get by with five, and add another DPS to kill things faster. The raid leader asked Wild if he had a DPS set. Wild swallowed hard and said, I do. Wild switched to moonkin for the Putricide fight, which gave us three moonkin - Wild, plus the raid leader, and also one of Wild's oldest friends, a former priest who was now a super powerful druid moonkin/occasional tank.
Wild had no idea what he should be doing fight mechanic-wise as a DPS, but I figured I could just follow the other two chickens around from a movement perspective, and I would set the raid leader as a focus and attack whatever it was that he attacked. Simple, no? No, not really. If Wild thought that this fight was a crazy mess as a healer, it was even worse as a DPS. Wild was no better at getting where he was supposed to be, and all that movement played havoc with Wild's DPS. Wild was already seriously undergeared versus the two other moonkin, but . . . well, enough excuses.
On our first attempt, a wipe, Wild did 3773 DPS, compared to over 5k from the other two druids. That was the high point - it went progressively downhill from there.
We got Putricide to 19% on our second attempt, one of our best attempts ever. Wild could have gotten us closer, as we had lost a raider I was going to battle rez, but slime pools closed up around me and Wild died before I could get it done. We tried a third time, another wipe. Wild was getting a bit better at avoiding all the nastiness going on around him - slimes pools, exploding pots, bouncing goo that chased after their targets - and that was just the avoidable stuff. Wild also had to get used to actually aiming at his target. The game is pretty forgiving of that, and one can be almost at right angles and still shoot bad guys, but Wild is used to being able to heal targets with his back to them, and this aiming thing was an interesting wrinkle when Wild was being chased in one direction and the thing I'm supposed to be hitting was going the other way.
Wild finished 18th out of 17 DPSers, being beaten in DPS by one of the tanks as well. Not one of Wild's shining moonkin moments. Just to rub it in, Wild finished at 2809 DPS, getting a pitiful 2.5% of the total DPS. The raid leader finished 13th, with 5438 DPS, and the other druid topped us both with 6116 DPS. I frankly forgot to do some things I should have been doing, like using my long cooldown attack called Starfall. The other two druids did a lot of damage with that. Wild is still basically a healer trying to learn to DPS. It was only Wild's second time DPSing in a raid.
BUT - On our 4th attempt, Putricide said the words we had been hoping to hear from the ever pleasant, happy, and insane Professor Putricide: "Bad news everyone.... I don't think I'm going to make it..."
Putricide died, our first ever guild 25 man kill.
Two sanctified tokens dropped. The raid leader won the first one. Wild won the second one. The tokens are used to upgrade Tier gear. Wild exchanged his ilevel 251 shoulders for the i264 one. It's a nice upgrade, but it didn't add any +haste.
In guild news, Wild made a suggestion in the guild forums to rotate raiders between the two raid nights. Raiders like Wild that only get in on Wednesday miss out on all the gear from the first four bosses each week, gear that has to start getting pretty old to the regulars who run it. We'll see how that goes.
Wild is beginning to feel a bit like a regular raider - at least on Wednesdays. Wild was again a confirmed invite for the 25 man ICC raid. Tuesday's raid had cleared the Lower Spire (4 bosses) plus two in the Plagueworks (Rotface and Festergut). The Tuesday raid also took some shots at Putricide as well, but didn't get him, so our guild has still not downed that boss.
For Wednesday, we decided to leave Putricide for another time, and moved purposefully to the wing called the Crimson Hall. We got off to a little bit of a late start as we were short two raiders. We eventually cleared the trash with 24 raiders, and then waited a bit more for our 25th.
The first boss encounter of the night was the Princes. Wild is getting some good experience on this one. On previous visits, Wild has been both a raid healer and the tank healer for Prince Keleseth. On this night Wild was the tank healer for Prince Taldaram. The battle went pretty smoothly and the Princes went down on our first try.
The other encounter in Crimson Hall is the Blood-Queen, but the raid leader opted to bypass her and go instead to the fourth wing, the Frostwing Halls. Perhaps I should explain how the wings work in ICC. The first wing, Lower Spire, must always be cleared first before any of the other wings will open up. Once that is done, the other three wings become available and the raid can choose whichever wing they want to. However, all four wings have to be cleared before we can access the final encounter in the Frozen Throne - against the Lich King. So, since Lower Spire was cleared on Tuesday, we could go pretty much anywhere we wanted with the exception of the Frozen Throne.
The raid leader chose to go after Valithria Dreamwalker. We had shocked even ourselves last week when our Wednesday raid got a guild first when we won this encounter for the first time. We were hoping we could do it again. Wild learned a lot more about how this fight works, too.
Dreamwalker is a dragon, already near death. The Scourge use her for ghastly experiments and our job is not to kill her, but to heal and free her. I didn't really understand this last week when I was an "outside the portal" raid healer. As usual, three healers were chosen to go into the portal along with other raiders. Instead of DPSing the boss down like we do in 99.9% of all boss encounters, it's the task of the three assigned healers to heal the dragon from 50% to full health while waves of mobs attack her and the rest of the raid. Wild was assigned as a tank healer this time, and had to run half the length of the chamber to get into position at Dreamwalker's tail on the northern side in order to heal the tank. This is one of the rare times when standing at the dragon's tail is NOT a bad, bad thing to do. Essentially, two tanks must get aggro on every mob that comes calling to keep them from attacking Dreamwalker. There are five different types of mobs and the DPS has to know the kill order to ensure the most dangerous mobs die first.
On our first attempt Wild kept his tank alive, even though it got a little tricky at times. Late in that first attempt the tank mentioned that he needed someone to dispel a stacking disease debuff that was causing the damage he was taking to spike higher and higher. So that's what was happening. Wild can't clean diseases, but the raid healer on Wild's side of the room was a shaman who could drop a cleansing totem.
We wiped on our first try. I wasn't sure of the details, but apparently there is a stacking issue with the healers that wasn't going well. Inside the portal are Nightmare Clouds that stack additional healing, damage, and mana regen. The three healers must keep a full three stacks up at all times inside the portal, and there were some problems with that.
On our second attempt Wild had no trouble keeping up the tank, and even had time to help raid heal as long as the cleansing totem stayed up. We wiped again, however, when the southern side of the assault came unglued.
For attempt #3, the raid leader swapped healers around, asking our cat druid to switch to healing and take over for a paladin as one of the three portal healers. I'd never seen him heal, before, and he was impressive. The raid leader was pretty hard on the paladin that was swapped out to raid heal, but the raid leader's a pretty gruff guy anyway (usually). We got Dreamwalker up to 96% health but just didn't quite have enough to save her, wiping a third time.
While we were setting up for a 4th, and what the raid leader said would be our last attempt on the dragon this evening, the raid leader whispered Wild.
"You're healing is pretty low, is there something wrong, or something I can help with?" Frankly I was a bit worried about that, too. Part of the issue early on was that I was getting used to how to heal the tank for this particular encounter, and I am pretty conservative about throwing heals elsewhere until I'm sure I have the measure of the tank healing I need to do. It's also in part that I tend to heal what needs healing, unless I'm raid healing where I can spam heal without worrying about keeping a tank up. Third, I had changed Wild's gear around and I wasn't sure how that was going to work out. I'm getting really frustrated at how slowly Wild heals compared to other healers who have double and more in +haste than Wild has. So I intentionally lowered Wild's base spell power and mana regen to add some +haste. Based on the results, that didn't work out too well. The added haste wasn't enough to overcome the loss of spell power, and I found that Wild needed both his innervate and a mana potion to keep my mana up. The raid leader offered some suggestions (he's a druid moonkin/healer too) which did help on the next attempt. We plan to get together to talk about gearing, tactics, fight mechanics, etc, which I think would be very worthwhile.
We saved Dreamwalker on our 4th attempt, getting our second ever victory against this encounter.
Maybe we could go kill the Blood-Queen now? Please? She's a lot easier than the other choice we had. Nope, it would not be the Blood-Queen. We headed for Professor Putricide, who laughingly reminded us that he was still undefeated.
The raid leader had been studying this fight, and decided to change things up a bit, since we were still zero for forever against this guy. Instead of six healers, he figured he could get by with five, and add another DPS to kill things faster. The raid leader asked Wild if he had a DPS set. Wild swallowed hard and said, I do. Wild switched to moonkin for the Putricide fight, which gave us three moonkin - Wild, plus the raid leader, and also one of Wild's oldest friends, a former priest who was now a super powerful druid moonkin/occasional tank.
Wild had no idea what he should be doing fight mechanic-wise as a DPS, but I figured I could just follow the other two chickens around from a movement perspective, and I would set the raid leader as a focus and attack whatever it was that he attacked. Simple, no? No, not really. If Wild thought that this fight was a crazy mess as a healer, it was even worse as a DPS. Wild was no better at getting where he was supposed to be, and all that movement played havoc with Wild's DPS. Wild was already seriously undergeared versus the two other moonkin, but . . . well, enough excuses.
On our first attempt, a wipe, Wild did 3773 DPS, compared to over 5k from the other two druids. That was the high point - it went progressively downhill from there.
We got Putricide to 19% on our second attempt, one of our best attempts ever. Wild could have gotten us closer, as we had lost a raider I was going to battle rez, but slime pools closed up around me and Wild died before I could get it done. We tried a third time, another wipe. Wild was getting a bit better at avoiding all the nastiness going on around him - slimes pools, exploding pots, bouncing goo that chased after their targets - and that was just the avoidable stuff. Wild also had to get used to actually aiming at his target. The game is pretty forgiving of that, and one can be almost at right angles and still shoot bad guys, but Wild is used to being able to heal targets with his back to them, and this aiming thing was an interesting wrinkle when Wild was being chased in one direction and the thing I'm supposed to be hitting was going the other way.
Wild finished 18th out of 17 DPSers, being beaten in DPS by one of the tanks as well. Not one of Wild's shining moonkin moments. Just to rub it in, Wild finished at 2809 DPS, getting a pitiful 2.5% of the total DPS. The raid leader finished 13th, with 5438 DPS, and the other druid topped us both with 6116 DPS. I frankly forgot to do some things I should have been doing, like using my long cooldown attack called Starfall. The other two druids did a lot of damage with that. Wild is still basically a healer trying to learn to DPS. It was only Wild's second time DPSing in a raid.
BUT - On our 4th attempt, Putricide said the words we had been hoping to hear from the ever pleasant, happy, and insane Professor Putricide: "Bad news everyone.... I don't think I'm going to make it..."
Putricide died, our first ever guild 25 man kill.
Two sanctified tokens dropped. The raid leader won the first one. Wild won the second one. The tokens are used to upgrade Tier gear. Wild exchanged his ilevel 251 shoulders for the i264 one. It's a nice upgrade, but it didn't add any +haste.
In guild news, Wild made a suggestion in the guild forums to rotate raiders between the two raid nights. Raiders like Wild that only get in on Wednesday miss out on all the gear from the first four bosses each week, gear that has to start getting pretty old to the regulars who run it. We'll see how that goes.
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