I managed to get my druid to 84, giving me nine shots at Direbrew. I did heal the first two or three dungeon runs, but I switched over to boomkin for questing. I queued up as DPS while zipping through Hyjal and Deepholm, and managed to hit 84 about halfway through the latter. The last bad pug I had on this toon was one of my last Wrath runs in Hall of Lightning.
After clearing the first boss and the last platform before going through the furnace area, the tank and one of the DPS ran up the ramp to the other side of the room and pulled the rest of the trash. They both dropped group. The tank had seemed a little squishy, but he wasn't very hard to heal because I had started collecting Cataclysm greens for my druid earlier. Between those greens and the heirlooms, I was overpowered for almost anything. Fortunately the remaining two DPS took the same route, and we easily survived the attempted wipe.
While we were waiting for replacements, I looked up the asshats on the armory and wasn't the least bit shocked at what I saw. Three quarters of the gear the tank was wearing was either PvP gear or INT gear. The DPS was mostly PvP. Go figure. We got a real tank and DPS in short order, and quickly finished the run. I dinged 80 and left Northrend on another toon.
10x85:
Hunter 85
Deathknight 85
Rogue 85
Priest 85
Warlock 84
Mage 84
Druid 84
Warrior 60
Paladin 58
Shaman 0
Friday, September 30, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
Brewfest
I took a few years, but I finally got a Brewfest mount on my main! I managed to level my warlock and mage to 84 so they could take part in the Direbrew loot piñata. With a total of 8 characters doing daily runs (I have an 85 paladin and druid on another account), I've also gotten 4 of the new Tankard o'Terror and a dagger on a character that can't use it.
I healed a few Cataclysm dungeon runs on my druid for the first time, and they were mostly good experiences. When I entered the first one, the group was on the second boss. The level 85 warrior was tanking as fury, but I didn't have too much trouble keeping him up and things were dying pretty quick. He was, however, one of those tanks that goes so far ahead of the group that it's almost impossible to loot. I hate that.
My second run was with a "normal" group, and it went better even though we had a wipe. On the last pair of Faceless Watchers I got caught in both of their pummels and died in about three seconds, followed shortly by everyone else. The rest of the run went smoothly, but I managed to die at the end somehow. With my dungeon upgrades and new gear from my leatherworking rogue, I changed over to my boomkin spec and did some questing in Hyjal. I queued as DPS while I was questing, and got into another Blackrock Caverns.
The first boss was already dead, again. We had a wipe on Corla, and what seemed to be a sure wipe on Karsh. The tank made a bad pull and the boss came with the first conflag. We tried running up the ramp to reset him after the tank died, but after a few minutes of trying we decied to just kill him. I b-rezzed the tank and helped heal. We got him down and the rest of the run was uneventful.
10x85:
Hunter 85
Deathknight 85
Rogue 85
Priest 85
Warlock 84
Mage 84
Druid 81
Warrior 57
Paladin 58
Shaman 0
I healed a few Cataclysm dungeon runs on my druid for the first time, and they were mostly good experiences. When I entered the first one, the group was on the second boss. The level 85 warrior was tanking as fury, but I didn't have too much trouble keeping him up and things were dying pretty quick. He was, however, one of those tanks that goes so far ahead of the group that it's almost impossible to loot. I hate that.
My second run was with a "normal" group, and it went better even though we had a wipe. On the last pair of Faceless Watchers I got caught in both of their pummels and died in about three seconds, followed shortly by everyone else. The rest of the run went smoothly, but I managed to die at the end somehow. With my dungeon upgrades and new gear from my leatherworking rogue, I changed over to my boomkin spec and did some questing in Hyjal. I queued as DPS while I was questing, and got into another Blackrock Caverns.
The first boss was already dead, again. We had a wipe on Corla, and what seemed to be a sure wipe on Karsh. The tank made a bad pull and the boss came with the first conflag. We tried running up the ramp to reset him after the tank died, but after a few minutes of trying we decied to just kill him. I b-rezzed the tank and helped heal. We got him down and the rest of the run was uneventful.
10x85:
Hunter 85
Deathknight 85
Rogue 85
Priest 85
Warlock 84
Mage 84
Druid 81
Warrior 57
Paladin 58
Shaman 0
Monday, September 19, 2011
The Weekend Is Over Already?
I spent Friday night using up the last bit of rested bonus on my mage and getting replacements for the heirloom gear after hitting 80. Between the quest rewards and tailoring items, the only thing I'm lacking would be trinkets. It seems like they sped up the leveling in the Cataclysm zones as well; I hit 81 in Hyjal just after the first flamegate. My warlock hit 82 just before starting the quests where you are disguised as a Twilight Cultist. For some reason I seem to remember it taking longer the first time I did it. The two now have a high enough item level to get into pug runs, so when I return to them I'll be able to do that.
The few hours of free time I had this weekend revolved around those two with nothing terribly exciting happening. My druid is getting close to Cataclysm content, and my two tanks are either at or almost at BC level. I'm going to boost my warrior or PvP him up to 58 and start tanking pugs again.
10x85:
Hunter 85
Deathknight 85
Rogue 85
Priest 85
Warlock 82
Mage 81
Druid 78
Warrior 57
Paladin 58
Shaman 0
The few hours of free time I had this weekend revolved around those two with nothing terribly exciting happening. My druid is getting close to Cataclysm content, and my two tanks are either at or almost at BC level. I'm going to boost my warrior or PvP him up to 58 and start tanking pugs again.
10x85:
Hunter 85
Deathknight 85
Rogue 85
Priest 85
Warlock 82
Mage 81
Druid 78
Warrior 57
Paladin 58
Shaman 0
Friday, September 16, 2011
Really?!?
Most of the PuGs this week have gone quite well. There have been occasional hiccups where I’ve zoned into dungeons already in progress and expected a bad run, only to have everything move along without any problems. The vast majority of runs have been populated by people being nice and having fun. It has been great from a gameplay perspective, but it doesn’t leave me with anything to rant about here.
I did spend a good fifteen minutes in the DPS queue on my mage, only to zone into The Oculus where I had to wait another ten minutes to get a full party. When I got there, the first boss was dead and the rest of the party was at the drake cages. By the time I had gotten to them, the healer had dropped. Then the tank dropped group. After a minute another DPS dropped. I mounted my bronze drake and waited with the other DPS.
After the long wait we were rewarded with a healer that mounted another bronze drake. We suggested that he would be better served on a green one and he swapped it out. Our new tank had done this one several times in a row, and the last DPS had never run this particular dungeon. What could have been a horrible experience was instead fun and a helpful learning experience for the DPS that hadn’t been here before. We stayed grouped together for another random run after we easily downed Eregos. We breezed through Gundrak before I had to call it a night.
On my druid, I hit the jackpot. In my party was the stereotypical WoW jackass. It was a deathknight named Blood (with special characters in place of the o’s). He was not the tank. He pulled the first group of mobs before we even got the preliminary buffs out. During pulls, he would either death grip more adds or death grip one of the pack the tank was trying to round up. I don’t know why the tank didn’t say anything, but I stopped healing his stupid. He managed to stay alive, and when he let the tank initiate the pulls I started healing him again. I figured that he learned his lesson.
I was wrong.
When we got to the Maiden of Grief, he rushed in a got aggro on the boss. The tank managed to pull the boss off him before he died, and he must have used death strikes to get his health back up because I wasn’t about to heal him. When the bad stuff hit the floor, I popped hots on the entire melee – including the jackass. The tank pulled the boss out of the bad and to my surprise the jackass didn’t continue to stand in the bad. He did, however, back up and death grip the boss.
I let him die. I had given him a battle rez earlier in the run before I comprehended the totality of his jackassiness. The tank didn’t taunt the boss back. I guess he had finally had enough as well. After we drop the boss, I rez the jackass and we move on. He manages to pull agro on the last few mobs before the final boss, but is able to stay alive without my healing him. The intellect plate pants drop off the final boss and everyone rolls greed (no disenchanters on this run). One of the other DPS wins the roll. In chat the jackass says “give them to me”. The DPS that won just \lol’s at him and drops group. I resist the urge to verbally abuse him, and just silently thank him for making it easy to add him to my ignore list.
I did spend a good fifteen minutes in the DPS queue on my mage, only to zone into The Oculus where I had to wait another ten minutes to get a full party. When I got there, the first boss was dead and the rest of the party was at the drake cages. By the time I had gotten to them, the healer had dropped. Then the tank dropped group. After a minute another DPS dropped. I mounted my bronze drake and waited with the other DPS.
After the long wait we were rewarded with a healer that mounted another bronze drake. We suggested that he would be better served on a green one and he swapped it out. Our new tank had done this one several times in a row, and the last DPS had never run this particular dungeon. What could have been a horrible experience was instead fun and a helpful learning experience for the DPS that hadn’t been here before. We stayed grouped together for another random run after we easily downed Eregos. We breezed through Gundrak before I had to call it a night.
On my druid, I hit the jackpot. In my party was the stereotypical WoW jackass. It was a deathknight named Blood (with special characters in place of the o’s). He was not the tank. He pulled the first group of mobs before we even got the preliminary buffs out. During pulls, he would either death grip more adds or death grip one of the pack the tank was trying to round up. I don’t know why the tank didn’t say anything, but I stopped healing his stupid. He managed to stay alive, and when he let the tank initiate the pulls I started healing him again. I figured that he learned his lesson.
I was wrong.
When we got to the Maiden of Grief, he rushed in a got aggro on the boss. The tank managed to pull the boss off him before he died, and he must have used death strikes to get his health back up because I wasn’t about to heal him. When the bad stuff hit the floor, I popped hots on the entire melee – including the jackass. The tank pulled the boss out of the bad and to my surprise the jackass didn’t continue to stand in the bad. He did, however, back up and death grip the boss.
I let him die. I had given him a battle rez earlier in the run before I comprehended the totality of his jackassiness. The tank didn’t taunt the boss back. I guess he had finally had enough as well. After we drop the boss, I rez the jackass and we move on. He manages to pull agro on the last few mobs before the final boss, but is able to stay alive without my healing him. The intellect plate pants drop off the final boss and everyone rolls greed (no disenchanters on this run). One of the other DPS wins the roll. In chat the jackass says “give them to me”. The DPS that won just \lol’s at him and drops group. I resist the urge to verbally abuse him, and just silently thank him for making it easy to add him to my ignore list.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Ding! x2
I finally got around to hitting 85 on my priest and rogue this weekend. The priest was pretty easy, all it took was the daily fishing and cooking quests to put her over the top. The rogue to a bit more, as I still had about 65% left to go. With SotA as the weekend battleground, I managed to get some easy victories. It seems that if the horde doesn't get to the relic, they just give up. One time I managed to make it all the way to the relic chamber and click on the relic without getting attacked by a single opposing player!
I actually don't mind playing my rogue in PvP mode, mainly because I have some control in when I'm going to be in combat. I must admit to much guilty pleasure in killing off Horde rogues while they have their attention on attacking another player! I compared the XP and honor/valor gained by doing PvP versus PvE random runs, and I gain more doing random dungeons than battlegrounds after the first battleground win. I out of the six dungeon runs, I only saw Stonecore and Vortex Pinnacle.
One Vortex run, the tank was completely new to tanking, allegedly, and made for an interesting run. No one got mad or rage quit, and we slowly made our way through. I was able to vanish on most of the wipes and save myself a little repair bill. We had 3 CCer's, but he didn't seem to notice. Several times he attacked either my sapped target or the mage's sheeped one. The hunter didn't even bother after his first frozen target was hit by the tank. The healer was nearly OOM after every big pull, and an inspection of the tank showed little to no tank gear - it was almost all DPS gear.
We discussed his gearing choices and resources he could get info via friendly chat, and it wasn't a show stopper unlike my first run of Vortex. After the first few pulls, the tank said that it wouldn't work with this healer and to kick him (the tank). This was followed immediately by recriminations by the healer, after which they both dropped group. Whe the other DPS and I were waiting for a new tank and healer, I checked the armory on the healer. Now I know what the tank saw. I don't play a holy paladin, but I don't think you can do very well as a healer with a combination of PvP DPS gear and PvE tank gear. It might work in pre-Cata runs, but not past level 80. I think he had one piece of INT gear and less mana than the paladin tank.
My last run of the night turned into a non-run. I zoned into the Stonecore. While still waiting on the other DPS to zone in, I noticed that the tank was the same "new" tank from one of my Vortex runs earlier in the day. I say allegedly "new" to tanking, because there was just something "off" about this guy. I don't know if he was honestly just learning, real young, or just trolling. Earlier I could only inspect about half of his gear in the UI. I also noticed that I couldn't seem to use Tricks of the Trade on him during my previous run. I had no issues with any other tanks, only him. I still could only inspect about half his stuff before the UI stopped popping up info, and again only on him. I don't know if there's an add-on that can block your stats from other players, but it just seemed weird to me. We were still sitting at the entrance five minutes later waiting for the last DPS to zone in, and the tank wanted the group to kick him, which they couldn't do because to the timer.
I finally got fed up with the antics and dropped group. I spent the deserter debuff doing archaeology, and filled the last two XP bars that way. The "noob" tank joined the PvP healer on my ignore list, and I logged out of my latest level 85 character.
10x85:
Hunter 85
Deathknight 85
Rogue 85
Priest 85
Warlock 80
Mage 79
Druid 76
Warrior 55
Paladin 58
Shaman 0
I actually don't mind playing my rogue in PvP mode, mainly because I have some control in when I'm going to be in combat. I must admit to much guilty pleasure in killing off Horde rogues while they have their attention on attacking another player! I compared the XP and honor/valor gained by doing PvP versus PvE random runs, and I gain more doing random dungeons than battlegrounds after the first battleground win. I out of the six dungeon runs, I only saw Stonecore and Vortex Pinnacle.
One Vortex run, the tank was completely new to tanking, allegedly, and made for an interesting run. No one got mad or rage quit, and we slowly made our way through. I was able to vanish on most of the wipes and save myself a little repair bill. We had 3 CCer's, but he didn't seem to notice. Several times he attacked either my sapped target or the mage's sheeped one. The hunter didn't even bother after his first frozen target was hit by the tank. The healer was nearly OOM after every big pull, and an inspection of the tank showed little to no tank gear - it was almost all DPS gear.
We discussed his gearing choices and resources he could get info via friendly chat, and it wasn't a show stopper unlike my first run of Vortex. After the first few pulls, the tank said that it wouldn't work with this healer and to kick him (the tank). This was followed immediately by recriminations by the healer, after which they both dropped group. Whe the other DPS and I were waiting for a new tank and healer, I checked the armory on the healer. Now I know what the tank saw. I don't play a holy paladin, but I don't think you can do very well as a healer with a combination of PvP DPS gear and PvE tank gear. It might work in pre-Cata runs, but not past level 80. I think he had one piece of INT gear and less mana than the paladin tank.
My last run of the night turned into a non-run. I zoned into the Stonecore. While still waiting on the other DPS to zone in, I noticed that the tank was the same "new" tank from one of my Vortex runs earlier in the day. I say allegedly "new" to tanking, because there was just something "off" about this guy. I don't know if he was honestly just learning, real young, or just trolling. Earlier I could only inspect about half of his gear in the UI. I also noticed that I couldn't seem to use Tricks of the Trade on him during my previous run. I had no issues with any other tanks, only him. I still could only inspect about half his stuff before the UI stopped popping up info, and again only on him. I don't know if there's an add-on that can block your stats from other players, but it just seemed weird to me. We were still sitting at the entrance five minutes later waiting for the last DPS to zone in, and the tank wanted the group to kick him, which they couldn't do because to the timer.
I finally got fed up with the antics and dropped group. I spent the deserter debuff doing archaeology, and filled the last two XP bars that way. The "noob" tank joined the PvP healer on my ignore list, and I logged out of my latest level 85 character.
10x85:
Hunter 85
Deathknight 85
Rogue 85
Priest 85
Warlock 80
Mage 79
Druid 76
Warrior 55
Paladin 58
Shaman 0
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Summer's End
The last wekend of the summer was spent mostly traveling for a cookout with my family and a birthday/going away party with my wife's family. I took off Tuesday for a longer holiday weekend, but I didn't spend very much time playing. The weekend call to arms was Warsong, and I pretty much hate that battleground. I only did one, and even though we won I didn't enjoy it. I did a random on Tuesday, and after a lopsided loss in EotS and a confusing loss in Alterac I managed to get a win in a pretty quick Alterac match.
I don't think I can do more PvP than trying for a win on a daily random as I don't really enjoy it at all. I went back to healing PuGs and did six of the seven for the week. All that XP, plus a new set of bracers to boot! I did the Stormwind daily fishing and cooking quests, which pushed me up to level 75. The previous night I powerleveled jewelcrafting using supplies from my army of alts. I was going to finish and max it out, but mother nature had other plans.
We were just finishing dinner, when we heard a loud bang and the lights went out. I looked outside and saw something odd in the middle of the road. Closer inspection revealed it to be an insulator used to keep the power lines separate and supported on the main steel cable between the poles. There was another one on the ground, and a trail of them up and down the street. Further down the street, I could see a tree had fallen taking out the power lines and a parked car. Fortunately there were no injuries.
We had a supply of flashlights and candles and such from the hurricane prep last month, but there would be no WoW that night. After being serenaded to sleep by the dulcet tones of the neighbors generators and the power company's chainsaws, the lights came back on around 4 AM. Say what you will about the power company, they've been doing one heck of a job lately. After the hurricane, more than a million people were without power, and they manged to get it resolved rather quickly. They manged to get power restored to my street in little over eight hours, in the dark during a storm. Epic win in my opinion.
10x85:
Hunter 85
Deathknight 85
Rogue 84
Priest 84
Warlock 78
Mage 75
Druid 75
Warrior 55
Paladin 54
Shaman 0
I don't think I can do more PvP than trying for a win on a daily random as I don't really enjoy it at all. I went back to healing PuGs and did six of the seven for the week. All that XP, plus a new set of bracers to boot! I did the Stormwind daily fishing and cooking quests, which pushed me up to level 75. The previous night I powerleveled jewelcrafting using supplies from my army of alts. I was going to finish and max it out, but mother nature had other plans.
We were just finishing dinner, when we heard a loud bang and the lights went out. I looked outside and saw something odd in the middle of the road. Closer inspection revealed it to be an insulator used to keep the power lines separate and supported on the main steel cable between the poles. There was another one on the ground, and a trail of them up and down the street. Further down the street, I could see a tree had fallen taking out the power lines and a parked car. Fortunately there were no injuries.
We had a supply of flashlights and candles and such from the hurricane prep last month, but there would be no WoW that night. After being serenaded to sleep by the dulcet tones of the neighbors generators and the power company's chainsaws, the lights came back on around 4 AM. Say what you will about the power company, they've been doing one heck of a job lately. After the hurricane, more than a million people were without power, and they manged to get it resolved rather quickly. They manged to get power restored to my street in little over eight hours, in the dark during a storm. Epic win in my opinion.
10x85:
Hunter 85
Deathknight 85
Rogue 84
Priest 84
Warlock 78
Mage 75
Druid 75
Warrior 55
Paladin 54
Shaman 0
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