Friday, February 22, 2013

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I started my revised schedule this week by going into LFR on my Druid. While waiting for the queue, I started running Golden Lotus and Shieldwall daily quests. The first half of MV went without a hitch. I had enough Valor to pick up a ring from the Golden Lotus quartermaster. I now had a high enough item level to queue for the entire LFR. The second half of MV didn't go very well. The boss wasn't too terrible, even though one of the tanks rushed in and was one-shot. We still managed to pull off a victory without wiping. Elegon proved a little tougher. On the first pull we had a few DPS fall down the hole. I wasn't expecting a tank to fall though. Same tank that had gotten one-shot previously. After another wipe where neither tank paid any attention to the adds, we somehow managed to down the boss. I had a feeling that there was no way we were going to down the final boss. After several wipes, it was getting late and I dropped group. If the tanks can't do the dance and the DPS won't kill the adds, it is just a waste of time.

I moved on to HoF the next day. The first half went quite well, and I picked up a new set of bracers from the second boss. I queued up for the second half and was met with disappointment. The group could not get past the second boss. It was getting late and I was getting tired. I logged for the night.

Last night was "interesting". I went back into the second half of Hof and we one-shot all of the bosses and I picked up the leg armor token. I went into Terrace and ran into the first real asshat of the week. I'm used to groups pulling both Sha on one side at the same time to save time, but this is the first time I've seen three being pulled. After the wipe, the bear tank was complaining about the healing and linked the healing meters. They were low, but I died before the tank due to lack of threat generated. I didn't pull threat, he just didn't have any. After the wipe, the tanks pull big again before everyone is buffed and knowing that healing is a bit low. We wipe again. The bear tank complains again about the healing done, linking the healing meters and going on about how he is a better healer. On the first boss, he actually changed over to his healing spec and healed the fight instead of tanking it. Enough people were sick of his antics and we finally kicked him.

The rest of the run went fairly smooth. We killed the next boss, and my Sha-touched staff dropped. On my first kill. Without using a bonus roll. I couldn't believe it. I have thirteen attempts on my Death Knight with no luck. First time through on my Druid and it drops. Go figure. After the raid, I queue for a scenario and heroic to get closer to the valor cap. The scenario was a long one, and I was fading fast. The heroic popped up, and it was one I haven't done yet - the first part of the new Scarlet dungeon. This tank didn't have a clue either, and we wiped when he pulled everything. I dropped group and called it a night. I'm very close to capping valor, and should have it done early enough to make attempt fourteen on my Death Knight tonight.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

There IS Loot in LFR

It's been a busy few weeks. The LFR gods have smiled upon my hunter and I not only have my Sha-touched boomstick, but I am also sporting four tier items. The Sha-touched sword for my Death Knight still eludes me, although Elegon did cough up Starshatter for me (but only the LFR version). We had an excellent raid this weekend, one-shotting all of MV and the first two bosses in HoF on the first night! We even had time to do a few pulls of Garalon. We made some quality progression on Garalon during the second night, ending with the pheromone swaps starting to get a bit smoother and running into the enrage timer.

I'm going to have to do a little research and math to figure out the best way to earn Valor points, because this is the second week in a row that I've gone into raid night on my Death Knight after reaching the cap. The rescheduling to Sunday-Monday raiding, while better for me IRL, has thrown my in-game schedule askew.

I didn't get a lot of progress on my alts, with only my Warlock seeing any real time played. This was mainly due to farming up motes so I could make the BOA staff for my Druid. It took a bit longer than I had hoped, but the repetitive nature gave me some time to get used to my new gaming toy; I picked up a Nostromo N52 before the weekend. I'm still getting used to it and trying to come up with a keymap setting that will work for me, but this might be what it takes to get me to stop being a "clicker". If you are ever looking to farm motes of spirit on a low level character, the area over by Pearlfin Village is great. It is even better if you are still on the quest where you have a party of NPCs with you! As a Warlock, I could just sit myself at a crossroad where the mobs would spawn or pass through and hit Harvest Life, loot, and repeat. The only thing that slowed me up was my limited bag space!

11x90

Hunter 90
Death Knight 90
Rogue 87
Priest 85
Mage 87
Druid 90
Warlock 87
Warrior 86
Paladin 85
Shaman 85
Monk 70