After the Storm

We managed to make it through the hurricane without any issues, although there are several places in my town and the surrounding area where the wind took down trees and the runnoff flooded and washed out several roads.

10x85 Standings:

Hunter 85

Deathknight 85

Rogue 84

Priest 84

Warlock 78

Mage 75

Druid 73

Warrior 55

Paladin 54

Shaman 0

The PVP leveling is nice to break things up a bit, but it gets tedious quickly for me. I may just do a random battleground daily for the bonus and then go back to PUGs, questing, or boosting during the week. I did like the gains I made during the Call to Arms weekend, but I don't really enjoy PVP all that much.

Week in Rearview

I didn't get as much time to play this week as I would have liked, but I did get some quality time in the battlegrounds for my mage and druid. Even my lock got a little PvP done.  I managed to finish leveling my deathknight by leveling my archaeology. I'm still running Northrend dailies to pick up the last few peices of heirloom gear, along with the Firelands dalies on my main during the week.


10x85 status:

Night Elf Hunter (main) 85

Human Death Knight 85

Night Elf Rogue 84

Night Elf Priest 84

Gnome Warlock 77

Human Mage 75

Worgen Druid 72

Tauren Paladin 50

Worgen Warrior 49

Undecided Shaman 0 (currently throwaway bank mule)

Rainy Days and Mondays...

I've run a bunch of LFD pugs on my Paladin, with most of the groups being pretty decent. The occasional DPS that pulls is the exception instead of the rule. As I approached level 50, I decided to try a little PvP to shake things up. I'm not a PvPer, but I might change that up a bit. I'm not going to do more battlegrounds because it's something I really enjoy, but because it breaks things up from running the same dungeon over and over. It also seems to be the best way to acquire gear for level 85 unless Blizz stops being stingy with the Justice Points for WoTLK content. Why do Utgarde Keep seven times for 84 JP when one battleground will give the equivalent in honor on the weekend?

I will more than likely use the battlegrounds a lot more on my DPS toons because of the shorter queue. The LFG queues are just so damn long on them. I even ran a bunch of battlegrounds on my druid healer to test the waters. It was a lot more fun than several of the LFD runs, which had tanks who felt the need to speed pull through leveling dungeons. Maybe I'm just cranky and the only one who wants to loot or meet a quest objective. It's not fun for me as heals or DPS to have the tank out of line of sight and pulling the next group when I pause for a second to loot. The last few have been so bad that I can't find a pause to ask them to slow down. I guess I need to make a macro or just let them die once or twice. I don't feel like making a macro, so I guess it'll be the latter. At least as DPS in those situations, I have the luxury of not needing to be right back in action. Meh.

Looking at my roster, I did make some progress over the past two weeks on my 10x85 project:

Night Elf Hunter (main) 85

Human Death Knight 84

Night Elf Rogue 84

Night Elf Priest 84

Gnome Warlock 77

Human Mage 72

Worgen Druid 68

Tauren Paladin 50

Worgen Warrior 49

Undecided Shaman 0 (currently throwaway bank mule)

I will most likely do the 7 weekly LFD pugs on my tanks and healers just to keep in practice and for the bonus XP and gear, but I'll be doing a lot more battlegrounds on weekends to cap my honor and JPs. I'm still trying to decide what race to roll as my shammy, leaning towards a Goblin though because I don't have one on this server on any of my three accounts.

Holy Cow

I spent the past week mainly leveling a new Tauren paladin. I decided to try and have one of each class on my main account, which meant deleting my level 23 Troll druid. The only other Horde character I had on the server was another lowbie on one of my other accounts. I ended up deleting my 73 Ally deathknight and rerolled as an Orc. The deathknights' purpose is two-fold: acting as an AH mule and boosting through some content to finish quests and gear drops from dungeons.

I'm leveling this paladin as protection-spec, trying to use the LFD. I sent my DPS plate heirlooms to my new deathknight (you can use the mailbox in village in the phased starting area) and quickly got through the initial area, arriving in Orgrimmar just shy of level 60. I few down to the neutral AH and transferred some gold to my new mule.

The first thing I did after creating my new paladin was to mail my tanking gear, along with a one-handed and two-handed heirloom weapon. I used the two-hander for questing and the one-handed for tanking. WTB an heirloom shield - there was nothing on the Horde auction house, and the quest drop was pitiful. I managed to transfer one over via the neutral auction house without it getting snatched up. I quested up to level 15 rather quickly getting extra XP from the heirlooms, mining, and herbing. I made my way over to Orgrimmar and took up fishing and cooking for the daily quests.

I queued up and instantly got the LFD window. Ragefire went pretty smooth, and we finished with no problems. I used my booster/mule to run through a few more times to get a specific drop. I started to queue for a specific dungeon (Deadmines) to pick up a few more drops and because I knew it inside and out. The first run was interesting, as I zoned in to a dead first boss. It seems the last tank did not have a protection spec, sucked horribly, and was either booted or dropped group. We proceeded to finish the run without any problems. I re-queued again to pick up the quests, and had another run without any real issues.

I picked up my level 20 class quest, and boosted myself through Shadowfang Keep with my deathknight. I got a nice shield drop, but there was no way I could wear it with the Ally lion on it. BOA shield ASAP please!

On Friday I queued and got Wailing Caverns. Everything was going well until we dropped the first boss. I found myself sitting in the dark as the power went out. I went upstairs and watched the storm outside - lightning, thunder, massive wind, torrential rain. I later found out there was a funnel cloud spotted less than a mile from my house! the power eventually came back on, and I logged onto my main and ran a raid on Bastion of Twilight.

We did pretty well considering that the raid group was mainly ungeared alts. Between the nerfs and the experience of the raid lead, we one-shot our way through with one wipe on Captain Planet. We made several good attempts on Cho'gal, getting him to 80k on our best attempt. Considering that most of the raid had never done the fight before, and our melee heavy group it was pretty good.

The rest of the weekend was spent on the paladin. I tanked a successful run of wailing caverns, which is now much more linear than it used to be. I queued up again and got Stockades. The horde is left out in the cold as far as quests go there, like it was for my other non-Horde toons in Ragefire. I queued up again and got Blackfathom Deeps. I zoned in and we were already past the first boss, so my spider-sense was tingling.

We make our way to the second boss, and I notice the hunter pulling. I don't say anything, but I also don't help him. I figure if you're going to pull it, you can tank it. I just keep it in my sight in case it pulls off to the healer. We drop Gelihast, and start making our way up the hill. As we're moving along, I'm healing myself more than the healer is. He starts typing a "knock-knock" joke as we go, ending with "who's there", "not me" and dropping group. I added the ass to my ignore list and queued a replacement. One of the DPS had gone on ahead and gotten killed. One day he'll learn not to pull without a healer. Today was not that day.

We get a druid healer, buff up, and continue. We make it to the next Kelris, and I'm trying to control the pulls so we don't get swamped with adds. I have one AOE spell at my level, and it's on a 2 minute cool-down. I pull the boss, figuring that I can handle him and the two adds that are still up. I most likely would have had no problem, except the druid also lights one of the torches spawning a set of water elementals. We wipe.

We zone back in, and I say in chat that I have no real AOE at my level and to please let me initiate the pulls. We get back to the boss room, and I sneak around behind and grab the water elementals. I bring them back and we burn them down. We also burn down the last add that was walking around the room, and I ask the druid if he is going to heal or stay in kitty form for the rest of the fight. He shape-shifts back and says he'll heal. I pull the boss, and he lights the rest of the torches causing mass chaos and another wipe. I yell at him in chat and someone initiates a kick, which quickly passes. One of the idiot DPS also drops group. A new DPS zones in on me in the boss room (I ran back), another DPS drops. The last DPS is in another zone for almost 5 minutes. I let the new DPS now just what kind of fools he's playing with and re-queue us.

We get a mage and a priest, and the last DPS finally comes back. The mage kites some of the adds, while we focus down the rest. We continue on and drop the final boss. I still have some unfinished quests, so I grab my deathknight and run it again. Hopefully the next time I queue up, I won't get so many asshats.

Summer Vacation

I spent very little time in Azeroth this week as I was too busy being lobsterfied at the shore. Most of the time not at the beach was spent getting sand from said beach off of and out of various parts of myself. I did bring my laptop with me, and one night when everyone else turned in fairly early I logged on.

I ran a few pugs on my 30ish druid tank. I don't tank very often lately, and it takes me a little bit to get into the groove. I really hate it when an overzealous DPS or healer decides to pull more. I usually let them get pretty low on health before I pull them off just out of spite. I don't get what the "gogogo" attitude is about, especially with DPS. Are you in a hurry to wait another 1/2 hour to get in to another run? Even the queue for heals is running around 10 minutes. After a few runs in Razorfen and SM and adding more names to my ignore list, I logged onto a mage and hit the queue.

I got The Nexus, and things seemed to start off ok. The tank liked to get way ahead of everyone all the time, and that did eventually cost us a wipe. We had just finished Telestra. The tank ignored the two optional pulls and started in on the group on the left. Just as the patrol joined the fray, the deathknight nooblet managed to pull both optional groups with him. They peeled off him as soon as we went past the healer, turning him into a stain on the floor. The tank and the rest of us followed shortly thereafter.

We came back in and I think the healer went AFK for a few minutes at that point. We made our way to Anomalus and lost the DKto a D/C along the way. Someone eventually kicked him before we got to the boss. As we started the pull, either the healer or one of the DPS spammed "don't kill the rifts" and "let’s get the achievement" before we let them know that was for heroic runs only. After the boss dropped, I guess the tank had had enough and left the group.

We get a new tank and almost get through the run without any problems. The healer needs another AFK before the last boss, but instead of going into Keristraza's room he stays in the outside hallway. Eventually a patrolling mob makes him go splat. After we're all done laughing about that, we drop the boss and my WoW withdrawal has been satisfied for the rest of my vacation.

Weekend Update

Nothing terribly exciting this weekend. I did level up a few more alts, reaching the Lifebloom milestone on one of my druids. I find druid healing through Burning Crusade content to be rather non-stressful. Before you get Lifebloom, it's just Rejuve and Nourish with the occasional Swiftmend and Wild Growth if things get pear-shaped. Once you get Lifebloom, keeping that and Rejuve on the tank is almost all that is needed. Adding free Regrowths when Omen of Clarity pops is the norm. Removing debuffs along the way when I can, it's pretty much ez-mode.

Once in a while you know you're going to be in for an exciting run. Not necessarily good exciting, but exciting none the less. As I zoned in, the tank exclaimed "finally, a good healer". At first I thought that I may have run with this particular paladin and appreciated the comment, but as he continued on with "last healer was a suck priest" and "I love druid healers" I realized I’ve never played with this tank before. This would be my first and last run with this tank.

We progress with no problems to the room with the first boss of Mana Tombs. He pulls the boss with half of the adds still alive, so they all come running. I manage to HOT up everyone before they all kill me dead, and they are able to kill everything and keep from wiping. After being rezzed by the tank, we continue on.

We come to the room with 2 mobs that fear, and the tank feels the need to pull the entire room. We get fear-bombed and eventually wipe. We run back in (by we I mean me and two of the DPS) and finish clearing the room with a more sensible pull. The tank disconnects. While we are waiting, we manage to clear most of the trash in the next room via CC, careful pulling,  and some well played DPS. I finally initiated a kick after it becomes clear that the tank isn't coming back. I also make sure to add him to my ignore list. We get a new tank and finish the run without any further issues. We even requeue and do another run.

I also did a run as a tank for a change. I recently got another piece of heirloom gear to complete the leather tank/DPS set, so I queued up on yet another druid (at least this one is a Worgen for a change). I get my most favorite dungeon, Gnomer. We get to the first ledge, jump down, and kill the first boss. After we make our way to the hallway down, between my tunnel vision from not having played a tank in a while and a WTF moment on the healer, I almost cause a wipe. I'm fighting the first pack down the hall, and I see my health steadily dropping. I finish the pull with about 1% health left.

I notice that the healer and one of the DPS are not in the immediate vicinity. It turns out that they are in the "safe zone" area using the machines to clean off the crappy drops that almost every mob drops in the run. It would have been nice to know that was where they were going, but I should have checked we were all there and ready before I pulled. We finish the run without further incident.

Northrend in the Summertime

I've managed to get a few more toons into Northrend and closer to Cataclysm content. It does sometimes get confusing as to which quests on which toons I'm on. I mainly have a set routine for starting Northrend. At level 68 I say goodbye to Outland and return to Stormwind to pick up Cold Weather Flying and any Wrath gear my profession stable can make. Between having almost all the heirlooms and all max level professions, I usually only "need" the blue quest rewards and dungeon drops to be completely uber-powered.

After I sail off from Stormwind, I'll do the quests around the keep and the ones around Riplash Strand and Farshire before heading off to Kaskala. I'll do the daily quest and take the turtle to Dragonblight, pick up the flight point, and take the other turtle to Kamagua. After getting the flight point, I'll swing by Westguard to get the flight point there as well. I'll fly over to Valgarde to pickup the breadcrumb quest "Fresh Legs" and get the Utgarde Keep quests. If I'm not 70 by then, a few quests in Valgarde usually takes care of that.

If I'm on a DPS toon I'll queue for a random while I take the flight to Dalaran, otherwise I'll queue after I've done my level 70 class training. While waiting, I make my way back to Borean Tundra to get started on the quests for the Nexus. After a few runs in Utgarde and the Nexus, my next stop is Azjol-Nerub. I usually forget to pick up the quests for Azjol-Nerub until after I've run it once. Sometimes I get luck and someone shares it, other times I have to get over there to pick it up myself.

Over the weekend I went from Blackrock Depths to Outland on my druid healer. The BRD run was pretty good. Since I've spent a lot of time in there I was able to assist the tank with where to go, which is a good thing when you have it near the end of Vanilla levels - the random ends with the last boss and not the quick boss. We did have a leech rogue, who I noticed wasn't participating but was rolling on drops. I asked in party chat if they we're planning on joining us during the run and didn't receive an answer. I initiated a kick as soon as the timer allowed, and we picked up a hunter and finished off the run.

My next random was in Blackrock Spire, and I was following what I thought was the tank up the ramp to the quest giver. It turns out that it wasn't and they pulled a pat which made me go splat. After that grand entrance, we proceeded along nicely. We had a hiccup at one of the Troll bosses when the tank pulled the entire room. With me and several others hexed, we wiped. We managed to kill most of the adds though, so after we ran back in it was smooth sailing.

We proceeded to complete LBRS, which was extremely long and yet extremely fun. I fired up my other computer and multi-boxed/boosted my druid and another toon through UBRS to finish off the quests and push my druid to level 58 so I could move to Outland. I boosted the druid to 60 in Ramparts and picked up a few drops for her and the other toon (feral druid).

I mailed the heirlooms to another druid on another account, and did a few last Outland runs before heading off to Northrend. I did my previously mentioned route as a boomkin, and healed a few UK runs. I also leveled one of my mages from 68 to 71 the same way. My last run in UK on my mage wasn't too bad, but the tank seemed to feel the need to move at ludicrous speed, leaving us all behind on almost every pull.

FYI tanks, if I need to loot or regain mana/focus/whatever I'm going to do so. If I'm healing, I might throw a HOT on you. I know there are "gogogo" DPS out there and it gets to be quite stressful, but you control the run speed - not them. Just before heading to Northrend, I was on a CoT pug with my mage. The tank wasn't familiar with the run, and there was a rogue that decided to start pulling the second the dragon landed with the tank still in flight. If I were healing the run, he would have been dead several times. Even with all the mobs he was attacking, I still did three times the damage he did. Plus I didn't almost die every pull. Let the tank pull, and if the tank is too slow for you then feel free to get back in the DPS queue - I can assure you that your wait will be longer. When I tank, if a DPS pulls that stunt I call them on it. If they continue with the asshattery, I let them tank it and die before I taunt the mob back. If you get a group that wants to sprint through and can keep up, then by all means sprint away. If you find yourself alone with a room full of mobs, perhaps you need to slow down a bit.