:::Another long overdue update:::
I don't post here enough. Lots of things have happened since my last update. Guild wise we were the first
Alliance guild to take down Illidan and we did it shortly after my last post. Mother was (is) an easy fight as long
as everyone moves the correct way. The Illadari Council was a horrible fight that took forever to complete as the four
mobs had shared HP and each did something different. It is the "super bowl of not standing in crap" because there are
so many AOR effects going off. The Illidan fight was as it was a combination of everything that you fight to get to
him. It is an intense fight and I feel sorry for those that don't get to experience it.
After we farmed BT for a while we started on Sunwell. It was then when the new expansion release date was announced
and interest in raiding took a serious hit. People quit showing up or started on different toons. I hung around
for a bit but got tired of not raiding so I decided to level my Blood Elf Priest, Volto, and get in some raiding with him.
Leveling him to 70 wasn't too hard and I did almost all of it solo. He was a Shadow Priest, tailor and enchanter.
I bounced around in different guilds trying to find a raiding home. The first guild I tried was a disappointment as
even in my pre-kara gear I was out DPS-ing their DPS classes and they had no clue how to run an effective raid -- A Kara raid
at that! I left them and ended up with Kwazilla. They were in SSC/TK and I had been getting bits and pieces of
upgrades on Volto to keep me in the top 10 of DPS even though I was not in the best gear. I kept playing Volto until
a couple weeks before the expansion was released.
Also during that time I had surgery on my Achilles. That and my son's football schedule took a lot of game time
away from me. I tried to get back in raiding with FN, but they had a set 25 that they were taking into the BT/MH so
I was on the outside looking in.
When Wrath of the Litch King (new expansion) was released on Nov. 13th, I purchased it right away. I decided that
I would had Gab be my main and I would level him as Ret. Retribution got a huge increase for the 3.0 patch (the patch
prior to the expansion) so Blizzard decided to nerf them again. It was a harsh nerf and ret pallies went from the very
top to the very bottom in DPS yet again. Even though a ret Pally brings many things to a raid, you will probably only
see one Ret Pally in a raid.
My first impressions of Wrath are WOW! The overall design and story is impressive. Many of the quest lines
really bring out the story of each faction and how the Lich King came into existence. There is a line in the Dragonblight
zone that is incredible. After you do that you end up running through Undercity sacking the scourge with the King and
Jana Proudmore that is a lot of fun. The journey to 80 wasn't too bad. I hit 80 in a week and stared doing more
instances to get gear. The storylines for the instances continues the coolness factor. The Caverns of Time: Stratholme
is one of the coolest I have seen in a long long time!
FN is raiding again. We almost have Naxx25 cleared. I have been able to raid for the past two nights and
it feels good. I need to do a lot of upgrades on my gear to prove my worth. But it is a lot of fun. When I am
not raiding I am Protection and tank many instances. It provides the "change of pace" that I like and since we already
have two really strong tanks I don't have to rely on one of them being out for me to get in. I guess I am the 4th or
5th tank on the roster.
Supposedly when patch 3.1 comes out there will be the option to have two specs for one character. If that is implemented
that will be awesome as I can switch from Ret to Prot without having to respec. I don't know what limitation they will
have but it could be very cool.
Anyhow, that is the 10,000 foot view of what has been going on with my WoW for the last few months. Probably by
my next update we will have naxx25 cleared and working towards the next thing.
:::24 March 2008:::
Continuing
When Fatal Nemesis was in its formation stages I was going through several changes at work and dealing with
some at home challenges. So I was not able to participate as much as I would have liked to. It was almost three weeks
before I could get back to raiding. When I did it was easy to see that Fatal Nemesis would be a very talented raiding
force. It was not long before we had all of Zul'Aman (the new 10-man raid zone) cleared, all of SSC cleared as well
as all of Tempest Keep cleared. I was back to full time raiding when we were taking down Kael (last boss in TK) and
Lady Vashj (last boss in SSC). This made me able to go into Mount Hyjal. After clearing Rage (first boss in MH)
that keyed me to Black Temple.
The Mount Hyjal fights are fun, for me at least, because for them I get to spec Protection and be the primary damage absorber
for the trash waves. There are five bosses in MH, the first four have eight waves of trash that you must clear before
fighting the boss. These waves are mostly demon and undead and they come numbering eight to twelve mobs. I will
stand between the raid force and the incoming wave to pull them to me. Our other tanks will pull off a few of the more
difficult mobs to hold them and let the rest of the raid open up an AOE onslaught. It is a BLAST. We have cleared
ALL of Mount Hyjal. Personally I have obtained both of the off-tier breastplates (tanking and healing) as well as the
best Pally tanking weapon currently in the game (Hammer of Justice) even though it looks like a giant dildo. For Archimond
(last boss in MH) I return to holy and healing, unless the mechanics of Pally Tanking change I will probably never tank Archi.
The Black Temple is a lot more like an old-school dungeon crawl. It is intense with many of the boss fights having
different tactics to complete. We are currently up to Realquy of Souls. It is a bitch of a timing fight. Once
we clear to the RoS room and engage all healing is reduced to zero-- no healthstones, no healing potions, no bandages, no
healing spells, nothing that increases your health will work for the first phase. The tanks must engage and hold aggro
until they have about 1/3rd of their HP left then we swap in another tank. We finish the fist phase and then are swarmed
by skeletons. Each time we kill a skele we regain health and mana. We enter the second phase 100%/100% for all
those that are alive. The second phase all healing is increased by 100% but we have 120 seconds to finish the phase
before EVERYONE is out of mana. Also, all critical spell hits during phase two result in 50% of the damage being applied
to the caster. After clearing phase two there is another round of skeletons that replenish health and mana after each
kill going into the next phase. Phase three has a lot going on, but if the raid can make it into this phase with enough
people alive, is the most easy. Other than the cleansing this is pretty much a tank-n-spank. Unfortunatly we have
not made it into phase three with enough people alive, yet. After Ros, we will have Mother, Illidari Coucil and then
Illidan himself. There has been just one guild on the server that has taken down Illidan, and it was a horde guild.
Fatal Nemesis has progressed father than any other alliance guild.
This week (our raid week is from Tuesday through Monday) we decided to not schedule any raids due to the holiday and many
people taking Spring Break. It has been a nice week to relax but I look forward to resuming raids.
I am enjoying the hell out of Pally tanking. Our last night of raiding before the off-week was in MH so I ended it
as a tank. I have tanked all of Kara, all of Gruul, some of ZA and many other heroic instances. I am fully uncrushable
with Holy Shield up and have over 15K hp and just under 400 spell damage un-buffed. I even did one Kara run with another
Pally tank and it was a blast. I do need to get a couple upgrades in my tanking gear - shoulders, pants, and trinket,
then I would be able to tank nearly everything the game has to throw at me. When I have a chance I will update my image
to show what I look like in tanking gear (that image is so outdated now it isn't even funny!)
Now, I have caught you up with the highlights of what has been happening with me in WoW. Hopefully I will be able
to post more updates soon!
:::19 March 2008:::
Where the hell have I been?
Hmm, I guess you thought this blog died. Well in a way it did. I have been
so busy with so many things that I have not been able to update it. So lets try to catch up to where I am today.
When I last updated I was just getting into Kara with Gabbath. I was still in Disavowed. We were doing OK
in Kara then Khaos (then our Guild Leader) had a tragedy hit his family and quit the game. Leadership was transitioned
to Abbigaile and we continued. We had more hit and miss success in Kara until we added Sitherian and Vitrious (Warrior
and Druid) they transferred to the server and added two items that were really needed 1. a damn good tank (we had Raize, the
best tank on the server, and a few others but none were as good as Sith) 2. a druid that was knowledgeable and willing to
do whatever was needed to be a success. I took lead on the second Kara team and with Sith, Vit, Real (one of the best
healers I have ever been around), XL (mage friend of Sith and Vit who is as good a mage as Sith and Vit are at their characters),
Hypnos (our #1 rogue), Phirlyon (outstanding warlock), Gwynn (the best player I have ever seen.) and me as the base to the
team. We would add others as they were available but we were good. We were clearing Kara in two raid days with
little struggles. At the time just having two healers for Kara was unusual. Real and I were able to do it with
no issues. In a very short time we were able to have all the gear we wanted from Kara.
Problems began brewing in the guild. Abbi was very paranoid. Every time someone spoke up she felt as if her
leadership were being questioned. As a guild we had developed three Kara teams. The first team was clearing Kara
in two to three days, my team was clearing in two, and the third team was not doing good at all. Abbi was on the third
team and she was pissed. We did some shuffling, I became a guild officer. That made our leadership team of Abbi
- GL, Gwynn - Sr. Officer, Jakks, and me. I never felt that Abbi trusted anyone and that she acted "in the best interest
of the guild" but was really focused on "the best interest in Abbi". Instead of blowing up the Kara teams we set our
focus on the 25 man raids. Gruul, Mag, Serpent Shrine Caverns and Tempest Keep. We were able to down Gruul without
too much of a struggle, when the raid was primarily the top players from the first and second Kara teams. As people
bitched and moaned over who was attending the raids and who was ABLE to raid (not just be there but contribute) the guild
began to stall. We were not progressing, we were beginning to cancel more and more raids, and morale was in the crapper.
So we had several meetings with another guild that was just below us in capabilities and progression who was having many of
the same issues and ended up merging into a new Disavowed. This worked ok for a while. The first night as the
new Disavowed we took down Void Reaver, in TK, for the first time. As we got things working we were able to down a few
more bosses in SSC.
The merger ended up being a total mistake. The leadership from the other guild would not let go of friendships
in order of progression and demanded that certain people be brought into raids even though they had no business being there.
Abbi too had gotten into the "lets be fair" crap even though it meant we would not be successful. I had many clashes
with the leaders of the other guild and decided it would be best for me to leave the guild. When I left I started a
Blood Elf Priest and went on my merry way.
Within a couple weeks after I left the guild it completely imploded. Those that wanted to raid and be successful
had had enough of those that wanted to have all their friends and 500 alt characters each (with NONE of their characters being
fit to raid) in all the raids. Disavowed was disbanded. The old Orpheus (Abbi, Jakks, Gwynn, Revan, Iq, and others)
people re-created Orpheus. I was an Old Orpheus member so I signed the charter and stayed with them for a day before
I figured out what I wanted to do. I was in Oryx on the horde side with my priest. Orxy contains a lot of people
I knew from Lanys (EQ) and was fun to play with them again.
Sith, Phir, Vit, Xl, and several of the good raiders got together with Real who had left for Elysium (another guild that
was facing troubles) and some Fidelium people and created Fatal Nemesis. Fatal Nemesis is an all new guild, no merger,
no existing heirachy, no garbage, just a brand new start. I joined the guys in Fatal Nemesis
:::more to be added later:::
Hello 70 (finally!)
:::26 February 2007:::
Well, it didn't take a week for me to complete this update, it has taken over two. I
do have one good excuse, I was off work last week on my personal vacation. I finally hit 70 last week (I think it was
Tuesday when I finally dinged for the last time, at least until they raise the cap again) Since then I had been working
like crazy to get my Karazstan key quest completed. That has been a major pain in the ass, more on it later.
When I hit 70 I was able to buy my flying mount. It is only usable in Outlands, but it is SWEET to be able to fly
wherever I want to. I am saving to get the epic flying mount so I can fly even faster. I have been slowly raising
my engineering as well (I have topped out my mining at 375) I need to get to 375 so I can get the Area 52 trinket (clicky
to area 52!).
I still have a lot to explore in the expansion. I have just started the Netherstorm quests (now they give GOLD,
lots of GOLD and rep with the Scryers) I barely touched Blades Edge Mountains and just entered Shadowmoon. When I am
not doing CoT or any other instance I should be in Netherstorm questing.
Kara is the first raid for TBC and you have to get the key to it before you can enter. As for the Kara key, it
is a PAIN IN THE ASS! The quest line starts off Deadwind pass where you have to collect two water samples and collect
a number of spiritual essences from a certain undead mob in the area. I started that part when I was 68 and the mobs
were 68-70. It was not fun, but I completed it. I then had to go to Dalarian (which is on the other side of the
Eastern Kindoms from Deadwind pass) just to talk to a guy. I then had to go to Shatt City to get the next quest.
That one required me to run and complete Shadow Labs (I had run that instance a number of times already I am pissed that I
didn't have that quest when I went there before!) So I am successful in completing SL, next I have to get key parts
two and three from Steamvaults and Arcatraz. I get a PUG for the Arca part (something that is hardly EVER done) and
then a guild group for the Steamvaults key part (did that on Thursday, my B-Day, I also won the Breastplate of the Righteous,
the pally TBC dungon set BP). That was a fun instance. To get the key finished I have to Complete the Black Morass
in Caverns of Time. To be able to get in Black Morass, you have to finish the Durnhold instance of CoT. I had
not been there so I was a bit behind in getting to CoT:BM. I got in another PUG to do Durnhold. In that run I
was second healer, off-tank, and buff-bot. I was healing on the boss mobs and I had nearly the same damage output as
the Beast-Spec hunter that was with us. After we finished Durnhold, the group wanted to try BM. the Warrior that
we had didn't an left. I was able to get Belloc to come on his war (Raize). We were able to convince the Hunter
to leave and we picked up another mage (group setup was Pally (me), Raize - War, two mage, and a 68 priest) during the
big fight I was set as the off tank. I had to gather the non-elite mobs that spawned from the portal and keep them from
attacking the shield. Then on boss mobs I had to transisition to healer. We were able to get to the final boss
then one of the mages and I were disconnected. It had gotten too late, we were pissed off and did not continue.
Hopefully tonight I can get another BM run going and finish that damn Kara key.
The CoT:Durnhold instance it really cool. It follows Warcraft lore and you have to rescue Thrall. (Thrall becomes
the Warlord of the Orcs later in his life, after he breaks his allegience with the humans) Still that whole run was
sweet. To be a Time Traveller and kick some butt was a lot of fun.
Now that I am off the levelling elevator, it is time to focus on getting access to raid zones and improving my gear.
I have a few nice pieces but I know I need to upgrade nearly everything. Being a Holy/Prot Pally means I need at least
two sets of gear as well - a healing set and tanking set. I did do a re-spec to tweak my talents. I dropped the
increased str for the improved Seal of Righteousness, and I dropped the reduced refresh to Blessing of Protection and added
more toughness (extra AC) and I now have Blessing of Sanctuary for raids.
I have been thinking of the Blessing lineup for raids now. It will depend on who has what spec but I can provide
three "talent blessing" Improved BoWisdom, Kings, and Sanct.
If I am the only Pally I'll probably do the following Blessings:
Kings for Warriors and Rogues (or if there is a Druid tank)
Wisdom for everyone else.
Depending on what I am responsible
for I will have Kings or Wisdom.
If there is another Prot pally:
Sanct the Warriors (Other will give Kings)
Wis the Casters, hunters, and Pallies
(Other will give Kings)
Salv the Rogues (Other will give Kings)
The optimal setup would be me, another Pally with Kings, and another Pally with improved Might.
I would:
Sanct
for the Warriors
Wis the casters, hunters and Pallies
Salv for Rogues
Pally two (kings) would cast Kings for all
Pally three (BOM) would:
Might for Warriors and Rogues
Salv for casters, hunters and pallies
That setup would give each class the following blessings:
Warriors - Sanct, Kings, Might+
Rogues - Salv, Kings,
Might+
Hunters - Wis+, Kings, Salv
Pallies - Wis+, Kings, Salv (Unless Pally is MT/OT then Might or Sanct)
Casters
- Wis+, Kings, Salv
Still this is in flux (like most things) but good to have around.
One update, many days to write
:::31 January - 6 February 2007:::
Hmm, I haven't posted an update since TBC hit. IT IS GOOD!
I am 64 with Gabbath now. I know I am going at a very slow pace (I am only getting a couple hours a night when I get
to play) but it takes A LOT of XP to level. Last night I was questing, doing many kill X number of X quests and I only
got 1/3 of a level and it was ALL rested XP! Getting 65 will be important because it will open up a few more instances.
Outside of a few guild runs (more on those in a sec) I have been soloing the levels, and it has been fun! There are
so many quests to do that you are constantly doing something different. In Hellfire Peninsula there was at least 20
quests to do. You do things like blowing up towers at an Orc fortress to even airborne bombing runs. There were
many of the kill x number and collect this and that, but all in all they are developing the story and introducing a lot of
content. I have finished the HP quests and I have moved to Terroak Forrest. I also started some of the marshlands
quests.
Well, things changed a little bit before I even completed the update. It is now 6 Feb 2007. My progress is
still VERY SLOW as I am just 65. I have done a lot of questing in Terroak and just trying to catch up. There are
dozens of 70's in Disavowed, with several more in the 67-69 range. I need to pick up the pace if I ever expect to raid
again. Hopefully, tonight I can spend a lot of time knocking out a lot of quests (in the marsh and in the forrest) and
hit 66 tonight or tomorrow. I have enough rested bonus to complete 66 (I am about 1/3 of the way in the level).
Then I will try to get 67 and well on my way to 68 over the weekend. I am off work the week of the 19th but I want to
be 70 well before then.
They really have helped the Paladin with this expansion. Now the Pally is a viable tank or main healer, or even
decent DPS. When I solo-quest, I will usually grab two to four mobs and have them beat on me at one time. I rarely
die. The only time when this is an issue is when I am fighting the Blood Elves and they siphon mana from me. One
time I had seven mobs that were at least my level beating on me at one time. With my Consecration and Retribution aura
I just let them wail away and they slowly dropped. It was quite exciting. In instances tanking is fun. With
improved aggro building talents and improved blocking I can hold aggro and mitigate enough damage to not be a complete mana
sponge. I have a "snap aggro" spell that I can gain aggro - even from a mob that broke mind control. I have been
main tank in the Citadel, slave pens and Underbog. Last night I was main healer in a mana tombs run (with Nate - Pally,
Khoas & Jakks - Warriors, and a new guild rogue) We had a few deaths because we didn't have great crowd control
and because there were a few mobs that triggered the Global Cooldown (that 15 seconds are the LONGEST 15 seconds in the world!
Your party is needed healing and you can't do anything!) I don't know why I was having this happen. I have 5/5
in Spiritual Focus and was running concentration aura so I should have 100% interrupt free healing. I didn't have it.
Anyhow, we finished Mana Tombs and had a decent night.
I need to list the couple times I hit Underbog and Slave Pens. Each time I was Main Tank. Preamo was healer.
Nate or Golv would be off-tank/DPS. Then we'd have a rogue and awesomeo (shadow priest) for DPS. Yep, THREE pallies
on one five man run, with a pally in two of the MAIN roles (tank and healer). The first time we ran each place it was
a learning experience for all of us. When we ran Underbog the 2nd time, we cleared the entire thing. It was a
lot of fun.
So far I am REALLY liking the Burning Crusade. I have still just barely touched all the content that is available.
I have completely uncovered only three of the new zones and just visited three of the instance areas (the Citadel in Hellfire
peninsula, Slave pens/Underbog in the marsh, and manatombs in Terroak forrest) There are many many more that I need
to visit. I have about half of the marsh uncovered (might have that complete tonight, then move on to some new areas).
The gear upgrades are nice and the talent/spell upgrades are really beneficial.
Hopefully it won't take a week to complete my next update.
