Random Daily Heroic - Shadowfang Keep 4/13/11

Today Wranngar's random daily heroic was Shadowfang Keep. I did it with three other guild members so all we had to pug was the healer.

The first healer left before we even got to the first boss, he said we were going too slow... That was ok though, he was a Pally healer and the best healer for SFK is a Druid because they can dispell the curse the last boss puts on you, curse of bullets. That is a nasty curse, the last five ticks hit for 10k, 20k, 30k, 40k and 50k, hitting you for 150k damage in five ticks. I would have dispelled it if the Pally had stayed. We ended up getting a very well geared Druid healer though so I didn't have to.

We had a pretty smooth run, we wiped once when I got feared around the corner and into the other gargoyles when you are outside up on the walkways. I got feared four or five times fighting the gargoyles, it was getting old.

We got all the bosses down though and really had no problems. I didn't win the Chaos Orb but I did get some tips from the healer about dpsing in Kitty. Their main spec was Kitty. I changed my spec around some and changed my rotation but at first it didn't seem like it was better, actually it seemed a little worse but with time my dps started climbing. Hopefully in the long run the new spec and rotation will be better for my dps once I get used to it.

Vortex Pinnacle - Random Daily Heroic 4/8/11

Today my daily random heroic on my Druid Wranngar was Vortex Pinnacle. I was lagging pretty bad throughout the entire dungeon and it affected my dps. We still managed to have a good run even with the lag issues which were not affecting just me.

I had to switch over to tanking once when the tank got blown over the edge fighting trash mobs. Some of the trash mobs have a blow back that they do when they die and it is a good idea to have your back to a wall at all times. Not following my own rule I got blown into another group of mobs when they did it.

The only real scary part was on the last boss when I was lagging so bad I couldn't avoid the static cling and barely made it into the grounding field each time because I didn't even see him making it until it was almost complete. We got through it tho and I collected my 70 valor points but didn't get the Chaos Orb. I have 6 orbs now but it has been a couple days since I won one so I am due.

Expertise - Do You Need It?

As I am gearing my Feral Druid Wranngar I have found that expertise is playing a big role. Wranngar is a Feral Druid that fights in Cat (Kitty) Form. As with any melee character, that is actually striking it's opponent, you can't deal damage if your opponent is dodging and parrying your attacks.

When I first started gearing I wasn't worried about expertise, but as I went along I noticed how many of my attacks were being dodged and parried by whatever I was attacking. Having played ranged or caster characters for so long this was something new to me. Looking into this problem I found that the higher your expertise rating the less chance you have of something dodging and/or parrying your attacks, so I started working on my expertise. As my expertise rose so did my dps. Now I have a 0% chance of my attacks being dodged and a 4% chance of my attacks being parried by a level 87/skull mob. The only place I will be coming across a level 87/skull character is in a raid but as I plan on raiding I will have to work on that some more.

So in conclusion, if you have a melee character your expertise is going to help you do more damage by making your attacks harder, if not impossible, to dodge or parry.