Treads of Fleeting Joy

I only get the chance to do one or two heroic dungeons a night on Wranngar lately but I have been doing as many as I can for the valor points. I was saving them up for Treads of Fleeting Joy which I finally got last night. I have also managed to amass 37 Chaos Orbs in the process which I need to convert to gold by selling them to people who want epic 359 leather and mail items made.

My new boots bring Wranngar's item level up to 354 equipped now. My dps has been up and down the last week or so. Some dungeons I do 15k+ dps and others I am only hitting 9 or 10k. It really all depends on the group and the buffs. If I have a decent group and good buffs my dps goes through the roof. If I have a tank that can't hold aggro (I have been told I am an aggro whore) I spend more time getting pounded on than I do fighting. If I have a tank that can hold good aggro, especially on groups, I am all set. I was using an AoE that I have on a group in one dungeon last night and I hit 34k dps for that fight.

I will keep plugging away one or two here and there to collect more valor points for valuable rewards. The only problem is there are only 2 more rewards to be had from valor points then the only way I will be able to upgrade to 359+ gear is raiding which I have not had much luck with in the past. When I have tried raiding I always seem to end up in groups of quitters and we never get anywhere.

Posted on A World of Warcraft Blog

Random Dungeons and Daily's

I haven't been playing a lot lately but I do try to get on every day to do my daily cooking, for the Chef's Award's, and at least one heroic. I haven't been in one of the new heroic's that opened with the last patch yet. I hear they take quite awhile to finish, are like a 5 man raid and just haven't felt like dealing with that now.

So I do my daily cooking for the awards and get in one or two heroics. I have seen a lot of people quitting and groups falling apart lately. I am not sure what the reason is behind that. Well one of them I can understand. I was in a Grim Batol heroic yesterday and we were wiping on 50% of the trash pulls. That doesn't bode well for the rest of the dungeon as it is the hardest original Cata heroic. That group fell apart and I was kind of relieved. I did a total of six heroics yesterday and GB did come up again but we finished it that time.

I have done all the heroics at least once in the last week and some of them many times. Aside from people quitting, rage or otherwise, I had good groups for the most part, one of the exceptions being the group I was with in GB.

I have been doing well on dps on Wranngar lately and hit 16.7k in one of the dungeons, a personal best so far. That was on a boss fight when I pop everything. I usually average 11-13k overall for a run depending on buffs and the group. I have almost all the cooking recipes on Wranngar now and will be able to start working on getting Gomorra all the recipes next. My Hunter Brieanna already has all the Cata recipes.

Some Random Daily Heroics

I was able to get on the last few days and run my random daily heroic on Wranngar, for the Valor Points, and tonight I was able to get Relic of Golganneth. That replaced the item level 346 relic I was using.

Over the last few days I have done The Throne of Tides, Stonecore, Grim Batol, and tonight, The Vortex Pinnacle. I have been getting into dungeons in progress a lot lately but that is ok, I just want a chance to win the Chaos Orb and get my Valor Points. There is no gear left for me in the old heroics.

I got into Throne of Tides after the first boss and we skipped the optional boss so that ended up being a pretty quick run for me. I didn't win the orb.

The Stonecore I got to run satrt to finish but I didn't win the orb in there either. That was a pretty good run with no wipes. Sometimes the first and third boss can be pretty tough in there but we didn't have any problem.

Grim Batol I got in at the last boss, literally. I zoned in and I was standing there looking at him. That suited me just fine. The third boss in there can be pretty tough sometimes. And apparently the last bosss too because someone left. We got the last boss down without a problem though and didn't let the adds hatch any eggs. The adds didn't even get to any eggs. I didn't win the orb in there either.

Tonight in The Vortex Pinnacle I died once at the last boss, I was lagging so bad I didn't see him making a grounding field until the storm hit and that killed me. I did win the orb from that run so it was worth it though.

I think I am going to start running the two new heroics tomorrow. They drop 353 gear and I would like to replace my remaining 346 gear with that.

Random Daily Heroics - 5/5-6/11

It's been awhile since I logged into WoW and even longer since I posted anything. I did the random daily heroic the last couple days on Wranngar.

Thursday I got Shadowfang Keep for my daily. That went well even though I didn't have DBM or Recount loaded. I was in there with a friend and they let me know what Recount was saying, I was having a little lag but not doing bad on the DPS. I averaged 13k for the run. We didn't have any problems on the run. There were a couple deaths but I wasn't one of them. I didn't get the orb, just my 70 Valor Points.

Friday I had Grim Batol. I got in after the second boss and we skipped the third boss so it was a pretty quick run. We did wipe once on the last boss though, the only one I fought. In heroic Grim Batol you have to plan how to take the adds before you engage the last boss. I guess the tank was in a hurry though and charged right in. When the adds came out I picked the right side each time. None of the adds on my side hatched an egg. Unfortunately the same could not be said about the mobs on the other side. Each of the ones that went to the other side hatched an egg, so we were getting dps'd by the dragonwhelps and they were healing the boss. We wiped.

After that they decided to assign sides. I got the left side, opposite of the side I was doing on the first attempt. We tried it again, again none of the adds on my side hatched an egg but one got hatched on the other side. We made it through that time though and got him down. I got my 70 Valor Points and the Chaos Orb so it was a good run for me.

Now when I look in the dungeon finder it says I can do five more dungeons this week. It also shows 70 Valor Points as the reward. I think they made it so you can do all seven of your dungeons in one day, and get 70 Valor Points from each, but the cap is seven per week. After your seven for the week are up I would assume you get gold like you would have after your first one each day. I am not sure, I will try it out the next time I am on.

Posted on A World of Warcraft Blog - 5/7/11

Random Daily Heroic: Stonecore - 4/23/11

Today Wranngar's random daily heroic was Stonecore. If you can make it past the first boss in this one you have it made.

We had a good group today and making it past the first boss, Corborus, was not a problem although the healer did die. The thing you have to watch out for on this boss is when he is underground. He travels around and comes to the surface in random spots that you will see as a dust cloud on the ground. Standing in that cloud, or even too close to it, is instant death. That is how the healer died. Fortunately the healer died during the bosses second time underground so we were able to finish him off when he surfaced without any problem.

From there we cleared some more trash and got to the next boss, the dragon Slabhide. This boss is pretty easy as long as you keep your eyes open and your wits about you. Make sure to get behind a column when he does his crystal barrage, don't stand in any lava or dark spots and you have it made. We took this boss down easily.

A little more trash and we were at the third boss, Ozruk. The secret is to tank this boss facing the wall in the tunnel he is in. Just take him back and forth, side to side so when he does his ground slam it goes into the wall. After that make sure you put a DoT on him when he has the blue glow around him and get away when he does shatter if you are melee. We wiped once on this one but that was not too bad considering it was the tanks first time tanking him.

Some more light trash got us to the last boss in this dungeon, High Priestess Azil. There are a few things you have to do here, stay out of the gravity wells, interrupt her force grip and don't stand in, or near, any dust on the ground. We got her down with ease.

That completed my random daily heroic and I collected my 70 Valor Points. I didn't win the Chaos Orb but I did go on to run 5 more random heroics in which I won 2 orbs total.

Posted on A World of Warcraft Blog 4/24/11

Random Daily Heroic: Deadmines - 4/22/11

Today my random daily heroic was Deadmines on Wranngar. This dungeon can be kind of tricky if you have a bad group or a group with too many people that aren't familiar with it.  

We had a decent group though so we didn't have many problems. We got through the trash ok then had one person die on the first boss. You have to watch out for the wall of fire, it really hurts. This fight can be tough on melee fighters because you have to be so close to him when the wall of fire is centered on him. We got him down anyway without any problem.

We cleared some more trash and made our way to the next boss in the workshop. We had no problems in there, we cleared the two trash mobs, killed the boss' lackey, then killed the boss.

We cleared the trash from there to the foundry. The foundry is where things can, and usually do, go bad. We "converted" the mobs down below then engaged the boss. As usual we fought him on the ramp. As a melee this can be a tough fight because of the AoE's he does. I made sure to run away every time I saw him casting one of them. The tank died at one point but I battle rezz'd him with 100% health and got him back into the fight. We got that boss down without any more deaths.

We cleared some more trash and made our way onto the boat. Ripsnarl is the first boss you have to fight on the boat and possibly the hardest too. We didn't have any problem with him this time though and got him down. Some people like to tank him inside the cabin there but I don't think that is a good idea. If you tank him inside you have to get out very fast when he dies or Cookie will spawn on top of you and you have to go from one boss fight into another. That is kind of stressful on the healer as the Cookie fight can be heals heavy. I have seen it happen more than once.

We got Cookie out of the way after that and then it was time for Vanessa. We did the nightmares part and lost 3 people in the beams. That can be tricky but it has been a long time since I have died on that part. We got the dead rezz'd and headed in to save the family. It was rezzing the dead that did us in, we wiped on the last mob before Vanessa when the time ran out. When we got back we took down Vanessa without any problem and completed the dungeon.

I got my 70 Valor Points and also won the Chaos Orb which was pretty nice. I did a couple more randoms after that and won one more orb.

Originally posted on A World of Warcraft Blog on 4/23/11

Random Daily Heroic - Shadowfang Keep 4/19/11

I got Shadowfang Keep as my random daily heroic again today on Wranngar.

I got lucky and got another great group again today. We burned right through the place taking out all bosses on the way. There were two deaths this time, both the same person, an undergeared Shadow Priest. That was not the Healers fault though, the Priest had low health and a noticeable lack of experience. SFK is one of the dungeons that on normal is really low level and then level 85 on heroic so that happens from time to time. I know it has changed dramatically since I did it on normal when my toons were low level. They changed some of the low level dungeons around for cataclysm and then made a strictly heroic version for 85's.

The first death was at the first boss, Baron Ashbury, which is understandable. The first boss does a move called asphyxiate that brings you down to literally around 1 HP so it is easy to lose someone there or even wipe. He has a few other moves but most of them are interruptable.

The Tank on this run didn't pull the large mobs from outside to the inside so we could fight them, we fought them outside in the courtyard which is unusual. The problem you can have doing that is someone getting feared into other mobs but we got through it without that happening.

We made our way into the kitchen/dining area, took out the trash, and killed the second boss, Baron Silverlaine. That has always seemed like an easy fight to me on heroic.

The next boss in the lineup is Commander Springvale. He can be pretty tough as he has a few moves that deal up some good damage. He main attacks are Word of Shame, Malefic Strike, Desecration and Shield of the Perfidious. A lot of groups will skip this boss or wipe on him a couple times and skip him but the last couple groups I have been in have taken him down without a problem. This was the second and last death for the Shadow Priest.

Next was Lord Walden. He has a couple of toxic attacks that can deal out a lot of damage. There are a couple simple rules to remember for his toxic attacks. Green keep moving, Red don't move. Pretty simple. We had no problem with this boss. This is where I topped 15k dps yesterday, today I did 14.8k, not bad but not 15k either lol.

The last boss in this dungeon is Lord Godfrey. This is a boss that a group is either going to be able to work together on and get down fast or wipe on a few times and get him down eventually if the group doesn't fall apart. It takes some coordination and quick wits to get through this boss.

Lord Godfrey has a few attacks starting with Pistol Barrage. That is when he will fire a pistol barrage which fires out in a cone from the boss inflicting 27000 shadow damage a second to anyone inside the cone and lasts for six seconds.

His next attack is Summon Bloodthirsty Ghouls which will summon six ghouls over three seconds.

Probably his most lethal attack is Cursed Bullets which is a curse he will put on a target. This can be interrupted but has a one second cast time. This curse lasts 15 seconds with the damage increasing over time. The last five ticks of this curse will hit you for 10k, 20k, 30k, 40k and 50k damage, that's 150k damage over five seconds. This curse needs to be dispelled as soon as possible. Today we had a Paladin Healer who can not remove curses so I had to decurse on that one. If you are going to remove this curse you will have to have a Druid or Shaman in the group. Mages might be able to remove curses too, I'm not sure.

His last attack is Mortal Wound that he will put on the tank. This attack causes 1500 damage per second and reduces healing received by 10% for eight seconds, this is stackable.

We got him down pretty quick and easy getting me my 70 Valor Points and the Chaos Orb. It was a pretty easy win for the orb today, I was the only one who could roll on it. I found out after I left the dungeon and went to sell my loot that I had won just about every roll in there including the two items the last boss dropped plus the Chaos Orb. A lucky day for me.

Originally posted on A World of Warcraft Blog - 4/19/11

Random daily Heroic - Shadowfang Keep 4/18/11

I had a little trouble getting my random daily heroic done on Wranngar today, they kept restarting the server half way through. I started a Deadmines run only to have it reset half way through Ripsnarl. I started a Stonecore only to have it reset before the first boss. Finally I got into a Shadowfang keep that I was able to finish.

My dps started off slow in SFK, it usually does when I first enter an instance. Once I got rolling it was ok though. By the time we got to the first boss I was in my groove. We got the first boss down without any trouble. This boss can be kind of scary. I can't imagine what people must think when they are in there for the very first time on heroic, especially the healer. The boss does this thing called strangulation which incapacitates everyone and brings their health down to about 1 HP. I remember the first time I did it, I figured we were going to wipe.

We did all the bosses on this run and I got an achievement out of it. On the next to the last boss, Lord Walden, my dps passed 15k which is a personal best for me on Wranngar. I was a little surprised it happened on that boss as you have to run around when he does certain attacks and that usually reduces your dps.

As I was the only one able to decurse, I had to decurse on the last boss. The last boss has a curse he puts on you called Cursed Bullets. This curse will do a lot of damage if not removed. The last five ticks of this curse will hit for 10k, 20k, 30k, 40k and 50k, hitting you for 150k damage in five ticks. I know I don't have 150k HP to spare or 150k HP for that matter. We got the last boss down without a problem to complete my daily random.

I won the Chaos Orb along with collecting my 70 Valor Points. That enabled me to get my new 359 cloak, Viewless Wings. That cost me 1250 Valor Points. The next item I will be getting is a relic for 700 Valor Points. That will take me 10 days of randoms to get.

Random Daily Heroic - Vortex Pinnacle 4/17/11

Today my daily random heroic dungeon for Wranngar was Vortex Pinnacle. I did it with 2 other guild members, both dps, so we had to pug the healer and tank.

We ended up getting a good Warrior tank and Druid Healer so things went well. My dps was in top form for this one and I was leading for most of the dungeon. On the second boss, Altairus I hit 20k dps with the buff you get from standing upwind. That topped the next highest by almost 10k.


We didn't have any problems with this run, it was textbook and smooth and I got my 70 valor points but lost the Chaos Orb to a guild member. I also lost the next Chaos Orb to the same guild member but got the one after that.

I ended up running a total of four heroic dungeons last night, getting one Chaos Orb and losing on three of them. That is not too bad, I have 12 Chaos Orbs now and that is enough to make a few pieces of gear. I will be getting my new cloak, Viewless Wings, tomorrow after I complete my daily heroic.

Random Daily Heroic - Shadowfang Keep 4/15/11

Today my daily random heroic on Wranngar was Shadowfang Keep.

I ran it today with two other guild members so all we had to pug was the healer and one dps. After a couple close calls on the trash before the first boss the healer told us that this was his first time healing a Cata heroic. With that in mind we headed over to the first boss. Healing SFK can be pretty demanding, especially on the first boss. We made it by the first boss without any deaths though and the healer did pretty well. We cleared the trash in the courtyard and made our way to the next boss without any problems. When you are clearing the trash in the courtyard you will want to pull the large mobs back up inside and fight them there as they fear and you don't want them fearing anyone out into the courtyard where they might aggro other mobs. We got the next boss down, skipped the third boss, and finished up without any major problems.

I won the Chaos Orb from that run and got my 70 Valor Points, only 3 more days until I can get my new cloak with my Valor points.

I went on to run 5 more heroics after that, some with guildies and some that I pugged through the random dungeon finder. I ran one Deadmines, two Blackrock Caverns, one Halls of Origination and one Stonecore. I was lagging in my next to last dungeon which was Blackrock Caverns, and I was lagging so bad in my last one, Stonecore, that I could not get away from the third boss fast enough to get away from his shatter move. In Stonecore we had 4 guild members and one pug. The tank from our guild was really new to tanking and it took him a few tries to get the third boss down, but that is a learning experience, that boss is pretty tough. On the plus side he had the routine down by the time we finally got the boss down. The way I dealt with my lag was I just ran away from him after one of his moves when I knew the shatter was coming in a few seconds.


I had a lot of fun running these with guildies and with the pugs too. I used to think the heroics were really hard but now that I have run them all quite a few times they are pretty easy. Grim Batol can be rough if you don't have a really good group but that is the hardest heroic in my opinion.

Random Daily Heroic - 4/14/11

Today my daily random heroic dungeons were Halls of Origination on Wranngar and Blackrock Caverns on Brieanna.

I did Halls of Origination on Wranngar first. The tank on this run had an item level of 330, 11 unenchanted items, 5 missing glyphs, 2 unsocketed items and was missing the Ebonsteel Belt Buckle. This goes back to my always saying that 329 item level is too low for a Tank or Healer in heroics and when you get someone like this, well, they shouldn't be tanking anything.

Needless to say the run was a little rough. I wouldn't expect a healer to be able to keep that tank up at all but the healer we had, one of my guild mates, did a pretty good job. We didn't wipe at all but came close a few times. The tank died a few times, which is to be expected with the way they were geared, but we got through it somehow. I was pretty happy when they went right to the last boss when we got up top instead of trying to do all four, I had enough of a repair bill as it was. I didn't get the Chaos Orb from this run, a Warlock that came in right before the last boss got it...

After that I jumped on my Hunter Bireanna and did Blackrock Caverns. It had been awhile since I was on her and it was like learning to play her all over again. I really need to rotate through my characters more, I don't even want to think what it will be like when I finally get back on my Shaman Breeonna again.

We had a pretty smooth run through Blackrock Caverns, no wipes and the Healer was able to pick up a few items they needed. I was hoping the bow would drop off the last boss but it didn't. The only time I ever see the bow drop is if I am not on my hunter. As Brieanna doesn't have any professions that use a Chaos Orb she wasn't even in the roll for it.

I did get my 70 Valor Points on both toons though and will be able to get my Cloak on Wranngar in 4 more days.

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.

Random Daily Heroic - Deadmines 4/12/11

Today Wranngar's random daily heroic was Deadmines.

As soon as I zoned in the screen came up to queue for a random dungeon. I guess someone didn't want to do Deadmines which is the second hardest heroic in my opinion. Needless to say we couldn't queue for another random because we were all on the 15 minute cooldown. They decided to go ahead and see how far they could get and then requeue when the cooldown was up.

We had no problem and ended up finishing Deadmines. It went pretty smooth. We had no wipes and took all the bosses down first shot. I averaged over 10.5k dps for the entire run and only got beat by the Mage in the group who averaged 12k. We had one person leave before we finished but that was ok as he was only pulling 8k dps. He was replaced by someone who was only pulling 7k though but we still made it without any major problems.

We got past Ripsnarl with ease which was the boss I ended up bailing on last time I was in there after five wipes. We took down cookie with ease and Vanessa with no problem to complete my daily random.

I won the Chaos Orb from that run which was fine by me and also collected my 70 valor points for my random daily heroic. I now have 9 Chaos Orbs in stock for when I need them. I am waiting for a friend to get back online so I can make them some 359 gear.

Random Daily Heroic - Halls of Origination 4/11/11

Today the random daily heroic I completed on Wranngar was Halls of Origination. As you might have noticed I said completed. The first one I was in for my random daily was Deadmines. Deadmines is a tricky one and I would say the second hardest heroic after Grim Batol.

I got in to Deadmines right after the group I joined finished downing the third boss, Foe Reaper 5000. I figured it would be a pretty easy 70 valor points, boy was I wrong. I noticed in the very first fight that the tank, a Deathknight, was looking kind of squishy. The Healer had 103k mana using a flask so I figured we would be ok anyway. Wrong again. We made it through the trash between Foe Reaper and the boat without too much difficulty, but when we got to Ripsnarl, the next boss, things went downhill fast. The Healer was running out of mana about a quarter of the way through the fight, which tells me he had very low Spirit/Regen, I ended up innervating him a few times but it was not enough. To make a long story short we wiped on Ripsnarl 5 times before I finally bailed. I was doing 12k dps which was double what the next highest person was doing, we just didn't have the dps to get him down. Funny thing is we came the closest to getting him down on the first attempt.

After I bailed out of Deadmines I requeued and got Halls of Origination. Once again I didn't get in at the start, I got in right after the first boss. I figured that was from someone either getting what they were after off the first boss and leaving or not getting what they were after off the first boss and leaving. This group turned out to be pretty decent and we only took down the bosses we needed to so it was pretty quick too. I didn't get any gear, any upgrades I get from here on out will be coming from raid mobs/bosses, but I did get the Chaos Orb at the end so I was happy. I also got my 70 valor points for the day.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I strongly believe that a 329 item level is too low for a Tank or Healer to be entering heroics. It is too low for a lot of the dps too in my opinion. The bosses in heroics, as well as the trash mobs, have a lot of health and hit hard. Low dps makes the Healer run out of mana because the fights take too long. An under geared Healer is going to run out of mana anyway because they didn't have enough to begin with and an under geared Tank is not going to be able to stand up to the beating required to tank a heroic. If you get a 5 man group of people in a heroic who all have a 329 item level it's just not going to happen.

Buying gear with justice points combined with 333 item level drops from normal dungeons and rep gear can get you an item level of at least 340, why not wait?

Random Daily Heroic - Shadowfang Keep 4/10/11

My daily random heroic on my Druid Wranngar was Shadowfang Keep today.

I got in with a really good group and we tore through there, possibly one of the fastest, smoothest runs I have had in there. I got a new pair of bracers with different stats than the ones I have been wearing so I am going to try them out for a few days and see if they improve my dps any.

I got my 70 valor points and the Chaos Orb as well as the bracers, it was a great run for me :).

Halls of Origination - Random daily Heroic 4/9/11

Today Wranngar's random daily heroic was Halls of Origination. I did it with 2 other guild members and it went pretty well even though the tank pulled the group after the first boss then bailed. He got what he was after from the first boss and pulled the next group before bailing just to be a jerk. I switched to bear form and tanked the group with no problem.

We didn't do all the bosses, just the ones we had to plus one extra one at the end because the healer was hoping for the mace to drop but it didn't. On the Rahj fight both the guild members I was with died when he did Inferno Leap. I battle rezzed the Mage and we got Rahj down without a wipe. Druids are the only class that can rez while in combat, all the other classes that can rez have to wait until out of combat, that is why it is called a battle rez. Because I am glyphed for it, I rez the person back to 100% health.

All in all it was a pretty quick and easy run and I collected my 70 valor points but didn't get the Chaos Orb.

Daily Random Heroic Dungeon - 4/5/11

Today my daily random heroic dungeon, on my Druid Wranngar, was The Vortex Pinnacle. I ended up running this one twice on heroic through the random dungeon finder.

It was a very smooth run. I did it with a guild member who was on their Mage. My dps was great, it is getting better every day. Completing this earned me 70 valor points which I will be using to buy a piece of 359 gear when I have enough.

We had a really good group and everyone was pulling over 10k dps. Needless to say it went pretty quick, unlike my second run through there, but I will talk about that in a little bit. Everyone in the group was experienced running this instance on heroic so the group pulls, which can be a little tricky, went nice and smooth and the bosses went down fast.

After that I ended up getting Halls of Origination through the random dungeon finder. I did this on Wranngar again with the same guild member who was on a different toon. That went pretty quick too and I ended up getting exalted with Ramkahen while I was in there. One of the reasons this one went quick was the tank only wanted to do the bosses we had to do to complete it. He was only after his 70 valor points. One of the people, a Hunter, was in there for a specific drop off one of the last 4 bosses but the tank wanted to skip that boss. I reminded him that skipping bosses was not his decision alone to make, he was part of a 5 man group and it would be a shame for him to get kicked so close to the end and not get his 70 valor points. He saw the logic behind that and we did the boss the Hunter wanted to do. The Hunter got the item he was after so that worked out well. We went on to do the last boss and completed the instance.

Next I ended up back in The Vortex Pinnacle on Wranngar again. I was with the same guild member who was on yet another toon plus another guild member. The original guild member was healing this one. This run didn't go as smooth as the first run, not by a long shot. The tank was severely under geared, he had 128,000 health buffed. When I looked him up in the Armory I found he had an item level of 329 and was missing 6 glyphs, 8 enchants, one gem and his belt buckle. Basically he should not have been attempting to tank a heroic dungeon. I am a strong believer that 329 item level is too low for a tank or healer in a heroic dungeon. I didn't go into a heroic dungeon on Wranngar until I had a 340 item level because I didn't think my dps would be good enough. If there wasn't 3 of us from the same guild he probably would have been kicked.

Anyway the tank was pretty squishy and he died quite a few times. He died on almost every group pull and the last boss. How he made it through the other bosses is a mystery to me. I ended up switching to bear form and taking over the tanking when he died and that went quite well. I asked the healer if I was squishy and he said I wasn't half as squishy as the tank was lol. The tank died on the last boss because he didn't get into the grounding field.

I didn't get any more orbs today so maybe I will have better luck tomorrow. The orbs are the reason I ran all of these on Wranngar instead of switching over to one of my other toons, he is the only one of them who can use them. Well, that and the fact that I am really enjoying playing him lately.

Random Daily Heroic - Shadowfang Keep 3/22/11

Today my random daily heroic on my Hunter Brieanna was Shadowfang Keep. I did it with 3 other guild members, we had to PuG out the healer but they were good.

All in all it was a pretty smooth run and went pretty fast. We made it to the last boss without a wipe but our streak of good luck ended there. It was the bullet barrage that got us even though most of us were standing up top on the landing when you come in. Being a ranged dps I took very little damage though out the run and I guess the healer kind of forgot about me because at the last boss I didn't seem to be getting any heals. I ended up dying a second time there, along with a Shaman from guild, but we got the boss down anyway.

All in all it was a pretty good run and got me another 70 Valor Points towards my next 359 ring or trinket.

Daily Random Heroics - 3/19/11

Today my daily random heroics were Halls of Origination on my Priest Brieonna and Blackrock Caverns on my Hunter Brieanna.

I did Halls of Origination with a full guild group. There was one person in the group, a Paladin, that was a mana sponge from start to finish. I told one of the guild leaders, who was in the group, that it would be the last run I healed with that person in it. After asking them nicely to please target the tanks target and explaining to them how to do that, they went into every fight picking their own target and trying to tank it. Not being a tank they were taking massive damage so I had to split my time between healing them and the tank and throwing a heal or two to the other members of the party when I could. Basically they were taking more damage than the tank in every fight. Melee fighters take more damage than ranged fighters, that's a given, but when they are tanking and not geared for it that damage is multiplied. Sad to say I have healed pugs that were easier.

My Hunters daily was Blackrock Caverns and that wasn't a smooth run either but at least I wasn't healing so it was a lot less stressful. It was a PuG (Pick up Group). The main problem we were having was with the second boss Corla. There are 3 beams that need to be broken. That is done by standing in them to block them from the mob they are going to. The mob just sits there so all you have to do is block it. While you are blocking it you are building up stacks on yourself. At 80 stacks you need to step out of the beam and let the stacks wear off you, then you step back into the beam for another 80. Depending on how fast the group gets the boss down you will have to repeat that 6-10 times. If you are out of the beam too long the mob will transform into a Herald of Twilight and attack the group, if you stay in it too long you will become mind controlled and attack the group. They just didn't get it. We wiped 5 or 6 times on that boss before enough people left and were replaced so we could kill her. It was sad. After that the only problem we had was the healer not having any water so they were going into every fight with little mana.... Not sure why you would queue for a dungeon without water when you are queuing as the healer. Personally I carry 80 water on my healer and I replace what I use after every dungeon. That is the quality of people you get in a PuG but I can't say it was worse than our guild run.

I will get my new trinket on my Hunter tomorrow from Baradin's Wardens which should bring my item level up and increase my dps. The day after tomorrow I will get my new cloak with valor points and that will also increase my dps. I guess I will be saving up for the other trinket after that.

More Dungeons

I have been doing a lot of Dungeons on Breeonna, as a matter of fact that is about all I have been doing. I have been exploring what is left of Azeroth between dungeons.

I did find something amusing in Lakeshire last night. Apparently they have bare knuckle fights in the basement of the Inn there. Last night was a dwarf against a human. There were a lot of people there just watching the fight and cheering on their favorite.

I had one Halls of Reflection last night that I didn't finish. That was the first one in a long time that I didn't finish. It was a Heroic and we died 4 times before everyone bailed. The problem seemed to be the healer not being able to keep up. But then again the whole group had some problems. We wiped for the first time on the second boss, Marwyn, in the first part. When we came back from that the tank ran to the other side as soon as the spirits came out. I thought that was a little weird but I thought maybe he had a plan. He didn't. He thought we would only have to fight the last boss and not the waves of mobs. That cost us another wipe.
Finally we got everyone on the same page but still couldn't bring down the boss in 2 more tries, that is when everyone bailed.

I had a few more dungeons that were pretty interesting. I do a lot of random dungeons because the normal randoms queue in half the time a heroic does. That way I have less wait and more play. In normal randoms you get a lot of people that are under geared and inexperienced. I learned my lesson on healing, it is usually easier to heal a heroic that it is a normal because the people in the heroic are usually more experienced. Another problem with the normals is I end up queuing into Oculus, Culling of Stratholme and Trial of the Champion a lot because a lot of the players are under 80 and those are the only ones they can get into.