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 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 4/18/11

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 - 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 - 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.

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.

Random Daily Heroic's 4/6/11 - 4/7/11

My random daily heroic's for the last couple days, on my Druid Wranngar, were Lost City of the Tol'vir and Grim Batol.

There was a time when I used to think that Grim Batol was all but impossible, but now that groups are better geared it is not too bad with the exception of the third boss, Dragha Shadowburner. Dragha Shadowburner is still pretty tough on heroic difficulty. The main reason for this is the dragon breath attack he does while he is mounted on the dragon. He usually does this attack while he also has a fire elemental summoned and it is hard to get out of the dragon's breath and kill the elemental at the same time. If the elemental gets to someone it kills them in one shot when it explodes. It will also kill anyone standing near them. I have been killed quite a few times from going after the fire elemental to kill it only to have the person it is attached to stand there and let it run right up to them. We also had a Mage in our group today that ran up to the fire elemental when it was attached to him instead of running away. Not sure what that was about as a Mage is a ranged fighter. I think the hardest part of this boss strat is to get people to run from the fire elemental when it is attached to them. You would think it is just plain common sense to run from it but it seems very few people have common sense any more. If a group is going to fall apart in this dungeon, this boss is usually where it is going to happen.

Lost City of the Tol'vir is one of the easiest heroic's in my opinion. We usually breeze through that one without any major problems as long as the healer is somewhat decently geared. The last two bosses in Lost City can be a mana drain on a healer so it is best if they have good mana and good regen. I don't mind seeing this one come up for my daily at all, I look at it as an easy 70 valor points.

I am a little bit closer to getting a piece of valor gear and will keep plugging away every day for my valor points.

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.

Viewless Wings

After I completed my random daily heroic yesterday I was able to buy my new cloak, Viewless Wings, for my Hunter Brieanna. It cost me 1250 Valor Points but is worth it. It kicked up my stats a little and is my sixth piece of 359 gear on her. I am thinking about getting either the ring or a trinket next.

We are planning on trying another raid this weekend, hopefully everyone will be ready and not saved. Last weekends planned raid on Baradin Hold didn't go so well as one person had to leave, one person couldn't make it at the last minute, one person was saved and the list goes on and on. It is pretty disappointing when you wait all week for it then all these little avoidable problems occur and you find out you wasted a half an hour and a flask for nothing. I believe Baradin Hold is the shortest raid with only one boss.

Another thing that is a problem is people wearing PvP gear and not having all their equipment up to speed. I inspected a few people and they were missing chants, gems and had PvP gear on. PvP (Player versus Player) gear is for what the name says, PvP. PvE gear (Player versus Environment) gear is for dungeons and raiding. If there was no difference there wouldn't be two different types of gear would there? People have been told repeatedly that PvP gear is not allowed and they still wear it to raids. I guess what this rant boils down to is we do not have a core 10 man team.

Personally I think we should just do some BoT trash farming this weekend to get everyone working together on the same page, get everyone used to working together as a team. I will bring it up again and see what happens. I will be watching the videos of Blackwing Descent, as that is the one we are thinking about trying this coming weekend, and post the links to guild chant so everyone will have the opportunity to know the fights. I would like to at least get the first boss down in one of these raids, any boss, any raid.

Survival Hunter

I have been playing my Survival Hunter Brieanna more lately. The reason I wasn't playing her as much was the queue time. It takes a lot longer to queue as DPS than it does to queue as a healer on my Priest Brieonna. DPS takes me anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes where Heals takes me up to 2 minutes to queue on the average.

When I first started playing my Hunter again my DPS was a little low because I was out of practice. I was hitting around 8-9k average on her when I first started and now am averaging around 11k and had a personal best of 15.9k dps on one of the boss fights. The more I play her the better it gets. I have been doing my random daily heroic on her every day lately too to get Valor points. I am over 900 now and will be getting my first piece of Valor gear soon. I am not sure if I will be getting the cloak or a trinket first, I will jump off that bridge when I get there.

I am going to try and split my time between my Hunter and Priest now so I can stay in practice on both and DPS or Heal as needed. It is a lot of fun playing a hunter, I just wish the queues were shorter. To fill in the time while I am waiting for the queue I do my Tol Barad daily's, going for the trink there, or just kill stuff and skin it for leather.

I traded my gun for a bow and am using that now. The only problem I had with the gun was all the noise it made. I know I can turn the volume off when playing to eliminate that problem but there are audible warnings in the game I didn't want to miss so this was a simple solution. It is so much nicer and quieter now :).