Ding - 6/10/10

Breeonna achieved level 80 today after handing in some daily quests for the Knights of the Ebon Blade. The total time /played to reach 80 was 8 days 14 hours 38 minutes and 44 seconds. My goal was to get a character to 80 in less than 10 days /played. This came shortly after I got my Priest, Brieonna, to level 80 which took me 12 days /played. It seems like all I have been doing for the last couple months is leveling characters, I am looking forward to the chance to just relax and play now.

I will be doing a lot of random heroics on Breeonna to get Emblem of Triumph and Emblem of Frost for gear as well as any gear I get in drops during the process. I have been getting great DPS out of this toon all along and I can't wait to see what I can do with it once I am geared.

The first thing I did after I hit 80 was train, then a random heroic dungeon, which was Halls of Lightning, then I went to get my Worg Pup. I didn't want to take the time out to get it while I was leveling so I got it right after I hit 80. Now I have to work on my mining, cooking and fishing skills too.

More Random Dungeons 6/9/10

I did some more Random dungeons on Breeonna today as well as questing in between and am now over half way through level 79. I will be 80 tomorrow. Then starts the process of gearing.

I ran across someone in a random dungeon today that reads this blog. They are the first person I have come across in game that has recognized one of my toons and asked me if I have a blog. I have had people make toons on my server just to say hi and tell me they read my blog, but this is the first person I have just run into. Rahstahfarhi from Kilrogg was their name and they were the healer for our group.

I did quite a few more random dungeons and some quests in Icecrown and am currently doing the quests for the Knights of the Ebon Blade which will get me to 80. I have even started doing the daily quests for them.

ICC 10 Man

I was invited to heal an ICC 10 man raid on Brieonna last night. I had never done it before, didn't even know how to get there, but I decided to give it a shot. I was to be the main tank and off tank healer. I was one of 3 healers for the group.

Needless to say I was pretty nervous but it worked out ok. I was in there with someone else from my guild who had done the first 4 bosses. They gave me pointers about each fight. I was also on vent although I couldn't speak, I don't currently have a mic set up, but I could hear what the person who set up the raid was saying. I died a couple times, all the healers died at least once at one time or another, but we didn't wipe.

We did the first 4 bosses and it went pretty smooth, even the people who had done it before said it went smooth. I had a lot of fun and it wasn't anywhere near as stressful as I thought it would be. I didn't get any drops from it, there was a nice staff that dropped that I would have loved but I lost the roll on. I did get a bunch of Emblem of Frost which made it worthwhile right there as far as I'm concerned.

I now have the achievements for the first 4 bosses in ICC 10 Man, my only raid achievements so far, and that will help get me in to more raids in there in the future.

Random Dungeons - 6/5/10

I did my random heroic dungeon on Brieonna and Brieanna as well as the random daily dungeon on Breeonna.

Brieonna's random daily heroic was Halls of Reflection. I got in right after they had taken down the first boss. I'm not sure why the healer left, seemed to be a pretty good group, but I healed the second set of waves and the second boss. If we make it through that I consider the rest a breeze, and it was.

Brieanna's random daily heroic turned out to be Trial of the Champion, a pretty easy one. I was getting some pretty bad lag spikes in there but we didn't have any problem getting it done. I am not sure if others were experiencing the lag spikes, no one said anything. We were having severe thunderstorms here and I think that had something to do with it.

Breeonna's random daily dungeon was Gundrak. This one can be a little tricky if you don't have the right Tank. Last night, for example, we didn't have the right Tank. We managed to make it almost to the last boss, to the guys riding the Rhino's right before you confront the last boss. These guys silence so it is a good idea to take them one at a time. Last night our Tank decided to round up all 3 and take them all at once. That was a bad idea because now there were 3 of them casting silence at the same time. I couldn't cast, I was silenced the entire time, the healer couldn't cast (heal), they were silenced the entire time, and the Shadow Priest couldn't cast, they were silenced the entire time. That left the Tank and a Rogue to take down 3 Rhino's and their handlers. Needless to say we wiped on that.

Our Tank today didn't make that mistake and we took them down one at a time. Then we took down the boss and completed my random daily dungeon.

I did a couple more dungeons and some questing in Sholazar Basin and reached level 77, only 3 more levels to go. Maybe I will be able to hit 80 this weekend, it is possible.

Random Dungeons - 6/3/10

I did some more random dungeons on Breeonna tonight as well as Brieonna's random heroic dungeon which was Azjol-Nerub.

Brieonna breezed through healing her dungeon and we didn't lose anyone until the end. One person died when the last boss did POUND while they were standing right in front of him. You would think that someone at level 80 in this dungeon on heroic would know better than to stand in front of the boss when he does POUND but evidently there are people out there who don't learn from their mistakes. Basically, unless you are the tank, or geared like one, POUND is going to one shot you. It happened to me once on Gomorra and I learned my lesson, it hasn't happened to me again on any of my toons in all the runs I have done since.

Breeonna also did one run through there tonight and it went smooth. Almost all of her dungeons went smooth tonight except one run through Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom where the healer wasn't quite up to speed. Even that run wasn't too bad though, I just kept my eyes open and healed myself when I needed to. I also did some questing in Zul'Drak and got her to level 76. Only 4 more levels to go now.

Breeonna - Level 75 Elemental Shaman

I got Breeonna to level 75 tonight. I did some questing and random dungeons to accomplish that.

As far as questing goes I moved from Dragonblight to Grizzly Hills, then into Zul'Drak, which is where I am questing now. I am getting better XP per quest in Zul'Drak than I was in Grizzly Hills or Dragonblight so that's a lot better.

I did my first run through Violet Hold tonight. It was nice to get into a different dungeon and I also got a nice pair of boots out of it too. Now, with a little more variety in dungeons to queue into, it is not so boring as it gets when you just run the same dungeon over and over.

I will keep questing in Zul'Drak, then move onto Sholazar Basin and eventually Icecrown.

Breeonna - Random Dungeons

I did some more random dungeons on Breeonna tonight and got her to level 74.

She is coming right along and it won't be long until I am 80 :). As usual I have been leading the groups I am in for DPS. Sometimes I lead by a lot, hundreds of thousands above the next highest person. I can't wait to hit 80, get geared, and see what kind of damage I can do.

I have been questing too, but I am at that point were I am towards the top level for the area so I am not getting great XP for the quests I am doing. I am still too low to go on to the next area so I am stuck there for a while I guess.

Random Dungeons - 5/29/10

I got in to do a few random dungeons on both Brieonna and Breeonna tonight.

I only did one on Brieonna, her daily heroic dungeon which was, Drak'Tharon Keep. We didn't have any problems although I almost lost the tank once when he pulled a boss and all the adds at once instead of getting the adds out of the way first. He really wasn't geared to do that big of a pull but we all survived although it was close when I got feared behind a wall and couldn't get out to get them back in LoS to heal.

Breeonna did her random daily dungeon too which was Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom. She also did a few more between quests. Actually I should say she did some quests between dungeons. When I am on her, as with all my toons, I am always in queue for a dungeon and I drop whatever I am doing when the queue pops and join up.

I didn't get another level in tonight so she is still level 73 but I will hopefully get another level in tomorrow. Right now she is at 7 days /played.

Breeonna - Level 73 Elemental Shaman

I got Breeonna to level 73 and am still at less than 7 days /played. I am still on track to hit 80 in less than 10 days /played I think.

I did some quests and some random dungeons tonight. I didn't have much luck in the dungeons, I was in three groups and in all three of them the tank and healer ended up leaving. In two of them we waited around and got another tank and healer and one of the groups ended up falling apart.

In the first group that fell apart the healer, who wasn't that good at all, was really mouthy. They said if they didn't need to stop and drink mana then neither should I. That is about a 5 year old's mentality because I am casting all the time and they cast once in awhile. They also said they didn't need the DPS to get through the instance. That right there shows how either stupid or inexperienced they were, DPS is what gets the job done, it is what makes the group. Without DPS you are going nowhere.

Anyway we, the DPS, ended up kicking the failtard Priest which happened to be a friend of the Tank so he left too, good riddance to them both. After that we got a tank and healer in who were capable and got the instance done.

In the second group first the healer left because they just couldn't do the job, then the tank left because he was squishy and, I think, knew he was out of his league. Then the other two DPS left which left only me, so I requeued and did a couple quests while I was waiting.

In the third group the healer fell and died then left group. The Tank left right after that but we were able to get an 80 Paladin Tank one of the people in the group knew. We got a new healer right after that. The healer made the comment it was a little boring because he didn't have to heal the tank so the tank took all his armor off so the healer would have something to do lol. It was interesting after that but the healer managed to keep him alive although he didn't have any spare time to complain about being bored.

I will continue to do a combination of quests and randoms to get to 80 as fast as I can. One thing I have noticed about these dungeons is they do not drop a lot of caster mail gear. Most of the mail they drop has attack power instead of spell power and the stuff that does have spell power is either plate, cloth or leather. Oh well, sooner or later I will get some pieces. I did regear from gear I got off the auction house when I hit 73 and my DPS really shot up. In the last dungeon I was in I was at the top of the DPS list and did over 600,000 more damage than the next highest person. That is quite a bit, it was almost double what they did.

Breeonna - Level 72 Elemental Shaman

I got Breeonna to level 72 tonight doing a combination of quests and dungeons.

I did a couple runs through Utgarde Keep and didn't have any problem tonight. One of the times I entered they were at the last boss and someone obviously left. They were all dead so I guess they were having some problems. We didn't have any problem when we tried it though, we got him down pretty quick and easy.

I am doing a pretty steady 1.5k+ DPS, to as high as 1.9k+ DPS, on my shaman now, I usually lead the DPS in every dungeon group I am in regardless of the level of the other players. I can't believe how easy it is to get high DPS out of it. I was doing around 1.1k+ then I upgraded some gear from the auction house and it jumped another 400+. DPS stands for Damage Per Second so 400+ DPS is a nice little chunk to go up all at once.

Breeonna - Level 71 Elemental Shaman

I got Breeonna to level 71 tonight. I did a combination of questing and random dungeons to do that. I am still questing in Borean Tundra.

I have been having a lot of trouble getting through Utgarde Keep lately. We have had some bad tanks and some bad healers lately. We can usually make it to the last boss then can't get him down. It's not a hard instance, but there are some things you need to know to get the last boss down. The first thing the tank needs to do is keep the boss turned away from the group, that way his smash doesn't damage everyone. The next thing you need to keep in mind is the roar he does, you have to stop casting when he does that or it will clock whatever spells you are casting. I am not sure but it might be as long as 10 seconds, during that time you can not cast any spells from that class. This is where the healers are failing. They are getting caught casting when he roars and then they can't cast. They can't heal and the tank dies. Then everyone else dies.

I did get to do one run through the Nexus and that was a nice change of scenery. We had no problem in there. The thing you have to remember about the last boss in Nexus is to keep moving. She puts a frost stack debuff on you and the only way to remove it is to move. You can do that simply by jumping. You would not believe how many people don't get it even when you explain it out to them before the fight.

I had one group in Nexus the other day I was healing on my Priest, Brieonna, where one of the players was just standing there at the last boss. Hunters, Mages and Warlocks, ranged fighters, will do that. When the stacks get up to 2 they start doing a lot of damage to you. I kept yelling MOVE to him but he just stood there. I managed to keep him alive through the fight but I was pretty mad but the time it was over. He still had the stacks on him, when it was over, and he still wasn't moving. I continued to yell MOVE to him but he just stood there so I let him die and left. We had completed the instance. Maybe after paying for repairs he will get it right next time.

Breeonna - Level 70 Elemental Shaman

I worked on Breeonna a little tonight and got her to level 70, I am about half way through it. I also got her the Tome of Cold Weather Flight so she is flying in Northrend now.

I did some questing and some random dungeons tonight. The last one I was in, I was in for about 1 1/2 hours... We kept wiping on the last boss. We went through 3 healers on that boss and a total of 5 healers throughout the dungeon. It is not a hard dungeon. The healers just couldn't seem to get the concept that the last boss can silence you if you are casting when he roars. They would get silenced, the tank, a squishy DK, would die and then the rest of us would die.

I finally got a level 80 Paladin from our guild to come in and heal and we got it done. I probably could have reached level 71 if I hadn't wasted so much time in there, but it got to be a mission to finish it. I lead DPS throughout the entire run in that one.

Random Heroic Dungeons 5/21/10

I spent the night doing random heroic dungeons on Brieonna tonight. I still need to upgrade my 232 shoulders and hood to the 245 items, then I will have gone about as far as I can with triumph badges.

I had a couple groups I bailed on, the people were undergeared and there was no sense sticking around, they were not going to finish the instance. One or two undergeared people in a group isn't bad, you can usually do a run no problem, but when you get more than that you just don't have the DPS to take the bosses down.

I was in one group where we had a Druid tank. There was also a Paladin in that group that was pulling before the tank could, or pulling more after the tank pulled. I warned them and they said "maybe you haven't noticed I'm a tank", to which I replied "you're not the tank in this group, the Druid is". I told them if they pulled again I wasn't going to heal them. I guess they didn't believe me because they pulled again, so I let them die. They got the it after that and didn't pull anymore.

I really don't care if people want to kick me from groups like that, my primary job is to keep ONE tank alive, then me, then the DPS. Having two people pulling puts everyone at risk of a wipe.

ToC 10 Man 5/20/10

We had a half guild run, half pug run on ToC 10 man tonight. I was healing on Brieonna. It was my very first raid ever on any of my toons. It didn't go very well and I attribute that to most of us, in the guild, being new to raiding and we were hoping for some help from other people with more experience. What it boiled down to in the end was getting talked down to by people who must not remember their first raid. One asshole in particular, Faite a Warrior, who said he wasn't there to carry anyone. I don't think anyone from our guild was expecting to get carried, we just wanted to learn. He was nothing special anyway, I really don't see where he had any room to talk, he wasn't geared nearly enough to be talking shit. Anyway it was a lot of bullshit and probably the last raid I will do, I will go back to PvP, something I know and no one can talk down to me about.

Random Heroic Dungeons 5/18/10

I have been doing a lot of random heroic dungeons on Brieonna to get gear drops and badges to buy gear. That is coming along pretty well. Since Sunday, when my gearscore was less than 2900, I have managed to bring it up to 4672 between drops and gear I have purchased using the badges. I only need 2 more pieces to get the Epic achievement, feet and waist.

I did a few dungeons with a friend of mine, Arkantose, tonight. That went really well, his gearscore is right around 6000 and he was tanking. For the most part I was able to heal him using just HoT's, he really didn't need a lot of heals anyway.

We ended up doing Trial of the Champion, Halls of Lightning, The Forge of Souls, where I got a nice neck piece, and Culling of Stratholme all in heroic mode. The runs were fast and a tank and healer queuing together is pretty much an instant queue so the queues went really fast.

I had one bad group in Azjol-Nerub. They weren't really bad players, they were just really poorly geared. It's not too bad to get one or two poorly geared players in a group, but every once in awhile you get a whole group of them and this was one of those times. There were 2 under 3000 gearscore, another under 3500 and the tank only had a gearscore of 3700. We made it all the way to the last boss without any deaths, some pretty spectacular healing on my part if I do say so myself, but there just wasn't enough DPS to take the last boss down. And every time he did Pound it would kill the 2 lowest geared players, one shot them, so then we were down to the tank, one DPS and the healer, just not enough. I finally bailed on that group, I could have completed 2 instances in the time I was in there.

I am pretty confident I will have my gearscore over 5000 by this weekend.

Halls of Reflection (Dungeon)

I did 9 runs through the Halls of Reflection on normal mode tonight, helping a guildie who was trying to get the shield to drop off the second boss. We also did one run through Trial of the Champion due to a mis-queue.

I ended up dying twice in Halls of Reflection mostly due to the healer not being able to keep up. Halls of Reflection is the hardest of the 5 man dungeons. As such, even in normal mode, you need to have a pretty geared group that has an idea what they are doing. In one of the groups we had a rogue with a gearscore under 3,000. He didn't last long. Very few of the people in there were well geared. I was one of the best geared ones on Gomorra with a gearscore around 5100. You don't need a gearscore that high to do normal HoR, that is more the gearscore for heroic HoR.

The way HoR works is, you get 4 waves of 5 or 6 mobs each, then a boss, 4 more waves and a boss. There is no time between waves, one ends the other starts. There is no time between the last wave and the boss. There is 30 or 45 seconds I think between the first boss and the next set of waves. The second boss is the one that drops the shield we were after. He dropped everything but that.

If you make it through the first 2 bosses, there is a mob you need to kill then you have to escape from the Lich King. He moves really slow and sets up 4 barriers as you are running away. He sends out mobs each time he sets up a barrier and when you have defeated them the barrier drops only to be replaced by another one a little farther on.

When you finally make it to the end it turns out to be a dead end and it looks like you are going to have to fight the Lich King. At the last minute an airship appears and fires rockets into the cave you just came out of and collapses it on top of the Lich King. That is it, party over. You board the airship, check the chest for loot and you are done.

All in all I had a pretty good time doing that, it is just too bad the shield didn't drop for the guildie that was after it.