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.

Gomorra - 525 Tailoring

I worked on Gomorra's Tailoring and got it maxed at 525. I was selling what I was making on the auction house so I recovered the gold I had to spend on mats and actually came out a little ahead. That makes four out of five of my level 85 characters that have both their professions maxed at 525.

Now I have to make Dreamcloth to buy the patterns. The Dreamcloth takes 30 Volatiles each piece which seems like an awful lot. Then each epic pattern costs you one piece of Dreamcloth to purchase. Of course after you purchase the pattern you need Dreamcloth to make the item. No wonder the epic cloth pieces go for so much on the auction house.

There are six different patterns to make Dreamcloth and five of them have a 7 day cool down. The sixth one uses 5 Chaos Orbs and doesn't have a cool down but who has that many orbs to throw away? They all take eight bolts of Embersilk cloth and the five that don't use the Chaos Orbs take 30 volatiles each. Dreamcloth is BoP (Bind on Pickup) so you can not buy or sell it.

You also need Chaos Orbs to make the epic 359 items.

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?

507 Tailoring

I worked on Gomorra's Tailoring for a little while today and got his skill up to 507, only 18 more points until I am maxed. Quite a jump from the 456 it was yesterday.

I still have over 28 stacks of bolts of Embersilk Cloth left so I don't think I will be running out of cloth. I made my first piece of Dreamcloth today too. I made enough 22 slot bags so all my characters now have three 22 slot bags along with their leatherworking bags.

I put a bunch of stuff I made on the auction house, hopefully it will sell and I will get some gold back to buy more materials. All the materials I have used so far are from the supply I have been collecting but that will run out eventually.

I was hoping to be able to make myself some better gear but so far all I have been able to upgrade are my shoulders. As I level my Tailoring up more I will be getting into the better gear and will be able to upgrade more pieces.

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 :).

Gomorra - Level 85 Demon/Destruction Lock 4/11/11

I worked on my Warlock Gomorra some today. I ran a couple dungeons with him once I figured out how to play him again. My dps wasn't great, I was hitting a high of 6.5k on boss fights and averaging around 5.5k overall. I got a couple pieces of 333 gear from the dungeons that I desperately needed, he is very poorly geared at this point but then again they all were at the start. I am working on his Earthen Ring rep then I will work on his Ramkahen rep as they have gear I want. At some point I will also have to work on his Hyjal rep for one of their pieces and Therazane for the shoulder chants.

I have been doing the daily cooking and fishing every day to get both of those up to 525. I have also been doing the Tolbarad and Baradin Hold Daily's every day for the past few days as well. I am now friendly with Baradin's Wardens and will keep plugging away at them until I have my trinket.

I worked on his Tailoring some today too and got his skill up to 471. I have been sending all the cloth I get to him from my other characters and have 35 stacks of Bolts of Embersilk cloth in the bank. 35 stacks, at 20 bolts a stack, is 700 bolts of cloth. That should take me a long ways towards getting his Tailoring to 525.

I also worked on his first aid some today and got that up to 518, so that is coming along. I will keep plugging away at him and get him geared eventually. I am in no big hurry as I have other characters I need to work on too, it is a never ending battle. Once I get them all geared it will be time for another expansion and I will throw away all the gear I worked so hard for and start again.

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.

Magmaw 10 Man Raid Conculsion

Our raid on Magmaw did not go well at all. As usual not everyone that signed up showed up for the raid so we were short handed. We had to pug out for 3 positions and that got us started 1 hour and 15 minutes late. I have learned not to drink a flask/elixir until we are actually inside the instance and ready to start fighting. I made the mistake of drinking one as soon as I arrived at the instance once then stood there for over an hour watching the 115 gold flask I drank wear off while we did nothing.

We recruited 3 players from trade chat. One of the requirements was that they not be wearing any PvP gear. Of course all of the people that responded were wearing some PvP gear when we inspected them upon arrival at the instance. Needless to say that got us off to a few false starts.

When we finally got inside we had about 45 minutes left. We got the first wandering pat down without a problem, then got the other 2 mobs that stand in front of Magmaw down. When we started on Magmaw we had a plan worked out. I had switch from my Druid Wranngar to my Hunter Brieanna because they couldn't find a Hunter and the Hunter that was supposed to come with us from our guild didn't show up. The plan was that I would stand at ranged so I would get the Pillar of Fire on me, then I would lay down an ice trap, which did not work any of the times I did it, and all the ranged dps would turn and dps down the maggots that come out of the Pillar of Fire. The main problem we had there was none of the dps were turning and dpsing down the maggots which was leaving me dead as I was the only one attacking them.

Basically it was wipe after wipe and will continue to be so until we get a core team together that can learn, through practice, to work together as a team. Recruiting pugs is not the answer, it is a waste of pre-scheduled time and you get what you get when you pug. To say I am completely disgusted with some of the members of this guild that "want to raid" is an understatement.

Magmaw 10 Man Raid Tonight

Tonight we will be attempting Magmaw 10 man in Blackwing Descent. We tried it last weekend and almost got him down but ran out of time because we attempted Bastion of Twilight 10 man first and that ate up over an hour of our time.

We schedule 2 hours for our raids, 10 am until noon server time on Saturday which is 7-9 pm Friday for me. We have not had any luck at all on the first boss of BoT, after a couple attempts, and hopefully will not attempt it again until we have our core raid team together and have done a couple other raid bosses to get used to working together. We have also scheduled Baradin Hold in the past but that is dependent on the Alliance having control of the hold and that has not always been the case in the past. That is a one boss raid and would be nice to get out of the way but like I said, it is dependent on the Alliance having control of Baradin Hold.

Hopefully we will have a full 10 man raid group ready and waiting and can head right over there at 10:00 am server time to start our raid. Some of the problems we have encountered in the past are people signing up and not showing up on time if at all. People showing up in PvP gear. People not chanted or gemmed correctly or missing glyphs. I believe we have those people weeded/straightened out. I will update afterward how it went.

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.