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.

Daily Fishing - Jewel of the Sewers 5/18/10

I did the Dalaran daily fishing on Brieonna today which was Jewel Of The Sewers. It's pretty funny because she only has around 135 fishing skill.

I picked the quest up from Marcia Chase (53,65), by the fountain in Dalaran and headed down to my spot in the Black Market not really sure if I would be able to do it at my level. I figured I would give it a try and see what happened. It didn't go as quickly as it does on my other toons, it took me about 40 casts to catch the piece of Corroded Jewelry I needed.

I took that back up to Marcia and traded her for a Bag of Fishing Treasures. It would have been nice if I had gotten the Jeweled Fishing Pole or the Bone Fishing Pole but it was not to be. What I did get was 7g8s15c, 4 Pygmy Oil, a Whale Statue, which I sold to a vendor for 11 gold, and 3 Deviate Fish. Pretty much the usual haul.

It is nice to know I can complete them at my low level so I will be sure to check every day and do it if it is Jewel of the Sewers or Disarmed.

Brieonna - Level 80 Holy Priest

I got Brieonna to level 80 last night (Saturday). Now starts the long process of gearing her. I am doing random heroics for that. I get drops and also badges for gear. When I hit 80 my gearscore was around 2700, I have been able to bring it up to over 3800 since then.

I ran The Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron and Halls of Reflection on normal with a guildie tonight and got a nice staff and wand out of them. I only have one of my BoA pieces now, a trinket and that will get replaced soon. That will be nice, no more sharing the trinkets with my Shaman, sending them back and forth.

I got a couple pieces of gear with badges today and might be able to get a couple more tomorrow.

Brieonna - Level 77 Holy Priest

I got Brieonna to level 77 tonight, only 3 more levels to go. The good news is I might be healing a raid next week with my guild. It will be my first raid on any of my toons. Good healers are in high demand. Once I get a few raid achievements under my belt I will be able to do a lot more raiding.

I have hit crits as high as 14k on heals and that was when I was still level 76 so I am getting there. My HoT's are ticking over 1400 every 3 seconds now and I was able to heal a Druid tank through one of the bosses in Gundrak tonight using only HoT's. That was a good tank though, there are some tanks that I have to throw everything but a medic at just to keep alive. Healing a tank like that is exhausting.

My top priority now will be getting geared. I need to start looking at gear with mana regeneration (MP5) on it so I don't run out during long fights, or with tanks that are in a hurry and don't give me time to drink. I had my share of those tonight.

I should be 80 this weekend and I can start doing random heroics to get badges for gear. Hopefully I will be able to get a few pieces of gear before the raid on Wednesday.

Brieonna - Level 75 Holy Priest

One thing I have very little tolerance for is people who queue for dungeons but don't have enough time to do them. They then expect everyone else to rush through the dungeon so they can finish it before they have to leave. My philosophy on that is, if you don't have enough time to do the dungeon correctly, don't queue. I am sick and tired of rushing through dungeons, not being able to loot because the tank is already attacking the next mobs, and wiping because we are moving too fast.

I just now bailed on a group of those people. There were 3 from the same server who figured they were going to do a "power run" through Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom. I said at the start, as we sprinted from zoning in to the first mob, that I wasn't buffed and neither was anyone else, are we in a hurry? The reply was yes. After I died because the tank was pulling way more than he could hold aggro on, I told them good luck with that and left. I will take the 30 minute debuff rather than die repeatedly, try to sip mana whenever I am out of combat for a few seconds and not be able to loot.

That makes 3 groups I have bailed on in The Old Kingdom tonight. The other 2 were a bad tank that couldn't hold aggro on anything, and another group where everyone was pulling. Either way it adds up to me dying a lot and it is just not worth it and I'm not going to waste my time. If the tank can't hold aggro, or you get a hunter that pulls then feigns death, or a rogue that pulls then vanishes, it is the healer the mobs go for.

I did have some good groups today though. You can tell a good group by the fact that the tank is the only one pulling, the tank is the only one taking damage for the most part, and I am not dead. I have an ability called fade where I can fade out and drop aggro if something comes after me but it has a cooldown so I can't keep spamming it in the case of a bad tank or everyone pulling then dropping aggro.

I did manage to get Brieonna to level 75 though, only 5 more levels to 80.

Brieonna - Level 74 Holy Priest

Brieonna is level 74 now and still doing dungeons. I am up to Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom now. I have a bit of variety of dungeons I queue into now so it is not as boring as when I was stuck just doing Utgarde Keep.

I win new gear almost every day, on rolls, and have been upgrading as I go along. I am usually the best geared person in the group with the exception of level 80's that sometimes end up in our groups. I was better geared than our level 77 tank we had tonight.

I only had one really bad run tonight and that was with a Warrior tank. I could not keep him alive no matter what I did. As usual I felt like it was my fault. Eventually he was kicked from the group and the rest of the group told me there was nothing wrong with my heals, it was the tank. He had a pretty good gearscore so he either wasn't in the right gear or he wasn't using the right spec, either way he was taking massive damage fast and dying quicker than I could cast. Usually when that happens we all die and this was no exception. We got another tank in and it was a breeze from there on out.

The only quests I have been doing lately are dungeon quests and they pay some pretty good gold. I really need to start doing more questing or I am not going to have reputation with anyone when I hit level 80.

Brieonna - Level 71 Holy Priest

I was hoping when I got Brieonna to level 71 I would stop doing Utgarde Keep and move onto other dungeons.

I did get another dungeon to do, the Nexus, but I am still doing the majority of my dungeon runs through Utgarde Keep. It is getting a lot better, I have had a lot more luck grouping with competent players but it is just getting old. I want some different scenery. I did 2 runs through the Nexus and that was great. I got a nice wand and a nice pair of boots from there. I was the only caster so I didn't have any competition for them.

I am still questing in Borean Tundra between dungeons but I have really slowed down, burning out a little. I need to get on my 80's and do some daily's so I can get some gold together for 300 riding skill for Brieonna and the Tome of Cold Weather Flight for Breeonna so she will be able to fly when she gets to Northrend. Being able to fly as soon as you get there makes questing and leveling go so much faster.

Brieonna - Level 70 Holy Priest

Brieonna is level 70 now and questing in Northrend.

I have been doing some of the Northrend dungeons too. Well, only one really, Utgarde Keep. The first run I had through there was great, we didn't have any problems and I didn't lose anyone until the very end where I ended up dying. Everyone said the last boss is really tough to heal and he is, he has this staggering smash thing he does that really deals out a lot of damage if the tank does not have him turned away from everyone. We had a Pally tank in that group.

After that I ended up in groups with one DK tank after another. None of which could hold aggro, all of which were losing about 3/4 of their HP every hit. It is hard to keep them alive when they take damage so fast and you are also trying to keep everyone else alive because they can't hold aggro. I ended up bailing on a couple groups.

We had one really bad run today in UK, it wasn't the tanks fault, we had a Pally tank and he was doing a good job. It was this Hunters fault. This Hunter, Whinn, from Frostwolf, was pulling mobs. They were the reason our first 3 tanks left, the last tank was putting up with them. They really had no clue what they were doing and it was making everyone's job a lot harder than it had to be. Finally in the end, after everyone told them what they thought of them, they aggro'd the last boss and left group... Good riddance but the boss bugged and we never got to finish. Losers like that shouldn't be allowed to group much less play.

I had another good group after that with a Druid tank and we finished that one out. I was starting to get a complex, from some of the previous groups where I couldn't keep them alive, until I grouped with some guildies and we did a run. It went really well and proved to me that I wasn't the problem.

I have run UK so many times now that I am really looking forward to level 71 in the hopes it will put me into a different dungeon.

Brieonna - Northrend

I got Brieonna to level 68 and can now start questing in Northrend. I got her the Tome of Cold Weather Flight, for 1,000 gold, and she learned that so she can now fly as soon as she gets to Northrend.

I am looking forward to doing the dungeons in Northrend (WotLK). I will not be eligible for the Ice Crown dungeons, Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron or Halls of Reflection, until I do the preliminary quests. I think I will hold off on that for awhile when I am eligible because I don't want to rush right into healing Halls of Reflection.

I had a few runs through Sethekk Halls and I really don't like that place. It is one wipe after another. It seems like everything in there fears, and when they do, people get feared into other groups of mobs and things just get out of hand in a hurry. I will be happy if I never see the inside of that place again.

Brieonna - Level 67 Holy Priest

I got Brieonna up a few more levels, to level 67 now. I am less than 10 bars away from Northrend. I haven't completed any quests except dungeon quests lately, dungeons are all I have been doing.

I have come across a few good DK tanks in the last few days and a lot of bad ones. For the most part it is still my opinion that most DK's can't tank. They can't hold aggro like a Warrior, Pally, or Druid tank can. That is most of them, not all of them. There have been a few that held aggro great and it was a pleasure to heal them.

When a tank can't hold aggro it makes my job a lot harder. Instead of just keeping the tank healed, which I usually can do using only HoT's, I end up having to spam heal the entire group every battle. It is tedious and nerve wracking. Usually those tanks aren't very well geared either so they take a lot of healing too.

I am up to, and have completed, Sethekk Halls. That is the last one I did tonight and it was brutal. It seems like you can not do a normal pull in there, the tank tries for a small pull and ends up with half the room. It seems like everything fears too. I put fear ward on the tank when it wasn't on cool down but others ended up getting feared into other groups of mobs and it was just brutal. We finally did complete it though and I got a nice cape off the second boss. I can't wear it for one more level but I enchanted it and it is ready to go. My gearscore is up to 1905 now and my HoT's tick for around 800 every 3 seconds.

I got a nice pair of pants from a quest I turned in from Mana Tombs which I was able to put 3 +19 Spellpower gems in, that brought my spellpower up nicely.

I will be in Northrend tomorrow, I just don't have the energy to get the last 10 bars tonight, and I will be into a whole new set of dungeons there.

Children's Week - Day 1 - 5/2/10

Today Brieonna and Wranngar each took an Orphan from Stormwind and Shattrath and made the rounds with them, taking them to see all the sights they wanted to see. The Orphan from Stormwind is a boy and his name is Randis, the Orphan from Shattrath is a girl and her name is Dornaa. It appears to be the same Orphan every year but they don't seem to age.

This was the first year for Brieonna but it is the third year for Wranngar. Wranngar now has all the pets from both the Stormwind and Shattrath versions of this World Event. Wranngar earned the Veteran Nanny achievement today for his efforts with the Orphans in Shattrath. This time the pet he choose was Sleepy Willy.

There is a lot of running around taking these Orphans everywhere they want to go so you need to do a little planning before you set out. A little advance planning will ensure you don't end up somewhere with your hearthstone on cool down making you wait.

They took the Orphans from Stormwind to the Haunted Lighthouse in Westfall, then from there to the Dam in Loch Modan. After that they hearthed back to Dalaran and took the portal to Darnassus so they could see the bank there which is carved out of the base of a living tree. From there we flew to Theramore Isle to get Lady Jaina Proudmoore's autograph. Randis had one more request after that and that was for some ice cream. We took the boat to Menethil Harbor, then flew back to Stormwind and got him some Tigule and Foror's Strawberry Ice Cream. After that it is time to head back to the Orphanage where he offers you one of he pets to remember him by.

I got Piglet's Collar on both Brieonna and Wranngar.

The Orphans from Shattrath had a different agenda from the ones in Stormwind which is good, it keeps you from getting bored.

The first place we headed after getting the Orphan, Dornaa, was Aeris Landing to see her brother Jheel who is studying to be a Jewelcrafter. After that happy reunion it was off to the Bone Wastes to see the meeting stone in Auchindoun. Once there she activates the stone opening a portal, that completes that quest. I flew over to Allerian Stronghold and took the flight point to the Dark Portal after that. When she was done looking at the Dark Portal she wanted to go to Exodar and see the Seat of the Naaru, which then sends you to go see the Farseer. This one is pretty cool because she has dreamed about him and while she is there she calls forth 4 elementals at once. After that it is the long haul to her last request, to see the Dragon at the Caverns of Time. You take the boat from Exodar to Auberdeen then fly from there all the way down to Tanaris. That flight takes awhile. Once there you ride over to the Caverns of time and see the Dragon. After that you will need to buy her a toy dragon and you are done, then all you need to do is take her back to the Orphanage in Shattrath.

Back at the Orphanage she offers you one of her pets to remember her by. Wranngar got Sleepy Willy while Brieonna got the Elekk Training Collar.

During the course of the week I will get these done on Brieanna, Gomorra and Breeonna as well.

Children's Week 5/2 - 5/8

Children's Week is upon us again. It is time to grab an Orphan from Stormwind, or Orgrimmar if you're Horde, and Shattrath and show them a good time.

Children's Week in Stormwind and Orgrimmar

One of the things Orphans like to do is go sightseeing. They don't get out much so they really like to take advantage of having you as a sponsor. Some of the places the Stormwind and Orgrimmar Orphans like to go are:

• The bank in Darnassus (Alliance)
• The lighthouse in Westfall (Alliance)
• Jaina Proudmoore in Theramore (Alliance)
• Mor'shan Rampart (Horde)
• Lordaeron Throne Room (Horde)
• Cairne Bloodhoof in Thunder Bluff (Horde)

When you take your Orphan home after seeing all the sights they will offer you one of their most prized possessions, one of their pets to remember them by. Your choices will include:

• Turtle Box which contains Speedy the turtle.
• Rat Cage which contains Whiskers the rat.
• Piglet's Collar which contains Mr. Wiggles the pig.

Or, for those more interested in gold,

• Curmudgeon's Payoff, A bag of 5 gold. For those who like telling children there's no Great Father Winter...

Children's Week in Shattrath

The Orphans of Shattrath are no different than the Orphans of Stormwind and Orgrimmar in their desire to get out and see the world. The Orphans of Shattrath are the victims of the war with the Burning Legion. I remember from last year these Orphans ask a lot of questions so be prepared. The places your Shattrath Orphan will want to go see include:

• The Dark Portal
• The Exodar (Alliance)
• Silvermoon City (Horde)
• Caverns of Time

You will also meet some unexpected people along the way.

Once you have taken your Orphan to see everything they want to see and it is time to go back to the Orphanage they will offer you one of their most prized possesions, one of their pets to remember them by. Your choices will include:

• Egbert's Egg, which contains Egbert the hawkstrider hatchling.
• Elekk Training Collar, which contains Peanut the baby elekk.
• Sleepy Willy, which contains Willy.

Each Orphan you spend some time with will also write you a letter thanking you afterwards.

Children's Week is a good time to take an hour or two and show you have a heart as well as show a less fortunate Orphan a good time, so make sure you get out there and do your part.