Back Again 9/11

I am back again after a little hiatus. I had some computer problems, immediately followed by hurricane problems but I have finally been able to get back on and do some playing.

I have been playing my Holy Priest Brieonna mostly, healing normals until I get back into shape and can heal heroic's again. That doesn't mean I haven't been playing my Druid Wranngar or Hunter Brieanna because I have, I have been doing Heroics and normals on those two also.

One of the unfortunate side affects of my system crashing is that I lost the thousands of screen shots I had and the hundreds of links to items from Thottbot that I had. I guess I will be starting over on that. I do have a lot of the images on a flash drive so I am not totally lost, but I didn't back up my links for some reason.

Going forward I plan on trying some raiding again. I also have my work cut out for me earning Valor Points for the 378 Valor gear that is now available.

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

Old Ironforge - Patch 4.1

They have finally opened Old Ironforge in Patch 4.1. To be honest I was a little disappointed after checking it out. After hearing about it for years, and the ban if you were caught there, I guess I just expected it to be larger with buildings you could go inside of and check out. I expected there to be more.

It is kind of cool to see where the Dwarves lived before they made Ironforge but there is so little there and what is there you can't go inside of. Aside from a few walkways and a couple tunnels there is not much else.

Here are some pictures from down there starting with the entrance located in the King's room in Ironforge.


Posted on A World of Warcraft Blog 4/26/11

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 - Blackrock Caverns 4/20/11

Today I got Blackrock Caverns for my random daily heroic on Wranngar. This instance isn't too bad as long as you have a decent group that knows how to do the second boss.

After clearing a couple groups of trash we were ready to take down the first boss, Rom'ogg Bonecrusher. This boss has a few moves but the most dangerous is the binding chains he puts on you and the skullcracker he does immediately afterwards. It is very important that you dps down the chains as fast as you can so you have time to get away before he does the skullcracker. We wiped on this boss because someone got too close to a group of mobs the tank didn't clear, sloppy playing combined with sloppy clearing. After we got by this boss we cleared some more trash which brought us to Corla, Hearld of Twilight.

This is where a group has to work together. I have seen so many wipes trying to take this boss down because people don't know what they are doing. It is not a hard boss, but everything has to be done right. You need three people to block the beams. As you are blocking the beam you are building up stacks, you need to step out of the beam when you hit 80 stacks. I usually start moving around 75 stacks. You stay out of the beam until the stacks wear off then step right back into the beam. Repeat this until the boss is down. Simple. I have seen so many wipes on this boss.

Some more trash brings you to Karsh Steelbender. Simple boss. Just run him through the fire once in awhile and dps him down. DPS goes up as the stacks do so you can burn this boss down pretty fast.

Once you have Steelbender down you have some more trash to get you to Beauty. Beauty has 2 smaller dogs with her, Lucky and I think the other one's name is Buster or Spot. There is also Runty in the back but you don't need to deal with him. Use some kind of CC on the two smaller dogs, remembering to refresh it once in awhile, and take the boss down, pretty easy stuff.

A little more trash brings you to the last boss, Ascendant Lord Obsidius. He will have 3 "followers" with him that someone in the group will have to kite. I have found it pretty easy to kite them in Bear form on my Druid, with my Hunter and it looks like Mages can do it easily also. Once in awhile during the fight he will switch places with one of his "followers" so whoever is kiting will need to pick that one up while the dps switches back to the boss. Usually not a hard fight.

I completed this as my daily and received my 70 Valor Points as well as winning the Chaos Orb. I now have 17 Chaos Orbs in stock, I think it is time to make something.

Originally posted on A World of Warcraft Blog on 4/21/11

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

Feeling Crabby? - Random Daily Cooking Quest 4/19/11

Today the daily cooking quest from Robby Flay (50,71) in Stormwind City was Feeling Crabby?.

This one had me heading to the canals in Stormwind to catch 10 Canal Crabs. I used to think Cheese for Glowergold in Dalaran was hard because the Half Full Dalaran Wine Glasses were so small and hard to target but these are small and moving so it is even worse.

I jumped in the canal on Wranngar and switched to swim form, so I wouldn't have to keep surfacing for air, and started swimming around. The Canal Crabs are just wandering around and you have to click on them like you are looting them. It only takes a few minutes to get the 10 you need if there are not a lot of people doing the daily at the same time. If there are it can take awhile.

Today there was no one else doing it so I got it done in a few minutes. Once I had the 10 Canal Crabs I needed I headed back over to Robby Flay to turn them in. Today he gave me 9g40s and 2 Chef's Awards. I would have also gotten +1 to my cooking skill if my cooking skill wasn't already maxed at 525. I am only doing this now for the Chef's Awards so I can buy the rest of the Cataclysm cooking recipes.

Originally posted on A World of Warcraft Blog

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.

Heroic Grim Batol Walk Through

This post will walk you through heroic Grim Batol and the boss fights.

You start by killing trash mobs so you can get to the drakes. Once you have the drakes free you use them to do a bombing run. It is very important to do a good job on the bombing run if you don't want to be in there all day. The bombing run softens up a lot of the trash you have to kill on the way to the bosses and if you don't do a good job you will end up spending a lot more time than is necessary on the trash. After the bombing run you kill the trash between you and the first boss.

The first boss is General Umbriss. He is the easiest boss. He has two main attacks, Blitz and Ground Siege.

Blitz will one shot you. When he is going to cast Blitz he will look at someone and begin to cast, all you need to do is move left or right to get out of the way, there is plenty of time to do this.

Ground Siege appears to be a targetless attack but you don't want to be in front of him when he does it as it is just avoidable damage and it will stun you.

Every so often throughout the fight, Umbriss will call on some Troggs to come help him. One Malignant Trogg and three Trogg Dwellers will spawn the first time. You will want to CC the Malignant Trogg, as opposed to killing it, if you can because if it does not die Umbriss will not summon more Trogg Dwellers, or another Malignant Trogg, otherwise the Trogg Dwellers will continue coming in groups of three every time Umbriss calls them. Trust me when I tell you this is the way you want to do it.

If you do decide to kill the Malignant Troggs, make sure you do it away from other troggs and the boss otherwise they cast an AoE of Modgud's Malice turning other nearby troggs into Malignant ones, and increasing the boss' damage by 100% if it hits him.

After Umbriss you will clear a little more trash until you get to Forgemaster Throngus. This boss walks a beat so keep an eye out for him when you are clearing the trash.

Throngus can be tough and you really have to stay on your toes to stay alive. He has three "equip" weapon attacks he does plus Mighty Stomp which will cause a cave in on top of random players, just move out of the way.

When Throngus equips his Mace he will become encumbered, which will slow him down, but deal a lot of damage. This is where the tank will want to kite him and stay out of reach. During the Mace encounter he will randomly pick a player and do Impaling Slam on them which incapacitates them. His mace will also drip lava while he is walking along so you want to stay out of that.

When Throngus equips Dual Blades he will start doing a lot of damage to the tank through attacks and a stackable DoT. The DoT is magic and can be dispelled.

When Throngus equips his Shield it shoots flames and he is only vulnerable from behind, you are going to want to make sure you are behind him during this encounter. When he is in Shield phase you will be taking a lot of AoE damage from unseen archers shooting flaming arrows, there is nothing you can do about that but heal through it.

Throngus will go through all three of these "equip" phases before he starts again so if the first one is Mace and the second is Dual Blades you know that Shield is coming next, what you don't know is what the fourth "equip" phase will be as they will most likely not be in the same order as the first time.

Some more trash brings you to Drahga Shadowburner. This is the hardest boss in there as far as I'm concerned. He alone is not too bad, but when he is on his dragon, Valiona, he can deal out a lot of damage. He will summon Invocation of Flame and they will one shot you and anyone around you so you will want to make sure to kite them if they are on you or burn them down if they are not. This encounter is in three phases.

In phase one you will want to concentrate on dpsing Drahga and killing the Invocations of Flame. Drahga's primary attack is a Burning Shadowblot that can be interrupted, so if you have an interrupt it will make your healers job a lot easier. Around 25% health Drahga will run over and jump off the platform, landing on a dragon, that starts phase two.

In phase two you will be fighting the dragon. The dragon he summons, Valiona, has an ability called Devouring Flames, a 180 degree frontal attack, and it does just what it says, it will devour you if you are in front of him when he uses it. This is a good fight for melee as long as the tank has the sense to move Valiona out of the stuff that gets put down when Valiona does Shredding Swipe and moves Valiona if an Invocation of Flame is spawning under him. The stuff on the ground slows everyone down who is in it and you don't want to be slowed down if an Invocation of Flame is after you. When Valiona does Devouring Flames you will want to get behind him. At about 20% health Valiona states "I will not die for you Drahga" and leaves.

This takes you to phase three where you finish off Drahga. Make sure to keep an eye out for the Invocation of Flames he will be summoning. With a good group that knows what they are doing it is actually pretty easy to down him.

A little more trash will bring you to the last boss, Erudax. This boss has a few moves. One is Binding Shadows. This will root you in place and heal the boss. If you see him target you move to the side. This debuff is magic and dispellable but why heal the boss? The next move he has is directed towards the tank and it is Enfeebling Blow. It will knock the tank back and put Feeble Body on the tank, just wait for boss to walk back up to the tank.

One of his major moves is Shadow Gale. When the boss casts this you will see a vortex looking circle on the ground, get into it. It is like the eye of the storm. Everyone needs to get into the "eye of the storm" including the tank. Directly after Shadow Gale he will summon two Faceless Corruptors. Everyone, including the tank, will need to dps these down very fast. They will be trying to hatch the eggs along the side of the room which will spawn Dragonkin Hatchlings that will dps the group and heal the boss. You will go through this process several times before the boss is finally down.

I used to think this heroic dungeon was next to impossible but after doing it a few times it is really not that bad. You will need to have a fairly decent geared group that can work together to get through this without too much trouble. I wouldn't attempt it with a group of people with a 329 item level but a group with 335+ item level and up you shouldn't have much trouble.

Good Luck

-Wrann

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.

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.

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.

Wranngar - 4/5/11

I have been working on getting my Druid Wranngar geared and getting his professions and skills up to maximum level.

So far it is coming along well. One week after leveling him to 85 he has a 350 item level, has his Leatherworking, Skinning, Cooking and First Aid at the maximum 525 and his Fishing at 498. I have all the 359 Cataclysm patterns for Leatherworking and am currently running heroic's for Chaos Orbs. I currently have 3 Chaos Orbs but can always use more. Chaos Orbs are BoP (Bind on Pickup) so if I am going to make 359 items I am going to need to run heroic's to get them. Usually when you are making a 359 item for someone else they will supply all the mats and you will supply the orbs for a price. The going rate for orbs is 200g-300g on my server. That means if I make a piece for someone and use 3 of my orbs I will make a profit of 600g-900g on the orbs plus a tip. One Chaos Orb drops off the last boss in every heroic dungeon and it is rolled on by everyone there who can use it. I ran 6 dungeons and got one orb so they are not piling up but over time they will.

Wranngar is geared pretty well now, his item level is 350 and all of his gear is either 346 ilvl or 359 ilvl. I am working on getting the 359 trinket from Baradin's Wardens and have about a week of doing their daily's every day before I can get that. I was running specific dungeons for gear until I got all the 346 pieces I needed with the exception of a weapon. I was hoping to get the polearm from the Lost City of the Tol'vir but didn't have any luck after running it for 5 consecutive days. You can only choose to run a specific heroic dungeon once a day, after that it might come up in the random dungeon queue allowing you to run it again or it might not. I ended up getting the Spear of Trailing Shadows from Baradin's Wardens which set me back some on getting my trinket.

I am also working on my reputation with all the Cataclysm Factions and that is coming along well. I have gotten all the rep pieces I can and am now working on getting my reputation to exalted with the other factions that don't have anything I need. Who knows, in future patches they might get something I need so better safe than sorry.

Expertise - Do You Need It?

As I am gearing my Feral Druid Wranngar I have found that expertise is playing a big role. Wranngar is a Feral Druid that fights in Cat (Kitty) Form. As with any melee character, that is actually striking it's opponent, you can't deal damage if your opponent is dodging and parrying your attacks.

When I first started gearing I wasn't worried about expertise, but as I went along I noticed how many of my attacks were being dodged and parried by whatever I was attacking. Having played ranged or caster characters for so long this was something new to me. Looking into this problem I found that the higher your expertise rating the less chance you have of something dodging and/or parrying your attacks, so I started working on my expertise. As my expertise rose so did my dps. Now I have a 0% chance of my attacks being dodged and a 4% chance of my attacks being parried by a level 87/skull mob. The only place I will be coming across a level 87/skull character is in a raid but as I plan on raiding I will have to work on that some more.

So in conclusion, if you have a melee character your expertise is going to help you do more damage by making your attacks harder, if not impossible, to dodge or parry.

Gearing Wranngar - 3/29/11

I have been working on getting my Druid Wranngar geared up the last few days. When I started working on him again on Saturday he was level 83 and his item level was 292. I got him to 85 on Saturday and as of Tuesday his item level is 338.

I have been running a lot of normal dungeons for gear and justice points and also did a BoT trash run on him where I won Dragonwreck Throwing Axe on a raid roll. I have that on the auction house now and plan to buy some 359 crafted gear when it sells.

I have been doing daily quests for Therazane, Baradin's Wardens and the Wildhammer Clan to get rep so I can buy gear from them. I have the tabards for all the factions except Baradin's Wardens, who don't have a tabard, and Hyjal who aren't even on my reputation list yet. That is ok though, Hyjal doesn't have anything I need at this point so I will level up my rep with them last.

Therazane has the top of the line Cata shoulder chants so getting rep up with them is a must. Wildhammer Clan has a pair of 359 gloves I am working towards and Earthen Ring has the 359 agility ring I have on my Hunter Brieanna, I am going to need that for Wranngar too. I gave up running GB over and over again to get the ring, I am now revered with Therazane and got the 346 ring they have instead. It is a better ring anyway.

Like I said, I will be starting heroics soon, maybe even today, to update my 333 gear with 346 gear. I will be queuing into heroic Lost City and Halls of Origination every day until I get everything I need out of those two. Once I get my item level and dps up a little more I will be queuing into Grim Batol to get the trinket out of there. I will also be getting the 359 trinket from Baradin's Wardens as soon as I have enough Commendations and my rep is exalted so maybe I won't have to do too many GB runs.