/gquit....again

I quit Hubris last night/this morning (DV last night, Daxie this morning). When I signed on, I was under the mistaken impression that raid times ended around 10 pm eastern time.

I was wrong; they ended at 11:30 pm eastern time.

As most of you guys know, I have to be to work by 6 am, so I was trying to go on 5 or so hours of sleep. I thought that I would give it some time and see if I could gut it out.

I couldn't. I ended up just being tired. Even with getting up at 4:45 am, I was tired. I couldn't bring myself to schedule a nap after work so that I could raid. In short, I chose my current schedule over being able to raid with Hubris.

I did find a guild that raids 6:30 - 9:30 pm eastern, Sun/Mon/Wed. And they need a shadow priest. So, I applied to The Ebon School, talked with their recruitment officer, and told him I'd get back with him over the weekend.

I also talked it over with my wife, and she was supportive. It helps a lot that I will once again be able to retire for the evening with her instead of coming to bed an hour and a half after she has.

One of the things that is different over there is that they run a static 25 man raid; if you're in one of the spots, you're expected to make every raid, every week. Exceptions are available, but are expected to be rare. This is the only issue that I'm a bit concerned about as it is a firm commitment to certain days and times. Now, those days and times are very compatible with my schedule, so I'm comfortable with committing to the requirement.

I'll keep you all updated on how things work out...

5 Toons, 1 Day

Yesterday, I had the cable guy come out to install my HD TV satellite box, so I took a half a day off. Add to that the fact that I declined the invite for the night's raid, and I had plenty of time on my hands for other pursuits.

First off, I did my daily random on each of my eighties - yes, I jumped back on that tanking horse again and did just fine.

So, I started thinking about my little pally (level 39) and my little druid (level 18). I decided to hop on Daxynn the Pally and see how I could do tanking (she's prot spec).

First up was Uldaman. The group was ok, and my tanking was ok. I reworked my action bars to put my taunts in readily accessible spots. I figured out that my clickyclickclicky method of playing didn't work so well as I just ended up wasting mana 'cause I'd change seals in my flailing around.

Consecration is the bomb! I learned to start the pull with Exorcism instead of a judgment due to the cast time. So I pretty much keep up Consecration, Judge when available, Exorcise when available, and Hammer of the Stun when available. Yeah, I should be reserving that last one, and maybe I'll start leaving it out of the rotation.

Note: I just looked this morning at Honor's Code and found two very helpful posts:
Sub 40 tanking
Over 40 tanking
I'll be trying to incorporate the information in those two posts into my play.

But, this is about what I did, not what I'll do. 8~)

Anyways, I didn't have too much trouble with the instance, nor did I have any trouble in the next random (Ulda again). I peeked at the damage meter, and I was head and shoulders above the second place person. I guess that's to be expected at this level.

I don't remember getting any good loot out of the runs, although one of my satchels did produce a nice ring. I did ding 40 on the first run, grabbed what little plate I had stored up, and trained my spells and riding skill. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Haaaaaaaaaaaw!

This morning, I bought the BoA chest and sent it on over, so I'll be even more of a beast. I'm not sure how much time I'll have to play her; it was a bunch of fun, though!

Also, last night after my Uldaman sessions, I logged on to my druid (resto ftw!) and queued up for a late teens random. I drew SFK. Oh, cool, a short one. Well...shorter.

The tank was pretty good, some of the dps were a bit childish, and of course, the healer was awesome, as always.

We didn't have any wipes, although we did have a death when we got a new dps halfway though the instance - they tried going around the kitchen instead of through it. All in all, it went very well. I picked up Arugal's belt for the int.

We decided to queue for another random and drew SFK again. So, we smoked through it a second time, and at the end of the night, I had gained two levels to level 20.

I took my leave of the group and trained my new spells. That's when I found out I was not as on top of things as I should be...I trained both my level 18 spells as well as my level 20 spells. And some of them were healing spells....whoops.

Daxxy has a full set of BoA gear, so she should level pretty quickly, but I'm still not sure how much time I'll have to play her. Once again, I had a lot of fun.

Blood Princes Down!

Last night, as usual for a Monday, we didn't have a full 25 man raid filled out. We raided anyways with 23.

Our goal for the night was to learn the different roles in the Blood Prince fight. We had a warlock tanking mumble mumble, a warrior tanking what's his face, and a pally tanking Mr. Fireball. Hey, I can't be bothered to remember their stinkin' names! K, V, and T. There, you happy?

Our first couple of attempts always ended with the 'lock getting killed. We talked about not hitting the shadow orbs. We talked about misdirecting the shadow orbs to the 'lock. We talked about keeping the Kinetic Orbs in the air.

After the second or third wipe, Teurion suggested that he tank K instead of the warlock; the raid leader (in my opinion, reluctantly) agreed.

The first attempt saw us get the boss(es) down farther than we'd ever gotten them (59%), and each subsequent attempt got better and better until, boom! Down they went.

It was a great feeling to work so hard and wipe so often to finally achieve victory! I didn't even mind that I lost the /roll for one of my BIS rings; yeah, that's how good it felt!

We still have Putricide, Blood Queen, Sleeping dragon, Sindragossa, and Arthas, but we are making progress.

Vanco's Comeuppance

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. - Prov. 16:18

I've already noted that my better gear is getting me into the harder instances on Vanco, and last night was no exception. After a fairly easy AN run to net the daily frost badges, the random dungeon finder put me in Forge of Souls.

After buffing up, and telling the group to need the orb, I pulled the first two guys. I should have known right then that I might have trouble with this group in this instance, when I had to taunt one of the mobs off a DPS.

The next pull didn't go very well. I had trouble holding aggro on the caster as well as being unable to round up the mobs. A couple got away from me, and it seemed like they were not yankable.

The poor tanking elicited exhortations to "hold aggro."

Let me tell you, I hate it when someone thinks that I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. I know I need to hold aggro; I was having issues with executing my job. I communicated such to the group and was met with "well some of us are doing our job", which wasn't true as they were not monitoring their threat and using their threat reduction abilities.

The third pull (2 casters, 2 melee, and that stupid ghost that teleports around) was the straw that broke the camel's back.

As far as I could tell, I had 3/5 targeted on me. The ghost targets pretty much anybody, so I was prepared for that, but the other mob seemed to be stuck on this dpser despite my taunts and attempted yanks. I just couldn't get the mob back, and I don't know why.

We wiped, I was told "YOU SUCK" and "you really shouldn't be tanking", and the group fell apart.

So much for any confidence I may have had. I rezzed, popped back to Dal, and logged. I was in no mood to tank anything.

After some thoughtful and non-productive introspection, I've got a couple of things I want to rant about.

Everyone is complaining that there aren't enough tanks. 25 man raids only have 2-3 tanks, 10 mans have 2 or so tanks, and 5 mans have one tank. So there really isn't room at the top for a lot of tanks, so there isn't a lot of motivation for a person to tank.

Adding to that, from the stellar group I had last night, not only are DPS unwilling to give a tank a second or two to establish aggro before they unleash their full 5k DPS fury, but also, said DPS will ridicule and demean any tank that cannot hold a mob against their onslaught. I don't know about you, but who really wants to be the object of disdain for their learning curve?

Now, make no mistake about it, I know that I had real issues holding aggro, and I was at fault for both the lousy pull and the failure to keep the mobs hitting me. I realize that. But for cryin' out loud, dontchathink I could get a little slack or at least the benefit of the doubt? Nah...we eat our young...

It's good to remember that after mountain peaks there are inevitably valley lows. Great victories are often followed by stunning defeats. And just because you're Jennifer Aniston today, doesn't mean that you won't be Linsey Lohan tomorrow...

As the snow melts, so do I

I weighed in at 187.8 lbs this morning. I've been bouncing in the range from about 188.4 up to about 192, so it was pretty nice to see my bottom number dip down below 188.

I'm still hoping to drop that bottom number to or below 185 before my anniversary next month on the 29th. (why, yes, it's our 19th, you must have been keeping track!)

With spring coming up soon, I'll be getting out and walking, so if I keep up the portion and snack control, I should be able to maintain my steady weight loss or even accelerate it a bit. I do need to remember "Slow and steady wins the race."

While my goal is to lose weight, I want to achieve it by living in a manner that is sustainable rather than losing the weight only to gain it back when I go back to my bad habits. I want to get these new habits in place and workable so that they become the norm. That way, I can keep the weight off!

Vanco's Coming of Age

Last night, I tanked on Vanco for about two hours.

Ok, I know the stupid LFG looks at gear score, or some version of gear evaluation, when selecting a random dungeon for you. And, I've been unable to queue up for Halls of Reflection precisely because I needed to acquire better gear.

So, what's the first instance to pop? Yeah, HoR. Dang, must have been those Saronite Swordbreakers that I just got.

The first boss was already down, so I assumed they wiped on either the waves or the second boss. Since the second boss is pretty much a tank and spank, I figured the waves were the issue. Great, the failtank has to hold aggro on a 5-6 pack of mobs.

I gave the group the option of grabbing the next tank, but they were game to try it out.

First pack, no real problems. Yank someone off the healer. Taunt someone off a DPS. Make sure I have DnD down. Done.

Hey, that wasn't too hairy...Second and third waves go in similar fashion. The four and fifth waves were much more hectic, but somehow we all survived. It sure wasn't due to my tanking.

The boss was pretty much an after thought as I only had to move once or twice to get out of the fire.

The big bone guy with the party essences was pretty easy, and I kept aggro on everything.

Jaina and Arthas were locked in Mortal Combat, and we arrived just in time! Oh, yeah, you know the deal. Anyways, we started up the gauntlet.

The other DK thought he was helping by throwing out his DnD, but unfortunately, he didn't put it in the same place I was putting mine, so the pulls didn't go as smoothly as I would have liked. The first two pulls went pretty good, the third was a bit scary, and we lost the healer on the fourth.

Luckily for us, we had a shadow priest that saved the day, healed through the last couple of mobs, and gave us the victory! We did it!!

People started leaving before I could suggest another, so it was just me and a pally left. "Queue for another?" I asked. She replied in the affirmative and queued us up.

The next one was Halls of Lightning. We did a pretty good job. Once again, I held aggro for the most part and had the presence of mind to taunt when I lost it.

I pulled the first boss while he had the lightning buff on him. phssst. No problem.

We had a couple of deaths on the slag dudes; yeah, they got AoE'd.

Second and third bosses went down without so much as a whimper, and Loken died also. We lost the healer again on Loken, but, hey, that's on him 'cause I had Loken's attention the whole fight. I also lost one of the dps on a trash pull; I think he got charged twice in a row from the big guys.

Drunk on our victory, we queued up for a random with just one person bowing out. We rolled UK. Yes! An easy one.

This instance is where I finally got used to tanking. I had moments in all the other dungeons that I've tanked, but this particular run was....just awesome. I was comfortable in my role, I was able to maintain a nice pace, and I didn't have anyone die. I was relaxed. It felt pretty good to have confidence in my abilities. And, yes, we roflstomped our way through the instance.

I had time for one more, so we random rolled a UP. This one was a bit more difficult, and the death that we did had was from someone standing in the (frost breath) fire. But all in all, it was almost as nice as the previous run.

So, what does all that mean? It means I'm comfortable in any of the three roles that the game has to offer. Currently, I'm only proficient in Hunter/SPriest DPS, Holy Priest Healing, and DK Tanking, but I can easily apply the concepts to other classes (and have - Druid healing).

Now, maybe, just maybe, poor little Daxynn the Pally will get some love...

Things that make you go Hmmmm...

Over the weekend, I got some Epic crafted loot IRL. We decided to buy a 42" LCD TV. It looks great! Of course, now I need to update my satellite service to HD...more money...grrrr.

In WoW, my loot woes continue to fester. Now, poor Dwarfvader has been kicked down to Alt status in the guild, but I'm still able to attend some ICC10 mans should there be room. And on Saturday, there was not only room, but the group was looking to PuG two DPS from /lfr. Since I provided a known quantity and know the fights, I got an invite. /sweet!

Some of the particulars of the group:

I was one of the lowest gear score toons in the joint at around 5100+ or so.
There was another hunter that was 5600+.
There was a melee shammy whose gear score I didn't catch, but was probably lower than mine.

The hunter was a Main (25 raider).
The shammy was a Main (non-25 raider).
DV is an Alt (non-25 raider)

But, of course, this is 10 man, so I figured we all put in the effort, we all get the same shot at the lewtz. Uh...no.

First bit of drama shows up at Lady Deathwhisper. THE trinket drops. The crit trinket. Everyone who wants it /rolls, and DV wins! Woooooot!

Not so fast, Sparky. "Uh...since [other hunter] is a Main, DV is an Alt, then DV are you passing Alts in favor of Mains?" It wasn't so much a question as it was a "Here's what's going to happen..." My response was "I reckon"

At that point, I was ahead of the hunter on the damage meter. My first inclination was to be snarky and say, "Sure, maybe it'll help him catch up to me on the damage meter since 300+ gear score points aren't enough." But...I didn't.

Ah yes, I remember the bitter taste of loot being snatched out of my little grubby hands...

Now, I forget where the next piece of hunter loot dropped (it's all hunter loot, ya know), but it was a one hand axe (DV is dual wielding cause a good 2H won't drop!). I win the /roll and am awarded the axe. No one else rolled (not sure if shammies can use axes). Yay on me!

Festergut dropped a nice neck, which the shammy won. He and DV both rolled for it. Yay on him!

Rotface, ah the loot drama queen, goes down in a puddle of his own vomit and a shiney fist weapon drops. It's better than the other item in my dual wield. The raid starts gratting the shammy when I stink up the show and win the roll.

Silence...

Then, the raid leader starts with the Mains/Alts thing. I point out the shammy won the neck (and was going to follow it up with my winning an item but the RL pointed it out right after I typed my first point.) I didn't really mind losing to a raiding main, but to a non-raiding main? I wasn't going to let it go without saying my piece.

It was very clear that I was the one being viewed as the outsider taking loot from someone that was friends/family with one of the guild leaders. Maybe the shammy had a special place in the guild or I don't know what else. The general feel that I got, was that I should defer to the shammy.

And eventually, I did. The RL gave me the weapon with a "you guys can settle it", and maybe it was just me reading into it, but, it seemed like the RL/GL (yeah him...) was "suggesting" that I would generate good will if I traded it to the shammy, which after a minute or two, I did.

I made sure to let everyone know that I had done so in order to accrue the good will. I guess it made a positive impression...who knows.

The results of the night, though are what tempered the lost loot. 2nd over all on the damage meter. Second.

To a Rogue.

That's right. I beat the other hunter, two 25 man raiding warlocks, and the shammy (who was just above the tanks/healers). I was very proud of my performance. Who needs stupid loot anyways!

Another ICC Milestone

Last night, I got several upgrades, achieves, and...well, I guess just upgrades and achieves. What, ain't that enough for ya??

The fresh ICC brought out a fair number of raiders last night. Now, let me just get one thing off my chest: Our guild struggles for numbers on Monday night (aka progression night), but on Tuesday, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting someone that's waiting on a spot for the 25 man. Luckily for me, I always show up on Mondays, so I think the leadership has duly noted that and gives me a spot. That or I'm bringing a needed buff. Either way, I'm glad I'm in!

We ran over to Ulduar first to take care of the weekly - Razorscale. On the way, the first boss dropped a nice offhand that I was able to snag to upgrade my Heroism badge one. Oh, forgot to mention that I grabbed a 1H weapon upgrade out of ToC25 on Monday night that replaced my 2H weapon, so I was looking for a new offhand.

Anyways, we gathered up at ICC after disbanding to try to take Wintergrasp (we failed miserably), cleared the trash, and took down Marrowgar. Ding! I hit the next level of rep for my ring, yay! It R Sooo purdy!!

On Lady Deathwhisper's trash, somehow, the first two groups got pulled instead of just one side. What's the first thing that goes through my mind? "Oooo! Lots of mobs! I wonder how much damage Mind Sear can do here..."

And Mind Sear I did! Yeah, I pulled aggro on a number of them, Teurion taunted at least three off me at one time, and the healers mercifully decided to heal the Priest tank.

I rocked the damage meter! I ended up with over 15K dps and took over 150k of damage (Teurion took 375K damage on that pull and topped the damage taken meter). The boss herself was pretty inconsequential, and we downed her easily.

Warning, another thing I need to get off my chest: Our loot system.

Now, what ever loot system the guild wants to use is fine with me. Suicide Kings, DKP, Loot Council, /roll, pretty much anything that applies the rules equally to everybody is A-Ok. Of course, blatant favoritism, cronyism, and general tomfoolery are right out!

Also, changing the loot rules, in the middle of an instance, totally not cool.

Our guild uses a combination of loot lists (which we fill out what we want from each boss or for each slot and post on the forums for all to see) and /roll. If the item is on your list, you can /roll; if it isn't on your list, but it isn't on anyone else's list, then you can /roll. If it isn't on your list and it is on someone else's list, then you won't win no matter what you roll.

Highest /roll of eligible people wins the item. Also, as I noted in an earlier post, guild rank determines priority in that Elites>Raiders>Initiates, so the /rolls get filtered through the ranks with the top people getting the first option at the items regardless of /rolls, but it still needs to be on their list.

At no point during the loot distribution process is current gear an issue. People can freely defer a won item to another if they so wish (as one hunter did to another last night on this same boss with a ranged item), but the loot rules don't take into account whether or not the item is an actual upgrade.

Compound that with the fact that I just got promoted to Raider status that very day by a guy that /rage gquit later in the evening.

Ok, still with me? Good. So, Lady DW drops a ring. A caster/healer ring. I hurry up and pull up my loot list, and wonders of wonders, I was with it enough to list it! Woot! I roll.

...and I win!! Yes!

Then, after a bit of a pause, the Raid Leader/Guild Leader (yes, one and the same - bad combo if you ask me) asks me to link my non-rep ring.

That stuck in my craw. I linked it, but was none too happy about this apparent shift in the loot rules. I whispered the RL and reminded him that the ring was on my list. I'm not sure if the whisper helped or if the RL realized that he was changing the rules mid-loot or if he decided that I "needed" the ring, but anyways, I won the ring.

I immediately cut an orange gem for spellpower and haste and slapped that puppy in there. So, I upgraded both of my rings last night! Yes!

I also got to stay for the Saurfang fight and received the achieve for the 25 man wing completion as well as the "I've gone and made a mess" 25 man achievement. We went on to two shot Festergut and wipe repeatedly on Rotface. We were hurtin' for the aforementioned guildie that /gquit earlier and his 1337 dps.

So, four solid hours of raiding, three upgrades, and a couple of achievements; all in all, a good night for Daxie.

iTank

Yes...I do!

So, I've been gearing up my DK by running randoms as DPS. Now, I've had a set of tank gear as well as a tank spec that I could have been using to go as a tank, but I've been too chicken to queue up as such.

Well, Saturday, I took the plunge anyways, switched to my tank spec, donned my tank gear, and queued up for a random. In-sta-queue. oh baby!

I dutifully warned the group that they had a noob tank and then proceeded to show them just what a noob tank looks like. My tanking style was...spastic. Icy touch...TAUNT!!...erm, Plague Strike...DEATH GRIP...uh, Pestilence?...TAUNT!! CRAP IT'S ON COOLDOWN!! FREAK FREAK FREAK!!!

Ok, maybe it wasn't that bad, but a lot more people got hit than should, and I didn't get hit nearly enough.

But...I got better. As the dungeons rolled by, the badges piled up, and my gear got a bit better, the mobs started to pay more attention to me. My rotation improved, my gamepad set up/keybindings was tweaked, and my confidence rose.

I got comfortable with taunting off DPS or healers, I got used to using my spells as they were designed, and I found my cool downs for the poopy pulls.

I haven't arrived as a tank, but I'm well on my way. I'm learning the instances as I've never known them before. I've learned the benefits and pitfalls of Tab targeting (yes, I do it, but now I actually look to see if the mob is part of my current pull...<.<...>.>....).

I still need to tweak my spec (possibly to Blood from Frost), I'm still wearing Blues with blue gems, and I still have more instances to learn. But, I'm getting comfy in my plate leading the charge.

Like the Wind

Aside from doing some stuff in World of Warcraft because I feel I have to (grindy type stuff), for the most part, I do what ever I feel like or want to do.

This explains why I would abandon a full server of toons to start a new server, or why I suddenly decide to roll a new alt when my main needs work, or why I go mining when I really should be doing X or Y. Other than my commitments to others in the form of raids, I pretty much do as I please.

Well, last night was no exception. I've been raiding Mon-Wed, so last night was a night off. I thought I would play Daxxy the Druid to get in a full run of either Deadmines or Wailing Caverns, but I ended up jumping onto Vanco. Yeah, my neglected Death Knight has only been seeing the light of day for the occasional JC daily.

When I logged on last night, Vanco had around a 3300 gear score for his DPS set and was pulling around 1.6k dps in a Heroic. For some reason that I can't remember, he had a smattering of Conquest badges as well as some Triumph and Frost badges.

Right away, I saw that I could buy 2 Conquest badges and get a nice glove upgrade. Unfortunately for me, I mistakenly bought 2 Valor badges and had to burn 4 Triumph badges to get the mitts. Doh!

I also bought a nice new Sigil as I was using the blue one from the original gear set...yeah. So, right off the bat, I was looking better - over 3400 gear score.

So, I started signing up for randoms. I picked up a chest and a belt that was better than what I had. I also amassed enough badges for a piece of T9, and I picked up the DPS shoulders. At the end of the night, I was sitting at 3600 gear score. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

Now, seeing how easily I can gear him up, I'd like to do just that. I plan on roping Teurion into chain randoms so I can get insta-queues, some coaching on melee dps, and fast badge accumulation.

After getting the T9 DPS gear and some incidentals, I'm planning on getting Vanco's tanking gear up to where I can hopefully make my mistakes learning how to tank without dying or getting someone killed. Yeah...hopefully. At least I won't get insta-kicked for my gear score; now after a couple of pulls, all bets are off when the group discovers the failtank...

After I do learn to tank, I'm really looking forward to my own insta-queues!

Daxie and Daxxy

Lately, I've been playing just my priest and my druid.

On Monday and Tuesday, and hopefully tonight as well, Daxie visited ICC25. I have yet to get a drop out of there as I'm still an initiate in the guild, but I'm getting some good rep for my ring upgrade and valuable experience in learning the fights. Also, up until last night, Hubris had not killed Rotface without me in the fight, /preen. Yeah, I know, it probably wasn't due to me being present, but allow me my delusions...

On Monday, I also did a couple of RFC runs on Daxxy. I didn't get any blue drops, but once again, I got some more experience with druid healing (I really like it). I also am finding myself in the position of trying to teach tanks how to tank...*_*....*0*....T.T

or something like that. My first Wailing Caverns popped, and I was grouped up with at least three kids - tell tale signs included the tank asking everyone if they liked his sword and the hunter asking everyone if they liked his pet. After some incessant bugging, I finally told them that both of the respective items were fine.

I kind of felt bad that I had to leave mid-instance in order to make the evening's raid. Kinda...

Last night, due to the server issues, I wasn't able to log onto KT until almost raid time, so I jumped onto Andorhal to chat up Jay and Robin only to find they moved. So, hey Jay, hey Robin.

I also either got kicked out of the guild I was a part of or it disbanded. Not sure which. Don't really care either. 8~P

Option 3 Live!

Yup, collected up the badges necessary to buy three Heirloom items, sent them, 4 Frostweave bags, and 100 gold to Daxxy the Druid. The Heirloom items are Int/Spi/Spell Power geared, because I am wanting to heal my way to 80.

I got her up to 16 over the weekend and as soon as I turned 15, I popped into the LFG to see how I could do.

Let me say, I was very pleased with getting a group right away and being able to do Ragefire Chasm at the appropriate level as Alliance. What a concept!

The tank was pretty easy to heal, the dps didn't pull aggro too much (although one of them was pulling until I asked him to stop), and I only ran out of mana once on a pull gone bad. I think we didn't have any deaths, so yay on me!

I didn't get any good loot; the satchel of helpful goods wasn't all that helpful as it gave me bear/kitty gear. That's about par for the course as I remember my hunter getting a lot of spellpower mail and leather...

Done

I know, I know, you all were hoping I was quitting blogging. I'm not, so wipe those silly grins off your faces!

With the purchase of the 75 triumph badge healing helm, Daxie finished off her triumph badge gear. The only thing left that I might need is dependent on getting a trophy or two from ToC25 which may or may not happen. And, I'm not too sure those items are better than what I have or are just side grades/minimal upgrades. I'll look at the gear just to be sure, but I'm fairly confident that I won't have a use for triumph badges for gear for Daxie.

And, Dwarfvader finished off his non-ToC-trophy gear last month.

So, what to spend my triumph badges on? Glad you asked!

Option 1. Vanco the DK. There are the crafted items that require Crusader's Orbs that would be a nice upgrade for whatever trash Vanco is wearing. I think I would need 12-13 orbs @ 15 badges each = 18o - 195 badges.

Option 2. Money. Those Crusader's Orbs go for a nice little sum right now, but who knows what the price will drop to in the near future (Frozen Orbs are selling just above their vendor selling point of 5 gold). I'm not strapped for cash, so I don't see this option as being viable.

Option 3. A new alt. I really enjoyed playing my Druid over on Andorhal, so I was thinking about pimping out a new Druid with Heirloom shoulders, chest, and staff. I like that Druid healing...

Option 4. My current alts. I could start throwing more Heirloom gear around in general and level my other alts. This one might happen after the first three options, but not right now.

I'm leaning toward number three. Here's my reasoning:
I have nine characters on Kael'thas, four of which are Hunters. I would like to replace one of my hunters with another class, but I am loathe to give up their maxed profession or I have some silly sentimental attachment to them (Dwarfvader and Rysteranch are safe; Smoochie and Nitrodax are in danger; Nitrodax has a lot of enchanting recipes that I would hate to lose; Smoochie...sorry...) I also need to keep one slot open for my Worgen Rogue that I'll be rolling in Cat.

Now, I do have two pallies that could be in danger, my bank toon and a level 39 that I just haven't gotten around to leveling. I might make my level 39 into my bank toon and just get rid of my level one. That's my contingency in case I want to roll yet another toon.

Anyways, the last slot for now is going to be my Druid; the other toons have some breathing room until Cat comes out...

Follow up

Ok, so, it seems that I didn't find the loot rules to read them, and after someone told me where to find them, the document implied that initiates would be rolling after members, so if any member rolled, the initiate wouldn't win the item.

I can live with that. I wish it would just state it plainly, but w/e.

Last night, we continued on in ICC with a two shot of Rotface. We then proceeded to clear trash and tried out the healing dragon one and the Princes. We saved Putriface for Monday. All we ended up killing was trash, but hey, I could use the rep!

I believe tonight is an off night and Friday is ICC10 with the new group. Dwarfvader signed up for that one, but I think I'm going to take Daxie instead - she is my main, yaknow...

That's about all the time I have for posting. Hopefully tomorrow, I'll have time to finish off the indepth analysis of Armor Pen vs. Defense gemming for Shadow Hunters.

Ups and downs

I got to participate in the wipefest on Putricide and Blood Princes on Monday with my guild. I really didn't mind the wipes because it seemed like we did better each time and learned from our mistakes. I don't expect to see these guys go down this week, but I do hope to see more progress on our attempts.

Last night, we had a fresh ICC, and I was fortunate enough to get an invite on Daxie. Unfortunately, there were a couple of things that gave me pause about raiding with Hubris; the first two were loot concerned, and all three were communication concerned.

We were encouraged to make a Best in Slot need list entry on the forums for ICC loot. In fact, if we didn't have it on our list, we basically couldn't roll for it. Fair enough.

The problem, though, is that there are upgrades to be had that aren't BiS, but are better than what I'm wearing. Of course, the first boss dropped one of those items, and I couldn't get a straight answer on whether or not I could roll on it. I ended up not rolling. Uh...ok.

The next boss dropped a pair of bracers that was on my list. YAY! I rolled, along with three others. Guess who won! Yup, I did.

Then the other shoe dropped...the guild master/raid leader gave them to the second highest roller citing that Daxie was an initiate and wasn't able to win stuff. Now that would have been really nice to know before the raid started. I looked high and low on the forums, but couldn't find any information that addressed initiate status and loot. O....K!

And the last item was after the Gunship battle, as we were lining up for Saurfang, someone was typing in raid chat that the instance was full and they couldn't get in. That's when I figured out that I had been dumped into group 6 and replaced. Uh, a whisper or even a raid chat communication to tell me to get out was too much effort when they decided to replace me? Maybe it was a test to see if I noticed that I had been moved to the bench group; well, I supposed I failed at that.

Other than those issues, I did pretty good. I was a solid top 15 in damage done, I didn't die once, and actually cracked the top ten damage on Lady Deathwhisper. Yay me.

Alrighty, enough crabbin'; time to go home.