Prince Malchezar Down!

I repeat, Prince Malchezar down.

After getting through Curator on Thursday night, we started again at Shade. Our quickest clear to shade yet, and a scrambling fight - but we got him down first shot. We didn't even bug him, which is a first for us. Obe tells that 3 or 4 people died to arcane explosion towards the end of the fight, but full points to Lashana who seemed to stay out of trouble and had a full health bar when he finally crumbled.

We got throught to Prince with plenty of time to wreak some havoc. We'd all seen the fight before, so tonight was looking good. First attempt saw some interesting infernal placements, and we wiped. The second attempt. Well this is the second time it's happened to us. Not wanting to name names... but we had a toon stuck out side entrace to Prince.

Third attempt was gold. Good infernal placement, no one dying to enfeeble. A Tank that's buffed to 20k health. I had to move him during the 3rd phase due to infernals but the DPS and healers we well positioned and we got him down.

Check out the family photo - we're all very excited. Some so much, they've moved on down to nightbane already.

To top the night off, I got some awesome loot from Prince, and have finally decked myself out in FULL EPIC gear.

[Gorehowl] was a bit of a bonus, since there was no one else to take it. I really have to respec to arms for just a little bit to test it out properly.

[Helm of the Fallen Defender] lead to [Warbringer Greathelm]!!! With an [Eternal Earthstorm Diamond] in there, shield slaming has never been so much fun. It made [Gnomeregan Auto-Blocker 600] a MUST BUY.

Finally, to top it all off, my last trinket slot requiring an epic was filled with [Violet Badge] from the Prince quest. Sure it's not as good as [Commander's Badge] but the arcane resistance does come in handy, and you can never have too many trinkets [I've got 5 in my bags and 3 in the bank]. Anyway, I have a feeling I'll have [Commendation of Kael'thas] soon.

A huge thanks to all my guildies who have made this milestone possible. On the day we had Mort, Moon, Elf, Obe, Jondy, Lash, Barrath, Moppet and guest pally healer Val.

It's dangerous to expand on the thank yous, since I know I'll miss some people out... but here goes.

Firstly my wfie Jondy. Uber heals, tireless support and for not switching off every time I talk about the NUMBERS.

To Lash and Barr! It's all your fault I play this game. That I'm in this guild. You've both made playing this game FUN.

Fel and Lis, who kept The Ancients up and running and had the necessary experience to get us started in Kara.

Elf and Obe, for topping the DPS every week. You guys have made it look so easy for new dpsers coming in. You've both made it possible to bring in new toons, 2 heal and still get through the content.

Obe for being a great organiser, supporter and taking the helm while I'm away.

Moonspirit for her rock solid main heals, while shackling, while keeping Elf in line! Her disenchanting, and enchanting. Dispelling while healing. Excelling with a multitude of duties whlist being a Zen influence on the raid.

Mort. For tirelessly adopting the mantra: "what's best for the raid". More respecs than I can count. Bringing in the lock for Prince and forgoing a shot at l33t loot. For sharing the path of the Warrior.

Zev.... and Beanie. Who knew a retadin could get geared for Kara so quickly?

Power and Zand! My nephews. With at least spec or class in common with both you guys, it's fun to bring hurt to Kara with family!

Jondayla's Epic Flight Form

Jondy is pictured above in EPIC Flight Form, shortly after a great run through heroic Sethekk Halls and one shotting the Raven God - Anzu.

Thanks to Obe, Zev and Barrath - we had enough DPS to make the instance a breeze - often allowing me to multi-tank two mobs, then dispatch the trapped mob before turning our attention to Obe's sap.

Jondy had the fight against Anzu down pat, keeping up our sixth member, the eagle totem, throughout the fight. The AOE 300 dps it provides to every target in the room is invaluable for the swarms of birds that attack.

Jondy is now enjoying her herbing runs, and being able to swoop past Obento on the way to terocone is going to be a signt to behold.

Blazefury...

... or why this upgrade is worth 1250g.

With Nether Vortex now BOE, and on our sever about 250g [although I've flipped a couple from 230g - 270g recently] there's never been a better time for a Master Swordsmith to reach the pinnacle of their profession - [Blazefury].

Blacksmithing and Swordsmithing have had a lot of people asking, "Why bother?" They are nerfed professions, they say. Well, I'm very happy with my professions, and here is why!

Firstly Armor. No, I'm not an armorsmith. The only thing useful here is some resistance gear, and I'm not even getting any use out of that right now. However, I've had some no brainer upgrades as I was leveling - so I have no complaints here. Plus... I'm a master swordsmith.

Secondly [Fireguard]. I did not have to hang out in Heroic Mechanar for [The Sun Eater]! I was exalted with Sha'tar well before this dropped for me. Since my philosophy is that a weapon should be about threat not mitigation [that's what armor and shields are for], Fireguard wins hands down. Fireguard was my first epic, and allowed me to concentrate on armor upgrades right from 70. Having this quality of weapon right from word go [or as long as it takes to get the mats together] really can't be understated.

Last of all, [Blazefury].

Is the 5x Nether Vortex upgrade from [Blazeguard] worth it? Yes. Yes it is. Here's why.

Although I don't have it linked on the side of the blog like I should, I am a big fan of Tanking Tips. After reading a post on The Threat Formula, I started to think about my different gear sets, and how to maximise threat. Then I thought about how much threat my new sword was giving me.

The upgrade gives:

+1 Hit Rating

+2 Agility

+3 Stamina

+6.2 DPS [or 86.8 Attack Power]

Most people just look at the stats and look at it as a minor upgrade, forgetting that 14 attack power = 1 DPS. About 90% of the extra threat comes from the raw increase in damage the weapon offers.

Still not convinced?

Let's look at it compared to a "real tanking sword" - [King's Defender] which I also have. Some of might say that it's not a fair comparison, since Blaze is a T5 level weapon based on it being crafted with vortex. Well, vortex is BOE so all bets are off, and I do have both - they are fun to dual wield.

In order to wrangle the most threat out of my gear, and still be tank enough - I've developed a system using Tank Points [use to benchmark the defensive aspects of tank gear] and the Effective Threat Formula. When I swap a threat piece for a tank piece, I want to know - how much extra threat can I generate for the loss in protection [effective health and avoidance/mitigation].

So my experiment was to devise the ratio: threat points gained / 100x tank points lost - and calculate it for my possible gear swaps.

I can post the maths here if people really want... but the results are conclusive:

When I swap [Barbed Choker of Discipline] for [Brooch of Deftness] I am getting less than half as much bang per 100 tank points than swapping [King's Defender] for [Blazefury]. To put that in perspective, wearing the [Brooch of Deftness] is about 4 times more effective at trading protection for threat as any other gear swap I can make right now.

Nightbane

I had a feeling...

We'd had a couple of nights in Kara earlier in the week, and I was nearing 100 badges.  I was saving for the new badge gear, and needed to score an epic chest or legs in order to tip the scales one way or the other.

Curator was no help. His [Wrynn Dynasty Greaves] hadn't dropped. We couldn't persuade him earlier in the week by dispatching him record time. I was beginning to suspect he'd be getting the same treatment as Attumen - me getting the alternative [and far superior] badge gear, and shield slamming him at just the right angle so he could peek at the reason he was finding it hard to doge or parry me [badge bracers have expertise rating] - buried beneath Maidens gloves.

Then I got that feeling...

It was the end of the week. Kara was about to reset. A bunch of us had recently downed heroic bosses in order to summon Nightbane. What could be the harm in getting a group together to down him... after all... I had a feeling.

I could feel the pull of [Panzar'Thar Breastplate] and I had a feeling that it would drop. First kill. Today.

So the organisation began. Last minute, trying to gauge interest in a quick raid into Kara for Nightbane only. Obe was in. Moon was in. Elf was going to be on late afternoon. Jondy was excited, but had that look: "don't get ahead of yourself". 

Getting the group together was a little up and down. Moppet came on, so one more guildy saved to our run. The first two pugs didn't last long after hearing it was our first attempt. Then we got a string of responses, and a warrior tank that had almost nothing but badge gear. The first thing I checked was the chest. He had [Chestplate of Stoicism] the 100 badge chest from the Isle. I was never more happy to be out geared, and we had ourselves a main tank with Nightbane experience.

Watching Nightbane circle was quite a rush, and then we were into it. Dodging charred earth, bashing skeletons, watching our fellow raiders die, be battle res'd by battle hardened druids, one to fall once more in battle. 16 minutes later Nightbane was down, and I was staring at a master looter pane with [Panzar'Thar Breastplate] in it. w00t.

Before I could even assign loot, our pugs had grabbed their well earned badges, gave a quick 'grats' and were gone. Just another couple of badges and shot at the loot table. I was still gazing at plate and looking toward my now 96 high pile of badges.

Getting Nightbane down secured my next 100 badge spend on: [Sunguards Legplates] and takes me one step closer full epic. It also had me rethink gear sets and enchants. That's for another post, but now that I'm over expertise capped - Attumen's bracers [they did finally drop] get a +hit gem and a run anytime not up against a raid boss. 

-----------------------------------
15294 Health 16419 Armor 19.37% Dodge 16.45% Parry 27.15% Block 506 Defense

The New Black...

Now that "The Ancients" 7pm Kara group has tried [and suceeded] with two healers, it seems two healers is the new black.

Curator was downed the quickest I've had the pleasure of experiencing [4m22s] interupting is second evocate only to attempt to pound me to death. That of course didn't work, since with plenty of mana left, Jondy and Moon were in "overheal" mode, and we danced over Curators corpse. 

Lash got the new record for quickest double epic for the same slot, with [Gloves of Quickening] from Maiden and [Demon Stalker Gauntlets] from Curator. We continue to struggle with T4 drops for warriors, priests and druids - since they make up at least 60-70% of each raid [2 shadow priests, 1 holy priest, 1 resto druid, 1 feral druid and a tank and dps warrior last night].

Despite some confusion, lack of healing [the default scapegoat] wasn't the problem with Shade. Moving in  flamewreath is a wipe [as I proved week before last]. Standing in the blizzard turns a challenging healing job into heals extreme edition(tm), and anyone new to the fight should to be allowed one arcane explosion to become acquainted with the full spectrum of the Shade experience. If we get to the elementals with everyone up and healthy - they are just a distraction - 5 fears and 2 tanks really ought to be enough - Warlocks welcome but not required.