Ulduar 10 Cleared!

A long time coming, we two shot Yogg-Saron in Ulduar 10. I think we had up to about 60 attempts on this boss, which makes it by far the hardest boss I've encountered to date, including hard mode bosses. Part of the issue with the number of attempts was the turn over in personnel, I think we ended up having more than 20 toons cycled through our Sunday and Monday night raids before we got the boss down.

Everything came together nicely on the night, and our fantastic brain room team gave us plenty of breathing space upstairs. I really enjoyed solo tanking the encounter, and from the moment we entered phase one, scoring an extra mob early it just felt right.


After he was down, I opened the champagne and we contemplated what to do with the rest of our raid night.

The choice was simple really... Heroic TotC10. After clearing normal TotC10 in under 50 minutes (and the week after in 40), we were all keen to get back into the heroic version. We took a little while to adjust to how quick you need to move out of the fire, the speed at which snobolds should die (I like to think they should be vapourised) and getting the Gormok taunting down. Then we focused on some better execution for the worms, and finally Icehowl was safely pwned in good time before the enrage timer.

We played with a couple of strategies for Jaraxxus before calling it a night. After the all the frustrations with Yogg, it was fantastic to finally get him down. Heroic Northrend Beasts was icing on the cake.

Relegated... to the mobile office

His only company? A portable mailbox and ever loyal (robotic, programmed) man servant.

I'm going to be upfront. I despise the completely backward changes made to Emblems in Wrath of the Lichking. While I spend a fair bit of time in game, I consider myself a casual, but talented player. Going back to farm content (daily heroic for EoTs, heroic farming for EoCs) regularly in order to gear up has crushed my alts... well at least one of them.

Poor Borgelmir has been relegated to his mobile office. Now that I feel compelled to run the daily heroic on my *cough* important toons, I have been just dreading gearing this guy up. His current schedule? Well, it's just as well he's both a jewel crafter and an engineer...

... so here's a day in the life of Borgelmir:

• Get the JC daily, and wormhole to the location (30s)
  
• Kill stuff (30s - 2m)
• Hearth (10s)
• Grab Jeeves (so I don't have to run all the way to the bank) and get the small gems for the JC daily and hand in (20s)
• Scan the auction house in Dalaran (4m)
• Grab bargains for the guild bank, post my own auctions (2m)
• Cut gems for fellow guildies (0 - 30s)
• Logout... no more playtime for you today

10 minutes tops. If he wasn't a 450 JC and 450 engineer, with the capacity to become my primary AH toon... I may have actually ditched him altogether.

of the Nightfall

The story starts with Borgthor, back on 21st August, having a free moment, and watching trade and looking for group vigilantly to find that exciting PuG opportunity. It came in the form of the following, "LF pro tank for Sarth+3D 10 man zerg". I responded immediately, and got the nod. Naturally we then had to wait a while to find a suitable shaman (isn't that always the way?).

The strategy was quite straightforward.

• 1 Tank, 1 Healer, 8 DPS
• Rogue vanishes to reset Sarth, everyone gets into position
• As soon as Sarth appears, pop hero and unload
• Tank picks up 1st drake while continuing to pump high threat into Sarth
• Just before Sarth is at 25% health (drake enrage), a DPSer taunts the extra drake, and runs like hell
• The drake enrages, but Sarth is dead before the drake can 1) kill the DPSer who taunts and 2) make it back to wipe the group

Much to my surprise, everything went like clockwork in this PuG, and we one shot Sarth. I was pleasantly surprised how much threat I was able to generate (given that you need some serious DPS to make it work) and the threat lead I had enabled me to pick up the drake without worrying about slowing the DPSers down (or letting them rip).

I missed out on the drake, but it was such a nice group that we went to do 6 minute Malygos.

We got some momentum behind a guild attempt of Sarth+3D, but it took a little while to fit in the schedule. On 14th September we managed to get a group up and running. Monday nights haven't been easy to organise since we introduced them as an extra 10 man night. Some people have a preference for 25 mans (which we are now running two nights per week) and other people just have a more limited schedule. So... it came as a little bit of a surprise that Zenborg was actually the best available healing option for the fight.

The issue with only needing one tank, one heal and having trouble finding 10 toons up to the challenge was that once we could grab our Pally tank, Borg was no longer required in the tanking department. Next up was the DPS / taunting role. My wife Jondayla has really taken to her kitty offspec, and has been putting out some serious DPS (including in recent hard modes, where a healer go DPS option has given us a great deal of flexibility). So she had the DPS / taunt gig, which left us without a healer. So Zenborg it was. After all, I had recently announced to Jondy, "I finally get priest healing, everything before now was sooo awkward".

By the time we filled out last spot, we had a balance druid, and we decided that the range would give them an advantage in the 'taunt and run' department. In hindsight I could have passed the healing assignment back to Jondy, but I was probably too excited to think of that option.

Our group was

• Prot Pally
• 3x Hunters
• Destro Warlock
• Balance Druid (+taunt and run)
• Feral Druid
• Rogue
• Elemental Shaman
  
• Holy Priest

We had a lot of fun over our many attempts, and it took a little while to get used to keeping DPS up while dodging waves (particularly from the left side was painful), getting the taunt mechanics down, and learning just how awesome binding heal can be.

When we did get him down, it took just 1m48s. Our dedicated DPS were between 4.5 - 5.5k DPS (or equivalent*), and Zenborg was well and truly dead. Congratulations to Helly, who walked away with the [Reins of the Black Proto-Drake].

If you must take a slightly less than ideal healing option, I highly recommend a priest. Spirit of Redemption was absolutely overpowered for that last 15 seconds of totally uninterrupted healing. In most fights it's not that big a deal, but 15 seconds in a 1m48s fight is pretty huge.

Raiding Roundup - 10 Man - Ulduar Hard Modes

Our first night of Ulduar hard modes and achievements was a lot of fun, and went really well.

Nuked from Orbit (Flame Leviathan - 3 towers)

We added Freya's tower to the mix, and our gunners expertly dispatched the flowers as they appeared. It required a couple of attempts, and a lot more pyrite... but we defeated FL with 3 towers up. I think adding in Mimiron's tower will take a lot more in the way of execution than our 3 towers effort but I think we're up for the challenge.

Stokin' the Furnace (Ignis - sub 4 minutes)


We went 2 tanks, 2 heals for this encounter, with Jondy swapping into kitty spec. Given our usual strategy is a zerg, I think we'll be doing it this way from now on. The two healers handled it very comfortably, and he was down before any real spike damage could hit the tanks.

Heartbreaker (XT Hard Mode)


Heartbreaker was a lot of fun, and our first true hard mode kill. I got to go Arms for this fight, and give the heart a good pounding which was great fun. Just to ensure that the heart went down, Jondy switched to kitty in healing gear and gave it a bit of a swipe too. Our kill was a fairly long one I think, with me back into defensive stance to taunt / tank the sparks while ranged brought them down. Next time I think we could be a little slicker in dealing with the sparks for a quicker kill. Zeltan got [Aesir's Edge], which is a fitting reward for the the hard mode.

We had a couple of runs at Iron Council hard mode, but ran out of time. The most exciting part was watching Adirix (holy pally) get Fusion Punch himself and hit the ground. Still not sure why it happened... but it was well worth it. ;)

I found tackling the hard modes quite rewarding, and I think everyone on the night had a great time. However, I'm finding it increasingly difficult to fill a group to go into Ulduar 10. My highest priority for 10 man is to down Yogg-Saron, and recently trying to get the right brain room team has been looking a little bleak. Add to that, people's enthusiasm for TotC10 (both gear and EoTs) and you get ... stuck. The last couple of weeks have seen me alternatively running a second TotC10 group with additional guests, or running guild groups on consecutive nights on different toons. While getting 17-20 guildies through TotC10 is great for the experience and gear, it's just not what I look forward to my 10 man nights for.

To quote myself from a recent conversation with one of my favourite hunters:

I don't raid for loot. Loot comes as a side effect of raiding with great group with decent loot rules. I raid for the challenge of difficult encounters.

When it comes to 25 mans, it is all about the guild. I want to expose a greater selection of guildies to raiding, and help them progress. We even had guildies that picked up the Tier 8.5 chest from Hodir, even though it's available from farming heroics. We often take undergeared, and more casual guildies over PuGing, but perform very well for our two nights per week raiding.

10 man on the other hand, I really want to pwn! It's a chance to form a tight knit group of skilled and dedicated raiders and work on some tougher content. Hopefully we'll be back to that for my next 10 man roundup.

Raiding Roundup - 25 Man

Lots to update since we one shot Anub'arak in 10 man TotC in the first week he was available, but this is the 25 man post.

We've been working our way through the keepers. Since the introduction of TotC, we've had limited opportunities to really sink our teeth into them, but they have been dropping.

Our Hodir kill was a very close call, after a number of frustrating wipes. It was a huge relief to get him down, with a little help from our cold, cold friends. The number of people that got themselves frozen attempt after attempt was pretty funny (in hindsight), and I enjoyed DPSing for this fight. I have developed an ever diverse set of phrasing to describe each of the fight mechanics, including my patented, "off the circles... onto the circles" over vent during the fight. As it was we managed to get the kill with 7 dead, so I'm looking forward to beating the enraged timer by a significant margin with the whole raid alive.

Freya was another fight that took some time to learn on 25 man, despite a solid strategy and good looking team. I think everyone needs to experience how much the detonating lashers hurt when they explode before they will listen to the advice to single target them at low health. Getting the three elementals down at the same time also proved to be a challenge, and it's very tempting just to add an extra 10% health to the instruction 'stop DPS on X'. Maybe it's something that again needs to be experienced before it's handled better. One of the things I think we do well as a guild, is try and explain the fight from first principles, so that there's a better understanding of why we employ the strategy we do. It takes a little extra time, but I think once the fight has been learned, and won, the terse instructions given for a boss that's on farm seem to stick a little better.

Finally, Thorim went down in Ulduar 25, after just a few attempts over two different nights. In the arena, focus fire (and probably too little DPS on the first night) was the biggest issue, but when we got the balance right, and added a 2nd tank to hallway team, it went like clockwork. A couple of people died in the lightning charge... but we got him down convincingly.

The following week, we went for a romp in TotC25, and got 4/5 straight up. I really enjoyed one shotting the faction champions... with more tanking / plate wearing options to distract the melee, more CC options and interrupts galore it was so much easier than we had found in 10 man. Hopefully Anub'Arak will fall this weekend.

What a long, strange trip...

It all ended with my favourite festival in WoW, Brewfest. I had completed every possible achievement available the year before and logged in early on the first day of Brewfest only to find that Coren Direbrew wasn't due out until the 'start' of the event in 'US time'. I had even disturbed the peace as soon as I could get to Dalaran sans mage port when the expansion came out.

It was well worth the wait, as Brewmaster is the most cherished of all my titles associated with festival events in WoW... which I temporarily forgot about... because I had mail!

I didn't expect the mount to feel a whole lot faster, and it didn't at first. The fact that it's so BIG had me thinking, is this really 310% speed? Then I looked at where I was on the map after my test flight and decided - YES! this is freakin' 310% speed!

The violet protodrake (violet, not pink, Obe) is a great looking beast for starters. Then the speed... oh the speed. I can't describe how good it... oh wait, yes I can. The speed feels awesome. So awesome in fact, that it has made mining FUN again. I even decided to take a lap through Sholozar Basin while putting a guild progression raid together, and by the time everyone had decided to log on... I had 80+ saronite ore, and all the eternals and gems to go with it.

The most exciting part of Brewfest this year, was obtaining my long sought after ram mount! I got the kodo last gear, which I admit after 12 months of use, does suit a tank rather well... but I was still hanging out for the ram. He doesn't disappoint, and is the only land mount I'm using at the moment.

It is such a relief to have the Violet Protodrake, and to look forward to a year, almost festival free. While I thoroughly enjoyed brewfest, I can't say the same for most of the other festivals. In fact the person most happy to see me find a 310% speed mount in my mail was my wife, Jondy... who is hoping that the coming festival season will see WoW related swearing drop by about 50%.

Secret Warlock

This toon is an inscriber, so I can't show you his face... or tell you his name. What I can reveal to you is that he is a warlock, decked out in heirlooms, with a level appropriate helm from a recent run in Zul'Farak.

My secret warlock was once a mighty coin generating machine, and is now free to level and experience the sights and sounds of Azeroth before it all changes... forever. One day, when people of all races look back fondly on the highs and lows of the gylph market, he'll even be able to show his face.

EoC for 8800g?

I received nothing but, "are you crazy?" whilst considering [Etched Signet of the Kirin Tor] for 8800g (count on guildies to tell it like it is).

So how many emblems is that at the best possible price? 352. Hmmm, maybe they were right.

Marketwatch(tm) with Borgthor

Inspired to turn your excess [Emblem of Conquest]s into cold, hard coin? Allow me to guide the way.

	Emblems	MBO		Avg
iLvl 213 Bracers	60	1100	18.33	1500	25.00
Dreadstone	10	169	16.90	179	17.90
Eye of Zul	10	149	14.90	150	15.00
Ametrine	10	135	13.50	145	14.50
Runed Orb	18	235	13.06	270	15.00
King's Amber	20	178	8.90	181	9.05
Cardinal Ruby	20	165	8.25	169	8.45
Majestic Zircon	20	151	7.55	152	7.60
Frozen Orb	10	28	2.80	50	5.00

MBO = minimum buy out today, on the AH
Avg = 7 day average price on Dath'Remar

The iLvl 213 BoE bracers have jumped in price again, now that everyone has better things to do with their higher level emblems. Of course, they are the hardest thing to offload on the list, given competing BoE items (espeically higher level [Combustion Bracers] for cloth... but if you can find a buyer at 1500g, it just can't be beat.

The next tip is to make sure you're getting your primary colour gems (Red, Blue, Yellow) transmuted by an alchemist, or purchased with Honor to free up your emblems for the combo gems (Purple, Green, Orange).

I was a little surprised just how far down the list [Runed Orb]s are, but considering the best in slot craftables are now competing with iLvl 232 items from normal TotC10 and your [Emblem of Triumph] pick list the demand for these has slowed up too.

What to do with 8800g?

Zenborg often feels a little neglected (unlike my other alts who are completely shunned at this point). He doesn't get borgruns(tm) through heroics, he doesn't get to do progression raiding with the guild... and the memories of pugging sometimes haunt his often Zen-like existence.

So I'm convinced if I throw gold at the problem, he'll feel appreciated (amirite, ladies?).

Here's the plan:

[Signet of the Kirin Tor] - 6800g
[Inscribed Signet of the Kirin Tor] - 1000g
[Etched Signet of the Kirin Tor] - 1000g

Buying happiness? Priceless.

I'm pretty much posting this so I can be talked out of it. 8800g seems to be way too much to spend on a ring. Does anyone know if there are plans to release a iLvl 245 upgrade? In your opinion, what should I be spending 8800g on?

Trial of the Crusader (10) Cleared!

We cleared Trial of the Crusader on 10 man on the weekend, in the first week that Anub'Arak was available, and best of all we one shot him. Anub'Arak's downfall inspired this new spirit of posting as events unfold rather than as a one liner in a "lets get caught up" post.


We were so excited at the one shot, that even getting severely pwned by the heroic mode couldn't dampen our spirits. It did however, send me the the combat log to come up with the following analysis of the impale mechanic:

• can't be avoided or blocked
• on impale you get hit hard (17k (also scaling with number of snobolds out))
• it ticks every 2 seconds, scaling with the number of stacks (probably also scaling with snobolds), rough numbers below
  

• 1 stack - 2k
• 2 stacks - 5k
• 3 stacks - 9k

• Damage scaling as expected on both tanks (no unusual difference between pally and warrior tanks)
• Gormok is immune to Disarm on heroic mode (you're always going to get impaled)

So with our great healers, and a disarm to reduce impale stacks... we could afford to be quite sloppy on how we dealt with it on normal mode... not so on heroic.


This week we also got Auriaya in Ulduar 25, making 3 new bosses over our first two weeks of getting a Ulduar 25 raid up and running for two nights. As usual, I'm caught between making further progress into the keepers, or trying out TotC25 and getting some trophies into the guild.

We also got a new VoA boss, Koralon the Flame Watcher. I really should have made a prediction on which element was next, but I missed the chance. I'm assuming water is next, and predicting that we port down through the crossroads between all three for that one.

I managed to get the boss down in 10 and 25 man on both Borg and Zen, with a pleasing one shot 25 man for Zenborg. It was fantastic to get a guild group for the 10 man, which ensures any useful loot that drops stays in the guild. I missed out on lewt altogether, but Jondy was very excited with [Malfurion's Leggings of Triumph]. Zen's 25 man dropped a total of 0 (yes, zero) PvE pieces, which was met by delightful screams about injustice. Remember people, that luck is just probability taken personally.

There's lots more to talk about and share, but since the frequency of posts seems to be inversely proportional to the effort expended on each post... I'd better stop there. I've convinced myself that I'll do some special "scrapbook from the past" posts to cover those special things I've missed... I guess time will tell.

Raid Buffs and Debuffs

I couldn't find a resource that was a nice check list of raid buffs/debuffs as a guide for raid leaders who wanted to balance raid groups, so I decided to create one myself. I've tried to keep it very simple, as it's designed to be a usable resource while putting a raid together.

The main function this serves for me, is a guide to what I want to recruit to add that little extra to our 25 man raiding team. I am a huge fan of bring the player, not the class... but if you are going looking for new players, you might as well pick up the buff/debuff you're after at the same time!

Each row in this list should stack with everything else on the list. If there are any corrections, additions or advice, please leave a comment on this post (and remember to tell me who you are if you're leaving an anonymous comment too).

Debuffs

Description	Primary	Details	Secondary
Minor Armor Reduction	(Feral / Moonkin) Druid	%5 Armor Reduction
Major Armor Reduction	Protection Warrior	%20 Armor Reduction	Rogue (Arms / Fury) Warrior
Attack Speed Decrease	Protection Warrior Protection Paladin Death Knight	%20 Attack Speed decrease - improved Icy Talons	Feral Druid (%10)
Attack Power Decrease	(Arms / Fury) Warrior Feral (Bear) Druid	~-410 Attack Power (untalented) ~-574 Attack Power (talented)	Protection Warrior Warlock
Cast Time Increase	Arcane Mage Rogue (MN Poison) Warlock	30% Cast Time Increase
Crit Chance (general)	Retribution Paladin Elemental Shaman	+3% Crit Chance
Crit Chance (spell)	Frost Mage Fire Mage Warlock (imp SB)	+5% Spell Crit Chance
Increase Bleed Damage	Feral Druid Arms Warrior	+30% Bleed Damage
Magic Damage Increase	Unholy Death Knight Balance Druid	+13% Magic Damage	Warlock
Physical Damage Increase	Combat Rogue Arms Warrior	+4% Physical Damage
Healing Decrease	Arms Warrior Fury Warrior Marksmanship Hunter Rogue (Wound Poison)	-50% Healing taken	Shadow Priest (-20%)
Hit Chance Decrease	Hunter Balance Druid	-3% Chance to Hit
Hit Chance Increase	Shadow Priest Balance Druid	+3% Chance to Hit with spells

Buffs

Type	Primary	Details	Secondary
Attack Power %	Hunter Enhancement Shaman Blood Death Knight	10% Attack Power Increase
Attack Power	Paladin	~685 AP (talented)	Warrior
Armor and Stats	Druid	1050 Armor +52 All Stats
Armor	Protection Paladin	1150 - 2008 Armor	Paladin Shaman
Kings	Paladin	+10% all stats
Agility and Strenth	Enhancement Shaman	155 - 178 Str and Agi	Death Knight Shaman
Intellect	Mage	+60 Intelect	Warlock (48)
Spirit	Priest	+80 Spirit	Warlock (64)
Stamina	Priest	+165 Stamina
Physical Crit Chance	Feral Druid Fury Warrior	+5% ranged and melee crit chance
Spell Crit Chance	Balance Druid Elemental Shaman	+5% spell crit chance
Damage Increase	Retribution Paladin	+3% damage increase
Haste Increase	Balance Druid (45yd)	+3% haste	Retribution Paladin (30yd)
Haste, Melee	Frost Death Knight Enhancement Shaman	+20% melee haste	Shaman (16%)
Haste, Spell	Shaman	+5% spell haste
Healing Improvement	Restoration Druid Protection Paladin	+6% healing recieved
Health	Warrior (talented)	+2818 Health	Warrior (2285) Warlock (Imp)
Mp5	Paladin	+109.5 Mp5 (talented)	Shaman
Replenishment	Survival Hunter Frost Mage Retribution Paladin Shadow Priest Destruction Warlock	+1% of maximum mana per 5 sec
Spell Power	Elemental Shaman	+280 Spell Power	Balance Druid (15% spirit) Shaman (144 - 165.6) Demonology Warlock (10% SP on crit)
Hit Chance	Draenei (race)	+1% chance to hit

Best in Slot Unhittable (Warrior)

It's been a while... a long while. I have been very busy in game, working on beefing up the guild for both 10 and 25 man progression. We have had a fantastic influx of new members, and balancing the raid schedule for a casual guild that wants it all has been a terrific mind puzzle.

In any case, we're 12/14 Ulduar 10, 6/14 Ulduar 25 and 4/4 TotC 10 (with the final boss still to come). Now that we're caught up (not really, but I'm sure there'll be more of that to come) onto the inspiration for this post.

Wowhead. Is there nothing they can't do?

The wowhead profiler should have itself warranted a post, just to promote their aesthetic which blows all other armory tools away... but at least it got a plug on the guild website.

Unhittable. It's a fairly useless concept to a protection warrior, but a fun one none the less. The idea is that any time you are attacked with melee, at worst the mob is going to attempt to break through your shield to get at you.... Block, Dodge, Parry, Miss. That's it. I've been having a look at BiS unhittable lists over at tankspot.com, but what if you want to put a set together that's the best of the stuff from your bag and bank? (Prot warriors don't vendor gear, they just sublet yet another commercial shipping container)

Wowhead's "create a weight scale" tool to the rescue. Plug in weighted values for block, parry, dodge and defense for mitigation (not avoidance) and bam:

Ranked list of best unhittable pieces for a Protection Warrior.

It doesn't take diminishing returns into account, particularly regarding the benefits of dodge vs. parry... but it gives you a fantastic guide to where the best pieces are!

I have the coolest friends...

No updates for a while, means another super sonic catch up post... going backwards this time.

The I Have the Coolest Friends achievement from keeping all the NPCs up on Hodir 10 man was a nice surprise at the end of our first successful attempt, and really capped off a great night of raiding. We condensed our recent two night forays into Ulduar into a single night, and got a new boss, and saw our first (Hunter) tier token. Add in the achievements for A Quick Shave and Nerf Gravity Bombs, it made for a great night.

Ulduar 10: 8/14

I have the coolest friends also sums up how I'm feeling about my guild of late. We're a social guild, so we're not blazing trails through new content, and there's always more to do than we can fit in the schedule... but I've really enjoyed raid leading recently with some polished performances, and having master looting (and DKP allocation) being taken off my hands. We've settled into the DKP loot system, we've added decay, and toons have been pleasantly surprised with the amount of loot that ends up in the hands of first time raiders and new alts (as was I when only one toon rolled on
Surplus Limb).

Next up, we got Malygos down in 25 man mode on 23rd May on our first night working on the boss. I'm not sure if people actually expected us too, since we had more toons sign up for one Ulduar 10 man group, than our Malygos attempt. The less than stellar attendance was a blessing in disguise however, with some diligant pugging, we picked up some of our top DPS for the evening, including some stellar performers on the drakes. As a nice reward, the massive DKP Helly and I sunk into the Key turned into a fantastic neck piece at the end of the night.

Malygos 25: 1/1

The Ancients defeated Heroic Naxxramas on 25th April, shortly after patch 3.1 was released. Since then we have cleared another couple of times (on a fortnightly schedule) and dished out a lot of nice loot. I have been lucky enough to get [Wall of Terror] and [Last Laugh] already, which with a couple of drops from Ulduar 10 man, has me geared out for tier 7, and I finally got the Epic achievement (I believe I owe a certain fellow tank a new gun). I had great fun with our most recent clear, which saw 11 bosses drop in 3 hours flat on our first night, which left us plenty of time to get into Ulduar 25 on the second night of raiding to beat down Flame Leviathan and have a quick look at Razorscale.

Naxxramas 25: 15/15
Ulduar 25: 1/14

So that catches me up on the raiding of late. Since patch 3.1 I've been regularly pugging Emalon, and even helping to gain control over Wintergrasp, although I'm not sold on this whole PvP thing... I'm told I have enough honor to get 'something good' but it just seems like too much work to make space in my bank to store yet another set of gear. Having said that, it could do with a good clean out! Borgthor is my main, so only he has this problem of keeping sentimental gear, holiday bits and pieces and a massive shield collection. Does anyone else have this problem? To give you an idea how bad it is, I still have the full imperial plate set sitting in there.

Borg's DPS gear is coming along, and to my total surprise picked up two (yes TWO) plate DPS pieces in Naxx25 on the offset roll. I have traded in the [Collosal Skull-Clad Cleaver] for [Relentless Edge] which adds an element of awesome to the set, and while the 3.2 speed isn't optimal for ARMS, it was another welcome upgrade! Today's 4% haste buff to ARMS will be interesting to test out... maybe on something more exciting than a test dummy. /hint hint

While I remember... I have to get this down in writing so someone can hold me to it. Getting [Last Laugh] from KT25 gives me the perfect excuse to try out a UA spec on a a few bosses next time we go into Naxxramas!

My DK, Borgelmir (who I haven't formally introduced) is sitting at 71 just doing JC dailies... but might have some motivation to level with alts of friends, my wife, and with Obe returning for at least a little while all having toons within cooeee of his level. I have maxed out JC, but still need some help deciding on a second profession. I'm leaning towards Engineering (BS would be good too but it's out) and Alchemy looked attractive for a while (see next paragraph for why it's not)... What profession do you think my DK should level next?

I've been going crazy on the AH again (with a secret inscribing toon) which had me in the habit of a project I'd wanted to get underway for a long time. Flasks for All! With the subsidised Abyss Crystal trade from raiding, and some sizable "I'm leaving WoW" donations from guildies, The Ancients guild bank had a healthy bank balance to start the project. So as Jondy puts it, I ... "just went nuts". I've turned over about 10k gold in getting the guild bank stocked with flasks, including herbs, vials and even flasks themselves when they are cheap enough. To start with, I would have sessions with Jondayla at the guild bank to churn out flasks, but had totally overlooked our resident elixir masters in the guild! Now with Helly churning out flasks with an impressive proc rate, we can off flasks to our gulidies at between 10 - 30% less than market price as a sustainable process. I've been excited to see how quickly they disappear, and even more excited by the strike rate of guild bank deposits to match.

Well, I think that's me all caught up, happy now Obe? Yes, Obe's return to WoW was the precursor to this post... but to look at the comments section, you'd think the readership for this blog was just me (and my wife (please direct all editing comments to Jondayla)). So... you want updates? Say so via your comments here! ... and help me decide on a second profession for my DK while you're at it!

Nobel Garden

Seriously, kid... stay away from my eggs.

Zenborg does it again...

... with Denyin' the Scion, Zenborg yet again pulled the rug out from under Borg for another achievement I was hoping to get on my main. I was lucky enough to get into a PuG that two shot Malygos, and had enough DPS to get into the last phase with 4m left on the enrage timer. Zen's gear has come a long way since running EoE with the guild, so I managed to top the DPS going into the third phase. The raid leader was a Hunter, who dealt with the sparks solo, and with some coordination with the MT, managed to stack a couple each attempt.

Zenborg's Wild Ride

When you're the guild master, raid lead and main tank - it pays to have an alt that is care free. That is Zen. A mercinary damage dealer that can holy nova in the spotlight, or quickly disperse into the shadows. Who can macro, 'no, I'm not a healer' just because I don't feel like it today.

Being Zen has it's bennefits, and here's how we found life as a level 80 shadow priest.

08/03 - Ding! Level 80.

• First Emblem of Heroism from Heroic Nexus, and even the Needy achievement!
• First Emblem of Valor in Heroic Archavon
  

10/03 - 25 Emblems of Herosim collected in Normal Obsidian Sanctum

• Split Personality and Chaos Theory in Heroic Nexus were great fun!
  

14/03 - Clear Naxxrams 10 Man ... as a Healer

• I found a fantastic PuG that swapped over a handful of toons throughout the single session run, and had a ball CoHing my way through the instance.
  

19/03 - The Eye of Eternity

• My first raid with the guild and it's the big one. We had a couple of very capable tanks that really wanted to get in on the raid, so I jumped onto the spriest for pew pew. Fortunately whlie my DPS in the first two phases was 'acceptable' I managed to kick it up several notches on the drakes for the last phase to pwn the spellweaver. As the only DPS caster in the group, [Gown of the Spell-Weaver] was a fantastic reward.

20/03 - Heroic Obsidian Sanctum - had a fantastic time AOEing the little fiery critters
21/03 - Heroic Halls of Stone, my last Heroic for the Champion of the Frozen Wastes title
09/04 - Heroic Naxxramas Down

• My second run with the guild of one of my favourite hunters. Due to the Razuvious MC mechanic, Shadow Priests are in demand not only for their pew pew (now with AoE) but their singular responsibility in this fight.

I've really enjoyed the outlet that is Zenborg, and while pugging has a whole different set of frustrations to guild and raid leading, the headset of 'turn up, stay out of the fire and pew pew' makes for a refreshing change of pace. I've even had a blast healing, and now that dual specs are here, I'm sure to see much more in the future.

Chef Borgthor

Hail to the Chef! Oh, so many days, weeks and months I toiled over a hot stove... well campfire. I took flint and tinder and stocked up on simple wood. I traded in my flint and tinder for a gnomish army knife, threw away the simple wood... and finally with so much cooking - could make campfires appear as by magic!

I started in Outlands performing my cooking daily with tenacious vigour. I kicked it up a notch in Northrend, over catering events (you really need all 12 chilled meats for this convention?) and adding string after string to my gormet bow. I had even stocked the guild bank with enough Captain Rumsey's Larger to get Nat Pagle hammered!

I even had secret agents (so secret I didn't even know about it) scouring Azeroth for the secret to making Savory Deviate Delight, even going so far as to plant spys working deep in industrial espionage through the Barrens and Horde commercial centres.

But it was to no avail. As accomplished a cook as Borgthor was... one final challenge awaited. I almost believed that the chocolate cake was a lie!

Then one day. Just and ordinary day. After creating a super strain of wine for a special wine and cheese platter - it hit me... Mageroyal is the secret. Finally the cake was not a lie.


I gathered my good friends Joss and Kal, so they could share in the moment, and I could bake for them... finally as a qualified Chef!


The chocolate cake recipe unlocked the last four of my cooking achievements in one discovery:

• The Cake is Not a Lie
• Chef De Cusine
• The Outland Gourmet
• Hail to the Chef
  

Having a look at the chat log from the screenshots, I reminded Kal that he'd be MCing on Razuvious that night... and he must have done a great job :D

Want to earn the Safety Dance ...

... all it takes is The Dedicated Few!


Tonight, we rounded up a few of the gang, to 8 man Naxxramas. We had 1 Prot Warrior, a Ret Pally (who could tank as needed), Priest and Druid healing team, and 4 more DPS (Warlock, Hunter, Ret Pally and Feral Kitty).

We had a blast racing through spider wing, only seconds short of the Arachnaphobia achievement. Without a lot of lewt (although the lack of melee DPS drops almost brought me to tears) to worry about, we moved to group loot - making things a lot quicker.

I hadn't even thought about the Safety Dance achievement until it popped up, which really made my night. Subtraction on Thaddius was a bonus, but impossible to avoid when getting the Dedicated Few.

Four Horseman was a lot of fun with only 8, although it's not required for the Dedicated Few achievement. We had our Druid Healer (Jondayla) and Hunter at the back, Pally Tank and Feral Druid (healing) front right, and Borg tanking with priest healer, Ret Pally and Warlock front left. With only two dedicated DPS for the front two bosses, we needed to managed a few extra boss trades at the front, but evey one hung together to pwn the event and lewt the chest.

With the Dedicated Few completed with no gear from Ulduar, we signalled our readyness for the coming challenges... not least of all, putting and end to Kel'Thuzad with more than 3 times as many toons next week!

Sarth+1D 10 Man - Post 3.1

We attempted Sarth+1D tonight, and things were traveling very well, until Vesperon came out to play. It looks like he was berserking before he even engaged in the encounter.

We'd coped with the lava wave bug... as long as you catch a glimpse of it before firewall magically disappears, the gaps were in the same place as always. We'd even decided to forget about Vesperon, and zerg Sarth since the toons through the portal couldn't see the lava waves, but were getting hit. Sartharion was 'mostly dead' by that stage anyway.

Then Vesperon hit both tanks for around 30k a time (compared to Sarth's 7k on the MT)?!?!? I'd love to hear back from other people that have done this fight post 3.1 (yes, you're all probably off doing Ulduar) and see if the same thing is happening to them.

Although it's only going to link correctly for a couple of weeks... our WWS is here.

EDIT: Thanks so much to Allie, of WoWInsider who kindly replied to my query a great explanation for our problem. In order to prevent a full out zerg on Sartharion (you are supposed to kill the drakes you've left up) if you get Sartharion under 25% health with any drakes alive, they will gain berserk (as above) and wipe the raid.

With our great DPSers, and Vesperon coming into the fight a whole two minutes after engaging Sartharion, we would get Sartharion to 25% or under (especially when we popped heroism early) just as Vesperon was due to come out.

The solution is to take it easy on poor old Sarth during that first phase, getting down to 30% at most before Vesperon is out. Then just DPS down Vesperon, ignoring the portal (while our healers just heal through the extra damage) and finally return our attention to Sarth.

Since we were travelling so easily, it would be great to get the gang back together for another shot next week. Sarth+1D 10 Man is one of those things I wanted to get done before the patch, and at least before we're all decked out in drops from Ulduar.

Flying like an Eagle ...

... and you thought there were no achievements for raid leading?

Champion of the Frozen Wastes

The Ancients Defeated Malygos in the Eye of Eternity (10 man) on 15th March 2008.

The kill exemplified what I think progression raiding should be all about. In each effort over 13 attempts we clawed a little closer to the spell caster's demise.

When Malygos fell, my and Jondayla's confidence shone through, our twin 'Champion of the Frozen Wastes' achievements lighting up the screen. Over the next few days (and weeks) we were able to tank and heal some of our fellow guildies through Heroic Occulus and Heroic Old Kingdom to get their titles.


To top it all off, as if Malygos himself knew that something really special was required to deserve Champagne, the shield dropped. [Barricade of Eternity].

Zen Can Fly!

... again ... but new and improved.

Almost a month since my last post... We've got Naxx10 on farm, but just shy of clearing in a single night. We've got Naxx25 man up and running - 6/15 - but are really struggling for numbers each week, and there doesn't seem to be enough time in the schedule for Malygos, although we've had our first peek and got through to phase 3.

I temporarily lost interest in Zenborg after a slight miscalculation about both which level I was, and which level I would get Mind Sear. Shifting the distance to the event from 20% of a level to more than two whole levels almost shattered my mind, and I went back shield slamming until I felt a bit better. After recovering, I finally gave in to the need to quests after leveling to 73 without seeing a ? during WotlK.

After a quick steak farming trip around the Fjord testing the limitations of mind sear, I quickly set it to work in some instances. Unfortately there was virtually no difference in my experience in VH with mind sear and without, since my first instance after hitting 75 saw me partied with possibly the worst tank I've played with in WoW (certainly in the top 5). Then it was on... even through Halls of Lightning at level 76, where I was owning on the trash, but even with a whack of hit, missing and getting severely (partially) resisted on the bosses.

Finally after hitting level 78, and realising I could get started on Sons of Hodir rep, something snapped. The flight from Dun Niffelum to Thorim, even on my brand new flying carpet seemed to take FOREVER. I knew I would need to make this trip several more times. I think deep down, I started to weep. I quickly checked my balance... only 3700g on the server! However, while leveling tailoring I had already made a [Magnificent Flying Carpet], and I knew it was only a matter of time before Zen was due to fly fast. Almost telepathically (or maybe she actually heard the gears grinding in my skull) Jondy could sense my anguish, and with very little begging forked over 1400g to see me through. Then it was done...

Then as quick as a flash, I could resume the Sons of Hodir questline at super speed.

Naxxramas 10 Man Cleared!

Last night, of Dath'Remar cleared Naxxramas 10 Man. We had a good start to the week on Thursday, clearing Spider and Plague wings, and leaving only Thaddius standing in Construct in our first raid night that actually went for only the planned 3 hours. After trying Sapphiron the previous week, with a mix of Frost Resist gear, and a bug that increased the Frost Aura damage by 100% - we managed to one shot Sapphiron, with Jondayla putting in a huge effort, solo decursing. Kel'Thuzad was an exciting challenge, particularly in the burn phase when we lost out OT to a frost blast, and held things together for the kill.

Unfortunately a couple of our regular raiders couldn't make it for our first ever clear, and we had a guest Mage, Shak, join us for the last two encounters. His first foray into Naxxramas was a great effort. He managed to eke out more DPS than me, sticked to our strategy, win some loot and get the last two bosses done before his journey through the wings even begins.

The news post is up on the guild site, and if anyone from our server (Dath'Remar) is looking for a great social guild, we may just be the guild for you. Commenting on this blog is as good as any way to introduce yourself to the guild. We have a particular interest in DPS (particularly ranged (and of those particulary casters)) for 25 man Naxx raiding, but we're a social guild - so if it feels like home, you're welcome.

I'd also like to thank the raiding team for allowing me to take the [Key to the Focusing Iris] first up. Its hard for me to be objective about master looting to myself, and it does make sense to give the first key to the Guild Master, Raid Leader and Main Tank, but I really appreciated the show of support for the idea.

I've been a little busy, so I haven't gotten around to writing all the posts I have rattling in my head. Some times, there's just not enough time to play World of Warcraft, let alone spend time writing about playing World of Warcraft. I'd like to finish of the hybrid Arms spec posts, write a series on social raiding at its best, and maybe even post a few of my random favourite moments from Wrath of the Litch King as they happen.

Arms Hybrid - Part 1

I've been experimenting with damage output recently. Ever since the Prot Warrior changes came in, I've really enjoyed pushing out far greater damage... but I want more. I have really enjoyed my short time with Arms DPS. I have a lot more to learn, more gear to acquire and more fun to be had. So next up on the way to my first 50g respec, I thought I'd try out a new Arms spec to tank in.

The spec has come from and excellent thread I found on the Arms Warrior. It's reasonably comprehensive, and gets you thinking about all the facets of the Arms tree. It is a full Arms spec, with a spash of Prot, with most points being sacrificed from the Fury tree. In order to appreciate what I'm giving up, here are the specs.

Progression Protection Spec 15/5/51
Full DPS Arms Spec 53/18/0
Hybrid Arms with a splash of Prot 53/5/13

What you just plain lose
0/3 Armored to the Teeth is the big loss on both sides. When I first donned my DPS gear after speccing, I thought, "what happened to all my AP?". At almost 14k armor in DPS gear, it's a 231 AP sacrifice. Unfornuately, at 21k (down more than 2k armor with the loss of toughness) it's a 350 AP sacrifice in tanking gear.

It's a huge loss to both DPSing and Tanking - my least favorite thing about the build.

What you lose from Protection
The idea behind this spec is to be a credible tank the rare times you are called upon. It's also designed around having to tank usually only one mob in a raid environment... with this in mind, the biggest thing you loose a lot of AOE tanking viability.

AOE Losses

• Shockwave is gone, the massive frontal cone of AOE with the 4 second stun that makes large packs of trash (particularly in 5 mans) a breeze for both you and your healer.
• Damage Shield is gone, that lovely passive damage / threat generator
• AP losses impact both of these and Thunderclap, while Block Value (BV) losses impact damage shield
  

Survivability Losses

• 2/5 Anticipation - losing 3% dodge isn't a good start
• 0/5 Toughness - 10% armor loss (> 2k armor)
• 0/2 Improved Defensive Stance - 6% extra damage from spells
• Reduced BV impacts damage reduced from blocking
• 0/3 Vitality - 6% less stamina (and 2% less strength, 2 less expertise after considering Strength of Arms)

The survivability losses are quite manageable, depending on your gear, the content you are attempting and of course, your healer.

DPS / Threat Losses

• Shield Mastery, Gag Order, Critical Block and Sword and Board all combine to make your less frequent shield slams smaller and crit less often.
• Losing Devestate means that if / when you apply sunder armor, you aren't doing any damage
• Losing Focused Rage isn't a huge deal, but can impact how quickly you can get those first abilities off in those more difficult pulls (offset somewhat by Endless Rage in Arms)
• One Handed Weapon Specialisation - means you'll be doing 10% less damage compared to a full protection spec while tanking
  

The major losses aside from the obvious survivability ones center around AOE tanking viability and reduced damage over all. Of course all of this comes at a cost to tanking, since there's all those Arms talents going completely to waste when either not using a 2H weapon, or in battle stance. There are also some utility losses, like Concussion Blow, Vigilance, Warbringer and the silence in Heroic Throw from Gag Order.

What you lose full Arms DPS
Firstly, in the Fury tree, you loose

• Booming Voice / Commanding Presence - for some extra AP and utility from your Battle Shout
• Improved Execute - smaller Executes (which when combined with your small shield slams when tanking, really stings)

While nothing is missing from the Arms tree, again that 231 AP loss from Armored to the Teeth doesn't help things. You can certainly push out some respectable DPS in this spec, but we'll follow that up in the next post.

What you gain for single target tanking
The big winner for this spec and tanking viability is Unrelenting Assault, which reduces the cooldown of Revenge by 4 seconds, which means in practise, you have a Revenge available every global cooldown. Making sure to take the prot tree talent Improved Revenge ensures some great single target threat and DPS while tanking.

Mortal Strike in combination with Tactical Mastery gives another instant attack with added threat, as well as the utility of reducing a mobs capacity to be healed.

Trauma and Blood Frenzy bring some great party /raid buffs that you don't normally bring to the table while tanking, and 6% haste is great, particularly if you are using a slow 1H axe to work in with Poleaxe Specialisation.

So begins my experiment. Before I report on the practical, I have to quickly thank Jondy for letting me test this out with her healing. If it wasn't for your fantastic healing, I wouldn't have thought it such a great idea to experiment.

Emblem of Heroism Pick Order - DPS gear

I can't wait for dual specs. Even though my respec cost is only up to 30g, I've managed to squeeze in a couple of decent Arms Warrior sessions in of late, and my DPS set is coming along nicely. When DPSing as a warrior I want to be ARMS! A brute force killing machine with a giant weapon - a commanding presence with some serious burst DPS and AOE capabilities. I know the consensus is that fury is the best raid spec... but I'd prefer avoid the wrist guards and remedial hand massages that come with titan's grip.

I couldn't find a guide to how to spend my excess emblems, ala Tanking Tips... so I thought I'd write my own.

Here is the available Emblem choices for a DPS Warrior:

>> [Heroes' Dreadnaught Battleplate] - 80 Emblems
>> [Heroes' Dreadnaught Gauntlets] - 60 Emblems
>> [Verdungo's Barbarian Cord] - 40 Emblems
>> [Mirror of Truth] - 40 Emblems
>> [Pendant of the Outcast Hero] - 25 Emblems
>> [Lillehoff's Winged Blades] - 15 Emblems

A reminder that I'm writing this from the perspective of a Tank, looking to add some beef to their DPS outfit - so while I have emblems to spare - something you'd buy for your primary spec to give you that boost while you wait for a drop - may be deemed too expensive to purchase.

For an Arms warrior, my general goals are
- Get hit capped (hopefully through gear alone)
- Get 35% crit (crit is HUGE for an Arms warrior)
- Get a huge whack of AP
- Enjoy the haste and armor penetration as it happens to be included in upgrades

With mostly blue / epic lvl 200 items, I'm so far managed (in polearm spec) roughly:
- 7.5% hit (1 drop away from capped without gems (13 runs and nada))
- 31% crit
- 3000 AP
I'm still wearing a couple of tanking items, but karma did pay off as I won [Incisor Fragment] while DPSing Heroic Drak'Tharon keep yesterday.

A lot of this discussion will focus around competition. Regular plate items are easy to acquire, particularly if you pair yourself up with an excellent DPSer in plate (thank you Zeltan). Each time you go into a heroic instance, you can rest assured that they have got the DPS item you are interested in, or something better. Neck, Rings, Weapons and Trinkets, however.... you have a lot more competition, including rogues, hunters, kitties and enhancement shamen as well as the regular Ret Pally, Deathknight and Warriors. Remember too that the Holy Pally, Resto Shammie and Tree might also want to roll on these items for offspec.

Here's my order:

1. [Mirror of Truth] - 40 Emblems

You can't go past this trinket as Arms. The crit is fantastic, and the chance on crit proc screams at you - "Arms Warrior - buy me NOW!". It's worth it's weight in gold and for anything even close to this trinket, you'll have up to half the raid to fight it out with.

2. [Heroes' Dreadnaught Gauntlets] - 60 Emblems

These are a clear upgrade over any of the rare level dungeon drops, and have a stack of expertise help fill in that gap left by chasing the hit cap and crit / attack power gear. Plenty of hit, and a yellow socket for some crit, and they are my second choice for your valuable emblems. Make sure you run Heroic Occulus for a shot at [Gauntlets or Dragon Wrath] before you buy them... but you will want to get these given enough emblems in any case. I also need figure out how good 10% extra slam damage is before I get carried away about the 2 set bonus for Tier 7.

3. [Pendant of the Outcast Hero] - 25 Emblems

The Pendant has excellent itemisation for an Arms warrior. It's better than [Collar of Dissolution] from Naxx 10 unless you badly need the hit and/or expertise - but you will have every physical DPS clamoring for that one anyway. It's a steal at 25 Emblems so pick this up as you make your way down the list.

4. [Heroes' Dreadnaught Battleplate] - 80 Emblems

I currently have [Breastplate of Undeath] from Heroic Drak'Tharon Keep, which is very similarly itemised, with agility versus crit coming out about even. The upgrade is worth about the 2 sockets in the T7, which is handy for plugging the gaps in your stats. It's a must have, but given that for just 5 extra emblems you can have both the gloves and neck, I had to put this fourth. Depending what you are wearing for gloves and neck, your mileage may vary.

Here is the DON'T buy list

1. [Verdungo's Barbarian Cord] - 40 Emblems

It is just not enough of an upgrade to [Flame-Bathed Steel Girdle] to justify the purchase, which is easily obtainable in one of the easiest heroics - The Nexus. Even if you have the same luck I've had with [Staggering Legplates] - I still wouldn't buy this belt.

2. [Lillehoff's Winged Blades] - 15 Emblems

Even at 15 Emblems, it's not worth it. Get [Drake-Mounted Crossbow] from Heroic Utgarde Keep. It's the best you are likely to see for quite some time, particularly if you are in a guild (like many) that can have up to three hunters in a 10 man, and no less than 5 in a 25.

That wraps it up for the Emblem of Heroism pick order for DPS warrior gear. I would love to get some feedback from Tanks looking to improve their DPS gear, or dedicated DPS (especially Arms) with discussion about the list, resources for DPSing in plate or just to pop by and say "hey hey".