The joys of pugging ICC 25

See that blue flame... gently glowing. Take your time. Finally proof that size really doesn't matter... is the [Frozen Bonespike]. How Zenborg had pined for this weapon... how he had rolled and rolled. Even his hideous protector was starting to develop a complex about how superfluous he was.

Finally today was the day, in a last minute Tuesday ICC 25 pug.

Now don't get me wrong, it's not that I finally produced a decent roll. Today's effort was 8. However, my new druid buddy withdrew his roll hoping to win something else (which unfortunately didn't materialise) and I got my new spike.

Unfortunately, despite what looked like a promising group... even with the 15% buff we were unable to down Festergut since some people were a little new to the concept of spores and some sub-tank DPS efforts. I also learnt a new trick (which /facepalm for not figuring this out already) which was that shadow priests can just ignore the spores, since a dispersion is always available for the pungent blight. So my new /cancelaura Dispersion macro is getting a nice workout recently.

All in all, a fun run though... since it's always a nice surprise to find people from your friends list in the group.

Here's the World of Logs.

Dreamwalker 25 Saved!

On Saturday night saved Valithria Dreamwalker in 25 man ICC. For about the sixth week in a row Saturday rolled around with an incomplete roster on the sign up sheet. However, the tactic of leaving loot pinatas Festergut and Rotface alive proved itself, and we were able to attract the couple of extra toons required to fill the raid with the promise of farm bosses and a shot at the object.

Suspend reality while I tell you this isn't a catch up post and attempt not to shatter my segue straight into Borgthor DPSing Festergut using [Shadow's Edge]!

So... that's not quite Festergut, but people celebrate getting their brand new perfectly itemised epic weapons in different ways. Shadow's Edge is part slow, part ArP, part crit and all awesome, and has been a huge boost to my offspec since I decided to go the ArP hard cap route. I still have some way to go but 83% isn't a bad start... now for that trinket.

Back to Saturday, Festergut went down comfortably and I was pleased that even doing the same DPS two weeks ago, my offspec was pushed down substantially on the damage ranking. Rotface was good fun as always, and I particularly enjoy kiting the Oozes (and then hearing on my alts pugs about how warriors can't do it).

Dreamwalker was a hectic fight, but we managed to save her on our third attempt for the evening. We ran three tanks which might be a little superfluous, but I had fun running from side to side help out. I think next time I'll either run two (although I would have felt a little guilty consuming all those souls on a progression boss for a first time) or assign two tanks one side and overload the DPS slightly with the single tank to make picking mobs up a little more linear. Our healing team did a great job in the portals, and held us up against a never ending wave of mobs long enough to get the job done.

Blood Queen is our next challenge for the 25 man team (SPREAD OUT!), and hopefully getting two nights of raiding up and a new progression boss will give us some momentum for next week.

Rise of the long lost alt

My original engineer, Wrathborg finally got some play time recently and put together his very own helicopter. I didn't make one on Borgelmir, because a Death Knight in a helicopter didn't seem quite right to me after splurging on a mount that flew with just bones for wings.

I have really enjoyed my leveling mutilate spec, and after dual speccing into combat I'm not to sure what all the fuss is about. Yes, there's some fantasmal cooldowns and some AoE in combat, but how much quicker can things actually die when you're decked out in heirlooms and specs. Mutilate just feels more like I think a rogue should: shadowy, discrete and a powerful arsenal of poisons. What dual spec does however, is add some extra variety in the leveling experience and getting a chance to get a feel for both specs before 80 is a lot of fun.


Lock picking has proved both fun and frustrating. Today I spent some time in Zangarmarsh hunting for the elusive wicker chest to pick. So a couple of tips for rogues out there... Not everything is a footlocker...


... and some people don't just leave their locked goodies strewn around their camp. From 300 - 325 lock picking there's no better place than Feralfen village.