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.