Nightbane linked to my kids

It's very strange. But somehow Nightbane is linked to my kids. Pull one - and pull all...

Last week I had the opportunity to actually join a Karahzan raid. My guild more or less has Kara on farm (not my making) and they where doing the second night run - which means all is cleared up to chess or so.

Well, they asked me if I could join but I was sceptical - since my kids tend to wake up a lot at the moment. But I agreed.

We went in and up to Nightbane. All went smooth. At the same second they pull Nightbane both my kids wake up screaming. One needs a bottle and one needs comfort. Up to the kids with bottle to my wife and a quick re-tucking in of the older. Back down. And I am still alive!

I go in swinging. 'Sweet', I think. Then the older wakes up again screaming. Excuses over voice chat and back up again. I come down to the computer at the exact moment I die. Then all is still upside. Both kids sleeping and I sit watching my dead char lying on the ground.
I feel so bad about deserting them in the fight so I leave afterwards. (They kill NB so I get my badges, that’s how much better than me they are).

The rest of the evening the kids don’t wake up a single time and I loiter around Shattrah while I can still hear the rest of the raid on voice chat taking on Prince...

The joy of ass wippin'

I have seen the light.

Well, at least I have seen the snows, grass and lightnings of Alterac valley, Arathi basin and Eye of the storm.

After speccin for arena I have had an enormous boost in game satisfaction. Doing arena is tremendous fun since it is short, intense and very demanding on proper tactics.

To be able to fight better I need some decent PvP gear. Luckily I didn't buy the Merciless gladiator shield wall for my points, so now I am waiting for season 3 to start so I can buy at least one piece of S3 armor.

The new season will make season 1 gear possible to buy for honor points, as most probably know, so I am trying to stack points for the release. At the moment I am making about 2k honor a night. Not able to play all nights it will take some time. But I am aiming at 27k honor for the Gladiator Greatsword.
And if I get bored I might just buy something less pricey. But a new weapon would be great.

When it comes to armor - I need a new pair of leggings since I am PvP'ing in my tanking pants for the stamina. But check out the new helm in season 3 (just click the pic above). I already got the Overlords helmet of second sight wich is nice - but the S3 looks mean!!! Too bad S3 shoulders need rating of 2k though, would be a nice match =)

How about you guys - what is the best battleground to get quick honor. AV has this problem with loads of leechers. Up to 10 in one game I have had.

Hitting the content cap

Ever got that feeling that 'This is as far as I will get'? I have that feeling right now. It's a bit of a combination with real life and motivation. Let's call it the motivation cycle.

In my eyes the motivation cycle is dependent on the want and possibility to go further into the content. Below lvl 70 just reaching 70 is the thing for motivation, after 70 it is to clear all the instances and getting attuned for heroics and Karazhan. The cycle is the correlation between running heroics and raids. Something like this:

I need better gear to be able to progress further in Karazhan => Doing heroics => better gear => Able to do more in Karazhan => I need better gear to progress further in Karazhan, and on and on.

The problem is when this cycle breaks. For me it has broken on the ability to go Karazhan. I will probably easily have a spot in the guilds raid group, but due to IRL stuff (read previous post 'Total disgrace') I am not able to join.

This makes all other WoW-gaming a bit irrelevant.

So I respecced Arms and keep on going Arena to have some fun there at least. Such a huge difference when going in as a PvP spec in comparison with a tank spec.

Things will probably lighten up at home soon and I will find the time to game a bit more. But right now I am playing games with a 'pause' key.

By the way, I installed 'The Witcher' yesterday. If you haven’t played it - check it out. Awesome game.

Total disgrace

Right now I am in a bit of a low considering WoW. We are trying to get my youngest son to sleep better and not breast feeding all night through. He is 7 months now, so he has this separation phase which means he is uncomfortable every time he is alone. In reality or just imagined. That includes leaving the room and standing out of view.

As you can imagine this has taken a toll on my wife especially, since she cant sleep that well. And to help out I am going to bed a lot earlier. With max 2 hours of time to play there is little room for WoW at the moment.

Well, I had time to do my arena matches at least. We got a 5 win 5 loss game, which is quite good for being a prot warrior. Our rating is around 1175 though - so not too good competition. Except this one guy...

We arrived at arena start area and realised that only one opponent logged in. 'Easy!' - we thought. He turns out to be this monster shadow priest that dots and kites both me and my pal around the whole arena. Two games in a row we face him, twice we are killed without hesitation.

Total disgrace.

But now I have points to buy the Merciless Gladiator shield wall. I just wonder if it counts as a weapon - or if it will be possible to save the points and buy the season 3 shield when it comes out... (Weapons are said to require arena rating of 2000 to be able to buy)

Playing with kids

And I am not referring to the 13 year olds out there. No I am talking about having two small children at home. My oldest are three years and the youngest almost seven months.

This means some troubles. First the ability to show up on time. In my old guild everyone wanted to raid at seven. Which is impossible for me. My oldest goes to bed at about that time and since I am usually the one tucking him in - my wife attends the small one att the same time - I can never be online at that time.

Some people (read older ones with kids) are very good about this. But the younger crowd don't understand at all. Not much to do about. I try to only join raids starting at eight or later. But this is still hard to meet from time to time. Getting a three year old to sleep isn't anything like exact science. Takes from 10 min to one and a half hour.

Then we have the 'waking up screaming' issue. Happens from time to time. Three year olds are just starting to have nightmares. Last time it was: 'Daddy it is a bird in my bed'. Turned out to be one of his cuddly animals. Apparently he imagines pigs lurking in his room also. God am I glad I have been very strict about not having him look while I play if there are a fight... Some vendoring, horse riding and gryphon flying we have done together. But no fighting.

But I don’t think the kids are the biggest obstacle when family interferes with gaming. Nope it is 'aggro from the wife-mob'. =D

But that will be another post...

The full run guide

I went into Kara last Friday with my new guild. I knew from before that they had downed Prince. And without too much of an effort apparently.

On my previous attempts I had only come to Moroes, even wipes on Attumen had stopped my progress before.

This time it was different.

To make a long story short. We took down Attumen, Moroes, Maiden, Big Bad Wolf, Curator and Shade of Aran. This was done in under 5 hours. I was mightily impressed.

I tanked up to maiden then the original MT took over, since I didn't have the gear to make it. No plate drops at all though. But I got to see a lot of the place.

Mostly they are doing the instance in 2 days. First day up to Curator and maybe some more. Second day Prince. My plan is to play as much as possible on day one with them to get gear to progress up to tanking the rest also.

Big problem this time was that I felt like extra luggage, since I wasn't tanking - and we all know the amount of damage a protection warrior can make while dps'ing... =(

High velocity guild

I quit my old guild. For a little while I felt a bit bad since I stirred up quite a mess with my Wednesday raid, as seen in previous posts.

The thing that actually made me change guild was the fact that my two IRL friends in the old guild already had quit to join a small guild made up from their IRL co-workers. First I felt a bit mixed up about joining them. I want to play with them, but I know that this new guild is as far from RP as possible, and I am on a RP-PvP server.

Well, I joined anyway. 20 minutes after joining I was invited to heroic Underbog. In my old guild getting a heroic team going was hard work. Here it just happens all the time. We went in. I knew that the new guild was composed of mainly former hard core raiders, but I have never seen as many epics in one group before. Luckily the healer was a paladin - since keeping aggro is the hardest part in a heroic in my opinion.

Now on voice chat the first comment I got was: "Nice - a good old protection warrior in the guild!". I probably can't explain how good that felt. I was appreciated again! I told them I had only done a couple of heroics before so they should bear with me if I failed.

Well I didn't.

We went ahead, all was good. Some ridiculous wipe on a trash pull that all just laughed about. Then we met the two guards before Hungrafen. They are tough. No cc works and tanking them both spells disaster. So kiting is the only other option. My IRL friend, a frost mage, was set up for the job. His first big time kiting too.

The first guard went down easily. Then the other came running. He had made a cpl of growths and was HUGE! He two shotted me and the killed the raid. Well well. Rezz and repeat. Now he was easy as pie.

Tanking Hungrafen is a bit hard since its all about walking backwards, generating aggro and to look out for the enormous amount of mushrooms growing al over. But all went fine. Afterwards my fellow guildies said that they could go all out with no problem in this fight. That warmed a warrior heart. Any dps going all out and not drawing aggro is a compliment to the tank. And when it is in a fight where you need to navigate around a lot all the time it's a big compliment.

Rest of the instance was easy mode. The mantas are the only hard part since they are un cc'able and come in packs of 3. But I had gotten the hang of it by then and kept up easily.

Black stalker is actually a laugh... He spawns adds in heroic. But we killed him so fast they came at the moment he died.

I got an extra Primal Nether towards my Blazeguard (only 4 more needed) and the Doomplate shoulders. Real nice - but more of a 2h-er armour. Well I will keep em in the bank for now...

Oh I almost forgot. My IRL friend the mage told me that the other in the group had asked him afterwards why I wasn’t allowed to tank in Kara since I did such a solid job. I really like my new guild :)

The guild drama

Haven't written in a while due to the fact that we have had some high grade drama in our guild. As I have written before we have this core raid that should be the regular crew going into Karazhan. The A-team if you like.

Since many didn't get spots in the A-team me and two others started a Wednesday raid.

But now the core raid wants to forbid the Wednesday raid to go, because if someone might get locked to Karazhan and then needed in case of emergency in the Core raid. That would be bad.

This means they want the rest of the guild on standby just in case...

Of course this have made us quite angry. We can't come and we aren't allowed to do anything else.

Big drama is under way. Raid leader is resigning because members don't appreciate him enough and blah blah blah.

The most interesting thing is that he has confessed that the core raid ain't made up from the most suitable to the task - but from senior members because they deserve to go.

This is actually quite funny. Guild management is a bit like "Management for dummies".

Attumen aint my bitch

Unfortunately I must say - he really isn't.

We went Karazhan again yesterday with the motley crew we have. Half from our guild and half from an other guild.

This means zero preparations. No communication - since downloading Ventrillo seems like an insurmountable obstacle for some.

We have this sign up system on the site. First come first serve. Three people had signed when the raid was due to start. I really don't get it.

Well - anyhow. We vent in and was one tank short. So after a bit of asking around we got an PvP specced warrior as OT. I thought that it wouldn’t pose a problem since they can do nice dps and therefore good aggro even when rage starved.

Right after entry we made our first mistake. While waiting for OT we started to clear horses - slowly. Since they are on a timer we managed to pull the horses on the opposite side of the plank at the same time as we pulled Midnight. Raid vs. Attumen: 0-1.

We got going again - starting to clear out the trash quickly. A bit too quickly. Some dps classes couldn't really handle aggro management. A mage died three times on the way. I usually don’t care when they do kill themselves, but we was a bit low on morale and this didn't improve it.

Well, at Midnight the OT pulled Midnight and started tanking. I took care of Attumen. BUT - our aggro happy dps constantly pulled aggro from the OT. Since OT don’t have that much threat moves it is understandable. But it was a constant thing. We wiped. Raid vs. Attumen: 0-2.

We made an other try. Cautioning the raid. Same thing happened, Raid vs. Attumen: 0-3.

One more go folks! Run in before respawns. And now I tank Midnight and OT tank Attumen. OT didn't manage to get an hold on Attumen - he ran rampage and wiped raid. Raid vs. Attumen: 0-4.

Four wipes on a single boss was enough, especially since we had respawns.

We went and killed the beasts. To get some nice stuff at least. We killed, and killed and killed till we were at the end of that part of the castle. Not a single boss spawned. I have no clue why. They shall spawn after a certain number of beast kills - but no...

That was not the best night for the raid and certainly a downer. I hope this wont get it even harder to get some raiders for next time.

My favourite foe

For some strange reason I don't like murlocs or naga. Not that they are particularly difficult but they just dont feel good to fight with. I really can't describe it better but they aren't real foes in my eyes. Sure they hit hard and can wipe your raid but...

It might have something to do with the instances they inhabit. Coilfang reservoir is a bog. After a hard night in an instance you just don't feel good when saying: "I have been in a bog all night killing fish people and mermaids with tridents." I got this feeling already in Black Fathoms Deep. Damp and boring.

Orcs on the other hand. Or Dark iron dwarves in Black Rock Depth!!! That is what I want a dungeon to look like! Lava pouring from the walls while walking around in a hell version of Moria. I really loved that place. When I went to Outland and landed inside Hellfire citadel i got happy right away. Cool looking orcs in awesome armor, big demons and a run down citadel. My type of place all over.

Then we have this middle ground: trolls in a jungle. Me don't like...
They are skinny, have bad posture and all to much vegetables all around. This is a bad sign for the coming Zul'Aman (if I ever get there).

Am I the only one feeling like this? Do you have some place that you like more than the rest for aesthetic reasons?

Attumen down with ease

Yesterday was the first time the non core raid (or the B-team) visited Karazhan. The raid was decided and announced on Monday. We had immense problems with getting people to join, mostly I think because the A-team goes Kara on Friday and they have started to have sign-up spots for the dps. Tanks and healers are pre selected as usual...

Finally we went in. But with only four guild members. Among the other six there where one from LFG and five from a friendly guild.

The problem was that we only had two real healers. I was one tank and my druid friend was the other so tank spots was good ;D
We did have one paladin, the LFG member, but he was retribution. Well we took him for the blessings.

In we went after over one hours delay. Some due to getting the last members there, the other was the fact that two Horde guild had decided to camp on the stirs and to kill everyone from alliance that wanted to enter. I don’t mind PvP - but 20+ arena geared Horde ganking everyone in sight is booooring.

Well. Back to Karazhan. We cleared the stables good. No problem what so ever. Came to Attumen. I was to tank him since he is disarmable. Easy as pie. Picked him up with a Thunderclap and kept him firmly on me. A very easy fight. Unfortunately no plate drops but the Spectral Band of Innervation and the Steelhawk Crossbow dropped.

Then we went up to Moroes. Clearing the trash up to him was a breeze. I died from OT'ing the stewards since I must have spilled the wine =D. They do a debuff called Drunken Head Crack that makes target unable to parry/dodge/block and all hits to do ~4k in damage.

On to Moroes. We wiped, wiped and wiped. The real problem was when he gouged me (I MT'ed him) and then a healer was second on aggro list => Oneshot. I have read that the OT shall try to go second on aggro list. But - who tanks the adds that needs to be killed?

Next time I think we need the OT to pick up a add, all dps goes to Moroes, move him to Moroes position. Build aggro on Moroes and add for a cpl of seconds and then dps goes all out again. They do have 80k hp so to let dps kill the by them selves aren’t that good I think.

Any suggestions?

Kara here I come, part 2

Ok, now it is decided. We are going Kara on Wednesday with a second raid group. Got decided yesterday, Monday, and we got 5 sign-ups already.

The decision here is that we should be a sign-up raid only. The only demands is to fill the roles we need: 2 tanks, 5 dps, 3 healers.

Have been gearing up a bit. Got Helmet of the Stalwart defender, Fireguard and Bracers of the Green Fortress.

It should suffice. Next post on Thursday - will we abandon before entering or will we clear up to prince?

I want to do my own progress

I am in a casual guild. Casual in that sense that we don’t have any leadership at all to talk about...

What the guild does is to run Karazhan each Friday with a follow up on Sunday usually. But that is only for the invited few, the core group, the progress group.

The idea is that when they are geared up they should spilt to form two Karazhan teams with half of them new Kara raiders. This sucks...

First of all it sucks since the core group isn't chosen on merit only, but the choosing process is biased due to friendship. This makes it impossible to get a spot if not one of them.

Secondly they don't do that much progress either. Up till now they have only cleared Opera. And this is the 6th week. This pace and I'll wait till after Wrath of the Lich King before I am going.

Thirdly - and mainly - I DON'T WANNA BE WALKED THROUGH KARAZHAN by anyone else. If I will complete it because someone else will babysit me through - what is the merit of that achievement? None!

A rebellion is brewing. Another Kara raid is forming in the shadows...

Stay tuned.

Hitting the spot with the A-team

I read this new blog with this very very insightful post: "The A-team"

It's about why having an A-team is a bad idea for the guild and everyone outside that team. I have had that exact same feeling in previous guilds and in my current one also.

Very insightful Tarok, I am taking my Felsteel helmet of for you.

Going Karahzan anyway?

I got a query from my druid friend. He is also a bit tired of the ruling of the guild - especially the raids. He has joined Kara on several occasions but now all of a sudden he is cut out of the loop without any explanation.

Well, we are trying to form a group of IRL friends that might make an attempt. I am probably the least experienced in that group. Several of the guys (mostly his work buddies) have been full time raiders pre-BC and are still doing some heavy stuff.

I really hope we can get it together for next week. I'd love see that ghost castle finally...

Fireguard walk with me

After a long long time I have finally made 350 in Blacksmithing. Logged out on the gryphon on route to Shattrah to buy the recipe for the Fireguard. Finally - my first epic.

I do need another 10 primal shadows and 10 primal mana. So it will be a farm weekend. But then - Fireguard walk with me!!!

The only downside with it is that it looks weak. I am dual wielding two Latro's shifting sword at the moment which look über cool. Fireguard is a small puny sword in comparison. Looks like a golden dagger next to a Latro.

Threat Overload

If you have read my previous blog entries you have seen that I have specced Fury to farm a sh-t load of motes.

Farming is boring. I say it again: Boooooring. It was fun at the start when I realized that I killed mobs quicker then my cool down for charge. That’s a mob / 10s. Real nice. At first. It's all just a click routine. I could even horse-gather mobs. That is mount up, ride around to aggro 4-5 mobs and then kill them all. This was good for Primal Life farming since the mobs are 61-63 and hardly give me damage nor rage.

Well, on to the overload bit.

When I was out there in the ruins hacking up ghosts into small small chunks of ectoplasm a friend wondered if I could help his alt priest to do Auchenai Crypts. We gathered a guild run of a 70 warrior tank, 70 hunter, 68 shadow priest and 67 holy priest. The priests wanted the xp, hunter wanted the experience (an alt) , tank wanted Felsteel gloves and I wanted to try to dps in an instance.
You can see where this is going, huh?

Well all was dandy. Massive spawns was no problem. I could dps to my hearts content flinging around Whirlwinds and going on a rampage all the time.

Then we came to Shirrak the Dead Watcher. Oh my oh my...

Tank went in. Got of 3 sunders. I charged and popped my talents. Charge/Rampage/Death Wish/Blood Thirst/Heroic strike/Blood thirst.

That was about when i got aggro. I stopped all attacks - but the tank had already burned his taunt so I stood there chewing on Carnivorous bites one after another. And I died.
Took about 10 sec for me to over aggro and kill myself. Nice lesson though.

One problem was also that the holy priest only had one instant heal, and since Shirrak dampens magic by prolonging casting time, that was a bad combo.

Well on next time I only drew aggro after the tank got killed which killed me ofc, but on the third attempt we got him good.

It is nice to do good dps - I now know how to read the threat table. But I prefer tanking any day.

Well, back to making ghosts even more intangible...

Not so Dazzling

I was skilling up my Blacksmithing this weekend when I encountered a strange error.

At 270 the pattern for Dazzling Mithril Rapier was still yellow. "Great! I don't have to go onto Thorium just yet" was my thought.

I was happily standing in Ironforge churning out rapiers like a industrial robot till something said "clunk". At 275 the gears jammed. Pattern still yellow, rapiers still flying of the anvil - but no skill up!!!

So you all know. I got me a dorky crafting gear compiled of INT gear from drops and quest rewards which takes my INT up to 300. That way I will get more skill ups.

But being that smart standing there crafting with ye old Illusionary rod on my back I felt pretty lame...

I made 10 rapiers just to be certain. Not a single skill up...

Then I wrote a ticket to the GM and went farming thorium.

Halfway around Searing Gorge I got a reply. "Nothing is wrong with the pattern, you just had bad luck" was the response.

Like hell!

I made one Thorium belt (also yellow) 1 more in BS. I made 3 rapiers (yellow) no skill up!!!

It must be broken.

So all of you out there - don't think them rapiers to be that Dazzling when they are lying in heaps on the floor without making you any better at smithing.

Un-heroic attempts

I have come to an understanding that going into a heroic instance is a very big leap for the tank.

Being revered with all "key" factions except Honor hold I hav had the time to acquire really good gear. After consulting several gear guides I know I am at the top of gearing for someone that has just started heroics.

The big problem is that it is not enough.

Thursday I did heroic Settekh with a PuG. Went very well in the beginning but it took ages. Up to Darkweaver Syth was no problem. Then it started to get hairy. The big problem was with holding 2 mobs at once. When there where Sethekk Guards it was fine. The healer could hold me up while I kept aggro on both, but when we met the Ravenguards it was another matter. These guys hit hard. If the healer held me alive he would get too much aggro which would make him draw the second mob and get one shotted. Happened several times.

The big issue I think is that I take a bit much damage => lots of heals => healer generates too much aggro => mob kills healer => wipe.

The way I see it there is 2 ways to fix this. One is to take less damage which means more armor and avoidance. The other is to generate more threat which means more Block Value and better dps.

So I am going to make a bit of farming to get someone to make me Bracers of the Green Fortress and Helm of the Stalwart Defender. While grinding I am going to up my Blacksmithing to be able to make Fireguard the one handed sword.

This means I need to farm: 20 primal shadow and 20 primal mana for Fireguard. 20 primal life for Bracers of the Green Fortress and 22 primal earth and 12 primal mana for Helm of the Stalwart Defender. Thats 74 primals...

Luckily I have the earth and the shadow primals already from levelling. Which leaves me with about 30 primals to go...

Do I need to inform you that I have respecced to Fury for a little while =)

OMG they hit HARD!!!

Did my first heroic on the same friday I got shut out of the Kara raid. Went in with a PuG.

Usually when I party I feel a need to check on ppl that all have the right add-ons (like threat meters) or if they are comfortable with doing their class roles - like misdirection or seduce w succubus. This time it was different.

When we met at the summoning stone I felt like a spring chicken. After checking the others full epic gear I made a mental effort to cover myself. Felt naked in my blues.

Well - in we went. Me, a priest, a hunter, a mage and a warlock. First pull is as you remember a robot guardian. They hit hard. Around 4k I've heard. I was in a frenzy finding the right keys to get the proper rotation going. In a normal instance I don't even need to shield block. Here it is a must.

But since the robots always (preferably) come one at a time that was not a big issue. I dint loose aggro once from them, wich at least is a good testimony to my aggro generating abilities. Next pull was worse. Them casters are insane. I am mostly used to cast Spell reflect only in boss fights or so. Here I needed to do it constantly.

We had some deaths on the way - usually from early breaks in traps etc and clothies getting one shotted. I thank god for the fact that 'locks have so much hp since they are the aggro hoggers of all time. I think 3 out of 4 intervenes was to the 'lock. The others to the mage.

Boss fights are a totally new concept also. Totally different tactics. The polarity thing on the robo boss was brand new for me. Fun but dangerous. I did accidentally kill one party member after the fight when running to the boss to loot since the polarity was still on...

I did feel like a total n00b in there sometimes. But it was fun - more fun then I have had in a long time. Now I actually need to strain myself to do good.

Easy is boring - hard is educational.

(I did also get my first epic... No - not the Suneater, but a gem: Defenders Tanzanite with parry/sta on it. )

On the sideline with my new gear to no use...

If you have read my previous entries about me going to Kara, you have seen that I was exhilarated about going. I had been looking forward to it so much that I was actually nervous - which I haven't been in a long time.

But Friday became a very sad day indeed...

I had prepped a lot and even logged out my character on the front steps of Kara. I logged in one minute to 8 and sent a message to the raid leader. "I’m ready - inv?". No answer.

I sent another message and got a reply: "Things have changed. I have made another setup for Kara. It's on the guild site."

WTF!!!

I got furious. The raid leader had contacted me on Tuesday to tell me I was up for tanking Attumen. I wasn't able to log in before 8 but he said he would fix that (raid normally starts 7).

To be able to log in at specific time I need to arrange things in advance with my family. On Friday I had postponed my TGIF evening with my wife, had just put one of the kids to bed and slunk down to log on to the game.

Since I was told I was going to tank I had bought new enchants to improve my gear managed to acquire a new trinket to use and stocked up on potions.

I was more than angry with the raid leader - I was even upset. He said sorry and that things happen. I do understand the position he is in. Its not easy to arrange a run with ppl being happy. I even understood the shift in focus (he wanted to gear up a core of 10 ppl to split in to 2 Kara grps later so we might progress further) but what was unforgivable was the fact that he didn't even bother to tell me that I was out. The post on the web was made the same day and I am not reading the site all the time. And even if I where I wouldn’t have understood it since he said he would arrange it so I could come even though I was logging on late (not something to post on the guild site I assume).

I felt like a little boy who was promised a spot in the soccer team but when showing up with his shoes, bought just for the game, gets to know that a different team set up have been decided. But the team roster was posted in the club house.

I actually wrote /gleave and let it sit there for a while before deciding. If it wouldn’t have been for the other great ppl in the guild I would have pressed enter.

Well - I won’t ever again show up on a set time for a raid arranged by this guy. A chunk big as Africa has bee torn out of the fun in the game...

Geared up and ready to go!

I went around Outlands like mad to gather all necessary stuff for my raiding. I have stacked up with 2 Elexir of Fortitude, 5 Superior Health potions and a number of new enchants to stack up some hp. I am now at 11.400 hp with 12.500 armour. Got a block/parry/dodge rate at ~55%.
Total cost: about 100 gold.

Today at lunch I went online rode to Karazhan and logged out on the doorsteps. Al to not hold my guild up when entering. The over-zealous preparation is in a small way due to my fears of not being good enough but in a greater extent for not being able to log on in time for the raid.

My guild like to start the raid at 19.00, ppl starting to sign up at 18.00. This is totally impossible for me. At 18 my family has barely left the dinner table. Then its changing into pyjamas for the kids, eating formula, reading bedtime stories, singing lullabys etc. At 20.00 I hope I will be online.

20.00 is the time I have arranged with my raid leader. He will actually stall the raid so I can join. This is extremely nice of him. So all the more, I dont wanna make a fool out of my self tomorrow.

Well, well - with my luck, the kids will be sick and puking all over the place when the clock strikes eight...

Hell - that was negative! Edit: With my luck i will breeze in at quarter to eight. Tank and one shot Attumen, Moroes, Maiden and Curator!!!

Going Karazhan on friday

I have been chosen!

Our raid leader noticed me yesterday that I am to start tanking in Karazhan on friday!!!

We are a really casual and friendly guide so I shouldn't fell stressed or nervous about it. But it do tingle a bit in my stomach! Kinda stoopid, havent felt this way since my sporting days before a big match...

Fer crying out loud, I'm probably twice the age of many Kara-goers - but still, I am a bit... not nervous but... exited...

And truthfully a bit nervous to make a fool out of my self. This is a big chance for me to grab a firm spot in the guild as a good tank. I know I am concidered good already - otherwise they would have said no. But I felt the doubt in the tone of the raid leaders voice when he asked me if I felt up to it.

So fingers crossed - hope it will go allright.

I am only up for tanking the first boss. But I think he didn't wanna get my hopes up if he felt I wasn't up to par. So if I make good we may take four bosses on friday. I really hope they wont trade me out for another tank after we've done Midnight and Attumen...

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Other news. My druid friend got his Feral Staff of Lashing yesterday. Really happy for him!

Don't trust people that jump!

Never ever trust someone to perform in a Pick up group (PUG) in WoW when they can't stand still. Characters who’s avatars jump all the time is one of the most annoying things I ever encountered.

Picture this:
We have just arrived at the entrance at Shadow Labs (SL). I am a bit pressed for time but said we could go if we try to focus and go through it quite quick (quick for SL is <2 hrs). And that we needed the dps. The group assured me (a PUG of course) that it wouldn’t be a problem.

I start off going through which marks are for what so all agree on kill order. This is when I start getting a bit annoyed. The shaman is jumping around my Dranei warrior while I am explaining. He's enhancement and clearly think tactics is for geeks. He will pwn the skull with all he got and then go onwards to X. Fine.

I do the only sensible thing. I assign him to off-tank (OT). Since he is melee with mail armour he thinks he can do it. After a while he asks if I could try to tank his targets too - since he's dead as a door knob twice before leaving the first room.

He has stopped jumping too...

I don't want skulls and spiders!

I really needed a new mouse. Not that the old one wasn't working - but I wanted more keys!

Went to the local computer store and what did I see. Full shelves with great keyboards and awesome mouses. BUT - every one of them had this "kewl" spiders, webs, skulls, crosshairs etc.

I DON'T WANT NO FRIGGIN SKULLS ON MY MOUSE!!!

As a mid 30 daddy of two, skulls and spiders on my computer is NOT cool. It's ridiculous...

Gawd how I hate that computer games are meant for 13-year olds.

The problem if the industry wants to broaden its consumer base is that they have to adjust to a matured audience.
Let's not even get into the design of female avatars in games, which are the wet dreams of computer geeks. (Just look at plate pants for ladies in WoW that have the design of French underwear...)

Finally I bought myself a Microsoft mouse with 2 extra thumb buttons. Not the mouse I wanted the most - but the best without the graffiti...

No love for the fury/prot spec

I re-specced yesterday. 0/30/31 is the new spec. I saved 31 in Prot to get to Shield slam and went for Flurry in the Fury tree.

Today I discussed it with one of my guild mates an IRL friend playing a feral druid. No love for the hybrid build. "You have to be full prot or Fury/Arms to be any good" he said. To his defence I must say that he never played a warrior. And this is the common criticism cross the classes. Most non warriors think full prot is THE only spec to have for tanking. And full fury/arms for dps.

What they never know is that many competent warrior guides recommend 18-20p in prot to be able to tank efficiently (defiance is the key, imp sunder and taunt is nice complements).

The sad part is that me and my druid friend had that problem earlier on in Botanica. We went together. The pally healer said at once (PUG ofc) "I wont go with 2 tanks!".
We assured the healer that he (the druid) was very good at dps so that wouldn’t be a problem. The pally muttered something and bitched about low dps the whole instance. We cleared it beside one wipe - which was the pallys fault.

Even so - my druid friend wont believe that non full specc can do the job. I really don’t get it.

Going for the Wall

I am taking the plunge. Me and a fellow warrior are gonna start an Arena team. Just the two of us.

What are you sayin?

"Aint you a prot warrior?", "You dont have the dps?", "A team of two warriors are doomed?"

Well all of the above is true. But we want some arena gear. More specifically "Merciles's Gladiators Shield Wall".
After reading Berghs compendium on tank gear over at Tankspot I have seen the light. I need that shield. (Well - I want it at least) Beside being better than other shields - it looks cool.

And being just the 2 of us gives us the opprtunity to have our disgrace for our selves.

Now we need a fitting name. Birdfeed or Carrion are the most aproriate I can come up with right now =D

The trouble with tanking

//This was a post I made on Kaliope's crafting blog. Realizing that I have not made any on my own made me post it here too :)

My original char was a paladin who wanted to tank. But I found the class severly lacking. Not to mention that pre TBC you could only tank undead instances. After the 2.0 we had a good space for pally tanking since Scholo and Strat undead sport mostly undeads. But after TBC i made myself a Dranei warrior, Whyrm on Ravenholdt, and I havent regretted it once.

Tanking was always my prime goal. And even if I leveled as fury I respecced at once when I hit 68-ish.

I felt the dps drop severly - but not nearly as much as I would have expected. The +10% dmg talent on 1h-ers make up for some loss from other abilities.

I still go through ordinary 70 mobs like a knife through butter, not a red hot one though - more lilke a luke warm one.

BUT the great up-side with tanking is not about damage. It is about standing there in-front of a huge boss blocking, parrying and dodging. We dont kick ‘em in the teeth - we hold them in their nose hair. Its painfull but not really hurting.

One other upside is the availability to find a group. Always some one calling out for a tank to an interesting dungeon in LFG.But here you have to be careful.

Some things to look out for:

• Guys in full arena gear - they havent had a need for aggro managment for a loooong time.
• Guys without a guild - why would you wanna play with someone who dont like to cooperate?
• Hunters/warlock without a pet - If you are a “pet” class, why not use it?
• “I only want rep” - these guys usually wants it to go so fast that any hickup will make em jump ship in the middle.
• Generally anybody who jumps all the time - only 13 year olds are that impatient

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog about the art of combining a decent job and a wonderful family with an almost addictive desire to play World of Warcraft.

How do you manage to tank Shadow labs while having a 2 month old baby sleeping in your lap?

I will address not only time management issues and how to keep the wife-mob happy, but also the annoyance of wanting to buy a new cool game mouse - but without the friggin skulls and spiders!!!
Gaming is not only for 13-year olds...

I hope you want to come here and participate with comments.

My primary language isn't English, but WoW is an international game - so why not write for everybody. Responses from parenting vs. gaming from different countries will be appreciated!

Welcome again!