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...