S1 and Kara badges broke the way of progression

In a way I think that the vendor S1 (although I love it) has broken the progression chain. Same with Kara dropping badges.

Since Kara started dropping badges no one needed to go Heroics if they where in a good guild. And if you didn’t get anyone from a good guild to do Kara you wouldn't make it. And not being able to do heroics stops you from entering/playing with a good guild.

Now you might imagine that S1 for honor might solve that. But it actually made it worse. Foremost because it isn’t possible for a group to clear Kara if everyone has S1. The tank and healers need some PvE gear at least.
To make it worse, many decided that doing BG's half heartedly was an easier way to get the loot than struggling in Kara.

And if less people are going Kara or 25-man content. What do you need your epic S1 gear for?

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...

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.

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... =(

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.

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?

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...