Screencap: Aeth as Gnome

Just before killing Big Bad Wolf in Karazhan, Aeth was turned into Little Red. Trinkit couldn't keep her hands off the new Gnome.

/laugh

Raid Night: Karazhan

Tonight we hit up Karazhan for our weekly badge run. We took down Attumen, Moroes, Maiden, and Big Bad Wolf in 89 minutes. The last two hours were devoted to Nightbane (one shot), Curator (one shot), and Illhoof (3 shot). I picked up Barbed Choker of Discipline off of Maiden, replacing an embarrassing blue.

We picked up 13 badges, bringing my current total to 73. That led Aeth and I into a conversation about the badge chest pieces. He pointed me to Maintankadin, a forum for paladin tanks. There, I found a list of epic tanking gear. The three chest pieces that were discussed, Chestplate of Stoicism, Chestguard of the Stoic Guardian, and Shattrath Protectorate's Breastplate. I was pretty set on the Breastplate, due to the high spellpower and spellhit, but according to the list its pretty low. The Chestplate and the Chestguard are both in the #3 spot, and I am kind of torn. I will most likely end up getting the Chestplate, as it is more stamina.

Either way, I will have finally replaced a blue with an epic. Then all thats left is my shoulders. I have thought about running Heroic Sethekk alot to get them, but they are the lowest epic shoulders you can get. I will have more luck getting them off of High King, or the first timed chest from ZA, of which we are about to get.

All in all it was a good night. Looking forward to ZA on Thursday.

Raid Night: Karazhan

Our weekly badge run into Kara was a great success this week. We got through Curator, with Nightbane down as well. Jeralon (70 Dranaei Hunter) got a nice trinkit, and Saffrin (70 Night Elf Druid [Restoration]) picked up 3 pieces for her Feral set. On top of that 11 badges, and we had a good night. I have 59 saved badges now, aiming for 100 to get Shattrath Protectorate's Breastplate.

I also plan on farming Heroic Sethekk Halls for the Spaulders of Dementia. They aren't the best tanking shoulders in the game, but they are a great upgrade from my current DS3 set shoulders. The only ones better where I am currently are the Mantle of Abrahmis off of Netherspite.

I also found a great video to share.


'Warcraft' Sequel Lets Gamers Play A Character Playing 'Warcraft'

Playing Catch Up

I have had a terribly busy week in real life, which has kept me away from my blog. A thousand apologies. Here is some quick notes about the last few days.

Horde Monday! We had 9 people on, and played two games of Warsong Gulch. Most of our group was 39, I was only 36. I led in both games (Horde and Alliance) for Killing Blows, Honor Kills, and Damage. It truly, truly amazes me that I am able to outclass all the other DPS when I am 3 levels lower. Rhianne seems to think its because I have played a hunter before, so I know how to be successful. Maybe everyone else just sucks. :D (joke there, calm down Dragon)

Raid Night: Karazhan! On Tuesday we didn't have enough geared players to do ZA, so we went into Kara and got through the Curator. Everything seemed slow to me. We have gotten through Shade (with Illhoof and Nightbane down) on one night. I think we are going to start splitting the week up between ZA, and Kara badge runs. This should help us get the SSO loot gear quicker.

I didn't play at all on Wednesday, other than to log into my auction house alts and scan the AH.

Tonight is ZA. Hopefully we will get off the ground tonight. If not, might do a Heroic or two.

Raid Night: Karazhan

Since we moved Karazhan to Saturday, we have yet to get it off the ground, but thanks to some allies we were able to get a group going tonight. I took Obret (70 Dranaei Mage [Frost]). We got through the first 4 bosses without a problem, but Nightbane gave us problems. We needed more dps.

On our way to Curator, once of our players went AFK and never returned. We kicked him from the group, to add Hawtas (70 Dranaei Mage [Fire]). The AFK player never got kicked out of the instance, so we were never able to get Curator. If you are going to be AFK for an extended period of time, please do the right thing and drop. This ruined the evening for some of the players.

I did get a couple of upgrades. I picked up Shadow-Cloak of Dalaran off of Moroes, and Trial-Fire Trousers off of Oz.

After that, I logged onto Adormra (50 Night Elf Rogue [Assassination]). I played through 49 by leveling up my Leatherworking Skill. There is a nice series of crafting quests that gives alot of XP, and some LW recipes. This took quite a while though, as the Turtle Scale's took forever to farm. I have decided to go Elemental Leatherworking.

Last Nights Raid

We went into Karazhan for our last, regularly scheduled Kara run last night. We took out Nightbane, Illhoof, Shade, and Chess. We bounced off Prince 4 times, including a heartbreaking 1% wipe on our 3rd try. I really wish we could have tried him a few more times, but it was already the end of our scheduled raid time.

So next week starts ZA on Tuesday and Thursday. Looking forward to it.

Last Week of Karazhan

We ran Karazhan tonight. This is our last week regularly inside Karazhan, before we move on to Zul'Aman. I am of mixed feelings about this. Karazhan was really huge, and awesome. It was hard at first, but got much easier as time went on. The few times we have done ZA have been dismal failures, but this time we are better geared, and ready to go.

Our DPS felt a bit slow tonight. We only got through Curator, and didn't get Nightbane down this week. A noob mistake cost us the first shot before it even got started, then the second try was stopped in the %60's when I kept getting feared. I have yet to successfully tank him, but I think once I get my stamina up, things will be better. I have 71 badges now, so 29 to my new tanking chest off the Shattered Sun Badge vendor.

I am expecting to have a rough go for the first couple weeks. I think we can get the bear boss down, without much of a problem. I am working on learning the strategies for the fight, I just hope I lead well. Not used to it.

Karazhan

This was my 50th run into Karazhan tonight. We tore through the place. Killed through Shade, getting Nightbane and Illhoof along the way. It was a good night for all.

Two more weeks till ZA. I am pumped, but I need to work on gear. New helm and chest piece is top of my list.

It was good to have Drask out with us tonight. I don't get to run enough with him, since he left for Amicitia.

Karazhan

We have been having problems with Illhoof over the last few months. While we had gotten him down occasionally, it was not "on farm" by any means. Since I respecced to Protection recently, I have been main tanking Illhoof. The biggest problem with the fight, is the imps he spawns. They shoot fireballs which hit the healers. Since Paladins have an AoE threat builder in Consecration, I can gather those mobs to hit me instead of our healers (of which I used to be one).

So as of now, I proclaim Illhoof to be on farm. That leaves Prince as the one fight we haven't gotten down yet. That is such a luck fight though, I don't think any guild can truly say its on farm.

I tried to tank Nightbane, but he hits hard. I need to work on my defense and stamina for that fight. Soon, perhaps. I need a helm.

News: Wrath of the Lich King in Alpha

The Instance, along with most other WoW news sources are reporting that the second expansion to World of Warcraft, Wrath of the Lich King has entered "Friends and Family" alpha testing. This type of testing is common at Blizzard. A number of signs are pointing towards this. The http://beta.worldofwarcraft.com address has gone active. On top of that, the Public Test Realms were taken down much earlier than normal. Could they be using this server for something else, perhaps?

I have heard speculation on the street date from August '08, to January '09. If you know nothing else of Blizzard, you should know that they take as long as needed to get the game right. If that means going through multiple release dates, then they will do it. And we will bitch about it.

Nature of the beast.

Off to go tank Karazhan on Asher. Recently changed specs, and enjoying it greatly. Will discuss further later.