Packed Weekend

I’d have to say overall I had a pretty good “Wow” weekend. Saturday our Kara group formed up and we went in and killed Shade, Illhoof, and Chess. I think we could have finished the whole instance except we got started about an hour late and had to end early because many people had to leave for one reason or another, including me. I had to jet out so I could watch the PPV UFC Fight. Which If you watched it then I hope you realize what a BS call it was that Chuck Liddell lost. The fight went the full 3 rounds and Chuck lost in a split decision. Keith Jardine, his opponent was awarded the victory because he had more punches/kicks in. Well big deal, Keith’s punches and kicks weren’t doing any damage, I suppose you could say he has low attack power and Chuck has a high dodge rating (Letting my nerd flag fly). If they would have scored the win by who’s face looked less F&$^ed up then chuck would have won hands down. He beat the crap out of Jardine leaving him a bloody mess, but still lost? I don’t get it, I think their trying to phase Chuck out, you could even pick up on some of that in the commentary.
Anyways back to WOW. Shade dropped a tanking ring that I was happy to pick up, I realize it’s more of a druid ring but it’s still better than what I had and no druids wanted it. I passed on some boots off the chess event because I had already gotten something this run, so Grat’s to Honors on some nice boots. Illhoof had nothing for me so I won’t acknowledge him anymore this blog, hopefully next time he realizes he cannot be so stingy.
On Sunday we went back in and killed Netherspite, who dropped my shoulders! These were an extremely nice upgrade for me from the bold shoulders and I was totally pumped they dropped. I am one happy loot whore, I’m not going to admit anything publically but I might have touched myself a little bit when I saw them in my inventory. I would still much prefer my tier 4 shoulders over these but I’ll take what I can get. Bringing up the tier 4 shoulders makes me tear up a little bit since I had at one time passed on them for a guildie. http://repairbill.blogspot.com/2007/08/new-guildnew-bosses-new-lootz.html. I also realized that Blizzard ganked the shoulder graphics another very well game developer. I guess they thought that changing the color would fool everyone, think again, Mario and Luigi are pissed.
I also tanked the fish boss in ZG because one of our mages wanted his turtle poly spell. It was something fun and different to do. It’s amazing how much difference 10 levels can make since it only took 6 of us to kill him, and it was extremely easy. I’m also going to include a picture of part of the Kara quest line where you get to see Nightbane before he is turned into a skeleton. Speaking of Nightbane Honor’s was able to get the Urn quest done so I think we’re going back in there to kill him and prince tonight before the reset. It’s only fair that since he did the full quest line he should get the first plate pieces so im rooting for him to get some drops (not to mention that when he gets his, i can get it after =P)
Repair Bill for full weekend: 23g

We are not alone....*X files music playes*

Wed 09/19/07: When i say "we are not alone" i mean warriors as the only valid tanks, but ill get to that later in the post. Last night we formed up and did a Kara run (I was about 10 mins late, sorry about that!). Our normal raiding schedules have been really jacked up lately due to people going back to school, bad attendance, and the GM’s have been out due to a loss in the family (I am very sorry to hear about that). Last night was kind of a mixture of group 1 people, group 2 people, and some people who have never gone before. On one hand it’s fun to take new people cause you get to hear their first take on a boss or a neat graphic, on the other hand I often forget that they don’t really know what they should be doing and I ended up getting myself killed several times. For instance I think I died about 4 times between opera and curator, im used to group 1 where we just haul ass through there and don’t stop for anything because everyone wants to clear as fast as possible. I was in this mindset and would pull a mob and it would smack me down because the healers hadn’t followed me (totally my fault I should pay more attention but It was getting late and again im just used to rolling through that stuff). Overall for a group that really has never played together and had a few new people we did pretty well. We cleared Attumen (Spelling? Im half asleep and can’t remember), Moroes (which I kept losing connection so I looked like a total jackass since I didn’t have agro on the boss), Maiden, Opera(R&J), and Curator. I picked up a drop off Moroes which is pretty nice, but I also lost a roll on my t4 gloves. Damn bastard druid who rolled against me got a 100! He’ll wish he hadn’t done that when his family suddenly turns up missing, his dog is run over, and he gets mugged outside his school/work one day…….errr sorry got carried away, what I actually ment was GRATS!

Last night I witnessed my first pally tank. First impression: Im very jealous of a Pally’s ability to multi-tank. For a while now I have known that druids and pallys are far better at multi-tanking than a warrior but to actually see it up close was impressive. Good job Honors (Honors = the pally tank). As a warrior I try to hold onto the AOE pulls in Kara with thunder clap, demo shout, spamming shield slam and sunders on whatever I can (I also have an aoe taunt I use but it has a crappy cool down so I don’t count that). Those skills VS a mages AOE will definitely not hold them for long, I noticed Honors could hold onto them much longer than I could have. Honor’s also tanked Moroes, Romeo (Romulous or whatever the hell his real name is), and Curator, which he did a great job tanking. I would like to see the damage mitigation numbers of a pally tank VS a warrior tank who have similar gear. Im sold on the idea that a pally can tank anything in Kara but is it the most efficient on bosses? Warriors have Shield block, high dodge, parry, talents in prot to absorb damage with shield, last stand, shield wall, etc. What do Pallys have? Answer is I have no clue, I have played wow since its release from beta, only since BC has the idea of a pally tank become a serious possibility. Im not alone in this boat, I heard several other people on vent who had never had a pally tank or even knew a pally could tank. Now obviously any class can try to tank, we have a mage who tries to do it all the time( =P ), the question is what works best for the group. Honor’s showed last night that a pally can totally be a valid tanking choice, and even the best choice for multi-tanking. There are also times when id choose a druid over a warrior or a pally, for example the trash pulls before shade constantly disarm but that doesn’t matter to a druid. Overall it seems like blizzard did a good job of making Pallys and Druids good choices as tanks. I had another warrior friend whisper me and asked if this worried me about losing my spot as a tank, my answer is HELL NO. Pre-BC I was the MT for a 40 man guild through BWL, most of my warriors life I have been doomed to a prot spec, and there is actually a lot of pressure in a raid to hold agro. It would be a nice change of things to go dps for a while. I know pre-bc a geared fury warriors dps owned in raids and I havn’t heard of any huge warrior nerfs so I assume it is still the same.

My thoughts on tanking classes: Druids and Pallys can tank even better than a warrior can on some trash and definitely on AOE pulls. Im not sold on the idea that a Druid or Pally can better tank a boss than a warrior but that’s just because I haven’t seen the “numbers” yet. As always though when it comes to tanking the gear is what makes the biggest difference (unless you suck ass and cant tank at all).

Repair bill: 17 gold

Mortal Strike = Not 2 Shabby.

Wow my arena team had a good week, first time ever with alliance I got to experience a winning record. Since I got a nice 2 handed sword previously in the week I went with an arms spec instead of the fury spec I had previously been going. I also tossed a +20str enchant on the sword which not only helps with damage but gives a nice green glow to my weapon. I really enjoy mortal strike, bonus damage to 2 handed weapon, and more powerful executes. I really missed strong executes with a fury build, this week 3-4k executes were common with a few 5k hits sprinkled in.
Last week on my 3v3 team we had a 2-8 record, when those games were over I went up to my room, turned the lights off, sucked my thumb, and cried myself to sleep. This week after the first 3 games we had already won more than last week (3 wins, 0 losses for those of you with inferior math skills)! After we went 5-0 I was pretty sure someone on my team had figured out how to hack wow because we never used to win. We ended the night with a 9-2 record, which made so happy that when we were done I went up to my room, turned the lights off, and sucked my thumb till I feel asleep, NO TEARS yay! Granted the teams we were playing were all ranked around 1300 like us so I can’t brag on the wins but hopefully this week is just the start of many more wins to come. Also this week we formed up a 5v5 team so we can get as many arena points as possible. It looks like the Jackson Five are coming out on a reunion tour. I’ll let you know how that goes next week.
I did a lot of AB over the weekend, which ended up in way more losses than wins but that was to be expected. I did however have so many extra marks that I bought 10 healing potions and an extra mount just for fun. Although I can’t decide which is cooler, white tiger or black horse?

Repair Bill: Only 6 gold all weekend

May we interest you in another purple Mr.LootWhore?

Tuesday: 09/11/07 Last night was a Kara night, which overall for the group it didn’t go well. For me I got 3 items from 4 bosses so it was a great night, let the epics rain down on me! Im hoping one day I can swim through all my epics like Scrooge McDuck swam through his gold. We took some new people into Kara with us last night which made the run go a little bit slower since all the boss fights had to be explained and there were several wipes on bosses and trash alike. The slowness of the run isn’t totally placed on the new people though. Our old main tank has decided to play his rogue or lock now in Kara so I filled in the MT role last night, being I am not as geared out as he is our healers had to stop and drink more often. It was nice to be back in the main tank saddle, I kinda missed it since the last time I was a “Real” main tank for a raid was Black Wing Layer.
	As far as the loot I whored I got a 2 handed sword from opera event which I was really hoping to get so I could apply that to a mortal strike spec in arena’s I think Im going to slap a savagery enchant on it for the +70 attack power. I’ll probably use this sword until I can get Gorehowl to drop for me off of Prince. I also snatched up (lol snatch) a dps cloak which I will also use in arenas this weekend. Obviously I want to replace all my gear with PvP gear obtained through arenas and BG’s but until I have the time to farm honor for those pieces im hoping this Kara gear will help pull off a few wins.
	My last piece of gear was a tanking belt I got off Moroes. It’s a nice piece and was a huge upgrade over my previous belt. I was still using the Wrath belt from BWL, which everyone got a good laugh from it when they found out I was still using a level 60 item. It was my last piece of gear that I think I kept hanging onto because pre-BC that stuff took a lot of effort to get a hold of. When the next expansion comes out I’ll probably be level 80 with some level 70 item still on because I won’t have the heart to discard a hard earned purple item for some green quest item with better stats.

As far as the repair bill, it was pretty high from all the wipes. Hopefully we mesh better on Thursday night when we go in to kill Nightbane, Curator, Prince, Chess, Shade, Illhoof(not in that order). Repair bill: 27 gold

Lame week for me

I keep waiting for something exciting to happen to me worthy of writing a blog post. Still hasn’t happened yet but it’s been almost a week since I posted last so I guess ill whip up something. Last Wednesday group 1 jumped into Kara and downed Attumen, Moroes, and Maiden with no wipes but also no warrior drops. After Maiden several people had to log so the raid was called and it was picked back up on Saturday. I was down at the Lake on Saturday so obviously I couldn’t go. I hear they did chess, shade, Nightbane, and Curator. The damn pants I wanted dropped off curator but since I was gone I obviously didn’t get them and they were DE’d. It sucks I missed out on the pants upgrade and it sucks for all the broken hearts my sexy body left back at the lake, I hope those women find a way to move on. Tonight (Monday) im hoping I can get a spot in group 1 and get in on the Netherspite, Prince, and Illhoof action. I’d really like to get the shoulders from Netherspite and Gorehowl from Prince(for MS pvp). On the PvP front as always I tore it up on my horde hunter in arena’s. Me and Dirtyoldman(shadow priest) did some 2v2 and went 7-3. That was a lot of fun, but then it also makes for a lot of anger when I get on with Raydz and try to do 3v3 with Dirty(Druid) and Dirtyoldman(Prot/Holy Pally) and we go 2-8. I fully believe that after those 10 games I could have looked in the mirror and my skin would have been tinged green. I was very close to busting out into an incredible hulk moment and smashing my desk to pieces. As im in the middle of this awesome losing streak Krawl informs me that his 3v3 team went 9-5, it’s a shame that his boasting came at such an unfortunate time which will result in his death. Im thinking of throwing him into a pit with flesh eating beetles(picture something like the bugs in the Mummy movies), you’re welcome Jenet (Krawls wife). I do have to admit I am much better with my hunter in pvp than I am with my warrior. Why am I better with my hunter? Im not sure im putting part of the blame on the spec I keep using with my warrior for pvp(fury). Im using fury because I cannot get a hold of a good 2 hander for a MS spec. I hope once I get a nice 2 hander and I go Arms then the arena’s will start looking up for me on my warrior. I hope that tonight I get lucky and something drops that I can use with my warrior or it will be the first week I have gone since the new guild in which I havn’t gotten an epic item, and that will make me sad in my pants. Repair Bill - Kara Wednesday - 5 gold Repair Bill - Arena and free time pvp - 7 gold

I made love to my new helm

Friday:08/31/07 *Posts from today are a little rushed because my job is sucking balls lately* Friday was a Kara night. We picked up from our Curator run a few days earlier and polished off Shade, Netherspite, Chess, Prince, Illhoof and Beast Boss. All went nice and smooth; these guys definitely have their Kara bosses locked down. I was happy to take my tier 4 helm off the raid leader’s hands. Spent 200 gold on the Gems + Head enchant, but it’s well worth it. After killing prince we went to Illhoof, which I have never done so I was pretty pumped for that. Our main tank logged onto an Alt to bring to Kara so I was to main tank him. Turns out I have the easiest job on this fight and it was just a hold agro job for me. Illhoof went down but dropped no loot for warriors. To me he is a tossup with prince for hardest Kara boss. After Illhoof went down we decided to go kill the beast boss, which also I have never done. Apparently you have to clear all the animal rooms, easy enough, but then you have to leave the rooms and wait on several mobs to respawn again (Wtf that’s so lame, who the hell designed this). Only after clearing the respawned mobs will the boss pop. We got the spider boss and I think he was killed in about 30 seconds flat. The beast boss = cake. He ended up dropping shaman gear, which we had no shaman to use it so it went wasted, bummer. On the PvP front I did a lot of AV this weekend (See my previous post) and was able to get enough points to get my epic pvp boots. I slapped a +12 stamina enchant on them, even though it took me forever to find someone to do it. Next im going to work on some good pvp rings. Im hesitant about using honor points to buy armor because im not sure when the Gladiator season 1 gear will be available to be bought with honor points. As far as I know they are not making any new rings/trinkets/amulets available so that’s what’s going to grab my current honor points for now. Sunday I farmed my ass off and was able to get the mats/money to outfit my Kings Defender with a mongoose enchant. Total it ran me about 400 gold + 20g tip to the guy who gave it to me. Ouch that was expensive, but now my sword has sporadic lighting bursts and the chance to proc +120 agility. It was worth it. Here is our MT for kara(To my left, look close), ya i was expecting someone taller too. Kara Repair Bill: 4 gold Farming Repair Bill: 12 gold

#*&^ AFK'ers

*Pissy Post* Why do people go AFK in battlegrounds? Just so they can soak up honor and leech off everyone else. It really pisses me off. You know what would be awesome? If I could do some type of Matrix’ish computer warp from my house to the house of people going AFK in AV’s. A tale of Amazingness: John Doe is sitting there in his room(Probably watching Baywatch getting his jollies….to David Hasslehoff), letting a macro occasionally hit the jump bar for him so he doesn’t log out of wow or get booted from his AV Game. Mr.Doe is so enthralled by the half naked men(Im pretty sure all AFK’ers are gay) he doesn’t see my Uber cool computer warp trick as I materialize in his room. I instantly start beating the crap out of his computer until it is an unrecognizable heap of sparking rubble. The whole time John is screaming like a bitch and must be knocked unconscious with his own keyboard. On my way out of his room I pause to check out a scene of Pamela Anderson running down the beach, then head down stairs. I guess I would probably swing by the living room to make out with John Doe’s Mom before heading to the airport to catch my flight home. I hate AFK’ers much more than this but I tried to make my tale as PG-13 as I could, My first draft was much worse which included the use of bodily fluids. Seriously though, over the weekend having 10-15 people AFK per AV was normal(See screenshots). I know horde have the same problem as alliance so it’s not necessarily that the AFK’ers are causing losses it’s just the fact that they are piggybacking on my honor grind, and that’s crap. I don’t want to run AV for hours and hours over and over again but I do so I can get the gear to use in Arena’s. Why should John Doe get to sit there and not do anything and get the bonus honor? I hope blizzard finds a way to strip people of their honor points if they were AFK the whole battle. Here is my favorite screen shot I took of AV this weekend. Almost EVERYONE was AFK , notice there is 4 of us going on offense. I can’t remember…..but im almost positive we didn’t win that one. Repair Bill for AV this weekend. 13g