Raid Leading and Ulduar 10

Yup. I have stepped up to raid leading. I am keeping it as simple as I can and taking along most anyone who signs up and wants to come so we can see some new content. Of course today is patch day 3.2 and even more new content is coming out.

We have now run 2 full weeks of my Ulduar 10 runs and although I am still without loot we have put a good 10 items into the guild in those two week. We have downed Flame Leviathan and XT-002 Deconstructor twice each and Razorscale and Kologarn once each in the first week.

Leading has been quite a challenge for me. I am one who naturally stays behind the scenes and helps in other ways than being the voice up front. The first week we had some great friends of the guild help out and get us off and running. This also made it seem a lot easier. But week 2 had me doing more of the actual leading and getting more comfortable. This next week we are only raiding one night instead of two due to a guild function. This will again leave us most likely only beating down Flame Leviathan and Deconstructor but each win puts 2 more loots in the guild.

Speaking of helping the guild, I am excited by the ease at which T9.0 can be had.

Seems that Blizzard has decided to make the Heroic Daily reward you with 2 Emblems of Triumph. Excellent. And thank you. After only 15 dailies I will have my T9.0 shoulders. Sure there are other ways to get them and better gear with the emblems once we start raiding the Coliseum, but as I stated above we're having our issues with Ulduar still. So each piece really helps a ton. Add in that T8.25 head and chest are available to Emblems of Conquest and in the next month the average gearing of our guild and probably the entire server will really increase.

Been a While, Yet Again...

So today is June 1st. I am just now getting around to making another post. Life has been very busy lately. Roofing on the weekends for my grandmother, reading about C VanDerBilt, and playing what WoW I can in between RL commitments.

Caldmint is continuing to grow up. My tanking suit and better yet tanking abilities are growing. The PVP set is growing although slowly. Am still 2 WG marks short of my next trinket. I am 2 Emblems of Valor away from a major upgrade at ring. And I am debating between the T7 chest dps or the plate tanking belt for emblems of heroism.

The Rep Grind is going fairly well. I am 1 instance away from getting revered with the Kirin Tor. I am putting on hold the Argent Crusade run to get this as it will effect my repair bills in a good way. They will be the last of the main six from WotLK to get to Revered.

Since my last update I did exalt both EB and SoH. It has made me quite happy to get up to 15 overall Exalted factions. I know I am quite behind the normal player in this still but I'm working more and more each week hoping to make the growing list.

The recent week has also seem my involvement in both my first exploration of Ulduar and also some more activity in 25 man runs in both VoA and OS. Sadly I was unable to make the guild run in Naxx 25, but am feeling fairly assured that I will be able to go this week.

Tonight will see me cleaning up odds and ends. I have to do the cooking daily as I want to amass northern spices as well as a few others to pile on gold from the weekend's spending spree.

PVP Mondays and More

In our guild we run PVP on Monday evenings. Luckily for me they start fairly early at 5pm server. This helps me get in a little more than normal with those late starting everything else.

We only got three BGs in and then a quick loss in WG on defense. Out of it I managed with no quests, 4500 honor. It will help in the coming grind for better gear. I really feel like I've missed out by not playing for a couple months, but it was so worth it.

Tonight I am hoping to get some Bernie time in because he is back at 150% rest. Which really just wastes rest from that point. Luckily for me with the shoulders that 150% can go to zero very quickly.

That and I've got rep on my mind. I really want to spend about 10 hours one night grinding reps in Outlands instead of sleeping. Too bad this doesn't work out for me. I am into revered right now with both Honor Hold and Cenarian Expedition and would like to finish them up running heroics. With a group of 5 people you can run all 3 of each faction in an hour a piece. Two hours, about 8000 rep for each per day. Assuming the heroics in outlands still have a timer.

Having only 13 Exalted right now without another one very near (ie, tonight) is hard. I get more feeling of achievement from Exalted reps than I do from the achievements they give in the game. Many of which are a complete waste of time in my mind.

We'll see how tonight goes. But Bernie is my priority today.

Back on the Rep Grind and a Revive

So yesterday had me doing very little in WoW. I basically ran Caldmint through half of the Ebon Blade dailies. I am about half way through revered right now so am slowly approaching the end of the grind with them. Yes I am still champing them even though I am so close so it'll end sooner than later.

After that and some bank/mail cleaning I was off to a little questing with BernieVonFoz. Bernie has been a whole new game for me. I still have to do the same old same old quests, but playing as a feral druid mostly in cat form has been wonderful. Adding fun to a game that was losing it for me.

I also did my first ever revive of another toon. Another druid many levels lower pulled too many mobs and went down before I could heal. So after I cleared out the area I ran over and did a revive and HoT.

Today may not be a big WoW day for me. Big things happening at home. But if I can get on, I plan on running others through some power leveling. The same old same old quests do get old.

Heroic Tanking

That's right all. I tanked a heroic last night. Ok Ok. It was only VH. But I had never tanked in prot spec before and it was quite the learning experience even in that short time.

We had a server reset coming in the middle. So when we wiped on the first boss, we all decided to hold off until the server came back up. That luckily was the only wipe we'd suffer.

After the restart we were ready to go. I had some help with what I was missing the first time and actually did a lot better. I know I had an all-star healer with us and kicking DPS. Basically the best of the guild old and new, and me.

But I did actually learn a lot and look forward to doing it again today.

My First Real Naxx

Last night found me into Naxx for my first real run. I had been a spare body on an attempted run one other time but we didnt get past even one boss then.

Last night we did the plague and arachnid quarters. I was the happy recipient of a couple of decent drops. I did lose the roll on a big one for a set of shoulders I would have liked but as it was a guild run, I'm happy we all got some things.

It was a wipe free night. Half the party did die on the dance floor including me but the group worked the run well.

I still have a lot to learn as I probably couldnt tell you which bosses did what right now without looking it up, but for my first run I very greatly enjoyed it.

A Big Night Last Night

So last night I hit revered with both the Ebon Blade and Sons of Hodir.

I got the SoH first and still needed a heroic to get through the rest of the rep for EB. Wouldn't you know I was in H UK with a bunch of guys from an allied guild of ours and my leg plates finally dropped. I was so excited. Then I saw someone rolling against and thought it said they won the roll. So I said grats to them as I should and was happy someone else got the huge upgrade. Funny thing when they said, "but you won". I looked and realized my mistake and was over the moon.

So today when I get home and do the SoH dailies and search for a heroic I'll be that much better. New shoulders from SoH, New Sword in my offhand from the EB and new legs.

Am very curious what my DPS numbers should be like tonight. Hopefully I can run 8 heroics over the weekend and Monday so I can get new EB boots by the time I go raiding on Tuesday in Naxx. Also the 8 heroics should put me very close to my mirror trinket which would be super cool before the raid. So that's where you'll find me all weekend. Farming Heroics.

What I've Been Doing

So its been about two months since I posted. But that's ok, I don't have many or even any readers.

I am well into being level 80 now after dinging just before new years and am slowly finding it easier to find groups. Who knew abandoning my search within the guild was answer. That's right all. PUGs are the reason I've gotten this far. Sure they're not ideal. Sure you wipe for what sometimes feels the dumbest of all reasons. But here is something rarely mentioned for PUGs. They are there when your guildies aren't. So stop stressing the gold from repair bills. Its all fake gold in a fake game anyway. (Borrowed from a guildie) When the guild is busy, not interested, just doesn't want to, I say "PUGs to the rescue.

I love my guild. I really do. They will help when they can. I realize my frustration lies in two places. My odd hours of play and also my lack of play time so I am behind the curve on the seemingly end all be all DPS numbers from recount. But the people are still great and I do get groups from them. Just not always as many as I'd wish. I wouldnt be playing WoW at all if it werent for all of them.

So today is a semi big day for me. I am about to hit Revered in both Knights of the Ebon Blade and the Sons of Hodir tonight. New shoulders and a new off hand weapon. Oh yeah, I'm fury now in effort to up the DPS to the new standards. Still don't love it but its not as bad as when I first switched. I'd like Blizzard to just level out Arms with Fury again so I can go back to being Arms.

Next Tuesday I will enter Naxx for the second time. I was in it to help the guild a few weeks ago but it was a full on disaster. We kept wiping on the first boss I came to. But its ok. I know how that fight is supposed to go now that I'm better geared. So I take it as a learning experience. Am really looking forward to my first runs though. The idea to maybe get some gear is nice but I've had SUCH bad luck with the drops on my heroic runs, guild or pug, that I am just going to take what I can get and be happy for the emblems that fall.

Everything you do in the game has achieved something. Even if its an evening spent running low level content to help leveling guildies. So don't forget to enjoy.

Approaching the Expansion

Well I haven't made it here nearly as much as I'd have liked. But then again I haven't had nearly enough play time in WoW as I would have liked either lately. Real Life, or that fantasy world we live in when not in WoW, has been terribly busy.

I just in this last week before the expansion ran my second Kara. I've been blessed in that my guild is really quite wonderful about sharing and not taking things that arent needed so those that do need, usually get. Perfect example last night is when our main healer and our raid leader both backed out of the T4 gloves roll so I could have it. Thank you both very much. Not sure how much the set bonus helps me for those, but they were a major upgrade. As was the new belt I got that although off spec was such an upgrade they gave it to me as well. I was still using my Tenacious Defender Belt from level 60 in Ramps. I'm sure all the 70 horde I kill in the BGs enjoyed inspecting me with that on, but its time has passed.

My reps are all currently very low in general to the rest of the guild for the end game content. I currently have only 2 of the Heroic Keys and am having trouble finding the time and motivation to run any regulars to get the rep up. Anyone else feeling the lack of motivation in the run up to the expansion? Like a built in break.

Actually the expansion also marks the end of the line for many of my friends in WoW. They're using it as a chance to get out of the game and continue on with RL matters instead. To them I wish them all luck and well being in their chosen endeavours.

Life of my 70

Its been a long time since I posted and I must admit I've just not been feeling it lately for WoW. We have been very busy in fantasy land (what most call RL, WoW is RL to me sometimes) and my priorities just haven't included WoW.

But now that patch 3.0.2 is out and we have achievements and new talents I'm LOVING my life killing people in the BGs. Sure I can often get owned as I not always the best PVP'er but it is fun to be that much better now with my new talents and the ever improving gear.

I am disappointed to find that I have been unable to find many heroic or raid runs with my guild. I would like to keep building up and taking advantage of the time before the expansion comes out to further gear myself. But at the same time the break from the game has been great. I am very excited to get the expansion and start on the run up to 80. That alone will take me past Christmas and seems like it will be forever just like the run to 70 did. But it will get done and I will be able to finally afford the things that matter. The huge new mounts, the current fast flyer, the new gear and all that fun stuff.

So to the guild who may be reading this, continue to have fun. I will be back full time next month. Just hit or miss for now for me.

DING!

Yes everyone, I finally hit 70 on Friday evening. It took longer than expected as after work my GF decided to throw some agro my way and insisted on going out to eat. Not what I wanted to do, but I knew once I hit 70 I'd want more play time than I've been getting lately. So I agreed and out we went.

But after less than an hour of playing I finally had enough to ding on the quest turn in and off I went to do it. It took me about 26 hours of game play spread out over about 9 months of RL.

I am loving life as a 70. I still am geared with a lot of level 59 and 60 twinkish gear I had and never replaced and I'm still able to hold my own in most battlegrounds. There are some hordies who are just uber and I can barely scratch and die quickly but am SO happy to finally have my s2 sword and legs on. They've been in my bank for what feels like forever.

So finally, CalDMint is top level. For about another 5 weeks when Blizzard takes that away from me.

My Last Break in Play before My First 70

Well I am back at work now after going home to play WoW on my lunch hour. This is really a very common practice for me. It helps me play more WoW. It helps me stay focused at work by taking a real break during the day, of which I wouldn't be paid for anyway. And most of all it helps me reduce girlfriend agro in that I play less when she's around because I played some when she wasn't.

And so it is with great fanfare that I sit here now and proclaim to the world that CalDMint is currently at 87.5% into level 69 leaving only 2.5 boxes to go to level. My questing in the past day or so has been in Netherstorm doing Area 52 quests. One of my guildies told me that the quests here are in his opinion the fastest way to level from 68 on. So I started late but the xp rate including turn ins has gotten as high as 135,000 xp/hour.

I am very excited that in another 2 hours I will once again be infront of my computer and about an hour or so later I will DING once more.

So please excuse the bluntness of this but YAY ME!