Outland Solo action

Today I went into Dire Maul to finish off all the classic dungeons for my Achievements.

Last 2 bosses down in the North and West wings.

Then I noticed I was missing 3 Outland dungeons for the BC version of the Achievement.

The Black Stalker - Underbog
Quagmirran - Slave Pens
Keli'dan the Breaker - Blood Furnace

All down solo style.

Keli'dan was the easiest but took the longest because you have to beat all the previous bosses.
Stalker was the fastest but the hardest and had me the closest to death.
Quagmirran wasn't too bad at all.

OMG another long Tuesday

Ok, so I am posting today out of sheer boredom.

I have already taken a visit over to Elitist Jerks and read a little of the long Feral WotLK thread... seriously, I don't know how they expect people to read a 130+ page thread.

Let me give you the summary.

• A perfect DPS rotation is still unknown
• Once it is known it will be a major PITA to keep it going

I took a look at most everyone's blogs but got tired of reading their thoughts on the Zombie invasion.

I added a couple of songs in my project playlist that I heard on the satellite radio this morning.

I read a couple posts on Emmerald's forums, nothing new or interesting jumped out.

Things I am trying to get done...

1. Exploration - I can't believe all the little nook and crannies I missed in some areas. This is a great thing to do at work between calls.
2. Gnome rep - it's the last one I need for the Achievement. I finished Exodar last night through questing on Azuremyst Isle and finished the exploration while I was at it.
3. 2 more bosses in DM - killed the PITA demon dog where you have to down all the damn shield generators.
4. Loremaster - Ugh
5. 50 pets - I think I need like 6-7 more. I have all the horde ones and alliance ones through vendors so it is getting down to drops and grinding.
6. 50 mounts - I just can't decide on this one. I bought all the dwarf mounts and was ready to buy all the horses, tigers, and elephants but I hate seeing my gold go down.
7. Work on Outland dungeon completion - Last on my list since I am so pissed I have done all these already but didn't get credit. That and to finish it completely I will still need Archie (my guild keeps shying away from even attempting him), Illidan, and Sunwell (doubt I ever see this at all).
8. Get my horde hunter to level 70 - might grind some invaders and try to get some epic gear on the cheap.

So off to surf the web, hopefully the servers are back up soon.

Boomkin Feral FTW!

Went into Hyjal last night and I had a complete blast wearing my healing gear during the trash waves.

Hurricane with no CD had me doing between 2.5K and 3.5K of AoE DPS, and that was with suboptimal healing gear with no crit. Went with Wrath spam on the spread out gargoyles and frost wyrms.

This fun had me thinking, maybe it is time for a little change and have a little fun...

So look for a Boomkin respec post sometime soon... going to dig through my bank and pull out those couple of Heroic MrT drops and old idols and see what I can throw together for a Boomkin set.

P.S.

I was losing NO mana spamming Hurricane... I think cause of OoC. Wrath spam barely put a dent in my mana as well.

Kael is down... and Vash... again...

Let me start by saying to all the QQers that don't like sharing the title, get over it.

Is Vash and Kael easier... Yes.

Can a bunch of players with heroic gear and a couple of Kara peices pug it?

No. Absolutely not.

Both fights have become more forgiving but both still need everyone to work together, do the right things, and think fast on thier feet.

Having downed Vash pre nerf, I can appreciate the difference but I wouldn't belittle the accomplishment even still.

The only thing that kept me from downing Kael before the nerf was a lack of time and interest from other players with the pending expansion... and a couple of complete morons in a couple pug attempts.

The Vash fight still needs the coordinated effort she always has but the adds go down faster so a couple of screwed up core tosses won't wipe the raid... which is nice. You still have to be good, just not perfect like it used to be.

The Kael fight does not seem that different. The bosses and weapons do go down a little faster but it is still about doing the right things and making few mistakes. By no means is it a gimmie fight from the patch... just a little more forgiving.

Will I be sporting my new title... I dunno... Jacemora Jenkins still has a nice ring to it (especially to those who know me) and Guardian of Cenarius might be in order as well.

Holy Cow... I almost forgot!

Last night I tanked and healed the Headless Horseman fight... at the same time!

/flex

T5 shoulders and pants for the 2T5 bonus of instant HoT FTW. Healed myself between phases.

The rest of the leather was S3 and S4 with tanking accessories and SSC weapon.

Honestly, the DPS was so leet I probably would have been fine without heals... but what fun would that have been?

6 attempts (I had the quest from Goldshire) with not one death (DPS, stay away from his whirl when the head detaches please.)

Well hell, if all the other Druids are doing it...

Here is my obligatory Hunter post.

I have a horde hunter, level 66 and rising.

She currently has a White Lion (FürElise), a White Gorilla (Bumble), and my wittle pal Slurpee the white Core Hound.

True story, when I first tried out the game right around the time of the BC release my initial thoughts were to become a hunter. A Coworker of mine had leveled a hunter pre BC and had started playing again in the expansion so I asked him a very important question... Can you tame any beast in the game? I had started out as a druid because without any outside influence or information it sounded like a class that suited me, but I was really torn between that and going hunter and having a pet.

His answer... No. I believe he said that at one point they could tame elites with all their abilities but all I know is when I asked there were many pets that could not be tamed. This was a hunter deal breaker for me and he basically talked me out of the hunter role with the lack of pet options and the little stable. I was pissed however that hunters could name their pets while my Warlock alt was stuck with the same goofy ass names every summon of my demons but that is fodder for another post.

Well, later in the game my daughter wanted a horde character so we decided on a Blood Elf Hunter (she looks like a porn star) with big hoop earrings (not my choice). I have played the hunter with and without my daughter trying to get her to level 70 before the expansion.

Then WotLK is coming, the hunter changes are announced, patch 3.0 comes down the line and OMG...

Bottom line, hunters got the most love in the expansion as far as the fun factor goes. More stable slots (not enough however to keep my loyal cat and add a rhino and white dino), tons of new pets to tame with awesome abilities, Pet talent trees, and just general killing stuff OPness.

Compared to the little tweaks my feral druid has been given it hard not to switch over to the dark side and fly through Northrend with a stomping air freezing dog named after popular quicky mart drink that gives you brain freeze.

I was glad I make it a point to read BRK's blog daily since I had not been in a stituation yet where I needed Heart of the Phoenix. And it was nice to find out I wasn't the only person affected by having Cower screw up a pull after reading a BBB post. Heck, even warrior bloggers are posting about their hunter exploits.

Ok, so there is my obligatory hunter post. Notice I didn't cover anything strategy related because A. I am a hunter noob even at level 66 and B. There are MANY hunter blogs out there that tell you all you need to know.

Wait, I have 1 tip. Don't grap a shiny new white ape at level 66 and think at level 60 it is going to hold any kind of agro in Negrand while you are unloading. Farm some leather in Hellfire while killing boars and leveling him first.

P.S. To all those new people coming into the game that are being sent to Drenden (I know you are since I have a wait time now to get into my server for the first time in over a year) you might want to roll a hunter. They are serious fun and a pretty easy class to play.

Ok, starting to have fun again...

Note to Blizzard:

Tune all raids, even pre BC raids, to the usual levels above the allowed players. That way instead of experiencing old content at breakneck speed it can be something challenging guilds could add to their accomplishments.

I have really enjoyed these couple trips into old content like MC and AQ40 but if these scaled up in difficulty it would be more game that is still challenging for people to experience.

Ok, I am now focused on achievements on my main. Blizzard added the ability to track old low level quest givers on the mini map so I plan to work extensively on getting my Loremaster done.

I am currently trying to get done the achievements for the world event which led me to the BG's for some NERDS rage... which leads me to a PvP topic.

Without getting the 51 point talent in order to have OoC for raiding some BT and maybe Sunwell I found a nice combo to burn cloth wearers CRAZY fast.

Prowl, Cat Charge, Pounce, Mangle, Shred, Shred or Mangle depending on position (keep an eye on combo points we want 5 here), Tigers Fury, Ferocious Bite.

If you spec for PvP/Arena having Berserk might be better than OoC, but either way if you put points into Infected Wounds and Rend and Tear I think the above combo will drop any cloth wearer before they can do anything. Frost mages might have a little window to get some distance but for them save the kitty charge for after you shift out of their frost nova.

I think I am going to respec next week from mainly tanking talents to mostly PvP Cat talents and take a whack in arenas with a BM hunter and a core hound stomping around.

On another note, I am starting to get a little drawn to testing out a Boomkin build. I have some decent caster gear in the bank and might play around with the idea of leveling 70-80 as a Boomkin.

So I am a little bummed.

Logged Jacemora... Talented up, went and soloed an old world instance for the achievement. Meh, whatever.

Yes, Swiping to AoE is fun. Mangle in bear does serious damage... yadda, yadda. Reports still have us not putting out great DPS compared to the other classes even with every last point in cat talents. Bear... I don't know, all I did was dabble with some old instances in full season gear for the armor bonus that has not been stripped yet.

Logged my Lock, Talented up in the Demon tree for Demon form... went on a Heroic run... meh. Demon form is silly. I guess it is useful to save someone if a mob gets away from the tank (which it shouldn't these days). I don't feel like I am doing any more damage then I was before and then you read about the fun mages and balance druids are having... bleh, my lock is not that much fun now... I might try another spec I suppose.

Logged my level 65 Horde hunter... OMG... hunters not only are so much fun now with getting exotic pets (I am running around with my white core hound Slurpee) but I am taking on 4-5 level 65 mobs with a level 60 ape without breaking a sweat.

I will say right now, had I leveled this hunter alliance I very likely would have changed mains. Maybe it's a good thing I didn't.

Anyone want to guess when we get to play again?

No prizes, just Stormwind Harbor street cred.

I am guessing 11:30ish PM EST.

By the way, there is a post on MMM Champion which refers to people that did somehow get on, converted thier pets and mounts, and then lost them all in a server crash.

I know as a druid clearing up my bags and reorganizing was going to be my first priority however it might be prudent to wait until tomorrow or until the all clear is given. I hear the Que for support in game is now 12 hours.

Hmmm, interesting thought...

They'll obviously have to be very careful with how they implement dual specs. I'm guessing a very limited number of times a day and probably a long 'cast' time or something. Otherwise you'd end up with stupid stuff like "oh our healers are dead -> NE ferals ghetto vanish (so ooc) -> respec -> swap items -> resto druid in just a matter of seconds.

Wait.... What?

Dual-Spec system

The dual-spec system will be introduced in a content patch. The goal is to let you switch specs very easily in raid, even between fights !

Yep, a recent blue post.

Now how can druids complain after this hits, we can go from being MT able to Top Melee DPS... within the same fight!

Ok, I will stop complaining about tanking in my DPS leather now.

I am sure this is going to work the same way for Warriors and Pallies... the question is does this make the game and raiding easier or the need for more skilled players even more important.

I am thinking raiding with quick thinkers that react well to sudden changes will have more success than ever.

I can see it now... damn, we are down to a tank and 4 healers... it's a wipe... HELL NO, you 2 pallies switch to RET Spec NOW!

Awesome!

My leveling Spec @ 70

Lets start with the first 5 points...

5/5 Ferocity - When grinding and leveling we rip not bite so no Feral Aggression
3/3 Feral Instinct - We want the best chance of going undetected in stealth
2/2 Savage Fury - +20% Mangle DMG
3/3 Thick Hide - For bear O crap moments
2/2 Feral Swiftness - +30% faster in cat form even indoors now and +4% to dodge
1/1 Survival Instincts - Another O crap button but used in Cat or Bear
3/3 Sharpened Claws - +6% to crit
3/3 Preditory Strikes - Bonus attack power
NO SHREDING ATTACKS - not wasting 2 points on shred or lacerate
1/1 Feral Charge - now used in cat form as well.
NO Nurturing Instinct
2/2 Primal Fury - Faster combo points
2/2 Primal Precision - 10 Expertise and 80% refund of energy on missed attacks
5/5 Heart of the Wild - Greater Int, STA, and AP
3/3 Survival of the Fittest - Increase of all stats and less chance to get Crit
1/1 Leader of the Pack - +5% to Crit
3/3 Preditory Instincts - +10% damage to Crits
3/3 Infected Wounds - -20% of attackers attack speed
1/1 Mangle - of course
3/3 King of the Jungle - Tiger Fury gives an instant 60 Energy
2/2 Improved Mark of the Wild - increased stats

3/5 Furor - I don't shift much between mobs when leveling so I am fine using this as a filler and getting 60 energy on shift
5/5 Naturalist - +10% damage
NO Natural Shapeshifter - see above, when I level I don't shift out of form much
1/1 Omen of Clarity

Ok, 4 points left...

Going with 2/2 Improved Leader of the Pack - Free heals and mana return while in form
and
2/2 Brutal Impact - 1 more sec on the initial pounce stun so maybe 1 more shred.

Notice I am not going with our 51 point Berserk talent. Sorry but for leveling I think I will live without it until level 71

71 - 1/1 Berserk
72, 73, 74 - 3/3 Mother bear (might start needing this to tank instances)
75, 76, 77 - 3/3 Natural Reaction (might go back and forth with this and the above between 72-77)
78, 79 - Improved Mangle

80 - All bets are off, depending on what I am needed for raiding will determine my build and by then a lot of these talents might have changed.

Here is my level 70 Spec come Tuesday...

SPEC

The Political post...

So I decided to sit in the tub this evening and watch the Presidential Debate.

After listening to both sides and the state of current affairs in and out of the country I had formed an opinion about our future... us... our kids... their kids...

and while I was thinking about how humanity is at a crossroads of what is important and how we as a planet must come together going into the future I happened to channel surf right into "The Girls Next Door" and kinda forgot everything I had to say.

Maybe tomorrow I will have some time to review the cliff notes and reform an opinion.

On another note, Pam Anderson surprised Hef on his birthday delivering a cake in the nude and the Girls gave Hef chocolate impressions of their privates.

I wonder if he thinks about the future of humanity?

Locktards?

I have a level 70 lock... I don't talk about her much. My daughter created her and we/I have leveled her to 70.

Last night I took her on a ZA run, full clear and with a Destro spec, crafted and Kara gear (no Tier gear or anything from 25 man raids or badge gear and only PvP S2 staff) stayed pretty competitive I thought.

I am spec Destro, sack a wentch for the buff, curse for added shadow damage, and spam either SB, seed, or banish throughout the run.

We take down the first boss (Eagle) and my DPS is so/so because I keep being flung into the air or made the storm... lol... so I had a lot of down time and didn't quite break 1K DPS.

We take down the 2nd boss (Bear) and I am 3rd in DPS and not really that far from the leaders breaking 1K DPS.

We take down the 3rd boss (Phoenix) and I am 2nd in DPS while managing the dudes breaking eggs and seeding the adds while staying alive from the bombs.

We missed the timed chest... oh well, no big...

We take down the 4th Boss (Lynx) and I am a solid 3rd in DPS and right there with the leaders.

We take down Hex Lord and my DPS falls quite a bit since I am keeping an add on focus and rebanishing it over and over. Hurt a little with 3 priests in the group since when they get MCed they would cleanse my banish... doh.

We kill Zul'jin and my DPS falls because I die to a Lynx rush... Healthstone didn't even make a dent as I croaked... remember, my gear is not stellar except for my Belt of Blasting... Frozen Shadow since level 70 FTW... lol

A couple points I would like to make.

1. Locks are increadibly easy compared to DPSing with a feral druid. I life tap when I need mana, I keep an eye on my Corruption DoT timer, I make sure Curse is up, I spam SB.

2. Locks are WAY more gear independant than my feral druid. No way I could have come in ZA as a feral in no badge gear, no head enchant, S2 mace, and only some bought rep peices and Kara drops with no Tier gear and been close to contributing as much as I did on my Lock.

Because of stuff like this and having to share rogue gear now I start to consider changing my main to my lock which really sucks since she has not even ran 1 Herioc... not 1. She has no Outland rep to exaulted except for Scryer.

Again, she is breaking 1K DPS in a 10 man and really didn't have to do shit to get there. I had to grind my ass of on my druid, spend tons of badges and gold, get all kinds of rep... ugh.

Now I am going into Wrath, I am going to be sharing leather with rogues, I have to choose between specs to either MT or DPS, I have no clue if being an OT/DPS will still be possible and even if it were now I have to juggle energy regaining abilites, lose what was the best Tier bonus in the game (2T4), and possible add more attacks/casts into both my tanking and DPSing rotations. So now I might be timing Mangle, rake, shred, rip, Fury, bezerker... you get the point.

Do I really want to put myself through even more min/max gear and playstyle when I could just level my lock and roll into the first raids with some crafted crap and top the DPS meters by spamming 1 or 2 spells?

I just don't know.

I guess I could just spec resto and be done with it. I think I am going to bounce between Tanking spec and Resto spec that way I can always find a group for a 5 man while getting to 80.

If my lock didn't look like a craigslist special of the week maybe I would think differently.

Fun in Molten Core

Grats to my buddy Petsareus on his new (Molten)Core Hound.

I have never had so much fun dying and healing... FYI, don't try this little stunt unless you have 60+ gold for repairs and spec Resto for the threat reduction.

I guess I should mention this was on the PTR. We are going to Fraps it when we do it on the live server in 2 weeks.