Jacemora

My last post...

2009-04-09T15:19:00.010-04:00

on Blogger! The new site is www.Jacemora.com The new feed is http://feeds2.feedburner.com/DOTM

Yes, I have decided to make the dreaded move to wordpress. The site is up, old posts transferred, some old and some new widgets, and even a separate page for my current gear lists.

I moved to Wordpress because of the greater ease of which I can make templates and the better widgets. All in all I just like the more professional look and my own domain name.

Now that I am paying for hosting I plan on getting more into posting content, in game video, hell maybe even a blog cast or 2. Keep an eye out for my "About this site page" which I will be getting up soon which will be about where my blog has been, more about my real life, and where the blog is going in the future.

Please get my new feed, change any links on your pages (or add me, you know you want to), and let me know of any technical issues the site might be having. Also please feel free to give me tips for a better overall design or functionality I have no problem with criticism and would appreciate the advice.

P.S. to Runyarusco from Unbearably hot I swiped you feed graphic... I hope you don't mind, I really like it.

2 Drakes up... 2 Drakes down... WOOT

2009-04-08T08:39:00.004-04:00

We started the night on a high note with a 24 man 1 shot of Malygos and then ended the night on a high note of downing Sarth with 2 drakes up.

This was really only our 2nd partial night of attempts and not even with all our best geared raiders or any kind of optimal raid makeup in mind (25 raiders were online, 25 raiders went in... lol).

Nonetheless, everything went well as we learned positioning, assignments, when to go into the portal... lol

I am the drakes tank in this fight, we have a DK tanking Sarth, and our usual MT warrior was on adds. We had a ret pally tanking the acolyte in the portal which resulted in his death but we somehow still pulled it out. Having 1 more tank like our resident prot pally would probably make it a little easier with him tanking trash with the warrior and then the warrior tank going into the portals when they come up. DPS was not an issue, the first drake was down at least 15 secs or more before Vesp landed.

Tanking the drakes is interesting... the biggest challenge is postioning them with their backs turned to the raid while not falling into the lava and avoiding the waves. Because of where they land they tend to want to repostion between me and the lava quite frequently. Not being able to target the drakes early sucks as well as I only have a second to grab agro and move the first drake before the first wave, sometimes I don't even get to do that and the wave comes before the drake is even targetable. Fortunatley a hunter misdirect comes in handy to make sure we get him in place either way.

Best thing to do as a feral tank is target the first drake asap, hit him with a mangle, mash maul, throw a swipe, run him into postion, avoid the flame wall, turn around, BERSERK, spam maul and mangle and get a good threat lead so your DPS can go all out. I am not sure how long my DPS delays but it can't be very long with us downing him so quickly.

All in All, currently the most fun fight in Northrend IMHO and we start on 3D next week.

P.S. The Leggings of the Honored dropped, but not only did I not have enough DKP for them over our resident rogue but since I would only use them for my kitty set I had no qualms seeing these go elsewhere. Hopefully they drop again when we do 3D and I can pick them up to replace T7 pants I use for tanking when I need more stam. (I would gem/enchant my T7.5 pants for strictly tanking and wear these for DPS essentially retiring my T7 pants). Our rogue did mention that when the chest finally drops off Maly he doesn't want it so I will get a bump in my DPS set there I suppose. DKP aside in Knight Watch we are pretty good about distributing the wealth and talking to each other about gear when it falls.

My 3 main gear sets

2009-04-02T10:46:00.002-04:00

I have added a pretty cool set of html code to my rightmost column showing the gear I wear for MTing, DPSing, and Trash Tanking.

Keep in mind there are some situational items not shown that I might wear for fights like Saph, Sarth, and Patch like Polar Chest, Boots, Belt along with possibly even some T7 gear enchanted and gemmed for stamina.

Also note that because I am hybrid spec best in slot for me can be somewhat different than if I were a straight DPS feral. Basically I am wearing best in slot for DPS considering my talents with the exception of cloak from Kel, Chest from Maly, and Pants from Sarth 2D.

You might also notice I favor the strength proc idol from swipes when I am bear tanking trash packs.

A note on my many outfits and when I use them.

2009-03-27T12:21:00.013-04:00

Thought I would throw this out there for the feral druids wondering how they can optimize gear for different encounters...

I personally have a bunch of different gear combination depending on the fight... or even trash for that matter.

I won't get into particular pieces of gear since not everyone is as fortunate with drops as the next but just a general idea of how I change gear with the ebb and flow of a given raid. You can see if you like the gear I wear in each set listed in the right most column of my blog including how it is enchanted and gemmed.

I have no math to back this up, just what works for me Main Tanking, Off Tanking, and DPSing in current content. As I have posted before I am a Hybrid BearCat so I enjoy mix and matching my gear to take advantage of what I can do on any given encounter.

First my Sets...

1. Main Tanking set - Gear considered tops for tanking based solely on mitigation. With this setup the DPS might have to wait 3-5 secs for me to get solid agro but from there out it isn't much of an issue. I think I have about 78 hit but I am maxed out on mitigation stats and expertise.

2. Kitty DPS set (raiding) - Top DPS gear with making sure to get 2T7.5 bonus in there. Hit capped.

3. Off Tanking/Trash set - A mix of DPS Kitty gear and MTing gear. I am over the hit cap in this set.

4. Tank Stamina set/FR set - Used for Saph or Sarth, I stopped using this set on Patchwerk because taking 2 hatefuls back to back constantly sucks which happens when you get over 50K HP. Again, this set offers very little hit and avoidance stats suffer from the FR gear. Make sure to only gem your Polar gear with stam gems, you only need to be wearing this gear on fights where stam is king anyway.

5. Kitty DPS set (World) - Basically same as above but dropping the 2T7.5 bonus and using my Idol from BT for strength proc on mangle.

I also have a Healing set, Boomkin set (never use now that we have Kitty Swipe), and Naked set ( I will have to screen shot my couple of naked set ups... I have a Aquaman one and a Tarzan one)

So here is when I use which set...

Malygos - Off Tank set. I tank the adds at the beginning of phase 2 so in phase 1 I am in kitty DPSing on Maly. I use my DPS staff and Idol and then switch it between phase 1 and 2.

Sarth - I have been going with my MT set which still puts out good threat. Note I only have 40 Hit in this set so my DPS gives me a couple secs to establish agro with incoming drakes. If/When I MT Sarth I will go to the Stam set obviously. Before we pull Sarth I tank trash in my trash set of course.

VoA - I could prob tank this in my full Kitty set but I usually just DPS this fight.

Hell, I tanked Saph last night from 14% in my full cat gear with FR stuff just swapping weapon and idol with 2 healers, 1 hunter, and 2 Death Knights left standing... damn buggy Frost Tombs. Of course this has more to do with me wearing a lot of Valorous which is very good in slot for both Kitty and Bear.

Naxx - All trash is in my OT/Trash set.

Anub - I am in OT/Trash set... Kitty DPS on boss between tanking adds
Grand Widow - Usually MT gear for this unless I am Kitty DPSing. Usually I am MTing it or tanking all the adds with swipe.
Maexxna - I kitty DPS this one so my Kitty set.

Noth - OT set for snap agro on spawned adds.
Unclean - Kitty DPS set cause I am in kitty for it.
Loatheb - Kitty set and shreding butt again.

Instuctor - OT set usually as I DPS and also grab adds if/when they break MC.
Gothik - OT set again as I need the snap agro on the spawned adds. Tanking Gothik once he comes down has never been an issue in the set either.
4 Horse - I am almost always the first Korth tank on the left but I wear my OT set for max agro and DPS since we like burning the turd as fast as possible. I don't have issues in this set as long as people stay with me as I do the exchange for when the meteor hits.

Patchwerk - MT set. I no longer use the FR stuff because at too high stamina and too little avoidance it is too easy to get smacked by multiple hatefulls back to back. I like to share the wealth with at least 1 more tank as far as getting beat up goes.
Grob - OT set for slimes snap agro when they spawn and splash damage from swipe and mauls on Grob.
Gluth - OT set usually but I think I could easily OT this in my Kitty set. When our warrior MT has him I go kitty and shread butt watching my target of target for when he gets a 3 stack so I can go bear and run back in front and taunt... which might go even better in Kitty gear being hit capped. In the past I have had taunts miss because of my low hit in MT set. As soon as the 3 stack wears off the MT takes him back and I go back to kitty DPSing.
Thad - If MTing I would prob wear my MT set but lately I have been kitty DPSing... usually in the top 5 kitty DPSing at that :) If all I was tanking was one of the 2 adds I wouold prob wear my OT set just in case the other tank misses the jump. Lately though I am the 3rd tank switching to DPS when I can.

Saph - If MTing Saph I would wear MT set and cap out FR with ring, boots, and belt most likey. Lately I have been kitty though except for last night where I started kitty and ended up MT. Lived in kitty gear switching to tank weapon and idol wearing FR ring and belt only... lol... turned out to be a bad night to scrimp on FR wearing... fortunatly we have really good players and I lived. Our guild has this never give up attitude and we hate wiping even with DC's and bugs we find a way :)

Kel - MT set because the adds hit hard. Antoher interesting fight last night the other OT died before they came out so I had to hold all 4. Healers did a great job keeping me up even though a ton had gone wrong and we lost a lot of DPS and went a minute over our last kill. I was getting clobbered and had to burn a lock cookie (a first in naxx), all my cd's when they were availabe, and even a armor potion for good measure.

If you take anything from all this the important thing is to swap gear depending on many factors.

A. How hard does the boss/mosters hit
B. Tanking 1, 2, or many mobs
C. Main Tanking? Off Tanking? DPSing most of the fight?
D. Magic Damage? Physical?
E. How many healers do you have? How good are they?
F. Agro issues? Do the monsters have an agro reset?
G. Can you afford a taunt miss?
H. Hurtfuls? Silences? Incoming steady damage or spike damage?

Do your best to get the gear you need to make different sets. It is a much better idea than balancing one peice of gear to fill many roles especially with Uldar around the corner and difficulty increasing. You are going to want to min/max what you can depending on your role in any given fight.

You don't want to gimp you Main Tanking set for example gemming for hit if you can just swap in a peice of gear with +50 hit when it calls for it. A fight where an agro reset and early miss could spell a wipe or a missed taunt can be an issue on a tank switching fight for example. This wasn't as easy in BC but in Wrath this isn't nearly as bad as a tradeoff.

Try to keep you Main Tanking set focused on Mitigation, Aviodance, and Survival because as a MT your first priority is staying alive. If this means DPS needs to give you an extra couple secs or watch the meters so be it. Hopefully Uldar is going to get away from the AoE fest that Naxx has been and people will start paying attention again to things like Omen and Agro dump abilities.

On the same note, you don't want to gimp your DPS gear gemming with Stamina because you want more threat in Bear.

Gear that you use in both sets you can balance with purple gems, however I would always enchant and thread for DPS unless you are always the MT.

Even if you are always the MT, no matter what, you still need to consider picking up at least some DPS leather for cases when higher threat is called for instead of survivability... that is just the life of a BearCat.

Viva La 1 night Naxx clear!

2009-03-18T12:49:00.003-04:00

Last night Knight Watch ripped through Naxx Heroic in 3 hours 2 minutes. No wipes, quick looting, and AFK'ers were set on follow... amazingly 1 person lived through the dance set on follow... lol

We did this believe or not with 7 healers and 4 tanks. Well, 3 tanks and a Hybrid Bearcat as I like to call myself. Glyph of Rip, Glyph of Maul, Glyph of FR... so 1 of 3 for DPS and spec with both tanking and DPS abilities... can't wait for dual specs.

Anub - Kitty DPSed it, 4th on damage per WWS.
Grand Widow - Kitty again, 6th on meters. (couldn't tell if I was behind her half the time.)
Max - Kitty DPS, 4th on meters.

Patchwerk - Hurtful tank.
Grob - Kitty, first time ever not tanking adds... 9th on the meters. I would have to move a couple keybinds to improve here.
Gluth - Kitty, first time again DPSing... 6th on the meters
Thad - Kitty, had to move a lot... 5th on the meters... was not behind him enough.

Noth - Bear OT adds.
Mr Unclean - Kitty, 8th on the meter, I hate this fight.
Loath - Kitty, 8th, but I only got 1 spore.

Instructor - Kitty for the first time... 8th on the charts... frankly I was scared to go all out.
Goth - Tank Undead Side
4 Horse - Tank left side

Sapph - Kitty, FR gear, 6th on meter with only 75% DPS time... I am a good kitty and get out of ice storms :P
Kel - OT adds

Nothing better than clearing Naxx in 1 night, DPSing in the top 5 at times, always in the top 10, and tanking 5 of the encounters to boot. How people can complain about feral PvE is beyond me.

Get BadKitty and practice your rotations!

This tip might be too late for some...

2009-03-16T08:54:00.003-04:00

In the game World of Warcraft you may have noticed that things constantly change. Whether it be what enchant is best on your weapon or even which weapon is best for your class and spec. Blizzard is constantly tweaking abilities and multipliers, heck even racial talents.

One tip I would like to provide that I have used myself since hitting level 70 is this...

Don't upgrade for the sake of upgrading.

Feel good about sitting on 400 Stone Keeper's Shard.
Feel good about sitting on 200 Emblem of Valor.
Feel good about sitting on that Nobles Deck. (Ok, I didn't do this but that is because I OT/MT enough to not worry about taking +90Agi over +90Str but there are those that picked the +90Str that might be kicking themselves in the head come 3.1)

My point is this...

If your guild is not having issues clearing current content.
If you can get through heroics either doing good DPS or holding up as a tank with decent healers.
If you can handle the Epeen effects of being 7th on the DPS meters instead of 5th when off spec DPSing.

Then hold off on upgrading a peice of gear.

By now you might have noticed that with some patches in the game comes new gear. This could be new crafted gear, new PvP gear, new gems, new enchants, ETC. Item A may no longer be the best in slot for you when you couple the effects of new talents, gear, enchants, gems, and underlying combat math.

So do yourself a favor and hold off getting Epic if you are getting by fine without it.

Wait til you need the help and then get what is best to get you over that hump. This way you don't look back at spending X to get Y and wish you would have waited just a couple more weeks since Y sucks now and Z is the way to go.

Needless to say I am waiting for the harder content of Uldar and to see what my guild is going to need first (More DPS or More Tankage) before I start buying gear/gems/enchants that won't amount to a hill of beans difference in the current content.

BREAKING NEWS!

2009-03-13T08:19:00.005-04:00

From MMO Champion...

Item - Druid T8 Feral 2P Bonus (Class: Druid) -- The periodic damage dealt by your Rake, Rip, and Lacerate abilities has a chance to cause you to enter a Clearcasting state.

This is HUGE!

To refresh your memory the old 2T4 Proc returned 20 energy. This will basically give you a free special on your next attack which as we all know is more than 20 energy.

Depending of course on the proc rate and internal CD this is potentially a bigger deal than the old 2T4 proc and I am sure everyone remembers what a huge deal this was. It was OP enough that Blizzard had to remove the 2T4 bonus @ 80 and scale back the proc rate after level 70 to make sure we stopped wearing 2T4 as we went into Wrath content.

I would assume with the proc happening from periodic damage it will happen a little less and that they are going to make sure through the proc rate that it is not as OP as the old 2T4 but as a feral druid this bonus has to get you excited about wearing T8 4 sure.

And look at the 4 piece bonus...

Item - Druid T8 Feral 4P Bonus (Class: Druid) -- Increases the duration of Savage Roar and Survival Instinct by 8 sec.

This is one happy Hybrid Feral Druid (Soon to be dual spec Tank/DPS feral druid). I mean I have been really happy with my Tanking and DPSing ability since going with a Hybrid build, check it out... top 5 on Thaddius last night (WTB Ret Pally Nerf :P or DK faceroll ability :P)

Tagged by the Think Tank for a screenshot...

2009-03-05T08:07:00.003-05:00

Ok, so here it is. My 6th screen shot taken in Jan of 2008. Kalon from Think Tank pinged me for this so of course I quickly obliged.

This is me and my pet fish Frankie waiting outside SSC... and you thought roller skating Fel Reavers were cool... lol

To my surprise this little guy would evade all attempts to join me in SSC or let me take him back to Shat in a fishbowl for my orphan.

Unfortunately I was unable to find any screenshots prior to this date in a timely fashion but I might get some time to shift through some old hard drives and see what 6th shot nugget I might have from my original WOW install back in 2007.

Malygos down!

2009-03-04T12:13:00.005-05:00

WooHoo!!!

Gratz goes out to all my guildmates, great work getting him down on our first real night of attempts.

I even got a little something for my trouble...

Favor of the Dragon Queen and 1000 Rep with Wyrmrest.

Just a couple notes for those of you that might be having trouble with phase 3...

1. The only thing I watch is the middle of the screen for incoming damage and the raid warning that Malygos is looking at me. I can also see my combo point yellow blocks from my IceHUD mod... at least I think that is where they are coming from, or it is the WOW default UI combo points indicator.

2. When I start seeing constant 10K damage ticks I know to move left (or which ever direction your guild has determined everyone will move) until they stop. While moving left even if not facing Malygos I can still fire off 1's and 2's

3. If Malygos looks at me I hit my shield if I have combo points, if not I hit 1 and then start mashing my shield so it comes up as soon as I have the energy for it.

P.S. Since I was having trouble targeting Malygos I started targeting him from the raid frames target of my party. I think it sucks that you can't just use the target nearest enemy from keybinds and have that work.

P.S.S. You might want to move the exit vehicle button from the middle of the screen and put it somewhere else. Hitting that by accident really sucked... lol

So now that we have cleared all WotLK content it sounds like we are going to start working on more than 1 drake up in the near future. Should be fun, hopefully the last 2 pieces of Valorous will finally fall so I can pick them up. Helm and Chest and I am essentially done gearing up for both tanking or DPS in Uldar which will be useful with the new dual spec ability going live in the next patch as well as the bear nerf basically regulating us to poor OT status with Pallies and DK's being better for AoE tanking and Warrior's the better single boss tank... lets hope they figure this out on the PTR and don't make us the last tanking choice in Uldar.

Feel free to read the discussions on the bear changes on Emmeralds site or EJ and draw your own conclusions but I can easily see where I will just be OTing 1-2 trash mobs and then speccing into full on kitty for the boss fights... not that I have a problem with that especially with the Kitty buffs headed our way.

Off Tanking groups of Mobs and you (AKA top the tank DPS meters)

2009-02-23T09:36:00.006-05:00

So, just a short post on tanking trash pulls and what I have found works best with the massive amount of DPS my guildies are putting out these days.

First, here is what I am wearing to OT packs of trash...

Hood of the Exodus - Just an awesome helm for both tanking and DPS, currently my MTing helm.
Boundless Ambition
Heroes' Dreamwalker Shoulderpads - Enchanted and gemmed for Kitty set
Cloak of the Shadowed Sun
Tunic of Indulgence - I will switch this to T7.5 chest as soon as it drops next in Naxx, both gemmed and enchanted for Kitty
Sinner's Bindings - Another great item for both tanking and DPS
Dislocating Handguards - Part of my current kitty DPS set.
Belt of the Tortured - Another Kitty DPS piece
Heroes' Dreamwalker Legguards - Gemmed and enchanted for my MT set
Footwraps of Vile Deceit - Another nice item for both Kitty and Bear, part of my MT set.
Gatekeeper
Surge Needle Ring
Meteorite Whetstone - Kitty DPS trinket
Mirror of Truth - Kitty DPS trinket
Origin of Nightmares - Best for tanking but also good for DPS and has Mongoose on it where my Journey's End has Berserker.
Idol of the Wastes

I also tend to tank most Heroics in this same set up.

This gear gets me lots of swipe crits, does a lot of damage and threat, and survivability seems just fine. Without taunts I can usually peal mobs off of our warrior and pally tanks no problem rotating swipe and maul.

Typically on trash I find myself somewhere between 3-5 of total damage done which is pretty darn good for a tank if you ask me, not to mention when I MT 5 man Heroics I tend to be #1 on DPS for trash as well. I bet a bunch of AoE casters out there run with me and are like wtf?

Whew...

2009-02-10T12:05:00.003-05:00

Loremaster done! Whoot!

Now I start farming herbs non stop until my DK turns out my Nobles Deck.

Anywho, I guess by now many feral Druids have seen the coming changes to FB and our new shield thing. I am not going to talk about either, they both seem... well, meh.

Supposedly the FB change is to tone down our burst in PvP. The shield thing in bear is so our mitigation somehow scales with AP, however their attempt seems pretty weak.

Question for you ferals out there... how do you veiw your role as a raid member?

I know my role seems to be one of "we are happy to have you, we will let you know if we need you Tanking, DPSing, Healing, CCing or we won't say anything and you can more or less do what you want" LOL... makes trying to decide what to spend DKP on a little frightening doesn't it? It's not for me of course cause my guild is very cool, a social guild which doesn't nitpick every members decision on gear or spec or rotation.

But I wonder how many of you hybrids out there have it worse... or maybe we have not seen how this is yet because of how easy Naxx is and once we venture into Uldar people will end up more under the microscope.

Speaking of Patch 3.1, how many of you are looking forward to the dual spec switch ability?

I tell you what I miss, being able to Tank, DPS, and PVP in the same spec. I came up with a good spec to both Main Tank and do top 10 raid DPS when not tanking but I had to leave out talents that are needed for PVP. So now if I get into a little world PvP I get my arse beat down.

Now come Uldar I most likely will not be able to MT with this spec... it's just Naxx is so easy I can get away with it but from a PvP standpoint I will prob be in a similar position. So I am thinking about a MT/PvP switch but if Uldar has encounters which might have it more benificial for me to put out more DPS or even do some healing I might have to scrap that idea.

Just patch day rambling for what they are worth.

A little Loremaster hint during the restart.

2009-02-03T08:53:00.002-05:00

If you have not seen this already it will help get more quests for your Loremaster Achievement.

MacKreel's Moonshine

This guy is somewhat hidden and has to be jumped too in Arathi Highlands.

Also, after jumping down into the water, 2 things...

1. Sully Balloo's Letter - swim straight down. If you look to the right side of the middle pillar (the south east side) you can see Sully at the bottom of the river, and the letter is near his hand.

2. The quest from the hidden dwarf is timed. Swim quickly to the cave west of Faldir's Cove that leads back to Arathi and take the Flight Path to SouthShore. The dwarf to turn in is in the basement of the inn under the kitchen.

Sooo, I was going to have a long post today...

2009-02-03T08:43:00.001-05:00

But it is just rolling restarts and my Loremaster title awaits.

Heroic Naxx is clear and the Wrath love continues.

2009-02-02T08:31:00.004-05:00

Let me first mention that I got to MT both Sapphiron and Kel'Thuzad. Our warrior MT for the rest of that nights run was not defense capped with FR gear and had not yet had the opportunity to tank these last bosses even in 10 man.

Getting to do this really made my night as I have always been mostly an OT in my 25 man raiding history.

So we drop Kel'Thuzad Thursday night (1st week without the Lag boss) and look what drops...

Journey's End

Wow... Seriously... for someone who had to buy Staff of the Forest Lord because the staff in ZA and Kara whould never fall after a crazy insane amount of runs... I am just flabbergasted.

Even more luck had happened in the fight prior as Sapphiron dropped Gatekeeper

and before that...

Cover of Silence fell from Thaddius... WHAT? SERIOUSLY?

Somewhere in all the excitement I may have forgotten to mention I picked up Strong-Handed Ring as well... dunno if that was Thursday's run or not though.

After months of struggling to get geared up in BC and having to resort to PvP in order to get geared... 3 best in slot items fall for me in 1st kills?

I ran Kara, no lie, at least 40 times before I saw some of the better leather or the staff. Hell, at that point I had already bought or PvPed my way to better gear because we had already moved on to SSC/TK/Hyjal.

I hope and pray that the following Heroic raids in the upcoming content patches have bosses dropping multiple pieces of loot like in Naxx Heroic.

The only things left in Heroic Naxx that I need are...

Boundless Ambition or Heritage
Cloak of the Shadowed Sun

From there it wouldn't hurt to get

Tunic of Indulgence
Idol of Worship - Watch it never fall again after I passed on it twice... lol

I have still not bothered getting any T7.5 gear so I suppose I will come up with a strategy on which T7 pieces to replace first since I have a lot of DKP built up for these peices. It's looking like I will be going with Pants and probably shoulders or chest to start. I was very tempted to get my first peice after dropping Kel with the helm token falling but with both Epic helms from Heroic Naxx it just didn't make sense to do so when others are still running around in rare quality head gear. Mind you it was really tempting though for someone who never moved past T4 helm in BC... except my PvP Vengeance helm.

Look tomorrow during the server down time for a post on itemization and some curious rankings by RAWR that make no sense to me.

Thoughts on Polar gear and stacking stamina

2009-01-29T08:08:00.002-05:00

Here's the deal. If you didn't know by now most of the gear rankings out there put the polar chest, belt , and boots very high on the bear list... tops in matter of fact... the #1 item in each of those slots.

The gear is ranked so high due to it's high stamina value, something us bears get the most bang for the buck out of.

Here is my real world testing thoughts... at least at the current level of raiding... considering I am in mostly Naxx heroic gear.

1. No polar for trash pulls. You want to use your gear that falls closest to the polar items in rank but gem/equip/enchant for damage, hit, expertise to hold the threat you need when you are AoEing this stuff down.

2. Patchwerk... by now you know to wear you polar gear and highest stam pieces if you are soaking the hurtfuls.

3. Don't gem/enchant your polar gear trying to get avoidance out of it. gem/enchant more stam, that is what you want out of these items when you do wear them.

4. Any fight you MT, wear these items. You won't have problem with single target threat and the huge HP pool helps with the various silence mechanics and what not in many of these boss fights.

5. The polar chest/belt/boots is a must have IMHO for any starting bear hitting level 80. It is too cheap to get these crafted not to have them starting heroics and 10 man Naxx.

6. OTing on bosses where you are controlling add waves you should be fine ditching the polar. I would also not use it on Gothik or Noth fights where controlling adds is very important.

I would use Polar on these fights...

Naxxramas

Arachnid Quarter
Anub'Rekhan - If OT no need for Polar. (Insect swarm hurts, healer positioning, green goo)
Grand Widow Faerlina - If OT no need for Polar. (red too long or people want achievement)
Maexxna - (Everyone gets frozen/webbed)

Plague Quarter
Heigan the Unclean - (in case you mess up the dance... over and over)
Loatheb - (healer silence)

Military Quarter
The Four Horsemen - (Meteor, bad party or OT placement even if for a moment, stacking debuff)

Construct Quarter
Patchwerk - Huge Hurtfuls
Grobbulus - If OT no need for Polar. - (Positioning, players that don't get away when injected)
Gluth - (stacking debuff, decimate)
Thaddius - (Players changing sides late)

Frostwyrm Lair
Sapphiron - FR is reason alone
Kel'Thuzad - (void zones, icebolts, bad melee positioning)

So there you go with a short notation of the problem mechanics. You prob could tank more than one without polar gear depending on the experience and talent of your raid members but I see no good reason not to wear it as a safety precaution on those same fights.

I don't have any experience tanking Malygos yet or the 3 drakes up fight (although it is known you need uber HP for that) and the Vault fight is easy.

Wrath far nicer to this feral than BC ever was.

2009-01-27T09:46:00.004-05:00

I don't know if it is the fact that multiple Naxx boses share a loot table or that I have just been extremely lucky but in the expansion the loot gods have looked on me very favorably.

In BC I had to run battlegrounds and 2v2 arena constantly to get geared when Kara would not drop one shred of decent leather. It took forever for me to get items like...

Bladed Shoulderpads of the Merciless
Bracers of Maliciousness
Chestguard of the Conniver
Edgewalker Longboots
Girdle of Treachery
Gloves of Dexterous Manipulation
Skulker's Greaves
Terestian's Stranglestaff

This was due to both bad luck and raid difficulty. Yes, Raid difficulty. This was back in the day where you didn't want to attempt certain fights because you only had no lock or no priests... etc... you get the picture. So even though eventually this gear fell ( way to late for me to actually get any use out of it since we were already clearing ZA and badge vendor gear on the isle was better) I had been running Kara for probably my 24th or 25th time.

Fast Forward to Wrath.

We have cleared 10 man Naxx about 3-4 times around working on 25 man. We should clear 25 man Naxx this week since the lag is gone after running 25 man Naxx about the last 4 weeks.

Here's the luck...

On our first time killing Gothik the Hood of the Exodus falls! WooHoo! Huge upgrade to my crappy blue helms... yes, this is an upgrade to both my tanking and DPS helm.

Sat. night in 10 man Naxx I was lucky and won the roll for Key to the Focusing Iris so Pendant of the Dragonsworn won't be far behind.

Belt of the Tortured, Dawnwalkers, Gored Hide Legguards, Circle of Death, and Collar of Dissolution are all new items I have recieved recently. I am now hit capped for Kitty wearing T7 Chest and Shoulders in the mix for the 2T7 rip bonus.

I have already gotten Staff of the Plaguehound as well as Origin of Nightmares with hopefully Journey's End right around the corner. I am saving my DKP for the T7.5 Helm so I can enchant and gem it for tanking while using the Exodus hood strictly for DPS duty.

The only thing left outside of T7.5 gear that I still want out of Heroic raids...

Idol of Worship - I kept passing on it becuase it wasn't working til the most recent patch.
Bandit's Insignia or Fury of the Five Flights - To go with the Mirror...
Concealment Shoulderpads
Chestguard of the Recluse or Tunic of Indulgence... prefer the first one
Frosted Adroit Handguards
Leggings of the Honored
Greatring of Collision and Surge Needle Ring
Journey's End
Boundless Ambition or Heritage

Cloak of the Shadowed Sun

Gatekeeper

and not in a raid but wouldn't mind...

Essence of Gossamer - for my Sarth +3 set
Loatheb's Shadow - I like the Crit and controlling when I get my AP boost.

So why do we like Kitty Swipe?

2009-01-21T09:01:00.004-05:00

This is why...

#1 on trash DPS for last nights Naxx 25 run.

So now we can Tank, single target DPS, and top the meters on multiple mob pulls... I hope we gets to keeps it.

This brought me to 6th overall in total raid damage which is about 4-5 spots higher than normal. This is with me OTing the first 2 fights in the Spider wing (Anub'Rekhan and Grand Widow Faerlina) and taking over MTing on the last 10% of the final spider boss from DC issues. I also OTed on Noth the Plaguebringer and on Sartharion when we moved on to OS. So 6th in raid DPS with only being in kitty for trash and 90% of 1 boss fight out of 5.

Jacemora is a happy feral kitty.

P.S. Wrath is still broken post 3.0.8 with maybe even more lag and disconnects in 25 man raids. Somehow we are able to get down bosses with many people DCing but we will not be able to finish Naxx in it's current state. What I do is stay in Tank gear for every fight in case we have the MT or OT DC which happens just about every fight. So we run with 4 tanks constantly for wipe prevention.

Lag Boss Down?

2009-01-20T14:18:00.002-05:00

3.0.8 patch today and hoping to down that Lag Boss tonight for the first time.

Who said we can't DPS and TANK with the same SPEC

2009-01-16T08:17:00.005-05:00

That is me 3rd on the big bad spider. This was without any flask and haste food because I didn't want to waste better stuff on such an easy boss.

Mind you this is with a Spec taking what is needed to MT 25 mans. I am using the Rip Glyph only since my other slots are used for tanking glyphs.

So yes, at this point feral druids can have 1 Spec to Tank and do decent DPS just like in BC. So we can go from 45K+ HP Hurtful soaks on Patchwerk, MT anything in game, and still switch to DPS and be somewhere in the top 10 for damage output. All the while being able to Brez and Innervate when needed or OoCRez when all the other healers die during a partial wipe.

I would say the state of feral druids is in pretty good shape. I will get back to you when I start 2v2ing arena again which is coming up soon. I don't know how that is going to go with how OP other classes are in there along with having too many damn buttons to press now for burst damage and cc.

The current failed state of raiding

2009-01-14T09:43:00.002-05:00

When Blizzard decided to open the flood gates into Naxx I for one along with many thought this was a nice idea to get the more casual gamer some raiding time in a 10/25 man dynamic in some old content that was considered a lot of fun that most people missed.

It is obvious Blizzard miscalculated the sheer amount of casual gamers that would group up and venture into this old/new content as the latency created by all these players make the instance unplayable or when playable less enjoyable.

Something must be done and soon before this move completely backfires on them and they lose interest of not only the more casual player venturing into raids for the first time but also the more experienced raider that is fed up with the bullshit disconnects.

Exactly how are we supposed to get ready for the next raid encounters when we can't finish the current content due to Blizzards inadequacies?

Let's hope Blizzard either fixes the problem or makes the next level of raiding exclusive once again... although I don't know how that is possible since we can't keep 25 constantly logged in to finish Naxx in the first place.

At least 10 man Naxx is playable... hohum.

Why O Why did I let it get DE'ed?

2009-01-13T12:25:00.002-05:00

Some new gear updates...

Grabbed Dislocating Handguards and Sinner's Bindings in the last Heroic Naxx run.

Let me just say that spending every week in Heroic Naxx to have to walk away without clearing it due to latency issues is starting to get old. I don't understand how other guilds are clearing it with the kind of lag and disconnects we are seeing every night. It makes Gluth and Thaddius impossible IMHO.

On that note, I cleared Naxx 10 for the third time and got Staff of the Plaguehound. So now I am set until Journey's End falls in Heroic Naxx... IF THE DAMN LATENCY EVER GETS FIXED!

I was really excited about putting Formula: Enchant Weapon - Berserking on my new DPS staff... until I took a longer look at the materials cost... ugh.

Lastly, Defender's Code fell and I passed and watched it get DE'd... mistake? I mean I know it's the awesome right now but post patch won't this fall pretty far down? After picking up those 2 leather upgrades I just felt wierd picking up another and my DKP was falling fast... Did I make a mistake?

WOOHOO, The dead love me... they really love me!

2009-01-07T13:41:00.004-05:00

WOOHOO, looked what dropped for me last night...

Origin of Nightmares

So my plan now is post patch to put the +STA chant on it and start putting some agility gems in some of my gear... actually here is what I expect my setup post patch to be taking in consideration spending badges and such...

Hateful Gladiator's Dragonhide Helm - Going to spend some badges... Hope to have enough soon
Titanium Earthguard Chain - If our Guild JC will ever get the pattern... come on Puffer, hook a brother up!
Heroes' Dreamwalker Shoulderpads - I already have the token... need to go get these.
Platinum Mesh Cloak - Might get this before the helm... depends on 25 man drops.
Heroes' Dreamwalker Raiments - Maybe... I really like my Polar vest though.
Thrusting Bands - Most likely my next DKP purchase.
Handwraps of Preserved History - unless the post patch nerf drops them below Rapid Attack Gloves which I also have.
Polar Cord or Sharp-Barbed Leather Belt - I have both.
Heroes' Dreamwalker Legguards - Wearing these now.
Polar Boots or Footwraps of Vile Deceit - I have both.

I really need to farm for Keystone Great-Ring and will most like get a Titanium Earthguard Ring while I wait for Gatekeeper.

I really need to farm for the Essence of Gossamer. Will most likely wear that with the Commendation of Kael'thas until I get Defender's Code.

Origin of Nightmares - Right now the best Bear weapon in the game.

What I am wearing to tank Naxx

2009-01-02T08:46:00.002-05:00

Just for you up and coming Feral Bears out there... this gear is working fine.

Shroud of Darkness
Amulet of Wills
Cloak of Armed Strife
Trollwoven Spaulders
Polar Vest
Bindings of the Tunneler
Handwraps of Preserved History
Heroes' Dreamwalker Legguards
Polar Cord
Polar Boots
Iceforged Battle Ring
Ring of the Stalwart Protector
Badge of Tenacity
Commendation of Kael'thas
Idol of Terror
Enraged Feral Staff

More Naxx 25

2008-12-31T09:11:00.002-05:00

We are running Naxx 25 again this week and I have decided to most likely respec for our Thursday night run.

Going to go with this... SPEC

Basically more of an OT / DPS role. Going to ditch my tanking glyphs for DPS ones as well.

My Damage was pretty decent last night, anywhere from 6th-10th but since I am more or less usually regulated to OT/DPS duties for raiding and have so little trouble in Heroics and 10 mans I think I am going to try this spec out.

Things I am giving up...

Survival Instincts - Meh, with good healers I don't it.
Feral Charge - Meh, I pull with lightning or FF usually anyway.
Natural Reaction - OK, this is a huge one... but as OT with 43K HP raid buffed I think I will live.
Infected Wounds - I don't know how losing this will play out... should be fine even in 5 mans
Imp LotP - Most likely was a waste having this to begin with... lol
Glyph of Maul - Meh, so someone needs to sheep or CC now in 5 mans.
Glyph of Regen - Meh, again good healers mean not a big deal.

Spent some DKP last night on Aged Winter Cloak.

I passed on these beauties which are on my want list so others could get geared up...

Sinner's Bindings - I really want Thrusting Bands anyway... man I am still mad at myself for not getting these before

Concealment Shoulderpads - I will probably be mad at passing on these in the future as well... lol... but Trollwoven Spaulders are not exactlly shabby.

Stalk-Skin Belt - Man was it leather night last night or what... lol... I have Sharp-Barbed Leather Belt so again just spreading the wealth.

Ruthlessness - Better than what I have in 1 finger slot but there are about a half dozen better.

Valorous Dreamwalker Shoulderpads - Ok... probably will kick myself about these too... unless we get to and defeat Kel so I can get Valorous Dreamwalker Headguard.

Idol of Worship - I just couldn't see spending the DKP on this when so many other things are out there I need DKP for like Hood of the Exodus or Gatekeeper for example. Unfortunately it was DEed.

Another 2 wings in NAXX and still no Feral staffs... typical of my luck in instances with undead.

The new beta of Emmerald's list is up

2008-12-29T08:12:00.002-05:00

Wrath List

and a list I need for my level 66 DK...

My Bear Wish list revisited.

2008-12-24T10:19:00.004-05:00

Any Naxx staff is an upgrade from Staff of Trickery or Enraged Feral Staff

Hood of the Exodus - Heroic Naxx
Titanium Earthguard Chain - Crafted
Valorous Dreamwalker Shoulderpads - Heroic Naxx
Cloak of the Shadowed Sun - Heroic Naxx
Valorous Dreamwalker Raiments - Heroic Naxx
Thrusting Bands or Sinner's Bindings - Heroic Naxx
Valorous Dreamwalker Handgrips - The Obsidian Sanctum Heroic
Valorous Dreamwalker Legguards - Heroic Naxx
Gatekeeper - Heroic Naxx
Keystone Great-Ring - Heroic Drak'Tharon
Essence of Gossamer - Heroic Azjol-Nerub
Darkmoon Card: Greatness - Crafted

Obligatory Tue Post

2008-12-23T12:26:00.002-05:00

So instead of working on leveling my enchanting... 423 and should have already hit 425 this morning and spent the day barking on trade channel for free chants your mats and I name my 3rd child after your toon if I get a point... and no, I am not actually having a 3rd child, 2 is more than enough.

My lock continues to struggle leveling tailoring... this could be a condition of being level 71 and sitting in an inn instead of killing cloth dropping humanoids.

Inscription on my level 65 Death Knight is going well although my first attempt of a card of Nobles didn't go very well and that dang 7 of death isn't selling on the AH even though I undercut the other 4.

My herbalism is 450, not hard to accomplish when you are picking herbs for an 450 Alchemist and a Inscriptionist.

I do need to pick a 2nd profession for my DK... either Blacksmithing or Engineering or maybe even Mining I I want that kind of torture starting from level 0.

Naxx 25 Kitty wishes

2008-12-19T12:19:00.002-05:00

Aged Winter Cloak - Zone Drop (135 Kitty pt. upgrade)
Valorous Dreamwalker Raiments - (Over 1000 Kitty pt. upgrade)
Dawnwalkers - (95 Kitty Pt. upgrade)
Valorous Dreamwalker Handgrips - (Over 700 Kitty Pt. upgrade)
Valorous Dreamwalker Headguard - (Over 1000 Kitty Pt. upgrade)
Idol of Worship - (130 Kitty Pt. upgrade)
Valorous Dreamwalker Legguards - (Lets face it, T7 is a huge upgrade over anything else in game)
Fool's Trial - (120 Kitty Pt. upgrade)
Sealing Ring of Grobbulus - (100 Kitty Pt. upgrade)
Strong-Handed Ring - (150 Kitty Pt. upgrade)
Valorous Dreamwalker Shoulderpads - (See above comment)
Bandit's Insignia - (Prob just stick with Darkmoon Card - Greatness and Mirror of Truth
Belts ordered by best to worst... Belt of the Tortured, Stalk-Skin Belt, Blistered Belt of Decay
Weapons by same order.... Journey's End, Black Ice, Cryptfiend's Bite, The Undeath Carrier, Inevitable Defeat, Origin of Nightmares, The Jawbone, Staff of the Plaguehound
Sinner's Bindings - (114 Kitty Pt. upgrade)

So now that I am running Naxx 25...

2008-12-17T14:05:00.002-05:00

Gear wish list

Bear Goodies... T7 anything... Any feral staff... and/or

Hood of the Exodus - #1 Tanking Helm
Helm of the Vast Legions - 10 man
Cloak of the Shadowed Sun - #1 Tanking Cloak ( fell last night, passed on purpose since I have Cloak of Armed Strife)
Thrusting Bands - #1 Tanking wrists and #1 Kitty... and I passed on them last night by accident.. DOH
Sinner's Bindings - Backup wrists in case I never see the ones above again.
Leggings of Fleeting Moments
Footwraps of Vile Deceit
Chestguard of the Lost Vanquisher
Tunic of Indulgence
Gatekeeper

Naxx 25 baby!

2008-12-17T12:28:00.004-05:00

Another progression update.

I was fortunate enough to get to run Heroic Naxx last night and we downed the entire Arachnid Quarter and the first boss of the Plague Quarter.

YAY!

To the feral whiners that seem to think we don't have a place in raids (I know this isn't most of you), I DPSed on the first boss and was getting around top 10ish DPS (While specced and glyphed for tanking). On the 2nd I was helping off tank and ended up saving a wipe when we had people DC and the MT died (Maul glyph FTW) by picking up the boss and continuing to hold my add. On the 3rd boss I was DPS but again picked up the boss when the MT DCed.

I am starting to think there is something to this tanking in DPS leather btw... I am going to lay out a plan to gear myself in the best possible pieces for both tanking and DPS... essentially a mix between the 2 instead of trying to min/max my DPS kitty set. Being able to pick up MT duties mid fight in exchange for a couple spots on the Epeen meter seems like a worthy goal.

On the 1st boss of the Plague Quarter I helped OT and we 1 shot him.

All in all Heroic Naxx is not that much more difficult than 10 man, you just need 25 people to not screw up instead of 10... fortunately I am in a guild with some really good players and the handful that had never even stepped foot in Naxx did an excellent job learning the fights quickly.

A little progression update and Winter Veil Solo

2008-12-16T08:19:00.004-05:00

Just a little update. I had the good fortune of tanking Naxx 10 this last week. We downed all the bosses in the first 4 quarters. I think we 1 shot every boss with the exception of...

Instructor Razuvious - Took us 2 attempts to get the timing and realize how to release the MC early.

The Four Horsemen - Took us 3 attempts to get the swap and healing down.

Heigan the Unclean - I don't remember how many attempts it took for everyone to learn the dance... maybe 5.

So we are currently 13/15 for 10 man Naxx. We went on try Sapphiron but that did not end well with myself being the only person with Frost Resist. Frost resist gear is being crafted for this weeks attempts.

************************************************************************************

Still need your Red Winter Hat? If you are a level 80 feral druid in decent gear take a trip solo to regular Nexus and down Grand Magus Telestra.

Go Bear Form.
Take left path
Kill Dragonkin
Kill Dragonkin
Root pull by rooting 1 dog, kill the 3 pull.
Stealth past the stasis mobs just to be safe, if you bring a friend that can't stealth just be careful not to touch them. Turn off pets if you bring a Hunter, DK, or Lock friend.
Root pull by rooting 1 dog, kill the 3 pull.
3 pull on left side, kill them
4 pull in boss room, root pull and back up LoS and burn them down.
Kill Boss
Collect loot including your hat.

Polar Gear Post

2008-12-12T09:55:00.000-05:00

Just my 2 cents on the positives of the polar gear for those curious about getting it or already owning it...

+I was able to get the Polar set (Chest, Boots, Belt) before stepping 1 foot into a heroic instance... and it helped.

+Having a large HP pool can be really nice on healers because in combination with our Oh Crap buttons it can give healers quite a bit of leeway in a situation gone wrong or other raid members taking a lot of damage.

+Large HP pool makes Frenzy Regen and Survival Instincts better.

+The Frost resist can make some elite world tanking easier, some instance tanking easier, and will be needed for some endgame bosses from my understanding so having it crafted won't go to waste even after you get T7.

+Lets you use badges for some other slots initially and makes needing to fill chest/belt/boot slots less of a priority.

I tanked 10 man Naxx this week along with numerous Heroics and not once has a healer gone OOM due to my lack of avoidance.

Not once has my large HP been an issue with survivability or success rate.

People freak out when they see you have 41K HP which is fun.

All in all I have been really happy with my polar gear gemmed with all +25 STA gems and I don't plan on replacing it any time soon unless we hit something where my avoidance is causing issues. So far through the 1st, 2nd, and 4th wings in Naxx we have not had any issues with me tanking in this set. We have only done the first boss in the DK wing but I doubt the following 2 bosses or the final 2 of the instance are going to cause any issues either.

I believe I have around 31% dodge and 34K armor right now with these 3 pieces in my tanking lineup along with 41K HP roughly 10 man raid buffed.

With glyph of maul and proper rotation I have not had issues with losing agro on single or multiple targets.

Color me worried.

2008-12-11T13:58:00.003-05:00

As much as I can appreciate what the Devs are doing to Feral tanking and DPS changes with more gear options and the like I can't help but be concerned about the future and how we are going to be perceived socially after the change.

In BC we were for the most part regulated to OT status, more or less a redheaded stepchild of tanking and DPS. Of course this was mostly perception as many druids proved they could MT and DPS with the best, but perception more or less still dictated our involvement on the end game raiding level.

Now in Wrath we get a Quasi AoE ability and fights were made so that we no longer have attacks coming from bosses that we cannot defend. So here we are wide open to start filling MT roles right?

Well I don't know... realistically most guilds already have warriors entrenched as MT's and Pallies still thought of as the AoE adds specialist. It more or less leaves as the OT/DPS role we are used to... which is fine with me by the way however...

Before we would go to a raid and at least where weapons were concerned we had our feral staff to get and that was it. Now we are going to possibly want a nice 2H or 1H tanking mace that most guilds are going to naturally assume will go to the MT or even Pally adds tank before a feral druid even having a shot. Irregardless if the mace is better than whatever feral staff that drops I doubt seriously the guild would be happy if you out DKP the MT for an Epic mace. So are we really getting anything? The same thing is going to apply for trinkets or necks that include something like block or parry if they end up giving bears that mechanic as well.

I guess if you happen to be your guilds established MT it just means you have a shot at getting geared up faster, however if you tend to be OT/DPS or 3rd Tank/DPS option do you really see having this gear sharing as a positive? I know I don't and I will be surprised if I don't get at least a little hostility the first time I want to roll on that DPS Epic leather the rogues are drolling over or the Mace the warriors specifically have been waiting multiple runs for. I don't see how I am going to get a rogue to believe those leather shoulders are a big tanking upgrade and that I am not trying to steal DPS gear from them like the old days.

Bottom line is you have to questions how much of the social part of the game the Devs understand. Sure, before we might have had to wait a long time for an upgrade or farm a certain area or location for weeks for a certain peice of gear but after years of not competing with other tanks for drops and being thought of a 2nd or 3rd option for tanking most fights do you really see this change being welcomed with open arms?

I guess only time will tell.

WHAT???

2008-12-11T08:03:00.003-05:00

Blue post... on upcoming patch talking about feral weapons losing FAP...

Some feral weapons have had strength converted to attack power to be more appealing to other classes able to equip them.

What a screw job this is! We are already sharing rogue leather which has no strength and now we have to share our weapons and they take strength away from there... Epic Fail Blizzard.

Not sure about spending time on certain upgrades

2008-12-09T10:01:00.003-05:00

So I plug my self into RAWR in my current tanking gear and come up with some upgrades I could use.

Here is the thing though, I don't want to farm upgrades that are going to get nerfed post 3.0.4... I just don't see the point.

As far as rings go I am going to stick with the 2 I wear now until post patch.

Iceforged Battle Ring - Was easily obtainable through questing and ranks very high on the scale.
Ring of the Stalwart Protector

Well, Ok... even after 3.0.4 Keystone Great-Ring is still going to be top 2 so I guess I can start farming Heroic Drak'Tharon.

Post 3.0.4 I should be wearing

Keystone Great-Ring
Titanium Earthguard Ring - Our resident JC already has the pattern.

I need to be running Heroic Gun'drak for Gored Hide Legguards.

Probably going to get Durable Nerubhide Cape for after the patch but just stick to using Slikk's Cloak of Placation instead of focusing on running CoT for the Flowing Cloak of Command. If I happen to get invited to a run and it falls great, but otherwise I am not going to worry about it for now.

RAWR is currently broken and is misrepresenting cloak values post 3.0.4 so ignore how high it stays after selecting that option in RAWR.

I am most likely going to grab Savage Gladiator's Dragonhide Helm here soon, I just don't see running Heroic Oculus over and over for the Mask of the Watcher.

I ended up getting...

Enraged Feral Staff
Bindings of the Tunneler

So I am good in those slots.

I am happy with my crafted Polar chest, boots, and belt until T7.

I am content with my Handwraps of Preserved History and Trollwoven Spaulders.

I am fine with Amulet of Wills until the guild JC get's the Titanium Earthguard Chain pattern.

I need to run Heroic Azjol-Nerub for Essence of Gossamer and get my Inscription Death Knight to level 68 so I can go to Northrend and level up inscription for my Darkmoon Card: Greatness. I am not going to bother trying to get the trinkets that plummet in value after 3.0.4 patch.

So to sum up I need to be running these Heroics..

Gundrak
Azjol-Nerub
Drak'Theron

My next upgrades...

2008-12-05T09:35:00.004-05:00

I hit 45 badges last night so my first purchase will be...

Savage Gladiator's Dragonhide Helm

Now I won't do this unless I don't get Shroud of Darkness from Heroic Violet Hold before we get to 25 man Naxx or maybe the tougher content in the 4th quarter of 10 man Naxx.

For now I am going to hold on to the badges until I really need them, my current setup is more than capable for 5 man heroics and at least up to Patchwerk in 10 man Naxx.

I really need to keep running Heroic Utgarde Keep...

Bindings of the Tunneler would be a small upgrade but one nevertheless.

I also need to try to keep running Heroic Azjol-Nerub to get Essence of Gossamer which is going to be essential after the 3.0.4 armor change (Notice I didn't say nerf)

It really sucks that there is really no good option for a second trinket unless you are a JC, Alchemist, or Engineer. My 2nd slot will either be some sort of expertise trinket or other DPS trinket like the Mirror of Truth unless I can somehow afford Darkmoon Card: Greatness.

My DPS set keeps improving little by little after getting Sharp-Barbed Leather Belt last night.

With so little upgrades to my gear from Heroic drops I have been fortunate to have a group allowing me to gear up for spellcasting. I am really excited about have a decent set for maybe trying out some sort of dreamstate build as DPS / off heals.

The new Badge Gear

2008-12-02T10:58:00.004-05:00

Things to spend badges on... (post armor nerf)

Chained Military Gorget - 25 Badges
Heroes' Dreamwalker Raiments - 80 badges for Chestguard of the Lost Vanquisher

Ok, color me stupid. I had no idea I could now buy Tier gear with Heroic Badges... nice.

Heroes' Dreamwalker Handgrips - 60 Badges
Idol of the Ravenous Beast - 15 Badges (Kitty Gear)
Jorach's Crocolisk Skin Belt - 40 Badges (Kitty Gear)
Mirror of Truth - 40 Badges (Kitty Gear)
Pendant of the Outcast Hero - 25 Badges (Kitty Gear)
Valor Medal of the First War - 40 Badges - Good Bear Trinket after armor nerf... probably.
Savage Gladiator's Dragonhide Helm - 45 Badges - Bear Upgrade for me.

Where I have been and Where I need to go...

2008-12-02T09:09:00.003-05:00

Lets start by saying... Patchwerk down! Woot!

We went into 10 man Naxx and got him down on our... no clue # attempt. We kept having issues with getting the timing right with both tanks coming in on him. On the successful attempt it still didn't go as planned although I didn't hit him until after the MT I ended up tanking him with the MT taking the hurtful strikes. This really sucked because we were planning on using my innervate this attempt between hurtful strikes... oh well, it worked out with a healer getting the killing blow using holy nova right before we wiped... good times.

We went on to try Grobbulus but couldn't quite get him down.

So, here are some of the new shiny's I have gotten recently...

Gilt-Edged Leather Gauntlets - Kitty gloves
Trollwoven Girdle - Kitty Belt
Trollwoven Spaulders - Kitty and Bear shoulders chanted with Defense and Dodge
Ravenous Leggings of the Furbolg - Kitty pants
Hemorrhaging Circle - Kitty ring... possible Bear ring post armor nerf
Staff of Trickery - Kitty staff until armor nerf
Cloak of the Gushing Wound - Kitty cloak... possible Bear cloak after armor nerf
Necklace of the Chrono-Lord - Kitty neck
Signet of Bridenbrad - Kitty ring

I have been pretty fortunate thus far with Heroic drops. Nice to see so many pre raiding upgrades in Heroics for ferals. In BC there was little to nothing in Heroics to prep us for Kara which was pretty sad.

What I want/need next...

Shroud of Darkness - I really need a helm upgrade - Heroic Violet Hold
Drake Rider's Tunic - Wearing a quest chest is never a great thing - Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle
Gored Hide Legguards - Ok, I just like the color purple and it's a Bear upgrade as well - Heroic Gundrak
Slag Footguards - Replacing another quest reward and sockets are good too - Heroic Lightning Halls
Band of the Kirin Tor - Too much gold after buying my Polar set but maybe eventually
Mirror of Truth - 1 Badge away - A kitty trinket but atm I don't believe there is anything bear that is an upgrade... wait, I am wrong... good, something for another post.
Sphere of Red Dragon's Blood - Heroic Nexus
Nerubian Shield Ring - Bear ring until armor nerf - Heroic Ahn'kahet
Essence of Gossamer - Bear trinket - Heroic Azjol-Nerub
Darkmoon Card: Greatness - Bear and Kitty trinket
Stave of Shrouded Mysteries - I just realized until the armor nerf this is to good not to be using
Bindings of the Tunneler - Bear wrist - Heroic Utgarde Keep
Mask of the Watcher - Bear Helm - Heroic Oculus

So, I have an upgrade in almost every Heroic. As far as upgrades I am done with...

CoT Strath
Halls of Stone
Drak'Tharon Keep

Kiity upgrade from solo questing...

2008-11-25T09:01:00.016-05:00

Yes, another list. This is one where it is possible to get upgrades from solo questing in wrath. Basically a list of the best possible gear in each slot that you can get solo questing. There are better in slot from group quests or quests inside instances but for now I am going to list stuff you can do all by yourself. I won't get into crafted items either even though there are some pretty good one's out there for you daily gold grinders. Keep in mind some T5/T6/S3&4/badge gear from TBC might still be better than these items.

Head - Tirion's Headwrap from questline starting with

Into The Frozen Heart Of Northrend which to obtain you must complete all pre-requisite quests at The Argent Vanguard as well as the Valley of Echoes.

Neck - Betrayer's Choker or Choker of the Betrayer from quest chain the starts with an item Unliving Choker which drops from Withered Troll. I prefer the hit rating on the first one.

Shoulders - Spaulders of Frozen Knives from Sons of Hodir Honored rep. The quest chain They Took Our Men!, began by Gretchen Fizzlespark in K3 within The Storm Peaks, begins the path of reputation for the Sons of Hodir. You will need this rep anyway for Wrath shoulder enchants. If I remember correctly every quest in the chain can be soloed.

Back - Cloak of Holy Extermination from Honored with Argent Crusade. Visit these locations for quests rewarding reputation.

Bases

Dawn's Reach in the Dragonblight
Light's Breach in Zul'Drak
The Argent Stand in Zul'Drak
Argent Vanguard on the edge of Icecrown

Chest - Exotic Leather Tunic from Junk in My Trunk quest in Utgarde Pinnacle. You have to be level 78 to get the quest but after that you can quietly stealth through the instance picking up the items needed away from agro range of mobs. You will need to reset the instance at least once to get all the items.

Wrist - Njorndar Furywraps from a questline starting from an item Dr. Terrible's "Building a Better Flesh Giant" dropped from killing Apprentice Osterkilgr in Icecrown.

Hands - Rough Climber's Grips from the quest The Reckoning which is in the same line you should be doing for Son's of Hodir reputation... see above for where the questline starts.

Belt - Belt of Njorndar from quest The Sum is Greater than the Parts which you are already doing for your wrists above and is part of the same questline.

Legs - Cured Proto-Drake Leggings from quest Discipline yet another quest in the same line of quests for Son's of Hodir rep... see above.

Feet - The Darkspeaker's Treads from quest Mind Tricks which technically is a 3 man quest however since I was able to solo him. You are going to have to use all your cooldowns, potions, trick, stuns and heals to get it done but it is doable.

Ring - Signet of Bridenbrad from Light Within the Darkness which supposedly starts from the same chain for the helm Into The Frozen Heart Of Northrend. A tale of valor is the next quest after you get the helm and the chain just keeps going until you get this ring.

Signet of Baron Sliver from quest Free Your Mind which is a chain starting with It's All Fun and Games.

Trinket - Fezzik's Pocketwatch from questlines starting with Defending The Vanguard and other questgivers with Argent Vanguard on the edge of Icecrown. Just keep doing quests until you get it, there are like 2-3 quest chains you have to do to open up the final quest The Last Line Of Defense.

First Mate's Pocketwatch from long quest chain starting with Orfus of Kamagua . Just keep following the quests til you get the trinket.

Idol - To my knowledge their is most likely no upgrade you can solo to get over whatever you have now.

Weapon - Staff of the Sorrowful Chieftain from quest Wanted: Ragemane's Flipper. You need to be level 74 to get the quest but I think I soloed it at level 78 or 79. Another option is Hardened Vine of the Mauler which is from a questline starting with On Brann's Trail.

WHOA Part 2 - Kitty Swipe!

2008-11-24T15:11:00.001-05:00

Blue Post...

There is definitely a lot of AE (area effect damage) going on in World of Warcraft dungeon runs at the moment. We’re not too worried about it for now – on the contrary it’s nice to see so many people doing the level-up dungeons on the way to level 80. If we find that AE tank + AE damage strategy (with no sheeping, sapping or other crowd control) is the only way people are running heroics and raids, then we’ll probably make some changes, but for now we’re content to just see what happens.

Having said all that, we feel like a few groups are being left out of the AE fun, which makes them of less utility in the 5-player dungeons. We aren’t able to provide a lot of details yet, but here are some upcoming changes we’re making.

Shaman – we are removing the threat component from Fire Nova Totem and Magma Totem and increasing the damage from Magma Totem. This should provide the Elemental shamans in particular with some formidable AE.
Rogue – we are removing the cooldown from Fan of Knives and adjusting the damage calculation slightly to make daggers more useful for this ability.
Druid – we are adding Swipe (Cat) as a baseline ability.

WHOA!

2008-11-24T14:05:00.002-05:00

I went ahead and dropped a bunch of my gold today get some things crafted to get ready for Heroics and raiding...

Polar Vest
Polar Cord
Polar Boots

With those 3 items all gemmed with Solid Sky Sapphire I am sitting at 33587 with my MotW and Fort buff.

That's just sick.

Rounding out my current tanking gear is...

Vengeful Gladiator's Dragonhide Helm - This really needs an upgrade from a Heroic run... hopefully Shroud of Darkness from Heroic Violet Hold.

Amulet of Wills - Happy with this at the moment

Shoulderpads of Fleshwerks - Going to upgrade to Trollwoven Spaulders once I have more gold or I get a Frozen Orb.

Slikk's Cloak of Placation - Once the armor change happens probably switching to Screeching Cape while working toward Platinum Mesh Cloak

Guardian's Dragonhide Bracers - Fine until Naxx drops Sinner's Bindings or Thrusting Bands.

Brutal Gladiator's Dragonhide Gloves - Until quest to get Handwraps of Preserved History which is just one CoT Stratholme run away.

Eviscerator's Legguards - Mind-Expanding Leggings will most likely come next while waiting for Tier legs.

Ring of the Stalwart Protector and Violet Signet of the Great Protector - Probably going to replace with Signet of the Impregnable Fortress and Palladium Ring of which the later is sitting in the bank. Then hope to get somehting from Heroics or Naxx.

Commendation of Kael'thas and Badge of Tenacity - Replacing Badge with Darkmoon Card: Vengeance already in bank and waiting to get Essence of Gossamer from Heroic Azjol-Nerub.

Staff of the Sorrowful Chieftain - Replacing with Stave of Shrouded Mysteries ASAP until Naxx replacement or Staff of Trickery from Heroic Violet Hold.

Ding 80

2008-11-24T00:10:00.001-05:00

Goodnight.

The Bear List

2008-11-22T08:24:00.005-05:00

Gear before raiding... the Bear version...

Head-
Shroud of Darkness - Heroic Violet Hold
Weakness Spectralizers - If you are an Engineer
Mask of the Watcher - Heroic Oculus

Neck-
Titanium Earthguard Chain - Doubt it comes cheap but it is one of the best
Amulet of Wills - Regular Halls of Stone (I got lucky and this fall my first time in)

Shoulders-
Trollwoven Spaulders - Crafted and probably not cheap... but top 10 shoulders soooo...
Concealment Shoulderpads - Heroic The Obsidian Sanctum
Sprinting Shoulderpads - Heroic Ahn'kahet
Spaulders of the Careless Thief - Heroic Nexus
Shoulderpads of Fleshwerks - Quest reward from The Flesh Giant Champion and quest chain starts with He's Gone to Pieces I believe.
Ceremonial Pyre Mantle - Regular Utgarde Pinnacle
Charred Leather Shoulderguards - reward from Diametrically Opposed quest.
Spaulders of Frozen Knives - Rep with The Sons of Hodir
Shoulderguards of the Ice Troll - Regular Gundrak

Back-
Cloak of Tormented Skies - Crafted... Currently 2nd best... with the armor change to bears might be falling down the scale quite far
Cloak of the Gushing Wound - Heroic Violet Hold
Shroud of Reverberation - Heroic Halls of Lightning
Screeching Cape - Regualr Violet Hold... not currently too high on the list but could move up after the armor change
Bloodbane's Resolve - Quest reward from The Fate of Bloodbane
Cloak of Holy Extermination - Honored with Argent Crusade

Chest-
Polar Vest - Crafted and basically the best in slot. Again, won't be cheap.
Crystal-Infused Tunic - Heroic Nexus
Exotic Leather Tunic - Quest reward from Junk in My Trunk in Utgarde Pinnacle... easy to get so I won't go further down the list... SO EASY YOU CAN STEALTH SOLO THIS QUEST WITH 1 INSTANCE RESET TO GET THE 2ND CUP. Absolutely no reason to be tanking without this once you can get the quest at level 78.

Wrist-
Bindings of the Tunneler - Heroic Utgarde Keep
Advanced Tooled-Leather Bands - Heroic Halls of Lightning
Njorndar Furywraps - Quest reward from Not-So-Honorable Combat quest chain starting with The Sum is Greater than the Parts. Again, I am not going further down the list with this being a quest reward item. These are only slightly better than T6 wrist.

Hands-
Handwraps of Preserved History from quest A Royal Escort speak to Chromie on the way in I believe. Get these... period.

Waist-
Polar Cord - Crafted.
Sharp-Barbed Leather Belt - Heroic Utgarde Keep
Trollwoven Girdle - Crafted.
Treasure Seeker's Belt - Heroic Azjol-Nerub
Ley-Whelphide Belt - Regular The Oculus
Batrider's Cord - Heroic Drak'Tharon
Glitterscale Wrap - Revered with The Oracles
Eviscerator's Waistguard - Crafted

Legs-
Ravenous Leggings of the Furbolg - Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle
Legguards of Swarming Attacks - Heroic Ahn'kahet
Chain Gang Legguards - Heroic Violet Hold
Mind-Expanding Leggings - Kirin Tor Revered
Constellation Leggings - Regular Halls of Stone
Eviscerator's Legguards - Crafted

Feet-
Polar Boots - Crafted
Slag Footguards - Heroic Halls of Lightning
Gorloc Muddy Footwraps - Heroic Gundrak
Boots of the Whirling Mist - Heroic Halls of Stone
Jormscale Footpads - Crafted
Eviscerator's Treads - Crafted

Rings- Again... tough to say until the armor change... instead of listing a bunch of rings just be ready to look at drops from Heroics with High stamina and other feral type stats.
Ring of Earthen Might - Crafted is a start
Ring of Ancestral Protectors - Quest reward from The Leaders at Jin'Alai might even be pretty good for a little while.
Band of Torture - Heroic The Oculus look like it has potential as well

Trinkets- Another area that will change. I guess I can toss out some guesses...
Essence of Gossamer - Heroic Azjol-Nerub should be number 1 after the armor change
Sonic Booster - Crafted would be #2 I think... but you have to be a Engineer... bummer
Commendation of Kael'thas - Still good if you are not a Jewelcrafter, Engineer, or Alchemist.

Weapon- Again, these will be ranked differently after the armor change... So I look ignoring the current armor bonus.
Staff of Trickery - Heroic Violet Hold might become the best pre raiding staff.
Enraged Feral Staff - Heroic Utgarde Keep
Stave of Shrouded Mysteries - Revered with Kirin Tor
Witch Doctor's Wildstaff - Normal Gundrak
Hewn Sparring Quarterstaff - Regular Halls of Lightning

Idols-
Idol of Terror - Still the best I can see. Buy it if you don't have it and have badges left over from TBC.
Idol of Perspicacious Attacks - For an increase in threat
Idol of the Wastes - Good for threat as well from Quest My Old Enemy

Gear upgrades before Raiding...

2008-11-21T10:34:00.004-05:00

Cat form first... this considers that you are in T5 and badge gear only... people in T6 or greater gear might have better in any given slot already.

Head -
Mask of the Watcher - Heroic Oculus
Hood of the Furtive Assassin - Regular Halls of Lightning
Helm of Cheated Fate - Heroic Gundrak

Neck -
Necklace of Arcane Spheres - Heroic Violet Hold
Necklace of the Chrono-Lord - Regular CoT Stratholme

Shoulders-
Spaulders of the Careless Thief - Heroic Nexus only... pretty sure at least
Spaulders of Frozen Knives - Honored with Son's of Hodir. The quest chain They Took Our Men!, began by Gretchen Fizzlespark in K3 within The Storm Peaks, begins the path of reputation for the Sons of Hodir.
Ceremonial Pyre Mantle - Regular Utgarde Pinnacle

Back-
Centrifuge Core Cloak - Regular Oculus
Bloodbane Cloak - Quest The Fate of Bloodbane - might be a chain but isn't mentioned on wowhead
(I am leaving out 2 Heroic drop cloaks around the same DPS value because the Centrifuge is in a normal instance and better or on par with the Heroic drops.)

Chest-
Drake Rider's Tunic - Regular Utgarde Pinnacle. Period. End of story. Run this til it drops.

Wrist-
King's Square Bracers - Regular CoT Stratholme... drops in Heroic mode as well
Advanced Tooled-Leather Bands - Heroic Halls of Lightning

Hands-
Charged-Bolt Grips - Heroic Halls of Lightning (almost the best in slot, you really want these.)
Bile-Cured Gloves - Heroic CoT Stratholme
Handwraps of Preserved History - CoT Stratholme quest reward.
Sidestepping Handguards - Regular Oculus
Eviscerator's Gauntlets - These can be crafted if all else fails. Honestly the Eviscerator's set is a good place to start replacing more TBC gear.

Waist-
Batrider's Cord - Heroic Drak'Theron Keep
Sharp-Barbed Leather Belt - Heroic Utgarde Keep
Don Alejandro's Money Belt from Hyjal is still pretty good but if not look to Eviscerator's once again until something better comes along.

Legs-
Ravenous Leggings of the Furbolg - Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle
Mind-Expanding Leggings - Kirin Tor seems like a good faction to grind as a Feral Druid.
Eviscerator's Legguards - crafted and works until better comes along.

Feet-
Slag Footguards - Heroic Halls of Lightning (just run it until they fall)
Gorloc Muddy Footwraps - Heroic Gundrak
Eviscerator's Treads - Crafted and good... really good... unless you already had Footwraps of Wild Encroachment from TBC

Rings-
Band of the Kirin Tor - 8K gold... ugh
Stained-Glass Shard Ring - Zone drop in Heroic Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom
Bjarngrim Family Signet - Regular Halls of Lightning
Signet of Bridenbrad - Quest reward from Light Within the Darkness
I am going to stop here but needless to say there can be a lot of upgrades here both crafted and quested as well.

Trinkets-
Darkmoon Card: Greatness - probably going to cost you more than that ring I mentioned.
Meteorite Whetstone - Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle
Incisor Fragment - Heroic Drak'Theron
Darkmoon Card: Crusade - still decent and so is Bloodlust Brooch and the like...
Fezzik's Pocketwatch is behind the 2 mentioned above and even a little behind the Brewfest DPS trinket but barely.

Staff-
Jailer's Baton - Regular Violet hold
Hewn Sparring Quarterstaff - Regular Halls of Lightning
Stave of Shrouded Mysteries - Kirin Tor rep and good for Bear and Cat
Enraged Feral Staff - Heroic Utgarde Keep
Lightning Giant Staff - Heroic Halls of Lightning
Staff of Trickery - Heroic Violet Hold
5 of the top 6 staff's are from Naxx raiding... FYI

Idol-

Idol of the Ravenous Beast - 15 Emblem of Heroism

Tuesday Leveling Update

2008-11-18T08:05:00.004-05:00

Well, since I can't level I guess I will toss out an update...

I just hit 76 last night and then promptly ran Violet Hold a couple more times and found myself quickly 4 bubbles into 76 before I decided to get to bed.

Thus far the only upgrades I have stumbled upon have been from Violet Hold.

Jailer's Baton
Screeching Cape

I don't plan on going to the cape until the bonus armor from my Slikk's Cloak of Placation is no longer being multiplied.

By now I guess many people have ventured out into Northrend and are either real happy or really sad about the difficulty of the new content or lack thereof.

So far leveling has been very easy with the exception of a couple quest areas with few mobs and slow respawn times and 1 or 2 group elites that just can't be soloed. For the most part however respawns are fast for the crowds and group quests are soloable in T5 gear or better... at least for this feral druid.

So far I have tanked these instances and they have all been ridiculously easy... I am sure running them with all T5 or better geared toons didn't hurt.

Ahn'kahet
Azjol-Nerub
Drak'Tharon
The Nexus
Utgarde
The Violet Hold

The Violet Hold is a great way to instance grind XP if you are into that sort of thing. It runs much like Black Morass in TBC with portals and bossfights on a timer. You should be able to complete the instance in under 30 minutes easy.

So far I have not worked on leveling any professions or bought anything new and shiny from the new land especially since I prefer riding around on my Wintersaber you see above.

I started Northrend in Borean Tundra, moved on to Howling Fjord, and I am just finishing up Dragonblight getting the achievements in each zone for questing in the process.

I believe my next stop is Grizzly Hills.

One thing to note. The book for Heavy Frostweave drops all the time in instances but at 375 first aid you won't get to roll on it. Use some Frostweave and get your First Aid to 390 to make sure when the book falls you can pick it up.

I am currently using a mixed build of bear and cat talents for leveling and running instances. So far so good, I took OoC in the resto tree so I took berserk at 71 and then put points from 71-76 into rend and tear for the increase damage to maul and FB crit. Anyone interested can take a look at my talents and let me know if they have a better suggestion for a leveling feral druid.

Oh, and lastly. I learned savage roar at 75 but I don't use it for leveling... mobs die with just a couple mangles, a bleed, and a FB.

1:15AM Wday

2008-11-13T01:08:00.003-05:00

Decided to go to the Midnight release at GameStop... Got there at 12:10am and left around 12:45am. The manager said it would have gone faster had the credit machines not been down.

After a quick stop at Walmart for milk I am finally home installing Wrath.

I updated my account.

I did not win anything from my scratch off card.

This is going so slow I might head to bed and worry about the patches and playing in the morning.

Might...

Do you know this guy?

2008-11-06T15:54:00.002-05:00

Yes, it's the brother from ICarly, for you WOW parents out there. What I didn't know is that Jerry Trainor is also a part of Project Lore a site that offers multimedia game guides. Really cool site and vids on WotLK including pulls in the first instance and beyond for you tanks that want a head start learning the runs.

Needless to say when I show my daughter the video tonight she will probably think it is pretty cool that Spencer from her nightly show plays WOW... she is really working hard on her reading at age 7 so she can start playing without having to sit on my lap.

Guardian of Cenarius

2008-11-05T22:08:00.003-05:00

You meet some nice people while farming for new titles...

And yes, I am now sporting another new title and I hope to never have to see another mob with "twilight" in their name.

HUGE Feral Druid news

2008-11-04T15:46:00.003-05:00

BLUE POST

The best change is... No more party size requirement for damage reduction. Unfortunately this won't be in effect for when Wrath hits... hopefully it won't take too long for the change to make the O crap solo leveling situations a little easier.

No more bear multiplier for armor from accessories. I have mixed feelings about this because of all the stuff I have that is probably no longer best in slot but it should mean less time in the expansion trying to min/max finding that 1 piece of gear because of it's bonus armor. Funny, with the ability to talent uncritable the resillience gear and chants went the way side and now this... I guess we are now really close to having 1 set for bear and kitty... I guess we shall see.

P.S. When this change hits be ready with new gear to swap in for cloak, rings, trinkets, and possibly even weapon.

And there you have it.

Outland Solo action

2008-10-29T14:38:00.002-04:00

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

2008-10-28T12:47:00.002-04:00

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...

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.
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.
2 more bosses in DM - killed the PITA demon dog where you have to down all the damn shield generators.
Loremaster - Ugh
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.
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.
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).
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!

2008-10-24T08:08:00.004-04:00

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...

2008-10-21T23:26:00.005-04:00

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!

2008-10-21T15:11:00.002-04:00

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...

2008-10-21T08:30:00.003-04:00

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...

2008-10-21T07:31:00.003-04:00

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.

2008-10-16T12:12:00.003-04:00

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?

2008-10-14T21:26:00.003-04:00

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...

2008-10-12T07:52:00.001-04:00

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?

2008-10-11T13:00:00.005-04:00

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

2008-10-08T19:34:00.003-04:00

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...

2008-10-07T23:02:00.003-04:00

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?

2008-10-07T09:32:00.002-04:00

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

2008-10-02T15:14:00.003-04:00

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.

New upgrades...

2008-09-26T08:13:00.003-04:00

Well, I forgot to mention some new upgrades I was able to get. Let me start by saying Myself and my PvP arena partner got to 158something so I was able to get a couple S4 PvP upgrades.

Guardian's Dragonhide Bracers
Brutal Gladiator's Dragonhide Legguards
Brutal Gladiator's Dragonhide Gloves

We are hoping to get over that 1600 hump maybe next week and I already have the points to get...

Brutal Gladiator's Dragonhide Tunic which is why I have kept passing on the Nether Shadow Tunic that has dropped 3 times now in BT... that and I don't want to tick off any rogues... but that is another story.

We are just 30 points away AGAIN fom the 1600 I need... here is to hoping we get a couple easy teams instead of dual glaive rogues in all S4 starting a new team to get someone cheap epics.

I had also forgot to mention the gear I have gotten here recently in BT...

Treads of the Den Mother - With these I hit 34K armor partly raid buffed... is sweet.
Shadowmoon Destroyer's Drape - Best melee DPS cloak in game and the + Hit will come in handy for leveling in Wrath.
Idol of the White Stag - I don't see this as better than Everbloom Idol or Idol of Terror until late into Wrath and just for leveling. Once I hit 80 I am sure the Idol of the Ravenous Beast will be the tops for raiding... or Idol of Worship will be... will have to see I suppose how the theorycrafting numbers work out.

Ok... 1 more thing... I need to speak out...

2008-09-19T13:28:00.002-04:00

People who think Druid tanking is over are nuts.

One big change to note, we can now use items IN FORMS.

Druid tanking just got a WHOLE lot more fun. We can now stagger potions, lock cookies, herbs, seeds, trinkets, Barkskin, Bezerk, Enrage (we take less DMG), and the Herbalism HoT (I am an herbalist) without the worry of getting caught OOF (out of form)

This is a big change to the current Mangle, Maul rotation bore. I like it, it will take more skill and attention from us as tanks.

A couple of interesting things to note from the PTR

2008-09-19T13:03:00.003-04:00

1. I love that I can now use items in form. IMHO for leveling skip Furor... no seriously.
2. Lifeblood. A new spell for Herbalist, which I happen to be, 1200 HoT over 5 sec with 3 min CD... and castable in form.
3. Barkskin, cast in form as well.
4. NE get in cobat Shadowmeld... basically a rogue vanish... very sweet when you are leveling and pull a mob you thought was out of agro range.

Currently using flight form to fly high, shift out, and shift back in before dying does not count as falling without dying for the achievements.

I LOVE that I have learned my pets and mounts and actually have bag space.

Imp Leader of the Pack now returns mana and health.

That is all for now.

PTR is up and I am on

2008-09-16T09:42:00.002-04:00

Look me up, I am Jacemoraptor on the US PTR server.

So far, I have QQed over the loss of armor on my T5, cut my hair to wild style, and took a look at the harbor in SW.

Things that are screwy...

When I right clicked my mount it became a spell... but it did not take the mount out of my bags... so I am scared to delete it... or would be if the patch was live.

I do not have the achievement for killing Vash even though I have and the vial is sitting in my bank.

In other news, I went on a pugged run last night to down Kael. That fight is not nearly as hard as people make it out to be. What is hard is finding 25 people that don't constantly DC, AFK, or go full tard like my healer did standing still to get 1 shot in the first phase... MORE THAN ONCE. He also didn't heal me half the time which led to my death as well.

We made it to phase 4 twice and almost got him to phase 5.

I thank Classic for the invite and making the effort to get people in to experience the fight. I really want to down him and get my Hand of Adal title but time is quickly running out.

More on my PTR experience to come.

Latest Druid Blue post

2008-09-08T14:41:00.003-04:00

We want druids to be able to MT Naxx and Ulduar.

Cool, OK.

I really don't think they're that far off, but if I'm wrong and bears collapse on Patchwerk, we'll change the numbers until they can stand up. We'll try to change the numbers in intelligent ways so that bears are tanking Arthas too and not standing in the back healing the warrior tank.

Wow... Cool, OK.

Likewise, if cat dps is always near the bottom of the dps damage meters, we'll fix that too.

Ok, this comment is a mixed bag. Near the bottom? I don't know about everyone else but when I am on my rotation timing I am usually top 5 on Boss DPS staying pretty competitive with other pure melee DPS classes. This is with T4, S4, and Badge gear and Rare gems only and through the first 4 bosses of both BT and Hyjal. Now granted this isn't comparing T6 geared level players where maybe the scale comes into play but still. What I find are Feral Druids that don't itemize correctly for Kitty DPS and also don't understand how to use proper rotations to maximize damage... I won't even get into Haste potion macro's and powershifting. What this might mean is a big buff to Feral DPS due to all the players that don't know how to DPS properly as a kitty. For those Ferals that constantly find themselves at the top of the damage meters it could mean crazy DPS and then the QQ'ers and the nerf hammer.

Supposedly Ferals are getting a pure DPS build that will have us putting out Rogue level DPS at the loss of Main Tanking or maybe even OTing mini bosses. I would assume we will still be able to OT trash even with a pure DPS build.

Again, I see more QQing and nerfing.

Personally, I would love to be able to get rid of Feral Attack Power as a stat. It feels a little kludgey and it makes itemization harder because you can't share with anyone else in the game. It's like having a libram for your main weapon. But it's not going to happen for Wrath, at least not initially.

Another mixed bag. Now we are going to be dual wielding kitties with swords or daggers and rolling against Rogues for even more loot that think they are more intitled because I can respec and tank or heal and they can't.

Thanks Blizzard.

Jerks.

Well, not much WoW playing lately...

2008-09-02T14:37:00.002-04:00

Due to the Holiday and my SUV having issues I didn't play much WOW last week. I spent most of my time buying a new Van for the family. Our family SUV was getting along in years and miles while bleeding me dry in gas money. We ended up purchasing an 07 Honda Odyssey Touring with 22K miles. No new car depreciation and all the bells and whistles money can buy including Navigation and DVD for the kids. It drives very nice, not like a van at all. The Touring edition comes with a tighter suspension so it feels more like driving a sports car than a van which we like.

We bought the van on Thursday and took a trip to the beach on Friday with a stop at Disney on Monday and the Van did it's job flawlessly.

We opted for the extended bumper to bumper 7 year 100K warrantee since we see ourselves in this vehicle for a lifetime.

Hopefully in the near future with the content patch upcoming and the WotLK I will start getting back into theorycrafting and blog posting but for now it seems it is just Hyjal and BT up to the same bosses every week until people get out of the expansion funk.

I hope to get my Horde hunter to 70 by the expansion but I really don't blog about my noob hunter exploits.

Once Wrath hits I have some options...

A. Level a DK... ugh, 55-80 doesn't get me excited.
B. Level Jacemora to 80... I don't know how I can't stay true to my main.
C. Level Sophina to 80... Lock is so easymode compared to Druid I am actually considering this.
D. Level my fresh 70 Horde hunter to 80... Hunters seem to be all win in the expansion and with the most fun factor... not sure since I don't know many Horde players.

I just know as I get Jace to 80 everyone is going to expect me to MT. Having to run multiple 5 mans as a tank and leader wears on you fast but it does assure going on an instance run whenever you want...

I just don't know.

I <3 Raiding - A Jacemora status update

2008-08-21T09:59:00.006-04:00

So Aetherial Circle stopped raiding.

It is summer, every guild is having it's woes. Some work through it others decide to take a break.

I like Raiding. It takes a certain focus and playstyle that is enjoyable to me and helps me relax and shelf some of the daily events that might weigh on my mind.

So I departed from AC looking for a guild currently raiding Hyjal and Black Temple, the content I was currently on.

So, a quick look at the guild progression at Arctic Wrath and we can see where I need to apply. Now I need to go to a social raiding guild. A hardcore guild would work for me if I was still in my 20's, had no kids or wife, and wanted to finish current content to start playing another game until WotLK... but I am married, have 2 kids, and I need to be with people that understand RL > WOW at any given moment. If my daughter wakes up puking in the middle of a raid I need people that would understand that I need to go (has happened). So lets take a look...

The Mourning - I know people there that I like (Lefaye and Bela) but they are hardcore and expect attendance 4 nights a week. The warden gives me 2, I can sometimes sneak in 3, promising 4 is a no go.
Identified as Trouble - I don't know anyone there, don't know much about them, another hardcore group so it doesn't matter anyway.
Insurrection - Same as above
Dsylxeic - A bunch of previous AC'ers went here and I probably know more people here than any other guild outside of AC even a player I was officers with in our first guild ever... but WAY too Hardcore.
Arctic Wrath - Some more people from AC migrated here as well, Social raiding guild, awesome website, from what I hear great people, lots of fun, my favorite raid start time in the game (9pm). No Feral Druid openings.
Age of Redemption - I know someone that went here from AC, nice guy. Another Hardcore guild so no go.
Homeless - Great people from past experience, don't know anyone there however.
Aetherial Circle - :( Not raiding anymore. People did not seem interested in trying to rebuild after our MT decided to take a break, people on Vacation, people leaving, ETC. I still play with most of these people however when on my Horde hunter in the guild Teh Moo and I hope to get her to 70 soon for some horde guild Kara runs.
No Vacancy - 2 people that were also officers in my first guild that I leveled to 70 with are here but I didn't get any feedback from my application and they seemed to drag their feet talking to me in game or through Unlcecrush. I get to play with Uncle and Syn with my Lock in their guild Simplicity so it was fine.
Fallen - Don't know anyone there or anything about them.
Knight Watch - Hathorn is in this guild and was the person to recruit me to AC. I mentioned the handful of guilds I was looking at and he felt I would fit in with the people at Knight Watch. Our Prot pally Mili had already gone to them with his Resto Shammy and a couple other AC'ers are there as well. I filled out an application and was able to start raiding with them.

So that's it. I am currently a raider with Knight Watch. I went to SSC Sunday night. This was actually a good thing to do to warm up after 3-4 weeks of not raiding. I had UI issues to fix after changing things for arena. I had to get back into a rhythm of DPS and tanking rotations. I had to fix my itemrack after a crash a couple days after raiding ended at AC. After my raiding break it really took me 2 nights of raiding to get back into feeling comfotable.

SSC was fine but night 2 was BT and I am trying to make sure I don't do anything stupid to look bad as a new recruit wanting to be part of the raiding team. I focused on staying alive and had to adjust to Knight Watch positioning, kill order, and strategy. This gimped my DPS which was a bummer but at least I didn't wipe the raid or screw anything up. They also had me Healing the MT in an off healing role on Naj, 1 of 4 tanks on Supremus, and my DPS on Shade of Akama looked kinda crappy but I had never done that fight and was following the melee class leader as to what to attack next. Night 3 was much improved, my DPS rotation was getting cleaner and I sorted out some of my UI issues although they move so fast I still need to move some bars and what not from blocking my combo counter. I was hitting about 1550DPS on Teron which made me feel a lot better. I got to kill some constructs as a ghost which was not as hard as I thought it would be. I spam 4 in cat form right before I die which does nothing since I have no target until I die where it promptly chains all the constructs from moving so I can back up a little facing them and start mashing my macro for Spirit Lance. I believe I killed 3 before 1 got into the raid where I ran in after it and used the volley to finish it off and hurt a couple others that had gotten through. We didn't down him last night but the experience for all these new players will pay off without a doubt.

During the run I was promoted from Recruit to Raider. WOOT! DING!

I am really liking my new home away from home. I definately appreciate all the things I learned from AC and I am glad I am still playing with these people on the horde side but for now it looks like KW is the place for me. Everyone is really nice, they take their raiding seriously, it goes smoothly with very few interruptions, and it sounds like they have their RL > WOW priorities straight as any social guild should. As long as they bring me along for a Hyjal or BT raid every now and again I will be a happy camper.

A Retort of Sorts

2008-08-19T13:55:00.003-04:00

So since I have not posted in a while I decided to post this in response to the latest Muckbeast blog Raiding Provides a False, Deceptive Sense of Real Accomplishment.

What is not real about the accomplishment of getting along with 24 other people to beat a game that takes skill, practice, time, and hard work? Sure it's just pixels, and poker cards are just paper, and racing cars just metal, and surfboards are foam and plexiglass floating on water. Why should accomplishing a physical task on a PC involving pixels be any different then standing the bottle straight up on the plywood at the carnival?

Raiding for me is something competitive I can still do. I get joy from doing a variety of things like surfing, working on my car, restoring old video games, mixing music, taking the kids to Disney, fixing a problem at work... but there is nothing competitive about it. WOW works as a way to still have some lively competition both between players and between groups of players through raiding, PvP, and I suppose now accomplishments in the expansion.

I find WOW to be a nice diversion and hobby (theorycrafting, blogging) that involves a social aspect unlike other video games. WOW exercises not only the fingers but in some cases the mind and maybe for some social skills.

I know a lot of parents that play the game to increase their circle of friends and to have other adults to talk to and do things with when they can’t get out of the house because of kids or other responsibilities.

Bottom line, WOW is not this psychological RL killer you make it out to be no more so than anything else you could take or do to an extreme. In the right doses it is as harmless as a Bridge game with the neighbors but just like anything else it can become an addiction and other things are sacrificed for the sake of playing it. I remember in college before the internet existed playing spades with friends to all hours of the night did this to me… thank god the internet as we know it didn’t exist back then… I would have been too immature to handle it I think.

Raiding is what it is, a test of will, skill, and social understanding. So is PvP. And yes, just like any video game before it, winning the game is a huge accomplishment like saving Penny from Evil Commander Borf, flipping the score on Pac-Man, beating a friend at Tetris… if you like playing video games you get a sense of accomplishment from beating the game or a friend… from improving your skill... I liked beating my Dad at pong, it was a nice change from the tennis thrashing he would give me.

Sure, if raiding is all anyone cares about in life there could be an issue, but the people that blog about WOW specifically are only going to write about that accomplishment. I blog about WOW and I do it to flex my poor writing skills, my creative and analytical thinking, and to help others that want to get better at the game. I post other places about the wave I rode last week, the Karate Champ I restored to mint condition, the mix I made that played at the club last night, or the Forced Induction I finally got tuned correctly on my car. Are WOW bloggers going to gush… maybe. Is it a huge deal to get beat Archimonde, Vash, Kael, ETC… sure it is, endgame raiding is hard… it’s challenging… much harder than learning patterns for Pac Man and involves 25 good players not 1. Heck, you can even win some pretty large sums of money playing Arena now if you are good enough.

I don’t disagree with your thoughts Muckbeast, I just disagree with how many people have WOW as their only method of self actualization, I am pretty sure it is fewer than you think. Especially if you link it to endgame raiding which I hear is done by less than 10% of the WOW population.

Currently the only tracked game success is Arena rankings and Guild progression. I suck at Arena, I am good at Raiding. If you don’t endgame raid it doesn’t mean you "suck", it just means you have not mastered (beat) part of the game.

I used to "suck" in Jr. High cause I couldn’t play basketball. Now kids come to school and maybe they "suck" cause they have not finished Kara. Same shit different day. Now what is more likely, for the kid that thinks you "suck" to give you some WOW tips and maybe invite you to a raid or that same friend to genetically enhance you, run you, etc so you can keep up on the basketball court? You can’t change someone with 5 thumbs… but they might get better at raiding… LOL

People find their niche, for some it might be raiding. Maybe WOW is doing more good in this world than harm?

P.S. Don't let my wife read this, WOW is evil. LOL

JK ;)

WOTLK and guilds

2008-08-06T08:40:00.003-04:00

So WotLK is coming soon and as I mentioned before a lot of guilds have stopped raiding or slowed down considerably.

It made me start thinking about the guild I was in when I was leveling to 70. First Eutonic Knights then Forsaken Templars. I was an officer in both and we bucked the trend of joining one of the larger guilds that had like 300 members or something crazy like that to stay small in our little family running naked to places we didn't belong and what not... lots of fun. I had a great time leveling with these folks but when endgame came our small guild was not sufficent to raid. Honestly we were never even that good at instancing, but we did laugh our ass off and have lots of fun doing it.

So now I am guessing folks need to start thinking about where they want to be. No longer is a large guild necessary in WotLK to experience endgame raiding since all will have a 10 man setting. Will the gear be that much better in a 25 man? I guess that is one of the big questions. Is it any less respectable to be in a 10 man raiding guild than a 25? Would it be cooler to be in a 10 man raiding guild that is further along in progression than a 25 man that is further behind? Take a fight like Archimonde, wouldn't you prefer only a 1 in 10 chance of a teammate wiping the party... LOL

Will 25 man raiding guilds run these new raids as both 10 man and 25 mans?

Lots of questions, very few answers. I do most of my leveling solo and during the day with instancing at night and I have quite a few friends in other various guilds that I know I will be running with. I guess the question is once we all get to 80 how will all the current guilds fair? I am guessing there is going to be a lot of new guilds forming that are going to focus on 10 man endgame raiding reducing the 25 man guilds numbers and quite possibly forcing them into the same 10 man raiding situation due to lack of guildies... at least at first. I bet 25 man raiding guilds are going to be more unique than even now. That and guilds are going to have a better chance at starting out in 10 man raids because you know you are not going to get 30+ people all to 80 at the same time.

Just some Tuesday morning rambling... just ignore me.

The state of summer raiding and a realization of sorts

2008-08-05T19:45:00.007-04:00

So I am bummed, AC has suspended raiding. People going out of town, summer raiding burnout, wanting to still down TK and SSC, not wanting to step foot in TK and SSC, sick of Hyjal trash, and just an overall malaise about BC and waiting for WotLK.

I am really torn in how I feel about this. The vacation from raiding 2-4 nights a week is nice, especially since I am still running my lock 1-2 nights a week in Kara with Simplicity. But part of me misses the challenge of the new. We had just downed Najentus and Azgalor before we called a break... what a downer coming off some nice progression.

I miss raiding with my WOW buddies and continuing to show that a social guild without perfect raid makeups can still get it done and progress with the hard core guys.

I think what I miss about this most is the RL conversions that crop up with other people that play. Before I was raiding BT and Hyjal, something not many players, even some hard core can say. Oddly enough I find the ability to talk about WOW in RL social situations quite pleasing. I bet if the people I am out with know nothing about cars, computers, poker, surfing, college football, or vintage arcade game restoration there is a chance they have played WOW and we have some common ground on which to base a conversation. I have found in these situations that raiding 25 man content makes me much more interesting like that of owning a Mclaren Super car instead of a Saturn. Sometimes I meet people that are all about PvP and I find that interesting since it is something I suck at and I live on a PVE server. I really can't wait to get a shirt from BBB to wear out as a possible conversation starter. If nothing else I can't wait to see the range of personalities this might attract... "I tank with my face"... yes I do.

So now I am focused on getting better at PvP, arena most specifically. I am doing a 2v2 with a Discipline Priest now and a 3v3 with the same Priest and a Warrior. As we find ways to beat our foes I will see about posting a strategy that is more involved than pounce, mangle, shred, rip, and pray.

OMG, I am so totally not a morning person

2008-08-04T12:11:00.000-04:00

Just got back from lunch. Turns out I had my keys and my Blizzard Authenticator in my pocket all along...

GONE FISHING

A new Feral Druid blue post

2008-08-04T10:21:00.003-04:00

It looks like my thoughts on the subject were correct. As a feral druid you will be able to spec in order to be a viable Main Tank, viable raid DPS, or spec for both and continue to be the best OT in the game. In between all that we can spec for PvP and start to own face there. This does mean however we are back to collecting a ton of different gear for our different possible roles, that has been left unchanged. At least with the new pets storage we will have more space for all our gear.

Q u o t e:

The design is for bears to be viable, end-game main tanks. The design is for cats to be viable, end-game melee dps. In both cases you are going to need the right talents, good gear, skill and companions who can back you up -- I don't mean to imply raiding will be easy.

If you want to do a little tanking and dps, you probably won't be as optimal at either, though you'll probably always be better at switching between the two than other classes. In order to be as good at tanking as the other classes, you might have to give up a few talents that maximize your dps, and vice versa. This is a good thing -- it lets you choose to actually be a main tank.

OMG... It has finally happened

2008-08-04T07:30:00.005-04:00

The dreaded day has come.

I knew this would happen eventually.

I know someday it might happen to you too.

In my haste to get out the door this morning I forgot something very important. Something critical for my online daily survival. Something without, my day at work will be... well, work.

Yes folks, I forgot my Blizzard Authenticator Key sitting on my desk in my den at home.

The dreaded day is upon me and it is going to be a long one. So, what will my online life be today without WOW... let me run it down for you.

It starts with this little post, then a look at the Drenden forums at the WOW website with a quick visit to read all the QQers in the Druid forums.

At some point I will read over all the new blogs from the likes of BRK and BBB.

Take a visit and read over some new theory crafting on WotLK attack rotations on the Emmerald forums. Toskk has been working on some new models using our new talents and the changes that are happening in the expansion... fun stuff.

Then I will take a visit to Gatorsports.com and check post for content and what not... I am a site admin there and while in the football and basketball off season there is very little interesting to discuss I still need to make sure posts are following the guidelines of the site.

I will check out my Dashboard at Entercard and do some advertising for my blog site.

Hop on Facebook and see if any new friends have turned up or left me any interesting messages. Then check out my Brothers site at MySpace for any new music his Rap group Nothin Less has turned out (NSFW)... I recommend listening to the song "I'm Sorry", most of the others are good too if you are into Rap.

Next I might visit the WotLK site for Wowhead to see if any new gear has turned up that looks interesting. One thing I notice right away when looking at new gear coming out is all the new gems and the mix of stats they provide. I think gear gemming endgame at level 80 is going to be a bigger deal than it was in BC as a way to fix stats on more shared gear across classes.... that is just my guess though. With the nerf to agility as it relates to kitty DPS this ring looks like a decent DPS upgrade.

I will stop and visit my guild forums however it has been quiet lately since we are on a break from raiding, perhaps until WotLK... and a stop by the website for No Vacancy, a guild I have a couple of friends at that I might be raiding with in the near future to see if I fit in. Unfortunately it looks like AC is done raiding until WotLK and I still want to see more of BT and maybe some of Sunwell. Right now I have been raiding on my 70 lock and leveling my Horde hunter. Playing a hunter is probably the most opposite from playing a druid. As a hunter I can basically level while eating a 3 course meal just by sending in my pet, hunter marking the target, hitting it with a poison shot, auto shot, loot, skin, and repeat.... easy stuff hunters.

Lastly, I am going to work on putting Linux on an old laptop of mine. If WOW ran well on Linux I probably would not have a windows machine any longer. Sure I know there are ways to make this work but not only will it not perform as well but I would hate to have Blizzard see it as a hack and shut my account.

If I missed anything else it is answering IT calls, the innevitable "I can't access this folder", "is e-mail down", and the "I think my account is locked" calls... big fun.

Overheard at the Feral Druid Dept. of Blizzard

2008-07-31T14:19:00.002-04:00

Tom: Hey Dick, I really don't think I am going to get around to designing any feral gear by Nov.

Dick: Just let them use Rogue gear

Tom: But all the new Rogue gear has +hit, +haste, you know stats the druids don't care about.

Dick: Well, let's make OoC only proc on white attacks... and while we are at it give feral druids the use of weapon proc enchants, attack with both paws, make windfury totems worth while, and give them talents that make them more like rogues, it is what they have been asking for all along anyway.

Tom: Cloak of Pwnage?

Dick: Of course not! Don't get crazy Tom! Just enough changes so they have no clue how to do the most DPS anymore, that should keep the QQers off our ass at least for a little while... maybe they will just reroll Death Knights so we can get a little R&R.

Well folks that is my half hearted attempt at a BRKesque post.

Must read Feral Druid Blue Post

2008-07-31T13:50:00.002-04:00

Druid - Omen of Clarity buff and Feral DPS (src)
In the next data push, you will find Omen of Clarity has been changed a bit. The 10 second cooldown has been removed, the procs per minute has been raised from 2 to 3.5, and melee abilities no longer trigger it. Spell interaction with Omen of Clarity remains relatively unchanged, with its hidden chance to trigger off spells reduced by half (and rolling the dice about 2x as often). What this means is that more auto-attacks landing on the target will increase the benefit from Omen of Clarity. Haste, increased hit chance, and expertise will all make Omen of Clarity better.

We are aware of the concerns with reaching the hit rating cap, and will make sure Druids can pick up Rogue items to wear without exceeding that cap. This means Rogues will likely socket for hit, while Druids socket for Strength or Agility.

Before LK goes live, we will do extensive testing on how much damage classes do, and will increase or decrease their power as appropriate to meet our targets. Cat raid DPS suffered relative to other melee in BC for lack of an Combat Potency equivalent talent (OOC should now be roughly equal), for lack of a scaling finishing move (Savage Roar answers that), for lack of benefitting from Windfury Totem, and for lack of weapon procs (+35 agility != Mongoose). All of those lacks have been addressed. In addition, a change has been made to make the agility rebalance less severe (as I posted in another thread).

In PvP, we are adding many tools to the Feral Druid arsenal, including the redesigned Maim, Infected Wounds, King of the Jungle, and Berserk. We have also made some improvements to the "range bug". Attacks that require you to be behind a target will no longer be able to be parried, nor able to be dodged by a player. Our movement engine will now smoothly interpolate positions of moving units, preventing the "Out of range/You must be behind your target/Out of range/You must be behind your target/Out of range/You must be behind your target..." sequence from occuring any more. In addition, being able to apply a snare makes the Feral Druid able to slow down their target and lessen the severity of the "range bug". Yes, there are still issues with the model, especially when switching into and out of cat form, but many of the issues are being dealt with.

Druid - Compensation for the agility nerf (src)
To help deal with this issue, in the next data push, Druids should find their melee critical strike chance is about 5% higher. The conversion of agility to critical strike chance remains the same 40:1 at level 70, but the base amount for 0 agility has been increased by 5%.

Ok, let me give you my thoughts on what we are looking at in WotLK... basically we will now be speccing one of three different ways being feral.

1. Tank Spec
2. DPS spec
3. PvP Spec

As you all know with the exception of a couple points in entangling or natural shapeshifter we really don't currently have a feral PvP spec. That is going to most likely change along with various other adjustments that will make us more viable in Arena. No longer is the feral tree expected to cover 1 spec for Arena, Tanking, and DPS. We will have to choose talents to concentrate in one of the three or pick a mixture depending on what some talents have what effect in PVE... throw in Inscriptions that will allow us to swipe 4 targets instead of 3 and you can start to see that you will most likely need to choose based on if you want to be uber tankage, uber DPSage, or uber PVPer. I am guessing another option will be for the status quo of uber OT balancing tanking talents with DPS talents and maybe some CC talents for raid utility. Looks like druids are going to maintain their flexibility in the expansion and will be very fun to play with.

A drool moment brought to you from WotLK

2008-07-28T12:17:00.001-04:00

Bloodwood Greatstaff

Drool.

FOSHIZZLE!... Azgalor Down

2008-07-21T22:30:00.005-04:00

So yeah, I said it too... FOSHIZZLE!

After making the gear changes to make my Bear tanking set stronger I took considerably less damage tanking Azgalor this week than I did last week. Dodged 60% of his attacks and had a Disc priest using Pain Suppression on me too which helped.

No T6 gear, no Staff off stingy butt Anetheron, but lots of fun and a couple cool Archimonde screenshots I will put up later today.

Looking forward at WotLK gear

2008-07-21T09:43:00.002-04:00

Looking at some of the first leather that drops from quests or mobs or what not... I am seeing gear with STAMINA... some with agility and expertise... and ATTACK POWER.

My guess is the way our DPS is going to scale is going to continue to fall more in line with sharing rogue gear. No matter what I think for leveling we as ferals are going to now have a set of leveling greens and blues to bag with our raiding purples as Stamina and Armor will become more important on our DPS gear for leveling survival.

Adding some of this new gear in Rawr, it looks to be near Kara quality but does not touch badge upgrades from the Isle... I dunno, maybe leveling in Arena S3/S4, badge gear, and 2T4/2T5 will be the way to go with the 2 pieces of tier bonus.... Instant cast HoT's FTW?

Raiding feral druids are going to have a lot of options depending on your leveling style I suppose.

WotlK Wowhead Beta Site

2008-07-18T08:03:00.002-04:00

BETA SITE

Green quality Idol from a quest...

Idol of the Plainstalker

Basically the Idol of Terror with 10 less agility on proc.

This is a reward about 2 levels into the expansion. This alone speaks volumes as to what our current gear is really worth in the expansion IMHO.

The Good...

People with fresh 70's have no need to run Karazhan, they most likely can just focus on getting to level 80 just like it was when BC released. This will also be great with alt toons that people put very little effort into once they hit 70 because they were spending all their time raiding and getting rep on their main.

The Bad...

The majority of work people put into raiding goes unnoticed since their gear will be replaced quickly into the expansion. Let's hope the new achievements systems address this. I know it is unlikely but I would like to see under achievements not only that I ran and killed every boss in Karazhan but that I cleared the place X amount of times... would be nice for the game to tally that info. I hope it also shows the world boss kills in there somewhere as well. Heck, it might make going back and clearing MC worth while.

Also, even more level 80 toons that have no clue what it is to raid.

Another WotlK beta tidbit... Hurricane has no cooldown! Druid AoE farming low level mats FTW! Barkskin, Hurricane, clear Deadmines... woot! LOL

On a serious note though, I love pulling 5 mans with hurricane and now it will go even faster. As a feral I can also do a weapon swap and maintain 2500DPS AoE while pallies continue to be Uber crowd meat shields.

Made some gear changes...

2008-07-17T07:45:00.004-04:00

Well, I made some gear changes on Jace in order to improve his tanking gear.

Switched helms so I am now tanking with Vengeful Gladiator's Dragonhide Helm and going Kitty with Stag-Helm of Malorne. I did this for 2 reasons.

A. Improve my tanking gear for tanking Azgalor
B. Improve my arena gear for more survivability

I wanted to gem and enchant my PVP helm for arena survivability instead of DPS. So I went with the SSO helm enchant of 18 stamina and 20 resilience. This in turn helped me stay uncritable while upgrading to Ring of the Stalwart Protector and allowed me to shift back to Agility enchant on my cloak and Stamina enchant on my bracers. I also socketed the helm with a Powerful Earthstorm Diamond so now with talents I have 20% to avoid a stun attack... I love the look on Tauren faces when they stomp and I keep ripping thier face.

Since adding T5 gear to my tanking mix I no longer was using the 4T4 bonus for tanking so it just made more sense to shift to helm and shoulders for the 2T4 bonus in Kitty. I am now using Gloves of Dexterous Manipulation in my DPS set. I am pretty sure this did cause a little drop in DPS which I could most likely make up by spending some badges on Nyn'jah's Tabi Boots and Handwraps of the Aggressor but my goal really is to sacrifice a smidge of PVE DPS in hopes of getting my arena ranking high enough to grab Brutal Gladiator's Dragonhide Helm and Brutal Gladiator's Dragonhide Tunic as well as Guardian's Dragonhide Bracers and save my badges incase I need more tanking upgrades such as Embrace of Everlasting Prowess and Tameless Breeches.

Even with gimping my DPS a little by the gear switch I still managed to come in 3rd in TD on our Naj kill last night. Unfortunately I was also in the tank group with no shammy totems or other DPS buffs.

Healing myself after every shield break definately took a pretty big toll on my damage output since I lose energy by not staying in Cat form but you have to do what you have to do to stay alive and beat a boss. FYI for feral druids, pop barkskin before the shield burst and then cast a full rank Healing Touch followed with 1 instant cast full rank Rejuv and your mana should hold up for the whole fight while giving the healers time to catch up.

High Warlord Naj'entus Down!

2008-07-17T07:28:00.002-04:00

Yay, on our 2nd trip ever to Black Temple we downed High Warlord Naj'entus. Everyone did an awesome job looting the spike and keeping everyone alive. I can see us very soon getting the first 2-3 bosses down in BT in one night. We cleared the trash to Supremus which was WAY EASIER than expected and picked a fight with the big guy just to take a look at how the fight goes. Then we all promptly died in phase 2 to volcanoes. Fun stuff, I definately prefer BT raiding to the monotony of trash killing in Hyjal. Hopefully next week we will be getting some of our first T6 gear in Hyjal.

Patch 2.4.3

2008-07-16T10:07:00.002-04:00

What this patch means to me...

1. Future runs of Heroic MrT for my Shard of Contempt just got easier. Parts of the instance were nurfed most noticeably the 2nd boss.

2. My lock now has the ability to make a 28 slot herbalism bag... this might come in handy when the expansion hits when leveling Jace and his herbalism.... druid gathering FTW!

I will not drop 1200G on a 22 slot bag. That is insane and there is no way adding 2-4 slots on my person can make back the gold spent for the space. The fact that people would even buy the other crap she has I find a little nuts. Maybe if you could see accessories on your person I could see it for some of the more vain players but outside of that happening I just don't get it.

My level 30 Horde hunter that my daughter created got her mount.

Nether Ray Fry... I see no point, I just don't have the bag space and I really am not big on collecting pets.

My lock now just casts Curse of Elements and everyone gets bonus damage... YAY... more DPS on Hyjal bosses since another lock can now use a different curse.

One of my FAVORITES...
Zoning into an instance on a PvE realm will now drop your PvP flag.

Awesome, horde if you are flagged and I am sitting around around waiting for a raid to start you are getting ganked.... nice to have something more to do pre raid while waiting than dancing as a little flaming tart.

Don Carlos' Famous Hat... yeah, I got it. The hat really looks awesome on male NE's and having a full size hunters pet follow me around is kinda cool... I don't know when I will use it much but looks neat nonetheless... Druid, don't think you can solo this guy... he scatter shots and nets you constantly and has a good amount of health.

Bad Economy

2008-07-14T12:11:00.003-04:00

Ok, Explain to me this... if the economy is so bad why...

Can't about 50% of the people that want Wii's find them to buy?
Wii Fit? Yeah right.
New Apple Iphone... no.

and the reason I am on this rant, my new Sunpass mini sticker... everyone is out.

Just look at the Blizzard Authenticator, gone. Heck, they could have sold these for $19.99 and charged shipping and they would have sold them out.

I once read a BRK blog about a good way to tell if the economy is doing bad is by the quality of service in lets say a fast food joint... well guess what, that lady that took my order at McDonalds today.... no way she had a degree and was slumming.

Sure, home values are down and gas prices are up but really it just means those of us that were able to get out of debt, get nice homes, maybe even a 3rd car for fun and still live high on the hog before the turn just have to go back to being middle class and watching our budgets again... it's really not that bad. My guess is someone, somewhere didn't like all the Americans coming out of debt and somehow the economy is getting manipulated to put us back into it.

A possible answer to the Scryer's SSO neck

2008-07-14T09:08:00.001-04:00

Check out this thread for a possible explanation behind why the Scryer's version of the SSO neck ranks so high.

I updated the gear post

2008-07-10T14:22:00.004-04:00

I decided to add in the Kara gear since so many people are running Kara now even on a pug basis. Kara really is the single best place to upgrade your kitty gear if you are not running 25 mans. ZA is another place to go but requires a better geared and coordinated group to make it work.

I highly recommend getting to Kara as often as possible before the expansion if your goal is to get equipped for feral for expansion leveling. You get 23 badges per full clear and you can see all the possible kitty gear that can drop in there in my gear post.

The only gear you can't get from Kara drops is a good DPS trinket (The vial from Opera sucks) so that say's a lot about the importance of running this instance if you want to gear up for feral. Fortunately though there are many alternatives of gear that is better or on par with these drops and that gear is listed first in my gear thread as the fastest way to get geared instead of waiting months for a certain upgrade to drop and win the roll on.

Again, the post does not go into gear that is available past Kara. No 25 man raids have been considered in the post.

Back to Hyjal

2008-07-08T07:55:00.002-04:00

And on our first try we get Azgalor to 1.7K health and wipe.

Damn.

That was the best we were going to do last night.

Damn.

More wiping on trash.

Damn.

I really am starting to hate Mt. Hyjal with it's trash waves. It is so much nicer getting to do multiple attempts on a boss with only having to clear trash once per 2 hours or so. I am now almost exalted with Sands.

I got Pepe's Shroud of Pacification last night which I know will come in handy once I am at the armor cap or with a caster tank set for now with the added stamina I suppose.

YES! We one shot the first 3 bosses in Hyjal

2008-07-06T23:14:00.012-04:00

Now tomorrow we start our raid evening with the 4th boss who we got to 70% tonight and that was with a very messy attempt.

P.S. The talk about feral DPS not scaling... well so far it is just that, talk cause so far I have not seen a problem. Maybe the changes in 2.3 and new SSO gear has made a difference but the WWS speaks for itself... Yes, tanking Hyjal trash, emergency tanking a boss or 2 if need be, a battle rez here or there, and then topping the meter on the boss kill... Druid life is good.... but don't tell Blizz that :)

P.S.S. I only got strength totem but I still love being in a shammy group... can't wait til we proc WF in forms and even get GoA when they combine the strength and agility totems... going to be sick.
I would have put up numbers on rage which historically have also been high but I grabbed Medallion of the Alliance this weekend and forgot to update my ItemRack so when I changed to my Hyjal set, which I have named my raid set with Insignia of the Alliance instead of Crystalforged Trinket I ended up not getting my trinket which I had deleted already to make bag space... so I died REALLY fast... ugh.

Gearing up for Feral DPS

2008-07-01T08:30:00.022-04:00

Ok, here is a post detailing the fastest way to get geared for feral kitty DPS. Whether you are currently a balance or resto druid or a feral tank that ignored getting DPS gear, follow this guide to getting the best possible gear for killing stuff. This should be useful considering pretty soon we will all be in Northrend trying to kill new and exciting mobs. This is for those of you that are not raiding anything past Kara or not raiding at all, obviously there is some better gear that can be had from 25 mans that you might be able to get for your offspec but I am not covering that in this post. I had to bold this last part for the quick to flame trolls that some how missed it (see comments)

Weapon - Either save 150 badges for the Staff of the Forest Lord or run Battle Grounds for the Gladiator's Maul or Merciless Gladiator's Maul... if you get lucky maybe the Terestian's Stranglestaff falls in Kara and you can save the time or badges. Fleshling Simulation Staff or Wildcaller are both quest rewards and an option until you get any of the above. As was pointed out by another reader in comments, Earthwarden is also a wonderful alternative until an Arena weapon, Badge weapon, or the Kara staff falls. You will need Cenarion Expedition rep to the tune of exalted and some gold but EW is the tanking weapon of choice until the SSC drop and on par with many others for Kitty DPS. Staff of Natural Fury from the AH is another option but EW is most likely going to be less gold and will offer more mitigation when soloing.
Chest - Get a Shadowprowler's Chestguard crafted, that is the fastest and easiest upgrade. Chestguard of the Conniver also works, another Kara drop. I am currently running around in Vengeful Gladiator's Dragonhide Tunic so if you want to dump some time in arena this is another option.
Pants - Hope that Netherspite drops Skulker's Greaves, from quest either Shattrath Leggings or Clefthoof Hide Leggings, Trousers of the Scryers' Retainer if you have the badges, Arena for Vengeful Gladiator's Dragonhide Legguards is an option as is BG's for Merciless Gladiator's Dragonhide Legguards.
Head - Helm of the Claw is a quest reward, try for that until you get your Stag-Helm of Malorne off prince or do some arena for the Vengeful Gladiator's Dragonhide Helm. You really want your T4 helm however, make this a priority if you are raiding Kara.
Neck - Get Exalted with SSO and pick up the Shattered Sun Pendant of Might. It was pointed out to me which I had kinda forgot being Aldor and all that the Scryer's version is not so hot for kitty DPS. Not sure how true this is with Emmeralds list having it higher than the Aldor version. However, if Emmerald is wrong (which can happen) get a Necklace of the Deep crafted or Necklace of Trophies from AH. Mithril Chain of Heroism or Worgen Claw Necklace are the Kara possible upgrades.
Shoulders - Expedition Scout's Epaulets another quest reward, or Shoulderpads of the Silvermoon Retainer a Heroic MrT drop. Blackened Leather Spaulders are a vendor item and acceptable also though you will need Revered with the Kurenai. I would think running Heroic MrT for the shoulders and a shot at Shard of Contempt would be worth the time. Bladed Shoulderpads of the Merciless are the Kara drop upgrade.
Back - Get a Vengeance Wrap crafted, fast and easy. Drape of the Dark Reavers another drop from Kara or Badge reward Dory's Embrace is another option.
Wrist - Run Battle Grounds for Vindicator's Dragonhide Bracers, it's worth it. Bracers of Maliciousness is the Kara drop option.
Hands - Windslayer Wraps another crafted, fast and easy until you get Gauntlets of Malorne off of Curator. Getting T4 gloves is also very important. Gloves of Dexterous Manipulation from Kara or badge reward Handwraps of the Aggressor work too.
Waist - More PvP and BG's for Vindicator's Dragonhide Belt, Waistguard of the Great Beast is a nice dual purpose item and is worth the badges if you can spare them. Girdle of Treachery is another Kara drop that works too.
Feet - Hope that Edgewalker Longboots falls from Moroes, Fel Leather Boots crafted would be a fast and easy way to go until they do. If you have more badges than you can spend get Nyn'jah's Tabi Boots. Sunrage Treads falls off Kael in Heroic MrT and are another option.
Rings - Overseer's Signet, Kaylaan's Signet, Slayer's Mark of the Redemption are all quest reward rings. If you have the badges buy Angelista's Revenge. A'dal's Command and Shapeshifter's Signet are also good if you have the rep and can buy them. Garona's Signet Ring and Ring of a Thousand Marks are the Kara upgrades.
Trinkets - Crystalforged Trinket from revered Ogri'la rep I am still using while I continue to wait for something better. Darkmoon Card: Crusade from combining Blessings cards from AH is damn good (This is my current trinket setup and I am raiding in Hyjal, both easy to get). Shard of Contempt as I mentioned above is currently #1 for Kitty DPS, see one of my previous posts about doing Magisters' Terrace if you find you are having problems with a successful run.
Idols - Everbloom Idol or even Idol of Terror would be ok if you already have it for tanking and can't spare the badges.

Final Tips

Fill all your sockets with Delicate Living Ruby, Glinting Noble Topaz, and Shifting Nightseye. Only use the Shifting Nightseye and Glinting Noble Topaz to meet the gem requirement for Relentless Earthstorm Diamond in your helm.
Get everything you can enchanted for DPS. Shoot for agility enchants on gloves, cloak, weapon, and boots. Get rep helm and shoulder enchants. If you can't get agility get strength, ap, or stats... in that order.
Get some Grilled Mudfish or Warp Burger
Get some Elixir of Major Agility
Get some Adamantite Weightstone
Spend time trying to get your T4 helm and gloves, the 2 piece bonus is awesome and feral kitties wear these 2 items until Sunwell gear.

Kaz'rogal Down

2008-07-01T07:48:00.003-04:00

Honestly, I was expecting much worse... but we one shot him last night. The thought of people exploding right and left filled our heads with expectations of at least some wipes and a learning curve... nope, dead demon.

For you feral druids out there, this is the absolute least friendly melee fight I have ever been in. He stomps what seems to be constantly so I spend most of my time stunned doing nothing.

A hats off to the casters, hunters, and healers that made this happen without killing the raid.

The Misunderstood Druid

2008-06-30T08:21:00.005-04:00

How many druids have noticed people freaking out when they are tanking by starting a pull in stealth kitty form or caster form? It seems ever since the change came down in patch 2.3 with client side shifting people downright think I am crazy. Just the other night I was in Kara helping out a buddies guild and they were all confused as to why I was on the main tank list when I am sitting waiting to start things up in stealth cat form... lol. Then you hear "holy crap you just moonfired a mob in bear form"... lol Yeah, I switched to bear form before the pull started just to ease the minds of my fellow raiders and then moonfired pulled and instantly back to bear... apparently faster than this guy's system kept up with lag.

I bring this up because people need to understand that with 5 points in Furor the last thing I want to do when pulling or running in to tank a boss is shift to bear. I am sure most people understand this, what they don't understand is why I would be in kitty form prior to this shift... well, number 1, why not? It really makes no difference what form I start in, it is completely irrelevant actually. Druids can shift directly from 1 form to the next now and frankly I prefer starting almost everything from stealthed cat in case someone pulls a Leroy whether it be on purpose or by accident. It also allows me a little more control of the situation and what I agro when I am ready when off tanking in 25 mans.

Being able to start pulls or fights from the stealthed form is actually a huge bonus to feral tanking. It allows us to get great postioning for multi mob pulls. I love stealthing to certain groups in MrT and starting the pull by a pounce, bear, bash or roar while keeping all the mobs at a nice ranged distance from the rest of the party. I can also start the pull on one side while the other side of the pull is getting CCed allowing me to swipe away from trouble. I also use this technique on the 3rd boss in MrT... pounce the boss, mangle, shred for a couple combo points... go to bear bash or charge then bash then back to cat for a maim and a spell lock for 3 secs, another mangle... back to bear again... ect... I also like sneaking up into trash mobs in SSC so when the MT starts the pull I am exactly in range for a moonfire shot before my mob might get caught in a concecrate or agro the MT. Another great place for this is in Hyjal as the trash enters the camp I can stealth in right behind it and pounce a necromancer before he gets off his first shadow bolt, shift to bear, bash him, and then make sure I have agro... look, I just saved the pally tank 3k or more burst damage from the pull ma :) (P.S. The trash in Hyjal cannot see through stealth, so not a problem, unless you walk right into them of course which I have never done.)

I also like pulling from caster form especially using hurricane. The nice thing about hurricane is you can position it to grab agro from an entire group of mobs or just a portion of them leaving the ones outside the AoE for CC or to get picked up by another tank. Works great but most people don't understand the why or how. Hurricane is a druids consecrate but it can be aimed and although brief its a great way to get multiple mob agro.

I also like the caster HoT's to bear, FF pull. I use this method on Tidewalker, Kael in MrT, the 2nd boss in MrT, and the FLK shammy add. Cast HoT's on myself for the added threat or at least initial damage buffer for my healers, shift to bear and FF an incoming misdirected mob or feral charge in.... works great.

Feral raiding is just downright fun. Currently my guild is in Hyjal, here are some of the things I typically do in there as an OT...

For starters I buff my DPS weapon with a stone since we will be at the boss fight within an hour, I save my food and pot for phase 6 of the trash to make sure the buffs are still up for the boss fight. 1st trash, 10 ghouls, switch weapon to Staff of Dark Mending and Hurricane the mobs being tanked by our pally... switch weapon, shift cat, run in and single target DPS. Next pull probably the same... 3rd pull I will be stealthing in as cat to pounce something to lighten the load on the pally... shift to bear and OT it until it's dead maybe pick up another mob... when it dies if I don't have agro on anything I shift and hurricane the current AoE group of mobs, shift back to cat and single target DPS... stealth and wait to start the process all over again. Right after the last trash phase I use my ItemRack addon and switch my gear to my raid setup with my PvP trinket... I have like 12 possible gear setups to chose from... (P.S. If you use ItemRack a word to the wise, apparently sometimes even though you get an out of combat message you might try to shift your gear before some kind of lag, your ItemRack icon will reflect your gear change but it won't actually happen, make sure to stealth in cat as soon as you are out of combat and then change to 1-2 different gear sets and then to the setup you want just to be safe.) Then we get Rage and although he is a complete push over I think I have picked up tanking him after a MT death at least twice now and maybe even thrown in a battle rez or 2 also... fun stuff.

All of this means that I have decided to forgo testing Powershifting to boost my damage. I know that by using the currently available macro's I could boost my damage when in a DPS role but I think feral druids are just too important from a raid utility standpoint to mess around with burning through ones mana like that. As it is now with the T4 energy proc and OOC proc I rarely find myself low on energy anyway and I view it as a time to drop some agro just to be on the safe side... so I get a couple less shreds... but at least the boss dies. :)

3 Accounts hacked in 6 days

2008-06-30T08:00:00.004-04:00

Yep our guild has had 3 accounts hacked (2 households) in 6 days. So, just to be on the safe side I ordered mine this morning...

Feel free to get yours HERE.

The "Can you run me through XYZ" question

2008-06-26T12:55:00.003-04:00

Please do us Feral druids a favor and don't asks us to run you through an instance.... not even Deadmines... seriously....

Newsflash, as a feral druid my only AoE sucks, has a CD, and swipe only hits 3 mobs at a time. Please find a pally to go agro the whole place and kill everything in like 5 minutes... thanks.

Feral druids running someone through something is tedious and boring.

Now, if you are a high enough level druid or rogue that just wants to stealth to a couple bosses for loot you would actually use this might be ok but I have no idea where this would be something you need to do.

Magisters' Terrace

2008-06-25T09:49:00.003-04:00

Ok, good news. Magisters' Terrace is getting nerfed in the next patch.

Until then let me give you some advice.

1. Do not run this in a pug group. You will die.... often. You will spend 3 hours and not get passed the 3rd boss. P.S. This is regardless of whether you go in Heroic or normal modes.

2. All players must be in Vent, or Teamspeak, or whatever. MrT is very much a mini raid and coordination is key.

3. Group composition is HUGE. You need a GOOD healer, a GOOD tank, and if possible 3 CC classes. Here are some of the best groups I have had to run even Heroic MrT fast...

4. If you can do what I do, get a healing buddy and always run the instance only with him/her. Just the 2 of you having exprience will go a long way regardless of who else you bring.

Druid Tank (Me)
Holy Priest (Shmilybug)
Rogue (sap)
Mage (sheep)
Warlock (seduce, banish, enslave)

Druid Tank (Me)
Holy Priest (Shmilybug)
Prot Pally Tank (Mili)
Mage (sheep)
Warlock (seduce, banish, enslave)

Could probably substitute a rogue here for either the mage or warlock and still be successful. They key is to have the pally tank everything except for the 2nd boss. On the 2nd boss he will take the adds then bubble out of the debuff while the druid tanks. The rest of the instance the druid OT's or DPS's depending on the strength of your pallies gear and your healers ability.

Druid Tank (Me)
Pally healer
Shammy
Mage
Rogue

This was a strong group, we even did the 3rd boss on Heroic without clearing the room! Did it on the first try at that.

So far the groups I have been on that included hunters have been a mixed bag, my guess is if you get a good one they can maybe take the place of a lock. No matter what, do not run MrT without a mage at the very least.

Ok, so now you have a proper group. Mark the mobs, communicate each persons CC responsibility, Kill the Blood Knight's first! Sheep the physicians. Use another CC on the Mage Guards and maybe even the Warlock if you have 3 CC's. Kill order Blood Knight, Warlock, Mage Guard, Physician. Make sure someone kills the imp right away, only takes 1-2 shots from range.

On the pulls with succubus have the warlock enslave and use it to kill the NPC warlock... and then sick her on everything else. Make sure the pulls are pulled WAY back. I have seen enslaved pets agro nearby groups when they are fought too close to other groups.

Ok, First boss is tank and spank and is too easy to discuss.

2nd boss is the one everyone dreads. FYI, mages can ice block out of the adds debuff. Rogues can CoS out of it. Pallies can shield out of it. No matter what fight this boss at a controlled rate. I won't say slow. Just stop DPS on the boss until the person that took the adds no longer has the debuff, then start on him again. So stop DPS on boss when adds spawn, start only when debuff is no longer on the person that killed them. Adds spawn 5 times at 85%, 70%, 55%, 40%, and 25% health. Have a class without the ability to remove the debuff take the first set. Hold DPS on boss until that player has the debuff dropped. Do the same at 70% and so forth until the last set at 25%. At 25% when the last adds spawn have a class that can eat the debuff take those last 2 and then DPS the boss down like crazy. If you have 2 classes that can eat the debuff use them and start at 40% to burn him. If you run with a pally, rogue, and mage you can start burning him at 55%.

3rd boss. The biggest pain here is clearing the whole damn room. The key to this fight is to CC the adds and burn the boss, spell interrupting her heals at every possible chance. Druids, start the fight in Cat form pouncing her from behind. Wear S3 gloves if you have them for a pounce then maim... shift to bear for a bash or a charge then a bash and then back to cat. Burn her ass to the ground, use fears on the adds that can't be CC'ed. Seduce and mindcontrol does not work in here, just an FYI. After that down the adds 1 by 1, keep the sheep sheeped and the demon banished for this.

4th boss... Kael'thas. Hey Blizz, I should get credit for killing him here for my Scale of the Sands quest! Ok, tank and spank. Have the ranged kill the phoenix by ping ponging him between them or kiting him, when it dies and turns into an egg kill it. Stay out of Kael's flame strike... yes, more stay out of the fire stuff. DPS him hard and you might beat the pyroblast. If not be prepared to burst DPS down his shield when he starts casting pyro then interrupt it. Worst case scenario tank dies and he starts doing gravity lapse. When you get thrown into the air swim back to the enterance door immediately... range dps Kael. Once the balls get close go around them to Kael and dps him up close... bottom line stay away from the balls. They move slow, it's really not that hard. When he stops gravity lapse burn him down... repeat if necessary.

Honestly, with the right group and a couple people with experience in this instance it is not bad AT ALL.

Enchanting FTW!

2008-06-25T09:20:00.006-04:00

Enchanting on a release day...

Always lot's of people looking for enchants on their shiny new gear. Usually I have trouble making myself available on these days because Tuesday night happens to be date night for me and my wife. Before you get excited, it is us on a date, not us dating someone else... a quick explanation for a younger generation that may be single and has no idea what the term "date night" refers too. Anyway, last night date night ended around 9:30 so I hopped on to see if anyone needed any enchanting done.

Now enchanting for others has always been a mixed bag for me. When I decided to do enchanting it was mainly because I found it interesting in theory and possibly a way to meet more people in game. I also from the start of playing WOW I wanted to rely on others as little as possible thus taking enchanting and not having to find someone to do it for me. I heard it was expensive but a buddy of mine said you will get lots of stuff to DE so don't worry about. For the most part he was right and his tailor toon helped me turn cloth into items to DE for mats to get me leveled at a decent pace. Having to train inside Uldaman was a little disheartening but once I hit a certain level it was no longer a problem as I could solo stealth to the trainer.

Anyway, to get back on track, I get on last night and there are a TON of people needing enchants. So I stand in front of Aldor bank in case someone needs a couple mats they forgot or are overpriced on the AH and start linking chants that are being asked for in trade, I don't ask for a specific tip, or even ask for tips for that matter, by now level 70's should know I am expecting some gold coinage in the trade window.... Here is the mixed bag of enchanting...

Customer A - +15 agility to gloves... Goes to tip me 1g and decides to be generous with 4g on a last minute change of heart... lol... I remember doing Beastslayer enchants when I was questing in STV at 3g-4g a pop just so people could have glowing weapons... lol

Customer B - Mongoose - trades me mats and 100G! holy crap, I am thinking he is part of some sort of Asian gold laundering scam... lol... so I do his chant and refund him 50G telling him I had never gotten more than a 50G tip for mongoose... I think he appreciated this heads up.

Customer C - Has me port to SW.... which I hate to do, taking damage from the tower fall and what not... yes, I am too lazy to shift to cat for the fall... Savagery enchant... got lucky once in Heroic SH... trades mats, I do the enchant... no tip... nada... zip.

I did a lot of other enchants that night at the typical tips people give, all very nice transactions, but let it be said that the guy that didn't tip did cheer me, bow to me, and all the other pleasantries people who don't manage their gold well do... lol

I don't let it get to me really, again, I do enchanting for me first and others second. I like helping others as much as I can in game so I try to take time out and make myself available to the masses to get their gear enchanted and if I get some gold for giving away my time it is very appreciated. For those that don't tip just realize you will get enchanters jaded and you will find it increasingly hard to improve your gear.... not this enchanter, but others, which might have had something to do with the amount of work I had last night. When patch 2.3 came out when I got on that night at 10pm it seemed most of the enchanting had already been completed for the day, this time there was still plenty to go around... might have something to do with enchanters not really needing the gold either with all the dailies now and what not.

Anetheron bites the dust

2008-06-23T23:18:00.006-04:00

Yes, we finally downed him and it looks like we have a good strategy and formation to get him on farm along with Rage.

You might notice I have my Wildfury Greatstaff, well at 17% our MT died and while the Hyjal foot soldiers did a pretty good job holding his attention for a little while Myself and Kelektra shifted to bear and picked up MT duties until he died. I switched both my weapon and idol to hold out as long as possible and when I died Kel took over. No Pillar of Ferocity. It was great fun, especially fighting about a bazillion mobs at the Horde encampment.

My gear setup

2008-06-19T08:03:00.009-04:00

I am going to use this post to show my current raiding gear setup for both Cat and Bear form.

This is for those that are curious, since we know the armory is a shoddy way of looking at someones setup since I could easily log in healing gear or PvP gear.

First kitty since I find myself mainly in a DPS role as of late.

Vengeful Gladiator's Dragonhide Helm - Relentless Earthstorm Diamond Shifting Nightseye Glyph (Arena)
Shattered Sun Pendant of Might (SSO Exalted Neck)
Mantle of Malorne - Bright Crimson Spinel Shifting Nightseye Greater Inscription of Vengeance (Gruul's Lair)
Razor-Scale Battlecloak - Enchant Cloak - Greater Agility (Serpentshrine Cavern)
Vengeful Gladiator's Dragonhide Tunic - 2XDelicate Living Ruby Glinting Noble Topaz Exceptional Stats (Arena)
Vindicator's Dragonhide Bracers - Delicate Living Ruby Enchant Bracer - Brawn (Battlegrounds Honor)
Gauntlets of Malorne - Enchant Gloves - Superior Agility (Karazhan)
Waistguard of the Great Beast - 2XDelicate Living Ruby (60 Badges)
Trousers of the Scryers' Retainer - 2XDelicate Living Ruby Nethercobra Leg Armor (100 Badges)
Edgewalker Longboots - Delicate Living Ruby Glinting Noble Topaz Enchant Boots - Dexterity (Karazhan)
Angelista's Revenge - Enchant Ring - Striking (60 Badges)
Ancestral Ring of Conquest - Enchant Ring - Striking (Serpentshrine Cavern)
Darkmoon Card: Crusade (World Drop Bind on Equip - Auction House - Blessings cards)
Crystalforged Trinket (Ogri'la Revered Trinket)
Everbloom Idol (15 Badges)
Staff of the Forest Lord - Enchant 2H Weapon - Major Agility (150 Badges)

Summary - 385 Badges, 3750 Arena Points, 11,794 Honor with 20 WSG Marks, Gold, rep grinding, MANY Karazhan runs, MANY Gruul's runs, and some 25 man raiding... no big right... and this is just my DPS raiding gear. Self buffed 3535AP, 42.45% Crit, 9484HP, 112 Hit, 0 Expertise.

Now Bear...

Stag-Helm of Malorne - Powerful Earthstorm Diamond Glinting Noble Topaz Glyph (Karazhan)
Shattered Sun Pendant of Resolve (SSO Exalted Neck)
Nordrassil Feral-Mantle - 2XSolid Star of Elune Greater Inscription of Warding (Tempest Keep)
Slikk's Cloak of Placation - Enchant Cloak - Greater Agility (35 Badges)
Breastplate of Malorne - Glinting Noble Topaz Delicate Living Ruby Solid Star of Elune Exceptional Stats (Mag's Lair)
Band of the Swift Paw - Stalwart Fire Opal Enchant Bracer - Major Defense (35 Badges)
Nordrassil Gauntlets - Enchant Gloves - Superior Agility (Serpentshrine Cavern)
Belt of Natural Power - 2xShifting Nightseye (A BigRedKitty Crafted Original)
Nordrassil Feral-Kilt - Charmed Amani Jewel Nethercleft Leg Armor (Serpentshrine Cavern)
Vindicator's Leather Boots - Enchant Boots - Fortitude (Battlegrounds Honor)
Violet Signet of the Great Protector - Enchant Ring - Stats (Violet Eye Exalted Rep Reward)
Shermanar Great-Ring - Enchant Ring - Stats (Karazhan)
Commendation of Kael'thas - (Heroic Magisters' Terrace)
Badge of Tenacity - (World Drop Bind on Equip - Auction House)
Idol of Terror - (20 Badges)
Wildfury Greatstaff - Enchant 2H Weapon - Major Agility (Serpentshrine Cavern)

So to sum up once again... 90 Badges, 17,850 Honor and 40 EoTs Marks, Gold, rep grinding, MANY Karazhan runs, a couple Magtheridon's Lair runs with quite a few other 25 man raids, and 1 Heroic MrT run. Yes, I got my nice new tanking trinket on my first heroic run.... unfortuneatly I still don't have my Shard of Contempt . Self buffed 32353 Armor, 41.48% dodge, 397 Defense, 30 Resilience, 2033AP, 43 Hit, 30.7% Crit, 4 Expertise.

Now I am not going to post up my entire healing set but needless to say everything is gemmed with rare gems and enchanted. Here are the bright points and I am sitting at 1700+ healing with some pretty nice mana regen I must say...

I am currently debating on wether to use my arena points for a chest upgrade to Vengeful Gladiator's Kodohide Tunic from Lifewarden's Breastplate and/or possibly spending some Badges for healing upgrades. Problem is I am almost never called on to heal anything so for now I am squating on my points and badges.

As fas as PvP gear goes I have 4/5 S3 and other stuff to go with it. In PvP gear I am sitting at 296 Resilience, 3155AP, 41.65% Crit, almost 18K armor in bear form and 41% dodge.