Sssh!

Well I'm posting from my laptop since I got a BSoD after trying to patch my pc to Windows Service Pack 3. Spent all day yesterday trying to fix it, but it now looks like a reinstall job. Don't know why Microsoft would allow their own patch to destroy their own system but hey, it gives me a chance for a new post while I find my copy of Windows.

So anyway, I tried the shoulder enchant on my BoA item with some Arcane Tomes and it doesn't work! Well... because it doesn't meet the level requirement. Oh well, at least I know now. My advice: Only enchant your gear with those enchants that don't need a level requirement to use.

Weapon Buffs

Blizz has stated that they wouldn't allow weapon buffs on weapons for high level weapons to reduce the cost of raiding. That seems fair enough, and I know I've been trying to burn up all my Wizard Oils before my Moonkin hits 80 (its tragically slow, I just can't seem to do the grind to 80... again).

I do like to squeeze the most out of my paladin though, and just when I finally get to use weapon buffs for the pally in raids, it gets taken away. Well... not quite.

For some reason, the adamantite weightstone still works with my Titansteel Destroyer! I don't know whether its the weightstone that can be applied to all maces, or whether its just the Titansteel Destroyer thats the only one that the weightstone can be applied to. I have also tried putting on Wizard Oil on the TD, but it doesn't work. Unfortunately, I don't have a different mace to try weightstones on but if anyone out there can try it, please let me know!

I highly doubt anyone at Blizz would read this blog, so until they figure this one out, lets keep this buff on the down low. ;)

Post Christmas.....

Okay, its 2.54 in the morning on Boxing Day and I can't sleep. As I'm in a hazy insomniac mode this will be pretty much a non-wow related rambling so feel free to stop reading at this point. Boxing Day will be a lazy day, I'm just looking forward to just relaxing and watching the cricket on tv and hope that Australia can level the series against South Africa. Well Maybe I'll multitask and mindlessly quest or something while the cricket is on.

Looking back at my Christmas loot, I find that some of the best presents actually come from your siblings as they usually know you the best. I have three brothers. My youngest bro (78 BM Hunter 'Ghetts') tends to give challenging presents. Last year it was a massive inflatable yellow duck (I can't remember what it actually does, but whatever its doing its doing now). This year, it was a swear jar! I didn't think thought I swore that much, but actually yes, I'm sure I could fill it pretty quick.

My other younger bro (80 Assasination Rogue 'Torps') gave me a much needed wallet to replace my old one (which is pretty tattered now after seven years of wear and tear). The reason I hadn't replaced my wallet prior was that it must have a coin pouch secured by a button. Yes this is an anally specific requirement and come to think of it, kinda neurotic. So I can only imagine how infuriating it must have been for him to try and find it. If I ever lose my wallet, I'm screwed trying to find a replacement.

The oldest bro (plays AoC instead of WoW), gave me a gaming mousepad with a Wotlk motif. I'm still kinda attached to my current mousepad (also given by him as a present), which is an Icemat mousepad. This sucker is actually made out of blackened glass, and has been a gamers dream. I don't think they make these anymore though which is a real shame.

Hmm... oh yeah.

Iron Boot Flask

I stopped by Frosthold in Storm Peaks to pick up my Iron Boot Flask, for a measly 10 relics. The fact that it gives you 10 sweet minutes of an Iron Dwarf skin is well worth it. I’ve always thought Dwarves were cool, and I kinda regret not making Rexkicker a dwarf pally from the start.

Looking it up on Wowhead, it seems that the buff from it also gives you a chance to proc additional damage. It might not be much but still, damage is damage and it would be interesting what the Recount log comes back with. The price of this item is going up to a whopping 250 relics in the 3.0.8 patch! Talk about a price hike, I’m glad I bought it now.

BoA Shoulders

I shelled out 60 badges for some BoA shoulders specifically for the 10% xp monster bonus. I slapped em on my druid for levelling, and I gotta admit at least psychologically, it feels faster. I noticed that after I downed the last boss of Utgarde Keep, I received about 12k xp rested. That’s about a 1k+ xp bonus from a boss kill!

Not sure if I can get them enchanted but if so, I’ll shell out for the BC version. My gut feeling is that the enchant won’t work until the toon meets the minimum level requirement anyway so getting the Wotlk version is useless for levelling.

If you armory my moonkin you may notice that I bought the cloth version. This is deliberate seeing as I still have a Mage and Shaman to level, so by making it cloth, it provides the maximum flexibility to hand it down to future casters.

Ho ho ho!

Merry Christmas everyone!

So I finished the Winter Veil meta achievement! It all started a few days ago with a little hat that dropped in Heroic Nexus off the first boss. Everyone in my party rolled need and as luck would have it, I won the roll and just walked around Dalaran with it on. Later, someone in guild chat mentioned that they were farming Nexus (non heroic) for the very same hat for the Merrymaker title. It was only then that I realised that I had something worth hanging onto and decided to look up what else I needed for this title (hoping it wouldn’t be as insane as ‘The Hallowed’ requirements).

In fact from what I could see, it seemed quite easy to do the rest of the achievements and I actually had the hard part done! So I ended up smashing through my Merrymaker achievements and today opened my presents to finish off the last one... ‘Crashin & Thrashin’.

Quick note, the ‘Winter Veil Gourmet’ achievement relies on having 325 cooking (to make the Hot Apple Cider). So if you haven’t raised your cooking skill… well unfortunately that’s too bad. For the ‘With a Little Helper from My Friends’ achievement, I waited as long as possible before I picked up the buff and joined a Wintergrasp raid. The key here is survival not damage and so I strapped on my tanking gear, and either hung out in a vehicle, or just camped at the back away from the action. Since you’re still in a raid, you just keep racking up those HK’s! Chicken I may well be, but a chicken with the achievement done!

On Heroic Oculus

On a separate note, I freaking hate Heroic Oculus with a passion! Yesterday it was the heroic daily, and I really didn’t want to go in there but the lure of two more badges proved irresistible. The first time I tried this on Heroic, for the last boss I had a setup of 1 red (tank), 3 bronze (dps) and 1 green dragon (healer). We wiped constantly, and just called it. A few weeks later I tried a combo of 1 red, 2 bronze and 2 green, and although we came close, we again wiped over and over. That wasn’t fun either.

This time around it was a different story. We decided to use a setup of 2 red, 1 bronze and 2 green. One red to tank the adds while the other tanked the boss. This setup made it easy mode! So yes, finally Heroic Oculus is done, and I definitely won’t be going to that stupid instance any time soon.

Rep grinds

It was a plan of mine that once I hit level 80, I would solo some Outland instances to get any rep I was short of for my achievements. Fortunately the only major faction I’m not exalted with is Lower City. So I decided to run shadow labs last night as I’m only about 3k rep short.

I don’t understand the rationale behind this one, but I was only getting a pathetic 3 rep per kill on trash, down from the usual 15-20 rep or so. I was running with my mates DK and at level 77, he was picking up the full rep. I’m thinking that this is because the mobs were grey to me. Still, it doesn’t explain why the rep should diminish as you level. In fact, you should get more rep! Doesn’t it makes sense that a faction would view you as a greater hero if you can finish something without assistance, than if you needed to take along four others to do the same task?

I’m finding the same thing while I’m working on my Argent Dawn rep, although at least with the Argent Dawn if you have the trinket you can get the scourgestones so it makes up for it.

So what gives Blizz? You’ve got this tracking system in place for reps and achievements and yet if you try and go back to work on your missing rep you get penalised. Just more irritating that anything else really.

Sigh arena

Okay, I’ll admit I was wrong yesterday. Yes you can do Instructor without priests and use Hunters with distracting shot instead. Sounds a bit extreme, but I’m willing to accept that.

Anyway, lets keep rolling.

With Christmas just round the corner the guild will take a break from 25 man raiding, although I’m sure we’ll pull together the odd 10 man Naxx run. Its pretty convenient that Season 5 starts today, so you can pvp away if you’re bored.

Personally though, I couldn’t give a toss about Arena. I could barely stand it in BC but at least you knew that even if you lost, you were working towards something no matter how badly you were going. In Wotlk, there is none of that, and your pieces start at 1695 rating for the legs. Sigh, no rating… no gear! Yes you can get the Savage gear, but after getting seasons of quality welfare gear it just seems lame to want to grind bg’s for blues. So instead I’ve been hitting up Vault of Archoren hoping my gear drops, and I’ve been fortunate and scored my legs.

Priests and Naxx

It’s a good time to be a priest, at the moment, you can be terribly geared and still get a spot in Naxx 25’s just because you happen to be the right class. Last night we were raiding Naxx and came up against Instructor. The difference from the 10 men version being that there is no Orbs so you need two priests to do the mind control. Fortunately we had two priests in the raid just by chance.

This is similar to Widow, you need a priest specifically to do the mind control on the adds and trigger their ability as downing them won’t stop her enrage like it does in the 10 men.

I’m a little puzzled as to why a MC mechanic exists in raiding at the moment, and seems to be counter to the Blizzard new raid design of bringing the player and not the class. It should have been that you grab your best three tanks, seven healers and fifteen dps. However needing MC means if you’re short of a priest (or two), you need to take a priest in greens or even grab a pug to do the content! So having to bench a quality dps or healer just to bring in priests for Instructor just doesn’t seem like the way forward.

The easy answer is ‘just recruit more priests’. This I believe is not the answer as it addresses the symptom and not the problem. The solution is not to remove the MC mechanic either, but to make MC available to another class.