How was your weekend?

Oh mine was fine, thanks. Why, you ask?

Because I finally killed Blackheart the Inciter!!!

That’s right. He’s dead.

Now, this might not sound like a big deal to you uber folk out there, but for anyone who’s been following my blog you know that this is a big accomplishment for me. Now I just hope I can do it again! Because he didn’t drop the Adamantine Figurine which I want.

Incidentally, I also killed Murmur. Here’s proof:

I know, I know. “He dies the same way as Ragnaros, that’s not cool anymore you nub.” Shut up. Nobody can deny the cool-factor of seeing a huge elemental behemoth fall to it’s death and leave behind a huge friggin weapon.

Here’s a tip for those of you who may still be having trouble tanking Blackheart: after he does his little MC nonsense, DO NOT DPS until the tank regains a bit of aggro. This helps the tank IMMENSELY because the tank doesn’t have to run all over the goddamn place chasing Blackheart around.

In other news, Natasya is now level 17. I didn’t get to play her too much this weekend because I was too busy running instances, finishing quests, and spending tons of gold. Thodin is now the proud owner of Legguards of the Resolute Defender (with Clefthide Leg Armor for good measure), Grom’tor’s Charge, Sha’tari Wrought Armguards, Sha’tari Wrought Greaves (still need to get some good gems and an enchant to make these good to wear), and Tenacious Earthstorm Diamond that I won’t socket until I’m very ready (it wasn’t cheap).

Well that’s it for now. Hope everyone had a great Monday!

TGIF!

Ain’t that the friggin’ truth?

Another week passes, another weekend begins.  Thus, the cycle continues.  A year ago this day I would have started drinking by 3pmat the latest, in order to get ready for senior’s last night out.  The rest of the weekend would have been a blur.  And it would have been great.  This year, however, I’m no longer a senior in college, so I have to find other ways to pass the time on the weekend.  Luckily, I have WoW (Note:  I also still have beer, but I can’t start drinking until at least 5pm).

So plans for this weekend… 

On Thodin I need to finish quests in SMV so I can get Grom’tor’s Charge.  That’ll take a good while.  I also plan on running Shadow Labs until I can beat the damn place.  I will have firey vengeance for all the pain and frustration Blackheart the Inciter has caused me and my friends.

I want to try to get Natasya to level 20 and above if I can.  She needs a new pet, too.  I trained a bear (named him Baloo) because… I wanted a bear.  But I think she really needs a cat.  A bear is good for tanking and all, but when I’m leveling I want to be able to tear through things in seconds, which is what cats are for.  The only cats around her at the moment are on Azuremyst Isle, which kinda sucks because she’s level 15 and they’re level 9 at most, so they’d be trailing a bit behind.  Mayhaps I’ll keep the bear until I’m done with the noob lands and grab a kitty when I head to the mainland.  Who knows.  But getting to level 20+, that is a necessity.

I haven’t spent much time at all over on Velen with Gitr and Co., and I feel bad about it.  I’ll probably head back over there for a wee bit as well.

In other news, I’ve been toying around with a new UI lately, and I finally got it set up pretty decent. 

I switched to FuBar instead of Titan, and I haven’t quite yet decided whether or not it’s better than Titan.  Sometimes I think that all the extra UI changes I make are unnecessary.  I moved the map down to the lower right corner instead of top right corner; I don’t know why.  I tried moving the character panels down to the middle of my screen right above my buttons (on the bottom), and I changed the party layout so it went across the top of my screen; again, I have no idea why I would do such things.  It ended up being a horrible idea anyway, and I went back to the default layout (though I still use Xperl unit frames ftw!).

The only two UI changes that actually help/affect the way I play the game (instead of being convenient changes that make things faster, more accessible, etc) are Bartender and MetaHud.  I’m kind of disappointed that I’ve come to rely so much on MetaHud, because I like the fact that most of my addons are things I could live without, but MetaHud makes my “info at a glance” life so much easier, it sucks playing without it.  Bartender I could technically live without, but the way I have my main attack buttons is just so convenient and makes stuff so much easier to click on.  Two rows of six bars is a lot more compact than one long row of 12.  I don’t have to move my mouse around as much.

I’ll post some screenshots of my new UI soon, and if everything sticks I’ll make the necessary changes to the Addons/UI page.

So what about you people out there in Intarweb land?  What are your plans for the weekend?  Have any specific goals in mind?

How goes it?

Thodin has recently completed two quest lines for some phat lootz.

Last night a few real life buddies and I finished the A Ghost in the Machine questline and I picked up a nice helm.  I socketed it with two Inscribed Noble Topaz (+4 crit and +4 str) and some other gem that I can’t remember right now that gives +4 str and +4 stam.  I pretty much pimped it out.

The other day I also finished the Damaged Mask series of quests.  It starts with a drop you get off of Fel Corruptors in Blade’s Edge and ends with killing the Hound-Master which was pretty much cake (I had myself, a 70 hunter, and a 68 shadow priest, and a bunch of Ancient Helper friends).  I had a decision to make on this one, should I go with Natasha’s Choker for DPS or Natasha’s Battle Chain for tanking?  In the end I went with the battle chain, because I’m starting to get more into the tanking role now that I’m 70, and until I can get the Steam-Hinge Chain of Valor and 490 def, this is a pretty little tanking necklace.

I’ve started the Karazhan key quests, though I keep getting sidetracked so I haven’t even been able to finish the first two quests in Deadwind Pass.  What a slacker I am.

In altish news, Natasya hasn’t seen much play time this week.  Lord knows how much she will see in the coming weeks, because I think I’m going to roll an alt over on Velen to have some fun with Gitr and the rest of the WoW bloggers gang.  I hate leveling Hordeside, the Barrens kills me!  I’ll let you know when I actually do start this new alt.  Hi, my name is Thodin, and I’m an altoholic.

Well that’s all for now.  Be sure to tune in next time when I’ll tell you the meaning of life.

Time for a change

I know, yet another talent spec post.  Don’t worry, this’ll be brief.

I’ve come to the realization that having no points in protection does not make for a good time in the 70 instances.  And I really enjoy the 70 instances.  As I’ve mentioned before, I have no dreams of becoming a Karazhan or Gruul’s Lair MT anytime soon, but I would definitely enjoy being an awesome tank in 5-mans.

Therefore, when I get home from work tonight I will be respeccing to this hybrid arms/prot spec build I’ve come up with.  As you can see, it’s 21/5/31 which gives me pretty much everything I need to be a good tank and still be able to chew through mobs pretty well while farming/questing.  The only thing that I’m sad to miss out on is Mortal Strike, but I think having Shield Slam will make me a much better tank.

In the protection tree I skipped over stuff I really don’t need and grabbed only what I think will benefit me the most (while allowing me to get 30 points in there so I can have Shield Slam).

I chose Imp Revenge and Imp Shield Bash because I think they will help me control trash mobs.  I know most bosses (all bosses?) are immune to stun (and probably to silence) but I’ve run into plenty of annoying trash mobs, especially casters, who could stand to be stunned or silenced.

Obviously Concussion Blow for the same reason I just stated about Imp Revenge, and also because it’s the gateway to Shield Slam.  Shield Slam for tanks is a no brainer.  An ability that does decent damage and is also the single best instant threat generating ability available?  Yes please.

And on the DPS side of things, like I said I’m sad to be missing out on Mortal Strike, but it has to go.  I still get all the additions to critical strike (Axe spec, Cruelty) which is sweet.  I miss out on a boost to attack power from Commanding Presence but I think I can live without it.  Some people might laugh at my choice to go with Imp Rend, but I love Rend.  Maybe that’s just me.

Overall, I think this is a pretty decent choice of talents.  Of course, only time in the field will truly be able to prove me right or wrong.  I’ll be sure to let you know how things turn out.

This wasn’t very brief, was it?  Oh well.

It… can’t be…

I ran Steamvaults last night and it made me realize a horrible truth: I might not be able to main tank the level 70 five mans without being protection specced.

I don’t know if it was people in my group being jackasses or what, but I had a hell of a time holding aggro (on trash, I was fine on the bosses).  It didn’t help that most of the pulls in there have 4 mobs, warriors aren’t the greatest at holding onto multiple adds (especially when the fight is unorganized, but you’ve heard that rant).  Every once in a while, the mage would pull aggro, which I guess is kind of understandable if some kind of big crit goes off.  But there was also a shaman who was pulling aggro like crazy.  The shaman was fighting in melee range, so maybe it was a guy with the “hay doodz lookit my DPS SKILLZ!” mentality and wasn’t watching his aggro.  I tend to think it may have been.  But I also can’t get over the fact that I would have probably been able to hold aggro better had I been prot specced (duh, right?). 

This sucks, because what I want to do to enjoy the game and get the most out of my $15 a month is finish up the last three zones (I’m busting through Blade’s Edge right now).  And this is only enjoyable if I’m arms specced and dishing out nasty crits an damage.  I can’t even imagine how it would be while prot specced.

Yeah, yeah.  I know.  QQ more nub.  But when I have people in my guild telling me that I’ll need to spec to protection in order to tank and survive in some of the 70 instances, and then I start to actually see the truth to their warnings, it starts to worry me.  Have I ever mentioned that I hate this game?  =P

Not all was bad about the run though, because I managed to pick up Gauntlets of the Bold.  Pretty sweet.  Now to find some gems…

Oh, you know what else I hate.  I hate when people don’t loot a beast’s corpse.  Screw you, guy, that crocolisk had some fine hide I could skin.  But noooo, you didn’t feel like taking the broken crocolisk tooth off the corpse.  So there the crocolisk lies, taunting me.  Here’s a hint.  Pressing shift + right click loots everything off the corpse at once.  Try it out sometime.

Now that he’s 70…

… what has Thodin been doing?

Much of the same, pretty much.  I finally finished all of the quests in Nagrand last night (well, all that I’m aware of), and I’m ready to move on to Blades Edge Mountains for gold questing now.  I spent the weekend helping guildies and friends with quests, and also grinding ogres for Kurenai rep and Osh’gun Powder so I can get my the 18 slot bag from Halaa.  These are two of the goals I’ve set for myself at 70.  Get a Halaani Bag (easy) and get a Talbuk mount (hard).  They will be mine.

I still need to start my Karazhan attunement (I’m a slacker) and I want to start going into more of the level 70 instances.  I was talking with my guild’s raid leader over the weekend, and he said that to be a viable tank in any of the higher level dungeons (Shattered Halls, Shadow Lab, etc) I need to be prot specced.  Now I’m presented with a dilemma.  I pride myself on being a good tank even though I’m not prot specced, but I know I’m missing out on some aggro management and survivability perks of the protection tree. 

Right now I’m not even that interested in getting into Karazhan and getting any phat epic lootz.  I’d like much more to finish questing in the last three zones (did I ever mention I love questing?).  Problem is, as a protection specced warrior it’ll probably take me two minutes to kill a mob that I could kill in 20 seconds as arms specced, which will severely hinder my questing progress and maybe even some of the enjoyment I get from questing.  My friend said that I could always switch specs back and forth, but at 50g a pop that’s gonna become pretty annoying.

Ah, the troubles that face us when we grow up.

And now that I’ve hit 70, I have more time to level Natasya (or Acateus) and work on getting a second 70.  It will probably not be very much fun from 20-60, but we shall see.

Pictures as Promised

I said I’d upload some photographic evidence of Thodin’s initiation into the 70s Club, so here you go.

Did I mention that Thodin is a card-carrying member of the Royal Photographic Society of Azeroth (RPSA)?

And here are a couple of random screenshots from Thodin’s road to 70.  Yes, the third picture is a half-orc, half-draenei blademaster!  I know, I geeked out too.

I’m rollin’ with the cool kids now

That’s right.  Last night, around 8:00 PM (EST), Thodin dinged 70. 

You’ll probably be surprised to hear that I leveled while turning in a quest to a big rock monster named Gordawg in, yup that’s right, Nagrand.  I still have a bunch of quests left to do in Nagrand, and I haven’t even set foot in Blade’s Edge, Netherstorm, or Shadowmoon Valley.  Well that’s not entirely true, I rode to SMV last night to get my Ebon Gryphon.  This means that I still have three zones to quest in for cash.  Can you say, “cha ching”?  It is kind of funny running around as a 70 doing quests where I’m competing for mobs with people four or five levels below me.  I love rested XP.

I took some screenshots of this momentus occasion, but I’m at work right now so I’ll have to upload them later.

So what’s the plan now? 

I haven’t bought my level 70 skills yet, so I need to do that when I log in today. I also need to get started on my Karazhan attunement, so I’ll probably start that this weekend. 

Basically though, I’ll just be going about business as usual (questing and instances).  I’m one of the big boys now, so I can actually go into the 70 instances and hold my own.  Maybe I’ll try to work on getting my dungeon 3 set (I’ll probably go for the Bold set).  I’m a bit wary of that, though.  Because I remember how awesome it was to get my Valor set, only to have it horribly outclassed by the tier sets that came after. 

I might even relax a bit and take a break from playing Thodin.  I can start to level Natasya more and work on getting another 70 (oh my god that’ll take so long).

Well I’m just proud to have finally made it into the ranks of the 70s.  It was a good ride, and I’m sure the fun isn’t gonna stop now.

CTProfiles

Well I remembered that I had an account on CTProfiles, so I figured I’d waste some more time at work and make some profiles.

Basically I decided to make up some “dream” profiles based on gear that I can attain through questing and reputation.  As opposed to “in your dreams” profiles based on gear that I can attain through hardcore raiding.  I’m going for realistic as opposed to optimistic, haha.

For now I came up with Thodin’s tanking set for now, and I’m gonna work on Thodin’s solo/dps set eventually (I should probably get something done at work today).

Any comments on the gear/enchants?  Tell me what you think. 

What a Weekend

So after a marathon WoW weekend, I’m now half a level away from 70.  I’m not even finished with half of the quests in Nagrand.  Sheesh.  I guess I’ll be making a helluva lot of gold from Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley (I haven’t seen Blade’s Edge Mountains yet either, lol).

I finished Hemet Nesingwary’s slaughter quest, and am a proud owner of Hemet’s Elekk Gun, along with some nifty new bullets from Halaa.

I finally managed to get a group who could follow directions and work together, and we downed Talon King Ikiss.  Which is awesome, because I’m now stabbing bitches with Terokk’s Quill.  I’m kind of disappointed though, because I just recently got the Honed Voidaxe which I was very excited about (it looks wicked cool).  But Terokk’s Quill does a lot more damage, and boosts my crit chance up a good bit (lots of agi ftw, I guess).  So, the axe goes into the bank (I’m such a packrat). 

I also managed to grab Platinum Shield of the Valorous off the first boss in Shadow Labyrinth.  Shadow Labs is a pretty cool instance, even though my group couldn’t make it past the Blackheart the Inciter (the 2nd boss).  I think it might be because we had three level 69s in the group, and I really couldn’t hold any aggro whatsoever on the boss (he wiped aggro all the time, knocked back, ran around the room like a madman, etc).  Oh well, I’ll be 70 soon enough.

I also managed to pick up a bunch of Marks of Sargeras and a couple Fel Armaments.  Being the only Aldor in a group is pretty sweet.

So, plans for this week are:

• Ding 70
• Finish Nagrand
• Grind a lot to get a Halaani Bag or two
• Level Natasya some more (she finally has a kitty pet!)

EDIT:  Bah, I just realized that Halaani Bags are unique.  Guess that’ll cut down on my grinding, but now I’ll have to actually go out and buy some more 18 slot bags.