Mechanar

Some of our newer 70s ran Mechanar last night. I healed it on priest. We brought our semi-geared warrior tank Siluzza, Temtress (hunter), Alocar (new 70 hunter), and Lefthandblak (new 70 rogue). Here's some of the results.

Boots of the Glade-Keeper
Plasma Rat's Hyper-Scythe
Cosmic Lifeband
Edge of the Cosmos
Mana Wrath

We had a few bumps and bruises. Mostly just learning how things work since some hadn't been there. My explanation skills must need work since they seemed unprepared in several fights. Here's the Recount data from the run:

Gear Upgrades

Being the holiday season, instance runs are at an all-time low - partly my fault too since I've had lots going on not to mention being sick. So I've taken this time as a chance to get some PVP gear upgrades.

For the hunter, I acquired this baby thanks to just 1 week of season 3 points:
Merciless Gladiator's Crossbow of the Phoenix

For the druid, I picked up these four pieces in the last 3 days:
Gladiator's Dragonhide Helm
Gladiator's Dragonhide Gloves
Gladiator's Dragonhide Spaulders
Vindicator's Dragonhide Bracers

Black Morass

We finally concurred Black Morass with pally tank, lock, mage, hunter (me) and pally healer. Some of the phatty lewt that dropped. Since we took three tries to put it down, we got a few drops from the earlier bosses.

Helm of Desolation - My hunter
Burnoose of Shifting Ages x 2
Laughing Skull Battle-Harness
Handgrips of Assassination
Millennium Blade

Leveling Since 2.3

Since 2.3 was released I've taken more interest in some of my lower level alts that have been mostly shelved lately. To summarize how well the new leveling changes work, here's a timeline.

Date: 11/13/2007
Bliz Releases WoW 2.3
/dohappydance
After patch applied login to 1K+ latency
/dounhappydance
Read support forums and find out I'm not alone
/dohopefuldance
Fail to correct problem after every imaginable change
/dopissedoffdance

Date: 11/17/2007
Figured out -nosound is now needed for my client to have < 1K+ latency
/dopartiallysatisfieddance
Start leveling the Shaman on a limited basis. He's currently 33.
End of day Sunday, 11/18/2007 he is 37 with still some rest bonus remaining and limited questing. Very nice...

Date: 11/21/2007
Thanksgiving holiday starts with more play time. Let the leveling begin. I hit 39 with no effort but rest bonus is gone.
All night conference call (I'm on-call) limits play and I become nastily sick so almost no play on 11/22 and 11/23.

Date: 11/25/2007
Start working on the shaman again with some effort. I roll from 39 to 44. Along the way I get dual wield and get some nice 1H maces with fiery enchants.

Date: 11/30/2007
Decided to focus on playing the shaman. I roll from 44 to 48 with no rest bonus most of the way.

Overall, from 33 when the patch came out until now at 48, I think I'm averaging about 90 mins per level. At 48, I think about 2 hours per level when I have a good set of quests in front of me. My overall impression is that the changes rock. I can't imagine the "easy to level toons" now, like a hunter.

60 Minute Tankless Sethekk

I was a mere 900 rep shy of being revered with Lower City on my priest. Eyeballing a pair of Lower City Prayerbook trinkets, I mentioned this to the guild. Hearing rep opportunities, we had a quick 5 together - lock, mage, priest (me), hunter (Al), and our level 65 rogue that has been trying desperately to catch us at 70 for instance fun. Since Sethekk isn't THAT high and with some 70s to back him up, he came with us. Using the hunter's cleverly named pet, Wolf, to tank for us, away we went. The result? Four deaths total - 1 for the priest, thank you to the charm totem hitting the ludicrous burst damaging mage and, 1 for the rogue who was out of LOS of the healer when his guy became unstunned, and then the rogue and mage on the boss fight - you must listen to me about the LOS rule on that last boss, really. Even with all that, we knocked this out in just a hair over an hour - my PoF buff wore off during the final boss fight. Some lewtz were claimed:

Bands of Syth - vendor
Band of Dominion - mage
Deathforge Girdle - vendor
Greaves of Desolation - hunter

The rogue got a few green drops that will upgrade him once he hits 66.

So the lock and I got no drops, but as Talon King Ikiss hit the ground, I see "You are now Revered with Lower City" blink across my screen. So I'm now packing 2 LC Prayerbooks and around +1670 healing when only spirit buffed.

Botanica Revisited

We re-visited Botanica last night with our now much more dps-heavy mage, warrior tank, season 2 healing mace toting priest, shadow priest and one of the 417 hunters in our guild; we call him Al. Melee lewtz commenced in falling from the sky making our warrior say "not sure it's an upgrade, but I'll try it out."

Commander Sarannis:
Revenger - warrior love

High Botanist Freywinn:
Aegis of the Sunbird - warrior love

Laj:
Mithril-Bark Cloak - warrior love

Thorngrin the Tender:
Ring of Umbral Doom - hunter love

Warp Splinter:
Greatsword of Forlorn Visions - warrior love
Netherfury Cape - trash that our mage scooped up thanks to his many aggro-pulling deaths

Oddly, we had 2 wipes on mob pulls that got more than we bargained for, a few individual deaths when aggro was pulled (ahem, mage?) and 5 bosses all 1-shot.

Heroic Flop

We attempted our first heroic tonight. We went with Ramparts even though that isn't considered the easiest. We figured it was small enough it would be a good start. We appeared poised to have an interesting problem, especially for our little guild - we thought we'd have too many 70s on. Some folks would have to sit out. We had our pally tank, pally healer, my hunter, a new 70 hunter, and lock on. Our shadow priest, mage, and normal raiding hunter were all expected on as well. In fact, our hunter even said "start without me if you have to, but I'll be on around 9:00 and would love to participate." Well, we never saw any of them. Kind of disappointing considering we were trying our first attempt at a heroic. Well, it was a pretty strong failure. The 2 mobs nearest the entrance were pulled and the pally tank falls before the first mob. The pets are able to tank enough to let us finish it off. Then we do the solo pull of the pat on the bridge. Pally tank drops again. We do the pull around the corner and we lost 1 or 2 on that one. I believe all but 2 pulls resulted in a death on our side. Those guys hit amazingly hard, but we have to figure it out. There aren't tons of gear upgrades available to most of us now in normal instances, so the gear isn't getting tons better. We must learn to CC better, dps better, heal better ... basically do everything better if we expect to start running heroics with some regularity. I was very disappointed.

Since the heroic was a bust, I went out and fished up my
Weather-Beaten Journal. So that nifty new tracking menu on the minimap has Find Fish in it. I can spot schools of fish on the minimap like other resources.

At least the night wasn't a total waste.

Shattered Halls

Our guild did a nice Shattered Halls run with our warrior tank, pally healer, my hunter, another (newly) 70 hunter, and mage. Pretty good. No wipes. A few deaths, but not to bad. Lots of CC was applied, and we did it well for the most part - dual chain freezing traps, dual pet tanking, and sheep kept our tank rarely holding more than 1 but occasionally two. The loot:

Bands of Nethekurse - vendor trash
Firemaul of Destruction - vendor trash
Lightsworn Hammer - pally healer has it, so vendor trash
Demonblood Eviscerator - new hunter took it

Shadow Labs... Again

We took our warrior tank into Shadow Labs last night. The group consisted of my priest, hunter (not me /cry), shadow priest, and mage. The tanking wasn't quite as smooth as with the pally, but of course the warrior isn't equipped with the same aoe aggro generating skills. We relied more on crowd control however, and we did fine. We had a couple of deaths, but in general, the runs was pretty good. In fact, we did through the first boss with just 4. Our shadow priest showed up after that.

The phat lewtz:
Ornate Boots of the Sanctified - vendor trash for the warrior
Adamantine Figurine - warrior upgrade
Plans: Felsteel Helm - warrior crafting love
Hallowed Pauldrons - shadow priest took for possible healing options later in life
Robe of Oblivion - shadow priest upgrade
Sonic Spear - phat, PHAT lewtz for the hunter... but not mine :-(

Guild Gear Upgrades

I will use this post to outline the level 70 toons in guild and what gear upgrades exist in normal 5-man instan

Edit: Revised based on feedback and better format provided by Veradas.

Shattered Halls
Grand Warlock Nethekurse
Pattern: Spellstrike Hood - Gingerdemon, Comehither
Telaari Hunting Girdle - Temtress, Sabrehunter

Warbringer O'mrogg
Runesong Dagger - this one should be an upgrade, bu

- Warchief Kargath Bladefist
Beast Lord Handguards - Temtress, Sabrehunter
Figurine of the Colossus - Veradas, Siluzza
Gauntlets of the Righteous - Veradas
Greaves of the Shatterer - Siluzza
Hortus' Seal of Brilliance - Deaderndead

Steamvault
Warlord Kalithresh
Ring of the Silver Hand - Veradas
Beast Lord Mantle - Temtress, Croretnuh, Sabrehunte
Pattern: Battlecast Hood - Gingerdemon, Allbetter,

Sethekk Halls
Darkweaver Syth
Libram of the Eternal Rest - Veradas

Talon King Ikiss
Incanter's Trousers - Comehither, Deaderndead
Sethekk Oracle Cloak - Comehither, Deaderndead

Shadow Lab
Ambassador Hellmaw
Dream-Wing Helm - Temtress, Croretnuh, Sabrehunter

Blackheart the Inciter
Adamantine Figurine - Veradas, Siluzza
Brooch of Heightened Potential - Gingerdemon, Comeh
Wand of the Netherwing - Gingerdemon, Comehither, D

Grandmaster Vorpil
Breastplate of Many Graces - Valcarrie
Jewel of Charismatic Mystique - Gingerdemon, Comehi

Murmur
Pattern: Spellstrike Pants - Gingerdemon, Allbetter
Greatsword of Horrid Dreams - Gingerdemon
Shoulderguards of the Bold - Siluzza, Veradas
Sonic Spear - Temtress, Croretnuh

Mechanar
Nethermancer Sepethrea
Manual of the Nethermancer - Deaderndead

Pathaleon the Calculator
Abacus of Violent Odds - Temtress, Croretnuh, Sabre
Beast Lord Helm - Temtress, Croretnuh, Sabrehunter
Baba's Cloak of Arcanistry - Gingerdemon, Comehithe
Dath'Remar's Ring of Defense - Veradas, Siluzza
Telescopic Sharprifle - Temtress, Sabrehunter

Botanica
Commander Sarannis
Libram of the Lightbringer - Valcarrie

Thorngrin the Tender
Pattern: Battlecast Pants - Gingerdemon, Allbetter,
Arcane Netherband - Comehither

Warp Splinter
Bangle of Endless Blessings - Valcarrie, Allbetter
Beast Lord Cuirass - Croretnuh, Temtress, Sabrehunt

Arcatraz
Wrath-Scryer Soccothrates
Emberhawk Crossbow - Temtress, Sabrehunter
Ryngo's Band of Ingenuity - Comehither

Dalliah the Doomsayer
Lamp of Peaceful Repose - Allbetter
Nether Core's Control Rod - Comehither?, Deaderndea
Thatia's Self-Correcting Gauntlets - Veradas
Pattern: Whitemend Pants - Gingerdemon, Allbetter,

Harbringer Skyriss
Breastplate of the Bold - Siluzza, Veradas
Elementium Band of the Sentry - Siluzza, Veradas
Lamp of Peaceful Radiance - Comehither, Deaderndead
Shiffar's Nexus-Horn - Comehither, Deaderndead, Gin

The Black Morass
Chrono Lord Deja
Burnoose of Shifting Ages - Siluzza, V

Temporus
Hourglass of the Unraveller - Temtress, Croretnuh
Millennium Blade - Siluzza
Star-Heart Lamp - Deaderndead

Aeonus
Helm of Desolation - Croretnuh, Temtress
Latro's Shifting Sword - Siluzza
Legplates of the Bold - Siluzza, Veradas
Legplates of the Righteous - Veradas
Mana-Etched Crown - Gingerdemon, Comehither, Deader
Scarab of the Infinite Cycle - Valcarrie, Allbetter

Druid Gear Upgrade

So we did the Survey The Land quest chain last night. I mainly did it to help some guildies with it, but, little did I know, I got a nice tanking gear upgrade, Leggings of Unending Assault. Yes, it looks good for DPS, but it's got pretty high +stamina and good armor. So for now, this goes into my tanking collection, putting my self-buffed armor at nearly 11k and dodge nearly 21%. I'm still weak in tanking gear, but I can do well enough as the guild's #3.

SL, SV, SV

Our guild put a beat down on Shadow Labs recently. Then last night we did a back-to-back run of Steamvault. Here's the loot received:

Shadow Labs:
Soul-Wand of the Aldor - priest upgrade
Moonglade Handwraps - vendor trash
Wrathfire Hand-Cannon - vendor trash
Greatsword of Horrid Dreams - mage upgrade
Tidefury Kilt - vendor trash

Steamvault:
Scintillating Coral Band - vendor trash
Earth Mantle Handwraps - vendor trash
Devilshark Cape - pally tank upgrade
Breastplate of the Righteous - pally tank upgrade

Steamvault:
Scintillating Coral Band - vendor trash
Mask of Penance - vendor trash since pally healer has seen this at least 3 times
Beast Lord Leggings - hunter (not me) upgrade
Incanter's Pauldrons - vendor trash as our absent mage cries

Hunter Upgrades

I got a chance to gather my last few crystals to purchase my epic bow from Ogri'la. Well, luck was on my side tonight. Our 4-man team felt confident enough splatting demons that we mowed down quite a few (about 8 I believe). I got my epic wrists and had a friendly drop. Here's the loot I walked away with:

Crystalline Crossbow
Shard-bound Bracers
Crystalhide Handwraps

Now it's time to level my crossbow skills since I was at 1/350 when I got the crossbow. And I need to find a +12 scope. Lately I only see +10, but that'll hold me until I can locate one.

Farming Some Recipes

Our shadow priest and my druid went to Scholo to farm
Recipe: Flask of Supreme Power. Well, we got it on our 6th attempt at Ras Frostwhisper. Along the way we also got Formula: Enchant Weapon - Lifestealing.

Runs With Warrior Tank

We tried a couple of runs last night with our #2 tank, a warrior. The warrior has a long standing belief he's less able to tank than our paladin, primarily because of his lack of multi-mob tanking. We decided to try it out in Steamvault with him, my hunter, another hunter, mage, and pally healer.

Mekgineer Steamrigger:
Mask of Penance - won by my hunter as vendor trash since our pally has this already

Hydromancer Thespia:
Moonrage Girdle - won by the warrior for vendor trash

Warlord Kalithresh:
Gauntlets of the Bold - warrior love, though his Felsteel gear appears better until he gets more of the set
Moonglade Shoulders - won by our pally

Overall it was a pretty good run. A few bad breaks, including one big pull with the healer being silenced by an oracle. Another got a pat that we thought we were safe from. But we got a full clear and the much needed rep to move a step closer to a heroic.

Our pally healer had to bail, but our shadow priest came on about that same time. So I switched to my holy priest to heal for us. We took a stab at Botanica to see if we could complete the Arcatraz key for our mage. This was incredibly smooth until the 2nd boss. We weren't dpsing down the little plants that spawn so we were feeling the effects of those freezes, roots, and slows way too much, especially when she transition to tree of life form. The lashers were unloading on us as we moved behind the wall to pull them. Since we were moving slow, we frequently lost a person hear making it nearly impossible. Unfortunately we stopped on this one. We were getting worse with each attempt. Here's the loot from the first boss:

Commander Sarannis:
Libram of the Lightbringer - freaking healer pally gear won't stop dropping, even when our freaking healing pally isn't there. My priest won this for vendor trash.

This little jewel also dropped for our hunter. She's about a 320 JC at the moment. I wish my hunter had been there to get it. He's at 365 but could be 370 in no time.

Design: Coronet of Verdant Flame - gratz to our hunter on this one.

Botanic Conquered

We pushed our band of merry misfits on a complete clear of Botanic this morning. No wipes, though we did lose a few on Thorngrin the Tender. The run consisted of our pally tank, pally healer, my hunter, shadow priest, and warlock.

Commander Sarannis:
Revenger - won by our pally tank as vendor trash

High Botanist Freywinn:
Enchanted Thorium Torque - won by my hunter for vendor trash

Laj:
Boots of the Shifting Sands - won by my hunter; may wear them but the vote is still out on that yet

Thorngrin the Tender:
Arcane Netherband - won by our warlock

Warp Splinter:
Warhelm of the Bold - won by our pally tank as a possible upgrade
Warp Infused Drape - won by our shadow priest as a possible upgrade
Pattern: Whitemend Hood - drop for our warlock and my priest will thank him kindly for that item once we get the mats

Additionally, our lock finished up the Arcatraz key on this run, so that is a future run for us.

AV Weekend with the 2.2 Patch

AV weekend has come and gone, and the timing of the 2.2 patch with the Report AFK option in BGs had a huge impact. There were still plenty of people trying to protect the cave, but I saw the idle -> lazy debuffs applied quickly enough. I found myself reporting people that just appeared AFK. Sometimes they weren't, but they weren't doing much. The system worked. They lost their idle buff quickly enough. So, what does 40-man AVs look like with TBC? I'd never seen it because it was more like 10-20 man with 20-30 AFKers pre-2.2. I had multiple 11-12 minute wins and a few 11-12 minute losses. I won about 60% of the AVs I participated in, and based on the /bg banter, I'm guessing that was good.

I got healbot setup to help me with healing in BGs. That was a huge improvement. For healing 5-mans, the standard UI is fine. I use F1-F5 to target and I have all my heals hot-keyed. But with BGs, even using nametags, it's tough to target the person you want to heal. I don't use healbot's auto-cast ability yet, though I'm told I should. Instead I use healbot to acquire a target and then just cast the heal I want myself. I feel like I can judge the rate of life-loss better than healbot. Tank is down to 60% but it happened instantly, I know I better flash to stop the bleeding before I follow with a greater.

Some of my new acquisitions thanks to this weekend are:
Veteran's Mooncloth Slippers
Veteran's Mooncloth Cuffs
Veteran's Pendant of Salvation

And since I had AV marks coming out my ears (I earned about 120 this weekend along with 30K honor), I also picked up:
Frostwolf Battle Standard
Horn of the Frostwolf Howler

Botanica Conque.... Well Almost

We blew through the Mech run so fast we decided to pursue Botanica. We did through the second boss on our first try with only me dying during the second boss. Praise to locks and their soul capturing abilities because bounce back I did, after a few free heals in spirit form, and we wrapped it up.

The lewtz we got for our troubles, not including turning our 70 hunter into a potion master were:

Commander Sarannis:
Prismatic Mittens of Mending - hey, what do you know? More healer love; my priest thanks thee.

High Botanist Freywinn:
Enchanted Thorium Torque - tanking necklace for our pally, but he had better so it became vendor trash.

We ran out of time, so Botanica is going to get another visit soon.

Only Bot, Arc, and Shadow Labs remains for our 5-man normal mode conquests.

Mechanar Conquered....Again

Nearly the same group as the last run, but sub out the mage for a shadow priest and sub out my hunter for another new 70 hunter. Our DPS suffered a bit, but we were still very successful. My priest healed it instead of our normal pally healer.

So the drops continue to show healer love. Since I was the healer this time, I was on the receiving end, but Blizzard continues to hate hunters. Equally lucky was that our new 70 hunter is the 70 healing pally's alt. So she felt life as me, if that makes sense.

Mechano-Lord Capacitus:
Hammer of the Penitent - much love for my priest and actually makes me reconsider where to spend my arena points; may not save that sick 1H mace.

Cache of the Legion:
Capacitus' Cloak of Calibration - no love for anyone.

Nethermancer Sepethrea:
Cosmic Lifeband - more healer love for my priest.

Pathaleon the Calculator:
Tunic of Assassination - no rogues with us to enjoy this so it was vendor trash; that's 2 for 2 on this drop. Watch when our rogue comes and we don't see it.
Mana Wrath - our warlock also gets some rare love.
Pattern: Arcanoweave Robe - our warlock tailor liked this, but sure wish it had came before he hit 375 tailoring.

Mechanar Conquered

We got an impromptu run of Mechanar tonight. Should we have been in AV absorbing all the honor we could? Of course. At 500-700 per AV, we amassed over 8K today in a short time. We love the new Report AFK option as it seems to motivate people to play, and thus we do more faster. But I digress....

We hop over to Mechanar with our Pally pair having had bad luck in a pug recently failing repeatedly on the first boss. We march straight to him and give him a proper beat down. In fact, we had a near flawless run. The 6th wave just before the final boss caught us a bit off guard by sleeping our tank. They then ate the healer, the lock, the mage, and finally my hunter. Aside from that, the place got a proper beat down.

Here are the phatty drops:
Mechano-Lord Capacitus:
Plasma Rat's Hyper-Scythe - no love for anyone here so we roll and the lock gets some free gold.

Cache of the Legion:
Vestia's Pauldrons of Inner Grace - love for our pally healer, despite the cloth.

Nethermancer Sepethrea:
Cosmic Lifeband - our pally healer gets some love..... again.

Pathaleon the Calculator:
Tunic of Assassination - no rogues with us to enjoy this so it was vendor trash won by our mage.
Helm of the Righteous - our pally tank gets some love.

No hunter love again. It seems Blizzard hates us.

The Daily Quests...

So tonight our little band of misfits decided to unlock the daily quests in Ogri'la. It turned into a profitable evening. Having done that plus The Ring tonight on my hunter yielded me about 400g on the evening. As of now I have at 4 daily quests that I can do for about 48g per day, between Skettis and Ogri'la. Now unlocking the Netherwing quests will let me truly farm 100g+ a day if I choose.

Shattered Halls Conquered

Our same group from Steamvault last night got keyed for SH and decided to give it a whirl. We accidentally started the first boss early and lost our shadow priest right off the bat. Surprisingly, we still put him down with just four folks. We had one wipe on the last hallway before the second boss, but it was just a bad pull order. Lesson we all learned and will not repeat. We had two more accidental deaths throughout, but overall, for our first attempt in there, we mowed it down.

The phattiness:

Grand Warlock Nethekurse:
Bands of Nethekurse

Warbringer O'mrogg:
Jeweled Boots of Sanctification

Warchief Kargath Bladefist:
Lightsworn Hammer
Greaves of the Shatterer

Steamvault Conquered

We finally conquered Steamvault tonight. Sounds easy enough, but our last visit there had the Hydromancer sending us packing. Her cyclone-like stun plus the lightning storm kept eating our healer. Tonight we blew all three bosses up with no wipes. We had only one death the entire time, and that was when our seed-of-corruption-loving lock went dot-crazy and pulled way more aggro than his siphon/drain life could handle.

The rewards:
Hydromancer: Cloak of Whispering Shells

Mekgineer: Earth Mantle Handwraps

Warlord: Vermillion Robes of the Dominant
Warlord: Gauntlets of the Bold

No phatty Beastlord drops, and of course, our first boss down, Hydromancer, further gears out our Pally healer. The running belief is that 75% of all items that drop for us in instances are for her.

Impressive jump in progress in this run versus last. First go was Pally (tank), Pally (healer), Hunter, Hunter (me), and Warlock. Same group this time but sub in a Shadow Priest for the other Hunter. I'm not sure the DPS was any different, but I know the extra heals from vampiric embrace helped some. Maybe it was just bad luck the first time. But from 3 wipes on Hydro plus several other deaths to a full clear with only one death is a big improvement.

PVP Grind

Our guild numbers aren't quite where they need to be to get instance runs frequently, so I've dug in for the PVP grind. I also re-spec'd out of shadow on my priest to give us another healer. /cry @ /bye Shadoweave Set. So to get some new PVP gear, I'm farming the BGs and arena. With BGs, I'm after the Veteran's Mooncloth pieces - belt, wrist, and boots. With arena, I'm after [Merciless Gladiator's Salvation]. That item is truly sick as it compares with the top end instance items. I'm sitting at about 1200 honor, so I may be in season 3 getting my season 2 item. Meh, it happens when you suck at arena.

Pre-Outlands Warlock Leveling Gear

I was looking for some pre-Outlands gear for my 39 warlock. I didn't want to depend on instance runs, though I can probably get some with guildies easy enough. Here is what I'm planning in the armor department.

Planned gear for journey to Outlands, unless otherwise stated, it's craftable by a tailor or jewelcrafter:
[Star Belt] - World drop tailoring pattern
[Shadoweave Pants]
[Underworld Band] - World drop buyable on the AH for 150g - 200g
[Dreamweave Gloves]
[Dreamweave Vest]
[Shadowy Bracers] - Quest reward from Level 50 Shadoweaver quest (obtainable at 40)
[Shadoweave Shoulders]
[Shadoweave Boots]
[Shadoweave Mask]
[Gem Studden Band]
[Sapphire Pendant of Winter Night]

Total stats gained:
+31 Int
+29 Stam
+45 Spir
+114 Shadow Dmg
+65 Spell Dmg

Total mats required:
150 x Mageweave
20 x Shadow Silk
10 x Wildvine
4 x Heart of the Wild
2 x Thick Leather
4 x Heavy Leather
1 x Iron Buckle
2 x Truesilver Bar
5 x Thorium Setting
3 x Citrine
2 x Aquamarine
1 x Blue Sapphire
1 x Essence of Undeath

Sethekk Halls

We've been progressing through the Auchindoun instances lately. We recently conquered Crypts, though that last boss is a true pain, especially with a pally healer as they have no insta-cast heals that can offset his debuff.

Last night we took a stab at Sethekk Halls with our 68 pally (MT), 66 pally (MH), 67 hunter, 70 hunter (me), and 70 warlock. We took the first boss on the first try. We lost our MT as the boss died. We were very close to keeping everyone up, so I was quite impressed. I've been in there before with other toons in a prior guild and not faired as well on the first try. Then we get to the last two rooms. The next to last room was causing death to our lock on every pull. The 4 casters + bird was difficult. The fear from the Sethekk Prophets was tough on the MT. He couldn't keep aggro on them all so they would scatter making taunts tough. The lock invariably pulled multiple because of his dots. The two hunters were trying to keep the bird and another frozen. By the end of the room we got it down better and were keeping everyone up each fight, but we need more practice there.

Then we had repeated wipes on the last boss. I believe we wiped four times before we finally got it. And even then, all were dead except the MT, who spent about 50% of the middle of the fight sheeped, when we had him down to 3%. The MT went toe-to-toe for the rest of that and took him down. You may think 3% doesn't sound like much, but it was impressive to watch.

Phat lewtz that dropped:
[Incanter's Trousers] - snapped up by the warlock, our only clothy caster
and
[Ravenclaw Band] - which was forced on the 67 hunter who was still wearing .... something she shouldn't have been wearing at 67.

The Ring

So our merry little guild did the Ring last night. We brought 70 rogue, 70 lock, 65 pally (healer), 66 hunter, and 67 druid (tank). We did pretty well. We mowed through the rounds with the druid seeming destined to die on the killing blow of each of the last 3 bosses. We wiped once on the final boss before doing the deed on the last try with some nice help from a nearby lock. Rawr - sexy [Staff of Beasts].

PVP Gear

Hunter Gear
Warrior Gear
Priest Gear
Warlock Gear

Top PVP DPS?

The hunter continues to impress. I ran a few EotS BG last night. I was consistently top 6 in DPS, but on this one, I was top overall DPS, horde or alliance. I grabbed a couple of screenies with the evidence. Some of the hunter competitors in there? Arvari, a MM hunter, is sporting some Kara gear and has 800 more AP than me. Jodoc, a MM hunter, sporting gear comparable to mine (many greens and a few blue quest rewards) but with 100+ more AP.

Slave Pens

Me and some guildies decided to run Slave Pens last night to help our lower Pally tank and Pally healer get some gear and quests completed. I just tamed me a fancy new cat from Skettis area, and I used this chance to get him some loyalty so I can start training up the good stuff. He entered the instance with nothing but Growl. He left with Growl + Dash. But the Recount stats were impressive just the same.

That's me at top spot and my cat at #5. The #2 is a 70 fury/arms warrior. #3 is our 64 Pally tank, and #4 is a 65 hunter with her pet at #6.

I haven't instanced at all with this toon, and our tank wanted us to push him for aggro to see how he did. I even opened with Aimed Shot on many occassions with some nearly 3K crits along the way. The Pally did great - I only pulled aggro from him a couple of times.

Where do we go from here?

So I've got my hunter up to 70. He's still in trash greens and mostly weak quest rewards as he solo'd his way to 70.

My priest is 70 and has a decent number of 5-man instance (non-heroic) blues and the Shadoweave set. His problem is he started his instance life as a healer and switched DPS because his old guild wanted him to be the shadow priest going to Kara and Gruul. Alas that guild fell apart before those plans materialized.

My feral druid 67 and in weak DPS gear, but is starting to get a bit of tank gear. A few 5-man instance drops but only through Mana Tombs so far.

What next? The rest of the guild, comprised mainly of RL friends, is not quite ready for much higher than MT or UB. What do I do for gear in the meantime? Arena? BGs? PUGS?