Ogres Get Some Priest and Warrior Action

Sloosh is looking pretty silly with season three gloves and hood while the rest is season one, but that's okay. She's sitting at 367 resilience and I haven't socketed the new hood yet. I was hoping to hit 400 for the weekend but I couldn't muster the willpower to overcome the boredom of PvPing. See what I can get down over the weekend.



Instead of being focused on Sloosh, Fearce has gotten the attention this week. In my current circle of friends we're lacking a tank so I've been motivated. Made some real progress. Got a run through The Mechanar done on Tuesday where I picked up a Thoriumweave Cloak and the key fragment for How to Break Into the Arcatraz. Last night I suggested to Ladaron and Rool we get our Ogri'la quests done. I brought both Sloosh and Fearce along then we picked up a random Paladin, Apeec, who was begging for a group by the quest-giver ogre. Turns out we need five people for one of the summons so it worked out well.

Once we were crowned and checking out Ogri'La, Ladaron and Rool had to take off so I decided to see what the drop rate on apexis crystals was—not so great. It took probably twenty-five kills to get the ten I needed for the initial quest. I suppose that ratio isn't bad, but with Fearce being Protection and Sloosh a robot, it's slow going. I did get a Depleted Staff to drop in my little farming session. With fifty crystals it becomes a tradeable Flaming Quartz Staff which seems a waste of crystals at the moment.

After turning in the crystals I hearthed back to Shattrath and decided to join a Bot pug with Fearce. I was a little dubious with two hunters, a DPS warrior, and a tree Druid but we managed to do quite well. I've gotten quite familiar with The Botanica over the last week so I got them to push to the end. Was very fortunate to pick up the Aegis of the Sunbird that I've wanted for a while now plus the Revenger that I probably won't use. The defensive stats on the Crystalline Kopesh are still too compelling. Managed to down Warp Splinter so I got the Arcatraz key made plus picked up the Sha'tari Vindicator's Waistguard. Going to enchant the cloak with armor though I'm not sure on the shield. Extra block might be the way to go but more health is always a good thing.

The Warrior gear checklist is looking pretty good. Once Fearce picks up a breastplate, another ring, and some trinkets she'll be ready to tank some ass. *snicker* Kind of wish I'd tracked her progress over the last week as it would really illustrate what little life I have outside of Azeroth.

Horde Turtle in AV Rant

Alliance in the Cyclone battle group can only win in Alterac Valley with any consistency. Yet with the new AV changes the Horde introduced a new turtle tactic on our last AV weekend that has impacted the last bastion of Alliance honor farming.

The Horde establish a strong choke point at Iceblood with reinforcements of varying strength inside Galvangar, at Frost Wolf graveyard, and sometimes their base. Alliance often can get Galvangar down despite interference only to be hammered at IB. Some Alliance will sneak past the choke but they invariably die when faced with the organized groups they encounter. By this time, Horde have established their usual dominance at Stonehearth and sometimes even take the Snowfall graveyard. Upon death, Alliance finds themselves rezzing back at their base.

With Alliance offense crushed and demoralized, the Horde destroys the middle bunkers, giving them a strong lead in reinforcements. Now they settle in for a war of attrition where it takes anywhere from twenty to forty minutes while the numbers slowly drop. Horde get some honor from the middle towers but Alliance is often denied all honor beyond the pittance of honorable kills.

My coping strategy has been to go on offense. Ensure people live through Galavangar and offer to rez anyone who died in the keep. I then park in Iceblood Tower or Tower Point to make sure we destroy them (it takes only seconds to Mind Control and fling the most pesky Hordling out of our hair *evil lol*). Once those towers are down I take stock of the situation. If we haven't gotten the East and West Towers started that usually means it's a turtle. Or if there aren't clumps of Alliance dots on the map south of me, I know it's bad news.

If it's a turtle or I die anywhere along the way, I AFK out. This is very unfair to the person that's brought in from the queue but I'm bitter enough not to care. I've been sucked into no-honor games before so they can suck it up and deal like I did. I camp that character and let their deserter buff expire while I switch to another character to see how the next game goes.

I never AFK out of a loss. If the Horde are racing along with us, that's okay. If they backtrack to fuck with the towers, that's acceptable. Alliance should be guarding and paying attention. But I have no more patience for the turtle. I hope Blizzard sees this as a problem and takes some sort of action. This battle ground is the last source of honor in my battle group.

Chatting some with Kidknux last night he said a Horde friend was telling him how they feel bad at the need to turtle but it's the only way they can win. Well, fuck them. They win 90% of all the three other battle grounds. They can accept single tokens from AV when they get three for everything else.

Last Few Days

Friday was pretty uneventful. Rool, Samarahh, and Ladaron all needed some Eye of the Storm marks so we grouped up to suffer together for a while. We actually did win three games of the ten we played so it wasn't as bad as usual. I plan on replacing Sloosh's Light's Justice last so these tokens will chill in the bank for a while.

Saturday I was up early so I worked in some Alterac Valley honor for Sloosh until Emogoblin pulled me away for a run through Uldaman. I used Aenara for the bulk of it then brought in Glitter to get past the two summoning stones.

Had some real life get in the way so I wasn't able to get back on until the evening. There weren't enough people around for Karazhan so jumped right into the arena with Sloosh, Hennesy, and Kidknux. We are coming together a lot better plus we're all over 300 resilience now but there's still work to be done. Played thirteen games, winning six and ending with a 1475 rating. Then won two games with Sloosh and Hennesy putting us at 1499.

Then there were suddenly enough people online for 5v5s so we switched over. Started with the primary team of Sloosh, Hennesy, Rannixx, Artemiis, and Flavie. Initially we were in the low 1400s and stomped into the 1500s, where we were smacked back down. Flavie is still very poorly geared so he didn't add so much. Sloosh is still heavy Holy and Hennesy is deep into Affliction so we also realized that we need to respec over the next week. Still… was a good dynamic and very fun. Won six, lost four, and ended with 1487.

Our “alternate” 5v5 has me on Decimate with Contagent, Rool, Ladaron, and Samarahh. Contagent and I are the best geared for that team, which isn't saying much, so winning two and losing eight wasn't a big surprise. Ended with a 1378.

Sunday morning did more of the usual honor grind. Azjol-Nerub's PvP daily was kindly Alterac Valley so I try to switch through all of my 60+ characters. In fact, it got me into a new strategy for the games where I basically AFK out if we're still dicking around after ten minutes. I let that character's deserter buff decay while I queue up with another. This is very easy to do with seven characters to play, though I did feel some pangs of guilt over leaving the next player who got sucked into a no-honor game. Blizzard really needs to fix that. After a certain reinforcements threshold (like <50), new players should not be zoning in.

After doing some real life stuff I got back on with Fearce. Picked up all three pieces of the Felsteel tanking set from the AH. Also went through my bank cleaning out the accumulated crap only to find I already had the Sha'tari Wrought Armguards and Sha'tari Wrought Greaves I had on my “To Do” list. Got +8sta armor kits on all three items that could accept them then had Glitter make up green gems for all the sockets after Sloosh enchanted the bracers with +7sta. This is all stuff that needs to be upgraded so I'm not commiting quality enchants.

Decided to try pugging The Steamvault and The Botanica via the LFG tool. Got an invite for a Bot group after a while then we waited another thirty minutes for a healer. Finally get going when the Hunter disconnects. Then the Shaman had to leave for Kara. Then the Pally leaves when he realizes it's not Heroic. Finally asked Rool and Ladaron if they'd come help so the switch off of their alts but the Moonkin decide to head. I was getting depressed at this point so I gave it five minutes before calling the whole thing and working on Ogri'la. But we found a mage then managed to clear the whole place. Still no shield but I did pick up the Warhelm of the Bold.

Finished out the night with two more rousing losses in Arathi Basin, which Rool and Ladaron were kind enough to join me for, to get the last tokens I needed for Sloosh's Vindicator's Mooncloth Belt. Once they logged off I went back to AV to get the last ~3.5k honor I needed. Woke up this morning to find I had gotten exactly 4000 honor so Sloosh's resilience went from 303 to 334—very nice! With this weekend's Arena points I will be getting Vengeful Gladiator's Mooncloth Hood tomorrow which means 371 resilience!! Can survive three mêlée pounding on me now so can hardly wait to hit 400. *evil lol*

Tanking Warrior Progress

So I guess I'm going to gear up Fearce to do some tanking. Found a nice guide in the WoW forums that gives me a starting point.

Beginners Guide to Pre-Karazhan Gearing

Stat	Description
Stamina/HP: 12000hp (11044hp)	This is an acceptable start for raiding. It’s easily done and exceeded with proper enchanting and gem placement. More is definitely better, and appreciated by your healers, but this is a decent start.
Defense: 490 (475)	This amount makes you "unable" to be critically hit by the majority of raid mobs. Some bosses will still critically hit you regardless of your defensive number, but 490 is needed regardless to help avoid damage. Again, more is better but should not be stacked at the loss of other stats such as stamina.
Dodge/Parry/Block: 15% (14%d, 15%p, 18%b)	This is the target minimum percent of all three stats you should attempt to have before entering kara to help avoid damage. Block is usually easily attained and surpassed while dodge may take some intent to reach depending on your gear stats. Parry is the hardest to attain out of the three due to the high +parry to parry% conversion but still relatively easily reached.
Armor: 13000 (13006)	This is a decent starting amount of armor for kara to help mitigate as much damage as possible. 12000 is acceptable and can be dealt with, especially in an off-tank role, but as per usual more is better. This is arguably the easiest stat to attain and surpass as long as you are wearing all or mostly level 70 pre-kara blues that are meant for tanking such as the bold dungeon set.

Slot	Item	Source	Detail
Head	√ Felsteel Helm	Crafted	Blacksmithing (365): Felsteel Bar (8)
	√ Warhelm of the Bold	Drop	The Botanica: Warp Splinter
	Greathelm of the Unbreakable	Drop	The Shattered Halls: Grand Warlock Nethekurse
	Myrmidon's Headdress	Quest	The Warlord's Hideout
Neck	√ Natasha's Battle Chain	Quest	The Hound-Master
	Strength of the Untamed	Reputation	Cenarion Expedition (Revered)
	Mark of the Ravenguard	Quest	Brother Against Brother
Shoulder	√ Shoulderguards of the Bold	Drop	Shadow Labyrinth: Murmur; Steamvault: Warlord Kalithresh
	Warchief's Mantle	Quest	Return to Andormu
Cloak	Cloak of Eternity	Crafted	Tailoring (350): Bolt of Imbued Netherweave (6); Primal Earth (6)
	Devilshark Cape	Drop	Steamvault: Warlord Kalithresh
Chest	Breastplate of the Bold	Drop	The Arcatraz:Harbinger Skyriss
	Jade-Skull Breastplate	Drop	The Mechanar:Nethermancer Sepethrea
	Vindicator's Hauberk	Reputation	Aldor (Revered)
	Breastplate of the Warbringer	Quest	Forge Camp: Annihilated
Wrist	√ Sha'tari Wrought Armguards	Quest	The Soul Devices
Hands	√ Felsteel Gloves	Crafted	Blacksmithing (360): Felsteel Bar (6)
	Gauntlets of the Bold	Drop	Steamvault:Warlord Kalithresh
Waist	√ Sha'tari Vindicator's Waistguard	Quest	How to Break Into the Arcatraz
	Deathforge Girdle	Drop	Sethekk Halls: Talon King Ikiss
Legs	Timewarden's Leggings	Reputation	Keepers of Time(Revered)
	Greavesof the Shatterer	Drop	The Shattered Halls: Warchief Kargath Bladefist
	√ Felsteel Leggings	Crafted	Blacksmithing (360): Felsteel Bar (8)
	Legplates of the Bold	Drop	The Black Morass: Aeonea
Feet	√ Sha'tari Wrought Greaves	Quest	Into the Heart of the Labyrinth
	Obsidian Clodstompers	Drop	The Botanica: High Botanist Freywinn
	FleshBeast's Metal Greaves	Quest	Someone Else's Hard Work Pays Off
Rings	Elementium Band of the Sentry	Drop	The Arcatraz: Harbinger Skyriss
	Iron Band of the Unbreakable	Drop	Old Hillsbrad Foothills: Lieutenant Drake
	Andormu's Tear	Quest	Hero of the Brood
	Protector's Mark of Redemption	Quest	Dissension Amongst the Ranks...
	Wind Trader's Band	Quest	Dealing with the Overmaster
Trinkets	Adamantine Figurine	Drop	Shadow Labyrinth: Blackheart the Inciter
	Dabiri's Enigma	Quest	Dimensiusthe All-Devouring
	Figurine of the Colossus	Drop	The Shattered Halls: Warchief Kargath Bladefist
	√ Regal Protectorate	Quest	Overlord
Weapons	Grom'tor's Charge	Quest	The Cipher of Damnation (Good summary in comments here)
	Terokk's Nightmace	Drop	Sethekk Halls: Talon King Ikiss
Shield	Ogri'la Aegis	Reputation	Ogri'la (Revered)
	Platinum Shield of the Valorous	Drop	Shadow Labyrinth: Ambassador Hellmaw
	Crest of the Sha'tar	Reputation	Sha'tar (Exalted)
	Netherwing Protector's Shield	Quest	Ally of the Netherwing
	√ Aegis of the Sunbird	Drop	The Botanica: High Botanist Freywinn
Ranged	Gyro-Balanced Khorium Destroyer	Crafted	Engineering (375):Hardened Adamantite Tube, Khorium Bar (20), Felsteel Stabilizer (4),Primal Fire (12), Primal Air (12), Primal Nether

√ = Complete. Last updated on 2008-Jan-31.

More Tanking Experience

Yesterday I finally got Glitter the PvP Axe, Gladiator's Cleaver. I really wanted the Gladiator's Right Ripper for the look, but it's main-hand only. If I do stumble across an upgrade I can off-hand the Cleaver. With a solid main hand I'm going to offhand the Axe of the Legion a while longer. She's covered in green and low blues so gear is next. Got Sloosh's Eternium rod made on Monday so she can do Mongoose—after I gather the tons of materials. *sigh*


Tonight was quite the Dark Whispers reunion. Got Rool, Ladaron, Fleura, and Elrwon all together to clear out The Botanica. I tanked with Fearce. It's so difficult to gear up a warrior but for some reason I think I'm going to. Tanks are hard to find lately. There are a number of quests that will help, so it's nice to have the healers on the second account.

Worked Some Warsong

The 29 bracket is definitely more fun than the 19. It's nice to have access to both Warsong and Arathi Basin plus their related gear. The Rogue is still very strong with dodge and critical strikes. While mitigation has gone done having 2k life unbuffed helps me go toe-to-toe with Warriors. Hunters and Ice Mages continue to be my biggest problem.

Joined a guild I saw someone spamming about in trade. Twink guild that targets 29. They apparently need more regular healers and I was thinking about a paladin though I haven't mentioned it yet. The guy I talked with was mostly happy with my gear, suggesting the WSG sword with a +15 agi on it then the AB belt to replace my Deviate Scale. Really don't think the extra AP is worth the loss in crit and life, but I will try it for a while.

First game went really well. The horde wasn't well twinked or organized, so I spent a lot of time farming. My PvP addon had me at "Godlike" four times. *snicker* Still wish I knew which addon tracks kills like that. Anyway. Was top of the leaderboard in kills though a Horde Warlock managed to barely sneak ahead of my damage.


Won the second game fairly quickly after I killed the Horde flag carrier. Took me three tries to kill the Priest who was healing him. The smart druid made a bee line for the graveyard—to no avail. =) Third game was with some of my new guildies: Pillowpants (Hunter), Bonus (Warrior), and a Druid healer. Went pretty well with Pillowpants on top of kills and damage. Everyone jetted after that game, which was fine. Time for bed.

Thus it Begins

Was looking up information on gearing up my Enhancement Shaman when I found a blog entitled The Enhancement Shaman and You. Realized I should really keep all my notes, thoughts, and bragging in one place.

So here we go.