Rockstar Hits 70
Rockstar made it to level 70 finally.
He switched to a Protection build and trained in all the new skills. Losing Mortal Strike is disappointing, but Devastate looks like such a cool ability to use. Intervene looks extremely cool as well, but I have a feeling it’s going to be difficult getting adjusted to using it.
Finally Rockstar donned his Felsteel set, and socketed a handful of new gems into the new tanking armor. I chose some defense, some agility, some strength, and a lot of stamina. Rockstar cut all the gems himself.
Next was a quick trip to Wildhammer Stronghold. Rockstar opened up his money purse and trained for riding flying mounts, as well as purchasing a normal speed flying mount.
Let the hunt for the pieces of ultimate tanking armor begin.
Illustra Continues Karazhan
Illustra got a chance to pickup with the Karazhan run with Apex of War. On this leg of the run, I was the only Warlock, which is sort of nice. On the previous run, we had cleared through Opera pretty cleanly, so we used the side entrance and cleared our way to the Curator.
We used our relatively successful layout to setup for the fight. Healers bunched up in the middle, while the two Hunters took up positions at the wings. Casters such as myself spread out in the back area. As a Hunter in the fight, the instant damage means that usually the Hunters are fighting for aggro on the astral flares, while the casters help to burn them down.
As a Warlock firing Shadowbolts, it takes a few seconds to get my damage out there, so I’m relatively safe from astral flare damage. We only had one tank (Cidemo) for this run, which made it interesting. I dropped a few DoTs onto the Curator, and I think I managed to soak up several of the Hateful Bolts.
We did manage to one-shot the Curator. He dropped the Garona Signet Ring (needed on by Flynti) and the Gloves of the Fallen Defender (needed on by Cidemo, I think as a second pair for him). The fight lasted 6 minutes and 3 seconds.
We did very well clearing to the Shade of Aran with only a single tank. Having 3 shackles really helps, as well as 2 pets with Growl enabled. If healers are also focusing on keeping the pets alive, using only a single tank to clear trash can be effective.
The Shade of Aran was a good clean fight. When he does his Magnetic Pull, a Warlock can still refresh 3 DoTs as you’re running to the perimeter of the room, so that helps out. I joined the Hunters in the sweet spot zone during the Blizzard spell to end the fight. During the elementals phase I was able to keep one successfully banished and one feared. I got one Shadowbolt off on the tank target elemental, and apparently someone else killed the other elemental before I ever saw it.
The Shade of Aran was one-shotted as well. He dropped Pauldrons of the Justice-Seeker (Flamingarrow and Tullus won shards) and the Tirisfal Wand of Ascendancy (needed by Graise). The Shade of Aran fight lasted 5 minutes, 59 seconds.
We cleared to the Chess Event and won on the first attempt. It’s no surprise, though. As long as the event doesn’t get bugged, Chess Event is a pretty simple encounter. I played two different Footmen (Pawns) during the encounter. The chest contained the Mithril Chain of Heroism (Khalie won the shard) and the Legplates of the Innocent (Minnieme won the shard).
Feeling pretty confident we went on to challenge Netherspite up in his room. We’ve had mixed success with Netherspite in the past, but we were on a one-shot roll tonight. As a Warlock, I split duties with a Hunter on absorbing the Blue Beam. The goal is to get a few DoTs off, maybe a Shadowbolt, and then use Life Drain to keep my own health up. The strategy works great. The first two attempts resulted in wipes, as we lost the “second tank” (meaning, our dps Warrior sharing the Red Beam) very early. We downed Netherspite on the third attempt. He dropped Shining Chain of the Afterworld (needed by Tullus) and Uni-Mind Headdress (needed by Katare).
All in all, another successful run.
Shaky Heroic Ramparts
Illustra joined a PUG for heroic Hellfire Ramparts; it was the daily quest. Today’s group consisted of myself (70 Warlock), Zadrun of Fury (70 Paladin healer), Annieoakley of Council of Faith (70 Hunter), Gwendoline of Crush (70 Mage), and Jondalar of Undercats (70 Druid tank).
This wasn’t a flawless run, but it was successful. I haven’t thought too much of Annieoakley as a Hunter with a well-rounded set of abilities before. She opened with an early over-aggro death on the first pull. At that point I was hoping the PUG wouldn’t be a dismal failure. To add to the problem, she brought a level 63 wolf pet in with her. It’s nice knowing that your teammates are really giving the run their all, isn’t it. The wolf would finish the at level 64, and have contributed 19 dps to the fighting. 19 dps is pretty pathetic…a Warrior adding a spike to his shield…that might account for 19 dps over the course of a dungeon run.
A bit further in, Gwendoline would die at the hands of a Bonechewer Destroyer. The ice came a bit late, I think. As we cleared to deal with the first boss, Jondalar had a bad pull and caused the first boss, his 2 adds, and the attempted pull of 4 mobs to aggro to the group. That led to a full wipe.
Once we cleared, the first boss was a simple fight. Gwendoline kept one add sheeped for the duration of the fight. Watchkeeper Gargolmar dropped the Wild Stalker Boots (Gwendoline won the shard) and a Steady Chrysoprase (greeded by Jondalar).
The fight with Omor the Unscarred was a one-shot. As a Warlock, there’s quite a bit to do. I can get a round of DoTs off before the first hound spawns…he gets banished. A few more DoTs get applied, then the second hound spawns…he gets enslaved. A few Shadowbolts cast, the third hound spawns…he gets feared. I think the hounds only got 1 mana burn off, and that was on me. Fortunately I can Life Tap and blast him right back. Omor the Unscarred dropped a Primal Nether (won by Annieoakley), the Crimsonforge Breastplate, another Steady Chrysoprase (greeded by Annieoakley), and the Crimson Bracers of Gloom (needed by Illustra). I was sort of surprised to get a wrist upgrade. Up until this point, I had been wearing bracers from Shattered Halls.
The tank was complaining about poor fire resistance gear…despite having his self-buff, the paladin’s fire resistance aura, and my imp’s Fire Shield buff, I think we wiped on the third boss because he spent too much not moving out of the fires. On the second attempt, he was able to position the boss around so that he wasn’t constantly burning. The Reinforced Fel Iron Chest yielded the Chestguard of the Prowler (needed by Jondalar), the Feltooth Eviscerator (“accidentally” taken by Gwendoline), and the Light Scribe Bands (also “accidentally” taken by Gwendoline).
Blizzard really needs to fix this auto-loot procedure. This is ridiculous when people have it enabled and loot bosses. The “picking up this item will bind it to you” message doesn’t cut it when there are 3 possible BOP items you’re looting. It’s really disgusting. They need to fix that message to indicate WHICH item you’re attempting to pick up. Or disallow it on bosses altogether.
The damage output was the following:
- Annieoakley at 29% (421 dps)
- Gwendoline at 26% (417 dps)
- Illustra at 26% (364 dps)
- Jondalar at 18% (246 dps)
Perfect Run Through Heroic Underbog
Illustra picked up a PUG tonight that was looking for an extra dps…the goal was heroic Underbog. The party consisted of myself (70 Warlock) and three members of Voltage. Tanking was Haume, a 70 Paladin. Healing was Elendrill, a 70 Shaman. Livgren, a 70 Druid, and Mysticknight a 70 Shaman from the guild Endless rounded out the dps crew.
Running with two Shamans is an interesting experience. That makes for a lot of totems. I’m never sure what the range of the effects those totems provide is, or even if they vary between totems, but it seemed like the tank never brought the mobs close enough to the area of effect. But everyone certainly knew what they were doing. I honestly couldn’t tell if we were in normal or heroic, until I pried up the first Badge of Justice. Everything was in easy mode…I was free to Shadowbolt away without risk of aggro.
We cleared to Hungarfen pretty quickly…he dropped the Boggspine Knuckles. Apparently Mysticknight is changing Shaman specializations, and was coming in here after this item, so it’s nice to have someone need on it.
As usual, we brought Ghaz’an down from his platform and tanked him against the cavern wall. The casters stacked on top of the resto Shaman, and the poison cleaning went to work. Ghaz’an went down very quickly and dropped the Dunewind Sash. I won the shard on that.
Swamplord Musel’ek was also quite easy, the Paladin tank kept aggro nicely the entire time. Normally I get charged or frozen or something several times, interrupting lots of spells. I think the entire fight, I was frozen in ice traps twice, but the rest of the time I was able to cast away. Swamplord Musel’ek dropped Hands of the Sun.
And of course, just around the corner is the Black Stalker. In the opening phase of this fight, he lifted me high into the air. But for Warlocks, it’s not a huge deal. I got off Curse of Agony and Corruption on him, and then unloaded two Shadowbolts before I landed to the ground. Tanking was not a problem, healing was not a problem, dps certainly was not a problem. The Black Stalker dropped a Primal Nether (won by Haume), the Argussian Compass (needed on by Livgren), the Stormsong Kilt (needed on by Mysticknight), and the Mana-Etched Pantaloons (Illustra won the shard).
All in all, this was a flawless run, it was really quite terrific. The damage output was the following:
- Illustra was at 27% (658 dps)
- Livgren was at 26% (645 dps)
- Haume was at 24% (498 dps)
- Mysticknight was at 23% (737 dps)
Illustra at the Opera Event
Illustra and other members of Apex of War stand on the Opera stage, having cleared the mobs. Tonight’s show was Wizard of Oz, as can be seen on the backdrop.
Illustra Raids Karazhan
Illustra made her second raid into Karazhan tonight. Everyone in the raid was from Apex of War, except for Illusta, who is still guilded with Eternal Force. I was pretty excited because I was so close to honored reputation level with The Violet Eye.
Unfortunately we had an early wipe on the trash mobs leading up to the Attumen encounter. One of the hunters let his pet (a Ravager, which has the Dash ability) get away (as he often does) and pulled the next two sets of trash mobs. We’re good, but we can’t handle three fights’ worth of mobs all at once.
The Attumen fight itself was good…no deaths, and Illustra never got aggro from Midnight or Attumen. We had to disenchant both pieces of loot; Attumen dropped Whirlwind Bracers and Gloves of Dexterous Manipulation. The fight lasted 3 minutes, 37 seconds.
Clearing up to Moroes was a little more interesting. Illustra’s damage picked up quite a bit, using Seed of Corruption several times on the AoE pulls. It’s nice to be able to get 2 or 3 seeds off, and then the group’s normal AoE damage starts erupting chain detonations of my seeds. A Phantom Attendant dropped Zierhut’s Lost Treads, which we ended up disenchanting. In the encounter with Moroes himself, we used the pets of the Hunters to tank the first two adds. The rest of the fight was great, I burned my Soulshatter pretty deep into the fight, and never had aggro issues. Moroes dropped Moroes’ Lucky Pocket Watch (needed by Lycana) and Idol of the Avian Heart. The fight lasted 3 minutes, 33 seconds.
As we cleared towards the Maiden of Virtue, a Phantom Attendant dropped The Bringer of Death. Lycana won the roll for it…it’s pretty nice for a dps caster, and I’m sure sells pretty well. We dropped the Maiden of Virtue without issues (my first attempt as a Warlock in this fight), and she dropped the Totem of Healing Rains and the Barbed Choker of Discipline. The fight lasted 2 minutes, 15 seconds.
The clear to the Opera event was flawless…we drew Wizard of Oz. I love this fight. We one-shotted the encounter and had no deaths, which is nice. The Crone dropped the Blue Diamond Witchwand (needed by Romtz) and the Eternium Greathelm (needed by Cidemo). The fight lasted 4 minutes, 37 seconds.
All in all, it was a great night running the “easy” part of Karazhan. I only died once in a situation that shouldn’t have happened. Illustra became honored with the Violet Eye and was able to upgrade her ring.
Superiority and Greatfather Winter
Superiority takes advantage of a slow night in Ironforge to visit with Greatfather Winter. Before long, some of the gifts beneath the holiday tree will be ready to open!
Importance of Consortium Reputation to Jewelcrafters
There are many useful gems in the game, but it can take some time to go in the many different directions needed to acquire all of those jewelcrafting designs. For aspiring jewelcrafters, pursuing reputation points with the Consortium can be a very good way to gain access to popular jewelcrafting designs very quickly.
What sorts of designs does the Consortium make available? Let’s examine what they offer.
At Friendly reputation, the Consortium offers:
At Honored reputation, the Consortium offers:
- Design: Delicate Blood Garnet
- Design: Lustrous Azure Moonstone
- Design: Thick Golden Draenite
- Design: Swift Skyfire Diamond
- Design: Powerful Earthstorm Diamond
At Revered reputation, the Consortium offers:
- Design: Pendant of the Null Rune
- Design: Crimson Sun
- Design: Don Julio’s Heart
- Design: Bracing Earthstorm Diamond
At Exalted Reputation, the Consortium offers:
All in all, the Consortium offers 12 designs to pursue. 10 of them can be purchased from the Consortium vendors in Outlands, but 2 of them must be purchased from within Karazhan.