Misery Likes Company

...And that's why you get a pet Perky Pug for having the ability to punish yourself by running random PuGs with 100 other people...

Let's not kid ourselves. There's a reason we join guilds. It's so that we can avoid these PuG groups that seem to end in one form of hell or another. Sometimes they're poorly geared...sometimes they're arrogant jerks...sometimes they just have no clue what they're doing at all...

Many of us choose to align ourselves with a particular guild in order to avoid having to deal with the drama/nonsense that seems to emerge from PuG groups. I'm no exception to this. I mean, I've been the noob in the group that's caused a wipe more times than I really want to admit. Even recently I caused a near wipe in Heroic: An'kahet- The Old Kingdom. It happens. The group was forgiving enough and we moved on.

But last night...oh lord of lords...what the ... was WRONG with people last night? I met a bunch of tanks that had no clue, healers that couldn't keep up with damage, and a bunch of just...idiots. Initially, after the first two groups were really rough, I thought, "Man, I should just stop now and work on grinding badges tomorrow..." But did I? Nope. Wanted to go back for more. I think the main reason I went back into more PuGs after the first two wipefests was because, well...I was really curious. I mean, two bad PuGs in a row? What are the odds? The third one HAD to be better, right?

RIGHT???

Yeah, not so much...it was just as bad as the previous two.

The evening started with Heroic: Azjol Nerub. Not really a hard instance, but not a great one either. Lots of poisons to worry about, skirmishers dropping aggro and eating healers...yeah...It's true. In the first boss's room, there are skirmishers that will just drop aggro and go after a healer or ranged dps. They're immune to taunt. Death gripping them pulls them off of the healer just long enough for the healer to maybe heal themselves, but if they aren't killed quickly...it's bad news for whoever the Skirmie decided it wanted to devour.

Most groups will mark these to be killed first. Not my PuG. Oh lawwd no...we'd much rather just let the little monstrosity eat our shaman healer...Shamans must be tasty critters. I had a hell of a time getting the bug dead before the shaman died. Somehow I managed on the first pull...And then the tank gets a brilliant idea...

"Let's go for the [Watch Him Die] achievement!"

Mmk well...it's not really a hard achievement, given that most people are far overgeared for heroics. (Not me, personally, but most people are...) Instead of discussing a strategy, this darling paladin goes racing in and starts beating on the boss. I've seen it done this way before. This is actually how my druid got this achievement...however...it is an unavoidable wipe. This particular strategy requires RIDICULOUSLY high DPS and a boss zerg...ignoring all adds and just nuking the boss. Well, as I had started trying to tell him BEFORE he ran in...My dps isn't that good and perhaps we should have gone with the OTHER, slightly more intelligent strategy that doesn't end in an inevitable wipe for the group.

If you're wondering, Strategy 2 works like this: You start the gauntly and dps all mobs EXCEPT for the Watchers...with the three of them still alive, you THEN engage the boss and burn him down. Once he's down you return your focus to the watchers and -POOF- achievements for all!

It's easier on the healer and dps. It's easier on the tank. Everyone takes less damage, you don't have 2 Skirmies running off to destroy your shaman healer, the tank only has to manage threat on 4 mobs, versus like...12...see? It's just better with strategy 2. But that's not how we did it. Oh no...no no. We did it the "other" way...

I'm sure you already know that it was a complete cluster**** and we wiped...hard. Rather than trying to get his achievement the "smart" way, like myself and a few other party members suggested, the tank bailed on us.

Alrighty, back to looking for a tank now. It didn't take long before another paladin joined us. We didn't try for the achievement and took the gauntlet on and the boss down without any issue at all. Things had begun to look brighter. I was feeling really hopeful.

And then...

We get into Hadronox's lair. We take on the first group of trash, pull the second two groups at the same time, no big deal. Seemed to be going really well.

Before I continue, however, let me explain how this Hadronox fight works, for any of you who have not yet experienced this one.

As he enters the room, he's being attacked by a bunch of Anu'bar. As they attack him, he puts leeching poison on them. Leeching poison heals the Hadronox. Another quick note: Once he enters the room, he webs the doors closed where these Anu'bar spawn from, thus preventing adds during the encounter.

Most groups wait for Hadronox to kill all of his little friends before engaging him...but not OUR tank...ooooh no. No, he ran right into the fray! Why wait when you can wipe your group right off the bat?

Here's the problem with engaging Hadronox before he has webbed the doors closed: Adds.

Why are adds bad?

- They inflict more damage onto the tank, putting more stress on the healer.
- They drain the resources of the DPS, particularly casters.
- IF THE TANK DOESN'T PICK THEM UP, THEY WILL EAT YOUR HEALER.

See how that last one is in all caps? That's because it's really important to understand. As a tank, you HAVE to have control of ALL of the mobs present or you're going to lose party members. The last person you want to lose at any point in a fight is your healer. Dead heals are bad, mmkay?

As you can imagine, the flood of adds continued. The tank wasn't picking them up, which left myself, my ghoul and the rogue tanking the adds. My taunt was constantly on cooldown, the healer was healing all five of us and we were all taking ridiculous amounts of damage...it was just bad news for our group. Ultimately, a few of the adds got past myself and the rogue and killed the healer and we wiped.

Good times. That's wipe two on instance #1 of the night. Groovy. We regrouped, the tank said he was going to wait for the doors to get webbed and adds to die and then we'd engage the boss this time.

Well, at least he waited for the doors to get webbed. Didn't wait for the adds to die, but a bit of AoE gets them down pretty quickly it seems. We managed to drop Hadronox and forged ahead. Surprisingly enough, we didn't wipe on Anub'arak and life was good.

Or so I thought...

I got tossed into Heroic: The Pit of Saron right after this, as I queued right away.

We didn't make it to the first boss.

We didn't even make it past our second trash pull.

It was that bad.

First, let me say that I know a little bit about tanking, considering my druid's primary spec is bear. So, when I see a bear druid screwing things up, it makes me want to kick things. Tanking isn't really hard, but does require a bit of focus and awareness.

For any of you tanks out there that don't know the basics, let me share...

1. DPS needs to stand BEHIND your target for a bunch of reasons: This prevents their attacks from being parried or blocked. It also prevents the dreaded "parry gib/parry hasting" situation...You might have heard this before...

But...when a mob/boss parries an attack, they get a reduced swing time for THEIR next attack against your tank. That results in the tank ultimately taking more damage. Not a good thing. So, Melee DPS- gtf BEHIND the mobs please and tanks...for the love of god...GIVE YOUR MELEE DPS ROOOOOOOM TO GET BEHIND THE MOBS/BOSSES- k thx bai.

2. Tanks need to be aware of their surroundings. Period. You need to know where patrols wander, you need to know how close you're positioning your group to other nearby mobs, especially with AoE caster classes in your group.

3. Tanks need to hold aggro and be prepared if uninvited mobs decide to crash the party. Be ready to pop cooldowns, health potions...do whatever it takes to keep yourself and your healer alive first...get control of the situation to protect your DPS.

If you take all three of those things and...oh...I dunno...throw them out the window...then you'll understand why my Pit of Saron group failed miserably on the second trash pull.

Our bear tank pulled a group of mobs, but didn't move them to a place where her melee dps could safely do their job without pulling a patrolling group of mobs. So, we have the first set of mobs, plus 4 more. Good times. In trying to gain control of the situation, the tank backed up into yet another set of mobs. Even if all of us were putting out 6k DPS...The Pit Of Saron trash mobs, at least the dozen or so that we ended up pulling all at once...were mostly casters. Most tanks don't mitigate magic damage very well at all...and so the tank was taking huge damage from the first two groups. As the healer frantically tried to keep the tank alive, she caught healer aggro from the third group of trash and, being a priest, died almost instantly despite the DPS's best efforts at taunting and distracting the mobs from our healer.

We wiped.

The group disbanded.

It was a sad, sad day in the Pit of Saron.

The groups continued like this for the rest of the evening. I met a tank in H:Trial of Champions that didn't comprehend that we needed to get BEHIND the mobs, and so faced them toward us with their backs against a wall. Then screamed at the group for not interrupting the Tauren's healing waves...well, mostly me. But you know, Cooldowns are the enemy. I did what I could, WHEN I could. Considering there was a ret pally and the tank was a warrior...there were more interrupts than just my own...but I digress...after two wipes, that group ultimately fell apart.

I'm not totally innocent in all of the misery last night. I'm sort of new to instancing with a "pet". As an Unholy Death Knight, I have a permanent Ghoul Minion. When we take "shortcuts" in instances...I tend to forget to dismiss him. If you're not familiar with the "pet situation..."

When you jump off of something, say, the platforms in The Nexxus...to avoid having to fight extra trash to save time...your pet, whether you're a hunter, warlock, frost mage, or death knight...will always try to take the "correct" path. Meaning: your pet will walk down the ramps and go all the way around the instance, collecting mobs until it dies (and then they aggro on you) because they're not programmed to take the stupid shortcuts.

I've done it in The Nexxus. And now...I've officially been a Deathtard in H: OK. Our tank decided to jump off the side of the stairs after the tunnel behind Prince Taldaram. The rest of us, including myself and a Demonology warlock, did the same. Well, both of our pets went down the stairs and pulled umteen other mobs on us...it was a near wipe...but somehow the healer managed to keep some of us up long enough for us to get the final mob killed. I felt terrible!!! :(

Luckily, the group just warned me to please be more careful and we continued onward, since we were just about at the final boss anyway and it wasn't just me...it was our lock as well.

I guess all in all it wasn't a terrible night. I got a few badges and learned a few things...like...to dismiss the ghoul so he doesn't pull an entire instance full of crap on us...*shrug* Eh well, noob happens. Gotta learn and move on, I guess. And I mean, aside from the tank in H:ToC with the miserable attitude...it wasn't all bad. In fact, I ran H:Halls of Lightning with a really friendly and sweet group. It was pretty great. That kind of made up for some of the failures from earlier in the night for sure.

Ah well, here's to better PuGs! *Cheers!*


~~Des~~

My Newest 80

Hey guys! I've been meaning to post for quite awhile now, but I've been wretchedly sick. I'm posting something quick here today because I miss you all! Just wanted to let you know that I finally managed to get an alt to 80 and she's pretty well geared already, all things considered.

I had been working on my Death Knight for awhile. I was never really interested in the class before, but decided that it would be quicker to get her to 80 than any of my other alts- the highest level of any of my others is 50...bleh.

Here's a quick picture of my darling Death Knight in her up-and-coming triumph gear.

It's sad...she's almost better geared than my beloved druid already, and only dinged 80 on 1/8/2010...I really love that she's DPS only for the time being though. I don't get asked to tank and I don't have to worry about healing. It takes awhile to find a group, that's for sure, but it's worth it to just be free to go in and beat on stuff and call it a day hehe.

By the way, I hide helm in game. I'm not sure I'm fond of this helm style yet.

I'm not sure I like the build of her weapon either, considering it's the same model as the Jawbone from Naxx...oh, that reminds me...her weapon...She's carrying Garfrost's Two-Ton Hammer for now. I haven't put a gem in it yet, and haven't gotten around to slapping a Rune on it either. I got it late last night, after farming regular Pit of Saron since she was geared enough to get in there. A former guildie and friend forced one of his guild's tanks and rogues to come help kill Garfrost for me again so that I could get the mace, and sure enough...it dropped. So much better than the De-Raged Waraxe or whatever she was carrying before! So, a special thanks to Merc, Mad, Sado, and my beloved towel Sel for coming out to help me get her a better weapon again last night. (Now I won't have much to wine about in guild chat hehe)

At any rate, I'm back to trying to figure out how to get hit-capped again. It seems like there's no hit rating on any of the badge gear except for the one trinket...so I'm going to have to tinker around now and see what I can do. The trinket has 128 hit, which will put me at least 100 points over hit cap...do you know what that means? That means I can swap out some of my yellow +20 hit gems for GASP...+20 STRENGTH gems!!! Yeah, I'm pretty psyched about that, as if you couldn't tell.

Anyway, just a quick update. I do have a noob story about her and The Pit of Saron, but that's going to have to wait for another time. I have to get caught up on things at work...you know...my IRL stuff...hehe. Catch ya later!

<3 Des

Death Knoob In The Halls

Yeah, it's true. I'm perfectly capable of making ridiculous mistakes, thank you very much.

I've been trying to get my Death Knight, Desarra, to level 80 lately. The grind from 71-77 wasn't that bad. The grind from 77-78 has been a really, really long one. To supplement the experience I'm getting from questing, I usually queue as DPS in the new LFM Feature that Blizz recently implemented.

In general, I can usually stay right on top of the DPS meters. Yes, yes I know...I'm a death knight...why am I surprised that I can top the DPS meters? Well, one reason is that I'm not sure I know too awfully much about melee DPS. Actually, this is my first high level DPS character. My druid has always been a tank or healer, never dps...well...rarely has she ever been DPS...I fail miserably at being a kitty, so I'm not often asked to do so.

Anyway...I like to think I'm doing alright as far as DPS is concerned. So, I queue up and the instance ends up being Halls of Stone. Well, I've been there a bunch of times, so it's no big deal.

Right?

I'm aware of all of the groups of mobs that need to be pulled carefully because of how close together they are. I'm aware of the patrols. I know how this works. The group was a bunch of heirloom wearing alts. We all knew what we were doing.

My ghoul, however, doesn't seem to understand. As the tank made the first pull, I opened up with Icy Touch, as most Death Knight's do. Well...my ghoul goes saaaaaailing through the air into the fray...we already had 3 mobs on the tank. The ghoul managed to pull 3 more patrolling dwarf guys AND two of the stone guardian things in there...

You know...the ones that do Forked Lightning and make your healer miserable...

Those ones. Yeah.

Well, I apologized profusely, explaining that I didn't expect him to jump PAST the mobs we pulled...The tank was quite blunt about the situation...

"Don't apologize...just don't let it happen again or I'll boot you from group."

O.O

Yeah...stupid ghoul...err I guess I can't blame him completely. He's undead-ish so...probably doesn't have much left in the way of brains anyway.

It never occurred to me that, for the first few precarious pulls that I should either set him to passive or dismiss him. But if the inadvertent ghoul induced adds weren't bad enough...

In Azjol'Nerub a few nights ago, Mr. Ghoulpants decided to engage Hadronox early. I'm not entirely sure how it happened or why...but he launched himself right on into the fight. Actually, maybe it was the poison spray...he was set to defensive...that might have been it. *nod* That was probably it, come to think of it...

The ghoul and I...we have some adventures together for sure. I'm going to be sad if I ever decide to give up my Unholy spec. Right now, he's a permanent minion. If I switch to either of the other two specs, I lose his permanency and the ability to summon a gargoyle...EEK! Hopefully I'll be able to work out a way to stay Unholy. We'll have to wait and see what 80 brings. I have 2 levels and like 3 or 4 bubbles til I hit 80, so I have a little bit of time to work that out.

As an example of how things tend to work out for us: In general, I can solo most group quests at my level. Between the ghoul and the gargoyle, I usually have enough damage going on to burn the elites down before they can splatter me all over. I figured I'd be alright to try and solo Ragemane (Zul'Drak Wanted Quest).

Well, I go in and start trying to beat up Ragemane. I summon the gargoyle, but notice that the fight is going on for an unusually long time...I look around and can't seem to find the ghoul anywhere. *sigh* I try to use his attack command after I finally realize that he's been on passive (thanks to him getting me in trouble in Azjol'Nerub)...he walks over...I don't mean like...he rushes to my side to save the day. No, I mean he quite literally walked over just as slow as he could and stood there for a second. I had already blown cooldowns and popped a health potion...so my few survival tools were just about gone. He finally ended up slapping Ragemane, but by then it was too late. I ended up being a Plate-Wearing Corpse floating in the water...yeah...good times. I'm sure he and I will have more stories to share, but for now I have to get back to RL :(
My Ghoul...in all his infinite awesomeness...:)

Looking Back: 2009

Now that Oh-Nine has ended...I thought it might be a good time to look back on the past year and see how far we've come... I hope you enjoy!

Before I sat down to write this post, I revisited all of my old posts. I’m wishing I had written more regularly, but as with most recreational projects, LBT ended up taking a back seat to real-world responsibilities. I’m hoping that 2010 affords me a little more time to get on a more regular posting schedule…but I digress…

This year was definitely a roller-coaster ride, full of ups and downs, good times and bad. Let’s look back a little into 2008…(I know, I know…but there’s a method to this madness…)

I believe I joined the World of Warcraft community in May 2008 after my husband bought the game and subscription for me for Mother’s Day. He tried to play it off as if he was being very thoughtful, but I still think it was just to end the “Wife Aggro”. Either way…That’s what got me into WoW.

Initially, the only character I had was a druid named Destinae. I had my heart set on tanking from the very first moment she entered Azeroth. As I leveled higher, I began to realize that I really didn’t know much in the way of being a “good” player. I hadn’t tanked any instances, didn’t know anything about gearing my bear or even how to tank or use the bear in a most effective way. It was then that I began to scour the web in search of really great resources in order to help me understand my character, her abilities, her gear priorities, and the game in general. After nearly two weeks of reading websites I didn’t understand at the time…I finally stumbled onto The Druid’s Grove.

The Grove is really the reason LBT came into existence. Through their gentle guidance and support, I’ve learned a great deal about my druid and get complimented frequently now. (I owe it all to you guys, so thank you!) They answered all of my noobish questions with kind, gentle guidance. A few of us began to talk more in the OOC boards and friendships were born. We began to share stories of our most successful moments, as well as our least successful moments…and here is where LBT came to be…

Near the end of 2008, there was a lot of real life stress and in-game stress which caused me to take a few months off. It wasn’t until January 2009 that I got back into the game and started playing again. I began the journey to level 80 after a few weeks of just wasting time farming pets and doing random achievements. As my journey to 80 began… I started a thread about noob stories at The Grove. Well, it turns out that I was posting most of the stories while the rest of the druids giggled at my craziness. I felt a little bad for taking up all of their forum space with random stories of noobish nonsense, so I had suggested to Khel that I should just create a blog for all of my insanity…and on May 19, 2009, Little-Bear-Tree was born.

In June of 2009, we learned that someone had hacked The Grove, leaving many of us druids angry and missing our friends for a few days. The owners of The Grove allowed us to post on their Ever Quest Druid forums, but it just wasn’t the same. Thanks to the tenacity and determination of the owners of The Grove, it was restored and none of the posts were lost. Our library of druid knowledge was resurrected in its full glory! So, to those who fought to get our grove back- Thank you!

2009 was a really fun year as far as WoW was concerned. It was the first full year of Wrath of the Lich King and there were so many changes! The folks at Blizzard brought forth so many changes for us…too many to even really mention. The badge upgrades throughout the year made it a lot easier to get your most cherished toons ready for bigger, better raids. There were new raids to explore, Ulduar, Trial of the Crusader, and now Icecrown Citadel (where, rumor has it, you’re able to defeat my beloved Arthas). I haven’t had the time to visit the new raid just yet, but I’m hoping to see it soon. I’ve been more committed to things outside of the game lately with all the holiday stuff going on and just so much other stuff to take care of…I’ll see it someday though!

Feral druids got a makeover in Oh-Nine. The fur colors of kitty and bear druids were now based on the elf’s hair color and they changed the model from the old “cartoony” look to something a bit more realistic (although, Tauren bears still make me giggle…their noses are a little wide…hehe).


The new Dungeon Finder feature has been a blessing in most cases and the weekly raid quest seems alright- although, some of the bosses are still a little out of reach for some of us.

One of the other changes that 2009 brought about was a guild change for me. I had been in the same guild from the very beginning when I started to play. AoW was my Azerothian family, but after reaching 80 and some guild drama…I began to find that I had been stricken with wanderlust. I wanted to find something new, meet new people, and hopefully start raiding more regularly. I tried a few guilds out, but found myself homesick and miserable- so I ultimately returned to AoW…well, until things reached a breaking point there... I won’t get into details, but it ended my time with that guild. My husband followed suit and it was on July 20, 2009 that my husband decided to form our own guild. Ascendants was born.


While Ascendants has faced its fair share of frustrations and trials, I have to say that it’s definitely been a great experience. We’ve pulled together an amazing group of people and our family continues to grow. In the few short months we’ve been around, we’ve been through a lot together. We’ve experienced one of our officers getting hacked, we’ve had to deal with some cranky folks, had a few bouts of drama, and as much as we’ve grown, we’ve also lost members along the way. Not just members…friends. I prefer to think of everyone in my guild as a friend. While I can’t always make it around to help them with individual things or everything they need help with – I do adore each and every one of them. We’ve managed to cleanse the guild of jerks and now we have a happy, bubbly, spirited, and spunky bunch! It’s been one of the most rewarding things I think I’ve done in-game so far. So, a very special thank you to all of my fellow Ascendants! You guys ROCK!

Why did I include the guild in the “bad” memories section if all I’m doing is praising it? Well, let’s just say that we got off to a rough start, and at one point I had just about given up on our entire server and had begun to look into moving off server and considered switching to Horde to join a fellow Grove friend for raiding…I changed my mind and I am glad I did! I can’t imagine being without my guildies! I love them! (Not that he’ll ever stop by, but I luv you Neva. Now I’ve said it TWICE! hehe)

Looking back, 2009 definitely had more entertaining and good times than bad…that’s for sure. I met a lot of amazing people over the year. I was working on the achievement: “Higher Learning” where you have to find and read books in Dalaran that spawn randomly. I had gotten all but one…the one upstairs in the Legerdemain Lounge. I had seen about a million different book spawns there, but all were trash books. Eventually I ended up meeting a level 19 Twink Draenei hunter named Qwin, and a level 80 mage named Qinman. He might not have been level 80 when we first met…I don’t think he was…he was perhaps level 78 or 79? At any rate, we frequently camped the book’s spawn point together. I remember sitting upstairs in the lounge waiting for the book to spawn and trying to ease our boredom with games we’d create…We used to play catch with the heavy leather ball or jump from one bed to another just to see if we could go continuously without missing. We did just about everything we could think of to ease the boredom. Eventually, we all must have gotten the book spawn and our Legerdemain meetings ended.

Occasionally I still see Qwin in game and say hello. I bet you’re wondering why I brought this up? Well, making a new friend tends to be something that helps to make the year a great one: and after the Legerdemain Meetings, I ended up building a friendship with Qinman. He has since left WoW, but we are now friends outside of the game.









2009 was a year of learning:

I learned that dropping Death and Decay while questing sometimes came with consequences and that a level 65 Death Knight is no match for Durn the Hungerer…(the drooling jackass).

I learned that voidwalkers seem to get giggles from letting their Warlock draw aggro from them and get killed.

I learned that, when being run through a dungeon, it’s generally a better idea to just let the person who’s running you do their thing- pushing buttons, as irresistible as it is, can lead to a quick demise.

I learned that Kel’Thuzad really doesn’t care about my druid’s happiness at all (yeah…what? Did you think I’d forget?).

I learned the value of having a nice computer to play on – and now that I have a really nice computer – I no longer run in circles while in Violet Hold.

I learned a lot about how to fail in Naxxramas – tanks not running into the fray first, missing the jumps on the Thaddius fight, how to successfully hide from Patchwerk after a wipe…wait, that’s not a bad thing… Yes, I learned how to successfully hide from Patchwerk when things go really, REALLY, bad.

I learned that I have NO idea how to use my warrior as a tank and that people don’t really enjoy being stuck in a group with me while I try to figure it out. Also, warriors don’t have a swipe button...

I found out that falling off of any of the walkways in The Nexxus = a really long fall and guaranteed death, and that it’s really important to be aware of your surroundings.

I learned that there are a lot of people with huge egos that they really enjoy stroking and having stroked - I also learned when it's good to stroke their ego and when it's better to try and teach them a little bit about humility...

I learned that you cannot tank heroics in a Lovely Black Dress. I also found out that people remember things a lot longer than you’d think and stupid mistakes tend to haunt you for a really, really long time.

I learned that no matter how much I "love" Arthas, he'll never love me back and also found out that his beautiful aura in Halls of Reflection will actually kill me...

I learned that Loremaster isn’t “hard”, but requires tenacity and patience. By doing Loremaster, I’ve learned that patience is a virtue that, someday, I really hope to possess.

I realized that, no matter how frustrated I get with guild stuff, it’s worth it to be surrounded by friends like the ones I’ve made there. Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor is a guild. We continue to grow and I hope our success continues into 2010 and Cataclysm! Thank you, guildies, for all of your hard work and support.

Unfortunately, I also found out that Jex’s dice curse is contagious and that I’ve been cursed with bad rolls...and haven't won an item in a raid in months...

I learned that WoW means a lot to my mom in some ways, and that she got tears in her eyes when her Death Knight hit level 80. She’s not as noobie as she used to be and I’m proud of her. Might just be a game, but if you had seen how tentative she was when she first began the journey into the great big world of WoW…and how far she’s come, you’d be proud too!

I learned that the title “Destinae the Patient” is a paradox.

I also learned that some of us veteran players take our knowledge and game or computer skills for granted. It might not take a second thought for some of us experienced druids to cast thorns on our tank, rather than ourselves, but for some it’s a brand new thing and patience and understanding is really something that us veteran players need to exercise. So to all of you who like to cuss at people who are new to the raiding scene...You were a noob once, too. Get over yourself.

I learned that great friends are the best thing you can find, both in game and out. There is nothing more awesome than finding a rare new friendship and watching it blossom into a long-lasting and awesome friendship!

And lastly, I learned that I tend to be really long-winded and I need to learn when to shut it down! Haha! Let’s just say I learned a lot of cool stuff and had a lot of fun over the past year – and I owe it to you guys!

All in all, 2009 was good to me. I started LBT, rejoined the ranks of WoW players and have experienced some really cool stuff over the past year. My love for writing has been reignited thanks to LBT and the friends who have supported it and commented on my posts. I’ve met a lot of really cool people and made a lot of really great friends. It’s been a good year.

Thank you all for all the smiles and laughter, the support and guidance...and Thank you all for an amazing 2009!

Here’s to an even better 2010 for all of us! *(sorry for the delayed posting, but I haven't been able to log in to post in almost a week! grr...)*

Loremaster Destinae?

Well the journey is finally over. What an amazing journey it was, too! If you're wondering, Yes...I finally completed Loremaster this morning. Honestly, I was a little sad that the journey ended. Loremaster of Old World (Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms) was sort of rough...but Outlands and Northrend was amazing!

I had so much fun! And let me just say this: Anyone who's hesitating and thinking that this achievement isn't worth working toward...you couldn't be farther from wrong. I can't even tell you how much gold I earned and how many random blue and purple drops I've gotten along the way (for my alts). It's been great! Too bad most of that gold has to go toward getting my alts dual-specced and getting flying for them when they're ready. Bleh...but still...gold flows like arctic water in Northrend. Even if you don't bother going back and doing the old world stuff, Northrend and Outland is definitely worth it.

A tip: If you're doing Loremaster and don't need the gear, definitely pick the quest rewards that sell for the most gold. It's crazy. Some of these quests will reward you with 10 gold or more, plus will offer you an item as a reward that sells for 12gold. 22 gold for going out and soloing a group quest? Yeah, I'll take that. It definitely made the grind less painful. That's for sure.

All in all, Loremaster probably took me a little longer than it really should have, but only because I tried to read the quests and see what the stories were. Seems like Blizz really put a lot more into the Outland and Northrend quests as far as storyline content and well...FUN! Go Blizz!

I'm happy that it's over, because now I can get back to gearing my druid, raiding, and leveling a few alts...and working on other, less time-consuming achievements.

I just thought I would let you know that I finally finished it up. Good luck to all of you still working on it! Keep on grinding! It's worth it!

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas Everyone! I thought I would send my holiday love out a few days early. For the next two days, I have quite a bit of family and holiday fun in store and I don't think I'll have time to stop in to say hello.

May your holiday be filled with joy and magic this year! Here's to hoping all of your holiday wishes come true! Stay safe and warm, everyone and enjoy! See you soon! ~Love, Des~

Des's Christmas Wish

I know that placeholder entries are bad. A friend once told me, "Placeholder entries are bad...mmmmkay?"

I know, I know. But I haven't posted in awhile and I wanted to let you guys know that I'm still here, still thinking of you all and working on a few things.

First, I'm trying to get everything wrapped up here at work. I'm taking vacation from 12/24/09 and returning 1/4/10...or something like that. I wish I could find a calendar...hang on a sec... *looks at calendar* Yep, returning on the Fourth day of the new year! I'm looking forward to a week away from everything to just relax with friends and family. Who knows, maybe I'll finally buck up and finish that Loremaster title I started awhile back. (Admittedly, I've not been working on it at all recently.)

Now, when I say "working on a few things"...I have a few stories I'm trying to get written up for posting. Just...with everything else going on, I'm struggling to find the time to get them written up and everything. I'm sure you're all feeling the pressure and rush of the holiday season as well.

I just wanted to post a brief note to let you know that I am still working on things and will get them up as soon as I can. Also, even LBT has a Christmas Wish-List. So here's my Christmas Wish-List:

I'd like to be able to post a story sharing session where friends tell stories about their adventures in Azeroth. That would be the coolest thing.

If you're interested in donating a story- email me at mydruidrocks@aol.com. If you have special instructions (omitting a name or "fluff the story" directions- include them please and I'll do my best to do your stories justice). I'm hoping for at least a few. I initially posted a posting date of 12/30/09, but realized that with the holidays here, it's going to be nearly impossible for any of us to commit to writing a story (much less compiling a few together to post by the end of the year), so I think I might wait until the January Post-Holiday lull to post the compilation. Please don't feel pressured to submit anything. This was just an idea for something a little more fun and different. I'll love ya either way =)

With loads of love and bear-hugs!
Des

Season's Greetings from Merrymaker Destinae

Hiya Folks!

I just finished up the last of my Merrymaker Meta Achievement last night. If you're wondering, the list you need to complete looks like this:

1. On Metzen! Save Metzen the reindeer!
2. Scrooge Throw a snowball at King Magni Bronzebeard during the feast of Winter Veil.
3. 'Tis The Season During the Feast of Winter Veil, wear 3 pieces of winter clothing and eat Graccu's Mince Meat Fruitcake.
4. Let It Snow During the Feast of Winter Veil, use a handful of snowflakes on each of the race/class combinations listed below:
* Orc Death Knight
* Tauren Shaman
* Undead Rogue
* Gnome Mage
* Blood Elf Warlock
* Human Warrior
* Night Elf Druid
* Troll Hunter
* Dwarf Paladin
* Draenei Priest
5. The Winter Veil Gourmet During the Feast of Winter Veil, use your culinary expertise to produce a Gingerbread Cookie, Egg Nog, and Hot Apple Cider.
6. A Frosty Shake During the Feast of Winter Veil, use your Winter Veil Disguise Kit to become a snowman and then dance with another snowman in Dalaran.
7. With A Little Helper From My Friends Earn 50 Honorable Kills as a Little Helper from the Winter Wondervolt Machine.
8. Fa-la-la-la-Ogri'la Complete the "Bomb Them Again!" quest while mounted on a flying reindeer during the Feast of Winter Veil.
9. Simply Abominable Complete the quest chain to retrieve Smokywood Pastures' stolen treats and receive a Smokywood Pastures' Thank You.
10. Bros, Before Ho Ho Ho's Use mistletoe on the Alliance "Brothers" during the Feast of Winter Veil:
* Brother Nimetz in Stranglethorn Vale
* Brother Kristoff in Stormwind
* Brother Joshua in Stormwind
* Brother Cassius in Stormwind
* Brother Anton in Nijel's Point
* Brother Wilhelm in Goldshire
* Brother Karman in Theramore
* Brother Crowley in Stormwind
* Brother Benjamin in Stormwind
11. He Knows If You've Been Naughty Open one of the presents underneath the Winter Veil Tree once they are available (12/25/2009 through 1/2/2010)

Extra Credit: BB King Pelt the enemy leaders listed below:
* Thrall
* Lor'themar Theron
* Cairne Bloodhoof
* Vol'Jin
* Lady Sylvanas Windrunner

Now that they're all posted...Last year, during the Feast of Winterveil, I wasn't even playing WoW. I had taken a much needed break. However, my husband really wanted me to log in and get a present during Winter Veil last year, just to see what I'd get. I literally logged in, grabbed the present, opened it, then logged out. At any rate, that's why I was able to get this achievement already this year. I already had "He Knows If You've Been Naughty" taken care of. This year, you won't be able to complete that achievement until 12/25/09, and gifts will be left available until 1/2/10. Good luck!

For Alliance, there is only one Winter Veil quest that can be picked up outside of Ironforge, and guess what? That quest tells you to go to Ironforge to talk to Greatfather Winter. Crazy how these things work...

Anyway, if you're getting ready to work on this or are already in the process, it's really easy and a lot of fun! My recommendation is to pull up WoWhead.com and be prepared to alt-tab a bit if you're not all that familiar with locations. I had to do that in order to find all of the Alliance Brothers.

Also, the Handful of Snowflakes are NOT soulbound! This will help you get your achievement done early. I only received a Handful of Snowflakes one time while /kissing Winter Veil Revelers in the inn. It got a little frustrating. I remembered reading on WoWhead that they weren't soulbound and could be mailed from one toon to another...That's not necessarily the case, though. Turns out they CANNOT be mailed...but...If you have a friend who's willing to allow you to trade them the snowflakes, who will then trade them to your other toon...life's good.

I got on my warlock, got a handful of snowflakes, traded them to Ziggy, logged into my druid, met up with him and he then traded them to my druid. I ran around Ironforge and got all of the Alliance race/class combos I needed and then hearthed to Dalaran to finish the job. I stood near the "Horde Bank" and just kept an eye out for the race/class combinations I needed. Got them all in about 15 minutes. I'm also going to throw this out there...Make sure that your target doesn't already have the buff from the snowflakes. I'm not sure if they've changed this, but your snowflake toss might not count if they've recently been hit.

Also, thanks to "With a Little Helper From My Friends", I'm now practically addicted to PvP on my druid. I got "Dinner Impossible" last night as well (drop a Great Feast in: Alterac Valley, Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm and Strand of the Ancients). So much fun!

Keep in mind that you lose your "Little Helper" buff/costume when you die. It's probably going to take you a few tries to get this one done. Warsong Gulch is fairly easy and tends to be quick in our battlegroup. The horde usually wins it in less than 10 minutes. (Yeah...I know...blah blah Alliance sucks...blah blah...) I found this to be the easiest battleground to rack up the kills in. As a resto druid, I don't have to switch to tree of life form to throw heals. So what I did was: found a really good hiding spot in Silverwing Hold- told the people down by the flag to stay in LoS so I could heal them, and healed the hell out of them. The kills came in pretty quickly and I was able to move on to the next on the list.

When you're working on this achievement...be understanding. There are quite a few people who LIVE in battlegrounds. Don't let the achievement chasing ruin it for them. Obviously you won't be racing around with the flag in Warsong Gulch, and probably will have to stay in the back playing very defensively, but don't be a jerk.

If you die and lose your Little Helper Buff or get your achievement, don't just /afk out of the battleground. Stay and try to help contribute to help them win! It's only fair. I mean, you've invaded the PvPer's territory in order to do something that they don't care about. Most of the PvPers I ran into while working on this were really cool about helping us get the achievement (probably because they wanted us out of the BG as quickly as possible...but I digress). You should return the favor. Besides, the deserter debuff is 15 minutes...that's longer than some of these battles even last. Hang out, get some honor, get a few marks of honor...I mean, if you get enough of them you can even buy a hot pvp mount...Even if you don't really know what you're doing...just kill horde. Trust me. The PvPers appreciate even a weak attempt from us PvE'ers rather than having us just afk out on them. You never know...you may end up liking PvP more. I know I did =D

Anyway...I've blabbered long enough for now. This is a really easy Meta to get. Good luck to all of you on the path to becoming Merrymakers!

(OH- and yes, I intend to go for the Extra Credit. I can't WAIT to throw a snowball at Thrall!)

Looking for More!

Dear Blizzard,
Thank you!
Luv,
Des

Let's take a look at the new Dungeon/Raid Finder Feature:

Dungeon Finder

• This feature has replaced the Looking For Group tool and provides all-new dungeon party creation functionality.
• Players can join as individuals, as a full group, or a partial group to look for additional party members.
• Groups using this tool will be able to teleport directly to the selected instance. Upon leaving the instance, players will be returned to their original location. If any party member needs to temporarily leave the instance for reagents or repairs, they will have the option to teleport back to the instance.
• Players can choose the Random Dungeon option.
• The Heroic Wrath of the Lich King Daily Random Dungeon option will award two Emblems of Frost no more than once a day.
• The normal Wrath of the Lich King Daily Random Dungeon option will award two Emblems of Triumph no more than once a day.
• Continuing to complete Wrath of the Lich King Heroic instances using the Daily Random Dungeon option will award players two additional Emblems of Triumph each time.
• Daily Heroic and normal dungeon quests have been removed. These quests have been replaced with weekly raid quests (see the "Quests" section for details).
• Level-appropriate rewards will be offered to players who choose the Random Dungeon option for pre-Wrath of the Lich King dungeons.
• Players can be placed in a group for a random dungeon no more than once every 15 minutes.
• Random Dungeon rewards will be placed in each player's inventory automatically upon completion of the dungeon (final boss killed). A pop-up notification will display any rewards earned through the Dungeon Finder.
• Instead of choosing a random dungeon, players can also choose specific dungeons appropriate for their level range. Multiple instances can be selected at one time. The feature no longer limits the choice to look for only 3 dungeon groups at one time.
• Pick-Up Groups
• Cross-realm instances are now available and use an improved matchmaking system to assist players in looking for additional party members. As with Battlegrounds, the realms in each Battlegroup are connected.
• As part of the matchmaking system, some of the more difficult dungeons will have a minimum gear requirement. Players also need to meet the requirements for dungeons that require attunement, such as keys or quests. If a player does not meet the requirements for a particular dungeon, a lock icon will be displayed next to that dungeon. Hovering over this icon will display the requirements which have not been met.
• Only conjured items and loot dropped in a dungeon for which other party members are eligible can be traded between players from different realms.
• A Vote Kick feature will be available in the event a member of a party is not performing to the expectations of the other members.
• Players who leave the group prematurely are subject to a Deserter debuff preventing them from using the Dungeon Finder for 15 minutes.
• If an existing group loses a member, the leader will be asked if he or she wants to continue the dungeon. Choosing to continue will automatically place the group back into the Dungeon Finder queue.
• A Player will not be placed in a group with people on his or her Ignore list.
• Players who take part in groups who have one or more members who have been matched with them randomly from within the Dungeon Finder will receive extra rewards, up to and including the coveted Perky Pug non-combat pet. The more random players with whom one groups, the faster the pet can be obtained.
• The Need Before Greed loot system will be the unalterable default looting system for pick-up groups in the Dungeon Finder and has been updated.
• Need Before Greed will now recognize gear appropriate for a class in three ways: the class must be able to equip the item, pure melee will be unable to roll on spell power items, and classes are limited to their dominant armor type (ex. paladins for plate). All items will still be available via Greed rolls as well as the new Disenchant option should no member be able to use the item.
• Players will be able to roll on items with a required minimum level higher than a player's current level.

Looking For Raid

• There is a new Looking For Raid option available to players that can be accessed via the Raid Information screen in the interface or by typing "/LFR."
• Players will be able to browse the system manually for any other players looking for a raid dungeon group.
• While browsing LFR players may sort the list ascending or descending by left-clicking the following headers: Name, Level, Class, Tank Role, Healer Role, and Damage Role. The crown is the Leader Role (representing a raid group with 2 or more people). Players can left-click on this header to sort the list with groups at the top or at the bottom.
• Hovering over players listed in LFR will display their name, class, level, roles and comments. Hovering over a raid/group will display the leader's name, the raid information (number of people in the raid), comments, if there are any bosses dead (and which ones), and if there are any friends from your Friends list or ignored players from your Ignore list in the raid group.

Alright, all in all, this is a GOOD thing. Now it'll be a little easier to get everyone through the heroics and instances they need- especially for smaller guilds that just don't have the man-power to form non-stop heroic groups. The newest badge changes will also help to get everyone geared a bit better and make farming raids and progression a bit easier.

As a guild leader, however, I can't help but think that this poses a small issue for some of our guilds. We had to pug before, sure. But we also tried to make sure our people were taken care of. We tried to make sure we put together groups to help with instances and heroics, even raids...to make sure our guild members were getting the things they needed.

Last night, in particular, our guild chat was very quiet which is a little abnormal for our crew. Everyone was out running heroics with this new group finder feature. That's good, don't get me wrong. But our guild isn't a hardcore guild where you "just do what you have to do whether you enjoy it or not." Our guild is a group of cool people that we enjoy running with and hanging out with- at least in my eyes. I haven't yet met a member I don't enjoy talking to or running with...okay...well...I have...but he's long gone by now. I just wonder what impact this sort of thing will have on guilds over time.

Don't get me wrong though. I really do enjoy this feature. It's really nice to go in and pick the role you WANT to play, versus the one the group NEEDS you to play and get snatched up for a heroic group and not have to go through the painstaking task of picking up the group. And the groups form really quickly in most cases...I really do like it. I promise...lol

It's really convenient and very useful. I enjoy it. I just can't help but wonder how this will ultimately affect guilds across the board, from hardcore raid guilds to casual groups like ours. I guess only time will tell. For now, I really am enjoying this!

Also- a quick note - assholes exist on EVERY server. So, even this feature won't let you avoid the undergeared, poor quality group members or the real assholes that you just want to strangle for their crappy attitudes. Just a quick note. hehe

New Wrath 5-Mans - Happy Snow Day!

Good Morning Everyone!

I've been meaning to post again, but have been very hectic at work. I thought I'd write a quick post today since we're having our first Snow Day of the year. (If you're wondering, I live in WNY.) The schools around here are all closed for the day. The weather is terrible. Seems like a great excuse to stay home and sip hot cocoa and snuggle with the family.

At any rate, taking a snow day is really no excuse to skip posting on the new 5-man instances that Blizz just added for us. Tuesday night, I ran Forge of Souls on heroic. Had never been there before, but got asked by a friend to tank it. GOOD TIMES! The instance server was a little laggy, but overall, it was a LOT of fun. We tried to get into the second instance, but were unable to because that instance server was down :(

Before I get too far into describing the instances themselves, let me first tell you that in order to be eligible to enter the second and third instances here, you need to do a quest chain.

The quest chain is...

1. Inside the Frozen Citadel

2. Echoes of Tortured Souls

3. The Pit of Saron

4. The Path to the Citadel

5. Deliverance from the Pit

6. Frostmourne

7. Wrath of the Lich King

It begins with either Apprentice Nelphi (Alliance) or Dark Ranger Vorel (Horde). I believe this information is still correct and I am reasonably sure that you find these NPC's in Dalaran. Coincidentally, the Alliance questgiver is located near the southern "Alliance" bank and the Horde questgiver is found near the northern "Horde" bank.

Before anyone goes and freaks out about this- the quests actually guide you through the instances themselves. The entire questline can be done on either heroic or normal mode AND you don't even have to leave the instance-chain at all during the completion of this quest chain.

(Loremasters: At this time, it doesn't seem like this counts toward your Loremaster goal. It will, however, count toward your 3000 Quests Complete.)

The Forge of Souls

This place is a tank's nightmare for sure. There are a lot of ranged trash mobs, making it very difficult for tanks to manage threat. When I tanked this, I was unable to find a spot to LoS these trash mobs to pull them together. I had to really pound on our primary target, then switch targets a lot to keep them on me (yes, that included running from mob to mob). Sometimes, these floating skulls come out of nowhere to play. They're a quick kill and do a little burst of AoE damage, but nothing too serious.

In The Forge Of Souls, there are two Bosses: Bronjahm and Devourer of Souls.

Bronjahm

This is a really cool fight. From a tank's perspective, this boss is...well...jittery. He seemed to move around a lot. There are three abilities I thought were worth mentioning here:

1. Magic's Bane: This inflicts a bit of damage to all players near the boss. I'm mentioning it because it's AoE damage. His shadow bolt isn't really too bad and it only hits ranged DPS or healers that steal aggro.

2. Corrupt Soul, Corrupted Soul Fragment, and Consume Soul: This is definitely worth knowing about. These three abilities chain together. He'll cast Corrupt Soul on a member of the party. Once he has cast it, a Corrupted Soul Shard will appear (looking like a pinkish-purple-ish cloud). If this shard is allowed to reach him, he will Consume Soul and heal himself. It makes the fight very long and frustrating if he's allowed to heal himself. So keep an eye out for this. The strategy we used for this: The party member whose soul was being corrupted moved to the opposite side of the chamber, creating maximum distance between the shard and Bronjahm. It seems that this shard can be destroyed, so you might want to have someone target and destroy it. I'm not sure if it can be snared. We didn't try. The tank needs to be aware of where this corrupted soul shard is and try to kite Bron away from it.

3. Soulstorm+Fear: When you get Bronjahm down to 30%, he'll teleport to the center of the chamber and begin to cast soulstorm and the fight enters phase 2. This is a swirling purple/pink death. When party members get caught in this, they are hit for between 1-3k per tick (closer to 1k on normal, just under 3k on heroic). You CAN escape it by running to the center of his chamber where he stands. Healers should keep everyone topped off for this phase because Bron will occasionally fear a party member, causing them to run out into the soulstorm. Another note about soulstorm- it slows movement by 50%, making it difficult to get back out of the swirling misery quickly.

Devourer of Souls

Just a quick note: You should turn on your sound for this fight. No, it doesn't help you fight him or make the fight any easier, but this boss's voice is Epic! This is the second and final boss of The Forge of Souls. Let's take a quick look at this boss fight.

1. Mirrored Soul: I'm not sure how many of you got to experience the Prince Tenris Mirkblood fight in Karazhan...but the Mirrored Soul reminds me of Blood Mirror. What happens is, Devourer targets one party member and channels a link with that person. The damage you do to Devourer will also be done to that linked party member- so it's really important to STOP DPS at that point.

2. Unleash Souls: Sorry kids, there's nothing you can do about this one. These little ghosties can't be targeted and can't be damaged. He summons a metric fluffton of these things. They don't do much damage one on one, but if you have 5 or more slapping you around- it begins to take a heavy toll. If you notice you're taking a bunch of damage, make sure you run away from these guys. Healers shouldn't have too much trouble handling this damage.

3. Wailing Souls: This...can be very bad. This does between 3-6k damage (the lower end being on Normal Mode, the higher end being on Heroic). The boss will shoot what I can only describe as "sweep of death" move. It spans 90 degrees and doesn't seem to have a range limit on it. The direction of the "Sweep" is random and sometimes will go clockwise, sometimes counter clockwise. The entire party NEEDS to avoid taking this damage. It ticks about every .4 or .5 seconds, meaning that you take almost 10k damage per second. Seems like a pretty valid reason to avoid this. It's hard to explain this spell and how to avoid it. This is one of those "once you see it, you'll get it" kind of moves.

Pit of Saron

The next instance in the chain is the Pit of Saron. This place is pretty easy. There's nothing really extremely difficult you'll face as far as the first groups of trash here. A little AoE damage and "Blinding Dirt" (a brief disorientation effect that appears to be able to be dispelled and seems to mainly affect ranged dps and healers).

You'll face four bosses...

1. Forgemaster Garfrost: This fight reminded me a lot of the Sapphiron fight from the Frostwrym Lair in Naxxramas. The first thing to know is that this boss will be constantly hitting your party with Permafrost- an aura that ticks for 200 Frost damage to all party members within his line of sight every 2 seconds. It also slaps on a stacking debuff that increases the frost damage you take by 10% for 3 seconds. Fun, right? To go right along with that he does something called Chilling Wave which inflicts ~2k to everyone in front of him and has a beefy 65 yard range. Tanks really need to keep this guy turned away from the party. He also has a thundering stomp stun/knockback specifically designed to annoy melee dps and tanks. Yay...

I didn't specifically notice this during my few times facing him, but he also has something called Deep Freeze that slows the effected target's movement speed by 50% and inflicts about 4-5k damage when the spell expires. This lasts about 15 seconds. Healers need to be watching out for this. With the Aura ticking away, this spell could bring a party member pretty close to death, if not kill them.

And now for the part that was very reminiscent of Sapphiron...During the fight, Garfrost will throw a huge Saronite Boulder at a random party member. This CAN and SHOULD be avoided. If you have a mod like Deadly Boss Mods, I believe it lets you know that he's targeted on you and is about to heave a rock at you. You should see a shadow forming on the ground- Move! It does a decent amount of damage ~4k and should really try to be avoided. If, for no other reason, than you love your healer and you want to make life easier for them. In my experience, he will throw two of these saronite boulders...and then he'll run to one of the forges nearby to cast "Forge Frostborn Mace". He will cast this at 66% and 33% health, so keep an eye on his health bar and you'll know when this is incoming. What you need to do, is get behind one of the saronite boulders in order to hide from this blast. It will probably kill anyone who doesn't get out of LoS, so definitely make sure you're moving your tail when he bounces to his forge. Also, he has two forges he can run to, so make sure you're on the correct side of the boulder.

Overall, it's a pretty easy fight. Just don't get hit by rocks and make sure you're hiding in the right spot. You'll be good to go!

2. Ick & Krick: This fight is...well it's a bit of a pain, but it's still fun! When you engage Ick, you'll see that Krick is riding around on his back...the lazy little...Anyway...This is a "poison" heavy fight. This boss will cast Pustulant Flesh on a target which hits pretty hard initially and ticks for a nice chunk of damage every 5 seconds. Healers will need to heal through this. He also will randomly drop threat and chase a random party member for 12 seconds. He's never chased me, and I've only healed this fight, so I've not really had the time to watch this pursuit so carefully. According to what I've read, this slows his movement by 50% and also increases damage by 50% on normal, 100% on heroic.

He will also throw patches of Toxic Waste on the ground that inflicts damage as long as the person stands in it. It's a bright green patch on the ground, easy to see and easier to get out of. We're all smart cookies, so we don't stand in strange colored patches on the ground, right? *whistles innocently*

Alright, now for the real nitty gritty. He will cast a Poison Cloud or Poison Nova. This is NOT like Slad'ran's poison nova. There's no "tick" damage here. This is one nasty, nasty spell. On normal mode, this will hit all party members in range for 12,000 HP. Yeah, and heroic? 30k. He emotes when he's about to cast this ability, so you need to get as far away as you safely can (without pulling adds into the fray). Deadly Boss Mods really helps here. The key to survival? GET OUT OF MELEE RANGE...QUICKLY!

Oh yes. And let's not forget about the Explosive Barrage. Krick (riding on Ick's back) will summon exploding orbs. They look like a Death Knight's Anti-Magic Bubble, but don't stand in it...or you'll die. This is an 18 second nightmare for caster dps and healers. You have to constantly move away from the purple orbs, or ultimately, they will explode and kill you. The damage "can" be healed through, but you're just better off moving. The tank should be kiting this guy around a little bit anyway to avoid the poisons on the ground. Yeah...good times. More poisons to worry about...Thanks Blizz...

Once you've defeated Ick, Krick and the Forgemaster, you're going to head up this hill of...well hell. The first two trash groups when you head up the hill the the infamous cave cast a disease on party members that's miserable to heal through. Not sure if it can be dispelled, but you should try. It...is...awful. At any rate, there are 2 groups of five as you ascend the hill. There will be five skeletons and a caster in the middle. There's AoE Damage and that horrid disease to heal through. Also note that most mobs in this entire set of instances hit hard...REALLY...hard...

You'll now face a set of four skeletons with two casters behind them. Keep an eye on the ground. A small blue rune-circle will appear on the ground. Don't stand in it. Actually, get as far away from it as you can. I'm not sure exactly what the spell is called, but they'll hit you with Chains of Ice (think Death Knight's Chains of Ice here) and it inflicts a BOATLOAD of damage. Get away from them on these trash mobs. If you're tanking this and you see the blue circles, book it. These mobs hit hard enough, and you definitely don't want to get hit by anything else that can really hurt you. You'll face two groups of these (if I remember correctly...)

After you down them, you'll find yourself at the mouth of a cave. As you enter the cave, you're going to fight a bunch of mobs during your run. It's tank and spank. Let the tank get aggro on them and own'em! However, we all know Blizz won't just let it be THAT easy. No. As you're fighting your way through this cave, you're going to find that the ceiling will cave in on your party. Big, blue rune-circles form on the ground. This is where the ice chunks will fall. Get outside of that circle and you'll be safe. The circle will disappear and you'll see what looks like snow falling from the ceiling where the circle just was and then BOOM! Big blocks of ice will crash from the ceiling. As long as you keep moving and are aware of your surroundings, you'll be fine in here.

When you get outside of the cave, you'll find Scourgelord Tyrannus and Rimefang. This fight seems pretty easy, at least in my experience on both heroic and regular.

3. Scourgelord Tyrannus and Rimefang: There are only a few things that really stand out about this boss fight. It's pretty straight forward "tank'n'spank", however there are a few items worth noting. First, on heroic, this boss has over 1 million HP. Yeah, that's a pretty sizable health pool. It doesn't seem like a really huge deal, however.

Some abilities worth noting:
- Overlord's Brand: A random member of the party will be "branded" by Tyrannus, causing all of the damage that player does to Tyrannus to hit the tank as well. If you have gotten branded, make sure to slow up on DPS a bit so that you don't make your healer hate you. Simple enough? Yeah, not really. All healing done by the branded party member will be amplified and applied to Tyrannus. It's not like you can STOP healing your tank and your party, but this is worth noting in case your party members are barking about him healing himself. Heh, you can blame the trees for his healing.../facepalm.

- Unholy Power- increases HIS damage by 75% but also slows him down by 50%. I imagine you can probably run away from this as a tank, but I haven't been able to find a duration for this spell...meaning...if he casts it at 50% HP and your tank runs...and the spell never fades...well...your tank's going to get some exercise, eh? Healers really just need to be prepared.

During this fight, players will see themselves targeted and marked by "Mark of Rimefang". This will create a mark on the ground that Rimefang will blast with Hoarfrost. This deals 4k-7k damage on normal and 7k-11k damage on heroic to all party members within 8 yards of the "point of impact" and also stuns them for 5 seconds. So, it's really important to move quickly. Also, Rimefang will throw Icy Blast constantly throughout the fight. It deals nearly the same damage as Hoarfrost, but doesn't seem to have the stun effect. It also creates a patch of tick-damage, movement-impairing yuck. If you love your healer, don't stand in this please. :-)

That pretty much covers Pit of Saron. If I've missed anything, I'm sorry. I'll tweak this post a bit here and there as I learn more, or I'll post solid strategies as I learn them.

Your next adventure will lead you into The Halls of Reflection...

Halls of Reflection

If you like Lore, you'll probably really enjoy this set of instances, especially this last instance. I'm not going to post any spoilers, I promise. But if you're a Lore geek like I am, the opening scene in this instance is great!

The Halls of Reflection begins with a gauntlet style nightmare. Yes, it's a nightmare. There are a lot of different strategies out there already, but I'll post the only one that I've gotten successfully through (even if it WAS after multiple attempts).

The gauntlet is set up like this: Four waves - Boss - Four Waves - Boss. The mobs that come at you in each of the waves will vary. Some are melee style, and easy pickups for the tank. Others are ranged and have hunter, mage and priest abilities...definitely a bit harder for the tanks to pick up.

The strategy that was used during the only successful heroic attempt we made at this was as follows:

If you look at a map of the instance, there is a large circular room with a long hallway directly across from the entrance to the instance, and two smaller rooms on the right and left side. What we did was this:

We started the event and all party members ran to the room on the right. The tank (a paladin) stood in the doorway of the room while the rest of us tucked behind the edge of the doorway. This gave the tank a bit more of an opportunity to pick up the trash mobs. It was still a rough go and it took us about 5 attempts to get through it. The mage style mobs cast flame strike quite often, there are some fears by the trash mobs, there are poisons involved...it's messy. This is by far the toughest of the three instances.

FALRIC
After the first four waves, Falric will come "alive" to fight your group. If your party has camped out in the eastern-most "cubby", then you'll have a few seconds before he reaches the group to get ready.

This fight is fun, but you definitely want to dispel his debuffs when you can. He'll cast a debuff called Hopelessness ~ Reduces all damage and healing done by players by 20%. He also casts a magic effect on the party called "Impending Despair" which can be cleansed. If it ISN'T cleansed, however, it will cause the affected person to become "Despair Stricken" and be stunned for 6 seconds. Yikes!

Healers- keep your party's health topped off. We've all experienced the hell of Confessor Paletress in Trial of the Champion, right? Well, Blizzard seems to like this new Fear+Damage combination. Falric will cast Defiling Horror. This is NOT a fear, however and tremor totems don't work. This is a horrify effect. All party members will be sent fleeing for 4 seconds, taking ~4k damage every second. He also has a fancy gift for the tank called "Quivering Strike" which inflicts a nice slam of damage and also decreases the tank's chance to dodge for 5 seconds.

All in all, this fight isn't too bad. Healers just need to be on the ball here. After you fight Falric, you'll experience four more waves of trash mobs and then...

Marwyn

Marwyn uses Obliterate, which can inflict 26k physical damage, but is mitigated by armor. Even if a tank has 75% damage reduction by armor, this strike alone is going to hit for almost 7k. It's not terrible, but if someone pulls aggro from the tank and gets hit with this...yeah...

He also casts a Well of Corruption that causes Corrupted Touch to stack on anyone inside the well. It increases shadow damage taken by 75%. If you can get away from the well, you should. Also, Corrupted Flesh reduces the target's maximum health by 50% for 8 seconds. If this lands on your tank and he's hit with an Obliterate, well things can get a little messy, hmm? I don't remember this fight being too terrible.

Another exciting feature Marwyn has: He will cast a spell called Shared Suffering on a party member. This inflicts ~6k shadow damage every 3 seconds and this lasts for 12 seconds. If you dispel this, it splits the remaining damage between the rest of the party members. Just something to note about this magic effect.

After you defeat Marwyn, you'll head down the long hallway directly across from the entrance. When you get to the end, talk to Jaina and START RUNNING!

THE LICH KING
The Lich King, (final Boss of this instance), will be chasing behind you. You need to make your way up a pathway to escape him...however, Walls will spawn, blocking your path. You need to turn and fight waves of scourge that spawn behind you while Jaina works on breaking the wall down. High DPS is really important here. You want to get the scourge down as quickly as possible, as that seems to trigger Jaina finally breaking the wall down for you. Continue in this manner until Jaina tells you to run for the opening at the end of the pathway and escape to freedom....Oh, wait though...the Lich King himself has followed you up to the end of that path, and Jaina announces that you've reached a dead end. You'll have to turn and face him.

You'll have to turn...and face...The Lich King himself!

Good luck to all of you happy adventurers out there! This instance, on normal mode drops wonderful ilvl 219 gear, and on heroic I believe drops ilvl232 (?) gear. It's a lot of fun and so far (with the exception of the Halls of Reflection Gauntlet) is one of my absolute favorite instances that Blizzard has ever released! It's challenging and fun and really packs a lot of lore into a quick instance. Once you've finished the quest chain, you'll be able to queue for any of the instances, and you won't have to run them back to back like you might have to the first time. So, Good luck to all and enjoy your new "phat lewtz"!

Old World Lore: Mastered!

Mission: Loremaster of Eastern Kingdoms
Status: COMPLETE!

Arthas, my heart!

I know everyone's going to think I'm insane because of this, but...I am addicted to running The Culling of Stratholme.

Why?

One reason.

Arthas.

My druid has a crush on him. I mean...just look at him!
So noble in appearance...And every girl likes...a bad boy...
Okay, so maybe he's an evil overlord now. Maybe he's responsible for a lot of death and devastation...but...I mean even his armor is hot.

No?

Maybe it's a druid thing? More no?

Maybe it's his glowing blue eyes that does it. I'm not quite sure, but I do know that I adore him. He makes my adventures in The Culling of Stratholme worthwhile for sure! Although, I tried to walk with him last night after defeating Mal'Ganis...you know...to get to know him a little better. Well, he vanished into thin air as we made our way back through the instance. I was devastated.

Unrequited love is so...painful. Yeah, yeah. I know he's all...lichy these days. Maybe if he'd just...open up and let me in...I could heal his heart and help him right the wrongs he has done.

Arthas, my love...open up that icy heart and give love a chance.