Our guild stepped foot into Naxx last night for the first time in weeks. I think it was a combination of (a) the Naxx-25 experience aftershocks, and (b) the summer festival consuming the time of some of our more OCD officers in pursuit of flowers to buy things with.

Myself, I could not face that awful grind again. None of the clan could. So in some cases we downed quests for XP when convenient, we did not pursue the whole thing at all.

At any rate, our foray into Naxx met with some setbacks, but we cleared three wings, with only Military left.  Our newest Shadow Priest and Hunter obtained many drops, as there were few takers for the other stuff.

Unrelated but important topic …

One thing you can say about the Argent Tournament is that, while no less grindy than normal faction grinds, at least it’s convenient. For the past few weeks I’ve been doing two valiant and two champion quests each day, and that has gotten me a shiney new title and three new mounts, the latest which you see here outside of the used Elekk dealer’s garage at The Exodar.

I have some loose ends to tie up but I am almost done with the valiant quests at this point. Then the long agonizing grind for pets and mounts.

I do it this way because I don’t want to become like some others I’ve read, who can’t bear to even look at the place anymore because they’re burnt out from running all the quests every day.  That would burn out a saint.

When Grimm started raiding on behalf of the clan back at Kara, and later Flora as well, each boss was a stepping stone to the next, but each was a long, difficult learning curve. I recall clearly the excitement over the guild-first kill of Attumen. They avoided Moroes like the plague, and repeatedly bashed up against the solid wall that is Maiden. Oz was surprisingly straightforward but Romulo and Julianne gave them fits. And Curator … :: shudder :: … Grimm took to the ale hard and Flora invented whole new obscenities to mutter.

Overall, it took several months from our first boss kill to a full clear, which was just before they nerfed everything.  I may have seen one or two forays into Kara before that all fell apart, but overall that was the place where our senior members shone.

Good times.

Things fell apart then, as some guildies felt that the rest of the guild was holding up their forward progress – i.e. not levelling like a fiend – and our numbers teetered on the verge of never raiding again. We perservered. After all, there were Heroics to do and gear to obtain. The GL worked like a coal miner to keep new blood coming in as others broke loose. Old faces returned – and sometimes wandered off again.

But, finally, we got critical mass. At least enough people to where we only had one or two holes to fill from allied guilds. And in we went, just a few weeks ago.We made our first attempt at our first Naxx boss, after wiping on trash en route. We wiped on the bosses, too, of course.

Shortly thereafter, we read up on strategies, and took him down. We one-shotted the next boss and wiped on Meaxxna.

A week or two later, we were fully clearing that wing with occasional wipes, and moving on to other other bosses. Military wing was our next one, and for a while Razz was our bane. One or two tries later, we got him. We stalled on Gothik until we got the balance right, then we ran full tilt into Four Horsemen and hit a brick wall. Ow.

Eventually we got that down. The last two attempts have been like silk. Meanwhile, Plague Wing awaited. One-shotted everything up to the end boss (yes, Heigan was one-shot, even if we only had three standing in the end). We sailed through Construct with a couple of stutters, but within three weeks’ time we went from stalled on Horsemen to staring at Thadd – and we one-shot him.

It took us a couple of weeks to get a handle on Sapph – and it’s still rocky – but two weeks ago we took our first shot at Kel’Thuzad.  Less than a month had passed from when we first stalled on the Horsemen.

This week we set foot into the necropolis, facing a fresh instance. We took out Anub’Rekan before the second plague swarm. We rolled over Feralina before the 3rd enrage. Maexxna went “wtf, dudes?!”  Razz saw us coming and tried to hide. Gothik teleported twice. The horsemen didn’t get the zerg treatment, but I had 20K mana left¹ .  Noth, Heigan, and Gluth all fell before our wrath. And that was the first night.

The second night, Patchwerk, Gluth, and Grobbulus were all one-shots, but Thadd delayed his fate a little due to some bad jumps. But he did go down.  Sapph gave us trouble due to bad luck on the ice blocks, but went down in two or three tries.

That left us with two days to work on the big guy – normally it takes us three days to get here, but this time we had some good vibes kicking in.

Kel’Thuzad has left the building. Feet first.

It took us several tries, but we got him. Phases 2 and 3 really strike me as serious healer fights – if the healers stumble, you lose people. One of our members suggested to me that I save Pennance for those ice blocks, rather than hope for a lucky proc on flash heal, and that really seemed to turn the tide.²

Full clear, three days, two to three months after we started trying in earnest. I am so happy for our guild and especially our GL who has had to endure drama, drama, and more drama along the way.  Seriously, I don’t know why she didn’t snap, disband the guild, and retire on a beach near Zul’Gurub – it’s not like anyone visits there.

Malygos, then Ulduar, are on the horizon. We be small, but we be vicious: beware the vorpal bunnies!

1. ”Nerf MP5!” [↩]
2. So: Disc priests, save Pennance and (if not on CD) PW: S (with glyph).  Personally, I go straight for Pennance as it is most likely to be available. [↩]

There have been many blogging departures as of late. Megan at Out of Mana is the most recent, and the one I will miss the most so far.

Hear that Megs? More than BRK.

Flora has locked herself in her room with all the chocolates, thanks. Oh, and a two-liter bottle of Yukon Jack. I only hope she’s not still specced Destro – you know what a mess that could be? Do ya?

Well, anyway … Take care, Megs. It was a blast.

Today’s Meta’s birthday, and many are celebrating in the traditional manner. He, of course, is busy camping the laser kitty while everyone else is off at work.

This weekend we actually executed our plans to raid – having more level 80 healers is a boon – and downed our very first L80 raid boss – Archie – as a guild. Naturally, the druid chest piece dropped, and naturally, we had no druids.

We attempted the Arachnid wing of Naxx and didn’t make it past Anub’Rekhan, but we identified several things that needed fixed before the next time¹, so it wasn’t all a loss.

We then attempted Sarth +0D, got the drakes down, but again failed to down the boss². Again, we learned from the experience.

I was elected to stay outside with the MT during the one drake where everyone runs inside the portal. Around 3/4 through, I was asked how my mana was holding up, and I was pleased to report that I was at around 13K out of 20K still. As I continue to run this spec I am learning a lot about its ins and outs. Rapture makes it so that any time your shield absorbs damage, part of that gets translated into mana for you. So if I keep my shield up on the MT as much as possible, my mana consumption is reduced to a trickle. It is very sweet, let me tell you!

What is interesting to me as a priest is that our GM has gotten her priest to 80 as well, and has started running heroics. Her comment last night was to the effect that she had no idea how hectic healing had become in WotLK. I was stunned. I had thought that this was just a case of Meta – a born DPSer – shifting gears to be a healer, and mostly just brute-forcing through it. To hear from an experienced healer the same thoughts that have flitted through my head … well, it was a load off my mind.

It changes everything for me. Now instead of wondering what I am doing wrong, I focus on what I do right and improve it. It’s a subtle difference, but it means a lot mentally in how one approaches what one does.

1. Namely, people need to learn the strat and stop trying to bully everyone else into non-standard strats [↩]
2. Again, for much the same reasons. [↩]

Today is my third anniversary.

No, that’s not entirely true, but on this day, three years ago, a Dwarf named Grimmtooth did, indeed, start his life on the Alleria realm.

He was a warrior.

Then, as now, there were Icarii, Floramel, and several other familiar names. There were also some unfamiliar ones, such as Yardifbey, who – oddly – was a warlock. Flora was a priest.

Grimmtooth Mk 1 achieved the lofty level of 53, and was getting his butt kicked by Furbolgs in Felwood. Everyone else was somewhere behind him.

Several months later, they all committed suicide. Very sad. Grimm jumped into the Great Forge. Yardif poured brandy over himself and then cast Hellfire, atop the Stormwind fountain. And so on.

But then, a miracle happened! Meta decided that he was interested in the game again, but since he had killed off all the original crew, he had to reroll. Thus was I re-born as a hunter, and my brothers and sisters as well.

Little did Meta realize at the time that he could have gotten the whole crew back by asking nicely. He figured they were gone for good¹ .  Otherwise, I might still be a warrior, albeit a lot further along.

We are, however, overall pleased with the outcome. And we’ve seen so much over that time.

Here’s to the future. I hope its friendly.

1. And let that be a lesson to you – nothing you ever do with Blizzard will be forgotten [↩]

Well, with a few group quests as exceptions, I hit the end of the final main quest line (Thorim / Sons of Hodir) last night. Now, all that is left is completing those group quests and cleaning up a few overlooked ones here and there.

I also have to go to Howling Fjord and start clearing it out since I never did before. Unfortunately, the loremaster achievements or whatever they are require both starting zones for completion, regardless of any high-falutin’ intentions on Blizz’ part.

It’s especially auspicious considering that three days from now marks the team’s three-year anniversary (and the guild just posted it’s fourth year anniversary).

Considering what is coming, I wonder if Blizz will start embedding some other achievements into the game.

• Account level fifth year
• Character level fifth year
• Fifth-year guild award – must have been in guild for entire five years, too – and that includes the GM.
• And for Hunters, how about a fifth-year pet anniversary? That one should be pretty rare.

I’ll post more anniversary thoughts on Thursday.

Chain Trap: Last post.

Another of the Old Guard departs. You kids be respectful and go say your good-byes, if you’re minded to!

Update: Now why in the world wasn’t Chain Trap in my blogroll? Been on my reader list forever.  Well, retroactive appologies for the oversight. Bad dorf, no ale for me.

Last night started out disasterously as we attempted Heroic Azjol-Nerub and didn’t get past the first boss. I personally felt I was unable to keep up with the damage, though I will concede that inconsistent positioning and spotty communications¹ may have played some part in it, but I truly felt out of my depth. Pretty much as I do in any Heroic. /sigh

After several failed attempts, it was suggested that we try The Nexus instead. I was good with that, being a firm believer in the “start small, grow bigger” school of thought. We could have gone for Utgarde Keep, but we had the most experience, as a group, in The Nexus. So off we went.

On the way to The Nexus, after much discussion with the GM, I decided to get – so to speak – both ass cheeks on the same horse. It’s looking like Disc Hybrid just doesn’t cut it as a healing spec, so I popped over to IF and paid my 35 gold for a clean slate. My spec is now 51/20/0 Disc. I may take more from Holy if needed.

For whatever reason – the respec, the DPS, the amount of practice, whatevs – we were able to get through The Nexus in Heroic mode. We had a wipe here and there, and even when we didn’t wipe my charges felt the brunt of it. But we took out all of the bosses. I was rewarded with Opposed Stasis Leggings and Gloves of Glistening Runes for my efforts. This pretty much marks my Gloves as Naxx-ready, and there is only one set of pants that beats whe I have now. Gear Plan updated.

Once we were done there, we went to visit Utgarde Keep to see how it fared on Heroic. There were wipes here, too, but at least we can claim that we’d never even set foot in it in Heroic mode before. At the end, though, we prevailed. There was one good drop, but it was also of interest to the GL’s mage, so I greeded, and she won the roll. I don’t feel bad about it, she deserves a few bits of gear as well.

So, overall, a great night. We’ll probably run both of these again until I get the hang of the new spec, then head back to A-N for another try.

Tonight: Naxx, he Recon Tour. I hope we can get 10 people interested enough to run it. We have a soft alliance with another guild and might be able to get a few hands to help if needed. I am very excited!

1. As in, “nobody wanted to talk to each other, seemingly.” [↩]

I committed to getting to 80 as fast as possible so that our guild would be able to field a viable force for 10-man raids.

For several weeks, the team has all pitched in. Grimm hunted down items to DE. Amus organized and sorted various elemental bits. Illume actually retrained to learn how to inscribe. Flora contributed all her tailoring and enchanting items. And they all gave up cycles so that I could have as much time per day as possible, to achieve that level 80 achievement and be ready to heal the guild.

I consider my commitment fulfilled. Now it is the guild’s turn. It is the guild’s turn to produce a group to be healed. To produce leadership that is ready to go in and start a months-long slog like we’ve seen in Kara. To be there.

I – and the rest of Team Grimmtooth – did what was necessary to bring a healer to the playing field.Now, the team takes its rightful place until the rest of the contract is fulfilled. From now on, we return to our normal rotation. Everybody now gets a chance to be more than a support system for a priest. Everybody gets a chance to live instead of serve some obscure goal.

Now, it’s not so much about getting there, but about how to best tweak my spec to meet further requirements down the road.

But for now … I consider my commitment fulfilled. The next step is up to our guild. I’ll be there for them. If we never raid again, so be it. If we do, I have teh healz. We’re ready.

Next year we get to make contact; so sayeth Arthur C. Clark.

A year ago I was wembling over how our guild might beat Maiden and Moroes, and celebrating our final addition, that being the lovely Yarley, our token Druid.  Of course, she wasn’t the last, with Fai joining shortly thereafter¹ .

Today I am wondering if we’ll ever see the inside of Naxx as a guild. I’m fairly content with “no” but the distress it causes others is … distressing. Not to mention the white-hot hatred I feel for certain … induhviduals.

At any rate, here’s hoping for an  upward slope for the year to come.

All the best from myself, Flora, Jasra, Slithmere, Kutath, Orlee, Amus, Yarley, and Fiaella. May your lewt be epix.

1. … and who is still not being all that talkative about her whereabouts [↩]

The first milestone I should have caught almost a month ago. On November 11, 2007, was my first blog post. Apparently I was whining about how hard the Shadow Labyrinth was. How times change.

The second milestone is that I popped level 80 today, while questing in the Storm Peaks, and celebrated with a hot spicy brew.

So, gratz to me!

Well, first of all, check it out.

That’s right. Dwarf on a horsie.

This came about after I told King Wrynn of the happenings at Stormwind. Boom! Exalted with Stormwind. Since I was in Theramore anyway, I couldn’t resist getting a small token to show off my exaltedness. It’s my first main faction Exalted.

Now, how about this? My sweetie figured it out immediately, though our GL didn’t see it until it was pointed out. That’s right, folks. Thundercats. Which is only natural since I was grinding quests for the Cat God.

I love this kind of stuff.

Oh! Third thing! Almost 80! According to Ghost Crawler, that makes me almost hard core, only two days removed. Go me.

This here’s my bear.

Ain’t he got flair?

It’s mah bear.

Yes, somebody made it to Daleran yesterday, and after mugging Flora for some change, I purchased my new favorite transportation medium. Oh, she can gripe all she wants, but when all is said and done, she’ll get a flying carpet. For me, this is it without some serious faction grinding.

I’ve completed the Nexus quests now, so I can move on if needed. Last night we went with a pally tank so I broke out my new trick – Hunter AoE. I was able to stay on top of the charts against one of our heavier damage mages when AoE was on the menu – a least, for a while. We were pretty much neck and neck for the whole thing. Even though she’s 3 levels lower, she still has been the DPS queen, so even getting close is an achievement. And I haven’t even tweaked for my final build.

The cooking dailies look very interesting and I look forward to trying the new system out.

Flora got a new polar bear cub to celebrate the 4th year anniversary of WoW. I had understood that it would only be awarded to four year vets, which none of us are, but apparently everyone is getting one. It’s a shame, those that have stuck with the game for four years should be recognized.

My sweetie suggests that next year, a spectral tiger cub would be ideal.

Well, I was online running what is probably my final set of dailies for a while when the server ticked over to midnight. Northrend appeared in the map, but the world did not come to an end. Take that, doomsayers!

We’ll see what it looks like tommorrow. I’ll be picking up the expansion from Beast Buy on my way home. Probably awful. C’este la vie! So long for now – Grimm’s going to be hogging the CPU cycles until we get a pecking order established.

Two nights ago, I tendered my resignation as an officer in our guild, on behalf of the whole team.  I had been contemplating this as one route to getting the fun back into the game, but it wasn’t until I dreamed of doing it three nights in a row that I realized just how badly I needed to.

I have not quit the game. I have not left the guild. I may – now that I don’t have to listen to the profane and petty bitchings often present in officer’s chat – resume raiding and instances again. I may possibly even buy the expansion on LK-day; I still haven’t decided on that.

What does leaving as an officer do for me, anyway?

First and foremost, I am now able to – without guilt – mute anyone that is taking away from the game. So if one of our two star whiners start wailing in guild chat about how they’ve been nerfed to the ground¹, I can simply put them on a time-out.  Granted, the need for doing so will annoy me as well, but I have to have something.

Second of all, those same people tend to pollute officer’s chat with toxic comments about everybody else, and of course they use officer’s chat as a place to whine – about specs and other players – as well. The actual start of the downward spiral, as far as I am concerned, was when I called one of them on it² and he responded that since he had been playing for so long he was “entitled to it.”  I swear on the Light itself, those words actually passed his … lips. Fingertips.

Our GM has asked if she can do the demotes late at night, and I agee to that – I don’t want to cause more drama. They will all eventually realize what is happening but hopefully it will be a done deal for several days or weeks.

She did ask me why. I was blunt, but truthful. I named names. I knew nothing would come of it not because I have no faith, but because the main culprit is a RL friend, and sometimes you have to put up with your friends. I know how it goes. But he’s not mine and I don’t have to put up with him, bottom line. So the air’s cleared there.

In other news …

Saturday the guild ran Kara, as is the guild’s nature to do so, and completed it in two hours, even with all the servers coming down in the middle of it. I wasn’t on at the time, but found about this after the fact.  The GM called for me for a second run after they took a brief break. I was a little nervous, not having a whole lot of healing practice and certainly none in a raiding environment.

Well, we cleared it again. I got several nice items, including the Mindblade³, lots of Violet faction, and the achievements associated. Also a Batling.  I did blow it – massively – on Maiden, but the other priest (the GM) managed to keep everyone up.  We did lose our Ret palli a lot, but I have to say that maybe that’s because he wasn’t watching his aggro more than anything else. When he drops 80% in 2 seconds, there’s probably a reason.

I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop in Northrend when I hit some real healing challenges.

1. See previous comments about cookie-cutter players. [↩]
2. ”You can’t stand V**** in guild chat so you start doing the same thing in officer chat and this helps ME how?”" [↩]
3. Flora is weeping. [↩]