Archive for the “Instances” Category

I held off on posting this week, because I wanted to post my epic achieves. And they are epic. But first!

Yes, that is Onyxia. Last night we grabbed 10 bodies and went in to give her a try (now that the servers are more stable than they were on Tuesday). Fun fight, but tough! Especially if you never did it before. ¬_¬; We had trouble, not because of the fight, but because of the changes nerfs to pallys that came with 3.2.2. All the same, we got her down to phase 3 twice out of 5 attempts. I’m sure once our pallys get a handle on things we’ll be able to handle her no problem!

Anyway, onto my achievements!

It started with this:

Aside from working my butt off to get 4000 gold together (half of it was easily raised by selling 2 Argent Tournament pets on the neutral AH, btw), I was going quest and daily crazy to hit exalted with Valiance Expedition so it would only cost me 4000 gold. I’ve now unlocked those dailies in Icecrown on Esa, btw. :3

It also meant that I could *finally* use my Bronze Drake (which me winning and not having epic flight made some drama on a random CoS run. Because doing the timed run is HARD! /sarcasm).

Nifty flavor screenie:

So one that was finished, I went off on my ultimate goal: the Swift Flight Form quest chain. I’d decided a long time ago that I wanted to do the quest instead of just buying the training from the trainer. Mostly for the Feat of Strength, partly just to do it that way, but more so because I’d really like to farm Heroic: Sethekk Halls for the [Reins of the Raven Lord]. That, plus my eventual Guardian of Cenarius title (my next undertaking!), and purchasing a [Cenarion War Hippogryph] would, in my opinion, make my Druid as much a complete Druid as she could be.

So on Tuesday, despite the amazing server lagginess, I started the chain. Got about 2/3 of the way through it before I lost steam- and not because of the chain (though the travelling all over the place is the most annoying, time consuming part). No, it was because I was Neutral with Lower City on Esa. Why is this a problem, you wonder? Because in order to enter Heroic: Sethekk Halls for the final part of the chain, you need to have a key. The only way to buy the key is to be Honored with Lower City.

So off I went, running regular Sethekk Halls a bunch. The last few times I went, a fellow guildy came through on his Hunter, then swapped to his Warrior for the last boss so he could have a shot at the axe Talon King Ikiss drops. Thankfull, it didn’t take many runs to hit Honored, and last night I went off to finish the chain.

After some confusion with my friends and the rep their toons had, we went in with me as a Feral Druid (Bear tank ftw!), a Priest, and a Mage. We got to Anzu pretty quickly and cleared the room. Once I popped him, I attempted doing it the “right” way- popping into caster form periodically to cast Rejuvination on the NPCs t help- but eventually gave up for the sake of annoyance.

All the same, we killed Anzu easily (no mount drop- THIS time) and off I went to turn in my quest!

Shortly after grabbing a port to Shattarath-

Feat of Strength yay! Not to mention- I snagged my permanent moonstone, so I can now summon Anzu every day! Mount farming, here I come!

Also- I am now a pretty purple birdy when I fly!

And all the time, blood, sweat and tears was well worth it- I zipped around Sholazaar Basin this morning herbing. Got 100 Adder’s Tongue and enough Eternal Lives to make a Darkmoon card in under 25 minutes- and promptly made a Nobles Card! 8 more to go, and then Esa gets a shiny new trinket ([Darkmoon Card: Greatness])!

So last night I got dragged into a ToC run with a friend of mine. We were going to do 1 heroic run and at least 2 regulars (we were going to do more and farm, but I was tired and people were dragging their feet getting started).

Heroic went fine, as did the first regular run. I managed to get uncontested (finally) The Black Heart, which now gives me a full tanking set (and 30,000 HP when fully buffed)! Not that I intend to do any tanking, any time soon.

Or so I thought…

The 2nd regular ToC run went less than stellar, as our healer DC’d, and shortly after that our Shadow Priest had to bounce (it was him and his girlfriend’s anniversary). So it left myself (on my Druid, obviously), a Prot/Holy Pally, and a Holy Pally who swapped over to his Hunter. We decided to let the Prot/Holy Pally heal, and I’d attempt to tank it and we’d 3-man it. So, we did.

3-manning it, we did okay (it was Paletress, btw, who we were stuck on. Eadric is easy as hell compared to her). Got the image down to 30k before we wiped. The Hunter called in another guildie, who hopped on his Warrior. The extra DPS made a big difference- we 4-manned her np. Even better- she dropped the Banner of Victory, which I was hoping to snag for my kitty set (my Feral set is kitty-focused, with some tanking talents for the sake of soloing/emergencies). The Warrior and I both needed… and I won! (If you check my armory I’m in my Feral kitty set atm.)

So we continued with that set-up and I tanked the Black Knight and it was… easy. Even the 2nd phase, with all the stupid adds- no problem. Maybe our Pally healer was just that good, I don’t know. But tanking was kind of fun, and I think I’d like to try again sometime…

Normally I won’t post twice for something kind of meh like this, but I was seriously in shock last night. XD

My Guild Leader and some of the other officers are currently aware about my current real life situation and the fact that for now, I’m stuck playing on my Macbook again, until I can get my PC hooked up in my current situation.

Last night, since one of our regular healers has returned from his summer adventures, we took a 10-man group back into Ulduar once again.

Here’s where the shock comes in. I hop on Binya and get invited. As I make my way to Ulduar, I mention in raid chat that I’m still on my laptop, which tends to be a little laggy, so if people die I didn’t want to be held accountable. Then something incredible happened.

“You’re going to DPS tonight.”

I almost damn near fell off the bed I was sitting on at the time.

I’ve *NEVER* DPS’d in a guild Ulduar-10 run. EVER. It was a sore point for awhile, but since I started to enjoy playing Discipline again, I didn’t mind too much and sort of accepted my fate. So I was kinda floored.

But it gets better.

I replied that they should let me bring my Druid, since she does more DPS than my Shadow Priest now.

“So go hop on Esa then, lol.”

@_____@

So yep. I got to bring Esa into ulduar last night. I can pull 3.4k DPS on dummies in Ironforge, and that was before I snagged a double 2-piece bonus on my gear (Tier 7/7.5 2 piece and 8.5 2 piece now). I was consistently in the top 3-4 on DPS and damage, so I’m really happy that I could hold my own. I may see if I can bring her into Ulduar-25 tonight, unless they need me to heal (and really, Esa can use the upgrades more than Binya this very second). :3

Of course, we managed to freaking own Razorscale’s face and get A Quick Shave (10 player) last night… which *Binya* doesn’t even have. >_o I also missed out on my sexy Cloth shoulders that dropped, that would have been nice for my Discipline set, but ah well (they still went to good use- to the Holy/Discpline Priest my Guild Leader was playing). Still, it was funny. XD

Speaking of Binya, I was absolutely thrilled after spending like 3 days farming normal Trial of the Champion, I finally got to see Tears of the Vanquished drop! I’d been itching for it for my Disc build, especially since it’s more or less a healing-focused Pandora’s Plea -1. :3 The next thing I did, after equipping it, was swapping my cloak enchant from Lightweave Embroidery to Darkglow Embroidery. Hopefuly now with the throughput from the trinket, Darkglow, and Rapture returns, I’ll be able to heal longer than I was previously able to (especially in Ulduar-10 and some other really healing-intensive fights).

There isn’t anything else from normal or Heroic ToC that I need or want on Binya now, so hopefully I can keep bringing Esa in to flush out her Feral set some more. I really, *really* want to snag Marrowstrike for her Feral set, and I’d ideally like to get her Uruka’s Band of Zeal to replace her last green, as well as get her Banner of Victory to replace one of her trinkets. I really need to get more hit in her set though- plenty of expertise, armor penetration, and agility in her set at the moment, but I’m sorely lacking in hit. We’ll see what happens though. :3

Another week gone, and while I accomplished more goals this week, I really got a lot less done overall. :\ We’ll touch on the goals first.

300 Herbalism

Achieved! HOLY CRAP I DID IT. Of course, now I have no excuse to farm for Oozing Bags. XD I’m actually up to 320 now- 5 more skill levels in Hellfire, 25 in Zangarmarsh, and then I’m off to Northrend!

Argent Tourney dailies for another companion pet.

Achieved! I am now the proud owner of a Mechanopeep! I should be able to get another one this week, bringing my total to 64 (I counted wrong last week ¬_¬).

2 more Conquest Emblems from wherever for a piece of tier 8.5 on Binya.

Achieved! This was an easy one, too. 1 Heroic Vault of Archavon run, and boom, new shiny. I went with the healing chest piece, since it was bigger upgrade than the shadow piece would’ve been.

Ht the 2500 gold mark for Epic Flying on Esa.

Failed. D: Mostly because I spent a crapton of money this week re-working gear for both Binya and Esa. I’m just under 2000 gold though, so if I suck it up and do *all* my dailies, I should be in better shape. I know my good buddy who I do a lot of running around with in-game is frustrated with my slow flying speed though. He offered to give me some of what he’s been saving for *his* Druid’s epic flight to pay for mine. I said no way- I refuse to play the debt game in WoW like I did in FFXI. Besides, with the whole stigma of chicks and money/shinies in MMOs, I feel really uncomfortable taking anyway.

So now, for this week’s goals. I’m actually kind of iffy on setting goals this week, as I’m going to be out of town from Thursday til Monday. While I will be bringing my laptop along with me, I’m not sure how much playing I’ll actually be doing (aside from maybe dailies).

• Hit or bypass the 2500 gold mark.
• 375 Herbalism.
• 1 piece of Tier gear on Esa (this one’s gonna be rough- either getting lucky on a roll, or collecting 40 more Emblems of Heroism).
• Replace the green shoulders in my feral set on Esa (ie, getting lucky in Heroic Nexus or Heroic Old Kingdom).

So, there we go. Two should be fairly easy/reachable, the other… more luck-based. We’ll see how I fare when I return from Chicago Monday evening!

In guild drama news, at the moment, it seems to have settled a bit. While there is still tension between the GM and the Officer (oh yeah, it was really fun earlier this week when they were both PMing me at the same time bitching about each other -_-), it’s better… I suppose. I mean, they were civil to each other on Vent last night. It’s still really uncomfortable. I love my guild though, and the people in it. I wish everyone would get over their egos and return to hanging out and having fun together (friends>pixels!). :\

Last night I had a good bit of fun- we ran a whole bunch of heroics, and by we, I mean a bunch of us in the guild. I even got to go as Esa! I haven’t had fun like that running heroics since I first joined up with them back in January. It was nice. Wish we could do that more often, even if its just for shitsngiggles.

I’ve also, as a result of last night, started taking a serious look at my feral set to try to figure out what the best upgrades would be. I’m fairly overwhelmed (more stats to keep balanced than spellcasters, that’s for sure), but have a decent idea and have formulated a list of heroics with items I’m looking for. I’ve even *gasp* included some more bear tank-oriented stuff in there, as while I’m not spec’d for bear, I can probably tank halfway decently if I had to. I just… don’t enjoy tanking. Even in FFXI when I was levelling my Ninja (and was complemented along the way, but provoking, casting and recasting shadows, and spamming ninjutsu wasn’t really that hard, honestly), I just did not enjoy it. I like to DPS, I like to play somewhat complicated classes (Thief ftw!), I like to heal… I just don’t like to tank. And I don’t think that makes me a bad person.

I feel I’m starting to get a hang of Moonkin’ing now though. Yesterday, after tweaking the shit out of my gear (I sacrificed a lot of hit in place of Spell Power) it seemed to improve a lot. I also re-spec’d, again, as I was having mana issues. I’ve done some reading about rotations and whatnot, and have a better grasp on what I shoud be doing. Now it’s just a matter of getting the practice and experience doinging it, and fine-tuning it along the way.

Last night, I got to fill in a gap on the 10-man Ulduar wrap up my guild and our partner guild were doing. They had 2 10-man teams, which were both at about the same point. Apparently, however, my teams was far more successful (at least according to my buddy, who was keeping me up to date via whisper with his death count). We downed Hodir and Thorim, who I’ve previously only beat on 25-man (and I rolled an epic 1 on my tier legs token -_- lost out to a Warlock in my guild, *sigh*), as well as killing Freya (who I’ve never beaten) *and* got to experience Mimiron up to Phase 3. He doesn’t seem as epically hard as everyone makes him out to be ¬_¬ but I was healing- not DPSing- and we weren’t even trying to do hard mode. Still though, it was progression! I definitely felt accomplished when we broke at 2 am (10 pm server).

Now, after the jump… why my FFXI is going to stay active until at least the end of August…
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So this is a big, random, congrats to my Limbus shell, Shenanigans, for finally breaking the drought and getting not one but *2* Homam Corazza‘s off of Omega in the last two runs, after not seeing *ANY* for over a year!

This is also how the Random Number Generator of FFXI is making plays to suck me back in. “Oh look Etain, Omega’s Hearts really do exist! Come back and play again and I’m sure one will drop for you once you’re eligible to lot!”

I will not fall for your evil trickery! I know as soon as I start attending again, and hit the magic number to lot on boss drops that all of a sudden it will be nothing but hands, feet, and hats again! I have you figured out!

(But I am so weak, oh good lord…)

In other drop news… I’ve gotten a big fat goose egg the last few weeks off raid stuffs. I think I used up all my luck snagging 2 pieces of Tier 8 gear from Vault of Archavon (and 1 piece of PvP gear, rawr~). I got brought along on a Naxx-25 Monday night, rolled on the few 3 or so things that would have been an upgrade for me, and did not win one roll. Including the token for my god damn Tier 7.5 hat (aside from the fact it’s a pretty glowy halo, it’s a significant improvement over what I’m currently wearing on my Discipline set. I’ve lost the roll for either the t.7 or t.7.5 about 4 times now. I’m starting to get annoyed D:<). I rolled on a ring, a pair of boots, and the token and every time my roll was painful. PAINFUL. My good friend got the shit pimped out of him though, since he was the only one who really needed any plate tanking stuff. I have to say though, it was mildly irritating to watch him roll a 1, no one else roll against him, and the loot just rain down from the heavens for him (love ‘ya Kad, XD hehehe).

Ah well. Tonight is Ulduar-10 (in theory anyway… who knows if we’ll have enough people…), so if all goes well, maybe Flame Leviathan will be nice to me. :< Tomorrow I got invited to an Ulduar-25… I can only hope as Shadow and not Discipline… so perhaps I’ll get lucky there, too. We’ll see.

I’m not going to hold my breath though. Do we need to be reminded of the last time I got hopeful for drops? I didn’t think so.