Paranoid delved into the Firelands this weekend. We did not take down a boss yet, but learned a lot, and I expect we will take one down soon.
Arena season should start up today, which will be fun. Also, it was AV weekend, and I had fun doing many BGs, both solo and with guildies.
Al’Akir fell before the Paranoid raid yesterday.
That means we went 11-12 before the 4.2 nerfs.
It felt really smooth, too. We switched up our positioning in phase 1 to make it easier for the people on the edges to avoid the tornadoes. We also went top to bottom instead of bottom to top in phase 3.
The phase 1 change was Teo’s suggestion. The phase 3 suggestion came out of conversation and seemed to center on the fact that we were thrown nearer the top of the space anyway.
After Al’Akir we did BRD through Atramedes, many of us on alts. I was on Chillhand, still. He dropped the tanking neck, and I got a very legitimate Cataclymically Epic achieve.
Zooe and I did some arenas. We did some 2v2, but the interesting thing was being joined by Sun for 3v3. We ran mage/rogue/shaman for a while, then for fun I switched to my resto druid and we ran 2-healer. It was interesting, but would work better with a little more burst maybe a DK or a mage, and with a disc priest like Oni for mana burns.
I also ran rogue-rogue with Skove, since Agi was unavailable. That went extremely well, we went 8-0 and both of us got the Hot Streak achievement for winning 10 in a row. Very nice.
We are all on tenterhooks for the patch drop Tuesday.
Paranoid is now getting to phase 3 of Al-Akir regularly now.
Unfortunately with father’s day next weekend I will not be able to raid. Our other tank Sylv won’t be able to either. So they will probably do ICC achievements or something next weekend.
4.2 and its raid nerfs might then drop before we can take him down. Ah well.
Our last good attempt was really close, with the boss below 8% when we died. It’s a fun fight and we were all both happy we were getting the fight down and bummed we couldn’t finish it this weekend.
I also did arenas on my warlock with Skove on his rogue and Agi on his disc priest. We went 8-4 and it felt like we were beating some good teams. Agi and Skove clearly have fun while playing and it makes it fun to be on their team.
Good one day of raiding this weekend. Got down a bunch of our usual bosses, including a third Atramedes kill, this time with Sylv.
Also Ripp and I did 2v2 on my mage. We were a bit rusty but got better as we went on. I now have a PVP neck and will soon have a second PVP ring. After that I think I will be saving up for a PVP staff.
My work schedule will be changing, so I may get to play with my guildies less during the week. We shall see.
We downed the first two bosses in Blackrock.
The robot council went down after a number of attempts. Despite our nearly downing them last week, it didn’t feel easy. Perhaps it was a slightly different raid composition. But we got it done.
Magmaw was fun. We banged our heads against it a few times, then it clicked. We got Magmaw down to 4% or so, and soon after he was down.
The key was not burning down the adds. Instead we had Sylveste, our other tank, kite them with trap and misdirect assistance from Rip, our hunter. A bit tricky but it worked. Sylv kited the zombie chow on Gluth back in the day, so he had the skills.
We started on the next boss, whose name escapes me but has the red/blue/green vials. On this one I am assigned to the adds. It is tricky, partly kiting, then needing to burn them down. And the boss needs multiple interrupts. We need to learn that dance. Perhaps next weekend, if we can down the first two fairly quickly. I have limited availabilty, so they may be doing it with another tank, likely Rubb on his blood spec.
Also had some fun with son and wife leveling. Almost to Northrend on the shaman, and over 40 on the warrior.
Quite a weekend.
Paranoid had it’s first raid of Cata.
We banged our heads against the Twilight Pinnacle multi-dragon boss the first day. Then we went to Blackrock and worked on both of the first two bosses.
We need to figure out the best way for our group to take out the parasites on Magmar. We got his head pinned on multiple tries, but always had the parasites overtake us in the end.
We had more luck on the four-statue boss. We got them down to 0.2% on our second-to-last try. It is a fun, hectic fight. I predict we will down them next weekend.
While we got a bit frustrated on the first day, we never lost our cool. And the second day really felt good. It has been a long time since we had to learn a new fight, and for me, this is some of the best times to play.
On my other toons, other than running a few dungeons and leveling a bit, I focused on professions. My non-gathering skills are now uniformly over 500, with several closing in on 525. I did a ton of farming. I did a lot on Chillheart, who is a herbalist and miner. It is great being able to see both types of nodes on the minimap. She is only 80, but it was still great for jewelcrafting and inscription, which needs lots of one kind of material rather than some of many.
One week to Cata.
While I will eventually get all my toons to 85, my plan is to first work on two:
1) Chillhand the paladin, for tanking in raids.
2) Chillmon the mage, for PvP.
I am still gearing Chillmon. I am loving the numbers he is putting up in 5-mans. It is usually about 5k and I still have some weak gear. And even in frost that number is more for single targets. Blizzard is okay but it is not the AoE bomb it used to be. Half of what I use it for is to get my chill-based procs up so I can zap individual targets.
I am putting together some thoughts on prepping for Cata. More soon.
I did the math, and decided that a Horseman run just isn’t in the cards for my mage.
At this point it would mean gaining more than two levels per day. Though technically possible it would mean putting too much time in the game and not enough with my family. Plus, that kind of intense leads to burnout – though I am enjoying him immensely still.
Instead we did the raid weekly – the death knight trainer boss in Naxx – and while I did level my mage a bit, I ended up running several heroics on Chillhand the paladin, most of them with fellow Pants on Header Pfantom healing as I tanked. They went well and I enjoyed them. I even used the guardian spell that helps the party take less damage. I used it for the lightning ring on the last boss of Lightning Halls.
I definitely need to learn my utility spells on Chillhand better. I have added the hand spells to Healbot but basically never use them. Yet.
The Horseman went down quickly. Not much to say about that except I am only interested in the mount.
As to the buckets and so on, I am using them to give quick exp to my mage, who is now level 50. I may back off on leveling him, because I can’t get him to Horseman level in two weeks (I think) and I am in danger of getting tired of him. I have tried all three specs, and keep coming back to fire. I love the mobility, the procs, and the mana efficiency.
We also did the raid weekly-Noth in Naxx. I tanked on my paladin. We eight-manned it, and I was the only tank. It went smoothly, so her gear must be coming along. I suppose I should start running ToC, the ICC 5-mans, and so on.
And perhaps it is time to work on healing specs and finish DPS specs on my 80s.
Am I the only one who burns out on one toon?
The patch is confirmed for today.
Ran one last raid weekly with Pants on Head yesterday – Obsidian Sanctum.
Today the craziness starts.
Before work I got the downloader going and it seemed to be installing the multi-gig patch. Hopefully we will have a smooth launch. There are so many changes coming if it does go smoothly it will be remarkable.
Oh and the Armory app has been updated. I plan on fooling around with specs today. *edit* Despite the update the talent portion is unchanged. Very disappointing and confusing.
See you online!
-Chill
Callmechill's Blog 