Archive for the ‘Social’ Category

Well, I completed Heroic Violet Hold again this evening, making that two clears in one day. How is that possible, you say? Don’t you get locked out after attempting it once per day? The answer: Yes, you can only do a heroic dungeon once a day. However, I did my first run just before the lockout reset in the morning, so my first run technically came yesterday. In any case, completing it made me exalted with the Argent Crusade. This is just another step for me towards the Crusader title I want.

That second Violet Hold run was with guildies and a good friend of the guild, so it was much more relaxing. I forgot how comforting it is to be around people you know! We were going to go tackle Heroic Nexus, but we were just starting to clear out some of the trash mobs when my guild’s second in command said, “sorry,” and hearthed away, before logging off. It turns out that “real life” had called him, and as much as I wanted to run that dungeon, real life takes precedent over WoW any day of the week. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow.

Tonight we – my guild – ran another heroic, this time Azjol-Nerub. I was tentative at first, since I wasn’t sure how my DPS would hold up against my guildies. Well, the answer was swift: at least among the group we brought, I was tops. lol Capping 2k DPS allowed me to lead the offense and earned me a “Damn, Gav,” from a guild mate. I also had to tank a few times as the baddies would turn on me. On top of all that (as if that wasn’t enough) I tossed a few heals around to keep us alive. We absolutely blitzed that dungeon, no question. I also got my first nice drop, Flamebeard’s Bracers. The comments on Wowhead say,

These are the highest crit rating bracers available to holy paladins and unless you really like your mp5, they are arguably second only to a drop from Grobulus in Heroic Naxx.

Every holy paladin should make a point of farming for these.

Score! I got ‘em in one run. My guild is great, and I’m still really happy to be in it. They had no qualms with passing out the loot as needed, plus we rolled greed on everything that no one in particular needed. This process netted me another Frozen Orb. lol Now, what to do with it…

I logged in tonight to find a group of my guildies half way through Heroic Nexus, and they were short a healer. Guess who got another trial by fire? lol

I slapped on my holy gear and flew on down. I entered the dungeon to find everyone way, way in the back, past some mobs. Great. One of them killed me before I could even meet up with the group. After I rezzed and met up with everyone, I faced my biggest challenge: massive lag. I had such latency issues that I’d click a spell and have to wait a few seconds before it’d cast. That could mean life or death for the whole party as a healer. We killed our first boss (their third overall; remember, I joined late), Ormorok the Tree-Shaper, with little fanfare. I got silenced a few times, but we lived. On to the final boss, Keristrasza!

This was a pain, because the boss kept using a damage over time frost spell that made it hard to keep everyone alive. Our first attempt failed when our tank died (damn lag), letting the boss loose. Try number two failed when I died from that DOT spell. Third time, as they say, was the charm. We learned to move to shake the frost spell, so that was less of an issue. Our tank got killed again, but the rest of us dropped the dragon. We rezzed the tank, doled out the loot and some ‘gratz,’ and headed back to civilization to regroup and repair. As usual, no loot for me, but I got some more intensive healing training. Some day I may be able to be a regular healer for the guild.

I still prefer being DPS, though.

I was given a second chance this morning, and I kinda, sorta took advantage of it. The guildie who took me to Violet Hold to heal last time invited me back to do it again. Some people are gluttons for punishment, I guess. Anyway, I’d upped my spell power by almost 300 points and installed Healbot since then, so I was ready. We did ok, and again cleared it in one try, but again there was allot of dying. I died this time, too. Twice. No one died in the fight with Cyanigosa this time, though. She was toast in no time. All in all it was an experience, and experience is what I need right now, as much as gear. We also got A Void Dance, but that required my guildie who invited me all but soloing Zuramat after we all died.

Cyanigosa is dead again, but this time not without some drama. One of my guild’s leaders and I went with three others into Heroic Violet Hold tonight. It was me (a ret pally), my guildie (a death knight tank), another death knight, another ret paladin, and a n00b. I mean, a restoration shaman. She wasn’t the best healer though, to be honest. She had a gear score of almost 2k points less then the rest of us, and she wasn’t too experienced. So, it was not a huge surprise when we all died (it was sort of a surprise that we got to Cyanigosa before wiping, but that’s neither here nor there). When I went to ghost out, my game crashed. It took me awhile to get back in, and when I did another guildie had taken my place. I didn’t begrudge them one bit for replacing me. In fact, I was hoping that they weren’t sitting around waiting on me. However, once back (and after the group wiped again), I was re-instated to the group, much the the chagrin of the shaman. Why, I don’t know. I guess she just liked the my other guildie better (they were both girls). We promptly died again when the healer went ahead of us and got killed.

It was clear what our weak link was, but how to fix it? My guildie had a plan: we told the shaman we were breaking the run off, at which point she left. We promptly inserted a druid healer with a gear score 700 points higher then mine. Yes! The rest of the run was rather uneventful, aside from some joking about the shaman. We quickly cleared the dungeon and I got a total of 5 emblems of heroism out of it (two the first time, and three when we tried again). I now have enough to buy a libram at the EoH vendor, but I’m not enamored with the one available. It’s buff to my Seal of Command would be great, if I actually used that spell. As it is, I don’t, and probably won’t before patch 3.2 removes Seal of the Martyr.

What I find interesting is that we died over and over with this shaman, but I healed my group yesterday through in one try. People died, yes, but we didn’t ever wipe. I guess I’m not too sucky of a healer.

BTW, I did remember grab the dragon’s head this time. I also didn’t get any loot. Again. WoW has it out for me for mocking dungeons.

Anyone who’s been reading this blog has probably noticed a severe dichotomy in my posts the last couple of days. Four days ago, I ripped raiding and instances. Three days ago I went to my first Heroic dungeon with my guild. Two days ago I joined them in my first 10-man raid. What’s happened? I’ll elaborate.

My guild has been asking me for a while to join them for a while now. I enjoy going with them but I have this huge fear of letting everyone down. I also still hate hardcore raiders with a passion. The ‘do everything the hard way, up hill, both ways’ thought process irks me. It finally dawned on me this morning, though, that I’m kinda just being drug along by my guild. I don’t feel I’m truly pulling my own weight here. I think this leaves me with two options: stop running instances with the guild, or put in double time so I can hold my own. For now, I’m opting for the latter. We’ll see how it goes.

My guild asked for all eligible level 80s to help on 10-man Obsidian Sanctum, and since I qualified, I tagged along. My first trick was figuring out where OS was. Once I did that, we ran through two backup healers before opting for another DPS and my guild leader respeccing his alt for healing.

We did ok clearing the western half of the dungeon, but the start of the eastern half was shaky.  We wiped on trash mobs when they ganged up on the main tank who promptly died, allowing the mobs to run amok amongst the rest of us. After that, we fought Vesperon, and I was part of the contingent chosen to go into the portals with the off-tank, along with the rest of the DPS and one of our healers. That fight was no big deal. Sartharion, though… that was a beast. I was warned to avoid the lava waves, to which I said, “what lava waves?” After it was explained, my guild leader on his restoration druid whispered to me to help with the healing to keep the tank alive. So, I was to pour on the damage and help keep the tank alive? *gulp*

As you can see, it all worked out. No one died, but I did get hit by one of the lava waves I was warned about. I was dying in a hurry, but Lay on Hands and Cleanse saved my hide. I then turned on my Fire Resistance Aura to help everyone cope. I kept one eye on everyone’s health bars and kept Sacred Shield on the main tank, firing off a Flash of Light when necessary. I got a few more Emblems of Heroism, but no loot. Oh well, maybe next time.

One last note: compared to my Heroic Violet Hold, I did much better, DPS-wise, ranking 2nd or 3rd, depending on whose recount you went by. My DPS in H VH was almost under 1k, but I nearly topped 2k in OS. Nice.

My fears were misplaced. My guild’s second in command and another high ranking officer invited me along to do the Leeeeeeeeeeeroy! achievement at Blackrock Spire. Myself and the other newcomers were a little lost as to a strategy to achieve this (we just hacked away at the whelps like crazy), but with my senior guild members there we got it done. Here’s a pic of our success.

Pretty cool shot, huh? I announced that I was hearthing back to Dalaran for a pint, and invited whoever wanted to come with me. Both my senior guildies joined me and we drank to our success.

However…

We weren’t there long when a mass mammoth migration took place in Dalaran. See for yourself:

That’s just a handful of the mammoths parading around Dalaran. And of all things, one of my senior guildies – the second-in-command – joined in (you can see him here; he’s the gnome with the green hair)! This was one of those surreal MMO moments that reminds you that you’re playing with other humans. It was just too weird to script.

Now, I may be reading too much in to this, but ever since we ran Violet Hold earlier today, neither of my guild leaders has spoken to me. No welcome, no ‘how are you,’ nothing. It’s a little disconcerting, especially with how poor I did in the dungeon. Like I said, I may be reading too much in to this. Then again… maybe not. If I end up demoted or /gkicked tomorrow, I’ll know why.

My guild leader and the second in command asked me to come with them to Heroic Violet Hold, so I complied. In the end, we slayed Cynigasa in one try and I got my first three Emblems of Heroism, a couple stone keeper shards, and a frozen orb. Sweet! My DPS sucked, but we won regardless. Ichoron was a pain, what with little elementals running to his aid constantly. They didn’t come when I taunted them, either, which was a pain. Moragg was the other random boss, but he was nothing special. It was a fun time.

Edited for Clarification and to add Links