It's been a while since I have written anything down, but there's been some big news. On Monday, we quickly downed Maulgar and he dropped the Brute Cloak of the Ogre Magi. It is quite a nice upgrade for me and even though I haven't had a chance to put the subtlety enchant on it, I have noticed an increase in damage done to enemies. The cloak, combined with the pauldrons I received the week prior have enabled me to put out upwards of 4400 damage on a fireball crit with raid buffs.

Yesterday, there were many changes afoot in the world of Azeroth. Word is G'eras has new rewards in exchange for Badges of Justice and we heard they were dropping in record numbers inside Karazhan. We ventured back to Karazhan last night and had our best night ever downing Moroes, Maiden, Opera, Illhoof, Aran, Netherspite, Cuator, Aran (all in one shot except for Prince - bad elemental drops). We then tried tried to down Nightbane, but it was getting late and we were unable to do it in two attempts.

Like I said though, I've been getting pretty good damage with the gear I currently have and put out upwards of 4.75 million damage over the course of the raid. However, with the start of Arena Season 3 next week, and the new badge rewards, I have some upgrades planned. Also, there is talk of a new threat from the trolls out in the Ghostlands. I do believe that heading out that way to seek new adventures will reward us nicely as a team.

Word from early excursions to the temple of Zul'Aman report a beautiful new Staff in exchange for freeing prisoners within a short time frame along with a new Hood of Hexxing which would be a nice upgrade. G'eras is also selling some new pants to go with that hood which would be able to decrease my casting time by almost 3%. He also is offering a new wand which I should be able to pick up soon, as we earned almost 20 badges last night alone (the Carved Witch Doctor's Stick is being offered for the low, low price of just 25 badges). Other than that, I shall need to find my way back into the battlegrounds to upgrade my pendant and bracers. The new Vindicator's Pendant of Conquest and Vindicator's Silk Cuffs are very nice upgrades. However, my current cuffs have an expensive enchant on them which I am hesitant to replace. I would need to spend almost 500g to re-enchant the cuffs and I would only gain 4 stamina, 4 intellect, 3 crit and 5 damage. Nice increases, but I wonder if it is worth the cost of enchanting and the cost of honor. To be certain, the pendant upgrade is the first I will seek out.

It is nice now that they will be awarding extra honor each day for completing battleground tasks which I look forward to trying out tonight. I also hear that some in the Lower City are offering rewards for certain foods which I most certainly could cook up for them with my maximum cooking skills.

With all of those upgrades talked about above, a few things I know for certain - my Spellfire set (gloves, robe, belt) will not be changing. Nor will my new pauldrons. My cloak should stay the same well into Zul'Aman and my trinkets and rings should remain.

The one thing I am still actively searching for is a nice pair of boots. The Maiden refused to drop them last night, and I still don't want to grind Eye of the Storm (plus, I need 10 Eye of the Storm marks for the new pendant). Sooner or later the Maiden should drop my boots - but if she doesn't, I heard of a nice pair of boots that Jan'Alai might drop in Zul'Aman. I won't be holding my breath though.