Last night was pretty amazing. When I talked to my mage trainer, he had some amazing updates for me and I am now able to ice block and I have rethought my current skillset - rather than being able to Clearcast, I have instead decided to have Icy Veins. With those changes and my new Boots of Blasting, Mindblade and Icon of the Silver Crescent I was outputting some ridiculous DPS. Though I couldn't quite tell first hand, reports from Nefernetcher put me at about 1600 DPS for many fights.

So we pretty much blew through all of Karazhan with just one wipe on Nightbane. This time we had a couple different people accompanying us and they seemed to bring the good luck with them. It all started on Maiden when she dropped the Shard of the Virtuous - an item we had not yet seen after countless kills. Congrats to Harkor on his new mace. We continued on and every boss seemed to drop something that could be used in our raid - though I did make it out of there with 6 void crystals (which were immediately used to enchant Mongoose for Lunatic's Kings Defender). When we got to the Prince, I hoped for the Fallen Hero helm as I've been waiting way too long to complete my Karazhan Tier 4 set and after we one shot him, it dropped! I was lucky enough to outroll the hunter who will be joining us in coming weeks (she unfortunately rolled a 1), so I now finally have my Collar of the Aldor! But not only that, he dropped Light's Justice - another item we had not yet seen which would have gone to Harkor if he had not just acquired the Shard. Instead it went to the wonderful Jorix. It was her first time accompanying us to and she seemed to bring the good luck with her.

So now that I have the Collar of the Aldor, Vengeful Gladiator's Silk Cowl, and Spellstrike Hood available to me, I have to make tough decisions on what to wear. The Pauldrons of the Aldor are my every day shoulders, so the Collar gives me the two piece bonus where both my fireballs and frostbolts cannot be interrupted, but going from Spellstrike to the Collar nets me 19 armor, 2 stamina, 23 intellect, 17 spirit, and 15 crit at the cost of 24 hit and 8 damage. When compared to the Collar+Pantaloons, I gain 51 armor, 12 stamina, 50 intellect, 17 spirit and 45 haste at the cost of 11 crit, 50 hit and 19 damage. Once again, the 50 spell hit loss is the biggest problem. I can resocket my Spellfire set to gain 39 hit, 30 stamina, but I lose 54 damage and I'm pretty sure 45 haste and 50 intellect won't make up that amount of damage. I guess the Collar will just come out where I can't afford interruptions (Akil'zon), the Vengeful Silk Cowl will come out in PvP and for now, Spellstrike remains for raiding.