Sartharion 10 Man

Last night, after completing a couple dailies, I was asked to go to the 10-man version of Obsisian Sanctum. After completing the 25-man version just two days prior, I said sure, it can't be that hard could it?

So in we go, we easily clear the three drakes and our tank seems surprised at that fact. I guess he underestimated our awesomeness. There were three of us atop the DPS charts (both in overall damage and sustained DPS) - me, a rogue, and a shaman. Over the whole night we fought for the top spot and in the end, all three of us ended up with about 2,000 DPS on the night. Not too shabbby. I ended up atop the damage meters due to the fact that I didn't have to worry about Sartharion's fireballs or his cleave or his tail swipe as ranged, so the rogue dropped off a bit due to deaths.

But back to the fight. Since only two of us had seen the fight before, we had 8 people new to the instance and a couple of people picking up their first badges of Heroism. So the first couple tries were learning experiences - getting people to see the waves, know the gaps, focus DPS on the fire elementals, etc. That's fine, I can deal with those wipes.

However, it was the next 3-4 wipes that bothered me. We had people focusing DPS on Sartharion instead of the fire elementals, we had people getting caught up in the waves, even though they were all being called out on vent, and we had people getting cleaved or tail swiped even though it's really easy to avoid (yes, as a mage I was forced to stand within melee range and a couple of times had to mitigate my threat due to the 110% grab aggro percentage instead of 130%).

But eventually, we figured him out and had a couple of wipes just due to bad luck - bad positioning of the fire elementals during a wave, or a loose fire elemental hitting the tank during a fireball/cleave. And we just couldn't get him down even though we figured the fight out. Our healer told us we had on chance left before she had to call it a night. And we wiped. But, it was a quick wipe and we convinced her to stay around for one more shot and we got him. Finally! We finally took him down.

And wouldn't you know, he drops just one item I need in the 10-man version, the Gloves of the Lost Vanquisher. The first rogue rolls an 83. Drats! I roll...and 86! Yes, I've finally won a piece of T7. Oh wait...another rogue...95. FRICK! So there I sit with three badges, a 20g repair bill, and 10 achievement points, but no new gloves. I guess it's ok since the rogue that won them was not the rogue at 2000 DPS, but rather around 1300-1400 DPS. So she probably could use them the most. Just a frustrating end to a night where I had to constantly remind a few people to DPS adds instead of the dragon, watch out for the waves, and even helped our tank find the correct way to pivot the dragon during different waves.

In the end, I'm happy we got him down and I'm hoping to make this trip weekly, so I'll have more shots at the gloves. And now that we've done him once, future attempts shouldn't be so ugly. And what did I learn? The 10 man is much harder than the 25-man. We breezed through the 25 man with no deaths, quick pulling, and some great players. Even with some not-so-great players in a 25 man, you can down Sartharion without issues. With just 10 players on your team, if one person screws up, there's no room for error. You'll probably wipe. Lose a healer in the 10 man, you're done. Lose one in 25 man, who cares? The rest pick up the slack. So I'm definitely happy we got the 10 man version of Sartharion down and I'm looking forward to future attempts.

If only I had remembered to open my Oracles egg after the raid. It slipped my mind, I was done playing after the raid, and I logged off. Now, my egg is 12 hours overdue, and I've lost all this time that another egg could have been hatching. Drats again!

A Busy Week

So normally, my day would involve doing my dailies, mining for gold, and then putzing around by fishing in the sewers or farming for pets. But lately, my days have been taken up by running as many dailies as possible before being called into heroics, and even a heroic Obsidian Sanctum run on Monday (both Gauntlets of the Lost Vanquisher and Illustration of the Dragon Soul dropped - both the best in slot in the whole game for me, and I lost both rolls - the gloves went to another mage who already had T7 gloves and didn't need the T7.5 as much as others, but with straight rolls, not much could be done).

But in other news, I've been getting quite lucky in heroic 5-man dungeons. Over the weekend, I went to a quasi-PUG Violet Hold and the Azure Cloth Bindings dropped. I lost the roll to our healer shammy which was fine with me - he did a great job and I got some new pants earlier in the run. But the very next day, we ran it again, they dropped again, and I was the only one who could use them. Currently there's only 3 upgrades for me and they all come from 25 man instances. Oh yeah, along with the bindings, the Mark of the War Prisoner dropped and I got that as well. I'm now using two trinkets that have spellpower "on use" abilities, so I can't stack them, but for now, they'll work for me. I'm not quite sure what other trinket I'd like to work on (other than the Illustration above). I think the Embrace of the Spider from 25 man Naxxramas is my next big upgrade.

Also, earlier in the weekend, while running heroics, I was sporting my Tabard of the Kirin Tor and I got to revered which rewarded me with the best one handed weapon in the game until 10 or 25 man Naxxramas, the Flameheart Spell Scapel. Combine that with the Ward of the Violet Citadel I purchased last night for 25 badges (the best off-hand in the game until Naxxramas 25) and I'm set for a while. Now I just need to upgrade my wand in Heroic Azjol-Nerub or Heroic Utgarde Keep.

On the crafting side, last night I purchased 4 Dragon's Eyes and had a Titanium Spellshock Necklace crafted. It is absolutely wonderful. There's only one upgrade in game right now and that's a BoE from Naxxramas, so I could watch the AH for it in the future. Also, over the weekend, a friendly gnome mage crafted a Deathchill Cloak for me. It took some gold, just like the Spellshock Necklace, but I'm making 500-1000g an hour farming ore in Icecrown and I could easily afford the mats that I couldn't make myself. Now, there's just one cloak upgrade available to me and that drops from Sartharion in the heroic Obsidian Sanctum with 2 drakes still alive.

So now my focus has shifted towards some more crafted items. Right now I'm looking for the Spellweave Gloves and Spellweave Robe which would both last me until I get my Tier 7 items. So I'm buying Spellweave when it's cheap and I'll have them crafted once I can find enough (only have one Spellweave right now).

My other major items that need upgrading are my hat, my shoulders (especially my shoulders), my feet (Wyrmrest Exalted is the next goal), and my wand. But all in all, gear wise, I've been doing pretty good. Right now, I think all I have left for the Superior achievement is my shoulders, my wand, my feet, and my gloves (the gloves are the first Spellweave item I will have crafted). So hopefully I can get some Heroic Nexus, Azjol-Nerub, Gundrak, or Halls of Lightning this coming week and weekend.

Oh yeah...yesterday I got my Ice Mammoth. Yay! I also got my 30th Northrend cooking recipe and thought I would receive the Chef title when I achieved Northrend Gourmet. But apparently I need the 45 recipe Northrend Gourmet for my Chef title and that is currently unobtainable. With the four Northrend recipes that are not properly taught when you complete the quest, there is no way to obtain Hail to the Chef or Chef de Cuisine. Hopefully these will be fixed soon so I can be Chef Tiddlywinks.