The Return to Zul'Aman

Last night, the Gold Team assembled and led by Eleazarjr and Vetarra as our fearless tanks, we quickly took down two timed bosses and just barely missed the third. This time though, we went in the order you need to go in for four timed bosses so we're making progress. We took down Akil'zon easily then went and one-shot Nalorakk. After that we ran out of time on our way to Jan'Alai who we one shot as well. After switching out Eleazarjr for Aracely, we one shot Halazzi and proceeded to the Hex Lord. Unfortunately, we ran into some issues here - bad breaks of sheeps and banishes, poor timing of spells cast by the Hex Lord and just other little things that you just can't help (and many little things that need to be fixed as well).

But we did manage to get him down and he dropped two completely worthless items for our group. A plate healing item (our tank pally had left, and I doubt he'll ever go healing) and a druid staff (which neither druid really wanted, but it was forced upon Dylana). With such a great loot table and many great items that could be put to use - including the amazing Hood of Hexxing and Hex Shrunken Head.

We eventually moved on to Zul'jin and got to his last phase a couple of times, but once again, we had some people there who had not seen the fight and it took us a long time to get the eagle phase down. We made progress and hopefully we can get most of the group together tonight to take another shot at clearing Zul'Aman finally.

Other than that, Tockett ventured into Karazhan last week and has been doing Shattered Sun dailies every day when time permits. He's up to 25 badges and with another Karazhan run, he will be able to buy a new offhand weapon and then must start saving for a new main hand. Tiddlywinks created him an amazing cloak - Vengeance Wrap which received a Bright Crimson Spinel and Greater Agility. Tockett is now working on getting Leatherworking to 375 as he has two epic patterns to enjoy at that level and two Heart of Darkness ready to use in his bank.

Back...

((Well, I'm back from Comic-Con. Got a chance to sit in on the World of Warcraft panel and hear all about the comic books, the manga, the card game, the figurines, everything except...the game. But that's what I expected. It was a talk about the merchandise. Only when they opened it up for Q&A did the game get discussed, and even then, questions like..."Why no legendary for hybrid druids" came up and just frustrated all those involved.

Alas, no pet was handed out and the "special gift" mentioned in the description of the panel was a lame WoW trading card game pin. We did get a very nice exclusive Comic-Con issue of the comic book which we got signed by the artist, so that's a nice bonus. But the panel was pretty...blah. Except of course meeting up with Vetarra and Narina from my guild. Always nice to meet guildies outside of the game and especially ones who are as nice as they were.))

So after my vacation, I was amped to get out and start killing things again, especially with my new Ethereal Soul-Trader following me around collecting Soul Credits. I made room for my Firefly in the bank and now just carry my Soul-Trader and my Rocket Chicken.

Oh yeah, I'm currently carrying Don Carlos' Famous Hat with me as the aforementioned wonderful Vetarra, Aracely, and Khyras helped me obtain it yesterday. Don Carlos is a pushover really and we killed him a few times in heroic with just 4 people (probably could be done with 3 or even 2 if you could get enough DPS) and we all got our hats. I also obtained my pattern for Dress Shoes as it was sold out the first time I tried to buy it. Together with the Haliscan items, I could make a nice little outfit. Though I'll probably go for the Soul-Trader outfit first.

With the addition of my Soul-Trader and Ghost Wolf, I sit at 71 of 83 pets collected. An impressive feat and I cannot wait until I can free up 71 bag spaces with the expansion.

Gold Team One Shots Magtheridon

Last night after a rough Gruul run (one quick wipe on Maulgar after my spell steal was resisted twice by Krosh (110 spell hit should not allow for two resists in a row) and one wipe on Gruul due to a bad shatter), the 25-man Gold Team headed over to Magtheridon's Lair to pick up where we left off last week. We went over the strategy quickly before engaging the monster and we took him down (WWS) in one fell swoop.

The clicking of the cubes was done perfectly, Aracely did a masterful job tanking the behemoth, and DPS was steady through the fight. When I went last week with Familiaris Incursio, we had cube clicking issues and when we got to the cave in, it seemed the raid was not ready for it. This time around, we stopped all DPS at 32%, waited for a blast wave, healed up, powered through his cave-in and continued our one shot. We were rewarded with the Eye of Magtheridon (which mistakingly went to a healer - a problem with anonymous need bids), Magtheridon's Head, a few Tier 4 chest pieces, the Pit Lord's Satchel and a very nice Black Sack of Gems. Inside the sack, we received a Crimson Spinel, Lionseye, and a Pyrestone. Though I wanted the Pyrestone more (I need a couple Veiled Pyrestones), I won the Crimson Spinel and will have a Runed Crimson Spinel waiting in my mail when I get on tonight.

The run was amazingly smooth, we had very few problems (a slight healing mix-up when Magtheridon broke free of his chains and an early pull on Maulgar), and the team as a whole is amazing. Congrats to the Gold Team!