Screenshots Finally

I finally got around to going through my last batch of screenshots and figured I would post a few. Most of them are from our Zul'Aman incursion last week where we downed two bosses within the specified time frame and also took Jan'Alai down. We started strong taking down Akil'zon then rushed over to Nalorakk. We then tried to get to Halazzi in time but didn't make it. After downing Halazzi, we went back and looted the first timed box and then the second one. The second box was guarded by a fearsome dwarf named Harkor. It just so happens we've been raiding with our beloved paladin healer, Harkor for a long time, so we took the time to take some pictures of the twins:



After looting the boxes, we quickly cleared over to Jan'Alai and with our practice the weeks before, we took him down! ((Click for larger view))



We then called it for the night as our run was quite successful and we shall be attempting Malacrass soon!

Coming later...my arena setup!

Zul'Aman Fun

Ahh, my favorite time of the week, Zul'Aman. After breezing through Karazhan on Tuesday and one-shotting every boss with an odd team make-up (no hunter, no warlock), in well under four hours, we continued rolling along and switched up our strategy in Zul'Aman a little.

We usually would go for Nalorakk first, but now that we have Akil'zon down, we went to him first, then quickly downed Nalorakk and bum-rushed Halazzi. Unfortunately, we needed about 5-7 more minutes than the timer allowed and we only unlocked two timed chests. But after quickly dispatching Halazzi, we moved on to Jan'Alai. After a few wipes - one close call - we tried a new strategy. After two tries with the new strategy, we downed Jan'Alai! We just barely pulled it off as we killed him five seconds after his enrage timer. I luckily got an invisibility off during his last fire bomb stage so I had no threat and as he went around and one-shotted our tanks, our DPS, our healing, it was just me, Legionaire and Harkor standing. Just enough DPS to get rid of him.

We are certain we can improve on the strategy next week now that we've gotten him down and I look forward to more practice and new bosses. From the second timed chest, Nefernetcher finally upgraded his staff from the Curator to the sweet Amani Divining Staff. Comador picked up a couple of new pieces (like he needed them) and we added seven more badges to our stashes.

However, I had to use those seven badges to buy a primal nether to make some Runic Spellthread. After making the thread, I headed over to the arena vendor to pick up a brand new pair of Vengeful Gladiator's Silk Trousers. However, when I tried to buy them, he told me I was short on points. What!? So I checked...1,874 points. Needed 1,875. ONE point short. Oh well. Next week they shall be mine (unless of course they announce the new arena season and set a date for the new patch).

You Can Never Have Enough Mojo!

It dropped! Last night we went to Zul'Aman, downed both Nalorakk and Akil'Zon in the allotted time periods, and while we were on our way to Halazzi, with the one Amani Hex Stick I had in my inventory, I got my Mojo! I'm so happy and I never thought I'd see my wonderful Mojo. I now own 53 of the 78 pets available to me - see my full list.

With 5 of those 78 not available until patch 2.4, I am 20 pets short of a complete collection. I'll be working on my fishing again this week to get to 375 and find Mr. Pinchy. Plus, with the daily fishing quests, and four pets coming from those, I need to work on my fishing now more than ever.

Isn't he cute?

Two Free Chests

I had been waiting to post about last Wednesday night since I took some great photos, but I keep forgetting to send them to my journaling location. Anyways, after a 2 week hiatus from Zul'Aman, I was able to rejoin the Gold Team as we went for timed chests and hoped to take down Jan'Alai. We started on time and completely tore through Nalorakk and Akil'zon both with time to spare. We got some cool loot from the timed chests and I walked away with Shadowcaster's Drape. I don't have many haste items, but this is the start of my haste set.

After Nalorakk and Akil'zon, we hurried to Halazzi, but ran out of time. It is rumored that in Karazhan gear, you should be able to get 2 timed chests and it takes Serpentshrine Cavern and Black Temple gear to get 3 timed chests. We will keep pushing it though to see if we can pull it off. I certainly would love to see the Mana Attuned Band from the third chest.

Even though we ran out of time, we quickly one shot Halazzi which gave us a lot of time to learn the Jan'Alai fight. We got in 6 tries (reset him quite a bunch, so it didn't take too long), but ran out of time in the end. However, on our last try, we completely cleared out one side of eggs and about 1/4 of the other side before we lost our tank and had to run out. I am confident that if we can keep our tank up, we can balance the DPS on Jan'Alai and take out the eggs in a timely manner. Next week he should go down. After that, we can begin working on Hex Lord Malacrass who drops the amazingly magnificent Hood of Hexing and sometime after that, take down Zul'Jin and clear the place out.

The thing is, last Wednesday, I genuinely had fun running with our Gold Team. We enjoy ourselves on vent, we have time to joke around - even during timed boss fights - and there's never any loot drama. The only real drama we have is people refusing to take items...Contrast that to last Sunday when I ventured into SSC with 24 other people. We wiped countless times on one boss, took an inordinate amount of time discussing strategies and other minutiae, and it just was too long. And as I go back and re-read my post on that subject, I just wonder how much more I can take in there. I know it takes time and sacrifice to progress, but I personally feel, that until we can take down Gruul and Magtheridon (there's a reason they were pre-requisites for Serpentshrine Cavern attunement), we have no business inside that place. And I'm not willing to waste 5 hours of my Sunday wiping over and over. I will probably give it a few more weeks, but will notify the leaders that they should look for a replacement mage and replace me when possible.

For my future reference, WowWebStats from 2/13 Zul'Aman: http://wowtid.com/wws/wws-20080213-1854