Zul'Jin Down!

Last night, for the first time, we fully cleared Zul'Aman on one night. Last week, we cleared all but Zul'Jin on night one and on night two, while I was unable to make it, the Gold Team took Zul'Jin down. Last night, we powered through and completely destroyed dem trolls. We got three timed chests and had 5 minutes left on the timer - too little to try for the fourth, but there are ample places where we can pick up the pace and group adjustments that could be made for more DPS (though I love our group and don't want to see anyone go - we can just work on gear and specs though).

I certainly had a fun time blowing stuff up - putting out 22% of the damage - over 1,000 sustained DPS. On Nalorakk, even with the silences, I put out over 1,300 DPS - thank you madame shadow priest! It was great last night, not once did I have to worry about mana. Sure, I evocated 15 times, but I really don't think I absolutely had to any of those times. Gaining 135,000 mana back via Vampiric Touch is lovely and all I had to focus on was damage. It was wonderful - I did over 700,000 more damage than the next person (4% more) and was able to just have fun doing damage rather than chain chugging pots or wanding when I should be throwing fireballs.

Again, Hex Lord Malacrass decided to drop nothing for me and the third timed chest dropped a wonderful healing ring (so close to the DPS ring...). Zul'jin also dropped crap, and on the roll for Blood of Zul'Jin, I was stoked - I rolled a 94! I was going to have the blood to turn in for some gold and badges and I would have the achievement of downing Zul'Jin when the patch comes out, but no...the last person to roll decides to break out the magic dice and rolls 100. Congrats to you Matnocuido. Hopefully we can get Zul'Jin down every week now without issue and by default, I'll get the blood.

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.

Hex Lord Vanquished!

Last night, in a triumphant return to Zul'Aman, the Gold Team was able to obtain the third timed chest for the first time ever (with 2 minutes to spare) and we then went on to kill the dreaded Hex Lord Malacrass! Congratulations to my good friend Dylana who won the Tiny Voodoo Mask and Mercreus who got his Trollbane. I also obtained these Footpads of Madness which I'm still unsure about. I love my Boots of Blasting, but another 25 haste could get my Fireball down to 2.7 seconds potentially.

I also just discovered that last night I was running the whole night with the wrong pair of gloves on. My Spellfire Gloves were sitting in my bank the whole night, basically gimping my damage by 7% and also putting me under the hit cap, resulting in another damage loss. I did enjoy running last night with my two pieces of Tier 4. Sporting the Collar of the Aldor and Pauldrons of the Aldor allowed me to cast straight through any bird interruptions on Akil'zon and also during the spirit bolts on Malacrass. And while the tooltip mentions just uninterruptable fireballs, it seemed like my scorches were going off without interruptions as well. So next time in (a.k.a. tonight), I'll be going in with the correct gloves and my two pieces of Tier 4.

So we've finally got another boss off of our Gold Team list and Zul'jin is the last left. On our very first attempt, we got to the lynx stage - which I thought was quite good since 7 of us were seeing him for the first time. Our best attempt was our last (of probably 4 or 5) where we once again made it to the lynx stage with 7 or so people up, but we lost our priest early in the stage and without the group heals, we were done. But it was a great learning experience and I hope we can get him down soon.

I still a bit skeptical that we can get the bear mounts, but we are now able to get three timed chests which is a great advancement. We also are doing much better on Akil'zon which is great progress for us. We are able to hatch one whole side each time eggs are hatched which greatly cuts down on time required to kill him.

On a side note, I have added another pet to my collection, however, I think my screenshots were not properly kept over the past few sessions, so until I can get screenshots, I am not announcing him here.