Oh yeah, a couple of things I forgot to mention. Last night I rocked Karazhan wearing my Sporeggar Tabard. That thing is quite possibly the ugliest piece of clothing in the world, but it's now my lucky Kara tabard. It all started to work for us when the pattern for a Soulcloth Vest dropped early (congrats to Nefernetcher), but continued when we downed Moroes and he finally dropped the formula for Enchant Weapon: Mongoose.

It'll be great to finally help out the raid with a rare, high-level enchant. Now, I'd just like to see Sunfire and Soulfrost drop off of Illhoof and Aran...

However, this now forces me to finish work on my Runed Eternium Rod. I've collected the Eternium Rod, the Void Crystals, and most of the Planar Essences, but the Primal Mights are once again giving me problems. It's tough to spend 100g on each of them. I've bought one, and will buy the other three when I see a deal on them, but it's just tough to drop that kind of cash when I'm saving up for my epic flying skill (just about half way there).

Last night was pretty amazing. The Gold team completely rocked Karazhan. We started in our usual manner going through Moroes and Opera (though the Opera was odd as we got Romulo and Juliane, but after a fluke death to a tank, we reset it and got the Big Bad Wolf who we one shot). We then continued quickly through the Curator (where Harkor received his second pair of tier four gloves), Shade of Aran, the Chess Event, and then Prince Malchezzar. Like the Curator, the Prince withheld tier four pieces from us mages, warlocks, and hunters.

After the Prince, we were given a choice - back to quickly finish off Attumen and the Maiden of Virtue, or on to Netherspite. Netherspite just barely won out with a vote of 6-4 (I have a feeling it was the healers and me that voted for the Maiden - I'm looking for boots, they're looking for a healing mace). But after one failed attempt at Netherspite due to a new strategy we were employing, we got him the second time through.

Oddly, Netherspite dropped two caster items. The Uni-Mind Headdress which Nefernetcher took for raiding instead of the PvP helm he was currently utilizing, and the Jewel of Infinite Possibilities. Though I hadn't thought about switching away from my Staff of Infinite Mysteries, I was persuaded to take the Jewel in case the Prince ever dropped the Nathrezim Mindblade again (Legionaire got the first one we saw - well deserved).

Running the numbers of the Jewel + Mindblade vs. the Staff, it's a pretty close call, but I think dual-wielding would be the right move. I would lose 24 stamina, 15 intellect, and 2 hit rating, but gain 23 crit, and 41 damage. Since I'm already at or near the hit cap, the loss of 2 hit rating wouldn't bother me much, but the gain of 23 crit and 41 damage would be a very nice upgrade. However, it always hurts to lose stamina as I am already fragile enough.

One thing I would like to do in anticipation of a tier four helm ever dropping off Prince Malchezzar is to complete my Nightbane questline. I need to venture into Sethekk Halls and Shattered Halls in heroic mode and kill the first boss there, then use the Blackened Urn to summon Nightbane. If I'm lucky, I can get these two runs in before Friday when we will kill Nightbane again. Then, I'll be able to get an Infused Amethyst which will give me +6 damage and +6 stamina - and which will fit perfectly in the blue socket on the Collar of the Aldor.

Once again, last night, I was reminded of my folly as we passed by what is now termed "Tiddly's Door" on the way up to Prince Malchezzar. A few weeks ago as we were ascending to kill the Prince, I decided to turn the wrong way and peek inside a door we had not yet opened. Unfortunately, there were a few guys inside that didn't take kindly to me peeking in and they instantly killed me. Luckily, Aracely and Vetarra were ready to seek revenge and promptly killed them with the help of the raid and I was avenged, but now every time we go up, I'm once again reminded of my curiosity. Perhaps later this week I'll be allowed to explore the kitchen of Karazhan. We have not yet ventured in there and should have some free time after we quickly clear the place.

Well, I finally found my pictures, and here I am in my new Pauldrons of the Aldor. I also added a new picture to the masthead, a shot of us all before taking on Gruul the Dragonkiller.

((Here's a shot of my Raid UI))

So, as any reader of this journal would know, I've been working on saving arena points to buy a nice pair of shoulders since I have been unable to find anything to replace my current set. The only options out there were the arena shoulders and the tier four shoulders. Last night, we ran our regular Gruul's Lair run and with skill and tenacity, downed the High King Maulgar in just one shot. And lo and behold, he dropped the "Fallen Hero" shoulders! Rejoice! I have a chance to win the shoulders I had coveted for months.

And with a roll of 68 on the lucky dice, they were mine, just barely beating out a roll of 62 and a few others under 50. Yes, the Pauldrons of the Aldor are finally mine! I rushed to Shattrath, quickly bought a Greater Inscription of the Orb (+15 spell crit, +12 spell damage), threw a Fluorescent Tanzanite in the red socket (+6 spell damage, +4 spirit) and a Potent Noble Topaz (+5 spell damage, +4 spell crit) in the yellow socket and I was ready to go back to the lair to face off against Gruul himself.

Unfortunately, we're still having problems with shatters and DPS. I actually died once this time from a shatter (my first shatter death in all of our attempts) as I was next to two people, one who shattered for 2400 which I could absorb, but the other who shattered for 6700, which combined with the 2400 I could not absorb. However, we did get him down to 47% or so, which is our best effort yet, however, we didn't improve by that much over previous attempts. But it does take practice and a little bit of luck, so hopefully we will be able to get him down soon.

I did take some pictures of myself with the shoulders on and I also took a picture of the whole group just as we were about to face off against Gruul, but they have gone missing. Hopefully I will be able to figure out which Imbued Netherweave Bag I put them into and show them off later tonight.

And here they are, the combined stats on my new Pauldrons of the Aldor:
152 Armor
+25 Stamina
+26 Intellect
+20 Spirit
+34 Spell Crit
+54 Spell Damage

One more of the Aldor Regalia and I'll also have a 100% chance to not be interrupted while casting my fireball, which will be quite nice for fights where I am hit by arcane spam or something similar. Not sure what slot I could put another of the Aldor Regalia in though. Probably the Collar of the Aldor to replace my Spellstrike Infusion set. The added bonus of +92 damage for 10 seconds from Spellstrike is a pretty nice effect and I might not be willing to give it up. We'll just have to wait and see what the Prince drops (maybe tonight). Perhaps I'll try and figure out later today how the Collar could help my output. That Meta Socket is quit nice...

Another lazy weekend. With not much to do, I decided to venture back to Winterspring and gather Winterfall Spirit Beads. After making a couple quick loops of Winterfall Village, I set out to gather some Chillwind and Sharptooth meat in anticipation of further reputation gains from the Wintersaber trainers. With the meat stored away, I went back to Winterfall, gathered some more spirit beads and turned them in. It made a small dent in my reputation with the Timbermaw and I have quite a ways to go before they fully trust me.

The following day, I decided to see what the Argent Dawn were up to and went and shut down some cauldrons and turned in some scourgestones. Same as the Timbermaw, I have a ways to go before becoming exalted.

Late yesterday though, I got the chance to accompany Jaides on her epic warlock mount quest in Dire Maul. The fight was something I had not yet seen and it was fun to help her obtain the mount after a fair bit of fighting (not quite sure how that fight could be accomplished 10 seasons earlier). And with that, I called it a night.

The new week brings the same challenges with Maulgar and Gruul tonight and Karazhan on Tuesday and Friday. Maybe I'll see one of those fabled "Fallen Hero" drops this week.

Last night, the intrepid members of the DarkLight Resolution Karazhan "Gold" Team ventured in to clean up the trash we left on Tuesday night. It was easy to breeze through Attumen and The Maiden (who once again withheld the Shard of the Virtuous and the Boots of Foretelling) and continued on to Terestian Illhoof. Unfortunately, other responsibilities called me away and I missed the killing of Illhoof.

After Illhoof though, we continued on to Nightbane. He has given us troubles in recent weeks and our goal was to down him last night. Well, we did better than expected and took him down after just two attempts. After taking down Nightbane, just one foe was left within the walls, Netherspite.

Netherspite isn't your standard banished dragon which you can just run up to and start fighting. He opens three portals around him which emit rays which must be blocked before they can reach him and energize him.

So after just two tries learning the fight, Netherspite went down on the third try! With this downing, we have successfully cleared Karazhan and now will continue to attempt to down Gruul on Mondays. We also await the opening of Zul'Aman which will provide further challenges for our 10-man Gold team.

And yes, Netherspite is quite large when a small gnome stands in front of him. Following our clearing of Karazhan, I quickly took a trip to the Grim Guzzler in Black Rock Depths and turned in some Blood of the Mountains I had acquired which took my reputation to exalted with the Thorium Brotherhood "thieves." They are now the 14th cartel I am exalted with and I am quite close to becoming exalted with the Cenarion Expedition and Stormpike Guard.

Last night was one of our most successful Karazhan runs to date. After I arrived right at the start time, we quickly cleared through Moroes and the Opera where the Crone dropped the Wicked Witch's Hat. No one could use it, so I took it just for fun. It, combined with my swift magic broom makes it fun to ride around cities while cackling.

After the Opera, we quickly went and cleared Curator and then continued on to Aran whom we also one shotted. It wasn't too long ago when Aran was almost impossible to kill, but now we've got him down and can easily kill him in one shot barring any unlucky moves (we even survived two flame wreath explosions last week).

After Aran, we had the choice, continue through the chess event to the Prince or go back and kill The Maiden and Attumen. While I would have liked to go back to the Maiden and see if my Boots of Foretelling would drop, the team voted for the Prince. We had an extremely unlucky infernal drop the first time through, but killed him on just the third attempt - our best effort yet. After killing the Prince, we called it for the night, just 15 minutes past our scheduled end time. A great first night for the Gold team.

But, once again, both the Curator and the Prince failed to drop a tier four piece that had "mage" on it. Which also is locking out all hunters and warlocks. Soon enough though...soon enough.

However, after returning to Shattrath, I saw a request in the trade channel for Enchant Gloves: Major Healing, so I told him I could do that for him, and lo and behold, I am now a 375 enchanter! Now, to just raise my cooking a few more points. Then, maybe I'll get off my lazy ass and get my fishing skills up.

Last night after two-shotting High King Maulgar, we continued on to Gruul himself and got him down to 50% two times in a row. However, we are still having problems with shatters, but we are learning the fight and doing better every time we see him. I think we should be able to down him soon enough.

Tonight, the Karazhan gold team once again ventures into Karazhan. Hopefully we can beat last week's effort where we one shot everything except the Curator. And on the Curator fight we just got unlucky. All I know is that that damn Maiden is still holding onto my shoes and I'm going to get them sooner or later. And hopefully the Curator will see how High King Maulgar dropped a "mage" tier four item and will reciprocate with a "mage" item himself.