QuickArmory

Found a great site today - Quick Armory. The achievement system works like a charm - it utilizes Firefox + GreaseMonkey to grab your stats and then it outputs a couple of graphs along with a day by day calendar of what achievements you have earned. It's actually quite amazing.

So, here's my cumulative points by date (click to enlarge):


And here's my points on each individual date (you can see where I took some time off prior to Wrath as there is a large gap right there):

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.

Chef Soon

Looking over my achievements, I have just 3 more recipes to cook up to become Chef Tiddlywinks. I have one Dalaran Cooking Award on me, which means I need 5 more. At one per day (hopefully I get 2 one of these days), Sunday I will have what it takes to be called Chef! Counting down the days...

Some Updates

It's been a while since I updated anything here, but some big news last night. I finally obtained my Pengu and my Mastercraft Kalu'ak Fishing Pole. I'm now done running dailies for the Kalu'ak, as they were my 25th Exalted Reputation. Pretty happy to be done with them as their dailies awarded just 3-5g each. Now I can do more dailies in Icecrown and get rewarded properly.

I also spent all my money last night. I bought the Signet of the Kirin Tor for 7649g, and combined it with my Annhylde's Ring which gives me no ring upgrades until Wrath. I also completely updated my upgrades list which I will post about later and I now know every instance I need to run or every crafted Item I need to get ready for the end-game.

On a side note, last week, after picking up Lil' Smoky, I dropped Engineering and took up Mining. I hit 450 last night (hit 375 on Sunday) and now can mine anything I run across which is awesome. Just this morning, a quick run around Icecrown netted me 50 Saronite and 8 Titanium. I quickly smelted a Titansteel Bar and threw it up on the auction house, undercutting all others at 330g. It should sell today and I'll be back on my saving money for more outrageous purchases.

I've been running heroics on and off and slowly I'm getting my Kirin Tor rep up. I'm getting 150 rep daily from the cooking (and hit 25 Dalaran Cooking Awards last night). I'm also working on Sons of Hodir rep and the lovely Vetarra pointed out some places to find Frostfire Chips last night which should help my rep grind.

My Upgrades Spreadsheet

And now a quick break for some Excel fun!

This is a spreadsheet I have put together to quickly compare two items and plot my upgrade path. It's a bit complicated, but could be used by anyone so I'm making it available here. A quick overview first:

There are three sheets to the whole workbook. The first is multi-colored (named: List) and looks up all the information from the second sheet (named: Lookup). The third sheet is not really used that much, but can be helpful to figure out which crafted items give you the most bang for the buck (named: Crafted).

Basically, you enter all the information on the Lookup sheet. You fill out the name of the item, where it drops, and all the stats. It takes some time, but isn't too tough once you get the hang of it. Then, on the List sheet, you can quickly toggle between items from the Lookup sheet and compare them and see where gains and losses come from. For example, right now I'm looking at The Argent Skullcap and Heroes' Frostfire Circlet. I can quickly see that the Circlet grants me 2 STA, 20 INT, 60 SPI, 72 CRIT, and 35 DMG at the cost of 61 HIT. Using numbers provided by MaxDPS.com, I gain 70.96 DPS by upgrading to the Tier 7 headpiece. I'm also alerted in Red that there is a set bonus to the Tier 7 piece which I need to look out for. I also know that it drops in Naxxramas 10-man from Kel'Thuzad.

So we'll take a quick look at the Lookup sheet first.



This is the top-left most area of the Lookup sheet. The first row is simply the column number and should not be touched. The second row contains some information further over and should not be touched. The third row is a descriptor row that tells you what you are entering into the spreadsheet. Below that, you can see all the head items I have input into the sheet and all the neck pieces I have put in.

Column 1 is the row number and should not be changed and column 2 is the Slot position and should not be changed. All items should be grouped by Slot position. Also notice row 4 and row 14. These are small spacer rows. They should be left alone. If you need fewer rows for Head Slot items, delete any of the rows from 6-12. You should always leave the first and last rows in a grouping alone. If you need to insert rows, copy any row from 6-12 and insert it between 6-12 and go from there. Following these rules will keep the spreadsheet running as it should.

From there, you just need to enter all the information. The item name should just be the item name, but as you can see, I added a T7 to the end of some items to keep me cognizant of their rarity. "Dropped In" should just be the instance where it is dropped. If it is a crafted item, just enter "Crafted" and if it is from badges, just enter "Badges" (see the examples of Hat of Wintry Doom and Lattice Choker of Light above. In the "Dropped By" column, you can put where it is dropped, for crafted items, I kept track of what skill level is needed for them, but for Badges, you must put the number of badges required, and only that.



Now on to the stats. Here you just enter the relevant stats for each item. So you can see I've entered Armor, Stamina, Intellect, and so on. Damage is obviously Spell Power now, but I've left it as Damage. The problem here is I don't have AGI or STR or Dodge or other stats built in that could be useful for some. I am pretty sure you can change the descriptor in row 3, but the abbreviations in row 2 cannot be changed.



In these columns we have some additional information. The Proc is some sort of "on effect" type proc. So for example, the Sundial of the Exiled has a Proc of 590 and a Proc Type of "Damage". Sockets 1-3 are just filled in using one letter abbreviations, Meta = M, Red = R, and so on. Socket Bonus Number is the number of stat points you receive as a bonus. And Socket Bonus Type is the type of stat you gain a bonus to. So you can see in the first item, I gain a bonus of 9 DMG (or damage/spell power) if I correctly socket a Meta and a Yellow gem.



Here in these last few columns, we have some random information. Set Bonus can be set to Yes or No. If it's set to Yes, then it will highlight the item on the Listing page. If "Own" is set to yes, it will also highlight it on the main page and help you to distinguish it from other upgrade items. The MaxDPS column represents the DPS each item grants as determined by MaxDPS.com. This is just for reference and to compare items that may seem close in stats. DPS Gain per Badge relies on column E (Dropped By) if Column D says "Badges". So you have to make sure to follow the instructions above for Badge purposes. Cost of Crafting is a rough guestimate that comes from the "Crafting" page. This relies on Column D correctly being identified as a "Crafted" item. The DPS Gain per 100g relies on the Cost of Crafting. So here we see I'd go from 120.78 DPS to 152.63 DPS for just 373g, which is 8.54 DPS per 100g spent.

Here's a full-size image of the Lookup Page: Clicky

So once you have input all the information on the Lookup sheet, it flows through to the "List" sheet. This colorful sheet allows you to quickly compare two items for upgrades and also plot out where your next upgrades will come from.



Here we see in Column A we have the Slot position, column B has the item, and columns C & D show where it is dropped. The orange colored line indicates that the item is currently in our possession. The white colored lines are upgrades and the green colored lines compare the items to the one we own. Each slot position allows for the comparison of two items to the one we own which should go in the top slot. If you just want to compare one item to another, you can throw any item you want in row 3 and 4 and compare the two. But line 4 will always compare against line 3 and line 6 will always compare against line 3.

To compare items, you just use the pull down boxes in each section:



These pull down boxes come from the Lookup page, which is why it's important to leave the first and last lines of each item slot table alone. You can insert lines or delete lines between the first and last items, but the first and last items should always remain there. You can change all the info in them, but the should never be deleted and you should not add additional lines outside of these rows.



Here we just list the different stats for the items and the enchants that are available to that item. Enchants come from the bottom of the lookup page. All it shows here is the different stats for each item.



Here we get socketed stats added to the total. Nothing to do here.



Here we get the totals. This adds up all of the "On Item" stats, all the "Enchant" stats and all the "Sockets" stats. The fist line shows the item we own, the second line shows the first item we're comparing against and the fourth line compares the second item to the item we own. In this example, going from The Argent Skullcap to the Hat of Wintry Doom, we gain 17 STA, 10 INT, 21 CRIT and 1 DMG and lose 17 HIT.



These are the final four columns. Delta Unbalanced shows the total number of stat points that change. So going from the Argent Skullcap to the Hat of Wintry Doom has us go from 278 to 310 skill points. The reason it says unbalanced is because it considers Spirit equal to Spell Damage, which we know is not the case. But using the MaxDPS numbers, we can see a gain of 31.85 DPS. You can also see that the fourth line is colored red because it has a set bonus associated with it. It's just a bright red color to remind you to factor in the set bonus before tossing it aside if it has weaker stats.

Here's an overview of the full listing: Clicky

The last page is the Crafted page. Here we can set prices for crafted items which will factor into the DPS gain per 100g statistic.



Note that Row 1 is hidden. In Row 1, we have the column number. So if you have to add columns, make sure you unhide Row 1, fill in the column number and hide it up again. Row 2 has the cost of the material. These costs are pretty far off as I found Ebonweave and Spellweave are going for almost double the prices I guessed. All of these prices are changeable - so just switch out different prices for the different materials you have in row 3. Then, just enter your item name (it has to match the name on the Lookup sheet or the DPS gain per 100g won't work. Then just enter the quantities for each item and at the end, a total cost will be calculated.

Here's the full page:Clicky

I know it's complicated, but it works for me and it will be pretty complicated to adjust to your own stats (e.g. STR or AGI). While I am willing to answer some questions about the spreadsheet (leave comments on the blog), I can't customize it for you or enter items for you.

Also realize that the spreadsheet could easily break if you do something you shouldn't. Just be careful when deleting or adding rows or columns. Also remember you should not touch the "List" sheet other than using the drop downs to pick different items. And though the "List" sheet might seem to break at times, remember, if you select an item and then delete it from the Lookup, it won't work. So just select another item.

Also, I have manual calculation on for this spreadsheet. You need to hit F9 to calc the spreadsheet. Or you can go into Tools > Options > Calculation and turn automatic calcs back on.

Here's the latest spreadsheet for you to play around with (EXCEL FILE): Clicky

The Daily Circuit

Every day starts in Dalaran. I do the daily cooking quest and then venture out to find more dailies to do. My circuit starts at Moa'ki Harbor in Dragonblight where I do the Kalu'ak daily quest. I then fly over to Kamagua and help two sea cows find true love for more Kalu'ak reputation.

A quick trip up to The Argent Stand in Zul'Drak for Troll Patrol, and 900-1000 reputation, is next. And then a quick flight from there to Dun Niffelem to do the Sons of Hodir dailies. There's currently 5 for me to do since hitting honored which yields 1600 rep. From there I have a choice - either go to Icecrown for dailies or port back to Dalarn.

Usually, I'll port back to Dalaran to do the other leg of quests. I fly to Unu'pe for the last of the three daily Kalu'ak quests, and then fly up to Sholazar Basin to do my three Oracles quests. Once done there, then it's on to Icecrown for more dailies.

Upon arriving in Icecrown, I have 7 dailies left to do. I haven't quite figured out the dailies that I'm going to do on a regular basis, but there's plenty scattered throughout Icecrown to keep me busy. Also, in just 4 days, I'll be fully exalted with the Kalu'ak which will leave me with 10 dailies to do in Icecrown or, the alternative...

Wyrmrest Accord reputation. I figure on my way down to Moa'ki Harbor to start the day, I can stop in at the Wyrmrest Temple for a quick daily and then I after completing my loop, I'd port back to Dalaran and instead of going to Unu'pe, I can go over to Coldarra and do the Wyrmest daily there and then up to Sholazar Basin.

Either way, I'll be staying busy for quite a while. After my loop, without counting Icecrown dailies, I receive the following rep on average:

Argent Crusade: 900-1100 based on different Troll Patrol dailies.
Kirin Tor: 150 from the daily cooking quest.
The Kalu'ak: 1500 with just 4 days left until max exalted.
The Sons of Hodir: 1600 with quite a ways to go, but these are fun dailies.
The Oracles: 1700 with 12 days left until max exalted. I won't be switching to Frenzyheart though until I have all the pets that can be obtained from the Mysterious Egg

Old Crafty & Chuck

This morning, I woke up early and did my daily Dalaran cooking quest only to be whispered by a fellow guild mate that today's fishing quest was Crocs in the City (my guild knows I need to get my pets from that so they are looking out for me which is awesome). So I quickly ported to Shatt, got the daily quest and then ported to Theramore. Took a flight to Ratchet, hoofed it to Orgrimmar and easily made it past the guards, hit invisibility, and arrived at my fishing spot with nary a nick.

After about 10 casts, Old Crafty was mine! I ported to Ironforge, looking now for Old Ironjaw, but couldn't catch him in about 15 casts, so I took the Crocolisk, ported back to Shattrath and turned in the quest. Perhaps Old Man Barlo is in a better mood with fewer people visiting him, or he's lonely and wants me to visit more because not only did he reward me with Chuck's Bucket for returning the crocolisk to him, he also gave me Spun Truesilver Fishing Line. I'm going to save it for when I obtain my Mastercraft Kalu'ak Fishing Pole from the Tuskarr (currently at 5,000/21,000 revered).

So it was quite a nice morning for me with both cooking and fishing done. Last night I was finally able to get the Oracles to start giving me daily quests. The final quest in the line was bugged as the lich just stood there and refused to let us attack. After a couple of hours, a GM finally reset her for us and my pick up group quickly took her down twice as the first time the other four people wanted to help the Frenzyhearts out. Luckily they all stuck around and helped me complete her again as I wanted to get on good terms with the Oracles. So now my dailies consist of the Kalu'ak and the Oracles. I'm also just getting somewhere with Sons of Hodir, so they'll probably be on my daily sweep as they have the really nice new shoulder enchants.