The (Almost) Undying

Last night, the Gold Team 10 man group had a couple of people running late, so we went into Sartharion before Naxxramas and attempted to 8 man Sarth + 1 drake. We probably could do it, but after one attempt, the two late parties came online, but instead of getting them into the instance, we quickly downed the drake and then 8 manned Sartharion getting us the awesome Less is More achievement.

We then formed up for our 10 man Naxxramas run and blew through the four rings. While doing so, we we able to get Momma Said Knock You Out, Arachnophobia, Shocking, The Safety Dance, and of course all quarters cleared, Sapphiron Down, and we were at Kel'Thuzad with NO DEATHS.

So we all knew what was on the line. Due to our abundance of melee DPSers this night, we had a paladin, Dantis, step out and help heal so we could have extra help on the ice blocks. It was just Jizo (our shaman) and me on the banshees in the first phase and we did a good job, we transitioned to the second phase and all was going well. We had a couple of double ice blocks in the melee area as we still had four melee DPS standing in there jockyeing for position. Then, at 40%, it happened. Our second pally healer, Eleazarjr, got ice blocked. The attempt to call it out on vent was made, but perhaps just a split second too late. Hemnetcher's heal went off a split second too late and with Dantis out of range, Dylana wasn't able to switch off of the tank to cross heal Jr (or so I'm assuming). Either way, we were so very close to The Undying.

Being that close really hurts. Just that one little mistake after a night of perfect one-shots. A night where on almost every boss we not only beat our own record, but shattered it. However, being this close, I know we can do it. There's no question that we have the DPS, the healing, and the coordination. Our team is set. And next week, with the Undying, I know we can get Make Quick Werk of Him. We were just 5 seconds over the timer this last time through and with our other heavy-hitting mage coming back next week and some improved DPS from our shammy, we should easily be able to get him down in time.

Tonight we hit up heroic Naxxramas. Should be fun. Hopefully we'll get our full clear tonight now that we have all four wings down pat.

Given a full clear, that would give me my 500th achievement. Who knows what it will be. I should get Heroic: Arachnophobia early in the raid and then hopefully Heroic: Sapphiron's Demise towards the end, and then Heroic: Kel'Thuzad's Defeat would be #500 and Heroic: The Fall of Naxxramas would be #501. But if we don't get Arachnophobia, it would be quite fitting to have The Fall of Naxxramas be #500.

Tiddlywinks the Seer

Just a week ago, I predicted:

I'm fairly certain they'll remove the 12 month requirement for the Brewmaster title, instead replacing it with an achievement to just buy the brew of the month membership rather than sampling all 12 brews. God knows people have qq'ed enough about it.

And what do I read today?

Achievement Changes

* Brew of the Year is no longer required for the Brewmaster meta-achievement.
* New achievement: Brew of the Month - Join the Brew of the Month Club - Required for Brewmaster.

Thanks Blizzard. Just keep on giving in to those that cry and whine on the forums. How many times have you stated since achievements came out that the Brew of the Year achievement WOULD NOT be removed from the Brewmaster meta-achievement? Yet you get enough people bitching about it and you just give in. Keep it up. How absurdly stupid. By the way, I think Sartharion with 3 drakes in 10 man mode is too hard. Can you just give me the achievement, the title, and the mount now? KK thx.

Hey, how about you make it easier to get the Chef title by adding a bunch of new recipes? Oh what? You're going to?

Professions Changes
Cooking

* A lot (20+) of cooking recipes have been changed to allow players to skill up to 450 with them.

Gee, thanks. Now that achievement will be easy as cake to get and will require very little work. How wonderful.

Noblegarden Achievements

With patch 3.1, there's a lot more Noblegarden achievements that are going to be integrated into the game. To make up for the increased amount of achievements, they're extending Noblegarden to a one week event. That's a very nice change for us achievement collectors. The one thing I wonder about is - are we going to get 3.1 by the time Noblegarden hits this year? That's a pretty aggressive schedule, since even though the PTR is up, they have been constantly tweaking things and Ulduar still seems far from complete. The Noblegarden change would be welcome this year, but I just hope they don't push out 3.1 before it's ready.

Last night we quickly hit up 10 man Sartharion and Naxxramas and basically tore it up until we hit the Military quarter. Our hunter fell asleep during our 10 minute break so we pushed on without him and we used our 10 man group last night to prepare our priests for the 25 man mind controlling tonight on Instructor Razuvious. After we had to run away and reset the instructor a few times, we got him down and our new priest, Pilar should be able to have fun mind controlling tonight. We ran into problems on the Four Horsemen though, due to group composition and lack of players, so we had to call it a night there and we should be able to clean up the rest on Saturday.

Tonight, we venture into 25 man Naxxramas and I'll have a new job as master looter tonight. My spreadsheet is ready to go, my addons have been updated, and I think I've got it down, but it should be interesting to see what happens tonight when there's real loot to be distributed as last night, during my test run, very few pieces were needed by anyone, so most of it ended up going to me and getting DE'd. Hopefully it goes smoothly, it'll probably take me a wing or so to get the hang of it.

The 500th Achievement...

I set up a poll over to the side --> to let you guess what my 500th achievement will be. I have no idea, so take your best guess. If you don't see it there, leave a comment.

Sartharion, Maly, and More

This weekend, while adventuring with young Tozz, Tiddly was invited to go to the Obsidian Sanctum with 24 other adventurers to attempt to kill Sartharion with one of his drakes still alive. After one quick wipe due to some people still not understanding the lava wall and void zones, we quickly reformed, and took him out. Our group then semi-disbanded, but those left decided to go play around in Mount Hyjal. We quickly worked our way to the end, had some problems with a few bad apples deciding to pull the boss when we weren't ready, and then took out Archimonde with ease.

And then last night, after our first few attempts last Monday, we went back to try to bring down Malygos. After a couple of attempts as our death knights perfected their spark grabbing, and a few more wipes due to Malygos glitching right before the vortex (we put hunter pets away and had no issues - seems the bug is back), we took Malygos down after two more attempts. In our first attempt, during the third phase, I was not targeted at all by Malygos and successfully stacked 22 or 23 flame engulfs, but we had too many down to take him out before he enraged. On our next try, we knew we had him where we wanted him. We stacked the sparks perfectly, we took the scions out quickly, and we had over four minutes of the third phase to work him down. Unfortunately, Malygos remembered me this time around and constantly targeted me so I was unable to get past 10 stacks on him. But I survived quite a few until he hit me as I had just added to the stacks and had no energy to work with.

But the rest of our group performed admirably and we took him down. Here's my newly redesigned UI as we gather around to distribute loot:



My new UI builds on the UI I had a while ago prior to Wrath. Fubar lines the top with relevant information, my raid is down the left side which always allows a quick view of our status during a fight and I have tanks and cooldowns right there next to the raid. In the upper-right, I have XLoot and Elkano's Buff Bars and Omen3 (clear) in the middle on the right side.

Above the main black area in the middle, I am using Pitbull for my unit frames (they still need a little customizing), Decursive is above my name and there's more targeting and pet bars over on the right side. I'm still working on it all and will try and get a better shot during a normal battle.

Oh yeah, you've got MalygosCP right there in the middle - an amazing mod. Always gives me a very quick view of Combo Poitns, Energy and Engulf in Flames stacks. If only it could blink if you were targeted or something.

On the bottom panel we have (left to right): chat, map, bartender bars (hidden due to the fact I'm on a "vehicle"), and recount.



Other recent achievements, Heroic: Construct Quarter (last Friday - along with 50 emblems of valor), a Heroic: Twilight Assist on Saturday along with Hyjal, and then of course, last night (not pictured): Heroic: The Spellweaver's Downfall. I now sit at 495 achievements. Wonder what will be #500?

Tozz 40

Time to 40: 1 day, 20 hours, 38 minutes.

1-10: 2 hours, 39 minutes, 42 seconds.
11-20: 8 hours, 3 minutes, 58 seconds.
21-30: 15 hours, 20 minutes, 56 seconds.
31-40: 18 hours, 7 minutes, 30 seconds.

First Aid: 213, Herbalism: 244, Inscription: 170.

Thaddius Down, Military Quarter on Notice!

We once again ventured back into heroic Naxxramas, this time with a full group assembled at six, ready to go. We quickly stepped inside, buffed up and destroyed the Arachnid Quarter. Ventured into the Plague Quater, ran into little resistance, hit a couple of speed bumps in the Construct Quarter, but we cleared them all. I was forced to take a slight upgrade with the Cowl of Vanity even though I tried passing it, so I'm about 250g lighter in the pocket after buying gems and the arcanum.

But I had fun tonight. I thoroughly enjoyed blowing everything up.

Anub'Rekhan: 4200 DPS
Faerlina: 4000
Maexxna: 2600 (I was on web duty and running all over the place)
Noth: 3800
Heigan: 2700
Loatheb: 6200
Patchwerk: 4200
Grobbulus: 3100
Gluth: Kiting Duty
Thaddius: 7650
Trash Mobs: 4040

So yeah, fun time. I went through a stack of my food, 2 flasks, and lots of conjured food. We had 24 of 25 people split 40 pieces of gear, and next time we go back in, we'll be just that much stronger.

Viva la Gold Team!

60 Minute Hearth Too Long? Play a Mage. Or qq.

So, since the start of the game, everyone has been provided a hearthstone. It will quickly take you back to the last inn you set it at. It has always provided a way to return to your home location every 60 minutes. Of course, certain classes have ways around this. Mages have portals, shamans have ancestral recall, engineers have their own special trinkets. There's even rings now that take you back to Dalaran, and from Dalaran, there's free portals to almost anywhere you want to go.

Yet, even with all these modes of transportation, people felt like they could game the system using the "ghetto hearth." It consisted of joining a group, entering a dungeon, and then leaving the group. Since you're not in a a group, it would kick you out of the dungeon back to wherever your hearthstone is set, even if your hearthstone is still on cooldown.

In patch 3.1, they announced that they'd be doing away with ghetto hearthing, instead sending the player to the nearest graveyard to the dungeon they're attempting to ghetto hearth out of. Seemed like a good idea to me. Because in all reality, ghetto hearthing was abusing the game mechanics. This way, you'll be booted out of the dungeon like you're supposed to be and if you want to get home, use your hearthstone.

But, what happens? People cry about it. They bitch and moan and raise hell on the forums. And then what happens next? The developers cave in. They say, fine, we'll lower your hearthstones to every 30 minutes. WHAT? You're eliminating an abuse of the game mechanic, yet you're going to reward all of those people that abused the game mechanic and complained about it with a 30 minute hearthstone? Come on guys, grow a pair. Stand firm in your decision. Don't keep giving in to these people that qq and complain every chance they get.

Seriously, there's something wrong with the game right now. Maybe I should qq about it. Because it seems like every time someone qq's about something in the game, the devs give in (see: Love is in the Air, Children's Week, etc., etc.). Just cry enough on the forums and the devs will listen. I'm fairly certain they'll remove the 12 month requirement for the Brewmaster title, instead replacing it with an achievement to just buy the brew of the month membership rather than sampling all 12 brews. God knows people have qq'ed enough about it.