Yeah yeah, I know what I said, but I couldn’t help it. I picked up a Black Ice last night and had to share. We were going for a 6-minute Malygos kill but just couldn’t do it. We killed him in 6:09 and the only reason we didn’t wipe and try again is because the DoTs killed him. Yay hit rating on a polearm! Slapped a Massacre on that beast and we are good to go. As soon as I get some more hit rating on gear I can re-gem.

We’ve also started practicing for an Undying run. This will take a lot of work and focus however, but I think we can do it. However, all it takes is some lag on Heigan or one missed iceblock on Kel’Thuzad and splat, no achievement.

Categories: loot, screenshots
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Everyone else seems to be doing it, and I’m always game for a fun meme. So here’s a screenshot. Not sure what the “sixth folder” business was all about, I only have one screenshot folder, but here is the sixth screenshot in there.

Guess where?

In addition, here are two screens I took today. I told myself I would never level fishing, but suddenly I love it.

I also made first contact with a new guild that I am thinking of joining. They are the #2 Alliance guild on the server, not that that really matters. The people are more important to me, which is why I would never join the #1 Alliance guild on the server (Slow Motion are jerks!).

We’ll see. Until then, fishing dailies and Kalu’ak rep for the sweet fishing pole.

Categories: screenshots
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Yeah, so Hesston wasn’t expecting to do anything last night but level my new pet, figure out my new DPS and farm. Our guild was running the secondary team through Naxxramas (Hesston is on team #1), so I was set on getting my new dino ready for raids.

Only a few hours into the raid, lag being what it is post-patch, I think the GM got a little frustrated (though I believe they cleared the Arachnid Quarter). However, I guess he saw that we had plenty of people on and, seeing that Blizzard worked so hard on the new Wintergrasp Essence icon, we decided to take advantage of it.

Not but two seconds after I heard that wonderful *GONG* and saw that Nessie the devilsaur was level 80, he told everyone to rally toward Wintergrasp, we were going to run Heroic Vault of Archavon. Holy jumpin’ jackalopes! I grabbed my mammoth cutters, slapped on my raiding setup and headed to Wintergrasp.

We did have a few holes to fill in our raid so we pugged a few stragglers. I was a little nervous because I had not tested my new DPS with the new pet, gems and setup. To make a long story short, 25-man Archavon one-shotted, entire raid up, good enough (though not great) DPS from Hesston. W00t! I even won the Deadly Gladiator’s Chain Armor, which is for PvP, but still pretty cool. Several guildies won some good loot, so that was cool.

Amped and with a rare amount of people ready to raid, we too a quick break, filled the holes in the raid from those that dropped and headed off to Heroic Obsidian Sanctum. I still had not had a chance to join the guild runs on regular OS, so I was a little nervous.

Again, to make a long story short, every bit of OS was a one shot; from mini-bosses to Sartharion himself. Hells yeah! We were pretty excited about this, to say the least. We also had very few deaths, though the lava waves got a few people and the adds get a little out of control on Heroic it seems.

I didn’t get any loot (though a great trinket and Valorous gloves dropped), but that was OK. Two pieces of loot went to non-guild members, so that was a bummer. But, we couldn’t have done it without them as one was the top DPS for the fight.

All in all, a damn good night. Tonight, if we can get the folks together, we might try some 25-man Naxxramas. And tomorrow is our first regular Naxx full-clear Saturday. We’re timing it and might see if someone can record it too.

Basically, I think I’m OK with my new DPS. It still needs some tweaks and I probably won’t top the damage meters so easily, but I can pull my weight still. Obviously I wasn’t OK with it and the weight was not being pulled, as you’ve probably figured out by now.

Tags: raids
Categories: guild, raids, screenshots
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To say the guild made progress this week and weekend would be an understatement. To say Hesston made out like a bandit this week would equally be an understatement. This week far makes up for last week, where Hesston got diddly squat.

First, the downings.

I came in as a sub to help with the Four Horseman and Grobbulus on Wednesday night. The Four Horseman were no problem, as most everyone had done it before. It’s funny how that fight can seem so complicated and crazy the first time, but after you get the hang of it, it’s cake.

Next, on to fatboy Grobbulus. After about three tries, we got the sloppy bum down. It’s a fun fight if everyone is doing what they’re supposed to be doing, though once old Hesston ran face-first into a mass of poison clouds. Dead. Nice going, straighten that helmet and get back in there.

The GM had other plans for Gluth, so I stepped out for the night. This was fine though, since after the lengthy break I needed to catch up on farming and some money. About two hours later however, I saw exasperated messages over guild chat and folks saying quick goodbyes. Apparently Gluth did not go well and folks seem to leave a little discouraged. The next night I found out why.

The Gluth add situation is damn hard.

The next night, GM asked me to step in to try and down Gluth. I studied up on it and offered to try and kite the zombie chow using Whitey, my gorilla. I almost did it all by my lonesome, but it just wasn’t enough. I kept missing one or two zombies, then I’d try to pull them back and the others would unaggro from me and start toward the raid. One slip, and it fell apart quick. I felt bad, I really wanted to do it and know that I could. Not this time though, I put my pride aside and let the GM make suggestions and change the plan. A mage and I tried to double team the adds, but we still failed.

So, our GM jumped on his geared-to-the-teeth pally tank and just consecrated his butt off on top of the grate. Our epic healer kept him alive even with 99 stacks of the debuff. The rest of us just went nuts with the DPS on the undead doggy. Tranq shot was working like a charm too, and we killed him. Awesome.

Gluth dead, on to Thaddeus.

We took down the two mini-bosses easily the first try, but most of us (including Hesston) didn’t jump off the platform quick enough and the coils fried us. Our “w00ts!” quickly turned to “whats?” Wipe it up! Second try, damn near flawless. Only bad thing that happened was this one stupid, dwarf hunter wasn’t paying attention to his charge and almost wiped the raid. Yes, that stupid, dwarf hunter was yours truly.

GM: “Hesston, you’re on the wrong side. You’re killing us bro!”

Hesston: “Der” *wipes drool from lip and goes to his OTHER right*

Luckily, we healed through and it was smooth sailing from there. Thaddeus downed, Construct Quarter cleared and…Lieutenant Dan, I gots new legs! That’s right, I now have three pieces of T7. In my wildest dreams I never thought I’d be at this point and I have all of these wonderful people in Satyricon to thank. You’re making my $15 a month so worth it. Also, a good DPS sword also dropped, that I legally won, but decided to give it up to the rogue (also our GM), since I got the legs and it was a really good weapon for him. We accidentally gave that out first though so a ticket was opened. Blizzard, get a move on, our rogue needs that sword!

Next up, Heigan the Unclean and the infamous safety dance. Now I’d never finished this fight before, but I understand the concept well. It took a few tries and many deaths, but we finally did it. Here’s the kicker, not once did I die from the acid splash thing. For some reason I have the magical, mutant ability to do the dance flawlessly. Call it luck, skill or 20+ years of playing platform video games, but I can ace that damn thing. Now if only I had the same luck with Herald Volazj and his stupid insanity. I die every damn time.

Heigan down, no loot for me. That was fine though, I was already giddy with excitement with the legguards and I was glad to see others get some goods. The guild that gears together clears together, huzzah!

The room after Heigan was a nightmare. We tried a few times to no avail, though some made it across. Each time Hesston stepped five feet into the room those eyestalk thingies shot beams at me and I died fast. Nothing seemed to work. These short, stubby legs can only move so fast. Our final solution was to whip up some potions of invisibility and just run for it. It worked, though some used skills by accident, canceling the invisibility, and died. Still, we made it across and faced Loatheb, the fungi guy.

Again, first time at this fight but I understood the debuff and the spores thing. This is one of those fights where I am glad to be a DPS. “Healers, you have 3 seconds to heal us all…NO PRESSURE!” Yeah. However, we were coordinated, the healers were aces and we one-shotted him. Loatheb downed, Plague Quarter cleared and…Loatheb, I got your shadow! I can haz new hunter trinket. I almost have a full backpack of hunter trinkets now, one for every occasion.

After that clean slate of successes (minus the speedbumps), we decided to call it a night. The next night we were going to try 25-man Vault of Archavon, but our attempt at Wintergrasp was a bit of fail. I’ll put this in The Real World intro terms.

What happens, when you put 25 PvE raiders together, who are used to fighting scripted bosses together and many of whom never PvP (Hesston included), in a large and difficult PvP zone against an army of PvP’ers?

“Where do we go?”

“We can ride on the vehicles?”

“Catapults! Pew Pew”

The answer is fail. It was OK though. We licked our wounds, got our 10-man raid together and just went and killed Sapphiron. Oh, did I forget to mention that? Yeah, Hesston got his first kill on Sapphiron. Only took us three tries and when we did win, the entire raid was up. Many of the folks I was with were there for the first one, but I danced a jig when I saw that ding pop up. Seriously, I love these people. Not only are we clearing content, they’re fun to run with too. No one is uptight or has no sense of humor. Sometimes even our wipes are funny.

We took a few shots at Kel’Thuzad, but were tired. Even so, we (or they rather, Hesston kept getting iceblocked and dying), got him down to 40 percent. And, we did that with only one tank. Tonight, we take both tanks. Kel’Thuzad, you will die, and you will drop the Nerubian Conquerer or some other great, wonderful thing for the raid members.

The only thing that bothered me was that, after looking at the reports, my DPS was atrocious. It’s not that I have to be “top of the charts”, I just want to know I am making a large contribution. I’m thinking it had something to do with all of the running around I was doing plus doing fights where KITT is basically a non-contributing member. I’ll be working on and analyzing my shot rotations and skillset this week as well.

However, later this week we’re taking our first serious shot at Malygos. Or as I call him, ol’ Bluebeard. The week will be spent mastering Aces High!, even though I hates it. Malygos, you will die!

Last thing, I also picked up a Grasscutter with the last bit of Emblems of Heroism I will probably use. Will be good for my dual-wielding setup.

Like I said, a good week.

Until next time. Stay low and keep firing.

Tags: loot,raids
Categories: achievements, loot, raids, screenshots
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As a hunter, Hesston relies on his pet. We need our pet to survive. He’s out there charging into battle for us, holding those mobs at bay so we can blast away with our ranged weapon and make short work of them without even scratching our armor. Our pet, or pets, are a hunter’s best friend, so I thought I’d give them a little attention here.

I said before, that for most of the first two-thirds of Hesston’s adventuring life, things were pretty much a solo run. However, it never really felt that way since we had our tamed beast alongside us to brave the dangers of Azeroth. We were always a party of two.

Over time I’ve tried out several different pets; from crocs to raptors, and even spiders and a turtle. And with all of the beautiful pets out there, it’s pretty darn hard to decide what to keep in those stable slots. Right now though, I’ve settled on two that I keep on a steady rotation and serve a certain purpose.

KITT:

This here is KITT, my lovable cat that I found in Zul’Drak. He’s a ferocity pet, for those keeping score. That means he gets cool abilities like Heart of the Phoenix and Lick Your Wounds, two things that keep this guy alive during those tough raids. That’s right, KITT here is my main raiding pet. He packs a wallop with the DPS. Why, just the other night in the Construct Quarter of Naxxramas, KITT was going crit crazy and almost topped the tank in aggro on some mobs due to all of the damage he was dishing out. The tanks may have been missing some taunts or something too, but whatever. Go kitty! Along with the cool talent tree abilities, cats also have rake, a great damaging hit that puts a fun little DoT bleeding affect on the target. Seriously, you can keep your devilsaurs, I’m sticking with the kitty.

Whitey:

This here is Whitey, my gorilla tank, or Gorilladan as some people call it. I first grabbed a gorilla way back in Un’Goro crater, but that one got too old a squishy so I let him out to pasture and picked up Whitey here in Sholozar Basin. As a tenacity pet, he’s really great at taking all kinds of punishment from the enemy. He doesn’t dish out too much damage himself, but that’s OK. Thanks to his threat-generating AoE ability, Thunderstomp, he can hang on to multiple mobs while I give them a big-bad Volley or two. For this reason, the gorilla is really the best pet for soloing those old dungeons Hesston missed out on. He also came in handy while I gained new experience in Northrend since he could take on all those mobs that were new to me. Whenever I need to farm some leather in Sholozar, I take Whitey here to bunch up all of his old buddies together so I can blast ‘em down and take all that wonderful skin. Sure, I feel a little guilty about having him beat up his fellow gorillas, but so what, he’s on my side. I feed him fruits and berries and stuff, he’s got it made.

My other slots are filled with a useless Core Hound I grabbed from Azuremyst Isle and a wasp I haven’t used much either. The hound stinks, and I’m not just talking about his breath. Wait, actually I am. That stupid breath of his goes off before he even gets to mob we’re killing, bringing it to us instead of vice-versa. Wrong doggy, keep him away!

And the wasp, yeah, I’d rather not talk about it.

So, I’ve been looking for a third pet to round out my collection. I’m leaning toward something from the cunning tree just so I can have one of each type. Who knows, a cunning pet might turn out excellent for raiding. However, none of those pets really appeal to Hesston right now.

So, until the infamous Loque’nahak shows himself, KIT is my go to beast for smacking the enemy around. Fellow hunters, what’s in your stable?

Tags: hunters,pets
Categories: hunters, pets, screenshots
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So this week and this weekend was, again, full of activity for old Hesston. Almost too much to get into and go through. I won’t bore you with another droll list of gear, I imagine that wears thin after a while. After all, if you’re interested you can always read Hesston’s armory page.

The guild and I took another stab at Naxxramas, though we had to resort to some PuG members. We downed the Arachnid Quarter again, but Hesston sort of got an item dropped from Maexxna ganked from him by one of the tanks (non guild member) who claimed he needed it for a re-spec. To make a long story short, it was bad judgment and management from our guild leader. I am at fault too, for not just stepping up and letting him know he was not eligible for it. I was leaving it up to our GM though, and that was disappointing.

Although we managed to down Noth the Plaugebringer in the Plauge Quarter last night, not being able to get it together for Heigan the Unclean made me about lose it. I mean come on kids, how hard is it to run from giant walls of poison lava-type stuff blasting up from the floor? Tonight was a similar disaster, so Hesston decided to leave the group (not the guild, yet) and seek adventure elsewhere.

So with that, Hesston is looking for a new band of hardy raiders and dungeon runners, in the hopes that he might get to face the mighty Malygos and perhaps even one day Arthas, the Lich King himself. As luck would have it, I jumped into a pick-up group going into Heroic: Gundrak, that foul dungeon on the edge of Zul’Drak. The first battle was cake, thanks to Hesston’s insistence that we pull Slad’ran into the room with the water and up the stairs a bit. A mage, the healer and I stayed a bit above and blasted that serpent back to whence he came.

Second boss, not so easy. After some errors, and some party reorganization, we were able to take down the colossus. As luck would have it, I happened to be running with the guild master of Satyricon, one of the better guilds on the realm. I inquired about joining, he gave me a wealth of information and I’m considering. However, back to Gundrak.

The rest of the dungeon went as normal. However, the final battle with Gul’darah, the High Prophet of Akali, was epic.

So there I am, firing the old Nesingwary 4000 at the foul troll while KIT rakes and claws at him and the rest of the party lets loose with all their might. Suddenly, the tricky bastard transformed into a giant rhino, the biggest one these eyes have ever seen. He lunged at our mage, spearing him on his horn and killing him almost instantly. The transformed Gul’darah went back to attacking our tank and I blasted away.

Then, next thing you know he’s charging at me and slams into me like a keg of Ogre mead. I’m hit hard and hanging on the beast’s horn for dear life, my healer desperately trying to keep me alive. She does and Gul’darah tosses me aside like toy.

Down but not out, I sprang into action, pulling my target back into my cross hairs and firing away again. Gul’darah had transformed back to his humanoid form and we kept up the beating. We could tell we had him on the ropes, but there was a last burst of fight left in him. He transformed again, back into rhino form!

KIT and I flew into a beastial fury, giving it everything we had. But, just as the beast was nearing the end, our tank fell. KIT continued to rake and claw, but it wasn’t enough and our other mage just didn’t have the oomph. With the tank gone, rhino Gul’darah trained its eyes on the next person in line for a beating. That’s right, Hesston.

He charged hard but I dashed to the side. I tried to shoot but he was right on top of me. The look in the beast’s eyes told me this was it, it was either him or me. So I spun on my heels as fast I could, disengaged from the enemy and popped off an arcane shot as a flew back away from my target.

BOOM!

To say I let out a /roar of triumph is to put it mildly. It may not have been the most profitable battle of the weekend, but it was certainly the most satisfying. Put another heroic notch on Hesston’s belt.

Other achievements (both big and small):

P.S. Try not to get caught up in all of the first-person, third-person switches. Hesston just likes to do that to keep you on your toes. /wink

Tags: bosses,dungeons,screenshots
Categories: heroics, raids, screenshots, weekends
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