So I finally ran a full, 10-man Trial of Crusader PuG.

On my paladin.

As the main tank.

In the words of many a WoW player: “Lol whut?”

Seriously, this was a very strange position to be in. In fact, the other pally tank had never tanked the place completely either. The rest of the party were clearly pretty hardcore raiders so we managed to blow through it with only two wipes. Once because the other tank picked up the wrong worm and once because the Faction Champs just got out of control.

I can see how people can be so frustratingly burnt out on this place right now. The layout of the room sucks, things get in the way of your camera at almost all angles and the bosses just aren’t that exciting. I’m amazed people have lasted this long. And 3.3 couldn’t come soon enough I imagine.

I passed on the tank loot that dropped since that was the other tanks main spec and Minalias just likes to tank on the side.

Hesston still wants/needs some gear out of here, but that probably won’t be happening. Still, this was fun to go through as a tank and good to know Minalias has the chops to do it.

Categories: raids, weekends
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A smattering of things:

• Still trying to perfect an MM spec that maximizes DPS throughput and mana efficiency. Currently trying this, with an MSBT alert set up so that all Improved Steady Shot procs are used with Chimera Shot.
• Picked up the badge neck piece. Meh.
• Dinged 80 on the DK, whom I used to hate. Now he’s kind of fun. Took his fail, fresh 80 DPS to Naxx 10 with some guildies and picked up three pieces of T7, a belt, Death’s Bite, a ring and enough badges for a new sigil. Seeing Naxx from a melee perspective was like doing it for the first time again, tons of fun. Also, frost DPS is awesome.
• Tried healing some Ulduar 10-man with the paladin. I think I was doing good, but the other healers were so fail we couldn’t down any bosses besides Flame Leviathan. Still, healing Ulduar is rough.
• Still trying to work on the video project, but work and other obligations have gotten in the way. In due time, WoW isn’t going anywhere.
• Guild downed hard mode Thorim on 10-man. I wasn’t there, but grats to them!
• There needs to be more time in the day, period.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Laters.

Categories: weekends
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1. Malygos is tough
   The guild has hit a bit of a roadblock at the Eye of Eternity and against the bearded flamethrower. It’s not a gear issue, it’s a coordination one. I know plenty of other guilds have downed the big bum, but we’re having a bit of trouble with the sparks. I know we can do it, it just will take some practice and better communication, myself included. In the meantime, we’re helping to gear some Death Knights in case we have to do “easy mode” version.
2. Naxxramas is easy
   OK, so that’s not really true. But Hesston has to puff his chest out a little bit after being humbled by Malygos. We did another clear, hardly any trouble with any of the boss fights and I got a new blade from Kel’Thuzad himself (though I wanted the gun damn it). This coming Saturday begins our full-clear Saturdays for the A-team. We figure we can do it in no more than six hours. We’ll see. This will leave a second team open for gearing in Naxx during the week, eventually leading up to 25-man content. It couldn’t come soon enough, I can’t wait.
3. Hesston is poor
   Raiding is expensive. Flasks, bullets, repairs; it all adds up. And, since you are spending a lot of time in raids, this leaves less time for dailies, farming, etc. I have embarked on a new business venture (which I’ll talk about later) that will hopefully pan out. The other reason I need some money is that the other night I did a drake run in Culling of Stratholme and won the Reins of the Bronze Drake. However, I never bought my epic flying skill so it is just sitting there in my bank.
4. Change is afoot
   You may have heard, but there is a good chance the world will be changing today. With these changes means animal control is forcing KITT to get de-clawed, which makes Hesston sad. I won’t give up on him, but may look into other pets. Once I get the epic flying I may go after the Spirit Beast, but until then it is almost impossible.

That is all I’ve got for now.

Tags: stuff
Categories: raids, weekends
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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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Hey there both fellow hunters and non, welcome back.

This past weekend and weekend of adventuring was a very productive one. At the beginning of the week I decided to have the old memory wiped of the little bit of engineering and blacksmithing knowledge I had, in lieu of picking up the new professions of skinning and leatherworking. The two crafts seemed to make the most sense and the other two just never panned out.

However, I had to start from square one with both. So….back to Elwynn Forest and the Eastern Kingdoms. Over the course of three or four days I blasted through most of the areas skinning every beast that crossed my path and making boots, gloves and various other goods from their hides.

Eventually I was in Outland again, skinning the beasts there. While snatching up heavy knothide leather in Nagrand, I came upon Durn the Hungerer again, a beast that kicked my butt many a time just a few months ago.

KIT and I decided it was time for some payback.

The rest of the week was spent finishing up my skinning training, venturing back into Northrend eventually. My leatherworking skills have come in handy too, and are fairly high (though not at the top of the charts yet). I can make all kinds of goodies.

Over the weekend I ran quite a few heroic dungeons, had quite a few failures and also had some first successes with the guild in Naxxramas.

A quick rundown of things achieved:

• 50 Emblems of Heroism

• Archavon the Stone Watcher
• The Arachnid Quarter (W00t!!)
• Master of Arms (ho hum)
• Snakes. Why’d It Have To Be Snakes?

There were a couple of more things I think, but that’s the stuff at the top of the list.

The Naxxramas victory was notably great. We had some flubs with the group but eventually we had a decent one together to make it through our first wing. I know tons of others have done this before and many have Naxx on farming status, but for me and many others in the group it was first, so it felt great.

Also, some good loot was had:

• Cloak of Gushing Wound

• Razorstrike Breastplate (made this myself)
• Swiftarrow Leggings
• Interwoven Scale Bracers
• Pendant of the Outcast Hero
• Mirror of Truth

I’m still looking for a better belt, and since the Anomalus refuses to drop the chest piece I could use, I decided to make the Razorstrike to hold me over until the Argent Crusade think I’m cool enough to sell me the Polished Regimental Hauberk. Come on you jerks, I won an entire battle for you and saved Argent Vanguard, give up the loot!

That’s all I have for now, and as soon as I can get this goblin image stabilizer working ol’ Hess will put some pictures of this week’s adventures up and tidy this site up more.

Goal for this week (besides gold and rep of course), is to tame the legendary Loque’nahak. He will be mine, oh yes, he will be mine.

Tags: achievements,loot,wow
Categories: loot, raids, weekends
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