Lich King heroic

So far it's one of the greatest fights I've ever seen.

On our first try, I didn't really know what to expect. I mean, I read up on the tactic, the whole stuff about Shadow Traps and everything, we discussed where to run and just had the goal to play the first phase, die and then discuss the second and so on.

The first attempt was utter chaos. We died. Fast.
The most embarrassing thing for me was that Infest got completely out of control.

With a few more tries we got better. After 2 days with about 5 hours of trying we got the hang of phase 1 now and arrive in phase 2 most of the time.
Most of the time, because much to our annoyance our Shambling Horror Tank sometimes just goes poof like a damn balloon.
One or twohitted when one add goes below 20% and enrages or two adds frenzy at the same time.

We really need to get him to call out when one add goes below 20% and he can't stun *cough* so that we can give him pain suppression or guardian spirit.

At least I have Infest under control. At least until Phase 2 begins. What I am really concerned about is the damage on the val'kyrs. We need about 3 stuns to get her down to 50% before she reaches the edge and drops her target.
Currently our best shot is that our warlock gets picked up most of the time because it saves us damage on the val'kyr.

We had the Lich King to around 50% yesterday. That's actually pretty good I think. Only 10% more until the second phase transition and then only 30% more until we win the fight.
I think the second phase transition may be fairly hard because we have no heroism and go into phase 2 with one and a half Raging Spirits up.

I am thinking maybe our Mage should dps down the Spirits as well instead of taking care of the frostspheres - our Shadow Priest could handle that just as well.

I'm open to any more suggestions :)

Raid Setup is
Protection Paladin, Feral Druid
Holy Priest, Holy Paladin, Discipline Priest
Arcane Mage, Shadow Priest, Fury Warrior, Frost DK, Destruction Warlock

just write me a comment if you want to help

Jumping in the pit

Long I resisted but now I want to joooin.

I now have a twitter account, awesome.

And it's all thanks to a post over at http://rhida.ch/ which is a awesome blog btw, go read it if you play a paladin!

my twitter account can be found here:
http://twitter.com/#!/thexerian

Have fun and have a nice weekend!

I've got my drake!

So, we had a run which focused on the achievements in Icecrown Citadel, the last two weeks.
We did everything on the first 10 bosses on the first day, then Sindragosa on the second raid day of the week.
Didn't get it done then.

But we decided to extend the lockout, because we wanted to get it done.
Which we did yesterday.

Aaaand she finally dropped and All You Can Eat popped up on our screens and ohhellsyes the screams of joy in Teamspeak.
I couldn't actually believe it for a second or two.

We just stomped Arthas into the ground afterwards, Been Waiting A Long Time For This ist not really one of the harder achievements, and so quite some people in our guild finally got their drakes.

I'm really glad we did this, my goals for cataclysm are all achieved. Maybe I'll get to try the fight against Arthas on heroic mode, but I honestly don't care if we can defeat him (which of course would be great) or not.

As far as I'm concerned, Cataclysm could hit right now and I wouldn't look back in regret about not getting something done in time at any second.



On other news, I smashed my way to Level 20 on my belf paladin, which is - considering I have heirlooms - just frickin' awesome. I mean, please, a 1k crit with Templars Verdict (never mind I had a crusader proc and 3 holy power) on level 18?
That's just insane.
I keep oneshotting - or at least twoshotting mobs.
Simply said - it's fun. And for the moment I specced retribution.
Maybe will be prot later - again. But we will see.

And you thought he was dead.

A loong loong time ago - well, not actually quite that long, but it has been a while - I primarily played on horde-side.
With Caladon, that changed. My priest became my main, switching focus from my paladin to him - which in course led to my abandonment of the guild I had so eagerly created and - with help from some friends naturally - led through Icecrown Citadel up to the Lich King.

We reached the Lich King a few weeks before I reached him with my priest as well. But, over the course of the weeks, the time I spent on Horde rapidly decreased.

I had realized something. I had no fun there anymore. Reasons were many. Being responsible for everything. The constant moaning and bitching from some people. I didn't have to deal with that in Caladon!

Of course, there were points I was nagging about there as well. But I was only a simple member without much responsibility.

I stopped playing my bloodelf.
I gave my position as a guild master from my warlock to my co-founder.
Ever since, I rarely log in. I did the Zalazane's Fall event, I hopped on when 4.0.1 hit. Even did a raid or two with my warlock. But that was everything.
I even switched my paladin to human a while back.

But now it's time for a comeback.
Since the faction change of my original Sorg, I saved the name. Just in case, if I ever decided to switch again.
Now, I do not intend to faction change back, but instead... I start from scratch.


And so, here he is. In all his current and soon-to-come glory, Sorg the Bloodelf Paladin.

Honestly, I missed the bloodelf model <3

Pleasant Surprises

Since Patch 4.0.1 it seems like a lot of people here in Caladon are filled with new ambition.

In addition we got some new really good recruits who I absolutely hope will stay. From a personal viewpoint as well as the fact they are good players and fit into our raid very well.

As far as progress goes, we finally could defeat Professor Putricide on Sindragosa on Heroic mode.

After we finally had only these two left we had a few weeks in which we couldn't really try them.

We had a chance to concentrate on these bosses last Sunday and Monday and boy am I happy. Both bosses fell the same evening we tried them. Professor on Sunday and Sindragosa on Monday. This is of course in no small part to the huge damage increase that 4.0.1 brought with it.

Which puts Caladon finally to 11/12 heroic.

That's all I wanted. I know we probably won't defeat Arthas on heroic. And I honestly don't need that kill.

What I'm interested in are the last achievements I need.

Luckily, our raid leaders decided to tackle these achievements  now. 

Yesterday, we did the achievements for the first bosses, from the Lower Spire through the Plagueworks and Crimson Hall up to Valithria.

I'm down to the last two achievements.

All You Can Eat and Been Waiting A Long Time For This.

We will try these achievements on next Monday.

If I am a little bit lucky and we manage to do them, I'll proudly walk out of there with my Frostbrood Vanquisher.

After that, Cataclysm can come - I am waiting.

Rude Awakening

Many people will wake up from a pleasant dream and be faced with bitter reality come Cataclysm.

This reality being that they just majorly suck. I am really pleased that instances are getting hard again. Challenging. Hell, I had fun wiping in Stonecore Heroic for damn four hours and not even finishing the place!

And I know that some things here at Caladon have to and will change with the expansion. The result of these changes hopefully being that we don't have to wipe on bosses which we consider "on farm"

I'm sick of carrying people through the content, I'm sick of doing my best and what do I get? Exactly. Nothing. Nothing but frustration because certain individuals are an obstacle for the raid as a whole.

I won't get my ICC drake.

With the raid lockout changes coming with patch 4.0, the guild that offfered these boost raids will most certainly stop doing that.

I am only missing 5 achievements. Heroic: Frost Wing Halls, because I am missing Sindragosa, Full House, I'm on a boat, All You Can Eat and Been Waiting A Long Time For This.

Five achievements that I'll not be able to complete because there is no other guild here that offers this. Five achievements I'll not be able to complete because the majority of people here at Caladon don't care about achievements.

I wanted to get an instance mount while the corresponding instance still matters JUST ONCE.
But I won't.

I will have completed almost every goal I had in Wrath so far. Getting a Ulduar Protodrake. Defeating Algalon. Seeing every fight at least on normal and beating it as well.
My last goal for this expansion - getting the drake from ICC 10man - I'll not be able to complete.

The worst?
I have to put up with this. Because we COULD get it done. We COULD do it. But that would mean we'd have to focus on these achievements. And tell some people that we cannot take them along for that. But that will not be happening, right?

Instead we are doing alt raids, when we can't even reliable down some bosses with our mains. Instead we are visiting old instances, for which you can put a pug together in half an hour. I mean, seriously. Wasting half an hour of our raid time for GRUUL? He stopped being a menace AGES AGO.

But you know what? Once Cataclysm hits, I'll no longer put up with this. Either Caladon gets rid of some people and starts to once more being a competitive 10man raiding guild which it once was and what was actually my MOTIVATION to apply here OR I'm out.
10man guilds will be sprouting like mushrooms, everywhere.
It's either them or me. And can you really afford to lose some of your better raiders?
I'm not the best one out there, there is no denying that. But I know what I'm doing and you know that.
If you didn't, I'd be kicked for my obnoxious behavior ages ago, because I know for a fact I'd kick myself out of a raid I'd lead. I interrupt people, I suggest different tactics for bosses without being asked and I call out people that did mistakes.
All things that you would not actually consider being nice and friendly.

Beta, here I come

So, despite the fact that I actually gave up hoping I would get beta access, I participated in another of these little contests all over the internet.

Easy task: Count the zones that will be available in Azeroth (not including Northrend) in Cataclysm.

To whoever is interested: there will be 56 zones.

I answered right and I actually WON.

I was kinda speechless when I checked there today and saw that. However, as it would obviously be too easy to let me win and then give me my key without complications, their mailserver didn't work too well today.

Which means I have to wait a day longer. Which kinda sucks now that I know I COULD download the beta client, patch and then start testing.

Well. Patience was never one of my good traits.

This will be lots of fun.

So, I just had the chance to pay the PTR a visit with my priest.

Just one word. Amazing.

In comparison to the current patch, I gained 10k health, a little more than 20k mana, almost 900 spellpower and about twice the mana regen.

Mind you, that is before buffs. 

I like how archangel looks, the wings are cute. I will probably be a little sloppy with healing a day or two until I get used to how I am supposed to heal now... especially because my all around spell has a cast time of 2,5 seconds, which is a bit much if you got Flash Heal down to 1 second and practiced GCD spamming. Strength of Soul seems like an interesting talent. I kinda like reducing the weakened soul debuff.

I really like the change to lifeblood, finally some use for herbalism in a raid environment. I never hit the button as of now, I imagine that will change. 240 haste is a lot.

I honestly imagine Blizzard will take out the nerfbat on healer soon. I can't imagine that mana will be a problem before the expansion is released, it even seems that it will become even less of an issue than it is now.

My in combat regen is actually high enough to keep spamming Heal all day if I want to. With Manaspring / Blessing of Might (new version) and replenishment and rapture I'll probably get more mana back than I could possibly spend.

I'll probably take this spec here on level 80

http://cata.wowhead.com/talent#bfMkGoshfodcZ0b

und upgrade that to this one in the progress of reaching level 85

http://cata.wowhead.com/talent#bfMkGoshfodf0RZ0b

Gay night elves; thoughts about Beta and PTR; Twinkraid?

First things first, I attempt to start a longer RP-Story with a friend and I created an additional blog for that.

It's a story about two night elves, Druid and Warrior.
Short summary:
Tandral, the warrior was trapped inside Ahn'Qiraj for the last ten centuries. As the doors were opened again, he was freed from the will of C'thun and brought to Dolanaar to recover.
Kilean is a ambitious druid and was Tandral's partner long ago. He still loves him and would do anything for him.
Shortly after Tandral is brought to Dolanaar, Kilean hears news of the arrival of an injured elf, of which they say he was mad and brought here from Silithus.
At first, he does not believe it - but curiosity gets the better of him.
As they meet Kilean is in shock. His love actually still lives. However the warrior has lost all his memories. What will become of them now?

Yes. THEY ARE GAY. Live with it. Anyone who's interested in reading what develops in that RP is welcome to go over to
http://kileantandral.blogspot.com/
and read. I wrote an introduction, more is soon to follow when we get started.
As a sidenote I actually write this RP in German, so I'm sorry for any (if there are!) english readers that I have to disappoint like this.
Whoever does not want to read it / does not like gays - KEEP OUT. You were warned. Don't complain. I'll just delete your comments in that case anyway.

MOVING ON.
I am not in the Beta, and I am slowly abandoning hope I will actually get access to this one before the expansion ships. However as 4.0 is being tested on the PTR currently, I snuck over there to get a glimpse of what's to come on my own. (I devour TotalBiscuit's videos as well as the ones from Yogscast, so I have a good guess of what's going on in Beta.)

Now, charactercopy is NOT working at all in EU PTR at the moment so I am yet again cursed to not being able to test the changes with my priest.
I began leveling a druid out of absolute boredom.
I like the new spellbook, I like the talent trees, I really like cat form at level 8.

I don't like the current numbers. I for one am a strange person - the higher my level, the less ambition I have for pvp. I love PvP at lower level ranges, the 10-19 bracket especially and I leveled char till twenty through pvp, deleted him and started anew several times already.
Lower level PvP is absolutely broken right now.
Everyone oneshots everyone. The numbers are RIDICULOUS.
Well I guess, numbers are not final applies here. At least I hope so.

I will probably test the new glyph interface as soon as I get my 80s over there (if ever.)

TOPIC CHANGE YET AGAIN.

Like everything else, terms in world of warcraft are sometimes subject to personal interpretation and definition.
So.
How do I define an alt-raid (Twinkraid, in German).
For me that is supposed to be a raid with known participants - in a different role, however.
Nevertheless, they KNOW the fights and are probably still performing better than your average trade pug.

As such, I differentiate between "acceptable mistakes" and "what the hell are you DOING?"

For example.
Being inexperienced as a tank and therefore not performing a good job on Keleseth with collecting dark nuclei - completely acceptable.
Waiting for the first dark nucleus to spawn and not tanking Keleseth at all while watching how the other tank is literally torn apart - not so much.

We have to tell basics apart from encounterspecific tactics.
Building up aggro on a mob you are assigned to is part of the basics - running around after that is done and collecting shadow orbs is encounterspecific.
Now. Knowing the encounter from another perspective makes you more likely to not totally screw up IF you master the basics.

Another example is Sindragosa.
Not being able to turn her around masterfully on your first time tanking - fine. I was not doing any better.
Not turning her at all, obliterating almost half the raid on the first frost breath? What the hell were you doing?

I know this might sound like hatespeech to the persons involved, but keep in mind - it is not.
You could also take it as advice. Study the basics! Different roles have different views of the fight - however you should use that to your advantage!
A healer generally has the best overview of boss abilities, encounter tactics and what's happening when. We have to, because we are supposed to counter this abilities to make sure our raid survives.

Don't tunnelvision. Try to envision yourself in the role of other people in your raid and you might be able to adjust the tactics to best fit YOUR group.
That can not be done if you only know one perspective of the fight.
This is especially important as a raid leader.

Aside from that I am now aware how horrendously I suck at Valithria Dreamwalker inside the Dream.
Whoever has thought of that insanity? I demand that he be punished.

Great raid!

After the three week summer break of Caladon, we did a full assault on the evils that lurk in Icecrown Citadel and all I have to say is...

WOW!

That was a great great great raid, we stormed through previous bosses like they were on normal, not heroic, and then after a few tries the Blood Princes bit the dust. It was a close kill actually with some very scary almost-tank-deaths, but we managed to score yourselves another bosskill.

Which is great. We did a few tries on Valithria after that as well and I was positively surprised.

I was a little bit sceptical, because Sucara, our holy paladin was not attending raid today. We were a three-healer setup as usual, Feuerblatt/Druid, Elementon/Shaman and me/Discipline.

I was sceptic. Especially concerning healing the group, which I usually do - and successfully did on heroic before - alone. Well, the last two weeks with Ritter der Apocalypse made me doubt my own skills as well as the group's on that boss.

It went so smootly. Adds were quickly killed, none or almost none frostbolt volleys were uninterrupted, Blazing Skeletons often died without even beginning to cast Lay Waste.

We are on 9/12 hardmodes.

Only Professor and Sindragosa remain. 

I honestly see enough potential here again to get these bosses down if we keep up the perfomance from tonight. 

Score me another 310% drake, Caladon. That's an order! :D

Bewaare

my paladin, Darrick, now not only knows how to tank, but also how to heal.

I am still missing a piece or two. A ring, a trinket, I also want the tier 9 helmet, but I have enough to heal some stuff.

I think "once a healer, always a healer" applies. I know how to heal in general, so it just need some getting used to paladin healing. Which is a bit different to discipline priest healing, but... it's easy to learn.

Also:

I killed Professor Putricide on Heroic now, with my tank. Nevermind that I was on Abomination-Duty, which means I know almost no difference at all (aside from "oh, that's two oozes now" and "there's someone with a big black cloud around".) buut, considering I fought against Blood Prince Council and Sindragosa on heroic aand killed everything else on heroic as well, that means... 

I know 11/12 hardmodes.

Wow. It feels kinda irreal, because I imagined some fights there to be harder, to take longer for me to see but... eleven of twelve. Only Arthas missing.

I saw almost every boss in the game on all available difficulties. (10man however.)

Impressing.

Awesome awesome awesome

First:

I never have to visit a heroic instance on my priest ever again in wrath. I finally got my 2500 emblems achievement, and I couldn't care less about the frost emblems. No more Halls of Stone!

Second:

Obviously I left a good impression on the raid members of Ritter der Apocalypse. We are not counting Maraxos in that, mind you. So, I got invited to the raid on Monday, which meant some tries on Heroic Sindragosa. Let's just say that the abundant practice on normal with Caladon results in me never getting hit by any frostbomb (and, if I was about to be hit I could disperse anyway.), not blowing up anybody with the Instability Debuff and Blistering Cold is nothing more than a nuisance because I waste time with running out.

Others? Not so much. A lot of deaths to frostbombs, a few to Blistering Cold... and tank deaths in the last phase because the moron ran way to far out. I mean, I even use grid on my paladin and it is quite easy to set it up that it displays if you are out of 40 meter range of your main healer. ... But that is just me I guess.

Nonetheless, my flawless performance (and a few helpful suggestions like "put the two shadow priests in different groups" for example... yes. It should be common sense, buut...) leads to me being invited AGAIN for the raid this weekend.

Yes. I feel awesome. I am a repeatedly invited random because I know my stuff. Unfortunately for them, I don't intend to switch raids, so Ritter der Apocalypse will be on their own again after this lookout.

What a pity.

Third:

Today I was lucky to see a member of Drachensilber, the best guild on our realm searching for a Shadow Priest for their alt run. I immediately whispered him/her.

Requirements? Clear experience and an average item level of 264.

So. I made sure that clear experience (and especially hard mode experience) from the 10 man version is good enough for them (it is). I had him/her check my gear and... I passed - with an average itemlevel of 257 or something on my shadow.

And, even better: He/She asked if I would be interested in a regular spot in that particular raid.

Everything depends now on if I am confirmed for Tuesday, and am able to satisfy them in regards to my performance and especially DPS. I can pull 10k in a 25 raid occasionally and I checked - the BiS-list for shadow priests before hardmodes simulates something along the lines of 11k to 12k DPS.

Means, I am good where I stand, now to get my framerate to a reasonable amount in a 25man. Should work out. Probably have to play on lowest options again, but hey - I know every polygon on these models anyway.

I'd like to have this before Cataclysm hits...

You know this mount, don't you?

It's the reward for the 10 man Glory of the Icecrown Raider Achievement.

One out my final goals before the next expansion hits, is to get this mount while the corresponding instance is still serious business.

I got my Rusted Protodrake from Ulduar 10 man - on 06/10/10. Way way way after the instance was still hard.

This is how it looks like on my priest. Several achievements still to obtain which... are a little bit hard to get in a PuG.

Things like All You Can Eat and Been Waiting A Long Time for This or, of course the Heroic: Achievements.

Missing the boss kills for that: Heroic Blood Council, Heroic Putricide and Heroic Sindragosa.

Honestly... I know for a fact I will not call this dragon my own due to the accomplishments of Caladon. Too many bosses we still struggle with and such things. Nonoptimal raid compositions and the dependence on some people who can't really pull their weight.

The number one guild on our realm, Drachensilber offers boost raids for this achievement for 50k all inclusive.

The buyer has the opportunity to get each piece of loot he needs, the achievements for the dragon...

But... I'm not sure. I think I would still pay 30k for these achievements, but not 50k. I mean, I don't need the loot anyway, I got half the achievement already done on my own...

I think while we do not exactly know when Cataclysm will hit, I'll just try to farm more gold. IF the release date is getting closer and I am still on this stage of progress I'll probably even pay the full 50k.

I know for sure I'd be absolutely capable of getting these achievements without me paying for that with a decent group, but... I like it in Caladon. The people are not exactly total pro players, but the majority is okay and fun. Which is why I am not intending to just switch raid for no other reason than my selfish ambitions of getting me another 310% drake.

If I pay them I'll only be not available for one or two lockouts. And I can still tank then, anyway. But I don't like the thought of paying the same like everyone else who needs everything although I... well got a lot of it done on my own.

Stupid pride.

Some evenings are more amusing than others.

“When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to discover they are not it.”

I like this quote. Especially because it accurately describes my thoughts about the raid I joined yesterday.

So. I was idling in Dalaran, camping book spawns for my Higher Learning Achievement, when Eleonea, one of our more valuable raid members - an Elemental Shaman - asked me if I could heal for her guild's raid.

I said sure, because I had nothing to do and like to help out people I know.

So I got an invite.

Immediately, the teamspeak information was posted, I joined, went into their channel...

and the first thing I heard was "I am surprised he didn't leave immediately after reading my name" from Maraxos, one of our ex-hunters.

I like joining raids and be the center of conversation without doing anything. It means, I am important. Having a reputation and stuff. I don't care if he's badmouthing me. He's telling people about me. And, up to the current day I always left a positive impression on people who are made aware of my presence in the raid by others.

Thanks a lot.

Oh and Maraxos - you are not the center of the universe. I don't care if you are in the same raid. You are getting as much healing as every other person so we can finish the raid. That's... cooperating. Another concept you obviously do not understand.

Well, what I could tell after the few hours in the raid - he did not change. And I am glad that he chose to leave us. I am glad he made such a dramatic exit which led to the ban from our guild forum. Yes, I am glad he is gone. I admit that :)

Your behavior is absolutely childish. I can't really believe you are nineteen years old. You seem more like eight or ten. What do you get out of muting yourself if anyone says anything against you ONCE, actually hindering the raid's progression? 

It's funny that I - involuntarily - had to hear a discussion from your fellow guild members about your inacceptable behavior. Because I was reminded of the oh so many discussion in Caladon.

Different guild. Same Maraxos.

I don't even want to know why you wanted to show me that launcher of yours soo badly. Do you think I care?

I have news for you. I don't.

There is something similar between the two of us. And one important difference.

We both like to see ourselves as the centerpiece of the raid. The person that is the most important, the one raidmember that decides about rise and fall of the raid.

The difference between us there is - you have to tell everyone about that. You have to let them know that you think that without you, the raid would fail. 

I do not.

I know I am totally capable of doing what I am told to do, I know almost every tidbit of information and tricks there is to know about these bosses and I am not hesitating to share that. But I don't have to ruffle my feathers to oblivion and beyond.

Awful and nice raids

The summer break of my guild forces me to join random raids (exactly what I usually try to avoid) if I want to earn some badges and some things for my equipment.

Well, two raids stand out this week.

First, a Ruby Sanctum 10 man Raid I joined on my Paladin.

Oh hell no.
Bad healers.
Bad group composition.
BAD BAD BAD.

We had two healers, one of them a Flash of Light centered Holy Paladin. Now, you can convince me that FoL Pallys can pull the same weight as Holy Light centered ones. It's just... bad bad experience. He couldn't keep us up. The DK Tank went poof within a second or two during Baltharus' Blade Tempest. WE WIPED SEVEN TIMES TO GODDAMN TRASH.
Unbelievable. And the group composition was just... awful.
3 Mages, Warrior, DK Tank, Rogue, Shadow, Holy Priest, Holy Paladin and me. This... is just sooo wrong.


And the second, a ICC25 raid I joined today. I usually don't do 25 man. Primary reason is my computer, 5 fps are just not enjoyable. Especially not as a healer. So, I logged on today, a guildie immediately asked me if I want to join.
I tagged along as Shadow. It went well, we killed 9 bosses, four new kills on 25 man for me (well, I did them on 10 man, they are not actually different, yadda yadda.)

Gunship on heroic, I snatched myself the cloth headpiece, AS USUAL NO PALADIN/PRIEST/WARLOCK TOKENS WHY DO YOU HATE ME SO BLIZZ

Two nice wands dropped and I got neither of them because a roll which is random 100 seems SUPERIOR to a random 99 (which we had to roll if we already got something) even if I roll a 96 and the other one something around 80.

Why don't you just say "1 item per person" instead of turning this into some kind of sick joke? If i rolled HIGHER it is my loot, kthx.

Well. No matter. I got a new helmet. A 277 one at that. Probably the only 277 item I will ever see aside from the little ring from the Ashen Verdict.

Oh and I was doing damage with my healer ring. I will not spend around 300+ Gold every goddamn time I have to switch specs. It's only 285 spellpower anyway and I almost topped the meters anyway.

Slackers.

And I actually had to remind the raidleader shadows are not in need of spores at festergut. And I hate being reminded to reshackle. Trust me - I know what I am doing. I have a wachful eye on the timer of shackle on the mob I am supposed to shackle and recast 10 seconds before it falls off. You will never ever see a mob I am supposed to CC running about happily. 

Enough complaining. It was kinda nice. 

I am thinking maybe I should look for a raid group that is in need of a good shadow priest. Healing is a bit out of question in 25man, but doing damage works out, I did my 10-12k on DPS-Fights, 8-9k on more gimmicky, add-heavy or movement fights.

Especially add-heavy.

I hate Valithria Dreamwalker on Shadow... everything dies before I got all my dots on it... (aside from abominations)

Warrior Tanking.

Slowly, very slowly, Xerian, the warrior, is creeping up his way to Level 80.

I try to get the triumph emblems I can each day, which means: one dungeon.

Several things.

I hate people who leave for no apparent reason.
Why do you buff the group and disappear right afterwards?
Why do you leave IF NOTHING HAS HAPPENED?

I hate moonkins.
Don't complain if you blow your cooldowns and starfall and hurricane and aoe everything down and then draw aggro. I'm a warrior! Unexperienced warrior tank, nonetheless! I CANNOT KEEP YOUR AOE-AGGRO.

I love mages who use counterspell.
That makes me a happy tank.

And, after a successful run, I like the words "nice tanking"
Well. I know the basics, I play a protpally.

But the change in tanking is nice. It's a little harder, because you don't have consecrate. And no holy shield, which passively builds up aggro. I actually have to switch targets to keep reasonable threat on each of them.
It's fun.

At least for now.
I probably won't tank in heros. "OLOL not even XXk HP! NUUB!" or something like that awaits me.
Nope. Not needing that. It's sad, the community complains that there are not enough tanks for heroics, but they themselves encourage this problem.

Successful Business is good business.

Bankelfs second day finishes.

And, the guild bank already has 1000 Gold in deposit.
I started with 150 Gold on the character.

I now have 304 Gold on the character + 1000 Gold on the bank. Quite a profit.

And, I have also begun to not only sell things, but searching for items below vendor price (for example, I found some pristine monarch topazes - if I bid successful, I can sell the item to a vendor for a small profit (bid is 3g, vendor price is 4g 50s. that's 1g 50 profit per item.).

And, buying out things that are below are certain price, really cheap (the seller probably wants to get rid of it or has no clue about the real value) and reselling them.

Of course I could also lose some gold about the course of that. However, I continue to sell flasks and similar stuff, which almost always gets sold. If I lose the bids, I get my money back. If I win and cannot sell the stuff again right now, I can store it and sell it later.

Apart from happily auctioning, I joined a group for some icc hardmodes today.
We did eight of them, everything Caladon did until now and Valithria Dreamwalker additionally. After that we cleared the rest.

I have never ever seen such a chaotic Lich King fight.
Over the course of the third phase (Vile Spirit Phase) he did four harvest souls.
And mini-enraged four times.
Due to the overuse of druids in this raid (a moonkin, a tree and a cat) we had enough rebirths to rez our tanks and one of the DPS after they died in there.
Well, no matter. Arthas died, I got the full amount of emblems this lockout (30), one achievement (Nausea, Heartburn, Indigestion) and two items (Bracers of Dark Blessings and Lockjaw)
Profitable evening altogether :)

Oh and the guy that wanted to stay did leave after all.
Not that it really matters :)

In preparation for...

the new addon, I decided to raise some little funds, so that the almost certainly really expensive items at the start of Cataclysm become affordable.

So I created a new character who will be responsible for my Auction House shenanigans.
His name is "Bankelf", Night Elf Druid (who will forever stay Level 1, poor fellow) and I also created the guild "Darnassian Tradecompany" to store everything I farm and aquire for later sale.

I must say, I never before really got into the big business that is to be found in the Auction House.
Sure, I sold one thing or the other from time to time, actually got some gold on my first alliance char I rolled on my main server (before switching my current characters from horde) with mining/herbalism.

But now?
I have access to every gathering profession - Herbalism on my Priest, Mining on my Paladin and Skinning on my Level 66 Druid. The latter I will level soon, so I can get skinning to 450.
I farmed half an hour on my priest in Storm Peaks and half an hour on my Paladin in Wintergrasp.
Adding to that Blacksmithing (Eternal Belt Buckle), Alchemy (transmuting epic gems and selling flasks) and in the future Leatherworking (leg armor enhancements).
I smell a fortune here.

I earned around 700 gold +- a few silver and copper on my first day.
For my first serious day trading that's really much. I still have several unsold auctions, including an Orb of Deception and Saronite Swordbreakers.

I intend to hit character gold cap on this little guy. Sooner or later, of course. Probably later. However, the 25k per character I intend to get before Cataclysm hits seem rather possibly, assuming I can continue to sell stuff that well.

Funny thing to conclude this post:

One of the guys from whom I got a signature for my guild wants to stay. Reason: "just to have a guild beneath his name"
I'm fine with that. I'm even more pleased that he said he wants to deposit items on the bank (I granted him enough access to see and deposit items, he can neither withdraw money nor items at all - I am not stupid, after all).
With a little luck he deposits some good things there which I can sell for lots of gold. Example: what if he stumbles upon "Recipe: Savory Deviate Delight" and does not realize its value?
In return, I assured him my help in the game.
And that's not really much.

First: as long as he contributes nothing to the guild bank, I am equally free to refuse helping him.
Second: currently he is like level 11 or 12 or something. Probably asking me for a boost now and then. Sure, fine with me. How long does it take to run through Deadmines/Shadowfang Keep and so on and just aoeing everything donw? Besides, that does not mean I'll pass on BoEs or thrash drops. Some of these things still sell for a fortune.
In regards to the fact he had no clue what a bankguild is about, I assume he is fairly new to this game.
Third: I am doing the same thing (helping people, instance runs etc) to people I know, people from the guild/raid. In return, I get the same help - which I rarely ever use anyway.
There's nothing wrong with asking payment for helping, that's what our whole society builds upon. You pay me - I help you.

So, what do I get?
A -possible- newbie, with probably almost no clue about the auction house, item values and stuff like that.

What does he get?
Help from a fairly experienced player, in regards to raiding, leveling, quests, classes and their specs (not every last one, but the majority) for the little prize of depositing a few items to my guild bank.

I think that's a good deal for both of us.

A little progress.

So, Caladon is shortly before its "official" summer break, meaning that two healers and a DPS/Tank are going on vacation for ~two weeks.

Yesterday, we had one of the last two official raids before that. The other one is today.
And wow.

That was a great evening, literally. We stomped our way through the usual bosses, everything wipeless which - especially on Saurfang Heroic - is quite a feat for us.

Bloodprince Council on normal because we had only one range DPS (a moonkin), Bloodqueen Lana'thel was obliterated on heroic with even some spare seconds until her enrage.
Well, after two canceled tries, because our first vampire (who had to bite our rogue) had problems actually biting Nuka - he had to run out, he had Swarming Shadows. Every. Frickin'. Time.
After we managed the first bite it was a piece of cake :)

After that we quickly did Valithria Dreamwalker and snatched the Achievement there, Portal Jockey, on the way.

Had a lot of fun there. And with nobody below 8k DPS (actually, no one below 8,5k DPS) on the fights were DPS really matters.

Today we will put Sindragosa and Arthas to rest to finish that lockout, after that we'll see.
Well, if we manage to defeat them, especially Arthas, again.

With that, Caladon now sits at 7/12 heroic. Quite honestly, I personally do not expect anymore. Maybe Bloodprince Council will fall sooner or later, for now it proves to be quite difficult for us, for whatever reason.
Professor Putricide will probably not fall. First, he is one of the most difficult encounters on heroic. Second, we did not even try him yet.
Valithria Dreamwalker... well, I'm not sure. A few of our people sometimes do not manage the adds that well and the healing on the boss is a bit lacking as well.
Sindragosa and Arthas do not even need to be mentioned. In regards to the HORRIBLE problems we had with Sindragosa on normal mode, I'd actually be surprised if we kill her before Tier 12 or something.

On a sidenote, Blizzard, it'd be really nice if we could maybe get another kind of token and not ALWAYS Warrior/Hunter/Shaman >_<
It is actually surprising, but our raid does not consist of only these three classes, I repeat, it does not consist of only these three classes.
Give me my Tier10 tokens, goddamnit.

If you persist on dropping Warrior/Hunter/Shaman, a soon Cataclysm release or alternatively a beta invitation could satisfy me as well

Silly Paladin.

Xerian, the Warrior speaking.

Attacking me just after I left combat with a mob in Un'Goro Crater and am about half dead isn't very nice of you, little blood elf.

/lol'ing at me while we fight, you heal yourself and occasionally do some damage to me isn't very nice of you, either.

However.
Actually dying to my horrible warrior pvp skills merely seconds after you /lol and try to get off a heal, only to be shieldbashed, silenced and then killed by a 1k revenge crit is quite hilarious.

Should be an achievement, I think. Dying to my hands if I play a melee class.

Except if I am a heirloomed rogue. Insane killing machines these guys.