Oh noes, Moroes!

Tonight was our first real attempt on Moroes (we tried once the first night we were in Karazhan after taking down Attumen but we were short one person and it was very late). We killed him on our 5th or 6th attempt — nobody remembers for sure. On several attempts we took him down to nearly 1% even after losing DPS and/or a healer. The last time it went very well. We were all alive and at full health when Moroes went down. We are all very giddy. I don’t think anybody is going to have an easy time falling asleep tonight. Everyone did exceptionally well.

If you are curious our raid consisted of me (prot warrior), a protection paladin, a holy priest, a resto druid, a feral druid, a fire mage, a marksman/survival hunter, and three rogues. The adds were the holy priest, the arms warrior, the retribution paladin, and the protection warrior.

Ok off to bed. I am sure Keredria will have a more amusing account of our dinner with Moroes soon.

A bad omen.

Like many folks we were furiously trying to get a threat meter working on Tuesday. We were really freaking out because it was to be our first time in Karazhan. I’ve used Omen in the past and liked it fine, although I have never tried KTM. We found the new version of Omen that was supposed to work with patch 2.4, but from the start people had problems with it. Even getting it working has been a challenge. So for those of you that are having problems with it there is a nice article on WoW Insider regarding the new version of Omen and some of the problems with it, as well as some possible solutions.

First night in Karazhan.

So despite a late start and some difficulties with threat meters due to the patch we made what I think is a reasonable first attempt at Karazhan. It took a little time to get down the pacing for clearing the trash up to Attumen & Midnight before they re-spawned. Attumen and Midnight took three tries. Our only difficulty there was when Attumen spawns. We then cleared the trash up to Moroes and made a good first attempt on him (despite being one person short since one of our rogues had fallen asleep). I think we would have had a good chance at taking him down if a shackle had not broken giving an add the opportunity to mind control the off-tank. Everyone performed very well, although Keredria isn’t speaking to me now because she wanted a full-clear the first night and she said that if we didn’t get it she would blame the raid leader. /sigh

Oh and I got the Vambraces of Courage off Attumen.

Edit: I’ve replayed that fight many times in my mind, but just now I realized something. The off-tank was not mind-controlled. Somebody said that afterwards which is why I picked-up on it but now I realized that certainly wasn’t it because none of the adds mind control. I now remember what happened: I got gouged and our off-tank got blinded. When you are blind you wander around aimlessly a bit which can feel like a mind control. I guess we’ll need to work on getting the blind cleansed ASAP.

Raid leader.

So somehow I became de facto raid leader for the first incursion into Karazhan tonight for The Left Claw (assuming the server doesn’t barf if 2.4 goes live). TLC has always been very casual and egalitarian, but as we’ve approached “K-day” I’ve found that whenever I talk to someone about specs and roles in the raid the conversation ultimately ends with them saying “whatever you decide.”

I’m pretty sure it is going to be brutal, but we’ll learn and adapt, and I think it will be fun.

The Karazhan Krew.

It’s been slow going lately. We are a very small guild and just barely have enough for Karazhan if we bring in three friends from outside the guild (although they may join the guild in the future). We are a very tight group so open recruiting or merging with a larger guild just haven’t been options for us. So it’s been a bit of a challenge to put together 10 people for Karazhan. Right now we have me (protection warrior & main tank), feral druid (off-tank/dps), paladin (specced as needed), two resto druids including Keredria, two shadow priests, a hunter, a rogue, and a mage. I realize this probably isn’t ideal, and for some of the encounters we may need to change the composition of the group.

There isn’t much else new to report. Jess has been relatively inactive lately — she’s more or less on vacation until Karazhan unless she is needed otherwise. Our paladin is serving as our main tank now for regular 5-mans and is doing a great job at it. Having the extra tank has given me more time to work on my frost mage. She is also keyed for Karazhan so I may bring her in if necessary. Oh and I am now the (acting) GM of The Left Claw. Our GM has been afk for several months now for personal reasons. It’s been an interesting experience. Our guild is very close and casual but I can’t help but feel a certain responsibility for moving the guild forward in terms of progression — hence my current obsession with Karazhan.

Too many tanks. Advice?

So we are (still) getting ready for Karazhan. We are a small guild with a few friends outside so our class choices are a bit limited. Right now I am trying to figure out what to do with three tanks: me (prot warrior), a feral druid, and a paladin. From what I understand you need a main tank and off-tank in Karazhan. Given my gear and that I can’t very easily be geared to do DPS we assumed that I should main tank. So what should we do with the druid and paladin? Both have pretty good pre-Karazhan tanking gear. I think that the paladin may have a better healing set, but maybe not enough to meet the stats for a main healer. Right now we have two resto druids for healers — a bit unusual I know, but they are well geared and we have a shadow priest for shackles. So should the paladin off-tank with the feral druid doing DPS, or visa versa? And if the paladin is not an off-tank should he spec/gear for DPS or as some sort of hybrid?

What is the appeal of WoW?

Raiding? Loot? PvP? Admit it guys…two three words: hawt nerdy gurlz.

The reason why arcane blast sucks.

My Draenei mage dinged 70 this weekend so I have been doing some research on end-game mage specs. With the right spec and gear, arcane blast can do significant damage when used correctly in a spell rotation. But I just can’t bring myself to use it. Why? IMHO it looks dumb. I want to see frost, fire, or arcane energy shooting from my fingertips. That is what being a mage is all about — burning-down mobs and bosses with as much flair as possible. Mages are not meant to be subtle. Subtlety is for shadow priests and maybe affliction warlocks. The only thing that isn’t subtle about AB is that female Draenei mages look like they are having back spasms when they cast it.