The Holidays and Life without WoW.

Like most people I took a brake from my normal life this past week and spent some time with family and friends. I also didn't play any WoW. It was a little strange not knowing what is going on with the guild and with the WoW community in general so I did spend a little time looking at blogs and such. As a result I found two things that I think are worth a comment.

The first is a search tool that I can't remember the name of. It listed people that had linked to my blog. More experianced bloggers are probably laughing at me right now and thinking something along the lines of me being a noob. Well, I am. I still can't get the Item Link thing to work that was pointed out to me a month ago. Anyway, I was quite supprised at how many people had found the blog. Its not a lot but more than I expected. Thanks to everyone for the links and positive comments. They are appreciated. Now if I could just find the search again. Apperently google on my dad's computer is different then google on my computer.

The second is two posts on Adventures in Azeroth dealing with Account/Gold selling and tanking money for blog posts. Here are the posts: First and second. The posts are kind of old so I thought posting on my blog made more sense then posting a comment on his. The posts touched on three topics: 1. Taking money for a blog entry, 2. Account Selling, and 3. Gold Selling.

1. Taking money for a blog entry: Amanna was very up front and said that he was paid to make a post about an Account Auction site, but as several other people did I have a bit of an issue with it. I don't think any of us should confuse blogging with actual journalism, but nobody likes to be fead a line of bull. Amanna's post did seem to be a very balanced view of the site, and I don't have a negative opinion of him or his blog. However, any time you admit that you were paid to make a post you have to wonder what the conditions where, and what might have been left out. Having an ad on the margin of the blog would have been ok in my opinion, but doing anything that looks like you selling your voice or maybe you opinion isn't a good idea. All that being said, Amanna says that he donated the payment to charity, so don't stop reading his blog.

These next to topics are very similar so I will get one point out of the way. I think Blizzard is doing the right thing to try and prevent Gold/Account selling. Both activities hurt the integrity of the game and would probably destroy WoW if allowed to go on unchecked by Blizzard. That being said I am not a 100% opposed to buying gold or selling an account. Here is a closer look.

2. Account Selling: First off, I think Amanna is wrong about Blizzards view of selling accounts. Allowing someone to permanently transfer an account is different then selling an account. There are several situations where it is perfectly reasonable to transfer an account or an individual toon. The main one being family members sharing an account. While blizzard cannot prevent money from changing hands or research each transfer, this doesn't mean that they allow accounts to be sold.

My opinion on the subject depends on who is buying the account. If you are new to the game or even to the class, buying an account is like using a cheat code in my opinion. Your not really experiencing the game and are not really interested in playing it. It takes time to learn the game and the class, and that is best done at lower levels. On the other had what if you have already leveled 5 toons to 70, and are buying a toon of a class you have already played? I have heard of several situations where someone wants to play with friends but can't because they play a different faction or on a different type of server. I have also heard of people buying a toon on the same server so that they can have one of a different spec without respecing ever few days. This is ok in my opinion because it doesn't hurt the integrity of the game much if at all. Finally what about selling my account? I have put a lot more time into this game than I would like to admit. What is wrong with trying to get a little of the money back? If you know you arn't coming back, recouping some of the cost isn't that big of a deal in my opinion as long as you let your guild and friends know.

3. Gold Selling: Mostly I think buying gold is just stupid. I don't know who the typical gold buyer is but I assume that most of them are just don't want to spend the time farming it. Buying gold is expensive and if you don't want to spend the time to farm the gold you need then you probably won't be playing the game long. Mainly, it is just a waste of money in my opinion. The only exception that I can think of is for some hardcore raiders. Raiding can be very expensive and I can understand how some people would have the time to raid or farm but not both. If high end raiding is what you enjoy but have to many RL commitments to do every thing that is needed to support raiding, then buying a little gold isn't a big issue in my mind.

Anyway, that is it for now. Thanks again to everyone that reads my blog and has linked it. There is no toon update this post since they haven't done anything.

Making Gold with Alchemy

I have seen several Making Gold posts on the Yet Another Warlock Nerf blog and it made me think of how I make gold. I don't have a huge need of gold because I am not one of those players respecs every two minutes and can get all the raw materials for the consumables I need. So, I am not a big farmer of gold, but I have stumbled upon a what I think is a good method.

I have never thought of Alchemy as a big money maker. Most of the time, if I priced the mats on the AH they were just as expensive as the pots and elixirs on the AH. So whats the point. I might as well sell the mats, since they will have more buyers. However, in an effort to make my final discovery I thought of an obvious way to make money. As someone who graduated with a degree in Econ and has an MBA I am kicking myself for not thinking of it sooner. Here are the key points.

Making Money with Alchemy tips.
1. Only sell 2 herb pots. The average consumer doesn't know the difference between a 2 herb pot and a 3 herb pot. Therefore, 3 herb pots make 2 herb pots look cheap. For example, a 5 stack of [Elixir of Major Agility] will sell for 15g - 20g but it requires 1 Terocone and 2 Felweed. [Elixir of Draenic Wisdom] on the other hand will sell for 13g-15g, but requires 1 Terocone and 1 Felweed. You will generally make less gold per stack but you will get more gold per herb. I only sell [Elixir of Draenic Wisdom], [Adept's Elixir], and [Elixir of Healing Power] and do quite well.

2. Know your Customers. Casual players don't use that many consumables. Raiders use a ton of consumables. Casual players tend to play on the weekends and put their craftables on the AH on weekends. Raiders on the other had play more during the week when fewer people are putting stuff up on the AH. The main raiding nights are Monday - Thursday. I only put elixirs up on the AH in those nights. There is to much competition Friday - Sunday with not enough demand.

3. Procrastinate when you sell. Your buyers would be smart to buy their pots and elixirs over the weekend when they are cheaper but they tend to procrastinate. So, you should do the same. I generally put them on the AH between 5pm and 6pm server. Doing it early give you a greater chance of being under cut. If you post them later you could miss out on customers because most raids start between 6 and 8pm.

4. Don't Procrastinate when you buy. Raiders are not stupid. They would rather buy the mats to get procs from the Alchemy masteries. As a result the mats on sale just before raid times are few and expensive. I find that the best time to buy mats is in the morning between 6 and 8 am, after the late night farmers go to bed. Weekends can be good also, but the real key is to periodically look at the AH multiple times per day. Not everyone knows what their mats are worth.

5. Masteries. This is obvious I know, but stay with in your mastery if you can. I think Elixirs is the best mastery for money, but pots can be good to. Transmute mastery can make you a lot of money but it is very feast and famine due to the 23 hour cooldown. I recommend against it.

6. Be Patient. My strategy won't work everyday, or for every pot or elixir. Check the AH before you put stuff up for auction. What are the pots currently selling for? What are the mats selling for? If it isn't a good market that night don't post them. If their are a couple stacks posted below their market value then buy them and repost them. If their are a lot posted below their value then ignore that market for the day. The prices will go back up. I have seen it many times where their are over a hundred Draenic Wisdom Elixirs on the AH but no Healing Power elixirs. Don't sell the Draenic Wisdom for a discount when you could sell the Healing Power for a premium. As a side note, holidays are a bad time also. There are a lot more casuals on and raiders will play less. However, it is a good time to stock up on mats.

Using this strategy you should make a decent amount of cash with little work or farming. It will also help you get more discoveries since you will me making hundreds of pots per week.

P.S. The most obvious way to make money with Alchemy is to transmute Earth to Water, since earth generally goes for 3 to 5 gold and Water goes for 15 to 20 gold. Get your Sporggar rep up to Revered and start doing this transmute daily. It is the easies 10 to 15 gold you will ever make.

Toon Update:
Graylo - He has been raiding all over the place. The guild downed 4 bosses again on Tuesday. Wednesday we got down Leo, but didn't have enough time for Vashj. Thursday, we didn't have the right type of people for Vashj again so we did Gruul's, Mag, and Kazzik. I also got into ZA a little bit, but didn't get any drops. I finally got into some good attempts on Hex Lord, but we didn't get him down. We didn't have an optimal group for it and he kept healing himself despite us getting him down to 3%. It is really frustrating since he has several awesome drops that I want. I as also a little bummed that the Dagger didn't drop off of Dragonhawk because I realized that I was the only one in raid that wanted it. Its not that great of weapon for a Warlock since it has no stam but does have Mp5. The Mage in the group really wanted the Haste sword off of Zul'jin, and there wasn't a shadow priest in the group. If it had dropped I would have gotten it without competition.
Graypal - He isn't 63 yet but he is about two bars away. I hope I can get some time on him tonight to use up is rested XP before I go see my parents for a week, but it will probably be tough.
Grayfel - Still 15. He doesn't have much rested xp right now but I will try and burn through it also. It shouldn't be hard.

Guild Loyalty

As I was browsing through other blogs the other day I came across this post on Big Bear Butt, regarding some drama in their guild. After reading the post and most of the comments it was evident that I had a much different opinion of the situation than everyone else that posted. The post boiled down to two issues. In the first I completely agree with the poster. Some new members ninjaed their Kara raid id and went to another guild. I completely understand his point on that issue and I wouldn't play with those guys ever again either.

The second issue is a little more complicated in my opinion. It revolves around a player that the poster had mentored and thought of as a good friend, that ended up leaving the guild for a more progressed guild. I made a post in his comments basically saying I think his anger is a little misplaced. Unfortunately, it looks like I offended him even though that was not my intent. However, It brought up a question for me. What do we owe our guilds? When is it ok to leave, and are there situations where it is not ok for a member to leave?

Disclaimer: I have no intention of leaving my guild. I think it is a great guild and enjoy playing with most of the members. On top of that, even if I did want to leave it isn't like I have a whole lot of options since I play a moonkin. (but then again. Isn't this something that someone who was leaving would say? Oh well. I guess you will just have to trust me.) Also, I don't like posting peoples names here, but since BigBearButt did it I will also for clarity.

I think I understand how BigBearButt feels. Both of the raiding guilds I have been a part of have lost key members at times. My current guild has survived. My last one did not. I will be honest. When we lost those people I was pissed. The main example at FoC was when we lost one of our main healers. This was a guy that came to us in all greens and blues. He got into raids very quickly because we needed healers. He performed well and was one of our most consistent raiders. As a result he got a ton of gear, all of it earned. After a couple of months he decided to leave for a more progressed guild. I was pissed and had expected a little more loyalty, but I had to admit that most of my anger was more due to how this hurt my raiding than anything he had done.

So, lets look at the issues.
1. Jayboi (the guildie in question) seemed to be well liked at first, but did have some personality issues. According to BBB he was a bad flirt, would be hostile in Gchat if people did something he thought was stupid, and got in to a big fight (the subject of which was not posted) with another long time member that caused the other member to gquit and leave the game after the guild sided with Jayboi. How this info fits into the situation I don't know, but I am sure that several people in the guild had a low opinion of him which was not helped by him gquiting.

2. Jayboi became more withdrawn from the guild after a period of time. Not being as chatty. Played less in general but still showed up for raids. He also ran several raids with other guilds but cleared it with his guild first.

What I think are BBB three core issues.
3. Jayboi was an officer in the guild. I also would expect more loyalty from an officer than I would from a normal member, but then again he pays his 15 dollars a month also. So, how far does that extend? In my opinion it doesn't matter if you are a peon or a GM, if you are unhappy or get a better opportunity then you should be able to take it.

4. Jayboi flat out lied to BBB when he was asked if he was about to bail on the guild. I completely understand BBB being pissed about this. It sounds like BBB spent a lot of time on Jayboi and considered him a friend. It really sucks to be lied to by a friend, but I have couple of problems with this issue. The first is the nature of wow friendships. I don't think they are real friendships. There are several people in my guild that I have played this game with regularly over the past 8 months, but I don't know their first names and have only limited personal information about them. The second issue is that it isn't that big of a lie and I'm not sure I wouldn't have done the same thing. If you tell someone you are thinking about leaving it will affect the way you are treated. Your probably not going to get the benefit of the doubt. You may loose out on raid spots or on loot. Personally I don't think this is fair when you have put in the work which BBB clearly states that Jayboi had.

5. According to BBB, Jayboi got the last piece of gear he needed from kara and left the guild right after. This insinuates that Jayboi joined the guild purely to get gear then bailed as soon as he got what he wanted. If this is true than it sucks, at the same time BBB says that Jayboi earned his gear with a high quality and consistent performance. Is it wrong to accept gear when you are thinking about leaving even though you have build up a ton of DKP and made a ton of runs? I don't think so. Also, coming from a moderately progressed guild myself, and know for a fact that one piece of gear doesn't matter. The quality of the player is the key.

The analogy I keep thinking of is a business. Do you get mad at a co-worker who uses his experience at his current job to get a better job? I don't think so. In fact, I think it is kind of expected. If you are a manager and you suspect that one of your employees or co-workers is interviewing for another job, do you get mad at them when they tell you they are not, but leave a little bit later? I wouldn't tell anyone because what if it doesn't work out. You don't have a new job and your old one has written you off giving projects and rewards to other employees because they don't think they can depend on you. If you had been offered a new job, wouldn't you hold out for that last bonus before you left? I mean you had worked hard for the year before to earn it. Don't you deserve it?

After thinking about it for a while the only time I think that it is wrong for someone to leave a guild is when they have received special treatment for the good of the guild. I have two examples. The first is the main tank. It is not uncommon for guilds to gear their main tank first as he is usually the single most important individual player in raid. Doing so allows you to see more content sooner then having 4 or 5 tanks that are only moderately geared. If this main tank leaves the guild after he has received the majority of tanking gear then he is screwing the guild setting them back months. The second example is when the guild specifically raids old content to get one or two new members gear. My guild has recently run Kara a lot to get badges but also to get some of the new members gear. I think it would be underhanded if those people were with us for two or three weeks got a ton of gear then left for another guild without having given much to WA.

Maybe Jayboi falls into this exception, but there is only a small indication that he got priority for raid spots and BBB said that he earned his gear.

I don't know. Maybe I am completely off base. Anyway let me know what you think.

Toon Update:
Graylo - Things haven't been going to bad for him. We have had a bit of an issue getting the right group togeather to attempt Vashj. Oddly enought the issue has been DPS. We have had to many tanks on, enough or maybe a little to many healers, and not enough DPS. Vashj only requires two tanks and can be done with 7 or 8 healers. DPS is key in this fight because you have to burn the adds down really quick in phase 2 and in phase 3 you need to get her down quickly so you don't get overwhelmed by the spore bat puke. So, we need 15 or 16 dps in raid and have been getting only 10-12. I must say this is an odd problem that I have not seen before in my raiding experiance. Graylo did get one piece of loot this week. I got 60 badges and picked up [Moon-walkers]. The badge belt ([Starfire Waistband]) would have been a bigger upgrade for me but I really need the spell hit on the boots. Plus, now that here are badges in Kara I am able to get them fairly quickly and it shouldn't be to long before I get the belt if I need it.
Graypal - I put a lot of work into him over the weekend. I was trying to use up all the rested XP before I go on christmas vacation, and got him almost to level 63 in the process. Unfortunately I did not use up all the rested XP, but oh well. One final note on Graypal, I love Shadow Word: Death. Awesome spell.
Grayfel - I also did a little work on him. I used up all of his rested XP and got him halfway through lvl 15. Not a huge step I know but I don't do a lot with him.

Another Good Tuesday

We did 4 SSC bosses in one night again and I was able to attend this time. Things went well overall. We downed Lurker on the first attempt, and all the other bosses went down in two attempts. We had hoped to get Leo down also, but given our raid times that is a bit of a challenge. We would have to be really focus and move from boss to boss very quickly, and we would have to one shot almost all of the bosses. Some of the fights were a little sloppy but we worked through them.

The great news of the night for me was I got my T5 legs, [Nordrassil Wrath-Kilt]. I also completed the Nightbane summoning quest recently and had the 6 damage and 6 Stam gem to put in them. Using these legs right now will lower my damage a little but, but I gain a lot of Mp5. Plus, the extra crit instead of hit will be nice once I can get the one or two of the drops that will hit cap me. Most importantly this brings me one piece closer to the amazing 4 piece set bonus that increases Starfire damage by 10 when MF or IS is on the mob. I did get the two piece set bonus with item but it reduces the cost of Regrowth when you shift out of Moonkin form. Since I don't use regrowth or heal often this bonus sucks.

I have also been picking up a lot of Feral and Resto gear lately. Here are some of the things I have gotten.
[Boots of Effortless Striking] - Lurker in SSC
[Helm of Natural Regeneration] - Dragonhawk in ZA (Damn thing has dropped 3 times)
[Girdle of Treachery] - Chess in Kara
[Moroes' Lucky Pocket Watch] - Moroes in Kara
[Shining Chain of the Afterworld] - Netherspite in Kara

I really need to put together a list of all my Feral and Resto gear. So that I know what the holes are and I need to figure out which are the best pieces.

Feedback Followup: In my last post I didn't finish explaining the 5 specific abilities that need attention. So here it is from most important to least important.

• Melee for Mana: I will admit there are select times that his ability has been useful. The only times I can remember using it are for Tidewalker and Fathom-Lord. However, for the most raid situations it is useless. Most bosses have AoE or Cleave attacks that make meleeing risky plus it dramatically reduces your DPS. I would love to see this mechanic replaced by something like Improved Leader of the Pack where the moonkin and his party members either receive mana or save mana on their next spell when they crit. I think this would help with our mana issues and increase our raid utility.
  
• Indoor CC: Not having this really limits our desirability when running instances. Lets face it. There are a lot of bad players out there that rely heavily on CC to get them through instances. You don't know how many times I have tried to get into a pug only to be told that they need a mage for CC. I agree that no healer should have a strong viable CC, but if you made it an upgrade deep in the balance tree I don't think it would be an issue.
  
• Improved Fairie Fire: Don't get me wrong, I really like this talent and think it is highly underrated by most moonkin. However, its not really a moonkin talent and loses its value in the higher levels of raiding. Though I would hate for moonkin to lose any of their raid viability, I would suggest moving this to the feral tree or changing it in some way to buff Caster DPS also.
  
• Subtlety: I would love to have more points in this talent. I don't have large issues with threat but any kind of reduction is a good reduction. Its problem though is its place in the talent tree. It max it out moonkin are basically forced to spend 18 points in the resto tree. Also, moonkin are forced to waste points in talents that are of little benefit to us or the raid as it is. In my opinion there are two ways to fix it. Either move the talent to the second tier of the resto tree or split it in to two talents and put the damage treat reduction in tier 2 of the Balance tree. Either of these solutions would reduce the number of wasted talent points and give us much needed threat reduction.
  
• Force of Nature: I like my trents, but these guys are idiots. If you miss place the summon then they don't attack the mob and run back to you. They can also attack targets other than the one you intended. Having some sort of pet bar would be nice.
  
• This wasn't in my Blizzard post, but I also think that Druids need an out of combat rez. Druids in the Tree of Life form should be able to cast Healing Touch. And for gods sake, fix the kitty ranged bug.

Well that's it. There isn't anything else to report toon wise that hasn't already been said.

Feedback Requested

Several months ago I wandered over to the European WoW forums and saw that they had Class/Spec feedback threads in each of the forums. As someone who is always thinking about ways to improve his class and the overall limitations of moonkin I thought this was a great idea. I even posted a thread in the general forum asking if they ever did that. Of course it didn't get a response.

However, last week US Blizzard decided to give it a try. WOOT!!

I do not envy the person(s) that have to compile it all as it is already 44 pages long. Plus, I have read quite a few posts that show the poster really wants to play a mage or has very little idea of how moonkins work.

Here is my post, but a couple of things before I get into it. I really tried to stay with in the format provided by Blizzard. As a result, I wrote a lot less than I normally would have. Also, I am not one of those moonkin that think moonkin should be mages or warlocks or Shadow Priest or Elemental Shaman. I think we should have similar abilities since our roles are similar, but I also think there should be distinct differences that make us viable and desirable. Here is my post:

"Primary talent tree: Balance
Content you're primarily pursuing: Raiding
Areas most in need of improvement:

• Raid Utility: Moonkin utility is very lacking when compared to the raid utility of other hybrid classes. The 5% crit is nice but a little underwhelming 3% melee hit is rarely used, Insect Swarm hurts tank rage generation, and Innervate and B-rez are very situational.
• Wasted Talent points. Moonkin are forced to spend 3 points in Nature's Grasp, Control of Nature, and Brambles. All three have very little or no use in raiding.
• Balance Idols: The are either very specific and only useful in one style of play, nurfed with a internal cooldown that makes older idols better, or two broad to provide any value.

List up to five specific spells/abilities/talents you feel most need change, redesign or improvement in the order you feel each is most in need of attention. (MOST to LESS)

• Melee for Mana: A situational ability that can be very hazardous to your health. Most bosses have AOE or Cleaves that make melee risky. Moonkin are Casters and should be treated as such. Having a mana regen mechanic similar to Improved Leader of the Pack would be a good idea.
• Indoor CC: Having I high level Balance talent that allowed roots to be cast indoors or extended the length of Cyclone would work.
• Improved FF: A really hard talent to justify at the higher levels of raiding. Either move it to the feral tree, or have it buff caster damage.
• Subtlety. Should be split into two talents that reduce threat. A damage threat reduction in Tier 2 of the balance tree and a Healing threat reduction, or move the entire talent to tier 2 of the resto tree.
• Force of Nature: They are not controllable and if they do not have anything to attack then the quit, even if another mob comes up later. "

I know that Feral and Resto druids have several issues, but since I don't play those specs at all really so I would have a hard time speaking to them except from what other people have told me. So here is a greater explanation of my moonkin comments.

• From my perceptive our Raid Utility is our biggest problem. This is not to say that moonkin don't currently have raid utility, just that we lack the type of utility that makes people say lets get a moonkin in here. Mages and Locks have CC and some decent buffs. Elemental Shaman have great buffs and can do pretty good damage. Shadow priests have good damage, good debuffs, and give all party members mana. Now what do moonkin bring to the table? Five precent crit, 2% avoidance on the tank,3% hit to melee, an additional B-rez, and an innervate. These are nice, but when you compare it to the other hybrid classes it loses its shine. Really what would your rather have? From a Elemental shaman you could get 100+damage, 3% crit, and 3% Hit, and other totems. From a Shadow priest your get tons of mana, 5% caster damage raid wide, and 10% shadow damage raid wide. Moonkin are nice, but if you have to chose between one of these classes for a raid, the moonkin is going to loose out.
  
• I have mentioned this before in other posts but I hate the fact that I have to put three points in Natures Grasp, Control of Nature, or Brambles. I am not a huge fan of these talents in most situations but I can see their value in PvP. However, in raiding they are practically useless. This would be ok if I didn't want other talents, but I could use a few more points in Subtlety, and I have always hated giving up Celestial Focus. I hope that they come up with some way to adjust the tree that allows me to better spend these points without increasing the number of points needed in other talents.
  
• Moonkin Idols/Relics is our last real itemization issue. There has always been quite a bit of good cloth available and with the new badge rewards no raiding moonkin have should have serious gear issues. However, I am not a big fan of the idols. Even our new "Epic" idol is barely better than the blue starfire idol, and will be worse once they put a cooldown on it. Also, I realize that I can switch idols when casting but I have not come up with a way to avoid the global cooldown while doing it.

I think this is it for now. I will come back and give my thoughts on the Specific ability changes I proposed later. Here is a quick Toon update also.

Graylo - Just raiding and trying to get badges. I did get his Fishing up to 300 yesterday while waiting for the raid to start. So I won't have to go to Moonglade anymore to fish.
Graypal - Has been resting. I did get his Tailoring up to 340 though so I can make any type of bag I need now. I have kind of lost interest in him. I don't know why I ever thought it but I realize that I am not going to raid him at least until the expansion. Since he can now DE anything I need him to and can make any bags or cloth things I need would realistically need him to I have little need to level him up. I still plan on getting him to 70 but it may be slow.
Grayfel - He is coming along. He is up to level 14 now. And is much more interesting. And is getting the little free time I have. I think it helps that he has a gathering profession, not to mention the fact that I could level him really quickly if I sat down and dedicated the time to it.

Leo is more than Blind.

Things have gone really well since my post two days a go. First off, the guild killed 4 bosses on Tuesday night. That is amazing. Unfortunately I wasn't there because I had some family come into town but I have a little info. From what I understand they one shoted both Lurker and Tidewalker, two shotted Fathom-Lord, and three shotted Hydross. This is really great for the guild and shows what we are capable of.
Wednesday we headed to take on Leo and got him down in 4 or 5 attempts including another 1% wipe. The first two phases are not that hard, you just have to watch your agro and try and not get hit. The third phase where he splits though is really hectic, and gets really hard to watch aggro. It will be interesting to see how this fight goes in the weeks ahead, because I think we still have some learning to do.

Anyway, hopefully we will be able to maintain this kind of progress and get a lot of attempts in on Vashj. We did take her on a couple of times after leo, and made a little bit of progress. It is clear though that we have a long way to go. We were able to get trough phase one without much trouble. It is really just a coordinated tank and spank. The second phase kind of blows my mind and I think it is going to take a while to master it. For those of you that don't know at 70% Vashj runs to the center of the platform and puts up a shield. You cannot do damage directly to her in this phase, but she will shoot lightning bolts at random people. Also, Elementals will start spawning from the edge of the platform and try and get to her. Each elemental that kills her will buff her damage by 5%. These elementals are very week and have no aggro but are there are a lot of them. On top of this she spawns two elite mob about every minute, one has to be kited and DPSed down from range, and one that is a normal tank and spank. And this phase can go on indefinately. To get out of the phase you have to take down vashj's shield. Every minute or so a tainted elemental will spawn at the bottem of the steps but not move. You have to kill it and loot the Tainted Core from it. Once you pick it up you cannot move but can throw the core to someone else. You have to get the core to the center of the platform and used on one of the 4 shield generators. When a generator goes down Vashj takes 5% damage. When all 4 are down Phase three starts which is like phase one but a little different.

As you can probably see from my discription phase 2 is a pain in the neck and requires the ultimate multi tasking. As a ranged dps I have to kill the elementals, Try and loot the core when it comes up, and DPS the kited mob all at the same time. I think this is going to take a while to learn.

Anyway, I am very proud of the guild right now for the progress we have made hopefully we can keep it up. I don't have a toon update since they haven't done anything since my last post, but here is the loot from Leo.

Loot:
[Gloves of the Vanquished Hero] x 2
[True-Aim Stalker Bands]

Dragging Along

I just took a look back to see when I made that the 1% post. It was Nov 13th and we still haven't gotten Leo down. It is a little understandable given the holiday, but frustrating none the less. The worst part is that its not because we can't master the fight, because I know we can. The problem is lack of attempts. It seems like we are falling back into our old habits of focusing on old content. We consistantly go after the other four bosses before we attempt Leo. This wouldn't be so bad if we had everything else on easy mode, but we don't. Every week we end up spending 3 or 4 days on the bosses we have already downed and don't get to Leo or only get a few attempts on him. I am not sure how we will get to do Vashj since she requires killing all 5 bosses and we can't seem to do more than 2 a night.

My frustration with the guild is also heightened by fact that I was passed over for some loot this week. The [Cord of Screaming Terrors] dropped this week but it was given to a relativly new warlock without a roll. The reason I was given was "he has come to every raid for two weeks and has a shit belt." I do not deny that he deserved a shot at the belt, but think I and several other people should have been given a shot also. I may not have been to as many raids recently but I usually make at least 3 out of 4 raids a week, my belt was only a little better than his, and he was a fairly new member being in the guild less than a month. Again, I am not saying that I should have gotten it or he shouldn't have. I just wanted a roll.

Toon Update:
Graylo - I have been getting in a couple of heroics a week with Graylo and was able to pick up one of the new badge rewards. I got the [Armwraps of the Kaldorei Protector]. The are a definate improvement over my old bracers [Bracers of the White Stag]. I basically gave up 3 or 4 Mp5 for about 25 damage. Not a bad trade in my opinion.
Graypal - I finally got him to 60. He is about half way through it right now and his progress is a little bet better now. However, I really have to watch getting ambushed my extra mobs. Its hard to go back to the idea that I have aggro range is so big now especially when fighting mobs 2 or 3 levels above me. I also got his Enchanting up to 300 but I still have a little ways go to on his tailoring.
Grayfel - I have talked about this for a couple of posts and I finally did it for good or for bad. He is a gnome as I had planned and I have gotten him to lvl 10. So far my experiance has been good. I like having the pet help me with damage but I am really looking forward to getting the void reaver to tank for me. I also still plan on taking up Jewelcrafting but I didn't realize before that I would have to go all the way to Exodar to pick it up.