Lo-Quality WoW

Another night of no ICC raid.  Then again, rarely do we do anything near the reset.  It’s been a bit disjointed, as if killing the Lich King once was enough and right now, nobody wants to really see him again.  

At least we are attempting it on heroic.  But going from 5 to 6 nights a week raiding to once or twice a week?  And I’m not entirely sure if it’s because we don’t have the right group or not.  Not that I can do much about it since I’m pretty much just dps.  I’m edging closer to having my Warrior’s tank spec being decent in ICC but all it would take is one or two big hits and she’d be down for the count.

Not that I think it’s tanks they’re usually lacking.  I think it’s heals.  But my highest level “healing” class is still my Paladin, all the way at level 54 or so.  And considering I’m not particularly good at healing, well, I’m not sure it would make a difference if I did have a geared healer.

But in the meantime, it meant more gearing of my Warrior through the sure and steady method:  Random dungeons.  Except the wait queue is getting longer and longer.  It’s averaging 15 minutes for me to just get in a group, and assuming nobody punks out, as happened each and every time last night, given an average 30 to 45 minute run in an instance, that means I’m only doing at most an instance an hour. 

Ah well, the first up was the Halls of Stone.  Again, everyone had gearscores in the mid 3k range, but I also feel that Halls of Stone is a more moderate instance anyway, even in heroic mode.  But this time, the tank was slow and methodical in his tanking.  He would use LOS pulls, and for the most part, wouldn’t pull too many mobs at once.  Once again, one of the other dps was a Death Knight who was on top of things with his Death Grip for mobs who got past the tank.  And the rare times mobs got past both of them, I could usually do a quick Challenging Shout to drag them back to the tank.

The fights were pretty standard, except I adjust where I stood more.  I would go to the rear of the mobs, execute a few attacks, then move back to their front arcs, absorbing some hits but keeping my rage up.  I’m slowly improving at my rage management, although I do probably give the healer a heart attack or two when I suddenly start dropping hp rapidly.

Otherwise, the fights weren’t that memorable.  We did pull off the Brann Spankin’ New achievement.  I personally also picked up the Halls of Stone and Heroic: Halls of Stone achievements.  In general, a nice quick run where everyone did their job and also looked out for the other members.

Next up was a Utgarde Keep run.  This was a nice simple run, although one guy admitted that he had just pinged to 80.  Not that I mind, Heroic: Utgarde Keep is still pretty easy.  And for the most part it went well.  I did die during the Prince Kelesth, but that’s because I saw someone get iceblocked out of the corner of my eye.  I assumed it was the healer and tried to break them out, except it wasn’t and I got hit by a hefty ice block myself and died.

I really didn’t need the Shaman saying “I don’t know why everyone groups up in the middle?  If you stack on the tank, nobody dies!”  Well, I did stack on the tank and only pulled out because I thought the healer was in trouble.  But I let it slide, screw it if he thought I was an idiot. 

Either way, it was still a quick run and the instance was practically over before I knew it.  The newly pinged 80 even got some decent loot for himself.  I briefly debated a third run but it was getting late for another run and I was a little tired.

Instead, I took a look at my currency page and decided to spend some of it.  For my tanking kit, I finally replaced my old item level 187 gloves with a pair of Gauntlets of the Royal Watch.  For my dps kit, I replaced a blue ilvl 200 ring with a Bloodshed Band. 

It always kills me a little to suddenly spend a lot of emblems, but I just keep telling myself that I might as well do it and get my self geared as close to ICC levels as I can.  Both purchases pushed my gearscore for both specs above the 4k mark, which was nice.  I figure if I can do 2-3 random dungeons a night, I should be able to pick up some nice bits and pieces every week and a half at max.  Now it’s just a matter of figuring out what is the best upgrade at any given time.