Lo-Quality WoW

Yes, the delays between posts are getting longer.  This time it was another trip, a slightly extended sickness and some chaos in real life tripping me up.  But quite a bit has changed in the last couple of months, not to mention the adjustment to the new 4.0 version changes.

So before even getting to the 4.0 stuff, what else has happened?  The ICC25 man team beat everyone except Lich King so far.  However, one of the others managed to get the kill with another group and as such, we’ve been able to do some heroic ICC25 man content.  Unfortunately, that’s only been Marrowgar, Gunship and Rotface.  I did manged to snag the Snowserpent Mail Helm, but that was mainly because I was the Hunter with the highest DKP available!  And yes, part of it was because nothing has dropped that I wanted in awhile, but the other part is the fact that I’ve been the Hunter who has consistently showed up the most each week.  Generally not good when a non-guild member is your most consistent person in a class, especially an “easy” class like Hunters, but for the most part it’s politely ignored that I’m not “officially” in their guild. 

On the ICC10 side, we’ve managed to clear everything on Heroic except the Lich King, and the one try at it showed that we are still a little undergeared for it.  But to keep everything interesting and challenging, we also started doing all the achievements necessary to get the Glory of the Icecrown Raider and some of those are definitely more involved the the heroic fights themselves.  But we did get it and I got my Reins of the Bloodbathed Frostbrood Vanquisher, my second 310% mount! 

And then as 4.0 approached, we did a few Burning Crusade raids.  Since I wasn’t really raiding back during BC, it was mostly new to me.  I managed to get in and get the Serpentshrine Cavern and The Black Temple achievements.  More or less cakewalks with a bunch of heavily geared 80s, but I can also see where you would have been put through the wringer as a bunch of 70s. 

Beyond that, we mainly did 3-drake Obsidian Sanctum runs.  I still remember the first time we tried it and barely squeeking by.  But it, like so much of ICC, became second nature to us.  I really wanted to take my Warrior in but it’s such a steep drop off in dps between her and my Hunter, I really couldn’t justify it. 

I also did the first “pre-event” thing of Operation:Gnomeregan.  For the most part, it’s an auto-pilot quest line where you would have to try really hard to screw it up.  But it was an extra Feat of Strength Achievement, Operation: Gnomeregan, so I can’t complain too much.  Plus being able to turn into a Gnome is interesting since I’m usually a much taller Night Elf.  Just wish either the enchantment was longer or the cooldown shorter!

I also managed to make some money off selling some Bladeborn Leggings so I finally duel specced, just to get the Dual Talent Specialization achievement.  Wish I had know they would drop the price in 4.0!  So my secondary spec is now Marksman, which was what I was way back before I started doing raids or instances.   However, I never got a chance to learn the rotation before 4.0 came in and blew Hunter’s setups apart. 

I was going to talk a bit about all the changes in 4.0 but I realize I’ll be ranting for awhile so I’ll push it into a different posting completely.  And while that’s the major cause of my annoyance, it’s not the only cause.

And that’s the fact that somehow with the new 4.0, the makeup of the ICC25 team has changed with several new people in the raid.  Which in itself wouldn’t annoy me, but it’s the fact that some of them have obviously never done the instance, even on an alt.  So while I can tolerate having to explain the way our group does the encounter, it’s annoying having to listen to a full explanation of the fight from start to finish.  We really should be well beyond the point of having to do this each and every time we go in.

That and our raids have been starting later and later.  It takes 30 to 45 minutes to even get started and then there’s been long waits just before the boss.  Although the later is mainly instability with the new patch.  Disconnects and game crashes are all the rage now, as it is with any patch, but it means we spend even less time raiding and a lot more sitting around twiddling our thumbs. 

But that’s a quick and dirty of the past couple of months.  Still trying to get back into the groove of posting.  Hopefully I can become consistent once again.  Even if nobody ever reads this.