New Shield Blues.

I've been taking it easy since the weekend, not signing for any 25-man raids for a week or so since I was needing some time away from it.

I had already agreed to play Protadin on a CDer's Zul'Aman run, so in went. We did pretty well, managing to take down both the Eagle and Bear within the first and second timers. We lost the timer on the Lynx by a matter of minutes though, but we still managed to get to him and kill him with only two deaths total.

The Dragonhawk boss proved to be more awkward. We had a few first-timers there and it took about eight attempts to finally get him down. He even obligingly dropped the Bulwark of the Amani Empire which our big blue-white hero claimed for himself.

However, flush though I was with this success, I was left with a new problem, my Defense skill. Since the new badge items in 2.3, Ulu's Defense skill has routinely dipped below the minimum 490 needed to be immune to Critical Strikes from raid bosses. I compensated for this by using the Resilience-heavy Merciless Gladiator's Shield Wall to keep my crit level higher. It now looks like I'll have to replace my Violet Signet of the Great Protector with the Seal of Danzalar to maintain uncrittability with the new shield. I just wish they coulda replaced the nigh-useless Block Rating on it with Defense Rating, or shifted the gem socket to a yellow one.

I dream of the day I can comfortably hit 490 Defense again.

Edit: I know this smacks a little of "oh woe is me I have too many epix" in a way that some of my 5-and-10-man running readers will find it hard to empathise with, but hey, it's my blog and you take the useful with the useless.