Mimiron down!

So last night, on our fourth night of training, we downed Mimiron.



I think it ranks as the most complicated normal-mode fight in Ulduar 10, and it's going to take a long time for us to get it completely under control. That said, the presence of both a Restoration Shaman and a Holy Priest on healing made life much easier given the large amount of raid/aoe damage doing the rounds.

We finished the night with a couple of goes on General Vezax. He looks relatively straightforward once you learn the gimmicks, so I reckon we'll end up killing him this week.

I'm really pleased with Ulduar thusfar. Progress has been steady without being frustrating. I can't wait to down Yogg-Saron so we can start work on the Hard Mode encounters.

People Who Aren't You Have Won The Game!

Sorry folks, been only holiday last week celebrating my 32nd Birthday. Back in the saddle now with some venom

So last night, I took part in a joint Naxx-25 run with a friendly guild (Smart Casual members ended up hoovering most of the loot, including two pieces of Tier 7.5 for yours truly.)

As we were finishing up, our new Hunter mentions in /guild his dissapointment that Ensidia (the guild formerly known as Nihilum/Curse) downed the 10-man version of Alganon The Observer this week, five weeks after Ulduar's launch on the live server.

In response, I've been quick to point the following out:

1. They're pro gamers. Beating content quickly is what they do.
2. They were taking on a boss that was designed for people who have cleared Ulduar 10 including some hard modes.
3. They've been clearing Ulduar 10 and 25-man since launch, including hard modes in both. They're geared beyond the stress level for the encounter.
4. They're not us.

And that last point is the thing that bugs me the most. People have been jumping up and down about Ulduar's difficulty not being all that high. Moaning about how groups like Ensidia et al cleared it in their first week. And most of the people who were moaning weren't actually in the guilds doing the clearing!

From the point of view of someone who was actually wearing 10-man gear for that first week, it certainly didn't feel easy. A lot of the bosses came down to the knife's edge and some unlikely raid compositions (a shadow priest switching to holy to give us four healers on Ignis for example). By the second and third weeks, they'd actually managed to tune it down a bit to the level it was supposed to be: challenging for a group in Naxx10 gear.

Ultimately I don't care who's beaten the content before me, I just care about when I get my turn! I'm on a backwater RP-PVE server and so far from the cutting edge it isn't funny. The upside is I can relax, let someone else worry about world firsts and just concentrate on having fun. That's why we play this game, right?

30k Health woo-hoo!

Ulushnar hit 30k unbuffed health last night.

OK, so I'll admit I hate tanks who go on about their hit points like it's the only thing that matters. Still, it's nice to get there under my own standards.

* I only have one Stamina trinket equipped.
* With the exception of his Tier 7.5 gloves and Naxx25 ring, all his gear is from 10-mans.
* He has the minimum Defense needed to be uncrittable to raid bosses.
* He's block capped with raid buffs.
* His avoidance doesn't totally suck ass (just under 52% unbuffed).
* He doesn't have any Tier 8 yet, and maintains his T7 4-piece bonus.
* All enchants/gems are best-in-slot. No +sta armor kits on the gloves.

Utterly crushed six bosses in Ulduar 10 last night. Left a few farm bosses for the follow-up raids and a bunch of training time on Freya and Mimiron, our current targets.

Prot... PVP?

So last night, I started doing 2v2 Arena with a Ret Paladin friend of mine. I'll never be a hardcore PVPer, but the Hateful Gladiator's Libram of Fortitude is the best Ret Libram Ulu will see this side of spending Emblems of Valor, so it's worth a few weeks of humiliation.

So we started, and as two melee DPS without any sort of healer-killers, we got our asses handed to us. After a few games, I had an idea. I switched Ulu back to Protection Spec, equipped my Block Value gear and swapped in my PVP trinket. The upshot was, we started surviving. I could do some burst, but most importantly, I could survive any meleer who decided to unload on me whilst throwing cleanses and heals to my Ret buddy.

We still lost a few games, but we also pulled some wins out of our hats as a result of the switch. I'm going to have to try a few more next week, but I found Arenas as Prot surprisingly fun. In DPS vs Healer games, the DPSer usually spent too long trying to kill me whilst my buddy killed the healer. In two DPS games, we could outlast some of our competition. Our tactics are kinda rough, but I've been thinking about doing more with it.

It's even had me considering switching my Ret spec for a PVP-oriented Prot Spec, but I think the versatility of being able to switch from Tank to Healer is too nice for raiding right now.

The Dark Side of the Tank

Initially I was going to write a post about Smart Casual's progress in the second week in Ulduar. We downed a further new boss each night, adding Kologarn, Aurianya, and Hodir to our list of kills. I've really enjoyed the fights, it's amazing watching the chaotic early attempts give way to a smooth(ish) takedown.

But instead, I'm going to switch tack and talk about Death Knights. Yep, with Dual Specialization, I decided to give Graysun a tank spec again and see where that led. As it turns out, it led to a Naxxramas raid for Smart Casual's alts.

Currently he's specced 53/8/10 for Blood-Tanking funsies. I've always had a weak spot for Blood Spec, with it's combination of Ret Paladin damage tropes and vampiric healing. And it's great for many things, Gray's base health is awesome, and his single target threat is pretty solid. However, it's kinda let down in the AoE faceroll department. I have to blow about 5-6 global cooldowns to get solid AoE threat. And if you try asking an alt DPSer to wait that long, you might as well ask a Crocodile to help you translate Urdu.

So I'm regrettably I'm considering a switch to something slightly more Unholy, like 10/8/53 to get the best AoE threat abilities. Blood will have to wait until the day Graysun steps into Ulduar. (hey, it could happen!)