Two enter the Molten Core: a dragonling protection paladin and a amazing enhancement/restoration shaman.

These two…are OP.

We’ve managed a partial and two full clears of this 40-man raid. The partial was only because we were looking for Saraku’s T1 pieces and weren’t concerned with actually finishing the instance. The next time we went in, we decided to see if we could clear the place out. Kazi was enhance for all of it but the annoying naga boss who puts a curse on you that reduces healing taken by a whooping 75%. The other naga boss who has 4 healer buddies? Yeah, Kazi popped all his cooldowns and we sliced the first healer into tiny bite-sized treats. After you get the first one down, it just gets easier from there.

The tie for most annoying boss is between Ragnaros himself and the big fire elemental who explodes you and sends you flying into the air. The fall actually deals us more damage than the explosion itself. And Ragnaros can die…in his own fire? That knockback ability is damned irritating and it took us a few tries figuring out the best place to position ourselves so we don’t end up in the lava.

But all and all, it can make for a fun distraction. Saraku is just missing his tier chest piece for his knight-in-shining-armor RP set and Kazi now wants to get the lengendary mace made for himself. Not to mention the sheer amount of gold we get…I netted in about 140g before putting BoE epics on the AH. Ragnaros alone dropped 75g each for us. It’s a nice alternative to say running some dailies, wouldn’t you say?

I also feel like I’ve done it all. All of the starter areas have been done several times, and I’ve seen all of the areas on at least 2 characters. Raiding has even lost its appeal as we keep trying to progress in Ulduar (aka seeing the same 4 bosses over and over again to get to the one we really want, only to spend an hour on him before needing to head off to bed). I like Ulduar, I really do. But I wish it was split up into several wings, each with its own lockout. We just don’t have the time to kill the same 4 bosses every night and still attempt at progressing. And don’t even talk about ICC…we can only get down Marrowgar. It doesn’t help that we’ve lost 3 of our members to an upcoming move so our attendance is low to begin with. So yeah…I haven’t even felt compelled to log in for that.

Then there’s Cataclysm coming. I’m excited for a lot of the new features they’re going to implement, including the redesigned leveling zones. Alts have been my normal time-killing activity but what’s the point when the content is going to change soon? It also doesn’t help that my home server is completely full, including slots saved for Cata characters. I’m always reluctant to delete a character and I don’t think I could ever delete an 80.

I’ve also been putting a lot of work into web hosting and designing lately (there’s more about that on my non-WoW blog), as well as making the completely new Bloodriver site. My renewed interest in this has also left me feeling a little blah about WoW.

So all of this resulted in Kazi and I not really touching WoW at all for a couple days. We watching some Mystery Science Theater and played some other games. Warcraft 3 proved to be cool but I can only play the same RTS for so long. We could not for the life of us get Age of Mythology to connect using GameRanger so that was quickly abandoned. Dungeon Siege 2 was going great until two crashes left my character far behind Kazi’s (WTB autosaves) and combined with the frustration of high level mobs in the worst places, it’s been pushed to the side. We started playing Neverwinter Nights together, which Kazi has never played and I’ve always enjoyed playing. The pace is a little slower than what we’re used to but hey, at least it has a great story line and autosaves!

I think we’re slowly starting to get back into things now. With the upcoming announcement of Real ID being implemented with the next patch, we saw an opportunity…the chance to play more not just cross-faction but also cross-realm while still being able to stay in contact with our friends. This is just about as good as more character slots per server would be. So in a sort of impromptu preparation for that…we rolled a couple of Alliance on the Farstriders server. We chose Farstriders because a) it’s an RP realm and we like those and b) that’s where Fhionn is located and guess who had enough money to buy us bags?

Well, at least buy bags for Kazi’s dwarf paladin. I, on the other hand, rolled a death knight, a class I hadn’t touched since I had my troll DK Githinji commit suicide. And because I wanted to boost their numbers…I made her a female dwarf. I think this character will last longer than poor depressed Githinji. I was already joking about calling her undead mount Sparkles or Rainbow, and how my corehound minipet was feasting on the bones of my enemies. I’m still fleshing out her character concept but I think it’s safe to say that she will not be the depressed sort.

However, if you don’t see me post for a while, that’s probably because Kazi and I are kicking it in another game or watching some movies or something.

But if you already think that this blog has some sort of time schedule, you are sorely mistaken, dear readers.

Anyways, the reason I couldn’t think of a title is because this is an update on all my characters and stuff. I’ll try to keep it short and sweet so I don’t bore you all.

My troll shaman Zulrea hit level 80 oh…a couple months ago now. >.>Yes, I’m that bad at making these updates. Regardless, this makes her third level 80 and although she’s fun to play, I haven’t been gearing her as aggressively as I did Niqo and Saraku. I blame it on heroics burnout. But I did get her the Noble title and completed all of the other Noblegarden achievements in 2 days. Not bad for a casual. I enjoy healing on her the most so the couple of T9 pieces I have been getting her have been for that spec. Her elemental set…languishes greatly.

Raiding recently has been awesome for Niqora. The other weekend Bloodriver took on OS, EoE, and Onyxia all in one night and didn’t have too much trouble smashing them all into the ground. Malygos and Onyxia had given us problems before so they took a few tries. Niqo can now proudly boast her Champion of the Frozen Wastes title.

Then last weekend we entered TotC-10…and completed the entire dungeon in a single night. I personally had never seen beyond the spiky worm beasts and apparently the furthest some of them had gotten before were the Faction Champs. So it was quite a thrill to make it through all of it in the first night, even if we had wipes. We just bulldozed through it like we always do. As my guildmate Cedd commented to me: “Bloodriver: we hit our heads against the wall until we make a hole.” We are tenacious if nothing else.

Yesterday I got it into my head that I wanted Ashen Verdict rep with Saraku so he could make Niqo the epic arrows she’s come to love. It was surprisingly easy to get enough people to come with me for trash runs. We had to switch out people a couple times (RL comes first after all) but we killed enough trash so that people who had been there since the beginning went from completely neutral to friendly by the end. They all seemed pretty happy to get their rings, happy enough to even want to come back tonight for some more.

Niqora’s little sis Anuniaq is now level 60 and in the Outlands, having been reunited with her childhood friend Halruum (Kazi’s tauren warrior).  She’s been sitting at level 40-ish for a long time and it’s good to get to level a hunter again (but oh how I missed Steadyshot).

Tuyok the warrior, and Niqora’s adopted son, has gone from fury to prot since I discovered that I liked tanking with him the best. Figuring out how to stance-dance was a huge factor in making that decision. >.> He’s in his early 30s now and has made friends with a Forsaken priest called Ghislan (Kazi has discovered a love for discipline priests). Together they make quite the odd couple…a frail-looking undead man next to a hulking tauren bull.

You’ve already seen Aroqin the night elf druid featured here in some RP sessions that Kazi and I have been having. She’s also in her early 30s and she is happily bounding about as a kitty. As happily as a grumpy sarcastic elf can be that is. I’ve discovered that I also like tanking with her on the side (kitty is her first love, bear comes second). Apparently I’m fairly good at it, if the pug person who told me that I’m the best low level tank he’s ever seen is any indication.

I really have developed this gravitation to tanking, haven’t I? >.>

In all of these, some characters have gotten deleted, namely my bank character Valraen who never got past level 10 and my draenei hunter Brighit who I never could find the perfect pet for. In my defense for deleting Brighit, I intend to have at least a goblin hunter once Cataclysm comes out, possibly a worgen depending on what forms the worgen druids will get. A hunter for a hunter is okay, right? >.> I swear I’m still a petoholic!

And last but not least, a shameless plug for my guild. Bloodriver on Wyrmrest Accord-H is now recruiting. We invite anyone of any level or class who wants to join our wonderful family. We do light roleplaying, raid casually, play lots and lots of alts, run random heroics, and hang out in guild chat. Sometimes we even break out into song on vent.

For you Alliance folks, our sister guild Obsidian Phoenix is also growing and is a military style light-medium RP guild who is focused on the whisperings of the coming Cataclysm, ignoring the petty squabbles between the Alliance and the Horde. Players who don’t roleplay are also welcome. And check out the cool website that I’m making for them.

If you’re interested or want to ask questions, just comment on this post or find me on any one of my characters on Wyrmrest (they are listed on My Characters page).

Edit: I forgot to mention that I managed to sell my Battered Hilt for a nice chunk of gold. Here’s to endless possibilities!

On Saturday, we had our memorial for Vinny. Over 25 people showed up at the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior in the Barrens and we spent a couple hours recounting stories about him and giving a “KungalooooOOOOooooOOOooosh” salute. It was very nice.

My shammy Zulrea is level 78 as we speak, as well as Kazi’s warlock Basia. A destruction warlock and an elemental shaman are a scary combination. We keep lamenting about how we can only get 2 spells off each before a mob dies. >.> On that note, having Lava Burst always crit is awesome. Also, she dropped skinning and took up inscription…partially because I wanted a scribe and partially because Basia is a tailor/enchanter. So Kazi gets all my weapon/armor vellums.

Saraku is finally exalted with Netherwing (with much help provided by Kazi searching for eggs). So now he can transform back to his original drake form in character. Still working on Crusader dailies with him but not with much enthusiasm. He also has his complete T9 tanking set. I started getting his T9 healing set together but then I found out that I like healing on Zulrea better anyways.

Niqo has 4 pieces of T9, the Orca-Hunter’s Harpoon, the Felglacier Bolter, the Pauldrons of the Devourer,  the Crusader’s Dragonscale Bracers (a Christmas gift from Kazi), and the Recovered Scarlet Onslaught Cape. In short…she looks like just about every other hunter who’s done a ton of randoms. I’m quite satisfied about my 3.7-4k dps with a BM spec in heroics, with it spiking on the bosses when I pop my cooldowns and trinkets. Also, the redesigned Misdirect + Volley is sooooo nice. It really helped tanks in H-HoR before they nerfed the damage. Oh, and she got her “the Patient” title which is quite suitable for her RP-wise.

I rolled a fury warrior called Tuyok who now is level 25 and has 4 pieces of heirloom gear equipped. In character, he is Mysthowl’s and Niqora’s adoptive teenage son and his full first name is Issorartuyok. Try saying that five times fast. It’s the Inuit word for “leader dog”. He’s pretty much the character that I play solo when I’m not doing something with the people of BR.

Kazi and I have been talking about what characters we’re going to roll when Cataclysm comes out. I’m going to roll a worgen druid to be paired with his worgen hunter (with a wolf pet of course!) and a goblin hunter with his goblin priest/mage. We decided to reserve our names and because my 10 character slots on Wyrmrest Accord where already taken…I needed to clear up two spots. The first one to go was Fawnel, my tauren druid who wasn’t getting played anyway. My hope is that the worgen will have some sort of wolf-like cat form which will help me enjoy playing a druid more. Choosing the second character to delete was tough but I finally settled on Brighit, my draenei hunter. I play her even less than Fawnel and once I do start playing a little bit on Alliance side with the expansion, my focus is going to be solely on my druid. So it was hard to let her go but at least I’ll be making a goblin hunter, right? Right? >.> I’m currently debating between a raptor or a bear for her. I do love raptors and they have similar personalities to goblins. On the other hand, a giant bear with tons of explosives strapped to it does make a rather intimidating and funny image. Have I mentioned that the goblin is going to be half out of her mind?

Bloodriver as a guild is working on making our way through Ulduar and we’ve dipped our toes in TotC and Onyxia. We’ve come up to Freya on our last Ulduar run and we haven’t tried to get Ony down again since 3.3.0 came out. So I think that next time we go in there, we’ll be able to take her down. We also have a sister guild on Alliance side called Obsidian Phoenix that is slowly filling up with people who have Ally characters. That’s where our worgens will find their home.

And last but not least…I got a Logitech G11 keyboard. The blue LED lights are so very pretty and shiny. Plus the macro keys have given me a noticeable improvement in Niqo’s dps. I’d be completely pleased with it if the keys didn’t seem to randomly stop working when I switch characters (I blame the program, not the keyboard itself).

Patch 3.3.2 is all loaded up and I’m eager to get home for work and see what new things await for me. I heard there’s been a buff for elemental shamans.

Now hopefully my next update will come before Cataclysm is released. >.>

Surprisingly, other than Niqora I haven’t really been playing my hunters. Instead I’ve been leveling my little dragonling pally Saraku. He’s level 36 now, running around and completing quests in Desolace on top of his handsome charger. I gotta say, it feels sooooo much better to have a mount (although I’d still kill for a flying mount, I’m spoiled that way). He’s coming along quite nicely as a tank. I’m still learning the class (but we never really stop learning, do we?) so something I’ll forget things like turning OFF Righteous Fury when I’m not the tank. They still keep bugging me about that one.

Niqora has now got all the Horde faction titles from the Argent Tournament. Only “Crusader” remains for her to get so I’m still doing the Champion dailies. She already has her Staff of Feral Furies and I’m undecided what to spend the rest of the Champion’s Seals on. Knowing me, probably some mounts. >.> I finally started doing Hodir dailies so I can get the mining bag LW pattern and my shoulder enchant. So far I’m only honoured though. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong but I seem to be incapable of completing Thrusting Hodir’s Spear (although the inneundo still makes me chuckle ). I’ve been able to get into a couple Naxx runs…and I’ve discovered that I don’t have much patience with them. There aren’t enough people from Bloodriver for us to form our own raid so we’ve formed a raid alliance with a couple other guilds. Being the shy person I am, I’m not able to really get into the conversation with these people I don’t know too well. Couple that with THE longest boss fight explanations in the world…I have patience for a lot of things, these raids aren’t one of them. Not 4-5 hours worth anyways.

I did have a blast last night when we got a group together to run some regular Northrend dungeons to help level some guildies. We did 2 Violet Holds and a Gundrak with a 77 DK tank (who wasn’t def-capped) and a 74 priest healer. No wipes to speak of and the one time the tank did die in VH, myself and another 80 hunter were able to pick up the trash mobs and pet-tank them until the priest could rez. In that kind of group, where we can joke around and really feel like we’re working together, that is what I love. When we got a VH boss that none of us knew the strategy to, we just winged it. And what do you know, he was down in about 3 minutes. Now that is some good fun.

I briefly mentioned my troll DK Githinji previously. He’s gone. Kaput, nixed, deleted, etc. Honestly I was not playing him at all and he was such a depressing character that I was getting depressed just playing him. So I stripped him down, gave away/sold all his stuff, and then he said a few last words over guild chat before impaling himself on his own sword (Like I said, very emo). He has already been replaced by…another hunter. >.> Actually a remake of Machalor, since I’ve been itching for some time now to have a hunter with hyena pets. I’ve decided that RP-wise, she will be very harsh and battle-oriented character, which is very different from my other characters. But with a name derived from Macha and Balor, it’s to be expected really. War is in her blood.

And for my last character update, I created a little druid to level with my brother through the Refer-A-Friend program. For some reason, the idea of playing a druid appeals to me but when I actually do play her, I feel…meh. I don’t know why, flexibility always appealed to me before. Only time will tell if I end up keeping her around.

But nothing lasts forever. I won’t get into the details but there was some guild drama, mostly taking place IRL, that threatened to tear Freeriver apart. A choice was made and most of Freeriver’s members moved over to Bloodriver. I have to admit that it was sad to leave Freeriver but what’s more important is that we stuck together and I think we’re all better because of it. Niqora has become one of the War Council, which is the Bloodriver rank for an officer. I’ve sat in on officer meetings to help decide how the guild will operate and it feels great to see our members grow and to make new friendships. I came to this group of people looking for some interesting RP and I still enjoy that. But now I’m finding myself hanging around with them just because I enjoy their company and just generally playing with them.

Which brings me to this series of screenshots:

Yes, that is Niqora in Karazhan with my guildies. The day has come, dear readers…I have been in a raid.

Now, I know that this was not the greatest raid in history. We wiped quite a few times, sometimes due to not being familar with the place and more times than I would like from a few over-eager individuals jumping the gun and getting us all killed. Having said that, we killed the first 3 bosses on the first time. It’s not any sort of record but it’s a great first for a guild where most of us have never even seen the inside of Kara, myself included. I think I only made one stupid mistake where I accidently aggroed a couple of elites onto myself. I had been using Volley to help quickly kill some groups of non-elite mobs and I hadn’t realized that this particular time, some elites had decided to join in the fun. I was also happy to see that I came out on top for DPS. Mind you, Niqora is level 77 and the closest DPS in level was a 74 mage (but he was bragging before how he could out-DPS me so it was a sweet victory *grins* ).

As we speak, the rest of my guild is finishing off the instance while I’m at work, taking an extra shift for one of my co-workers. I had logged on before to do the cooking daily and they had offered me a spot even though they had already started…because they love me that much. What I’ve taken from this one raid is that raiding can be stressful but what makes it fun for me is being able to do something with the friends I’ve made in the guild. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t have gone in the first place. Congratulations Bloodriver, we did it!