TankSpot - Blogs - I'm not a doctor but I play one in Wow. by Horacio

For the Horde!

Horacio — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:28:35 GMT

I spent the better part of the weekend playing my newly converted Troll hunter and having a blast. And all this completely solo, not once grouping except for battlegrounds.

The character, is in fact, the second one I ever made and my tanking bear is 4 years old. Good ol, Porkchop. he always lagged behind and I never enjoyed playing him much until now.

The rest of my toons are still alliance and I'm still the loneliest member of a 500 character guild. I've managed to sever friendships that in the process of making, built a wall against the rest of the guild. I log in and no one says hello to me. I show up to raids and stick around because I knwo what I'm doing and the idea of having Horacio around is good but.....yeah.

Life is great otherwise but in Wow, its pretty lonely. Pen and I were both sure she'd get her DK from 79 to 80 over Labor Day weekend and she ended up logging in for about 2 hours Saturday night, I think. She needs to social aspect more than I do and there's very little draw for her these days either.

So...I will continue to raid on H. I have a war chest of gold stored up and enough trade skill industries to keep me sustained without logging in for any other reason. Oh, I will but right now....if I have free time, its likely to see me log in my hunter and play him.

I should hit 80 in short order and will likely gear him up through PvP. Alterac Valley is far and away the fastest leveling from 70-80 and having a pile of honor to buy new gear at the end doesn't suck.

From there....I might join a guild and try to casual raid one night a week, get some Naxx10 done and what not. Maybe more. I haven't discounted the possibility of sending more over up to and including converting to Horde full time.

Eh, in the end, I'm having fun playing less and when I am, being a troll.

Wow Related Musings

Horacio — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:39:11 GMT

I haven't been playing alot lately, been busy with other things but I'm still raiding Wed/Thurs night and last night was a pretty good raid.

I missed last Wed so only got in on and a couple hours of Yogg wipes and picked up the spare on Ignis and Razorscale.

Last night we hit the Coliseum and one shot Beasts and Lord Jaraxxus pretty handily. The Champions was pretty cool. We got it on the third pull and most of the raid had fun with it outside the obligatory "I hate PvP", "Blizzard sucks, this is a PvE server" etc, etc.

So on to Ulduar and our first real attempt at a hard mode went well. Got XT to 31% while 'Heartbroken' I spent most of my time chasing sparks or picking up when the MT got splattered. One shot everything else up through Thorim, skipping Hodir until tonight.

No loots for me or the other tanks. F--- the random number generator.

Distraction

Horacio — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:23:33 GMT

I haven't been playing much Wow lately and it has been good for me. I've been devoting my time to other pursuits, as most Donors know all too well, and spending time with the family.

And, I hate to say it, I don't really miss it. I log on a bit every day, about 10 min or so to shuffle mail around, transmute epic gems, and spent an hour the other night farming on my DK. Meh.

I'm looking forward to new content tonight in the Coliseum and we saved our Ulduar ID so we ought to be able to get a first Vezax kill as well. Those things will make me happy.

Getting to MT both nights last week pumped me up pretty good too, but I made a wipe causing mistake on Auriaya (spell interrupt fail!). Other than that, it was business as usual.

But....I'm distracted. And its quite a switch. Wow has always been the big distraction for me, the one thing that I choose to do instead of what I ought to be doing. Hence, my Chris Farley-esque fitness and the exacerbation of various other conditions.

Pressure built both in game and out but at least this time, even though I got pretty angry and vented, I didn't mash the eject button.

And so....I'm working on a side project. As I said, I yammer on and on to the Donors here on Tankspot about it and they tolerate me(which I appreciate) I would venture to guess this is a far more noble cause and activity.

I'm not quitting Wow. Getting 'fired' from my 10 man raid my be a blessing...right now it certainly feels like one. I have 2 nights a week of 25 man progression raiding and a 10K gold bankroll. My tank is kitted out in full epic gems, so....I don't need to log in and farm to support my raiding. I am enjoying my time off.

Yeti Chow

Horacio — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:02:59 GMT

Or....my review of the new stuffs.

Well, as it turns out, our MT was unable to get his computer patched and UI rebuilt prior to the patch so I had to take over and face new content last night.

It wasn't bad. I take back 38.9% of the bad things I said about the whole concept of the patch. We killed regular 25 man mode after some learning basic concepts like "fire=hot" and get out of the way of the giant runaway yeti. took us I guess 5 or 6 pulls and I died on the kill because he charged someone, got enraged and squashed me.

My threat is definitely up. I was touching 8-10K TPS in spikes just using my normal rotation. I was never in any danger of losing threat there or in Ulduar except on Hodir where I alone wore FrR gear, 3 pieces and nearly paid the price but never lost him.

Devestate damage......wow, its just like as advertised but you gotta see it. Being able to spam the crap out of it means alot of threat and improved damage. I saw 6K crits on XT's heart.

XT...holy crap! What did they do? We had 934 mobs streaming out of the piles....it was nuts! we actually decided to try hardmode to eliminate them but couldn't quite get the heart down so we just went on to kill him but it was ugly.

All in all, not bad. I've gotten all my gear up to date with epic gems. I need a few more for my JC trinkets. We're done with Ignis and that stingy jerk never dropped me a trinket so....off to farm the new instance on regular.

Did it on heroic....its different, I guess. Not awful, just weird. Seems like a bitch to heal because so many of the fights seem to have mobs that can be tanked but hit other players with damage throughout.

Make or Break

Horacio — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:11:52 GMT

Wow frustrates me. Not so much the game but all the little things to do with it that in the end, boils down to the people.

I like to raid. I like getting together with a group of friends and trying to outsmart the computer, overcome challenges and set goals to achieve.

I think in alot of ways, hard core raiders have it easier in that you have a defined purpose and a unified goal. With a set of casual leaders, I get the feeling sometimes that I'm herding cats.

My 25 man is okay, I guess. We are close to knocking out Vezax but we've screwed around more than I would like. My 10 man is horribly inconsistant and plagued by poor attendance, diverse levels of commitment, and a lack of situational awareness.

I thought about it some over the weekend and I decided to stop being so damn emo about it and start looking at things a little differently. I made a long post this morning through email and website pm's to the group and letting them know I wanted some things to change.

At the same time, someone else was making a similar post but the two posts were very different. He's our best player. He's no more perfect than the next guy but he does his job and delivers very high DPS.

His post was an ultimatum...straighten up and fly right or I'm dropping this raid. He said that if we are not working on boss X by date Y, he's gone.

whoa.

And...I agree with most of his points. I'm a little peeved about how it came down but its something I should have done myself and was so afraid of pissing off people...or even worse, having them ignore me....that I hadn't.

I have a real issue with leadership in certain settings. My style is appropriate for many settings IRL and some in wow but calling out people for dumb mistakes, inattention and distraction for a casual raid team has been difficult. I either go too far or not far enough and triangulating the right position is difficult.

Aside from that, I deem some of it to be flat out mistakes on my part.

So....hopefully this will stick. Hopefully it will wake some people up but I'm dubious.

Maybe I Suck?

Horacio — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:38:40 GMT

No, not as a tank. I'm quite awesome, tyvm. But of late, I've been raiding 10 man content on my DK as frost DPS and frankly, I'm not happy with my output.

Last night was a good raid despite having two subs, both excellent player but both on their woefully undergeared alts. I had to bait them into coming and their mains need nothing from Ulduar 10, so.....and the warlock (alt of fury warrior) wearing blues, a few crafted lvl 80 epics and some lvl 70 epics wasn't too far behind me.

My gear is pretty good, all lvl 80 epics but I'm desperately trying to swap stats to shed hit and haste for more STR/AP. This will change when 3.2 hits and I swap to DW frost but who knows how long that will be yet.

I think part of my problem is that I try to play him like my tank and just substitute the skills into the same button mashing sequence. I don't know, I feel like I am hitting everything right but its just not coming out correctly.

Keep up plague strike and frost fever-> build runic power-> unload frost strikes when able. I try to use Oblit and HB to stack up my blue bar then go ape. I crit ALOT too.

Over all, I came in at 2900 DPS last night. I don't know about individual bosses, I didn't look at it much. I must be missing something, maybe its gear. When 3.2 hits, I will see an upgrade because I picked up alot of gear suited best for a TG warrior because its the best I can get or will drop for me. I'm set on main hand(Razorscale Talon), I just need to get a better off hand.....looking like Stoneguard at the moment, lol. Iron Council and the RNG can diaf.

I dunno....I'm the kind of player that must be on top, be the best or close to it. To not be annoys me. They don't give out ribbons for being in position and not dying to stupid crap.

/sigh.....

I've been playing a little shaman and little rogue a ton the past week. Rogue is 30 and the shammy is 42. I am enjoying the crap out of both of them, to be honest. I hardly touch my druid anymore and not that I ever played my hunter much......

Who Are These People and Where is My Raid?

Horacio — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:56:24 GMT

I actually had a request to blog about this so here goes.

First night of the week, zero wipes, cleared through Mimiron in Ulduar 25...and didn't skip any optional bosses.

So...who are these people? Granted, we had a few sloppy moments on trash including where I pulled XT while doing trash and we still beat his ass.

Its not all that shocking....often times when we have decent nights, the few wipes can be chalked up to dumb mistakes or momentary episodes of poor play. Eventually it all has to click, all on the same night.

I didn't die until Freya trash and may have turned a profit last night....nah, consumables are still plenty pricy.

I even picked up 2 pieces of loot, one I'll actually use!

Tonight, we go for our first Vezak kill. I was a little annoyed with people talking about Yogg already as if Vezak is a foregone conclusion but then, I'm a little pissy these days. Long story, anyhow.....it was a good night.

DW Frost DK

Horacio — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:11:39 GMT

I've been reading up on the changes coming in the 3.2 patch and heavily considering giving DW a go. I play as frost and I enjoy it. Its the way my toon is and whether or not blood or unholy chart out better in terms of DPS, I don't care. I like frost and I hold my own in DPS even if my gear needs some work and is unbalanced.

Well, frankly, its unbalanced toward a DW set up with a ton of hit and some haste. I didn't design it that way but every time I get e new piece of armor, there you go.

Last night in Ulduar we skipped the optional bosses and pushed forward to set up to take on new bosses tonight. We had just enough time to circle back and end the evening by killing Razorscale. I picked up the really nice 1H sword he drops and I got to work messing around with it.

I have not yet tanked an instance on my DK. I really have no need. I can always break out H who is heavily geared to do my heavy lifting. So, I ported to my trainer and respecced my second spec to change a few talent points to DW. I rummaged around in my bank and grabbed Red Sword of Courage (lol!) for an OH.

I spent a fair amount of time skilling up 1H swords, eventually giving out at 397 and resetting recount. I swapped in one item other than the swords (MH Cinderglacier/OH Razorice, btw) and went to town. I was surprised....I was doing some serious DPS, not far off what I was used to...and I still hadn't respecced yet, so even with 378 hit rating, I was seeing a few misses. Between Imp Icy Talons, Unholy pressence and the up until then fairly useless haste, I was hitting really fast (even with a 2.6 speed MH)

Ok...so here's the thing. Obviously, I'm missing the big, massive frost strike bombs but its still hitting hard. The trick is that the new crap in 3.2 is going to allow BOTH weapons to hit for some abilities like Frost Strike....so....yeah....

Unholy pressence makes for alot more button mashing and a flat % damage reduction from Blood but you're hitting alot faster and with 2 weapons....well, we'll play with that but I'm thinking DW frost is going to mess some crap up hardcore in the patch.

Anyhow, eh, its my alt. I do raid on him but the faceroll mashing a few buttons is pretty easy. Still.....looking forward to trying something new.

Turning the Corner

Horacio — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:56:13 GMT

I've written a fair amount about my raiding experiences and detailed the differences between my 25 man and 10 man raids.

To review, 25 man is casual progression and we work hard at it but we are fairly casual and have a limited schedule. I'm the #2 tank and I MT most trash and keep the tanks together and organized. We're through Mimiron and working now on Vezak....and after half a night's work, doesn't seem to bad, I think we'll drop him this week.

My 10 man, I am the RL and play now on my DK as frost DPS. We are more casual, more laid back but we try and I at times get frustated with our lack of progress. It took us 3+ weeks to kill Hodir. The ins and outs of that fight were too much for some folks and we couldn't get over the hump.

Well, we finally got him last week and added a Thorim kill on for good measure. Good, but we still limped to that point.

Last night was very different. We chopped off the bosses we are not required to kill and drove straight for Hodir. We one shot FL, XT, Kologarn and took 4 tries to get Hodir then one shot Thorim. Up until the Hodir wipes, we were crusing and it was the best raid we had had since beginning Ulduar when it was released.

We had just enough time left to port back and take out Razorscale before calling it, giving us a fresh start on Freya tonight. 7 of us have whipped her in 25 man so I think we'll get it down. Then on to Mimiron, but alot of folks want to get IC down before the week is done. So....we'll see.

OT: Celebrity Deathwatch

Horacio — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:48:08 GMT

So, as conventional wisdom goes, celebrities die in threes and this theory passed the test this week when the King of Pop stepped up in the clutch, following Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett.

Yeah, I'm a cold hearted bastard but my general distaste for the general concept of celebrity comes to a head when one of them dies. You'd think the world was coming to an end if you bothered to turn on TV last night.

Apparently, Ed was a pretty good guy. He did alot of charity work throughout his career after serving in WWII and later reaching the rank of colnel. He did go broke recently and as incredibly unfathomable as that is, well, it seems to be common.

I remember Farrah Fawcett in Charlie's Angels but the appearacne I remember most is several years ago seeing her on Letterman (or Leno?) high as a kite. When celebrities are afflicted with a terminal illness, words like courageous and valiant are often tossed indiscriminantly and it is in my mind, pretty absurd. 'Courageous' is not a default setting. You aren't brave for getting sick. Not even if you're rich and famous. I have lost family members to cancer. They fought like hell against it but does it make them courageous? I don't think so....I think they did what was natural.

To me courageous is to do something against your nature, specifically, your survival and self preservation instincts whether literally or figuratively for the benefit of others. Firefighters who run into a burning building to save someone are courageous. People who take a stand on something they believe at the risk of career or political suicide are courageous. People who get sick with a terible disease can too be courageous but it takes alot more than simply being ill to make it so.

So nothing in particular against Farrah Fawcett but lets be real, getting sick an dying is tragic, unfortunate, sad even but not inherantly courageous.

As for Jacko.....well, he was never convicted of child molestation in a court of law. OJ Simpson wasn't convicted of murder either. I tend to think the downward spiral his life has been was far more sad than his actual passing. The drama is gone, the sopa opera tabloid foolishness is over and done with.

His life has been a trainwreck and the whole world has looked in on it with morbid fascination for years and years. How does this change the lives of every day people when a horrifically self indulgent and mentally unstable celebrity dies? News of his death has surely eclipsed graphic pictures of the young woman from Iran who was gunned down whilst standing up for what she believed in.

This is part of a larger problem for me in that people in general don't give a crap about what's truly important to them but will go on and on about how sad it is that Michael Jackson has died. I dare not talk politics with my friends because many of them don't know jack crap about the basic elements of representative government like um....who their congressman is. They can sure as hell tell you who the top 10 left on American Idol are and surely know all about the passing of MJ and his career.

I guess that's a blog for another day.

So....three celebrities died.

Status Quo

Horacio — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:55:39 GMT

I listened to Cider and Lore's latest podcast last night while running around and leveling my shaman. Among the things they discussed was the pace at which content is released and they touched on some of the available news on 3.2.

I got to thinking and it carried on for a while and kept me from going to sleep for a bit.

Wow is a constantly evolving game and maybe its because I'm older but I don't really like that. I need to explain more. Yes, I enjoy seeing new content and the story unfolding. new beasts and villians to defeat, more powerful spells and abilities and new 'things' like gear and vanity items.

But to me it feels like Wow is a dynamic laboratory of trial and error. So many large macro mechanics change rather quickly and systemic alteration of the game its self makes for a lot to keep up with.

Granted, this is coming from a warrior tank who has played that way for 4+ years.

Classes are revamped and rethought frequently and the FotM effect is prevalent. The nerf/buff pendulum swings wildly at times.

We are getting ready to engage the new raid zone coming with 3.2 that is a departure from previous raid content. Its a suped up Ring of Blood with raid bosses and I'm not quite sure what to make of it. It doesn't fit the story very well to me and in a way feels like a cheap cop out, introducing new loots, and new stuff without much of the filler.

More specifically thinking of the Ulduar nerfs that began with the release of 3.1, they trouble me. No, I need them, to be honest, or I wouldn't be where I am in progression. I am not changing guilds and I can only go as far as the raid is capable. What bothers me was the way they were handled and how it fits into to the larger issue I have with the way Blizzard changes the game over time...seemingly with a chainsaw and duct tape.

The nerfs didn't roll out after a specific period of time that left players with a definite boundry between hard and less hard. they were immediate and constant and unbalanced. Some bosses became trivial(XT-002). Some actually got a little tougher(Ignis, though it was more a fix of an unintended strategy).

In some ways I think its a double edged sword. It keeps news sites popping, it keeps people thinking about it and it pushes player to play more to keep up with changes. On the other hand it creates a rat race mentality as you reach out to grab the carrot and it 'blinks' away and outlines a new standard.

I need to max out >this< stat and acquire this item. Without the release of any new items, it changes due to a mechanical change and now that stat isn't so hot and that item is really not BiS anymore.

Eh, its all a little frustrating. I didn't see the badge change coming and I spent a ton on runed orbs to make boots to improve my gear. Now....pfft, I feel a little foolish. I stockpiled a ton of flasks for 3.1 and they radically changed that and it took a huge outcry to get thrown a bone.

So now raiding changes and end game is PvE arena in about a month. I dunno about this.

Musical Noobs

Horacio — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:27:41 GMT

So of late, I have been cycling in a few different characters in the weekly Ulduar 10 man raid that I lead.

We have two solid tanks and I get my fill of intense button mashing in 25 man. I could go off spec DPS but I just don't feel comfortable DPSing on my warrior. He's a tank and while I maintain a DPS set and spec, I would rather not go that route.

I had been playing my DK and doing pretty well. His gear is pretty solid and a piece here or there would balance it out really well. He has too much hit and haste at the moment, some 350 hit for a 2 hander. If I could trade that for AP, I'd be happy.

But, our mage has been playing his retadin and asked to swap in and frankly, last night being his first night, it was a net gain in DPS on his end. Our shaman was out so we grabbed a well geared DK and I switched over to my mage.

The good: I had a blast. I stayed alive during all the fights. In previous runs as a raider, I have done some impressive DPS on the mage. I maintaind CC when needed, I moved and did not die to crap that kills other people. Mana was never an issue.

The bad: My damage output was awful. I have a few issues i can fix, the biggest of which is my gear. It stinks. Two upgrades last night helped alot but I need alot more. I was about 2200-2400 on bosses. I need to manage my scorches better but the key is to be on target faster and choose the right spells.

So. What to do?

I like having a mage in the raid for the int buff and the range/melee balance. We have a rogue and now a retadin with an ele shammy, aff lock, and boomkin for DPS. The mage could top out really high with that set up--moonkin buff/wrath totem.

I posed this question before and the DK was the choice but the mage changing to his pally alters the equation. With our normal set up, it leaves us without a DK or without a mage depending on which way I go.

Tonight, we'll be working on Hodir again and I will bring the DK because I have FrR gear already for him and Hodir is a stumbling block for us now and we need the best we can muster.

But beyond that, I'm leaning heavily toward making the mage my 10 man raider.

Some Things are More Important

Horacio — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:18:54 GMT

I've had quite a bit on my mind lately and anyone who reads my blog would know that. Lately, I've been starting to get the creeping burnout over Wow and have, this week, at least, have been cutting back.

I'm 34 years old, married with a lovely wife and two beautiful children. I have a nice home, a career and have secured myself financially. But I spend too much of my free time locked down in front of the computer and its starting to really get to me.

I feel like I've passed up too many important things in my life over the past 4 years. Its been like an extended vacation of sorts because prior to that, life was particularly difficult and while I wouldn't presume to commiserate with people who truly have a hard life, working one's self into the hospital probably qualifies on one level or another.

Specifically, I think I am a good parent but I could be better. We've gotten sloppy and lazy with our finances. My physical fitness is awful. I avoid working in the yard like the plague.

On the other hand, I've found myself more and more staring at my monitor wondering what the hell I'm doing. Why am I fetching crap for this guy every day in exchange for imaginary money? I'm not talking about totally trashing the game or gaming in general but I have a bad habit of obsessing over things and for 4 years its been Wow. I think about it all the time. I always have a project or scheme to finish up or begin, always something I'm working toward. But more and more, I'm bored and don't feel like it. The carrots hanging in front of me just aren't as appetizing.

The difficulty is that I am in a rut. That carrot might not be so appealing but hell, its there and its something I can do with minimal exertion and I'm just so tired.....

Recently, some major changes have occured within my family and with my career. I've started looking more toward the future and paying attention to the 'important' things. Like I said, I'm 34 and have made some money in my life. I'm starting to think about a new home, a dream house. My kid's education is critically important and putting money aside for their college is vital.

So...I'm cutting back. I'm not going to play Wow as much, I'm going to get outside more and manage my health better. Sad thing is, I used to be a hunter and fisherman. I used to live to ride out to the ranch but now that I live only 8 miles away from the front gate, I hardly ever go out there. I need to farm gold for a new mount or a friend is running a raid to a zone I need the achievement for or I'd just plain rather play Wow and be bored....but its a comfortable boredom.

That's got to end. I want to live a life of purpose and not for a fucking video game.

Fun with Mimiron!

Horacio — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:47:38 GMT

We got our first look at Mimiron last night and damn near killed him. I was surprised, but reminded that he's been nerfed hard.

Phase 2 is the killer and the fight seems to me revolve around A.) not being dumb and B.) how many people you have left after Ph 2.

I am in disagreement with other members of my raid over a few issues concrening this fight, namely, the approach to getting through ph2. No, not really the strat. I tend to believe we simply need to keep pounding away at it (with our regular healers...love our subs but their gear makes it hard to compete)

It comes down to one centreal question: Why are people dying? Are they being dumb or are the healers unable to keep up? Certainly, I can see its a brutal healing task. We are not going in unscathed to ph 3 no matter how the healers are currently doing but when one or two die early, its pretty much game over.

I think we are of two minds on how to handle this. We tried throwing additional healers at it and fretting alot over being unable to cope with the damage. I am of the opinion that we nee more practice. I think its an important point. Hell yes, I want to win badly but for once, I'm in favor of taking a more methodical approach and seeing us pound away and gathering more data before deciding we need to make significant changes.

And I think in part there is a certain level of desperation with our raid team because we only raid 2 nights. We're in fact, done for the week and out ID is capped out at Freya down. We run up on the '2 minute drill' early. We don't have the time to beat things into submission but frankly....I think we need to.

We got close on the 4th or 5th attempt....into Ph4 with ~60% of the raid up but botched it on a shock blast or some such. I think we smelled blood and got over anxious.

Another aspect that is somewhat troubling is the fact that despite our light schedule, we seem to be subject to fatigue and our last few attempts were worse than in the middle. People lose focus and die to silly things like mines and the dreaded 'noob laser'.

Almost everyone is involved in a 10 man raid at some other point in the week or running an alt through Naxx or some such. Our raid schedule is light because people do have RL stuff going on. Alot of us are parents.

In the end, we made significant progress on a new, difficult boss. It was a positive evening and we are excited to attack it again next week.

I'm a real tank now!

Horacio — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:26:52 GMT

I scored 4 upgrades last night in a pretty strong Ulduar raid where we powered up past Thorim on the first night. I went in with 54 emblems of conquest and 2 runed orbs I had snared off the AH.

I logged in and checked the AH and there were 3 for 1500g so I shuffled some money around and snatched em up. One more for 1700g /ouch but I had my 6, had the other mats stashed so then it was just waiting for my crafter to log in.

So, I got me some Spiked Deathdealers. Something tells me the dudes at Blizzard got the names swapped for the plate tank and DPS boots but oh well. Slammed a Solid Stormjewel in them along with a 8 hit/12 stam and good to go. Went in and killed Emalon real quick but no luck on drops and then off to Ulduar.

FL and Razor were again stingy but Ignis dropped boots for our pally tank. Still no sign of the trinket (/grr). Grabbed me some new shoulders from XT. Not a massive upgrade but I was well over soft cap on exp and could use a little +hit. The other stats all bumped me up a little.

We had a little trouble with IC then whacked them. Same with Kologarn and Auriaya. Picked up the chest from her....thought about holding out for the T8.5 off Hodir but there's been a little minor loot tension and I made the upgrade where I could.

Went on to take out Hodir and Thorim to complete a far from perfect but really strong first night.

After the raid, I picked up my T8.5 hat for emblems and did all my gemming/enchanting work to bring me to this:
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...thar&n=Horacio

Even found time to go kill Thrall for the PvP achievement and pick up my black bear.

Pretty stoked about last night and how my gear is coming along. Sure, my avoidance is low but I'm an admitted EH whore.

I guess I can stop complaining about tank loot drops although they still are not near as numberous as some others.

Our MT got his Deathdealers made after the raid and picked up a helm for badges as well. Up to 10 fragments on our GM's mace too.

I wish I could say the night was all positive but...oh well, its all good. Will probably get to see Mimiron tonight....joy.