Holiday raiding time 2: Bigger Challenges

In fact, the biggest:

I grabbed a couple of guildies (a mage and hunter) to make the fight quicker, but it took over a hundred gold in repairs before I managed the trick of swimming backwards and making tiny adjustments to kite the enormous Whale Shark - WITHOUT a range mod.

Yes, I'm aware that it would have been a lot easier if I had installed some sort of range check (too close and the Whale Shark 1-shots you for about 1,000,000 damage, too far and it resets - the range you need to stay in is supposedly 6-20yrds)... but hey, I hate mods and use as few of them as possible; why start adding to the list now?

Besides, I've now proved that I can do it, so nyah to everyone who thinks it's impossible to do this Achievement without one :D

Holiday raiding time

It's that time of year again - school holidays, the Easter looooong weekend, the official Raiding Break.

And, of course, the absolute best time to get all the stuff in WoW done that you can't do during a regular raiding week due to lack of time: raiding Achievements, lowbie quests, reputation grinds, fun retro raids... and dungeon soloing.

My only "wipe" was on the Chess event while I figured out how things work, and the only other minor trouble was Netherspite before I figured out that I had to kill it within one round of portals, otherwise having the green beam debuff meant the dragon went back up to full HP.

Definitely need more of a challenge next time round... perhaps I should try a couple of bosses in Naxx! :)

We beat our record

My 2v2 partner and I have had our share of long Arena matches.

Back in the days when mana drain was a common tactic, we started taking screenshots of the time it took to win; 21min ended up being the highest, against a mirror match (pally/hunter).

However, this new record takes the cake: 45min, the current Arena match time limit.

Sure, we didn't win (in fact, both teams lose rating when a draw happens) and unfortunately I don't have any proof (it automatically ported us out almost immediately after the match came to a close)... but I still think it was a damn good effort.

I hope we get that team again in future - losing is one thing, a draw just makes me keen to try again, because I know we can beat them! :)

New but Not So Shiny

I periodically go through my WoW screenshot folder, rename all the screenshots and store them in folders so I can find them again if I need them.

After sorting through 10 or so of the Algalon fight I did couple of weeks ago, I've realized something - I have nowhere near as many screenshots of the new content than pre-Cataclysm content.

I mean, I know Algalon is quite a visually exciting fight; there's a very pretty celestial theme going on. However, I've hardly taken any screenshots of Cataclysm raids at all - probably a couple in Throne of the Four Winds, but that's about it.

I'm not sure if it's because the raid zones just aren't visually interesting, or because I'm not interested in general... but either way, I hope something stands out in raids soon, otherwise I'm not going to have any good screenshots from the first Cataclysm raid zones at all!

Why doesn't Blizzard hire this guy as a Game Tester?!

Jider the rogue has done it again, on bosses I never thought could be soloed: Twin Emps and C'thun.

I would never have come up with the idea of pulling another boss into C'thun's room to port you out of the stomach... pure genius. If Blizzard wants a bug tester, surely this guy should be on the top of their list to hire - how many people would have come up with that solution?!

The things that surprise you

I joined an Ulduar 25man PuG today to try and get my Glory of the Ulduar Raider Achievement.

Usually these PuGs are terrible - someone stuffs up an Achievement, people get annoyed and leave, the raid breaks up at the later bosses, people roll need on everything...

Although this raid had a rogue that rolled need on quite a few items ("for repairs" - as if the rest of us didn't have the same repair bill) - the rest of the run was actually not bad.

Mimiron was where everyone really impressed me; the raid leader had stuck a symbol on his head and told everyone at specific points in the fight to stand together and everyone did - some guild raids I've been in haven't had such a tightly formed pack.

Vezax took a couple of wipes, but Yogg 1 Light was a one-shot, even with people entering portals that hadn't seen the fight at all. Algalon was a one-shot too, even with me spending half the time taking screenshots.

...and I am now the proud owner of another Proto-drake. Woo!