Tier 5

Has it really been nearly two months since I've posted? Darn. I guess a love-hate relationship with my guild has been keeping me busy. Love because raiding is fun, and some of the people are cool. Hate because raiding is tedious, and some of the people are annoying as hell.

ANYway, for better or worse, we are moving onto Tier 5 raids now, which is pretty exciting, even if it usually ends up being a wipe-fest. But we've gotten Gruul and Mag's on farm now, and I haven't been inside Kara for months, so what else is there to do but progress?

Of course, that means time to update my wishlist, so here goes:

Head: Cowl of Grand Engineer (Loot Reaver). Or, Spellstrike Hood (10 SpellCloth)
Neck: Dude, I already have the awesomest: Guardian Pendant of Subjugation!
Shoulders: T4 Voidheart Mantle (High King) or better yet, T5 Mantle of the Corrupter (VR).
Back: done for now (Ruby Drape) although something interesting dropped off the TK trash last night. (I lost the roll though, darn.)
Robe: some sweet-ass stuff from Vashj and Kael'thas, but I doubt we'll get there any time soon.
Wrist: happy with Runed Spellcuffs
Hands: Studious Wraps (60 badges)
Waist: While I'm saving for Belt of Blasting (15 Primal Fire, 2 Nether Vortex = 30 badges), I'll take either the Belt of Divine Inspiration from HK or Cord of Screaming Terrors from Lurker.
Legs: The Trialfire Trousers are going to last a while, since it's 10 SpellCloth for Spellstrike Pants or 100 (!) badges for Legwraps of Sweltering Flame...
Feet: doing well with Shadowweave Boots, the next best thing is 75 badges.
Ring: Fused Nethergon Band, 60 badges (sigh); Band of Crimson Fury, Mag.
Trinket: Eye of Magtheridon, from, well, Magtheridon.
Weapon: Merciless Gladiator's Spellblade (2,739 arena points) or Wub's Cursed Hexblade (Dragonhawk ZA)
Offhand: Fetish of the Primal Gods (35 badges)
Wand: Got my Carved Witchdoctor's Stick.

MATS
Badges: 185 (gloves, Belt, ring, off-hand)
Arena Points: 2,739
20 Spellcloth
15 Primal Fire

BOSSES: HK (2), Mag (2), Dragonhawk (1), Void Reaver (2), Lurker (1)

WANT... PURPLES...

I downed Gruul last night. No, that's not entirely true. My guild downed Gruul while I lay there as a useless corpse, watching helplessly. See, I'd been unlucky and ended up near way too many other players during his first Ground Strike / Shatter -- and I didn't have the hit points to withstand it, and apparently also didn't have the DPS to justify a battle rez. So I died after landing about 5 dots on him and then just sat there while my guild 24-manned it without me.

But whatever, I looted anyway -- the Collar of Cho'gall, woo!

So, I have some ultimate loot goals which I've outlined in previous wish-list posts, but today I just want to think about how quickly I can, if not max out my gear, at least get to the point where I'm all purples or very high blues.

Here's what's left that's old and outdated:

Neck: Still wanting one of the neckpieces from Kara (Moroes or trash).
Back: Ruby Drape of the Mysticant from the Prince. -- Dropped last night (5/16)!
Waist: Belt of Divine Inspiration from the High King.
Gloves: Handwraps of Flowing Thought from Attumen or Voidheart Gloves from Curator.
Trinket: Icon of the Silver Crescent for 41 badges.
Weapon: Really, any of the one-handed daggers or swords that drop from the Prince, Gruul, or in Zul'Aman. I'm not picky. They're all drool-worthy.
Off-Hand: Orb of the Soul-Eater for 25 badges. Delicious.
Wand: Carved Witch-Doctor's Stick for 25 badges.

I'm favoring badge gear over random raid-boss drops because you only get to kill the boss once per week, you never know if he's going to drop the item when you kill him, and there are plenty of other warlocks/mages rolling against me in this guild. On the other hand, badges are guaranteed. Too bad I'll now need 91 of them.

A Gruuling Raid

So my wishlist the other day was made up almost entirely of either badge loot or Kara loot, and yet it seems that the guild we are playing with at the moment is more focused on Gruul's Lair (or at least, it has more slots available). I was surprised that MaxDPS hadn't suggested any Gruul's loot for me, so I took another look.

Honestly, there's not much at all for a warlock in GL -- the following are the sum-total of anything useful from the King:

- Belt of Divine Inspiration
- Brute Cloak of the Ogre Magi
- Tier 4 shoulders

and from Gruul:

- Bloodmaw Magus Blade
- Collar of Cho'gall
- Tier 4 legs

The belt, if it dropped, would be better than the Girdle of Ruination not only in DPS but stats as well (and is ranked #3 overall by MaxDPS), so I definitely would want that. Need.

The cloak is far below either of the cloaks I could get from Kara, but would be a vast improvement over what I'm wearing now, so I'd roll on it if it turned up, but then feel guilty because I'd be hoping to replace it quickly. Greed.

MaxDPS puts the Voidheart Mantle above the Frozen Shadoweave Shoulders for DPS, but I respectfully disagree (I wonder whether that ranking is scaled down based on the fact that FS only improves your shadow spells). Besides, I don't need the Voidheart Mantle for the (2) set bonus, and frankly I love the Shadoweave set bonus -- it would take a lot more than an extra 3.5 dps to get me to break up that set. Pass.

Gruul's sword is only slightly above the Staff of Infinite Mysteries from Kara in dps -- less than a point -- and the staff has significantly better stats. Of course, if you're only wielding a 1-hander then you have an off-hand available, but for now, I feel ambivalent about the Bloodmaw Magus Blade. Greed.

The Gruul head piece is below the Voidheart Crown for DPS and doesn't have the Voidheart Raiment set bonus, but until I get the Voidheart Gloves and a diamond for the meta-slot, the crown is inferior. So, I'd take the Collar of Cho'gall, but would expect to replace it. Need (for now).

The Voidheart Leggings are not as good as my newly-acquired Trial-Fire Trousers. Pass.

See, that's why I'm more excited about Kara than Gruul's Lair. Friday night, anyone?

Updated wishlist

Well it seems that the Kara run with the other guild went very well this past weekend (I was very pleased to get both my Trial Fire Trousers and also a Ring of Recurrence). So now with a whole new level of content opened to me, it's time to check MaxDPS.com and revise my wish list a little bit.

Head & Hands: Hoping for the Voidheart Crown, since I can't be bothered to gather Spellcloth for the Spellstrike Hood and besides, I really want the set bonus with Voidheart Gloves. Both from Kara (Prince and Curator).

Neck: Ritssyn's Lost Pendant or Brooch of Unquenchable Fury, PLZ (both from Kara -- trash or Moroes).

Back: Ruby Drape of the Mysticant from the Prince in Kara! (Seeing a theme yet?)

Waist: Belt of Blasting would be awesome, but badge-pricey and I already have my badges earmarked for something else. So instead, Girdle of Ruination, anyone? Lots of Primal Fires, but I can make Shadowcloth easy. Now to find someone who can make it...

Trinket: OMG fucking want this so bad: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29370 Only 41 badges! Also Scryer's Bloodgem once I get the rep (1900 points to go). And I'll keep rolling on those Blessings Cards for the Darkmoon Card: Crusade.

Weapon: Staff of Infinite Mysteries from Curator or the dagger from the Prince in Kara.

Wand: Carved Witch Doctor's Stick = 25 badges.

Totals: a few lucky Kara runs, some Scryer's quests, 66 badges, and 21 primal fires/5 primal shadows (plus 20 days of Shadowcloth cooldowns). Not too hard...?

Joining the Karavan

Yep, I made my Shadoweave set. And then DoS beat Magister's Terrace, finally, and that was nice. And then, I sort of drifted away from Selix again.

Honestly, it's nice to have all those Heroic Badges goals and PvP goals and whatever, but I miss the instant gratification of a new instance where you see new content and probably upgrade at least one piece of gear all in one run. And I got so sick of logging on, asking my guild-mates "What are the heroic and the regular daily instances today?" and being told "Shadow Labs" every single time. I hate Shadow Labs. Also, nothing desirable drops there.

But now, we might actually have a way to team up with another guild and -- holy cow -- RAID. R to the A to the I to the D. Suddenly the game has opened up to me again! (Maybe. If it works out with this other guild.)

So, just for fun, I took a look at the potential loot from Kara. I understand the chance of any one piece dropping is slim, but, YUM.

Like, look what drops just from TRASH in there!

OMG pants. OMG hat. OMFG STAFF!

If I got really lucky in a few Kara runs, I wouldn't have to save all those stupid primal mights for Battlecast or Spellstrike pants/hood after all.

Plus, you know, the encounters sound really fun.

Shadow's Embrace

Tonight was Shadoweave night.

FEAR ME. I HAZ EPICS.

Un-improving my succubus

I didn't post any jokes yesterday for April Fools, but I thought what Blizzard did was hysterical.

Anyway, I've been thinking about talent builds today, was playing around with the build calculator on Wowhead, and came up with this new build.

It's not super-different from what I already have -- mostly just tweaks on the Affliction build to move away from soloing quests and be more useful in group instances, which is what I do most of these days.

The biggest difference is that I'm sacrificing Improved Succubus to gain Shadowburn. Losing ImpSuccubus makes me nervous, since my group relies so heavily on her Seduce for crowd control, especially in those heroics with 6-man pulls. I'm telling myself that even if her Seduce doesn't last as long, I can always re-cast it. But it means losing that CC for the 1.5 second casting time -- and also puts her in danger of running out of mana during a long fight. On the other hand, during recent heroic instances (Slave Pens), she's been getting feared, AOE'd, or the mobs have just been breaking out of Seduce early anyway. So Seduce never lasts as long as it should, and I might not actually be losing much.

I'd like to play around with Shadowburn. As a "dotter," I'm not super-excited about increasing spell crit, and I always seem to end up with +spell crit on my gear anyway, so I didn't care to spend many points in Destruction, but having such a powerful instant-cast should be fun.

I'll probably try it for a few runs and see how it goes. Now I just have to make sure I'm always rolling in shards!