The World Through My Window 05/12/08

Ran several PuG Heroics over the weekend enough to add about another 30 Badges of Justice with minor problems PuGing. That puts me up at 62 Badges. Through doing some the SSO Dailies also picked up 4 Badges of Justice which was quite surprising to say the least. And after heading over to the Badge Vendor. I had and idea of what I would like to pick up and I could not for the life of me decide what to spend 60 Badges on.

I now have a new gear problem, which is not enough Defense Rating. My gear is now starving to maintain 490 Defense for Kara level Tanking depending how I'm wearing my gear. Equipting any of the new SSO Exalted Shields over my Crest of Shattar also causes me to loose a bit of Defense as well though I've picked up both. Quite a bit of Dodge but not enough Defense. However I have a few options which is to craft my New Alchemy Trinket: Guardian's Alchemy Stone from being SSO Exalted. Would be nice if that Trinket has some Stamina as well on it vs just Defense Rating. That give as much as +54 Defense, but I'll loose about 520HP with my usual Netherwing Trinket. I can re-enchant my Badge Cloak for the new Defense Enchant of +12 but loose a bit of Dodge Rating.

Impending gear defense problems with just not having enough defense to pick up any Badge piece as yet. However I still do have good gear to Tank Kara+ with all my different gear pieces. However considering that I'm not really in a raid status either for Kara or beyond at this point for now and for obvious reasons, not likely I'm going to pick up anything much with lots of defense on it. Especially since most the Badge vendor stuff for Paladins in the gear pieces I need for Galo don't have much Defense vs more Expertise which I can use as well. So either I get that new Alchemy Guardian's Alchemist Stone Trinket crafted or re-enchant my cloak for +12 Defense Rating to make up the deficit. That's also if one can find a enchanter with the new Enchant Cloak Steelweave enchant which drops from MgT.

In other news I had Belt of the Guardian crafted as alternative gear for AoEing stuff as I need it in my gear sets. Had a Blacksmith from one the T6 guild on server with the pattern craft it. Cost me about 1200g total with mats and crafting fee. The Nether Vortex costs alone was around 600g. Investment in alternative gear to Girdle of the Protector for Boss tanking.


PuGing MgT
Finally got to do a complete run of MgT to do the Quest and to do the Heroic unlock quest. Kinda funny since well Exalted with SSO. But anyway I decided to PuG, how else am I going to get it done, can't rely on friends always to be around anyway. So while out doing some Dailies and just in LFG watching what's going on for activity as usual, heard a group was looking for a Tank. So said I would do it. Random PuG but nothing new for me.

So we had 2 Rogues, Holy Priest, Mage and myself the Tank. I'm not going to recount my entire first time through the instance. I found it really nice looking Instance and pretty place. Really like Silvermoon City. After a while I realize MgT is really like Shattered Halls in reverse. Shattered Halls has lots of Melee mobs, Protection Paladin heaven tanking there. MgT is just lots of casters which sucks. Casters are a challenge to say the least to deal with when Tanking. So Instead of saying it sucks with so many casters and spell damage on Tank, I rather say I find the place challenging with so many heavy Trash packs of casters.

So not many in the PuG had done the Instance before except one person in group. We wiped a few times due to not quite knowing which mob to CC and which mob does exactly what. Not much situational awareness here as yet. With so many casters the adds don't seem very forgiving if you get extra adds. Running regular MgT for the first time does feel almost like running Heroics, feels that way to me. Wiped on first boss since in clearing one side of the room trash group we somehow aggro the 1st boss at same time. But 2nd time we got him easily which seems just like last boss of Steamvault, just killing the crystal when he starts to channel from it. We got 2nd boss in one try, although I did find that consecrating don't work too well on the boss which causes lots of feedback damage with the debuff.

The 3rd boss and group was kinda fun. Took a while for us to decide what to do. I can't recount the names of all the adds with the 3 Boss since first time seeing them all. But think we had a Etherial looking guy, a small Demon, The Boss Priestess, a Naga, A Demon (Hunter) and a Ravager. I took the Ravager and cast Turn Evil on the Demon or Hunter Demon whichever it is. A focus Macro would be nice for casting Turn Evil. Hard to remember how that fight all went but it was over very fast with 2 Rogues and a Mage after two the adds were sapped and one sheep by the mage. I'm sure on Heroics this fight be most interesting. But one thing I did find is its best Not to engage the boss inside the room they are in. Best to pull them all the way back into the courtyard to avoid extra adds. As if a Paladin cast Turn Evil just like being Warlock feared got a good chance that mob will run into another add patrol on other side of courtyard. It happened that's how I figured that out and not fun when it happens. All a learning experience which make you the wiser the next time in instance.

We got to Kael'thas but the adds going into his room sucks as its hard to see without aggro on the group and kinda seem best to pull them around the corner out the room. Kael'thas was fun though. We wiped once the first time due to tanking Kael'thas and having the Phoenix stuck to me due to consecrating as much as I tried to avoid aggroing the bird. DPS just could not pull the bird away so that wipped up with all the damage from both. Second time through both phases we got him down to 1700 HP before we wiped. Did help being able to heal a dps or two while in he air swimming away from the orbs. After that both Rogues had to go to raid as both are in same guild. Healer had to go for dinner. So Mage got a few replacement guildies from his guild. A Holy Paladin, Shadow Priest and a Hunter. This time fight went much much faster with Mage on Phoenix which was not a problem for me consecrating on Kael'thas. I just healed whenever I was in the air avoiding orbs. But fight was over very quickly. I can tell packing lots of DPS here makes a big difference in this fight as well.

Kael'thas dropped a Phoenix Hatchling and some Epic Plate Boots. Hunter won the roll on for the Hachling. Was fun and challenging Instance. Got my quest done with the PuG group and got my Heroic unlock completed. Based on that first Instance run Yeah I can tell on Heroics it would be challenging you really need Allot of CC in that Instance as well as packing Allot of DPS on Kael'thas to get him down fast. I can't see MgT being on my list of favorite Heroics to do once I pick up the 3 items I need there. Not my recommendation either for a starter lvl 70 Instance either for a new 70. Neither can I see myself totally PuGing MgT on Heroics in a complete random PuG having run and PuGed the Regular version.

I love to PuG some things, but MgT I imagine would be a headache with some players that can be too impatient and a shot fuse when things go wrong. I can't see speed running that place on Heroics either for a Tank. I'll have to break out my friends list to run Heroic MgT to say the least and to pick up the 3 things I need there.