Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Paladin PTR Changes & Ardent Defender v2

Paladin PTR Notes Update via MMO Champion.

  • Judgements: Some of these attacks were considered ranged and some melee. They are all now considered melee attacks that can't be dodged, parried or blocked.
  • Righteous Fury: No longer has a duration, remaining until cancelled or death. Also cancelled when a Paladin activates a different talent specialization.
  • Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption: These seals have been redesigned to deal substantially more damage. Now, once a paladin has 5 copies of the debuff from these seals on his or her target, on each swing the paladin will deal 33% weapon damage as Holy, with critical strikes dealing double damage. In addition, the damage-over-time effect is now considered a melee attack instead of a spell attack.

Protection
  • Ardent Defender: Redesigned. Any damage that takes the paladin below 35% health or below is reduced. This reduction applies only to the portion that pushes the paladin below 35% health (example: a paladin at 50% health takes a 40% hit; the first 15% hits as normal while the next 25% is reduced). In addition, once every 2 minutes an attack that would have killed the paladin will fail to kill, and instead set the paladin's health to 10/20/30% of maximum.

Retribution
  • Crusader Strike: Damage reduced to 75% weapon damage to match the new 4-second cooldown. Mana cost reduced to 5% of base mana, down from 8%.
  • Judgement of Vengeance now Deals [ 14% of AP + 22% of Spell Power + 1 ] Holy damage to an enemy, increased by 10% for each application of Blood Corruption on the target.
(Blue notes are changes from previous PTR notes)



Understanding the Ardent Defender Changes v2:
With credit to testing done by Maintankadin members (Modus) on the PTR.

Previous
Ardent Defender: Redesigned. Currently, any damage taken by the paladin while at 35% health or below is reduced. Instead, any attack that would reduce the paladin to 35% health or below has its damage reduced. In addition, once every 2 minutes an attack that would have killed the paladin will fail to kill, and instead set the paladin's health to 10/20/30% of maximum.
  • Ardent Defender reduces damage taken by 30%.
  • Here basically said any attack that actually took the Tank below 35% health whatever the size of the hit taken is reduced (30% reduction). Most in the maintankadin community believed that was somewhat a bit overpowered or would be if it actually went live.
  • You get to cheat death with a guardian spirit like effect once every 2 mins as long as you did not have the Ardent Defender debuff that auto proc and kept you alive previously. 2 mins cooldown on debuff called Ardent Defender. Healer not paying attention watching TV can gib the tank and proc Ardent Defender.
  • The damage reduction component of talent no longer works one you proc Ardent Defender and now while the Ardent Defender debuff is active for the 2 mins cooldown duration.
  • Ardent Defender does seem to takes precedence and proc over Priests Guardian Spirit.

Current
Ardent Defender: Redesigned. Any damage that takes the paladin below 35% health or below is reduced. This reduction applies only to the portion that pushes the paladin below 35% health (example: a paladin at 50% health takes a 40% hit; the first 15% hits as normal while the next 25% is reduced). In addition, once every 2 minutes an attack that would have killed the paladin will fail to kill, and instead set the paladin's health to 10/20/30% of maximum.
  • Basically means that Ardent Defender should now work as it was suppose to all along below 35% health and not getting leap frogged for damage like on live servers currently.
  • Means only the part of the damage hit that actually takes you below 35% health, that part of the entire hit as a whole is actually reduced by 30%. Or any hit size taken below 35% is reduced as well by same if you have enough health left.
  • If the hit can actually result in death then that's when Ardent Defender auto proc kicks in and cheats death for the paladin and heals you back to 30% of maximum health and debuff you for 2 mins.
  • The damage reduction component of the talent will still work if you do take a hit that lands you below 35% as previous stated. But too large a unlucky hit again below the threshold while the debuff is still active for the 2 mins duration can and will be your death sentence.

The propose change seem more in line as what it should be and what the live version never quite was. Even if Ardent Defender proc on some bad timing of damage you cheat death and live with the 2 min debuff and still get to keep the damage reduction component of the talent. Will have to see if this makes it live from the PTR testing or if any more changes takes place to the talent before patch 3.2. Ardent Defender never been more popular!

With a Major Talent like that wonder if Blizzard will implement a Glyph for it like they have for most class abilities I wonder?

Hmm just Musing a bit WTB:
Glyph of Ardent Defender
Major Glyph
Classes: Paladin
Require level 40
Use: Decreases the cooldown of Ardent Defender by X sec.

Musing a bit, too OP probably. Never hurt to dream a bit, its a major talent yet without a Glyph.

Monday, June 29, 2009

WoW Update 06/29/09

Not much to talk about. For the most part just playing and leveling my Shaman Voodooweaver who's now at lvl 34 and somewhere in Arathi Highlands. Leveling him as a Enhancement Shaman which seems fun as well.

The 10% leveling bonus with the Heirloom shoulders and the 10% XP from the Ribbon Dance at the Fire Festival have been nice. Hard not to take advantage of that.

Playing and a Shaman seem to be very cool. Just taking advantage of the extra XP bonus with the Fire Festival in swing. So haven't played my Paladin in that time as well. But I notice when playing the Shaman I do try to pull more than one mob like a Paladin for fun and see if i can get away with it and so far so good. Be more fun wearing full mail than in leather right now doing that.

Totems are fun though! Moving around killing mobs and having to keep dropping Totems are not though. So its been fun learning how and where to place totems around a bunch of mobs so don't have to keep dropping of recalling totems. Be more fun after 3.2 I guess when can get to drop the necessary totems all at once. But enjoying the versatile play style of the Shaman so far. At least I get to melee stuff which seems cool as well.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Minor Distraction

A bit distracted playing leveling my Shaman a bit. Taking a little break. A bit hard to focus writing allot when I need to be busy trying to level when I can. So i'm a bit distracted at the moment.

Yeah I did read all the Patch 3.2 notes obviously and have being keeping up on things somewhat. I'm sure you read all the analysis on all the other Paladins blog around the block and already have things covered.

Exocism nerf sucks. Especially for Protection the real big shaft. I guess its not back to a pulling spell with Exorcism and then fire AS for its only usefulness.

I love the new Ardent Defender change for Protection. Gee wonder why. Hey GC don't nerf me bro!

Retribution Paladins getting shafted obviously.

The amount of QQ & Elitism about all the Emblems change is just pure obnoxious!

I'm not getting too excited just yet about all the changes though until it all somehow makes it live. Blizzard have a history of raising Paladins expectations and then nerfing us hard before things goes live.

Can only hope for the best of things with 3.2. I don't plan on getting any ulcers over Patch 3.2 worrying about nothing I can control. I sure know some people will though.

Back to playing my Shaman.... with the extra 10% XP boost from the Fire Festival Ribbon bonus.

Remember Why You Play!
Ardent Defender wishes that you have a fun time playing World of Warcraft. If not what's the point of it all. I'm just here for Fun!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Paladin Changes in Patch 3.2 & Interesting Notes

Saw these from the Blue notes posted today on my Blue Tracker for Patch 3.2. These are important proposed changes to consider and keep ahead of and keep in mind as well. Mostly will be just Paladin class specific post of notes.

 

Upcoming Paladin Changes By Eyonix

We have several big changes coming up for the paladin class in patch 3.2. The paladin class Q&A is still in progress, so rather than making you wait, we wanted to give you a preview of what we’re trying to do with all three paladin talent trees. We thought some of the patch notes might not make sense until you understand the design goals. 

 Caveats: Some of these changes are still in progress and may ultimately end up in a different form or with different numbers. We definitely want to see these changes in action on the PTR and we will iterate on them accordingly based on player testing and feedback. None of this is set in stone. Furthermore, assume that talents, glyphs or set bonuses that affect any impacted abilities will also be changed accordingly. Finally, don’t expect that every class will see this many changes. We are making far fewer changes to class mechanics overall in 3.2, but paladins in particular have some issues we feel are in need of being addressed. 

Protection

Currently, we think paladin tanks are almost there and that they just need slightly better cooldowns to handle some of the tougher boss fights. Rather than add a new ability that felt like a clone of another class’s ability, we decided to buff an existing talent that was no longer cutting it. Ardent Defender has two important changes. The first is that the damage can no longer “skip over” the 35% health level – it will always be reduced. Secondly, it has a new effect that if a blow would kill you, it instead sets you to 30% health. This portion of the ability cannot occur more than once every 2 minutes. Think of it as a Last Stand that you don’t have to push. 

A second change to Protection is we want to make sure Blessing of Sanctuary is always the tanking blessing of choice. A likely change here is to have it boost stamina as well. 

We also recognize that block does not provide the mitigation it once did. While we have long-term plans to change the way block works entirely, in the short term we are doubling the effect of bonus block value on items (so jewelry, but not shields)

Holy 

We like that Holy paladins have a niche as single-target healers. The problem is we think this niche is a little too narrow at the moment. Furthermore, paladins don’t have a wide arsenal of healing spells so it’s important that all of them are being used. 

First, we are changing Flash of Light so that it places a heal-over-time effect on any target with Sacred Shield on them (the effect will be similar to Sheathe of Light). This should make Flash see a little more use. 

Second, and more importantly, we are changing the way Beacon of Light works. Currently, it does not count over-healing on the target. We are changing that. In other words, if you place Holy Light on a rogue who is already at full health, it will still have the full effect on a tank with Beacon of Light on them. This is a huge buff, particularly when you consider the Holy Light glyph which allows for a small amount of “splash” healing. This effect isn’t common when you use Holy Light on a tank because the tank is often standing alone. But if you heal the melee, you are likely to get a lot more total healing from this effect (while still healing the tank through Beacon of Light). We are also going to try to allow a target to have more than one beacon (i.e. from different paladins) on them. 

Many players may surmise that this change would make paladins far and away the best healers in the game. This is partially because paladin mana regeneration is so potent. That isn’t an issue when the paladin can generally only heal the tank. With the Beacon of Light change, the paladin can provide a lot more raid or party healing. To adjust for this, we are going to reduce the amount of mana returned by Illumination. If you use Holy Light too recklessly (such as on targets who don’t require that much healing) you do risk burning out of mana too quickly. Of course, they will still have Divine Plea and other mana regeneration mechanics. 

As a footnote, we are also likely to slightly adjust Replenishment and buff the amount of MP5 on gear. 

These changes should lead to healing as Holy being more dynamic – you are going to be targeting a lot more group members than just the tank, while still providing massive healing on the tank. However, you won’t be able to just constantly spam your biggest heals, at least not on the more challenging encounters. There is an opportunity here for skilled players to really do some outstanding healing as paladins, but it’s going to take a little more effort. This is something a lot of players have been asking for so we hope that it delivers without completely changing what some paladins enjoy about their healing style. 

Retribution 

Depending on who you ask, Retribution paladins are either perceived as being in need of improvements to make them stronger or are in need of changes to make them less powerful. We are really happy with the overall changes to the Seal and Judgement system from Lich King. However, Ret still has some problems. There aren’t enough buttons to push and they are all limited by cooldowns, allowing Ret paladins to have a lot of up-front burst without requiring a lot of skill or timing to actually hit those buttons (now after the opening moves of a fight, we think things get a lot more interesting because now the paladin’s defenses, healing and dispelling can come into play). We have other problems to fix as well. Exorcism currently can’t be used on players, which we think is a weak design. We have also become less enamored with the drawback to Seal of Blood / Seal of the Martyr causing damage to the paladin.

Here are the design changes we hope will fix all of these problems: 

First, Exorcism has a cast time of 1.5 seconds but can be used on players again. This will let paladins use it in PvP, but not while moving towards a target. 

Second, we are changing The Art of War to make not only Flash of Light instant, but also Exorcism. Choose healing or damage. Paladins will have to watch for this proc and use Exorcism when it happens. The spell itself is still ranged, but the proc will only occur when the paladin is already in melee. 

Third, we are lowering the cooldown and damage of Crusader Strike to four seconds from six seconds. This accomplishes a few things. It lowers burst, it gives the paladins more buttons to push since they aren’t always waiting on cooldowns, it requires a little more skill since the player will have to choose between Crusader Strike and other attacks more often (such as the new Exorcism procs), and it gives Retribution a chance to get more damage out of their Seals (providing a sustained DPS boost for PvE). 

Fourth, we are removing Seal of Blood and Seal of the Martyr. The damage recoil increasingly felt like a liability in PvE, and wasn’t serving to offset the massive burst damage capable in PvP. We are buffing Seal of Vengeance / Corruption and redesigning Seal of Command with the expectation that these are now the seals of choice for PvP and PvE. Righteousness can remain a tanking seal. 

Finally, we are replacing the current effect of Vindication with an attack power debuff that works like Demoralizing Shout. In PvP, Ret paladins can still debuff melee targets, while in PvE they can provide another necessary debuff in the case that the tank is not a warrior or druid. In addition, the talent may be more attractive to Protection paladins. 

These changes do not close the door on adding additional attacks, PvP utility or even the oft-requested Crusader Strike debuff. If the changes outlined above finally accomplish the goal of balancing Retribution in PvE and PvP, then we can start exploring those other design issues. 

Again, these are our current plans and they may change based on testing and feedback. The changes to all three trees are things we are working on right now. Some of them might not work out quite the way we intended and will have to undergo iteration before finally showing up in 3.2. Even once the patch goes live, we are still likely to have to tweak numbers. This is simply a preview of what may yet come and we hope that it will be viewed as such. 


From Ghostcrawler in same post from above:

We know it's hard to evaluate the Retribution changes without understanding how the Seals now work. Here is how they work. 

Seal of Command

OLD: Gives the Paladin a chance to deal additional Holy damage.

NEW: All melee attacks deal additional Holy damage.

Seal of Vengeance / Corruption 

OLD: Fills the Paladin with holy power, causing attacks to apply Holy Vengeance which deals additional holy damage over 15 seconds. Holy Vengeance can stack up to 5 times. 

NEW: Fills the Paladin with holy power, causing attacks to apply Holy Vengeance, which deals additional Holy damage over 15 sec. Holy Vengeance can stack up to 5 times. Once stacked to 5 times, each of the Paladin's attacks also deals 33% weapon damage as additional Holy damage.


Ghostcrawler on Paladin Class Buffs & Nerfs:

  • The Stamina from Blessing of Sanctuary will not stack with Kings. If you have Kings and Sanctuary on you, you won't get twice as much Stamina but you will get the damage reduction and mana from BoSanc.
  • We realize Prot paladins sometimes use Exorcism to generate threat at range. While you can technically still do that, we understand that sometimes you might not be able to afford the cast time (say you are already in melee and adds join the battle).
  • To address this, we are going to change Hand of Reckoning to cause a lot more Holy damage. However, it will not cause this damage if the target is already attacking you. This lets you use it at range on adds, but won't turn it into a rotational ability that you have to keep using while something is beating on you.
  • The new Ardent Defender is just different from Last Stand. The former is arguably more powerful, but you don't have as much control over when it happens as Last Stand. On the other hand, you don't have those moments where you say after you're dead "Man, guess I should have blown Last Stand there."


Official Patch 3.2 Paladin PTR Notes:

Paladins

  • Blessing of Sanctuary: This blessing now also increases stamina by 10%. This effect is not cumulative with Blessing of Kings.
  • Charger: Can now be learned at level 40.
  • Exorcism: Now has a 1.5 second cast time, but can once again be used on players.
  • Hand of Reckoning: Redesigned. Now does damage only when target does not currently have the caster targeted, but damage done increased to 50% of attack power, occurring after the taunt effect is applied.
  • Judgement of Light: Now heals for 2% of the attacker's maximum health instead of a variable amount based on the spell power and attack power of the judging paladin.
  • Lay on Hands: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 10/20% instead of increasing the target's armor.
  • Righteous Fury: No longer has a duration or mana cost, remaining until cancelled or death. Also cancelled when a Paladin activates a different talent specialization.
  • Sacred Shield: When a paladin casts Flash of Light on a target with this buff, they also now place a heal over time effect on the target, healing that target for 100% of the Flash of Light amount over 12 seconds.
  • Seal of Blood: This ability has been removed.
  • Seal of the Martyr: This ability has been removed.
  • Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption: These seals have been redesigned to deal substantially more damage. Now, once a paladin has 5 copies of the debuff from these seals on his or her target, on each swing the paladin will deal 33% weapon damage as Holy, with critical strikes dealing double damage.
  • Shield of Righteousness: Now deals 100% of shield block value as damage instead of 130%.
  • Warhorse: Can now be learned at level 20.

Talents 

Holy

  • Beacon of Light: The healing amount on the Beacon of Light target is now based on the total healing done (including over-healing) instead of the effective healing done. Radius increased to 60 yards. Multiple Paladins can now have this active on the same target. Buff indicating a player is within range of the Beacon target is no longer displayed.
  • Divine Intellect: This talent now gives 2/4/6/8/10% increased intellect instead of 3/6/9/12/15%.
  • Illumination: This talent now returns 30% of the mana cost of the spell instead of 60%.

Protection

  • Ardent Defender: Redesigned. Currently, any damage taken by the paladin while at 35% health or below is reduced. Instead, any attack that would reduce the paladin to 35% health or below has its damage reduced. In addition, once every 2 minutes an attack that would have killed the paladin will fail to kill, and instead set the paladin's health to 10/20/30% of maximum.

Retribution

  • Art of War: Now only applies to melee critical hits, but will make your next Flash of Light or Exorcism instant.
  • Crusader Strike: Damage reduced to 75% weapon damage to match the new 4 second cooldown.
  • Seal of Command: Redesigned. This seal now deals 36% weapon damage on every swing, and deals substantially less judgement damage.
  • Vindication: Redesigned. Now lowers target attack power, is consistent and does not stack with Demoralizing Shout.

General Items of Interest from same patch notes (Not complete notes)

  • Block Value: The amount of bonus block value on all items has been doubled. This does not affect the base block value on shields or block value derived from strength.
  • On-Use Block Value Items: All items and set bonuses that trigger temporary increases to block value have been modified. Instead of increasing their block value amount by 100% like other items, they have all had their effect durations doubled. This applies to Glyph of Deflection, Gnomeregan Autoblocker, Coren's Lucky Coin, Lavanthor's Talisman, Libram of Obstruction, Tome of the Lightbringer, Libram of the Sacred Shield, the tier 8 paladin Shield of Righteousness bonus, the tier 5 paladin Holy Shield bonus, and the tier 5 warrior Shield Block bonus.

Emblem System Changes

  • Both the 10 and 25 player instances of the Crusaders' Coliseum drop a new Emblem of Triumph.
  • Any dungeons that previously dropped Emblems of Heroism or Valor, such as Naxxramas or Heroic Halls of Stone, will now drop Emblems of Conquest instead. Emblems of Conquest can still be converted to Valor or Heroism.
  • The heroic dungeon daily quest will now reward 2 Emblems of Triumph and the normal daily dungeon quest will reward 1 Emblem of Triumph.
  • The existing achievements to collect 1, 25, 50, etc. Emblems of Heroism, Valor, and Conquest have been converted to Feats of Strength since Heroism and Valor Emblems are no longer attainable.
  • New achievements have been added to collect various amounts of any combination of emblems.

Mounts

  • The cast time for summoning any ground mount is now 1.5 seconds, down from 3 seconds.
  • In order to further equalize the number of purchasable mounts available to each race, a new 60% speed ground mount has been added for night elves, and a new 100% speed ground mount has been added for the undead.
  • Flying over Dalaran and Wintergrasp is now possible so long as players keep a healthy distance above the ground.
  • Mana Regeneration: All items that provide "X mana per five seconds" have had the amount of mana they regenerate increased by approximately 25%.
  • Resilience: No longer reduces the amount of damage done by damage over time spells, but instead reduces the amount of all damage done by players by the same proportion. The other effects of resilience (reducing critical chance, critical damage and mana drain effects) have not changed.

Class General

  • Replenishment: This buff now grants 1% of the target's maximum mana over 5 seconds instead of 0.25% per second. This applies to all 5 sources of Replenishment (Vampiric Touch Judgements  of the Wise, Hunting Party, Enduring Winter Frostbolts and Soul Leech).
  • Silence, Strangulate, Silencing Shot, and Arcane Torrent: These abilities will also apply a 3 second interrupt effect against non-player controlled targets, making them more versatile against creatures immune to silencing effects.

 

User Interface Interesting Notes (Not Complete Notes)

  • Casting bars under a target's portrait will now indicate whether or not the cast can be interrupted.
  • Item Comparisons: Holding the shift key while hovering over an item will now display the stat differences with the item currently equipped in the relevant slot. 
  • Quest creatures and objects will now show on the player's world map. 
  • Vendor prices will now be listed on items whether or not players are at a vendor.

Haven't had much time to read it all and think about it as yet. Will edit this post as needed.

Update: Color some the text for emphasis on stuff to pay attention to. There really is ALLOT of changes for the class to pay attention to as well with lots of effects. Changes to think about as well and their affects, too much to think about all at once.

Guild: Drama Breakup News at 11

I've always had since the beginning of the game a love and hate relationship with being in Guilds. So many of them everywhere, the real good ones are few and far in between and always hard to find a good one to settle into that fits your style of play. Sometimes you have to help build one from scratch. If guild drama don't get you, raid drama or a guild member you cant stand then the GM will eventually do you in I guess.

So my day off today, been a bit busy working so haven't logged on much last few days. So logged on my Paladin and found over half the guild gone. So thought that's odd, had more people last time I was logged on. Looked at the guild log and yeap it was mass desertion! So first thing I though drama maybe. Was only one other person logged on in guild to even ask if anything what happened. No response! So saw another fellow former guild paladin right there in Dalaran that I remembered from one guild OS raid.


I had gotten the guild invite to the guild by the GM when I was thinking about it not long ago. It took me a week to decide before joining the guild. Thats how much I hate joining guilds that I can think about it that long because I hate leaving just as much also. Seems the GM who also had several high level alt characters that was Naxx 25/Ulduar raid geared sold his entire account and cashed out and replacing the GM with a lower geared character it seem and with the GB on lockdown so no one can remove anything either. At least that what I was told and how I understood it. Confusing that is as well the details of it all.

Seems few to no one in guild knew what was happening and caused all kinds of drama after and people started quitting. They was already some tension in the guild as was revealed to me by one guild member due to the lack of regular scheduled raids or people not showing up as scheduled and that was a source of some tension. Some didn't get raid invites either just from being logged on and seeing how conversation flowed during raid time in guild chat. As well some people getting carried through 25 man raids as fresh 80 to get geared up and their alts as well. That was rubbing some other members. That's just what I was told since I barely done any big raid with any of the new guild due to time and my schedule. I did one or two 5 man Heroic runs with a few member and a OS raid at most. 

Stuff like this SUCKS! Stuff like this you read happen to other people on other blogs you read. So it sucks when it finally happen to you in this case me. But then it makes for stuff to write about in "My Life and Times..." Oh well AS THE WORLD TURNS in WoW. Kinda like the daytime Soap Opera's.

/guildless

Oh well in the twist and turn of "My Life and Times" might as well call it and say raiding as well is over for the summer at least or any good attempt at it for a while. As well finding a new guild right now either. I  can use less drama not more of it. So just a good time to focus on leveling the new Alt, stack up on some Emblems of Heroism, knock out stacking up on Champion Seals for the coming patch 3.2 and whatever else can pug as it comes up. At least I can afford any repair bill without any worry if have to pug  which is just about normal for me.

Back to guildless in WoW. Quiet days are here again and so goes "My Life and Times".....

Can you imagine playing WoW without the drama that goes with the game?

Dealing With Burnout

I saw a post over at WoW.com (WowInsider) that ask how you deal with burnout? Anyone that plays this game certainly will hit that wall at some time or the other or several times. Some more often that others over the course of playing this game a long time. But we all deal with things in our own way.

For me I can feel it when I'm getting burnout, some time better than others. Usually when I get burnout I go on vacation from the game, blogging as well because for me both are kinda linked together. Sometime I get tired of posting on the blog too because it takes time to do so. So I don't write anything for days, that annoys me more than not playing WoW.

But I go on my vacation from WoW and just not log in anymore for a while. I go do something else. For me it doesn't have to be more fun than WoW it just has to be anything other than anything related to WoW. Trying other games is good for a change of things. It would be nice if you could find a good alternative to WoW when you do as well get burned out. 

I remember playing the WotLK Beta. After doing that and leveling to 80 in Beta and testing stuff I was burned out as well. Then all the constant nerfs just drove me up a wall. I wasn't having fun and I just left! I felt more like quitting the game at that point as well and did everything short of hitting delete on character. I gave away everything I had on my account and just quit playing for months. I went and did other RL stuff that was more important and needed to do. It was good to relax for a while. I slept better and had more energy as well. The break was good. In time WoW faded from daily thoughts for some time. After a long while it was nice to come back and play catchup but at my own pace. It was fun to start with not a single dime or anything in bank having to get things again.

Avoiding WoW was tough but it was good not to be focused on the game at all daily. I did miss reading blogs in that time. But I avoided that too just to be free of everything WoW related. But when you get burned out its good to go do something else or another hobby. Of course you can also stop playing your main character and just focus on playing a Alt as well for a change if you like that. But burnout happens often for all kind of reasons in WoW. When it happen just put up the vacation sign and take a break. 

That reminds me I need to put in for my vacation time at work as well on the Job. I'm getting burned out on that too.  

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Thinking About Patch 3.2 Profession Changes

Rather than send you on a link quest just rather post it since its not too long a list especially since you just may not keep up with reading WoW news daily everywhere.

When the next major content patch launches we will be introducing epic quality gems and updating the perks for each profession. Please keep in mind that any of this information may see further changes before the patch launches.

The design recipes for cutting epic gems will be made available for purchase with Dalaran Jewelcrafter’s Tokens and there are several ways to obtain raw epic gems:

    * Prospecting Titanium Ore
    * Alchemy transmutations
    * Purchased with Honor
    * Purchased with Emblems of Heroism

Coinciding with the implementation of epic gems and the gain that Blacksmiths will receive through their perk from these new gems, we have gone through all of the perks in every profession and increased their values to match up accordingly.

Alchemy
    * The Mixology benefits from Northrend elixirs and flasks have been increased
    * Added a new pattern for Flask of the North, usable by players with a high alchemy skill. The recipe is purchased from the honor potion vendor. The Flask of the North increases your spell power, attack power, or Strength for 1 hour, and is usable in arenas. It is not consumed when used.
    * Endless Healing Potion and Endless Mana Potion no longer usable in arenas. Amount of health and mana has been increased, and the cooldown reduced. They are still usable everywhere else.

Blacksmithing
    * No changes will be made to this profession; it will continue to have the 2 additional prismatic sockets (which can hold the new epic gems)

Enchanting
    * Values on Northrend ring enchants increased

Engineering
    * Increased benefits from Hyperspeed Accelerators, Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket, and Reticulated Armor Webbing glove modifications

Herbalism
    * Increased healing from Lifeblood (Rank 6)
    * Lifeblood now scales slightly with maximum health
    * Lifeblood no longer affected by global cooldown

Inscription
    * Master's Inscriptions increased

Jewelcrafting
    * Dragon's Eye gems stat bonuses increased

Leatherworking
    * Fur Lining values increased

Mining
    * Toughness (Rank 6) provides more Stamina

Skinning
    * Master of Anatomy (Rank 6) provides more critical strike rating

Tailoring
    * Embroideries improved

I'm for one glad that all Professions are getting some much needed love as far as patches goes. Be nice as Blizzard makes changes to class that they could at least keep professions fresh with changes here and there as well to keep them fun. Of course everyone will never be happy but better than no change at all.

First of all being the Alchemist Tank that I am I'm glad Alchemy is getting some love with increase effects on Mixology and with Alchemist only Flask for raids. That's really cool. Still wondering when Alchemy will get some Epic Trinkets for WotLK but that's another story for another day. And as a miner  with Mining I'm glad mining is getting a Stamina buff increase with Toughness. So thumbs up for all Tanks of all stripes for a stamina increase as well. Kudo's to you if your not a tank, more stamina will be good for you anyway as well.


Opportunity Knocks!
First of all whatever you do use your own judgement and your own analysis.
With changes like these coming in the new patch all these things will have a impact on AH and transfer of money either from your wallet to someone else or from theirs to yours. Pick your side. 

If your a JC and been slacking you might want to start building up a stack of Dalaran JC tokens from dailies or wherever else so on patch day you have can be among the first on your server to get the new recipes and craft the new Epic Gems and hold the AH hostage to your astronomical pricing on gems. A little humor but the point is for you their is money to be made by all those people who have stash of cash and must have their gear pimped out with the new bling bling for their Ulduar raids. Of course use your own judgement on how, what you sell and for how much or how little. Start saving up JC tokens now or miss the boat on profit!

I'm going to guess its going to be mighty hard to find Titanium Ore on AH for any good reason except at now astronomical prices. Titanium Ore just became even more valuable for Epic Gem prospecting for the new bling bling gems. That mean for your if your a Miner there is new opportunity in farming Titanium wherever you think you can find it or in your secret places if you can find the node before that farmer guy or bot beat you to it. Titanium Ore prices will be high. That as well mean anything crafted with Titanium may inflate as well for crafting and AH prices. Just a hunch. 

As well if your sitting on a bank full of Titanium Ore opportunity is in your favor to make high profit timing the AH market. If your sitting on Titansteel I'm more than sure the price of that just went through the roof. If I remember I'm sitting on at least a stacks of Titansteel i made and had sitting around in my bank gathering dust for some unknown reason Ulduar crafted gear? Will sell for profit! I'm most certainly will have my alchemy cooldown for the new gem transmutation on cooldown to make any gem if I can that's deemed profitable. Profiting is going to be good! That is FUN!

Of course since Epic Gems will also be purchasable with Emblems of Heroism that mean more people will probably running Naxx 10 man farming Emblems. As well running more Heroics than usual farming Emblems as well. So I'm sure you be seeing a lot of LFM for Heroic X need Tank and Healer. DPS too. Will be busy time for umm PuGs. You probably be getting asked allot as a Tank to tank a lot of instance farming for Emblems.

Figure out for yourself how you will capitalize on changes in 3.2 with your professions or your own cunning wits. 

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

New Paladin Only Argent Charger Mount

That is full of WIN coming in Patch 3.2 from the new Argent Tournament Rewards and more. And the forums will probably erupt is massive QQ. I haven't been over there to check. I'm staying away for my own sanity.

So GC finally going to deliver us Paladins the pony. 

Hey GC why the pala get to get a pony and we non-pala cant get one. Why they so special. Not fair. QQ more. 

Hey as long as Blizz (Blizzard) makes my new Pony looks really cool and armoured well I'm happy. I personally don't collect mounts, not my thing. The one land mount I use 110% of the time is my Charger. And I can use a upgrade. So thanks Blizz

And can I get it with a big red bow on it too. Probably too much to ask before another nerf or something.

Damn it just when I though I was all done with the Argent Tournament I'm going to have to go back and work (slave) for the Pony I'm sure knowing Blizzard all too well. Well at least I'm already Exalted with the Argent Tournament and have the Crusader title already so a head start at least as well with the new dailies. 

Makes me feel that putting in the effort to get Exalted wasn't a complete waste and at least going to count toward something. In this case something new. I guess time to start earning more Champion Seals for new stuff.

So if you been slacking on the Argent Tournament you been put on notice. Get cracking now for a head start if you haven't started yet.


Update 06/17/09. *New Chest Heirloom coming in 3.2 with 10% XP bonus. Does Stack with other Heirlooms for XP.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Screenshots: Reincarnation


So a new alt for a change despite my hate of alts and some Shammy love weaving some voodoo for a change with Voodooweaver my Orc Shaman. I've being thinking about playing around with the idea of a Shammy or a Druid as the only two options of class to play. I guess i'm really a hybrid at hearth it seems embracing my hybrid nature.

For the last few days I been thinking of things and keep reminding myself. Remember just why you are playing WoW. Not to Tank, Not to Raid, Not to Socialize, Not for Epics, Not for Progression. Im simply play the game for Fun because RL is frustrating enough and you need a break from time to time to relax and just have fun doing something FUN. 

So in my spare time I'll be on with the voodoo on that really long road to leveling him up. I gave him a pair of Heirloom shoulders for the journey and a new UI (Spartan UI) to play around with. Uhh did I ever tell you leveling sucks though! He has no profession as yet. But maybe a Enchanter and something else non complicated for a profession but economically sustaining. 

WoW Weekend Update 06/15/09

Very much eventful it was and that is all.

Ok I worked all weekend on the Job on the night shift which is 12 hours long a shift on top of at least 2 hours commute time. So I got off this morning. Tomorrow I'm back to working days, so i have a killer less than 24hr turn around from working nights back to working days. Life!

So there was no Raiding, Heroics, No Dailies and whatever else. I didn't even log onto my Paladin to see what's up with my still fairly new guild. As far as my new guild goes they probably think I hardly ever show up much at nights or some nights. Like said before I don't really feel much at home their either. So much for things with RL and WoW at times.

So the only thing I really managed to do all weekend was lvl my new Shaman to lvl 10 and sell a few glyphs. Those weekend players were out in numbers because my mailbox was exceedingly light with all the people flooding the glyph market and lowering every ones profit margin across the board. Midweek selling always fair better for me anyway.

On the weekend stopped by my local book store chain and picked up the "Arthas" book by Christie Golden. I have yet to start reading it. Always stuff to do among other stuff to do.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Lots of Dead Blogs

Seems like allot of dead or no longer updated blogs around these days. Getting tough to find stuff to read as well after sliding down my own list that I read as well other blog list on some other blog sites. Many seem to be quitting or just no longer update their blogs anymore.

Tough finding enough good stuff to read when I'm mobile or at work as well.

Is the Golden Age era of WoW blogging passing by?

Sooner or later it all ends one by one.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

State of Things: Feeling of General Boredom

I don't know if I'm bored, but it feels like it might just be so! That's just my honest feelings these days playing the game. This has no reflection on you playing the game for your enjoyment or why you play. This is a reflection of how the game is feeling to me in how I play the game for my enjoyment.

The state of things is that it feels uncertain for me in game. I feel bored in some general way at least that's what I'm thinking as well often when I'm doing things. I haven't had any goals for a while and have never bothered making any since my last break from the game. In some ways I feel like I'm just drifting through the game as well. I feel like I'm just repeating things over and over and the fun cycle of thing wane every so quickly.

State of my Paladin
When it comes to raiding. Its a hit and miss for me often due to my erratic work schedule. I work a full time constantly changing shift work schedule that's consistent in how it changes because I know what it will always be. But its not real conducive to consistent raiding schedule as we usually know it. So i raid when I can. More than often I just choose to PuG it for the adventure of it all because otherwise I probably wont see that raid that week at times sometime.

Though I'm in a guild that seems like a really good guild its a fairly large guild in my opinion at 200+. Some degree of those members are alts. The guild does seem pleasant in its members in how they act. I don't do much talking in guild chat generally. I just go about my business doing whatever I'm doing in game for the most part. Though my new guild runs endgame content doing Ulduar 10 and starting to do 25 man Ulduar. For the most part many seems to be gearing up in Naxx 25 and many people seem to be gearing up their other 80 alt as well. Its obvious often from the logging in and out of members that are 80 for whatever the instance or raid is. I only have 1 lvl 80, its the one I play all the time.

I consider my new guild a good quality guild if I can say so by its general ambiance and mood. Its laid back as well. Yet I don't feel much at home there really. Its possible I'm affected still over my last guild breaking up as well. I'm not generally fond of large guilds in general. I have the feeling that my stay there will be limited maybe. That is just my general feeling of things. Though I've always enjoyed playing my Paladin and have fun dual spec as Ret when I feel like, I'm getting bored at the same time as well at the end of the game.  

Heroics and Me
Haven't really run much Heroics on my new realm. Thus my outside of guild friends are quite low which i usually make running Heroics. But to be honest as much as i usually enjoy Heroics it just don't feel as fun anymore. Its not like in TBC where you can chase gear upgrades with Badges. Whether I like the Heroic or not, I just feel bored with it all these days. Most the people are just gearing up their many other alts. 

Few geared people I've noticed that even run Heroics for the fun of it anymore it seems. And once geared via raiding not many seem to even bother with them other than the one Daily Heroic. As well finding healers on my new Realm seem like a impossible task asking away in Trade or LFG channel. Even with many server transfers on my Realm as well. If they are healers around they don't answer for whatever reasons. PuGs???? 

I just run Heroics for fun and to stay sharp, but even that thrill feels like its has waned quite a bit these days. I can buy Heirlooms with the badges or gems. What else is there really to buy really, not much else. So at times I can find myself in Dalaran hearing people asking for a Tank for Heroic X and don't feel like answering either. Not worth the time investment anymore it seems. Nor to chase after with the badges as well like in TBC with badges. Loosing the thrill maybe. 

Playing Alts
It has always been my general feeling that leveling alts suck! Maybe not for you, but for me it is just that. I just don't have a general liking to leveling alts, thus only 1 lvl 80. Leveling another character has never been fun for me. Its another reason why I'm dedicated to my main as well for far so long. Leveling through old content does nothing for me. For me its boring. I've already done the exact same quests before so its not fun to do it again. So I've just never liked playing alts generally.

But long ago i did a personal project to attempt to lvl every class to lvl 20. I did on most class all except a Warrior I quit on at lvl 14 and a Mage I quit on at lvl 10. A lvl 14 Warlock I stopped playing and found more fun to just park him at the AH and make money doing AH business. All others I made to lvl 20 and stopped playing them.

My lvl 70 Hunter my second highest lvl character I've barely played since WotLK release. I used to find him fun to play just relaxing from taking a beating tanking. He lives in Outland. I usually just log on for less that 5 mins fly around picking herbs to supply my Dk for glyphs making and then log off. Dunno but just not finding it fun to play the Hunter. 

My other alt 65 DK who I don't find fun to play either or having to learn the class to some degree. The starter quests were kinda fun but that's about it for me. But I mainly picked him up for just Inscription and the sole purpose of just selling Glyphs. Its all Business. That's why I leveled him to 65 so he can be maxed trained profession wise. That's about it. My DK does well being parked in Orgrimmar making trips daily back and forth from AH to Mailbox then to the Inscription parchment vendor. Then back to AH then to Mailbox and back to AH again. Even that is time consuming and getting bored with it as well. He is just about 450 Inscription minus a few points easily attained by doing Major Glyph research day in day out for new glyphs to make and sell. 

All my DK sells is Glyphs and does well. All I can say is he makes steady money and he don't sell every glyphs or a whole page full on AH either. He doesn't make a lot of money on one same, its just steady daily income from glyphs. But I'm satisfied what business he does and he sits on a good cushion of gold as well for play money. I have no immediate plans to lvl my DK beyond lvl 65 at this point.

For playing alts the state of things seem grim. But maybe some ray of hope if any in playing a Druid or a Shaman maybe. But even that is uncertain. Its just not fun for me to play alts and have to level again through the same exact content.

My Professions
I've not done anything meaningful since the beginning of WotLK with Alchemy. For much of TBC it was my Potion/Elixir machine. It made me vast amount of money. I played it very much as a business. For WotLK Alchemy hasn't done much except to craft one Trinket I use. But I haven't chosen to do much else with it either. But the extended time on Elixirs/Flasks is nice. Since I no longer have Herbalism as a synergy profession I do even less with it overall these days. 

But if you ask me to give up Alchemy for something else that just wont happen. Even though I barely use it for much other than to make personal consumption Elixirs and Flasks. Some people and many Tanks as well take professions for the bonus to stats they give or trinkets or armor bonus. I played Alchemy mostly for business end of things. And it will remain that way, even though I barely use it for any AH business these days. Its how I play the game.

Mining is ok. I usually fly my own mount every where I go vs taking Flight Paths. So I stop and mine every time I see Saronite and Titanium. So i do ok with mining. Since the stamina buff is passive I barely even notice it as well. The funny thing is on my realm the AH is barely stocked with Saronite and Titanium just glancing what's selling. Makes good money for he who farms the Ore with many too lazy to do so. So I sell at least a stack or two of Ore a day for steady income from AH with little farming and just what I collect flying around. 

When it comes to Fishing. I guess its just about the one thing I really enjoy doing usually and most the time these days. So now that I have the Sea Turtle mount there is a bit less fun in it. But fishing for me is all about relaxation in game. I farm my own food buffs always for Tanking. But the rest I sell on AH. I never flood the market with fish. But I sell just enough to keep the prices high without a over supply on the AH for good profit. And often its good for low impact money making.


Achievements
Though they are a fun element Blizzard added to the game to keep people busy and all else. I've just never really cared much for them or taking the time to go out of my way to do them. So I have many achievements I can go about to do easily. But I just don't care to spend any time or effort doing so. I like to go about in game doing whatever I choose to spend time doing that's fun for me. Not what Blizzard says I have to do. 

But if a Achievement happens in the process of me doing something then that's just fine with me. Fishing up a Sea Turtle is great for the mount. But I don't fish just for the Sea Turtle, I fish because I really enjoy doing it whether there is a Sea Turtle or not.

Goals
I don't have any! I never bothered to make any either. I just do whatever seems fun these days. Gear upgrades are nice and something I do strive for. Yet much of it is not something one can control in a raid or if the boss drops an upgrade. Sometime the RNG curses you. So i don't even worry about it. If I'm lucky enough to pickup an item so be it. I just play for fun. Worrying causes too much headache for me.

Little Profit Here and There.
I'm not in the same league as Gevlon over at Greedy Goblin in how much cash he can make in a short span of time in how he personally play the game as a focus. But I do well at making money in game. I don't have to use every profession or sell everything. I just do a few select things to make money. I sell a few Glyphs. I sell some stuff i pickup in Heroics like lots of Frozen Orbs usually which the RNG likes to award me for some reason. And with no good thing to do with them I just sell them on AH. At one time I had about 30 Frozen Orbs sitting in my bank. I eventually just sold them all before they lost all value.

I don't farm anything much personally. Maybe Fish maybe just fishing but that's just for fun. I pickup lots of green gear running Heroics usually. If the stats suck for the item I vendor it without thinking much about it. If the stats are good I may sell it for more money for profit. How much lvl 76-79 green gear do you ever see on AH? Not much. But more than often I just save up my greens and have a Enchanter DE them all for dusts and essence. That's how I have a bank full of enchanting mats usually and can usually enchant my  gear rather quickly. I sometime just stock stuff for my own supply. Otherwise I just sell stuff when I have too much of it on hand.

Often I don't do anything much but just sell what appear in my bag on a instance run or questing. Like lots of Frostweave and such. When I instance I loot everything on the dead corpse. Be amaze in how many instance I do that people leave items on dead corpse. They leave money and items sitting there. I consider every bit of that as stuff that pays for my Plate Repair Bills. But somehow through all that my gold funds is in the thousands. 

I did make a bit of money doing the Argent Tournament dailies all the way to Exalted for all factions. But after a while that feel like it became a job to do but stuck it out to finish it all. So did make a bit of money. But now that's its over with the Argent Tournament, i haven't been back to do anything.

I'm not a big spender in game either. The most I spend money on in game is plate repair bills from instancing. On my DK who sells Glyphs, he buys a few stacks of some specific herbs when the price is just right to him. And when he buys he buys up several stacks at below trigger price levels cheap. I don't waste money buying pets or whatever else. I don't spend money collecting mounts or trying to. I don't lvl alts and try to give them all Epic mounts or Flying mounts. One flying mount is all I need. Bronze Drake works just fine for me. Do I really need a Red Drake even though I can buy one many times over?

I personally don't care enough to buy one even at that. I care less I can or may get a achievement for it. I rather sit on the gold for some unknown reason. Do i need a Bear Mount or a Mammoth Mount from the vendor in Dalaran? No, my Paladin Charger works just fine and I don't really need to show of I have another cool mount. I very much love my trusted Charger Horse and Its what I use. I can only ride on one mount at a time whether flying or land mount.

After all I don't play alts much as it is. I farm anything I need or can afford to farm. And by doing so I end up with more stuff to sell that I want to. For fun sometime I just run through a low lvl Instance or Heroic and whatever I pickup I just vendor it or sell whatever is of value. The other day I was running Stratholme yet again for some Runecloth for city reps. I completely empty my bag before I did the Stratholme run. I left Stratholme with a bag full of all kind of junk gear, greens, blues, rep items, and more as well all the rune cloth. Stopped by the Baron just for fun, no mount.

Vendored all the junk, sold all the green and blues and all the the Righteous Orbs and more. Righteous Orbs sold on AH for 20g a piece and I had several. All that stuff adds up to a bit of profit. But overall in game my expenses are very low. That's why puging don't bother me much. I can afford any repair bill. And with that I always come out ahead just doing the little things to make money.

But overall with all that my overall general feeling is general boredom these days. 

Achievement Humor

This Greedy Goblin post on achievements or failchievements more like it made me laugh.  

BBB on Blogging about Blogging

Was just cruising the blog beat reading stuff and BBB (Big Bear Butt) really has a nice post up on his thoughts on Blogging about Blogging and the readers that read the blogs. Really enjoyed the read, because I can agree with allot of it. No need for me to add much but to point it out so you can quickly hop over to BBB.


Ardent Defender
Blogging for me is just a hobby. Its remain a extension of me just playing the game. I have some degree of dedication to being consistent as a blogger in the length of time being here in my little corner of the sphere. But it takes allot of commitment and time to blog even for a hobby. You the reader do make it fun. Often you make it easier to blog on days when I really don't feel like doing so. I'm always aware when their is nothing new up for a post, but I'm never worried. This is not a job, but it can be if you let it.

It is a balancing act everyday to blog and depends on whether I'm having fun and enjoying the game while dealing with RL. The time will come to quit the game eventually and when it does you will know. Its worrying some when some bloggers turn off the lights on their blog and leave you in the dark. You wonder what happened to them as they are real people that play the game with you. I may move on to other things or nothing else at all when I do. You wont be wondering if I've quit or gone. You'll know. 

Turtle Power


It helps to really enjoy fishing, because that damn Sea Turtle seems really rare and hard to fish up out of a Northrend fishing pool. Fish very regularly just for fun. A bit since the turtle was added in the recent patch. So far this week caught about 1000 fish just doing some regular fishing for tank food buffs and re-stocking up on Fish Feasts for raids. Rest of fish to sell of course. I usually stay fishing long enough to catch 100 minimum of whatever I'm there to catch or more.

So lucky me I finally fished the Sea Turtle from a fishing pool fishing for Dragonfin Angelfish and got the achievement as wellMayby not as elusive a trying to catch the most elusive Mr Pinchy, but just as hard the effort it does takes to catch the turtle unless the RNG really likes you for some reason. I can now say I've caught them both. The Sea Turtle really does swim fast as well. Yeah Baby!

Monday, June 8, 2009

PuG Tales: 10 Man Ulduar Adventure

After finishing up my Argent Tournament quests, I was set to go fishing. Try to fish me up the new Turtle Mount maybe, but go fishing for a while maybe for fun as usual. So random PuG in trade was looking for tank and dps. I hesitated for a moment and though to myself. Thou shall not PuG raids. Nonsense! Dunno, but I seem to go about PuGing everything. So off to adventures in Ulduar as the OT. The MT was another Protect Paladin from a guild that few of the raid was apart of including the Raid Leader. Rest of raid was random PuG.

Well Kologarn sure didn't stop the PuG Raid. He went down for the count the first time around. And thanks for giving me the nice Stoneguard sword too. And the Neckpiece as well I picked up. Stoneguard is a really nice blade but has no defense rating and really had to see how much it dropped my defense with it equipped. 

Lucky for me I have enough defense with various gear piece change or shield swap since I have and always carry multiple shields with different enchants and still remain at or above 540 defense. Think i'll throw Accuracy Enchant on my new blade since my hit rating will drop a bit from hit capped on hit rating.


Auriaya is a real bitch to pull correctly with her two adds. But we managed to get it right about the third time after I dropped a consecrate at the bottom of the steps there and fired Avengers Shield at her and run back to the right corner at the top of the stairs for the other tank to pickup. We killed the 2 adds first then focus on the boss. She also spawned a guardian add thats hard to target. So we tried to target/kill the guardian add while she constantly feared the group. All in all its a fun fight especially seeing it the first time as well as hearing the strat as well. Yeah for dead bosses!


Thorim is really cool fight. Much of it being the gauntlet. I didn't quite get it the first time just having it explained. So we ended up just running it and that made more sense. After killing the mob in the arena one group went though the tunnel which I was in another stayed in the arena somewhat. On the tunnel run though we were too slow but the arena group died as well when we were in the tunnel right after the first boss. 

We regrouped and redid the run. We got it the second time and was much faster overall. It helped we had a really good raid leader calling out things as needed on vent which made a huge difference the entire raid. Almost though it was going to be a wipe in the tunnel on way to second mini boss due to the adds. But we made good time and got to Thorim. Lucky bastard went down the first time we engaged him. Fight didn't seem that hard thinking about it. All the Ulduar nerfs maybe at play. But a dead boss in my book is dead boss.

Just taking a landscape shot. I had forgotten to take a screenshot of dead Thorim. Probably because I died on Thorim with less than 100k to go as well. So I paused here to just take another screenshot. Ulduar is really pretty! Big difference it is to being in Naxxramas.


We got to Freya, played with the adds. Wiped on the adds, learning the adds. A few times actually! CC didn't go right as a few people didn't have their CC buttons on their UI. Duh! Some CC really required here so we did that and we made some headway. We killed the 2 mini bosses in the area. Interesting bosses, but you get badges for them as well so great also, no loot though. The trash right before Freya eventually got us due to CC. Getting proper CC didn't seem to go off well sometimes.

Maybe we were all tired. But the Raid Leader eventually called it a day here and the raid was called. I was tired as well running on empty for food. We may try again tomorrow night. At least some time to read up on some strat in the process before we do. I was tired as well so was just good to stop here also. But it was a fun time in Ulduar again for the 2nd time. 

Two times I've been here and both in PuGs. Makes you wonder, who needs a guild to raid Ulduar if you can PuG it. But really half the PuG was at least part of a guild including the Raid Leader, MT and had some good players as well. Wasn't super stellar dps but was still a good and fun group. One thing for sure is repair bills are damn high in Ulduar. I just off the head counted my repair bills and they were easily over 100g easily. Before you head to Ulduar make sure you can afford the repair bills as well.

Edited: Some Grammar.