WoW in an Hour: Protection Paladin

Hi, I’m Gameldar from WoW in an Hour and I’m a Protection… Warrior. What the…. what am I doing posting here? I’m Righteous Defense’s Kris Kringle for 2009 (or for those like me that think that is a foreign term – Surprise Santa) – a Blog Azeroth event.

When I signed up for this I feared I would get randomly allocated a shaman blog and have nothing to say. The reality is Gameldar is more or less a retired Warrior Tank, I play my paladin Keluin more these days. Life circumstances don’t allow me to play more than an hour at a time (hence the name of my blog) and only for a couple of times a week – and there is no better class to be able to conquer the many diverse parts of WoW than a paladin. However, if you checked out my armory link you’ll see I’m specced Holy/Ret… but that Ret bit is flexible (and if you check out my glyphs they are still my tanking ones). I have a set of protection gear (including all the bits that Gameldar should have had but never got lucky on) and have tanked a few heroics but until someone can point me to a ‘Paladin Tanking for Warrior (dummies?)’ I must admit I still prefer tanking with my warrior and generally feel lost trying to do so (primarily in the ‘oh hell something has gone wrong where’s my challenging shout, thunderclap and charge gone’). Additionally given my limited time I’ve said I’m not going to gear up a tank again even though Keluin seems to have the luck with gear. However, I am known to change my mind especially since tanking it is my favourite role to play.

So introductions aside – here is my present to you:

WoW in an Hour: Protection Paladin

I was planning on writing a piece about the tools of the trade for playing WoW on a time budget (and I still will) – and one of the tools of the trade is the class (and spec) you choose. The reality of playing with such a limited time frame is that you aren’t going to be on the bleeding edge of progression. As I’ve discovered some raiding is possible (with a accommodating guild helping a lot), and you can generally get heroics done, but if the dungeons and raids don’t start the moment you log in then you’ll need something else to do!

Soloing

As I said before I believe that Protection Paladins are hands down the best class for taking part in all the diverse parts of WoW – primarily because they have the best soloing ability. I would venture that Holy Paladins win out for pure survivability but they pay for that in not being able to do much damage. Blood Death Knights also have good self-healing, but generally lack the tools of the protection paladin that Bubble, Lay on Hands and Ardent Defender provide, as well as the powerful heals of Holy Light. This gives a lot of diversity in the content that can be seen when just by yourself (or a duo), whether it be farming for rare mounts, conquering those old world raid bosses, finishing all those ‘group’ quests or just tanking the whole of Stratholme in one go for the fun of it, the protection paladin (with a little bit of practice) can do it.

Leveling/Questing

The arguments still go back and forth between whether questing or mob grinding is the best method for levelling. Regardless, Protection Paladins have very decent DPS and good ways to retain and get back mana that make the leveling and questing process a (relatively) painless process (that is speaking as someone that levelled both as a Holy Paladin – until duel specs were introduced – and a protection warrior). Add to that if you are levelling you can quickly find groups for instances as a tank, and solo those group quests without even trying.

If you are just doing your dailies then gathering up all the mobs at once that you need to kill is a more than viable path. I’ve been meaning to try to see if I can complete A Valiant’s Field Training in one hit by dropping in on the big roving mobs of fallen heroes that you find – but I have some fond memories of cutting a swath through the vast mobs of undead that cluster around some of the Saronite nodes in Icecrown with Seal of Light keeping me more than healthy (whereas I generally have to bubble and run as Ret if I managed to pull to many mobs trying to stealthily mine it).

Tanking

It’s what you do. But with the new dungeon finder all reports seem to indicate that the wait time is the lowest if you are a Tank. So from the WoW in an hour perspective this is a brilliant as it means less waiting time, more doing time. Additionally by and large you can set the pace of the run as well to make it a quick and painless process. I also find the groups are more successful when I’m the tank… (although they have only been success for me as a paladin because my guild mates have been patient and sucked up the pain when they out dpsed my threat… my gear isn’t that good, and I still haven’t got my head around the best ways to do things as a pally tank… more reading of good Pally tanking sites Righteous Defense is needed and more practice practice practice)… or to put that in a slightly less egotistical way – when you have a bad tank its harder to have a successful run. As a healer I wouldn’t say I have a favourite tank to heal, but I certainly don’t groan when I find a paladin tanking for me… in my guild I would be groaning all the time – our tanks are primarily paladins.

As mentioned just before – it is also a good way of levelling if you have the time and inclination to do the lower level dungeons – and tanking the lower level dungeons is a good way to learn the ropes – something I’ve sorely missed with my Paladin.

Tanking DPS

This gets a heading all of it own largely due to my jealousy! The DPS output as a Paladin tank is fantastic and that is without even trying. I remember healing a heroic for one of our freshly dinged Paladin tanks in our guild and being surprise at his DPS by the end – it was better than I could do with my warrior and I’d be tanking heroics for at least 6 months. It is all a contributing factor to why soloing and levelling/questing is so viable as a Prot Pally. I’d like to try out the Seal of Command spec you have been discussing here at some point too!

Off spec

Or in my case, my main spec. The options for an off spec are great. Holy (I might be biased) is a great healing spec and additionally is relatively easy to gear up – given all that spellpower plate that no one else can use and there are some good crafted items too if you don’t mind wearing mail (I walked straight into raid healing as a freshly dinged 80). Retribution is a solid DPS spec with all the raid support goodness thrown in and as someone who is a pretty terrible melee DPS (“what … standing behind the mob… but it keeps moving and it is not following me”) I find that Ret is more forgiving than say an Arms warrior spec (my warrior’s off spec).
Having written this – I’ve actually convinced myself to switch back to Protection as my off spec – with the idea of getting back into doing some tanking as well as the soloing advantages.

So finally, I’d like to wish you the seasons greetings and wish you well in your travels through Azeroth – and if you find you only have an hour to spare to play WoW during the silly season – remember you can enjoy the best of the game as your Protection Paladin!

The one night raid week

Another raid reset day, another one night ICC clear. Thankfully we really could only swing one raid night this week, with the holiday and all, so it’s not like we’ll be spending the rest of the week sitting on our hands.

Because of Christmas, we were missing a few regulars. Especially three of our best healers, which was painful and cast a pall on the possible success of the raid.

Demo (the gm and other tank) and I have an interesting dynamic where we tend to always be on opposite sides of various things. For example, if a raid looks iffy he tends to go full out chicken little while I have to crap sunshine and vomit rainbows to keep the guy from throwing himself off Icecrown glacier.

If we agree on the viability of a raid, god help us all.

So last night I was playing the part of the eternal optimist and thankfully I was right. Sure there was that harrowing first wipe on Marrowgar where some dps was obviously ignoring spikes and the backup healers were getting the dynamic of the fight worked out. But after we reformed we easily dropped him; though I found myself screeching “stay away from the tanks!!” a little too often.

After Marrowgar we went over to Deathwhisper and soundly one shot her. Our first time pulling that off too. Dps did a fantastic job on adds, they really got the hang of the fight.

It’s amazing to think we went from spending a night of wipes to down the Lady the first time to one shotting. I’m proud of how quickly the raid translated our learning wipes into actionable knowledge.

So after Deathwhisper we plowed through the Ally trash to get to the gunship. I switched to my heroic, SoComm spec for tanking D. The spec worked awesomely, giving me some badly needed snap aggro for the mobs pouring out of the portal. I definitely recommend having SoComm in some capacity for tanking D, it makes a world of difference.

After we nuked the Ally ship (I have a sick fantasy that it crashes into the Crusader’s Coliseum) we gathered for the last boss of the wing, Saurfang.

This fight even I was a little worried about, on account of the three healers that had never done the fight before. We did wipe intially, and spectacularly at that, with three marks up before 50%. Eek.

After regrouping we then remembered a few things we always forget til after the first wipe: p:ws the Blood Boils, Amp Magic, yell a few times the phrase “13 yards, you bastards!!” Etc.

And then we killed him.

I rushed over to the chest, hoping to spy a Conqueror’s Mark of Sanctification, but my hopes were dashed.

After the 25man disbanded we put together an ICC-10 run, and ran back into the breach. Of course the run went exceptionally smoothly and we really didn’t have trouble with anything.

I whipped out the heroics spec in the pre-Marrowgar trash and pulled around 5k dps and second damage done overall. Not too shabby. Next week I’ll use it on that trash in the 25man.

Overall, great night and great raid! I’m happy to rest on our laurels this week but next week is going to be hard to burn through everything in one night and then bum around for the rest of the week.

I guess there’s always ToC… /shudder.

My WoW year in review

Thanks to Psynister for the tag!

1. What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you’d never done before?

25man raid progression. In TBC I did Gruul’s Lair a few times, Black Temple once (post nerf), and TK once (pre-nerf). 2009 was the first year I actually got to do actual 25man raids with a guild that raided 25mans consistently. It was a revelation. I can’t believe I spent all this time playing WoW in Vanilla and Burning Crusade and never really got into the raiding scene. I’ve never had as much fun playing WoW than I’ve had raiding in 2009.

2. What was your favorite new place that you visited?

I’ll have to go with the newest place I’ve visited–Icecrown. It’s pretty epic in there and I’m having a great time with the fights so far.

If you asked me at different points this year I might have told you Naxxramas (and then I got really, really sick of it), then Ulduar (ditto, blech), and … actually, I never liked ToC all that much. Point being, I’ll probably start hating Icecrown soon enough.

3. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

A Troll Druid. Day One of Cataclysm I’m paying to change the race of my cow druid to a Troll one. Cannot wait.

4. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Literally, would have to be Loremaster, that was pretty intense. I spent a lot of off time ravaging the two continents dredging up quests, and then when I thought I was going to be stuck with fifty or so to go, I realized I missed all the Zoram’Gar Outpost quests and some other random ones in Ashenvale. Probably one of the bigger surprises I’ve had in game.

… You know, scratch that. My biggest achievement is definitely getting Insanity in ToGC-10. The most fun I’ve had this year is progressing through that place, finally downing Anub after a week or two of attempts, and then week after week watching us finish with more and more attempts remaining, unused. Then finally, one epic night, we got the penultimate achievement in that raid and downed everything with no wipes. That was most definitely my biggest achievement of the year.

In terms of not actual achievement achievements, I am ecstatic that Demo and I took over the guild during the summer. I think the success we’ve had lately in terms of progression is thanks in big part to the direction that Demo and I steered the guild in. Implementing DKP did wonders for improving raid attendance and dedication and negating any loot drama, and a consistent raid schedule and core promoted a professionalism and degree of skill among our raiders that has honed ES into the primo guild it is today.

5. What was your biggest failure?

Not killing Yogg-Saron. I really want to go back and do it, but I don’t think the will is there with the 25man group. Ulduar as a whole was a big disappointment.

6. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Cataclysm! I cannot wait for the next expansion. Everything about it sounds amazing.

Also, the 3.1 prot pally buffs were awesome.

7. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Stress about raiding. I’ve been kept up at night worrying about a gquit, or had way too much anxiety over a series of wipes on some boss. I’ve let certain raid stresses get to me, which I’ve carried onto vent, and that’s not good at all. One thing I will definitely do differently in 2010 is take raids more easily.

8. What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?

I have a couple that I really enjoy reading: I Like Bubbles, for the hilarity of Amber’s rage; Forbearance, for the surprising wisdom that each post has; Have Mace, Will Raid, for Antigen’s intelligent humor; Avenging Wrathy, through whose 25man heroic raid exploits I live vicariously; The Big Bear Butt, for the great stories. Many others too, that are too numerous to name. There’s so much talent in the WoW blogosphere. I’m privileged to be a part of it.

I don’t listen to podcasts, unfortunately. I really should.

9. Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.

People respond to incentives in WoW just like in real life. Roll systems are well and good, but for the development of a serious raid core you need some kind of dkp system, or at least a system that rewards attendance in some form. Give raiders a reason to come back every week rather than swooping in and collecting purples when they feel like it.

Weird end to a weird kid

Odd story for the day.

We had this blood elf DK in the guild, who was a member for a long time. Probably something close to 9 months. On constantly, he maintained a stable of about 6 different level 80 characters, most with transmute mastery alchemists, to farm out gems all day long. I suspect he possessed a small fortune.

Now, he never raided because of parental controls, and his main interactions with the guild was randomly running heroics with other guild members. Yet he was always–ALWAYS–in vent, and if a few folks would hop on he would immediately move to the room they chose and help himself right into their conversation.

Moreover, he’d offer to tank heroics for people with the explicit proviso they go in vent and talk with him. Kid probably didn’t have many friends.

He’d also post nonsensicalities in guild chat and forums saying crap like “I like candy!” and “I love you guys!” Like I said, weird kid.

This weekend I was minding my business running a Heroic Halls of Reflection on the DK, when this kid announces in guild chat that he thought he should be the DK class lead (instead of the current one) because he’s on more often and is always answering questions about DKs for people. Nevermind that the current DK class lead is the nicest guy ever and pulls down 8k dps, single target, on bosses. This weird kid definitely deserved the honor.

Anyway, so I cut in after a few seconds of stunned silences and question in /o of “is he serious?” with the inquiry of whether that was an appropriate thing to demand in general guild chat. Weird kid retorts with the Ciceronian logic that he didn’t care and he wasn’t interested in “sucking up” to get the class lead spot. He then goes on to “demand” the guild leader talk to him about it.

So then of course we acquiesced to his well reasoned arguments and made him the new guild leader.

Actually, we told him no and he needed to learn how to communicate like adult. He gquit a few minutes later.

Then yesterday he posted a random link on the guild forums that reeked of keylogger (like he copy-pasted a keylogger post from the official WoW forums). I swear, I think that kid was trying to get back at us by getting some random members hacked.

I won’t be mourning the loss of the random weird kid, for one, but I know a few liked him. It’ll be nice to be able to go in vent and not have to hide in the officers channel to avoid the familiar, pubescent voice declaring “I like candy!”

It’s a shame, he was obviously very lonely. But also odd. Very, very odd.

Icecrown (first wing) loot and emblem of frost pick order

The ICC loot available to us is fairly limited until January 5th when the next wing opens up. Furthermore, between patch day and January 5th the maximum EoF potential is 146 emblems, severely limiting how many badge items we can pick up before the next group of bosses. Here’s what we have to work with:

Marrowgar

Bonebreaker Scepter (10)
Marrowgar’s Scratching Choker (10)

Bracers of Dark Reckoning (25)
Legguards of Lost Hope (25)

Lady Deathwhisper

Ghoul Commander’s Cuirass (10)

Broken Ram Skull Helm (25)
Juggernaut Band (25)

Gunship Battle

Abomination’s Bloody Ring (10)
Neverending Winter (10)
Unidentifiable Organ (10)

Boneguard Commander’s Pauldrons (25)
Corpse Tongue Coin (25)

Deathbringer Saurfang

Deathforged Legplates (10)

Trash Drops

Harbinger’s Bone Band (25)

EoF Gear

Sentinel’s Winter Cloak 50
Libram of the Eternal Tower 30
Cataclysmic Chestguard 95
Gauntlets of the Kraken 60
Verdigris Chain Belt 60
Corroded Skeleton Key 60

Lightsworn Shoulderguards 60
Lightsworn Legguards 95
Lightsworn Handguards 60
Lightsworn Faceguard 95
Lightsworn Chestguard 95

Pick Order

This is tricky because there are so many amazing items to choose from. What’s making me torn right now is deciding which gearing goal I want to pursue first: more stam/EH, or more avoidance. Generally, getting the badge trinket or offset gear will fulfill the first goal, and tier gear will fulfill the second. Personally, with regards to how the boss encounters of the first wing are shaping up, I’m going to start on goal two, dip into goal one in preparation for the magical damage-heavy future wings, and then swing back and forth intending to pick up tier pieces when I anticipate I’ll have the Marks to upgrade them. To be less obtuse, my personal order will be:

1. Lightsworn Shoulderguards
2. Corroded Skeleton Key
3. Gauntlets of the Kraken
4. Lightsworn Faceguard
5. Verdigris Chain Belt
6. Lightsworn Chestguard
7. Sentinel’s Winter Cloak
8. Lightsworn Legguards
9. Cataclysmic Chestguard
10. Lightsworn Handguards

I will be avoiding the new libram until maybe my dead-last choice.

Eventually my goal is to have three sets: a high avoidance set with the tier four piece, a high armor set with lots of offset gear, and a high stam set with a conglomeration of the pieces with the most stamina from each.

This of course is very subjective, your personal gearing preferences may vary. Let me know in the comments how you intend to approach badges purchases!

Second look at Seal of Command!

So a couple of months ago, when SoComm was first changed to its current Holy Cleavin’ incarnation in 3.2, I recommended against speccing into it. Well, the situation has changed somewhat and so has my position on SoComm.

Now, what changed was Shield of Righteousness (as mentioned earlier this week) had a mechanic tweak which made it parriable/dodgeable. Not only did this make expertise a very worthy threat stat under softcap, but it also had the side effect of making ShoR able to proc SoComm’s cleave proc. This suddenly makes SoComm viable for trash pulls (provided trash doesn’t survive more than 30 seconds) if you’re looking for a threat boost in that arena, or the joy of many yellow numbers.

Does this make SoComm mandatory? No. Does it make it useful and fun? Oh yes.

The cleave effect of Command will now proc from three of our attacks (please correct me, readers, if I missed one/others): ShoR, white melee attacks, and Judgements. However, Judgements will only proc the cleave (and this is also true for the additional proc of Seal of Vengeance) if you are specced into Judgements of the Just. Don’t ask why. Just keep that in mind for later in this post.

But how to pick up SoComm?

Well, you’ve got two options: one being just swap the lone point from Conviction into Seal of Command. The main downside to this is a single-target threat loss, and if you have Seal of Vengeance (which you likely do), you’re looking at a “wasted” glyph slot when SoV isn’t active.

The other way to get SoComm–and hell, the crazier way–is to make a separate spec for trash/heroics.

Wrathy inspired me with his epic tales of pulling crazy dps numbers in heroics with his specialized Heroic Anub’arak spec, the crux of which was Seal of Command. I, sick of ret and never using that offspec, followed Wrathy’s lead … though I find now I need to make a few tweaks to it since I’m using it on heroics trash and not Nerubian Burrowers.

The results otherwise were pretty impressive–I easily did most overall damage done in a UK run, and that was with frequent mana issues. Not the best metric, admittedly, but there is definitely potential here.

Putting a few tweaks in the new trash spec I’m going to adopt tonight, I placed a point in Spiritual Attunement, one in Judgements of the Just (so judging will proc the seal), leaving 3 in Reckoning, and skipping Vindication to put 3 overall in Conviction. Considering this is, as I said, a spec for heroics and trash (where survivability is not an issue), I’d rather max threat talents.

As for glyphs, I’m going to go with Holy Wrath, Hammer of the Righteous, and Judgement. Again, for threat maximizing. I won’t be using SoV in this trash spec

So overall, like I said, SoComm is not mandatory. It will not help you generate more threat on a boss or live longer. Rather it is for putting out some obscene numbers in heroics, farm content, or large packs of trash in raids (though there is something to be said for the cleave’s snap aggro potential).

I wish I had a screenshot of a cloud of yellow numbers to illustrate my point. Nonetheless, with all the heroics running we’ll be doing into the foreseeable future, SoComm has the bonus of making slogging through a heroic dungeon fun again.

Amazing turnaround in ICC!

Last week, as you may recall, it took us three nights to “clear” ICC-25. The first night was the usual lag-fest filled with trash wipes, a three-shot of Marrowgar, and then some initial attempts on Deathwhisper. Night two was entirely spent in Deathwhisper’s room, to the point where we got trash respawns, finally offing the lichess on the last attempt. Night three was the Gunship and then hours of Saurfang, again killing the boss on the declared last attempt of the night.

Yeah, we cleared ICC last week, but it was uphill both ways. We had to claw and scratch our way to the top.

This week? Um, we cleared the place in two and a half hours last night.

The whole thing. So to speak.

We walked in and started generally on time (listen, if we don’t start 30 minutes late, it’s on time, dammit). Demo announced 5 dkp if we didn’t wipe on trash and 10 dkp if no one dies in a trash pull. And, by anyone, that generally means Falowin, the rogue who could find a way to freeze to death from Chill of the Throne.

We marched our way to Marrowgar, disarming the giant skeletons to save time. Marrowgar generally put up no resistance and we dropped him pretty hard.

Then on to Deathwhisper, who I was a bit worried about because of the complexity of her fight. We wiped once to–as Demo put it–shake the rust off. Then, we came back and easily smoked her.

Onto Gunship which as always is no contest. The ship even docked this time after we took out the Alliance boat, miracles of miracles. Inside the loot chest was the Corpse Tongue Coin which I got for a song. I’m pretty enamored with the trinket, especially for fights like Saurfang which is high physical damage. And considering Chill, any avoidance is good avoidance right now.

And speaking of Saurfang, we then rocketed up to his terrace and put in three attempts trying to work out some tweaks to the strategy. The fourth try we basically did it like we did last week (though, this time we let the first Mark die) and dropped him. It was pretty hard fought, however, with several marks dying at the end periodically and dealing with Saurfang constantly yo-yoing up and down in the 10% range. Our healers are pro, however, and once we hit that final 5% they kept all the Marks up and we had a white knuckle finish.

Great, great week all and all, though it’s kind of anti-climactic. Right now we’re stuck in the same situation we were with ToC where we’d bang out the current raid content in one night and sit on our hands for the rest of the week. After ICC last night we ducked into Ulduar and killed Ignis for the weekly quest. I guess tonight we’re going back to the Coliseum to farm off-spec pieces, fill some gear gaps, and give some alts some love.

I’m also pumped that I’m sitting at 56 emblems right now (thanks to doing the random heroic every day and basically anything else that could net me and Emblem of Frost), which means my first purchase is on Thursday.

I know initially I stated I’d be going for the Corroded Skeleton Key, but I’ve changed my mind. If ICC-25 has taught me anything it’s that, at the moment, I have enough stamina. At the moment. The next wing could change that, but for now, I’m comfortable with my time-to-live.

Damage intake is pretty steady and I’ve yet to be in a situation where I’ve felt “I don’t have the health bar for this!”

In any case, I’m going to swing around and shore up my avoidance (hence the Coin) and bee-line right for the 4pc bonus. The Key will have to be my fifth purchase, after I score the fourth piece of tier.

Shoring up expertise

This is what happens when I don’t look at Maintankadin for a few days–and thanks to Honors for alerting me to this–an unannounced change in 3.3 was discovered that apparently ShoR is now on the melee table. This means that an enemy can now parry or dodge Shield of Righteousness. Which in turn makes expertise a much, much more attractive stat for us. But how attractive, you ask?

Under soft cap, expertise is now our best threat stat.

In addition to previous findings that expertise was “about 80% as good as dodge” for damage avoidance, now more than ever, being soft capped in expertise is mandatory.

Thankfully, we gain 6 expertise from talents and 10 from the SoV glyph, so we only need 81 rating to soft cap, a relatively easy goal.

Other side effects of the ShoR change: that’s another melee attack that will be proc’ing Mongoose or similar enchants.

Nonetheless! Tankadins, act accordingly.

Thought of the day: Situational Awareness

With 3.3 and the recent wave of alt-mania that’s been sweeping the guild, a few buddies have been asking me for pointers when it comes to tanking.on their paladins. I’ve told them all the cookie cutter stuff, along with a few hints on how to pull, etc. But the one thing I’d like to impart that’s basically impossible to teach is good, old situational awareness.

To demonstrate the concept, please first watch this super quick video and count how many times the kids pass the basketball.

Correct answer after the jump. [...]

A very productive weekend

Thanks to the new random dungeon system, some bored guildees, and the free-flowing emblems of triumph, I managed to run about 25 heroics this weekend and pick up a little more than a hundred badges, which I think parlayed into t9 shoulders and gloves and the godly dps sigil for my DK. Finally he is free from the BoA shoulders! I have a few 232/245 pieces on him now, but the majority of his gear is sitting in the 200-219 range. Something must be done… ah yes, need moar badges.

On my main I’m currently sitting at 39 emblems of frost, which is awesome. I should be able to score my t10 shoulders (I always go for shoulders first) after the two raids this week and the raid weekly quest. As for the DK’s emblem generation, I think I’m going to use him to buy Primordial Saronite for Rhidach’s crafted tanking gear. My alt will always be a workhorse for my main, be it working the mines for Rhidach’s JCing, or forgoing tier 10. Sacrifices must be made.

And speaking of frost, last night we went in to do ICC-10, but first a few of us ran over to Naxx to bang out the raid weekly quest before raid. Unfortunately, just about every character in the guild was saved except for a smattering of alts (including Demo’s resto shammy). We had myself solo tanking, one healer, and four dps. And we wiped on Anub’Rekhan… four times. Each at 2% when Locust Swarm would hit and Demo refused to let the dps die so I eventually bought it, or the second crypt fiend would spawn after swarm so I couldn’t pick it up. It sucked.

The last guildee we were waiting on for ICC finally woke up and logged on (damn you Gandy) and with his non-alt dps we were able to push it over the finish line. Still, the shame endures.

Once we finally got into the Citadel I had a preconceived notion (based on the accounts of other bloggers) that the 10man was going to be pretty easy. And indeed, I was not wrong. The whole place is one massive faceroll. Aside from some initial trash wipes, we one shot every boss. Wasn’t even a contest.

Deathwhisper especially, which was nightmare-inducing for us in 25man was a total cake walk. And Saurfang I was too busy admiring the kiting being done on the Beasts to really pay attention to the fight. Hell, we only had one Mark that fight, and it went on a healer who died and we still one shot the fight.

We steamrolled the whole place in the duration of one flask.

I can’t wait for tomorrow when we have a wealth of experience on all the bosses and should be able to seriously speed up our progress in there. Tuesday night can’t come soon enough!