Finally... a real new shield!

There are some things I have always been unlucky with. First and foremost, this is my inability to collect tier pieces, and secondly, it is shields. The first is easily explained, I guess. As a Holy Paladin, I am usually one of two persons at most in the raid who can wear spellpower plate items that drop. And these usually drop before tier tokens for paladins drop, so naturally I do not get to roll anymore (in my current guild we don't use DKP, but a "one item per evening" rule), or don't have DKP left, and besides - I am probably wearing non-set items already that are fully gemmed and enchanted, do I really want to replace that just for a set bonus?
Shields are somehow the same. Either I cannot bid since I just got somethig else, or (this is shields-specific) they only drop on those days I am not present. Yesterday though I finally got the Heroic Bulwark of Smoldering Steel, quite an upgrade from the Pulsing Spellshield. And I only got that from some PUG run in Ulduar where people wanted to go for Firefighter, and replaced my Shield of Assimilation with it I had been using since I started raiding in Wrath of the Lich King! The funny thing is, when it dropped, someone on Vent immediately said something like "ah crap, the shield again. Ah, maybe Lis will want it" since it was already being shared in my guild, because it always dropped - only when I was not present for the Marrowgar kill though. But now I FINALLY have it. And yes, I used the next break to get materials to get it enchanted and gemmed, not even crying inside about the cost, since this will probably be my shield until Cataclysm raiding begins... good times.
Oh yeah, I also finally got those Heroic Professor Putricide and Heroic Lady Deathwhisper kills... and still no Lich King kill, neither on 10 or 25, so still no Kingslayer... still stuff to look for, it seems...

Trialshrimp no more!

After my old social, casual, raiding guild was killed in May I applied to another, more hardcore guild that I was friends with for some time now, together with some other officers and members individually, though). Some of us got accepted, including me, and yesterday I was finally made regular member after surviving the trial period! Sure, I am a non-raider officially, so I get passed if raiders want a raid spot or loot, but I was told about this before I accepted the guild invite and actually welcomed it, since I have just not as much play time at the moment due to various circumstances (work schedules, girlfriend, fitness training, ...) so that is fine with me. And yes, I am quite happy now that I finally got accepted :)

Raiding as Retribution

Last night my guild went to Icecrown Citadel again, and I actually had the time to tag along as well. For whatever reason, we had eight people confirmed who are often healing (even if some of those eight also often tank or dps). Which left us in a funny position. It seems we did Marrowgar with seven healers and three bear tanks, and only after this we really realized how many of us were healing... when the healing signups were posted and I was not mentioned and therefore only fit into "Remaining: ffa". I said "uhm, sure. Pally as raid healer?", but we had already started the Deathwhipser fight. We swapped healing around a little in mid-fight, and one-shotted her. After that, though, I only healed on Gunship, and then switched to dps. I had often gone Retribution on Deathbringer Saurfang, since that is a dps race and does not require much healing if the group has the dps, but I never really did dps on trash or Rotface as well. And I must say, I had a lot of fun. I did a little under 6k dps, which is not perfect, but then, this is my offspecc, and my gear is in everywhere between item level 213 and 232, with one piece at 245. Not bad at all, me thinks, and I really hope I get to do this more often. Maybe NOT winning Trauma and the Marrowgar healing shield yesterday was a sign - but then, I never have luck with those slots. I still use Shield of Assimilation from Naxx-25 and Seethe...

Level 20!

Yep, my highest in-game character is now level 20 since last night. Of course, that cannot be WoW though, since I am happily exploring Icecrown Citadel on Lisandra right now (Rotface down).

No, last night I played a little Lord of the Rings Online again, on my hunter. I really enjoy that while the game has a similar interface and level of polish as WoW, it feels completely different, at least for me, since it is much more of a world simulator than a game. The areas just feel wider, more lived in. As an example: last night I was venturing north from Bree, around the Old Greenway Fort, and the horse farm northeast of that location just is soo different from everything in WoW... it is a couple of houses, lots of horses in fenced-in pastures, as opposed to the typical single-house, single-animal farms in WoW that are just symbols for a farm, if you wish.

Since I do not know anyone on my server (EU Laurelin, I think it is called), I just play it as a solo adventure, but it is much fun... might play it more often... But I would really love a way to get some money. I really have trouble to pay for repairs and skillups most of the time...

Great day for raiding

Due to work, I hadn't really gotten to raid much in the last weeks. I was present for my guild's first kills of all four bosses in the first wing of Icecrown Citadel 25, but then, for weeks, I was only able to come on Sundays, which was raid progression day. Start raid at 20:30, clear some trash, wipe at Rotface until raid end time.
Yesterday was another of those days... except it wasn't. When I got home in the late afternoon, I logged in, planning to do an interview or two with applicants to the guild, and do a daily Heroic, but I was whispered pretty much instantly if I wanted to replace another Paladin healer in Ulduar, they were doing hardmodes. Of course I said yes! I already had some done back when we did Ulduar regularly, but still several missing. Last night then I got [Knock, Knock, Knock on Wood], [Crazy Cat Lady] and [Nerf Engineering]! We did some more which I already had (Thorim, Kologarn) and the others did Flame Leviathan and Razorscale before I joined, but now I basically "only" need Firefighter, Smell of Saronite and the hard mode Yogg kill for the drake. And Starcaller is actually not that far away now either, especially since I managed to turn in two of the fragments last night. Freya was actually not even really hard. Sure, we had some people die, but we nailed her in the first try, and I remember how much we struggled with that back then...
And then, later... we finally downed Rotface as well! Was a great day for raiding, all in all, considering we actually trained on that boss like it was TBC again (wiping for weeks)...

That time of the year again

Off to spend the rest of the holidays with my girlfriend and her family, but I just thought right before I leave I could leave some words here...
Last night I finished the first wing of Icecrown Citadel 10, seeing Lady Deathwhisper for the first time... after wiping on her for two hours the night before in 25, we took her down on our second try now, and only due to some mistakes during the first try. The two fights barely resemble each other, it seems. On 10, it is rather easy, moderate healing, 3 adds or so around, and the mana shield goes down fast. On 25, not so much. 6 adds all the time, usually, 3 tanks couldn't cope with them, dps was so intent on nuking adds that mana shield was hardly going down. We managed to get it down to 15% or so in our best try, but that is still a long way to go. I don't know, I'd prefer it for balance sake, if 10 and 25 were more or less equal in terms of difficulty, but then you couldn't have the bigger version have better loot, and most people wouldn't bother to sign for that anymore, I guess. But that difference was more between a normal and a hard mode, not 10 vs 25...

Oh, and I am also a Twilight Vanquisher now, finally found a PUG for zerging it. Yay! Been waiting ages for that, almost logging in every day and immediately setting my status to "LFG Sarth +3" in LFG tool...

Off now. So - happy holidays!

Raiding: 10 vs 25

I usually prefer 25 men raids over 10 men raids, just for the added people. It's just more going on everywhere - more chat, more avatars running over the screen. It just feels more alive.
But since the summer break my guild has not really gotten back into raiding (although we are slowly picking up again), and I have therefore more 10 men versions behind me than 25. Last night was such a case - we did a more or less impromptu Onyxia-10 run (impromptu because GC screwed up and posted different start times for different people, so we had to improvise for some spots), and when we were done, it was 20:00. Well. Early. Three people had to go then, for RL reasons.
"Anyone for a TotC-10 wipefest? Need healer and tank and dps". And ten minutes later we were on our way to the Tournament Grounds. Where we continued to have fun, really. It felt like our old progression raids in TBC for me. Sure, we were less people, and had even filled the OT spot with a good non-guildie, but the atmosphere and the overall communication when a wipe happened were just like back then. Most of us had already completed TotC-10, and in TotC-25 we are only missing Anub'arak, but we still wiped some times, and did tactics talks. But it felt... more real than blasting though Naxx-10 or even Ulduar-10, and I even got new pants ;)
All in all, a very successful evening for the little missus - 3 lootz, and awesome experience, for the fun of raiding itself. Hope more of this comes our way...