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...

Tankt!

Finally... I tanked Utgarde Pinnacle with Lisandra last night, since it was both the Daily Heroic and the Daily Dungeon, and we couldn't find a tank. Since my tanking gear is very adequate now, I said "why not" and respecced.

So yes, I tanked my first WotLK Heroic last night, and then even on a paladin (I tanked Heroics and the early raids in TBC with Vorgas, my warrior). We had one death from the Whirlwind on Skadi the Ruthless, but apart from that, it was a smooth ride. I might actually try and tank some more now, and also offer tanking a Naxxramas maybe. Was quite fun!

On a related note, we downed Onyxia (10) on the day the patch hit the servers, and I managed to grab the new Judgement Helm for Retribution Very nice item!

Stuffses

Since I mentioned it below somewhere, I now am Lisandra, Champion of the Frozen Wastes - we finally killed Malygos (several times now actually). The first killed was definitely the most fun one. 13 or 14 wipes, and then on the next try he died from the dots seconds after the last of us died ;) So we all had to run back in to loot...
The next week we needed some tries as well to get back into the mood, but on the actual kill we didn't have any death at all... strange :)
We also managed to clear Naxx25 in one raid, so in roughly 3 hours. I don't know if we started some minutes early, but we ended at the planned end time, so there. Easily clearable.
And regarding T7.5 loot - I know have the shoulders for both the Holy and the Retribution set, so long as no one else rolls for the gear, I can grab some stuff, even with my DKP ;)
On a semi-related note, my raid attendance has been a little low the last days since I have a new girlfriend now, so this weird RL stuff is getting in the way. Might have to get used to that now again after such a long time :)

Loot pinata

Last night we pretty much ran through Naxxramas-25. We didn't clear it, Thaddius and the last two bosses are still alive, but everything else was pretty much oneshotted. We even got The Safety Dance, and that in our guild, which is usually very movement impaired (and also very tongue-in-cheek about it as well). I started off with some positive DKP, and then snatched Chains of Adoration, Mantle of the Lost Conqueror, Epaulets of the Grieving Servant (yes, before the token, obviously), Forethought Talisman, and Shield of Assimilation... I now must be soo deep in the minus, I will never get another item... and yes, our loot master was giggling at the end, since it was a little ridiculous, one single person going home with five items in one DKP run. Ah well, my gear level is only improving.

I have banked the T7.5 shoulders for the moment though, since the Epaulets are very good as well already, and come dual specc I might need a good set of shoulders for that as well. Since first tokens always cost full DKP in our guild anyway it doesn't matter, I just have to decide on the set bonus. And for Holy this is my first piece, so it is not a pressing matter (on Retribution I already have the T7 breastplate from Normal Naxxramas). It is just that the Retribution set is itemized very badly (Haste?), so I might just get four pieces of the Holy set (after getting the chestplate from Obsidian Sanctum I will not roll on the T7.5 breastplate and try to get the other pieces).

Raid preparation

Yesterday I finally got the Fall of Naxxramas achievement on Heroic since I was finally present for a Sapphiron kill. Still, it took us many tries even though the guild had completely cleared Naxxramas on Heroic before (where I just was not present).

Yesterday was problematic because several raid members did not have the required raid addons installed, which in case of our guild are Omen, BigWigs or DeadlyBossMods, and oRa2 and therefore wiped us on Sapphiron due to standing too close to other raiders (who tried to wiggle free and called names out on TS, to no avail). Yes, I highlighted that word up there for a purpose. I also distinctly remember several raids back in T6 content where the raid leader checked for installed addons and there was much swearing and yelling on TeamSpeak. Yesterday though some of those raiders that did not have the addons installed did not even know what they were for ("no, I do not use BigWigs, I use Omen" - "Omen is a threat meter, not a raid warnings addon..." - "Oh...").

For me it is rather difficult to understand how you want to progress in 25 men raid content without these addons. Of course it is possible, especially proximity might be something you can learn to just visually identify, but additionally I see this as a lack of respect. Even if we are labelling ourselves as casual raiders a little consideration and respect for your fellow raiders is not too much to ask for. Casual means, at least in my eyes, that we do have cigarette breaks every so often, that we don't always raid with the same 25 raiders, that we do boss explanations for new people instead of just pointing to tactic guides. It does not mean that everybody can just come in quest greens, without any consumables, and hope that it will just work out somehow, especially now that in WotLK everything has gotten cheaper (Flasks go for roughly the same amoiunt of gold on the AH on our server than they did during BC, but you can make much more gold per hour), and heroic gear is rather easy to obtain as well. Reading the "Required addons for raiding" thread on our forums isn't to hard as well in my opinion.

I know that other casuals see it the same way, after reading some blogs over the past months. I just don't get why there are still people out there who (in this special case at least) are really not new to the game or the guild and just don't think about this. I mean, if you missed the thread on the forum, you should have stated that you didn't find any info, is there anything required? Anything to at least show you were thinking about the raid as something where you can work together in a team toward a common goal and have fun and not just be there while others pull you through... because yes, I am here to have fun, and wiping because you couldn't be arsed to install a mandatory addon is not fun for me.

Rant over...

Back as Holy

My guild started running Naxxramas Heroic some weeks ago, and as I had anticipated, I was asked (required?) to come as Healadin again. I had offered, and I don't mind healing at all, so I am good, actually. On the first two runs I grabbed quite a lot of gear, both healing plate and [Life And Death] that I went pretty deep into DKP minus and therefore haven't managed to snatch some T7 tokens at all now, but I would say me gear is rather good at the moment.

Just last night I grabbed the [Chestplate of the Great Aspects] (yes, I know, not really Naxxramas, but we started the raid day by quickly clearing The Obsidian Sanctum in 15 minutes) and also the [Cloak of Averted Crisis]. The cloak is not ideally itemised, since I would rather have a solid mixture of Crit and Haste than Mp5, but then there are not really any cloaks like that, I think, and it was a very solid upgrade over my old [Cloak of the Darkcaster].

Still very much in the negative DKPs now, but faring very well. All in all, raiding is fun again - we are only lacking a Malygos kill now in our guild and Sartharion + X.

Additionally, I finally managed to explore the last areas of Kalimdor this weekend, mainly "elephant kingdom" (i.e. Azuremyst Isle and Bloodmyst Isle), so I am now Lisandra the Explorer and not Lisandra, Hand of A'dal anymore. "Champion of the Frozen Wastes" will have to wait for that Malygos kill I mentioned earlier - that is the only thing I am missing.

There we go again

Last night I started raiding in WotLK, this time as retribution! I had signed for a 10 men Naxxramas, but was only on standby, and therefore was in the middle of a Heroic Utgarde Keep when the raid leader whispered me I was in, someone who was on the main queue was a no-show. Uhm. Being me, I simply whispered back that I was now where I was, and that I was sorry. It helps to be the only raid-worthy paladin in the guild at the moment and be on good terms with the raid leadership, because what I got back was "Oh, don't worry, we can start with 9". Twenty minutes and [Staggering Legplates] later I was inside Naxx. Was quite fun, although it feels very different from Karazhan. I don't mean that one is a castle and the other a Necropolis, but just the flow and size of it. Well, I bet I will get used to it. Walked away with [Shoulderplates of Bloodshed] (won a Need roll) and [Helm of the Corrupted Mind] (dropped afterwards, no other paladin in raid). Lucky me!