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!

It's the RAM, baby!

Ever since Wrath of the Lich King came out, my game experience has suffered from (sometimes very) very low framerates, alt-tabbing to Firefox taking up to 5 minutes, and the known phenomenon that flying in or out of Dalaran just hangs the game a lot. As in, unplayable at lot. Well, I just put in 4 GB of RAM into the machine instead of 2 GB, and lo and behold - all of this is gone. I fly up to Dalaran, land, mount my charger, and ride off, without an hickups. And then I alt-tab to Firefox, check a quest on Wowhead, and am back in the game seconds later. I really hadn't thought it was only the RAM, but it seems it was. And yes, this is on Vista 64, before you ask. That OS can indeed use 4 GB.

We are prepared now!

Aye, downed the Big Bad now. And ventured into his hiding place again and cleared everything except for the Council and the Betrayer in one go. Loot? I have the [Lightbringer Chestpiece] and the [Lightbringer Pauldrons] now! Happy girl (well, boy, but the girl is a girl... err). Now, for some Sunwell Plateau next week after clearing the Black Temple again...

And gah, this sucks. Armory isn't updating, and I have a new cloak, two pieces of Tier 6, I am "Hand of A'dal" instead of "Champion of the Naaru", a new belt... and none of it shows so far.

We were not prepared!

Last night my guild went into Black Temple, and for the first time ever in the guilds history we ventured to the very top. We had first kills of Reliquary of Souls, Mother Shahraz and the Illidary Council, after having guild firsts of Teron Gorefiend and Gurtogg Bloodboil the week before. 3.0.2 is really making this easy for us, although after seeing how easily we downed Naj'entus, Supremus and Shade of Akama before the patch I think that maybe we should have simpy gone there earlier, and we might have gotten further a lot earlier as well...

I also got my [Shroud of the Final Stand] yesterday, sadly before we downed any of the bosses, so I couldn't Need on a T6 token ;) But then, the cloak is a clear upgrade to my old Prince cloak as well, or I would not have needed anyway. Ever since I saw it on the paladin of my (now) ex I wanted it for me as well.

We also did three or four attempts at Illidan himself, but we only barely entered phase three. Seems we need to practice not dying to the fire from the elementals a little more. We had them enrage due to them getting to far from their warglaives, it seems. Ah well, tuesday is part two.

Piece of Cake

Hm, we just went to MH with 24 people and just cleared bosses 1-4 without a hitch (well, except for the server going down for ~30 minutes after boss 1). Sure, we maybe had 5 or 6 deaths overall, but that's it. Bosses and trash were laughable, I mostly stood around, not casting heals at all since by the time the druids and priests HoTs would tick again there would be no need anymore... To be honest, it felt like a Karazhan badge run. Even the trash groups that made us wipe before if a heal landed just a millisecond too late on the tank before just made me yawn, and I did not even spec Holy all the way through... Ah well. Still did not get the T6 gloves (yes still wearing the Karazhan drop), but now sporting the [Girdle of Hope] at least.

Oh, we didn't try Archimonde at all since we never attempted him before, and we were already at the end of the planned raid time due to the server shutdown.

More trollish loot for the girl

I recently had some nice luck: I did three ZA runs with my guild, and on the first run I got the [Mask of Introspection], and on the second run the [Chestguard of Hidden Purpose] and the [Enamelled Disc of Mojo]. On the third run (which my ex-girlfriend tanked for us, thanks!) I also got the [Girdle of Stromgarde's Hope]. All in all I am now really nicely equipped, together with the badges mace [Gavel of Naaru Blessings]. On one of the runs I also got the Fury plate boots and the priest healing necklace, the last which finally replaced my old blue necklace from that quest chain in Blade's Edge Mountains.

Now I am pondering what to buy from my remaining badges. I tend to the nice new plate pants, but I am not sure yet. Currently I have the T5 legs, and the gap between those two is not that big, I'd even lose spell crit... But i'd gain some nice amount of Stamina, and that would come in handy in our upcoming forays into Black Temple...