The Leveling Continues (16 and counting)

RL kind of got in the way of our leveling adventure so we will continue that tomorrow ...

The XP gain from the quests is crazy

3 hours and change played ... Level 12
(First hour was getting things together)

The adventure has begun.

Sitting bored in Shat you see a message in GC of someone asking for a run through say normal Ramparts … In your uberness you way over gear the place … to the point where it’s pointless for you to ever even consider it. Feeling in an overly giving mood, you decide to run it anyway … It will be fun.

Your group consists of … 1 uber pally tank, 1 uber healer, 1 uber AOE, 1 or 2 60 somethings to pick up the loots. Your first run you take it slow, marking and making pulls the way you should. After about the third pull, you pull 3 groups just to make this go quicker. You round the corner and start clearing around the boss … Opps, you pulled 3 groups and the boss … this turns into laughable as you level them.

You head upstairs and pull the entire hallway at once. You are starting to get brave. You are now faced with the round platform .. you know the one … you turn right to and see Omor the Unscarred, or head down the path ahead of you for Vazruden. Then you have a hey guys watch this moment and tell the group you are going to head out to the platform going right, make a big circle, then back up against the wall on the left, (right by the chest), and let them AOE the entire group … (Dramatic Pause) … You are now surrounded by sparklies as everything is dead. You finish killing the bosses and head back to Shat.

A couple hours later, there is another request for Ramparts again … We can do this bigger than the first time! You round up your group again … only this time decide that you are doing the entire thing 8 pulls, less than 30 minutes … It goes something like this:

1. Clear everything up to the guy that summons the dogs.
2. Clear from there to the boss in one pull, (Don’t forget the guys by the door and make sure your lay on hands it up … we needed it here).
3. Clear the hallway upstairs
4. Clear the round room by moving to the right, circling the room, and then backing up against the wall by the chest in the corner.
5. Clear the hallway down to Omor the Unscarred
6. Kill Omor the Unscarred
7. Clear the hallway to Vazruden
8. Kill Vazruden

7 and 8 almost count as one pull considering Vazruden is engaged when the last couple of guys die anyway … but either way … it took us 28 minutes to clear ramps completely … (We gauged it off the pally buffs) … Really it was 3 manned because the rogue that was with us is lvl 60.

The Toons Used to Do This:

Lvl 70 Healer turned Tankadin Xander

Lvl 70 CoH Priest Kevorkianphd (K11)

Lvl 70 Warlock Mariejan (MJ)

Next time we do this we are going to record it so there will be video .. in the mean time, it was awesome!

Have fun!

Ok, it's time. For those interested in doing this, here is the quest chain:

This is a quest involved in the Black Temple Attunement Chain:

The Black Temple attunement starts at The Altar of the Sha'tar for Aldors, and the Sanctum of the Sun for Scryers. Both are in Shadowmoon Valley.

Aldors start attunement from Anchorite Ceyla at the Altar of Sha'tar in Shadowmoon Valley:
1. [A] [70] Tablets of Baa'ri
2. [A] [70] Oronu the Elder
3. [A] [70] The Ashtongue Corruptors
4. [A] [70] The Warden's Cage

Scyers start attunement from Arcanist Thelis at the Sanctum of Stars:
1. [Sc] [70] Tablets of Baa'ri
2. [Sc] [70] Oronu the Elder
3. [Sc] [70] The Ashtongue Corruptors
4. [Sc] [70] The Warden's Cage

After that, the chain comes together for Aldor and Scryer.

5. [70] Proof of Allegiance
6. [70] Akama
7. [70] Seer Udalo

Seer Udalo is found in the Arcatraz just before the last boss.

8. [70] A Mysterious Portent
9. [70] The Ata'mal Terrace
10. [70] Akama's Promise

After you finish this chain, you get to pick from some rewards and the chain seems like it ends. It continues however, inside Serpentshrine Cavern from an NPC called Seer Olum who you can speak with after killing Fathom-Lord Karathress. He starts the next part of the Black Temple Chain by offering the quest:

1. [70] The Secret Compromised
For this quest you just return to Akama.
2. [70] Ruse of the Ashtongue
In this quest, you must use the costume Akama provides, and kill A'lar in Tempest Keep: The Eye while wearing the Ashtongue Cowl. Attunement for The Eye is a whole different chain.
3. [70] An Artifact From the Past
In this, you need to gain access to The Battle of Mount Hyjal in Caverns of Time, and slay the first boss, Rage Winterchill. Attunement for this involves killing Lady Vashj and Kael'Thas Sunstrider.
4. [70] The Hostage Soul
For this you must speak with A'dal in Shattrath city.
5. [70] Entry into the Black Temple
For this, just speak with the naaru Xi'ri in front of Black Temple.
6. [70] A Distraction for Akama
Unknown what this quest asks of you, most likely you need to defend Xi'ri and make your way into Black Temple. At the end, you become attuned to enter and are granted The Medallion of Karabor

At this point, you are attuned and can enter Black Temple, and do not have to continue to get your title. The chain continues however, and you can soon upgrade your medallion. It continues with:

1. [70] Seek Out the Ashtongue
You just need to find Seer Kanai inside Black Temple.
2. [70] Redemption of the Ashtongue
This involves entering Black Temple, and killing the boss the Shade of Akama.
3. [70] The Fall of the Betrayer
After killing the Shade of Akama and returning to Seer Kanai, he asks one last thing of you. Kill Illidan The Betrayer. After doing so, you are granted the Blessed Medallion of Karabor, an upgraded version of your original medallion, and allows teleportation to the Black Temple.


I will continue with the 2nd half of the quest chain, (the one for the attunement to Mt. Hyjal) later this week.

As you can see from screen shot upon screen shot Defiant was hot this weekend. We toppled boss after boss, and almost had a 4th. During our Al’ar attempt we were able to adapt on the fly to the different things happening during the fight to bring him down to under the 20% mark.
What’s next for Defiant?

We lack the shadow resist for the 3rd boss in Hyjal so we are at a bit of a loss there.

We will be making attempts on KT, Al'ar, and Vashj I am sure.

I think we will be in a holding pattern for at least the next few weeks as we get our new bosses on farm status and continue to gear people up. As much as all of us love a weekend like this, it leads to down time and people getting bored as it will start to look like we aren’t progressing again as we just farm these bosses for the T5 loot they drop.

There was one sad moment over the weekend. This hunter talked to me during raid so I was a little too busy to take a screen shot but … The story is sad none the less. We took a new hunter on about a month ago who I have to wonder ever got himself into full T4. He didn’t understand agro, didn’t use his pet, and couldn’t trap a rat more than once … nice enough guy though. Our GM and I start working with the guy in an attempt to help him improve, which he did some.

Over the last few weeks he was not aloud to roll on Tier loot as there are several hunters that were here before him, but he was given a new neck, wrists, and basically ancillary pieces of gear to offset the lack of chance at T5 right now. He ninja /gquit Saturday night in hopes of starting his own guild.

This is a very honorable thing; however I do find it funny that he is spamming trade for sigs for his “new” guild that is looking to start T5 content citing that the GM has T6 experience in Hyjal. He has never been past Hydross in SSC?? He has seen Rage/Anetheron, (both of which we have on farm and have 23 manned so …), either way, I wish him the best of luck.

In the whisperl I mentioned, I asked why he left? He stated it was because he is not aloud to have loot. Hmm. I stated to him that he had gotten loot, and which he came back and said what loot? I point out the bracers, neck, and other things at which point he said oh. He left our guild because he wanted specific loot and he wanted it faster. He would have gotten everything he wanted and then some ... Had he just stopped and thought about it.

Point is this … just because it’s not a piece of Tier loot, loot is loot. And upgrade is an upgrade; I think we forget that sometimes.

We play a game where we save our worlds and are given rewards for it. Today is the day when we reward those who do it in real life, we thank you the men and women who protect us from those who wish us harm, we salute you for your efforts to keep us safe and you are always in our thoughts and prayers. Thank you for having the courage to stand up for a country that could not exist without you.

Have a Happy Fourth, celebrate safely, and enjoy the fireworks!!

Today being a Holiday for us, and one that is near and dear to my heart, this is going to be short. I think I have the blog completed again, if anyone sees any glitches please let me know. It’s been a pretty good week for me, I don’t have a rant for once … We downed everything we intended to this week except Lurker … but we had a bunch of first timers in there so I really can’t complain …

Bene is still short his 4 piece set bonus on his T4, it's funny because I have always gotten everything I wanted with Knurd, and Bene I have to work for it. :o)


Please be safe this weekend, and enjoy the fireworks! Thank you to the men and women of the U.S. Armed forces that keep us safe here at home, we appreciate everything you do!

Knurd often takes the time to point out things in this blog that can be helpful to those of you
that raid on a regular basis, or tells stories about what happened that make us smile and sometimes
make us stop and think...:) This post is more for those of us that play in the background, we
love to play with our friends but don't always want to raid.....this is to the WOW ENABLERS.

I know, I know, you desperately want to know what is a WOW enabler and how do I become one, we all
want to be supportive of our hard core player, well here are my tips on how to become the best
enabler you can be........

1. Serve meals at the computer, there is no real reason for your raider to get up to eat, he/she
can eat between pulls

2. When they do die, this usually means it's time to run to the bathroom. You can sit at the
computer and click when they are offered a rez, keep them with the group if they have to move,
and pay attention to what is being said in vent, that way you can pass along any missed
instructions.

3. Make sure you learn who the important people in the raid are, that way with one word from your
hardcore player you can agree with who screwed up their part, and you will always know when they
yell shut up at the computer who they are yelling at eventually your night won't be complete until
they scream it at least once.

4. Make sure, and this is crucial, when the gm explains the pulls that you listen and learn, when
when they run this raid again you will totally impress your hardcore player when you can
word for word call out the fight. It is even more impressive when you do not have a 70 and
have never been there.

By following these four easy steps you will be well on your way to becoming the best WOW Enabler
that you can be....for now keep up the good work, remember practice makes perfect and you to can
become a level 70 WOW ENABLER.

I FOUND IT! I really did! I am no longer healing with Benedykt, I am tanking. I have spoken to the GM and he understands my wishes. I am respecing!

PRIEST TANK FTW!!

It will be glorious! Arthas is shaking in his boots now! I can hear the ice cracking! I will be on the cover of wowinsider and maybe even News Week!! I can see it now! "The Clothie Tank Strikes Fear in the Hearts of Evil Doers Everywhere!"

Who needs plate. Plate is for losers! Rogues and their dodge ... bah. Who cares about your dodge rate? I will not block or dodge anything. I will just stand there and take it like a real tank. Crushing blows? I eat them for breakfast! Magic AOE damage?? I got your AOE damage! Eat my holy nova Arthas! bah hahahaha

"Tank Specced Unarmed Melee Priest Build"

This build is designed to be played as an off tank. Doing unarmed damage and providing support for casters. In the event of the death of the tank this build will take over the tanking for the team until the main tank is rezzed. It is played in shadowform for the 15% damage resist coupled with inner strength for the armor bonus."

I demand that everyone run out and respec now!

Source: WowWiki Priest Builds

Upon completing our Mag kill, we headed to Gruul when this came up (on back to back pulls):

Larisa of Larisa’s Corner writes this morning about Moderation and Addition. I don't feel I am a gaming addict, but I am not good at moderation with it either. She reference’s a post by Monique of Girls Don’t Game about a true addiction to World of Warcraft. The sites author was a member of the previously extinct, now "For the Horde" Death and Taxes for a long time as well as a couple of other notable guilds. She has had toons with every piece of tier gear there is, and tells a powerful story.

The thing about Gaming:

It’s in my blood, and one might even call it a bit of an addition. I can remember when I was younger spending hours playing Mario Brothers until it was complete. Then there was Mario Brothers 2 and 3, Legend of Zelda, Gran Turismo (and the many sequels), Doom, Starcraft, Warcraft, Unreal Tournament, and a slew of other games. Gamers are gamers no matter what way you cut it. Being the best is at times all that is important.

The thing about all of the above games and many more is that I have beaten them … all of them. I have never played a game that was able to be beaten that I have not beaten. Here in lies the problem with WoW. It’s unbeatable. It’s a virtual world with no end. Blizzard makes sure of it. It keeps us playing. If I downed Sunwell tomorrow, I would probably stop playing, but that is a long way off ... and I am sure the expansion will come out right after I finally do.

There are people that play the game that are content to just farm, play alts, and just mess around. I am not one of those people. I have made some very good friends through the game, and they are friends that would remain friends when the game is gone, but they are a small part of what draws me in. It’s the thrill of raiding, downing bosses, overcoming the odds.

I read for the first time this morning The Confessions of a Hardcore Raider. I am what most would consider pretty hardcore, I put quite a bit of time into the game, although I do have the ability to go and do other things, and do from time to time, many times I would prefer to just sit in the virtual world and play away.

There are people who the game encompasses their entire lives. I recommend that every raider read the entry above, and then look at how much of your life is encompassed by WoW. It will end someday, and when it does what will fill that void?

This post is dedicated to Monique and the courage it must have taken to tell her story in an attempt to help others with addictions of all kinds.

As many of you know, Anetheron bowed to the power of Defiant for the first time last week. This week was no different. We even had what I will call a wave of epicness. We were starting to wonder if we were going to see any trash epics this week when wave 7 of the Anetheron fight comes rolling in. I think the epic god tripped, stumbled, and dumped his bag of goodies out on defiant all at one time. Benedykt got his boots, tanks got cloaks, casters got cloaks it was a thing of beauty. The best part about it, we managed not to wipe while looking at loot.

At different points during that fight, Anetheron spawns infernals which require a tank crazy enough to tank them. That is where Erec comes in. He’s nuts but don’t tell him I said that. So back up to before we start … this is only the second time I have healed this fight, and my job is be the back up of the back up, on Erec. And raid heal. I asked Greyan where the best place for me to stand is, and he says over on the catapult. Sweet! I am a short dwarf therefore this should give me the perfect view of everything that is going on. Not a problem. I am still wearing my mooncloth set which has no stam on it … Thanks Blizzard. The first internal spawns … I fire of my Frisbee in Erec’s direction … I cast renew on him. We are prepped. I am pumped to backup the backup! I start into a greater heal on some other random raid member. The infernal reaches us. I suddenly have an oh shit moment … What Greyan failed to mention and I failed to remember is the infernals do an aoe blast. Yep, you guessed it, Erec is tanking the infernal right next to the catapult. I was dead before I hit the end of the catapult and granted the privilege of watching the rest of the fight from my elevated position on top of the catapult. I also realized that I really was just the 3rd string during that fight as they downed him without my help. Although I was the only one to die ...

We decided to move on and play with the Kaz’rogal trash. If you have ever read the strat on this guy, without shadow resist, he is going to just laugh at you. We don’t have any shadow resist, so it is truly just playing in the trash. Our first two attempts we go down at about wave 4, but we got the kiting of the gargoyles down … Attempt 3 was the greatest battle I have ever been a part of. It was hot! There is not better way to put it. Wave 4, then wave 5, then wave 6 … we weren’t killing them faster than they were coming so they were starting to pile up and the healers had not had time to drink. It was starting to look rather bleak.

Our RL drops, (GM’s T6 resto Shaman), he reincarnates … soul stones are being popped as the healers are dropping … wave 7 our first tank dies; I check my mana pool … WTH?? I am still at 75% mana and have not potted or used my sucker! Wave 8 rolls in still no drinking. All the tanks die but Erec and Alent. (Remember I said Erec was nuts?) … he runs to the gated entrance, throws down his consecrate and says I am gonna need some heals! He is now tanking all 9 of the trash mobs as our DPS is desperately trying to burn them down.

At one point grid showed 22k of incoming heals on Erec as we are desperately trying to keep him alive so we can see Kaz’rogal. He finally goes down as mana pools are starting to diminish and the amount of damage he is taking is too much for us to handle … we kept him up a good 30 seconds! About half the trash is dead and we are almost to the boss ... Down to 1 tank, our warrior Alent, 2 healers and 3 or 4 trash mobs. I am spam healing Alent trying to keep him up ... This goes on for 15 or seconds that seemed like an eternity. He goes down, but we kept him up longer than I expected. It was just awesome! It was most likely the greatest epic battle I have been a part of in the game, and one I will always remember.

It was the moment when Defiant cried out in one voice we will not die without a fight.

The Patch 2.4.3 Test Realm Notes are up, and there are several that interest me, but one worries me more than any other.

This is something that I don’t think most people pay attention to. Although I think they probably should. As of patch 2.1.2, (June 19, 2007), there is no longer an attunement process needed to enter Serpentspine Cavern and The Eye at Tempest Keep. The quest line for the original attunements remains however, and upon completion of both, the player receives the title, “Champion of the Naaru.” The unique thing about this title verses other titles, is this one comes after the players name. Titles were originally introduced as a PvP status pre-BC. There were problems in some countries with this, so the ability to gain these titles was stripped from the game even though players were able to keep what they earned. Therefore from time to time you will see players with names such as Sergeant Benedykt. The title, “Champion of the Naaru” comes after the name and will appear, “Knurd, Champion of the Naaru.” These are extremely long and drawn out quest lines and Blizzard wanted to ensure they still rewarded those players crazy enough to gain their attunement for Serpentshrine Cavern and The Eye in Tempest Keep. The Eye attunement quest line includes running and completing, Shadow Labs, the Shattered Halls timed event and Arcatraz on heroic, then finally killing Magtheridon himself. This is after completing the almost 30 quests leading upto the dungeon quests. The attunement process for Serpentspine Cavern is a bit simpler as it involves killing Gruul the Dragonkiller of Gruul's Lair and Nightbane found in Karazhan.

Even after patch 2.1.2, the attunement process for Mt. Hyjal and Black Temple remained in place. As of patch 2.4, March 25, 2008, the attunement processes were removed for both Black Temple and Mt. Hyjal. I feel, however unconfirmed, that Blizzard removed these attunement processes due to the Sunwell badge gear which is on par with T6, therefore allowing players to become geared enough to run these raid instances without doing any of the previous ones. The release of this badge of justice gear and the removal of the attunement processes occured at the same time. The experiences learned from the previous raid instances will greatly aid in the learning curve of Black Temple and Mt. Hyjal however. In order to reward those who had already done the attunement process, and those that choose to complete it still, Blizzard introduced another title into the game. This one is, “Hand of A’dal.” This is another unique title as it also appears after the players name, “<>, Hand of A’dal.”

This one is more difficult to obtain than the first. The Black Temple attunement process involves speaking to an NPC in Fathom-Lord Karathress’s room, killing Al’ar in Tempest Keep, and then killing Rage Winterchill the first boss in Mt. Hyjal.

As scary as this may be, that is the simpler of the two quest chains. The attunement process for gaining access to Mt. Hyjal, (remember this one must come first as you have to kill the first boss here for the other one … or at least it used to), all of the quests for Black Morass and Old Hillsbrad Foothills must be completed in the Caverns of Time, then The Vials of Eternity must be looted from Lady Vashj in Serpentshrine Cavern and Kael'thas in the Eye of Tempest Keep.

I am sure by this point you are wondering why my point is. The gear we are obtaining through raiding is great, but come time for the expansion we will replace all of it. A few pieces we will keep for memory’s sake, but the rest will be sharded or vendored for cash and mats. For the few people that have worked to earn these titles, those will remain in tact until they either stop playing the game, or Blizzard finally turns off the servers.

Myself and a few others have decided that we are going to start working on getting these titles, Champion of the Naaru we should have next week sometime as that one is very easy for us to obtain. I feel that other raiders that have progressed that far in the game should consider doing this as well. It’s the one thing that we will always take with us even if the game is going on 15 years from now.

It should also be noted that once a player passes lvl 70, these titles can no longer be obtained, although players that already have them can display them proudly.

This is in response to the Shared Topic from Blog Azeroth entitled Preparing for Wrath of the Lich King.

The impending expansion is something that is affecting everyone. Each person in a different way, but in some way. The only people that appear to be completely oblivious to the impending changes are the PvPers as they just seem to take things as they come. I have noticed that our core group of raiders has changed several times recently, despite our progress into Mt. Hyjal and the promise of tier 6.

I have given some thought lately as to if this is all for nothing. I am enjoying the new content, but I have noticed that my focus on gear and getting drops is not what it used to be. I still enjoy the new shiny treat that rolls my way from time to time, but then again here in a few months none of it will matter.

I am a post BC player therefore have never had to experience removing epics in place of greens and blues, but my time is rapidly coming. I have the badge Chest and gloves like many people, and my true T5 shoulders. Every piece of gear on both of my toons is there because it’s the best in slot that I have been able to lay my hands on and this will not change. I will not stop upgrading either one of them just because it won’t matter shortly, that doesn’t mean that I don’t think about it.

It’s a lot of work to become part of the elite just so that I can start over with new gear. On the other hand, all this hard work now will make the “grind” to 80 much simpler as the 2000 + RAP power of our top level toons must be ignored ... so balance is preserved, the new mobs will be designed for destruction by toons that are not nearly as progressed as us.

I intend on switching my main for the expansion, and making my way through the new zone using my Priest instead of my hunter. Knurd will be going with me, but he is going to take a backseat to my new love. The order of leveling will probably be Benedykt, Archdeity (who will be 70 and shadow at that point), and then Knurd bringing up the rear. I may re-think this however as Knurd is the gatherer. I guess it will depend on how quickly I want to get back into raiding and how badly I need gold. (The idea of flight being 10k gold scares me ... 5k is bad enough)

I have been asked about my blog and the changes considering I will be playing a full time raiding priest. I don’t foresee my blog changing much as I don’t focus on one class currently, this is really more just my opinion on things. Theory crafting is already done by a lot of sites, and really I would just be repeating the information already out there ... therefore I try and be as useless as possible.

I am not stock piling mats or doing anything like that, I will make gold the way that I always have … therefore I am not looking to make a quick profit at the start, I would rather just enjoy all that the expansion has to offer without worrying about such things until the time comes.

What have you done or are doing to prepare?

During raid tonight I realized that I have broken the 2k +heal mark with Benedykt!!