Netherspite Down Again

I've said this before and I'll say it again, most of the fights in WoW are really just learning the encounter and having everyone do their job. Yes, yes... gear has a big part too, but the experience and knowledge is even more important in my opinion. Netherspite is a perfect example of that.

Last night we only had Netherspite to kill before clearing Karazhan with the Gold Group. (We have two groups: Brown and Gold. I'm in the Gold.) Brown took down Netherspite on Friday night, but it was Gold's turn last night. I had done a lot of research, explained the fight and what we were going to do, but our first attempt wasn't too good. We got him down to about 70% or so, I think. Not bad for a bunch of people that hadn't seen the fight before. The next time, he immediately attacked and killed our paladin because he was sitting down (?) but since we only had 2 healers we didn't expect to win that one. Our next attempt was a miscommunication. We had told the other healer to go over and heal the tank while everyone else was running away from the dragon's netherbreathe. While we had previously all been huddled underneath the dragon, she thought that was where she was to stand. We only meant for her to stand in range to heal the tank. Communication ftl on that one.

I don't recall if there were other attempts in there, there may have been as we learned our roles. But we ended up having the rogue and warrior alternate to tank the green beam, the warrior and feral druid tanking the red beam, and the 3 mages and warlock tanking the blue beam. I'll tell you... it was fun standing in the blue beam for 30 seconds, then hitting my trinkets and combustion and seeing nukes for 7k. Fun times.

Our second to last attempt, we got him down to 9% before we wiped. Our final attempt though, was a clean sweep. Kind of funny how smooth the last time went. But we got the [Cowl of Defiance] and the [Earthblood Chestguard], the latter of which was sharded.

So, things should be pretty much on farm status for us. The Brown Group hasn't downed everything, but I'm sure that's just a matter of time and getting everyone together for a few nights. Like I said, I probably only really need my bracers to drop off of Maiden, but I'm really excited for everyone else to get some cool drops too.

Terran have Arrived

With Blizzcon, more units were announced for Starcraft 2. So, if you're interested, go check out www.starcraft2.com and see what they're doing with the Terran race.

Karazhan Cleared

Looks like I have a little catching up to do. First off, anyone that hasn't read up on the next expansion that was announced at Blizzcon needs to head over to the Wow website right now. I'm sure Wrath of the Lich King and Death Knights will be come up in the conversation from time to time, and I don't want anyone to be confused or left behind. Other than that, I'll just go chronologically.

Thursday night, I had the most upgrades in one night. We killed the Prince, and I got [Nathrezim Mindblade]. The other mage with us, Spellfires, got his T4 helm, so gratz to him. The Prince also dropped the [Adornment of Stolen Souls], which I won on the roll. It was more of a side-grade than an upgrade, but the extra crit is pretty cool.

Next (same night) we went after Nightbane. The fight's really not all that difficult. You just repeat the same thing every 25% of his life. So... maybe I should restate that. If you can handle the first 25% of his life (and his flight right after that), then you should be able to handle all of the fight. Some fights seem to have a stage that totally switches things up and can wipe an unprepared party. Like I said, this is not one of those fights. It took us a number of tries, and a few "just one mores", but we did it. We downed Nightbane. He dropped a great off-hand, [Talisman of Nightbane], which I won as well. Now, if I can only get something to replace my [Shattrath Wraps]...

Our second group was actually the one to down Netherspite on Friday night. I don't recall what he dropped for them. Our group will be trying him tonight. It's all about coordination, from what I can tell. It should be a good fight.

Saturday we all grouped up and headed off to Gruul's Lair. I was a bit worried that I wouldn't get to go since our power was out for about an hour, but that was between about 6:30 and 7:30. I must have been bad luck though because our main tank, Thellonious, had his power go out just after we grouped up, about 8:30, and stayed out for an hour as well. Regardless, I was still impressed that our guild is so strong now. I think we had to get 2 (or maybe just 1) person from outside the guild. And there were a few regulars from our guild that weren't on. After some re-adjustments to now having 25 people in the group, and the two quick pulls, we got to the first boss. Long story short: we learned a lot, but we didn't kill very much. We killed the priest, Blindeye the Seer, once, but I think that was about it. I honestly think we're geared enough, it's just appropriating the right resources and getting the strategy down. I guess we'll all need to read up on some sites for this one.

Raid Progression

I'll keep this as a history, but for current Raid Progression, see Primogeniture's Boss Progress.

Boss	Date First Downed
Attumen the Huntsman Moroes Maiden of Virtue Opera House Wizard of Oz The Big Bad Wolf Romulo & Julianne The Curator Terestian Illhoof Shade of Aran Netherspite Chess Event Prince Malchezaar Nightbane	5/25/07 6/2/07 5/25/07 6/22/07 6/29/07 7/5/07 6/29/2007 7/23/2007 7/14/2007 8/3/2007 7/2/2007 7/26/2007 8/2/2007

Boss	Date First Downed
High King Maulgar Gruul the Dragonkiller	8/27/07 9/11/07

New Item Links

After much struggling with other possible solutions that didn't work out, I had to give credit where credit was due. I recently stumbled across Armory Musing... and found that he too was on Blogger and he had mouse-over item stats (something that I thought was really cool and was trying to figure out without having to write all the data myself). Furthermore, he even explained how to link items such as [Etermium Runed Blade] on a post here. So a big shout out and Thank You to Okoloth.

The Price of Playing a Mage

From the player that pretty much has the market on 1-300 or 300-375 profession leveling guides, come an interesting analysis of the cost of leveling the professions. Interesting to note that enchanting is the most expensive profession based on buying mats from the AH. Granted, I know all you enchanters get most of your mats from disenchanting items, but it still bring up an interesting point.

I still don't have my flying epic mount. I've practically given up on farming for gold because I've found it mostly un-fun. I'll use my enchanting to get some gold here or there. I run enough instances that I break even at worst after repairs. I had always wanted to get the flying epic mount, and still do, but it's become less of a priority at the moment. From the looks of that analysis, I probably spent enough during the leveling process of tailoring and enchanting that I could have had a flying epic mount. But, as a guildie said, you can't take an epic mount into a dungeon.

So, what does that mean? For a mage, having tailoring and enchanting as your two professions will almost always give you a leg-up. At 375, you can craft all of the Spellfire set including the [Spellfire Robe]. Each piece by itself is amazing considering you don't have to set food in any dungeon. But then you look at the 3-piece set bonus. Plus spell damage up to 7% of your Intellect. Being that Intellect is one of our major stats, it's very nice to have an increased reason to have that stat. And, in case you didn't notice, all of those items are BoP. So, while it may cost you 1,381g to get tailoring up to 375 (not including the gold or mats to make the Spellfire set), you can bring that into a dungeon. So, tailoring for a mage, while expensive, is a really good choice.

What about enchanting? When I first started leveling enchanting, I did it because I wanted to make myself a wand. Little did I know that the enchanting wands didn't go very far, and I'd usually replace them with dungeon drops moments after I was able to actually craft them. It's been expensive, and a small part of me misses that money. But overall, I believe I've spent enough time advertising in the trade channel to at least make the hurt not so bad. So now that I'm 375, what now? Well, with the release of the Burning Crusade, the only enchant that non-enchanters can't get is enchant to rings. So that means that because I'm an enchanter, I can have an extra 24 spell damage (12 per ring) more than other non-enchanters can have. Would I suggest dropping 4,842g so you can get 24 more spell damage? Probably not. But at least it's a semi-sane justification for all the money I've put in. Don't tell me otherwise... I'm contend in my own little coma.

Expansion Details (Brainstorming)

In scanning various WoW sites, I've read a lot of speculation about what the next expansion for World of Warcraft will entail. With Blizzcon this weekend and Blizzard's goal to have an expansion each year, there's a lot of rumors surfacing. I've read that the next expansion will be Northrend, possibly called "Wrath of the Lich King". There's also the possibility from IGN that the next expansion will be "Into the Maelstrom".

Other speculations I've heard is that the cap will be raised to 80. The closest thing I've heard to help substantiate that is that Blizzard has said that a full raid at level 80 will be needed to down Arthas Menethil, who most likely resides in Northrend. IGN's tipster said:

Advancement after level 70 will be through Hero Classes rather than talents. Hero classes will function as subclasses and each existing class will have 3 of these hero classes to choose from. These hero classes will not be limited by talent choices. Players will be able to choose these new subclasses at trainers when ItM (sic) goes live.

It seems there's so many rumors flying around. Who knows what's true? Personally, I kind of doubt the Hero Class thing. The last comments I remember hearing about the Hero Class from a Blue was that the idea was pretty much scrapped. So, I looked it up. (Don't you love BlueTracker?) From a quoted blue post, we get that the Hero class was kind of put on the back burner. But looking at that one... it was more than a year ago. Have I really been reading the WoW Forums for that long? I remember when I saw Nethaera's original post. Oh yeah... I've been addicted for awhile now.

I'd kind of like to see a new class. The last "new" class of giving Horde Paladins and Alliance Shaman, wasn't really new. Yeah, it was cool, but kind of seemed like a cheap way out. There's the rumor of the Death Knight being the new class. I'm not sure how different that would be from some of the other classes, but not sure that it has to be either.

Also, another 10 levels... is that gonna screw up the gear again? Azeroth purples were being traded right and left for Outland greens. At some point, every expansion has to replace gear to allow for additional increased leveling, but is it too soon? I obviously have at least 5 months or so until the next expansion, so it's not like I feel like my raiding is wasted. (On the contrary, I really enjoy the fights and experiences I'm having even if I don't get any epic gear out of it.) Also is 1-80 going to be

I know it's all speculation, but it's kind of fun too. So, what other rumors have you heard about the next expansion? I'm sure we'll find out a thing or two this weekend. At least... I hope we will.