I should be studying for a Java programming exam but I have some time to kill to talk about my experiences in Ulduar. I will break the overview up into three parts, each section pertaining to a subzone of the raid instance. This only covers the content I have cleared or experienced and should not be taken as gospel but just a collection of my experiences. Breakdown of Part 1 after the break.
Ulduar progression continues unabated for Taurential Reign, just cleared Auriya and Assembly of Iron in Heroic Mode last night. I maintanked both encounters last night, well on the Assembly I was on Steelbreaker and the interrupt duty on Stormcaller Brundir. Fairly easy encounter tanking wise for a paladin just remember to dispell the Fusion Punch if you are not GCD locked. I tended to save a cooldown just for that reducing my threat but hopefully saving myself with a Cleanse. The other thing to watch out for is to move the boss out of the blue rune/void zone, Rune of Power, so he does not get extra damage output.
The Auriya encounter is all about the pull, the tanking part is relatively simple. The most dificult part is to make sure she is turned in a direction that is advantageous to the raid after the fear. If you are fear warded, resist the fear, or break it quickly then this is not an issue and you hould probably just stand there and have the raid run back. If not just use your judgement and base where you face her on where the majority of the raid is feared to. Move her as needed away from the void zones and push out as much damage as possible.
As far as Noblegarden is concerned I really hate this holiday, it encourages camping and doing unfun things. I do like that alot of the items are able to be bought but the camping part and the static nature of the spawns lends the holiday a no-fun feel. Worse then the Love Fool achievement in my opinion and I hope they rehaul this holiday next year and do soemthing better with it or just make it like it was a one day event with no attachment to the meta-achievement
for the mount.
Easily my least favorite holiday.
Up to four bosses tonight in Ulduar, we didn’t get Ignis this run but we will soon.
New upgrades as well: Dragonslayer’s Brace & Signet of the Earthshaker
Ulduar is awesome 
I have Shocking both Normal and Heroic but tonight I just sucked it up and failed at tanking Thaddius. I am not eevn sure why, right at the initial charge I couldn’t tell my left from right. I am not sure if it is a lack of caring or just one of those nights when the brain is just not on the ball. Not that it takes alot of brainpower to know your left from your right, but it was a totally brain freeze. I felt pretty bad too, just pretty ruined the rest of my night in game. Which sucks because I barely play as it is. Maybe I just need to play some more and do some heroics to get my bearings again, I feel pretty off in general I am not sure.
The game does not seem fun, which it should so I have to wonder if this is where I cut my losses or just stick it out and get over this temporary malaise. There was a night where I wouldn’t make mistakes at all but lately I make alot of mistakes dumb ones. Maybe I just don’t care enough anymore to keep trying. Or maybe it was just an off night, I am not sure which at this point. I guess I just wonder if it will get better or just worse. I don’t like leveling alts, I get bored over time and then I just stop playing them altogether.
Maybe it is time to put up the shield for awhile. We shall see.
I have no updated in a while; truth be told I was a little bored with doing this content over and over. I have not followed Ulduar changes a closely as I used to so it will be a little bit of a surprise but not much. The tank changes will hopefully ad parity at the high end and we won’t have a situation where Deathknights followed by Druids are the best tanks for the extreme damaging content. Although since I was usually add duty or drake duty on Sartharion +3 I was rarely bored.
I find add tanking to probably be the most difficult and thankless role. Even more so in then ten-man version. We finally got the ten-man Undying achievement and still trying to get the 25-man achievement. I hope we can knock it out before Ulduar but if not there are other achievements to get and I won’t feel too bad about it. I really should update more often and will strive to get a post up at least weekly if not sooner.
In other news with all this extra time not playing I have taken to reading and enjoying my Changeling: The Lost books, if I am not doing one nerd thing it is another.
Oh and Happy Birthday to my girlfriend.
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It is done.
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I have been plugging away at this achievement seriously for the last two weeks or so when I am not raiding. Tonight I finished Emerald and Ruby Void; it was a tough battle. If you have heard it is easy, it isn’t and definitely something you want to try in a PuG unless you have people with the patience of saints. It takes coordination and a smidgen of luck but it can be done. The essential setup is Five Amber Drakes; one person charges the channeled ability, button 3, and the other four attack the boss till the 5th person gets ten charges. Then the other four channel and the fifth fires. If this is done correctly then the other four should instantly get 10 charges and they fire, while the fifth channels and it goes back and forth. You will need to spread the Time Stops up a bit we didn’t start using them till about 10-12 seconds into the encounter.
If done correctly you may not even get whelps and push him directly to his Planar Shift phase; simple fly away and once he comes out of it immediately time stop and get your channeling going again while the four others keep shooting. By this point it got a little hairy for us but we didn’t lose anyone till about 13% and we pushed him to his doom. The strategy has a some luck because the whelps don’t have a set time to spawn, but the best way to complete this is to not get whelps if you can help it.
It was a resounding moment of success after about an hour or so of attempts, I made sure to do them wearing my Festive Green Dress and nothing else that could take durability.
Hopefully tomorrow I will complete Make it Count and the the achievement will be done.
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After vanquishing multitudes of Scourge, powerful minions of the Lich King, and even the venerable Sapphiron; we came before the master of the dread citadel Naxxramas. No quarter was asked and none was given, the battle was joined against an immortal and indomitable foe… Kel’Thuzad cackled with madness as he did his best to throw us from his domain.
But it was I that had the Last Laugh when we threw down our enemy and crushed the evil within the dread citadel.
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Elder Vanifae, respect your elders people.
