And They Did it all in One Night

Naxx cleared. We started about 4 pm server and I still got to bed before 2 AM my time. Nicely done Bloodriver! I managed to off tank most of the bosses, only had one issue when I tried to take Dead Side during Gothik. We wiped... sorry. But, I also noticed that my biggest issue was in heals versus mana gained.

I wasn't taking enough damage for a healer to consider healing me as the off tank, so I didn't have mana to do anything more than hack at something with my turkey carver, as Vel calls it. Seriously, I was sitting on less than 100 mana much of the time, which grays out all of my tanking abilities. Nechi was a sweetie by innervating me instead of the healers... who apparently didn't need it. But with Innervate rolling my way, I had enough mana to pick up patrols that almost killed us... still can't believe we did die to that one trash pull... overconfident much? Or just blind to the pat?

And the greatest achievement I can think of?



Yes... Casavel survived the freaking dance!! Along with the rest of the raid. How we did that... I do not know but yay! Now I just need to get Tzia through it once. We also picked up a number of other achievements, including Momma Said Knock You Out and Arachnophobia. We might have had the Thadius one, but I know I took damage at one point due to polarity. They tried to talk me into switching out of Frost Resist Aura on Sarth, but I knew better, we were taking too much damage not to have it up. I mean, we swapped out a rogue for a healer that fight.

Ragmuffins vs H ToC

Spark post off of one over at Kestrel's Aerie.

Let me just start out by saying that Bloodriver is made up of crazy people. We will dang well try anything at least once or twice. A few days ago the crazy bug bit when a group of us were solidly running regular Trial of the Champion. I was tanking on Casavel, and our new level 80 druid duo was Dps and Heals for this, along with my husband on his shaman also recently 80, and our lovely other hunter, Niqora was running along for potential upgrades.

We ran ToC for much of the day, then our guild leader's wife, on her Dps rawr kitty said, "Hey, why don't we try Heroic of this?" Her husband flat out said "I don't think I can heal that, babe." Yet the tree / bear druid had been rocking along in regular, and they had both gotten various upgrades from running or had crafted upgrades when I threw leather at them from Tzia. We decided to run a Heroic Halls of Stone first. We figured, if we can handle that, and Towa (aka Mysthowl) can handle that? We can handle H ToC, or at least go down trying.

We breeze through Halls of Stone - even with the shaman in a mix of greens/blues/ and the Naxx 10 shoulder token piece. Then we fly back to ToC, make certain we are repaired and walk in.

The gods loathed us. We got the shaman, hunter, rogue to start off, we all cringed but stepped forward to potentially take a beating. We dropped all three, then ran the hell out of the instance. Came back with them on the far side of the room, buffed up, swapped out weapons (because unlike earlier we were pretty darn sure Towa couldn't heal through the Black Knight using his lance), and then destroyed healer, hunter, rogue.

And then for the first time of the day and the only time I encountered her - I kid you not - we get Pale Girl. I just stand there for a second, and over vent go "Okay, explain her really quickly, cause I've not seen her before - ever guys." Fight is explained, along with her quirks, and the Dps Kitty goes "Dang it, I think she only drops what I want on Regular." We also found out that the set of nine adds are much harder than on Regular (no duh hun?). Didn't realize that the priestess' mind controled, almost wiped my group as the tank when I got MC'd. We figure out what's happening and burn the heck out of the priestess', then the lightwarders, then the monks. Rinse repeat x2.

Pale drove us batty. She wiped us once because we couldn't burn down the Shade she summoned quickly enough the first go round. We rez, run out, repair, and come back in. We then proceed to go after her under the paladin Shadow Aura - 130 shadow resist ftw! She drops and gives Cas a new helm that I need to get socketed still. Then its time for the Black Knight.

He proved to be a cake walk after Pale. We knew that his third phase was always the hardest for us, just because we ALL take damage, and Towa the Tree always ends up as firewood right before the Knight dies. ALWAYS. So, we worked through phases 1 and 2, then he popped up for phase 3. We went to town, blowing everything we had. And I do mean everything - I chucked out any nasty to Undead ability I had (except turn undead - that might have killed us)and he dropped like a stone. I don't remember what he dropped, but we giggled for a bit, shakey from the adrenaline rush.

If a group of ragmuffins from Bloodriver with a part time tank tanking, and a part time off spec is Heals Tree can pull it off? I think the people saying OS 25 gear is a must are completely blipping batty and need to realize skill can overcome some gear barriers, or they are sure as **** making things harder than they actually are.

Basically? As long as one of the DPS is full epics from VoA/Naxx 10 and has the DPS numbers + a Def capped tank with 24k+ starting health minimum ... and a healer in crafted blues / epics + Normal ToC drops? Its been done. We did it, and the most the guild is doing at the moment is Naxx 10.

Now if you'll excuse me, the MC variety of the Crazy Bug has bitten... I'm off to see how many people I'm going to need in MC to actually GET to my leaf so I can go do that cool hunter level 60 EPIC to Hades and back quest.

First All Bloodriver Naxx 10

Well, I brought Casavel along and off tanked, with Vel as main tank. We cleared Spider Wing. Then did Plague Wing. Got to Heigan, died, died, died... oh did I mention... died? Repeatedly? Group decided to call Heigan, so we went on to deal with Patchwerk instead. Cas got a lovely new epic necklace out of a trash kill - yay upgrades, as Lin would say.

I main tanked Patchwerk... and died in about 3 seconds flat. That was an Oops. We tried again, I kept Patches focused on me, Vel ate the Hateful Strikes, we dropped him before he enraged. Guild was estatic. I was sitting there giggling, and dropped dead right after Patches did... not sure why, but I went splat.

Mage (Lin) didn't die on Frogger... Sol, our priest did. Vel deliberately killed himself... but what can you expect from a former paladin healer who would randomly DI people? Hehe.

Got to Grobbulus... and kept making mistakes. We had people that had to leave, so we called the run.

But boy did I ever have fun. I think its the most fun I've had in a run since the days of first starting out in Kara and being a healer short and ALMOST downing the Horseman on the first attempt. I've got to hand it to my guildmates, very little annoyed us... except the Safety Dance.

And, just because its stuck in my head... The Safety Dance

Ding 80 Paladin

Yep, you read correctly. Casavel is a level 80 paladin with 539 Def. She's just a point shy of being able to go directly into raiding. I'm not looking to raid with her just quiet yet, to be honest. All I want to be able to do right now is learn the heroic fights. Heroics will give me better gear... still wearing mostly Tempered Saronite.

I've been looking forward to 80 on Cas ever since Ticalos stopped playing. I had said, when he started appearing less and less in game that I would try and step up Cas' leveling and become the tank for the guild. In that time we've gotten another DK 80 that is willing to tank, and Vel is a Prot/Healy(Holy) dual spec. We have the tanks, and now Cas can be added as one more. I am willing to stand as a tank for Bloodriver, when we need it, or when Carpe Jugulum or The Unsung need a tank, and Shava isn't around on her 80 Paladin.

And, I have found out under a priest and a paladin healer (haven't worked under a shaman or druid extensively enough yet) to know I can handle anything that comes my way. If my healer is good? I'm good to go. I can handle moronic DKs, idiot hunters who don't know what threat is, and just about anything else.

I like this tanking gig I do believe. Have Shield, Will Travel too, I guess :)

Casavel, my paladin tank

"My comrades are my weapons, and I am their shield.
While I draw breath, they shall not perish.
So long as they live, our enemies will fall.
I am defender, protector, guardian.
I am a Paladin." - Cathela the Seeker

This sums up so well what I feel when I pull on the plate and pick up a shield. I may only be a lowly level 70 tankadin at the moment, but she's coming along, slowly, but sure in her path.

So far I've only done a few guilded runs, the first of which was tanking for a 65, 70, 72 group. Yes, we four manned a few things like Underbog and Mana Tombs with only four people. I must say my level 65 healer rocked. I only freaked out once... and that was because I was tanking a nexus terror right next to a four pull. We somehow didn't pick up the four pull and the fear sent me in the opposite direction, Anti-Shadow buffs non-withstanding. Cleared both = happy, bit more confidant paladin tank.

Yes, those were my first attempts tanking. And the 65 priesty (welcome back Sol!!) was 66 by the time we were done, and rocked my socks off. The group was willing to risk getting severely mauled by a complete and utter rookie tank. I'd never actually tanked an instance prior to attempting those two.

Then last night? We did Nexus and Azjol-Nerub (AN). I did die twice, through no fault of our tree druid. The first time? I wasn't familiar with the patrols, and had a second patrol right into me. Single group pull turned into a massive two group pull, and I went down HARD. It basically was 60%, 40%, Dead.

Zharve (the Tree): "Wtf Cas' health? OMG MOBS!" :Dead Tree:

The second time? First time handling Keri in Nexus. Forgot about the tail swipe thingie, turned her just wrong, dead plant life, so dead paladin, and the 80 hunter kills her after everyone else is dead... go go Niqo!

AN went flawless as far as I'm concerned. Though, The paladin retadin/holyadin (Vel)and our Tree did comment at one point that it got close... I didn't notice, was too busy trying to keep all the mobs in ONE SPOT. I didn't have time to glance up at health bars, my eyes were trained on the mobs being hit by consecrate. They stayed put. ^_^

As I said to them, "If nobody died, it was a good pull." I admit as a tank, I put my trust in the healer and just dive in. I'll do my job to the best of my ability, just keep me alive. That's all I ask. Especially while learning the ropes of how to be a paladin tank.

Thank You Bloodriver. Thank you for being willing to let me practice on guild mates before attempting a PuG of any instance. Being able to survive two healers tells me I might actually be able to carry off this crazy idea of being a tankadin for our guild at 80. I'm also humbled by the fact you are even willing to let me try, when everyone knows I'm a hunter first. Thank you.

Some Days

You know the old Meridith Brooks Song? Pugging BF one day, then Ramps the next on Yazmin... let's just say that BF went much smoother.

The only one a lil bit slow in Blood Furnace was the rogue. He "intercepted" my trap target 3-4 times. The shaman I was running with got my side-tells mostly *headesk* while traps were accidentally being poisoned/intercepted by the rogue and goofing my timers up. Once we got through the message of "Trap IS Blue Square", things came off without a hitch... until we missed a stealthed rogue while I was setting a pull and it killed me, which resulted in our first full wipe.

Then the rogue disconnected and didn't come back, so we ended up calling the run at about half way... hey, we tried to work without the rogue, couldn't find anyone, it had taken my guild mate and I about an hour just to get that group together, so I'm glad we got as far as we did - even though my guild mate subbed himself out for me because he had already run the instance, they had one too many dps slots and he subbed out in favor of my having Crowd Control.

Hellfire Ramparts. Suposed to be easier than Blood Furnace. And it probably would have been if not for an idiot tank. Group makeup was a 70 Tankadin, a Holy Pally, a 70 Hunter, a Priest and Me. The Tankadin tried to tell me at 61, to drop a Snake Trap, even though I was fully capable of chain trapping. When I pointed out I wouldn't have it, he tried to claim he'd been talking to the 70, and refused to double chain trap. If both hunters are fully capable? WHY NOT?! I won't use the trap on my 70 with other hunters around if we are trapping things, because I'm pretty sure the snakes poison, which would goof any other hunter's trap target up.

Wouldn't suprise me if it weren't annoyed stress but my eyes started bugging out after a few pulls, litterally not wanting to focus on the computer screen. My DPS dropped way off, because I wasn't seeing correctly and after we managed to down the first boss the hunter and the tank announced they had Kara and had to leave. I hit Alt F4 and shut my computer down.

When your eyes don't want to see right, which makes you question where your mouse is, what your shot rotation is actually doing (fingers were over one too many for the rotation to work), and your send pet macro targets the wrong thing... its just time to get off the computer.

I'll save Blood Furnace and Ramps for another day I guess. Maybe I won't have to deal with dimwitted 70s... but maybe I should have realized that when I realized the tank was 70 and doing a "new to Outlands" instance?