Weekend Recap

I know: Pretty blah title for a weekend that was really quite eventful (at least for me). As many of you know, I’ve been talking about my desire to run more instances, and eventually get into some Karazhan runs. I took several steps in that direction this weekend, both small and large.

Friday 

On Friday, a couple of us were kicking around looking for something to do, debating about pugging, when someone put out a call for some help in Sethekk Halls. It was a 70 priest, trying to help out a 60-something dwarf warrior. So, we volunteered Hunter and Mage. Our fifth was another mage, so plenty of CC. The warrior was kinda slow on marking, and must have been drinking too much beer, since he took a bio break at every boss…but we got through Sethekk in good order. Fortuitously, Talonis hadn’t done the quests in there, so I was able to get a bunch of extra Lower City rep. 

Shortly after we started Sethekk (right after my first chain trap, I think), the Priest whispered and asked if I’d be interested in a Steamvault run after Sethekk: She had a great pally tank already lined up. Heck yeah! I didn’t need it, but was more than willing to grab some extra HH rep. About this time, our Boomkin logged on, so I told the priest we could supply the rest of the DPS. 

We finished up Sethekk without major incident, and proceeded over to Zangarmarsh. As soon as we got there, the priest was very apologetic: Her tank friend wasn’t able to make it at the last minute. So the other three of us conferred. A friend was on her 70 SPriest, but I asked if she’d be willing to bring her 67 Feral Druid to the fray. She said sure, she’d give it a try.

We had a couple wipes, mainly because at 67, the druid couldn’t quite hold aggro against all the firepower we were dumping into mobs (yes, threat meters were in use, but still…). There was also the patrol that wandered by at a very inopportune moment (the one time one of my traps broke very early). But overall, a very good run.

I was very, very happy with the way I was trapping. Never had to get up to a third trap, but I was definitely in the groove had the need arisen. And I never once broke my own trap (I usually do that on the first trap, just to get it out of the way).

The priest, who generally wasn’t geared as well as the rest of us, was fretting that she wasn’t doing a very good healing job, but her Lightwell sure came in handy a couple times. We assured her, though, that she was doing just fine: Remember, the tank was a bit low for that instance, given all the threat the other three of us were generating, so the priest was having to do a lot more healing than she’d normally have to do. We told her we’d be happy to have her heal for us anytime.

So we progressed on through the rest of the instance to the final boss. And there was where our tank really had trouble. After two wipes, she said she’d found a well-geared guildie (she’s in a major raiding guild) who was willing to tackle Kalithresh with us. Umm…yeah. He was fully geared in T5 or equivalent, and was also a Feral Druid. Needless to say, we took Kalithresh down without incident. Well…except when the tank hollered, "Growl off!" Umm…HUH? Oh.My.Goodness. For two instances I’d had Talon’s growl on: No WONDER the cat was getting so much threat compared to the tanks!

Actually, this wasn’t such a bad thing: It probably kept the warrior alive more in Sethekk, and my cat was pretty much off-tanking throughout Steamvault. But still, that’s not an excuse. I know better. At least Talon was on Passive.

Saturday

Saturday, the Boomkin and I started doing some BGs (except she was on her SPriest). Eye of the Storm was the daily, so we started there. Epic fail. When we returned to the queue in Shattrath, we were standing in front of one of our new friends from RavenLoft guild, with whom we’d run a couple instances and BGs last week, including our failed MrT run. He was grouped with a guildie, so the four of us joined forces. First, we took down EOTS with an epic win. It wasn’t close: Something like 2000 – 400. Then we headed to Alterac Valley, and the Boomkin replaced her SPriest.

I don’t understand AV anymore. Before 2.4 came out, we (Alliance) won 70% of the time.  Now, we lose 70 percent of the time. I guess moving the Horde starting point closer to Drek’Thar really made quite a difference. But it seems to me the fights should be 50-50 now, rather than 30-70. At any rate, we got spanked a few times, then started winning.

The four of us were communicating on Skype (if you’re not using Skype for 5-mans or smaller, you’re missing out; unfortunately, it’s limited to 9 on voice chat at one time), so we were having a pretty good time yacking it up, and trying to coordinate some of our actions. Generally, our group leader was also the raid leader, so we were always able to be in the same group within the raid (Boomkin, two BMs and a Fire Mage). We lost several, a couple by a considerable margin, then we finally won a couple. 

The couple hours we spent running BGs convinced me that I could be happy in their guild. However, they are long on hunters, and short on healers, so I decided Osprey was the better candidate to move. My offer to move him was readily accepted, and voila! Out of Are we Done Yet, and into RavenLoft. Shortly thereafter, the Boomkin moved her warrior as well. So our "trinity" of Warrior, Mage, Priest are reunited under one guild tabard. 

It wasn’t too much longer that the three of us joined a guildie for MrT, along with a very, very jumpy (and opinionated) rogue. We got through the first couple pulls just fine, then our pally guildie disconnected. We waited, but after about 5 minutes the rogue dropped, and the three of us decided it was time to finish dailies. I was sorry not to be able to finish MrT on Osprey: I was looking forward to a serious challenge for my healing abilities.

I did get Osprey into another pug (with the same pally) about 30 minutes later, but the tank bailed on us after a bad pull caused a wipe. I thought we were doing okay (although I think I could have done a better healing job on the bad pull), but I was pretty tired by this time, so I wasn’t too disappointed at not going further. All in all, a busy and eventful day.

Sunday

A very quiet day: Mother’s Day contributing in no small measure, I’m sure. After dinner, I was puttering around when I saw a plea in the Trade Channel for a DPS to kill Kael’Thas in MrT. I sent a tell and was immediately invited and summoned to Quel’Danas.

My first face-to-face with Kael, and the fight was as easy as I’d heard. I died shortly after we got rid of the Egg; still not sure how: I had just used a healpot, and saw Lifebloom bloomed on me, putting me at full health. Next thing I knew, I was dead. But the Druid was kind enough to cast Rebirth, so I was able to help with the kill. The drops were cloth, which I passed, but at least I finally finished the instance! The group seemed very good, and fun: I was sorry I hadn’t been able to run the whole way with them.

About that time, one of the guild leaders logged on his mage. He was trying to finish getting the mats for his Spellfire Robe. I was able to help him out with 5 spellcloth, then I logged in Talonis and we went off to Terokkar to farm Netherweb Spider Silk. As usual, the drop rate was abysmal, but we did get the job done.

Along the way, I asked him about the guild’s policy on newbies bringing in alts to the guild. One thing led to another, then to a /gquit and /ginvite for Talonis. I asked him to indicate Osprey as the Alt, and I fully intend to heal as many instances as I can. But the Beastmaster is my first love.

All in all, a very busy, very fulfilling, and very rewarding weekend.