Yoshi had DPS issues for awhile. She had switched to LOLFIRE for a bit at the behest of boss and bro, but after patch 4.2 her DPS, uh, went right into the crapper. I was getting kicked from LFD because I couldn’t quite break 6k. Oof. :(

So I’m all “screw it, I’m going back to Arcane,” because that’s a lot easier to pound out (blast x5, missiles almost always procs, then barrage, rinse and repeat) and now I’m doing at least 11k, so all those stupid people in PUGs can shut their pie holes about my DPS. :P

Better still? Check that screencap: hell yeah, Legacy of Arlokk w/ Power Torrent chant. >:D Yoshi is almost ready to jump back into the raid pool (or at least join on Firelands trash runs for recipes *Homer drool*) and just needs two more iLvls… and chances are that will come from a foot upgrade. I think.

Troll Butcherer, dood. Freaking WoW’s version of the Haseo-brand chainsaw sword. Old man Phil passed along a Massacre chant-on-a-scroll, for extra AWESOME.

If Hynderia were a Fury Warrior at 80, she could dual-wield it. But, this space goat is Arms, so she only gets one. Still, CHAINSAW SWORD! (Or at least looks close enough to one.)

Not sure if I’ll get her a Quel’Delar just so she has one— it has a pretty long shelf life as Leslie was able to make hers last until 83-ish before it started to become obvious that there were better 2h swords out there. I’m not sure if Hynderia, too, will end up being another sword junkie or if I’ll find/make some badass freaking axe. (Leslie I was kinda picky with… swords or bust with her!)

Elsewhere, Yoshi is close to once again being raid-viable. Finally got Exalted with Baradin Wardens and I think I’ve hit my limit on gear upgrades I can do with justice points/reputation. BUT, it looks like this time my brother may want to take me with him when we start fishing for raid teams, as opposed to last time when he just went off on his own. Not sure who I’ll be gearing up next… boss and bro sound like they may want Phil just so we have healers on hand once one of our other guildies leaves for boot camp (!). I don’t mind, but I like playing Hynderia and Rei, too… hmm.

Guh, I should have gone to bed already.

Leslie dinged 85. (Guild first FTW!) Sadly, it was about an hour after my brother left for work, so he didn’t get to see. Booooo!

I dunno if I’ma finish clearing Twilight Highlands and Uldum before I throw in Yoshi. I do need to max Leslie’s Blacksmithing, if only so she can make that badass sword… and shove all the excess craftables onto Phil for DE fodder. ;P

Levelling order for my remaining 80s is as follows unless something compels me otherwise: Yoshi -> Rei -> Dinah -> Phil*

Chances are, old man Phil may end up stalking someone else in the guild to heal them (or sitting in LFD, ew) because I sure as hell am not putting his shadow spec back on. Phil and DPS builds don’t exactly get along. :( Also holy crap Dinah is going to be so freaking spoiled, she’ll have awesome craftables available to her off the bat because of those who came before her. :D All part of the master plan~

First, “third-zerging” Sindragosa = no, does not work, ohgod my repair bill. (“third-zerging” in this case being “only let one person at a time be an ice block, don’t bother dropping stacks and just nuke the everloving smoo out of Sindy in the meantime) Oddly enough, this runs counter to all my previous Sindragosa posts that painted her as the Ridley of WoW.

…well, she IS, but more like Meta Ridley than X-Ridley in that the fight is not a clusterfwegh of DPS and you actually have to think about positioning at some point.

ANYWAY…

Hello, Frozen Throne. I’ve only seen it once before, on Leslie… and very briefly at that. This raid group wants Kingslayer as much as I do, to the point where we’re considering extending the lock until we walk away with that title and Mr. Lich King’s ice cream. That bastard, walking around with tasty chocolate chip scourge-y dough!

Phase 1 is simple enough… somewhat reminiscent of Rotface with the having to hoof it over to the OT when you get slapped by Necrotic Plague. With this group, the first transition is more like “everyone pile up and DPS the crap out of the adds ASAP,” also pretty easily done. Phase 2, though…

DEFILE. At last we meet. The bane of a Kingslayer’s existence… and literally a pool of gray goo. Seriously, what is it? Scourge poo? Rotten ice cream? Melted tire rubber?

My brother is often on an alt but able to listen in on the shenanigans. I’m convinced he’s eating popcorn. Munch away, you smug fool… even if I have to share my Kingslayer title with two (awesome) guildies, you shall pooh-pooh me no more! :P

Finally: Dinah the Ninja Jeweler. At last, raking in a small profit on a daily basis. Not only will this get me MOAR PROFIT, but will also pay for her next flight training and her second Sky Pop (seriously, Engineer flying machines are freaking Sky Pops from Super Mario Land). >:D

If you’ll indulge me a bit of absolutely nonsensical tinfoil hat-ness (and Metroid geekery) here…

I know I’ve mused on this before, but it must be said again: Sindragosa is the Ridley of WoW.

Think: big freaking bony dragon, penultimate boss, encounter is a great deal about crazy ranged DPS. Even her entrance into battle reeks of Ridley!

True, Sindy is significantly chattier than Ridley. But she’s got that same sadist streak (understandable considering she got shafted hardcore as Malygos’ former consort). Of course, if you want to split hairs, I’d say she’s more like the X-Ridley in Metroid Fusion, since both are more or less zombies~

Yoshi and Leslie have thus far been the only ones to take her on (and only Leslie has been able to footstomp her). I was kinda hoping Rei would be the first to kill her, since Rei is a hunter and, well, some in Across would claim her root character draws a touch of inspiration from Samus. Oh well. All the same, I gotta rock some flavor of the Ridley fight theme (either the original Meta Ridley from Metroid Prime, or the Brawl remix of it).

You know what would be stupidly funny, though? Rei ought to bust out some crazy, presumably-Goblin Engineering-made oversized rocket and fire it right into Sindragosa’s mouth as the killshot. I’m totally serious— it’d be her freaking Super Missile. :D And if you’ve played Metroid: Zero Mission, you would know that Super Missiles were ridiculously overpowered (perhaps intentionally so). This almost makes me wish Blizzard wasn’t axing ammunition with 4.0.1. Of course, this doesn’t rule out adding some kind of “super rocket” item (perhaps as a new ICC craftable for Engineers to replace the removal of their ammo?). That would be fun, too— an Engineer-only crazy missile, and a second, less-powerful version that could be used by anyone.

…the “Sindragosa = Ridley” thing brings up another question: who would be considered the Kraid of WoW? I almost want to say Rotface and Festergut fill that role.

Ah, extended maintenance. Usually the signal of OMG PATCH, and in this case, it’s the one that literally sets up for the END OF THE WORLD.

Cataclysm? Do want. Screw coordinating with my brother, if I can just buy the upgrade code at launch. I bought the activation codes for vanilla, BC and Wrath, so why change? Less waste of having all that packaging that I’ll never touch, either. :P

Anywho, while the masses cry about nerfs and talent overhauls and what-have-you, I’ll tell you what I’m reeeeeeally looking forward to: Flexible Raid Lock. HELL YEAH. No more being SOL for the week when my raids bleed out after some fool ragequits after Marrowgar, or during the mass bleed-outs in 25-man after freaking Saurfang. (Well, 10-man bleed-outs have been less of an issue for Leslie and Yoshi as of late, those two have been pretty good about getting into raids that can clear up to Sindragosa.) If they bleed out, it’s just a matter of flashing my golden ticket and transmigrating into a less fail group later on in the week.

Because, you know, I reeeeeeally want Kingslayer. Bwahahaha~

Also? Scaled mount speeds. Now, I’m probably in a minority, but I like the looks of the basic ground mounts (especially the horses and hawkstriders) FAR more than the “epic” ground mounts. Since when does “armored horse” = “faster horse?” If anything, armor should make you slower! Nice to know that I can break out my AMAZING HORSE that isn’t encumbered with all that ugly armor and looks all evil, but not be slower than mud. This applies particularly to Yoshi and Phil. Something about cloth-users… they just look better on basic mounts. :P Same goes for their original flying mounts; the base gryphons look so much cuter!

Finally… really? Dual Monitor Support? It’s mentioned in the patch notes. I AM INTRIGUED. I’ll have to investigate further when the servers come up.

You know how I said I tend to favor guild-dominated runs? I still do, but tonight was a reminder that they, too, are imperfect.

The team I was with was pretty close to ironing out the last burps and kinks in stomping Sindragosa in her not-Ridley face (no, really, she’s pretty much Ridley with a Rita Repulsa-like voice) and someone in the guild’s group ragequits so hard he also gquit ALL of his other alts… or so that’s what I heard over Vent from everyone else. While this spelled an obvious end to this ICC10, at least it didn’t implode because of something I did.

Sindragosa… really isn’t that hard compared to the other not-LK ICC bosses, really. If anything, each phase just adds something extra onto the previous, in a way that’s quite manageable. Unchained Magic is easily dealt with, by just slowing down a bit (in Yoshi’s case, it was simply a matter of bringing her spell rotation down to 3 Arcane Blasts + Arcane Missiles as opposed to the usual 5x Blasts + Missiles + Barrage). At least, that’s what it seems for me. If anyone’s a pain to deal with, it’s probably Rotface because of HOLY SMOO SLIME ALL OVER; it and slime spray make finding the goo-kiting tank a little hard to find at times, but even that becomes second nature after a few encounters.

This, of course, is speaking for 10-man normal… and 25-man isn’t that much of a stretch, either (aside from, you know, the logistical mess of herding 25 doods around)… Being able to do Heroic modes would be nice but not essential.

There is still Leslie, who hasn’t used up either her 10 or 25-man slots, and surely there will be plenty of last-minute ICC teams tomorrow. Maybe I’ll get lucky and she’ll get a shot at mr. Lich King. And, worst case… everything resets on Tuesday anyway.

I WILL have Kingslayer so I can taunt my brother with it before Cataclysm (“You are special snowflake NO MORE!” Bonus win if I send it as an audio message in a Magica DeSpell voice XD). That much is for sure. Bwahahaha. Really, this isn’t meant to be jerky at all, more of a bop on the nose for pooh-poohing me early on but not doing much to help. :P That, and bro gets the added bonus of me finally being able to raid alongside him consistently when the expansion hits. It will have taken 2 years, but gear and raid knowledge disparity shall separate us no more!