How to make 1-4= something greater than zero..

Lately I've been getting Grimrpr steamrolling into as much content as possible.

I haven't gotten IN to see Ony yet, but I have been in 3 groups that just suddenly dissolved or lagged on forever and still didn't get in. So.. I'm hoping to get in there and get an upgrade or two for my dps/tanking sets to move myself up a little. I may give up on tanking altogether though..

I have found the yearning within my heart.. Arena.

With mcgoo it was terrible. My job was to dot everyone before they all killed me. Sometime in the 70 cap days, there was a bunch of super-uber locks that pwned everyone. It wasn't me, but I sure felt the backlash. Start a match, let the rogue hide and walk out alone away from the group. The WHOLE other team (healer, dps, cc) all ran right at.. ME. So I got to die VERY fast. My team did okay for the pure reason of me being such easy fodder, and my spellpower really sticking it to people even after I died.

Now.. With Grimrpr.. Its, um. Mostly the same. Only with plate. I am in a 2's team most frequently with my buddy.. a rogue. He outgears me by a lot, but I am competitive with survivability and dps output. I'm the bait. I'm the lure to pull people in. So I run out.. run in a circle and hide behind a pillar. Most people in 2's will divide to have 1 person on each side of the chicken, in this case me. What this does is give my roguish buddy a chance to pwn someone without their helper around to do squat. Well you get the idea.. we suck something awful, but we've improved a lot each week so far.

So.. what is the problem? I play wow about 14 hours in a 7 day period. That time sounds pretty steep, but consider.. WG is a every 2 hours kinda funtrip, and lfg takes TIME. I have a great desire to make grim a higher end raider.. I also have a desire to make him viable in arena matches.. The solution?

I don't have one.. I was really hoping you did. Right now I feel like I'm splitting my time and so everything suffers (gamewise). I just ditched my blood tanking spec for something more saucy for PVP and arena. So far I pwned a lot in WG, but haven't had a chance to partner up for some practicing. I am itching now to replace my weapon with a arena one, but with OUR rating? That'll never happen..

Tic ToC

I am in such a rush to get into the new heroic and normal dungeons Trial of the Crusader.

If you haven't heard of this... its the new Argent Tournament style dungeons (and a raid to boot!)

I'm not sure exactly how hard these new places are.. The reason for that is.. I can't get in a bloody group!

I think this is the new DK mecca so there are a million groups looking for healers/tanks.. but full on DPS. I have seen 2 groups with 3 DK's in it. The heroic version drops a axe (oooo yum!) that is the only REAL upgrade to titansteel destroyer (ahem.. my mace) until Late 25man Naxx. So its a big deal. My dps is holding pretty solid at the 2k mark, not shabby.. but I still can't find a group that needs my particular brand of mayhem and slaughter.

So in the mean time.. I'm running a ton of dailies on my 2 80's and piling up the gold for the eventuality that Grimrpr will be my only epic flying character.. on his nifty dragon.. So there..

OMG.. where am I?

Well with for frickin ever past since I posted (which was when Grimrpr was dinging 70), here are some updates...

1. Grimrpr is now 80!!
2. Grimrpr can now sustain 2k dps!
3. Grimrpr can now pwn everyone! (especially healing druids..)
4. Grimrpr.. can't um.. get in a raid to save his life.
5. Grimrpr won a dragon mount (woot, COS timed lootz)
6. Grimrpr can't ride it.. :( saving up though.. getting there soon
7. Bored with Grimrpr for now.. so started leveling Bigscrybear
8. The 'bear' hit 62.. and is dealing with life fine..

So basically I'm using mcgoo and grim to run tournament dailies and see if I can get grim into a heroic nexus or something.. Which is boring.. doing the same quests 2x's in a row. But oh well.. I seem to be looting over 70g a day.. and this is ONLY doing the super fast quests, solo.

Jeez.. when did I forget how awesome mcgoo is? I one-shotted a dragon in icecrown, and was literally cursing aloud at the power. Crit for 8k? srsly? dang. I am still bored with him though. Nothing is a challenge and I can't get into raids. Realistically, I should be guild shopping for one that raids during times I can.. But I'm not. There are a few I have looked into, but they are either not wanting warlocks, or full on DK's. At this point Grim is 'part of the package', and frankly more fun. Running TOWARDS ppl trying to kill me is a new thought for a guy who played a short warlock. I usually ran away.. (insta curses/diseases FTW!!). That is still proving to be fun (the plate wearing skull bashing).

Well.. I have begun my 2nd siege of the AH as well, and I am doing well. I am not necessarily pushing for MAXIMUM GOLD!!! but I am pushing for SOME gold. There is a margin, which is small, where you can undercut most competitors, while still making some decent gold. My time spent farming is being fruitful? Nah. I'm not farming. I am just doing H VH. Skinning all the dragons and OS10 skinning there too. Sometimes I get dragonscales (which oddly don't sell as fast) but I at least get leather. Now realize that for a long time I was hitting there (both) daily, and you see how I got so much leather. Managed to make a paultry 800g in selling it all. Could have probably pushed to the 1k's if I had spent the time on it and all, just didn't feel like it.

More to come, this time for sure!!

Ding 70...

Well I log on last night hoping to push my uber DK up to 70. He was just standing there looking bad as heck.. I had checked armory during the day and found out that he lost all his talents. So I go to re-talent the poor schmuck.. and wait a second.. wth?

Talents = 0
unspent talents = 0

How is that? So I ask around to other DK's.. maybe its a quirk or something.. Nope. Nobody is having any issues. Soooooooo I put in a ticket with a GM. And wait. And wait. And wait. And wait.

Then I got tired of waiting and just decided that I wanted to hit 70 anyway. So off I went. Did you know a 69 DK can hold off 12 pirates in borean tundra? No you didn't cuz I couldn't do it. I ended up killing 5 of them before they got me. Next time I managed to kill 8. Why am I killing pirates? was I on a quest? No. I was doing my new "brainiac" idea of using my DK's ability to run ON water to get me places faster (straight line, and all that). Just so happened the cove of pirates that you quest in later was in my way. So anyway, I rounded up the tuskar quests in the valley of crazy mages and demon dogs, and pounded them out. Then migrated to "amber ledge" to talk to dragons.. and kill/skin dragonkin. DING..

Wow, that really didn't take that long did it? (don't answer.. you weren't there anyway) So I look at my talents again to see if maybe another point might have un-screwed it up for me. HA HA! I have points to spend! So I put in a point on improved icy reach or whatever.. and boom.. all gone again.

RINGALING (not a quote, but close)
GM- Hi read your petition about not having talent points.. sucks to be you. I'll just hand that over to our technical staff to handle
Me- Is there an ETA or an average wait time?
(7 minutes pass)
GM- This is an automated message your GM is not listening to this. Deal with it.

Now given that GM's have typically been really cool for me, I don't understand this kinda thing. I was basically fed a canned answer and then disconnected so I couldn't talk to the guy/gal/robot. My hopes are that if I can sneak away from family time this weekend, Ole Grimrpr will have his talents restored or totally reset. Either way.. I just like seeing what I have so I can compare and contrast things I may/maynot want for the future.

So if you are the GM that ignored me.. in the future good customer service would dictate you say something like (do not reply to this) in the first message so I know I just got a update and not that there is someone wanting to speak to me about my issue. I'm not hard to please.. I thought talking to a GM would be neat, and it kinda was.. didn't really get any responses.. ever.. but as long as the problem gets fixed, why should I care.. Right?

To 70... and BEYOND!!

hiatus

Like the title says.. my blogging has been on hiatus.

Well new news... :)

I have been playing mcgoo well until 3.1 dropped. I actually swapped spec back to heavy affliction (yeah!! dots return!). I am sup'ed up and ready to go for some raiding right?... RIGHT?? Well not entirely. My gear doesn't suck per se, but it surely isn't good enough for the "woo hoo wipefest" that guilds are having in Ulduar. Although I think my guild has recently finished Ulduar 25.. I don't have the gear to really be a help there. I'd like to get some of my 200 level gear up to 213 or 225. So I plan on hitting EoE, and OS25 a few times and see if something happens that way. Aside from that all Mcgoo has been doing is pounding away at Sons of Hodir Rep.

So...

That got boring so I bought the herloom shoulders with the XP boost for ole Grimrpr.. And within 3 days.. he went from 65.. to 69. I burned all his rested, moved him to Northrend, and have already completed the first leg or so of the borean tundra quests. Which, by the way, are much easier with a DK that can handle taking on 5 mobs at once. The most substantial of all my upgrades is my new axe the "blubber clubber" and the sword from a noob quest in borean tundra. I measured at least 4-5 crits above 2600 which seems ungodly high for only 69.. I managed to completely exhaust my rested on Grim and nailed about 69 and a half or so. Then I parked him. I PLAN on leaving him there for a week or so to do that last big push to 70 and onward afterthat. (To me 70 is a milestone for abilities so its good to get to it and master them so that you can move ahead well). I spec'd my 69 talent point into.... Corpse Explosion! It just sounds fun, doesn't it? We'll soon see..

Wowee zowee

Well I rarely find good groups for heroics and whatnot.. but last night was definitely the exception to the rule. I had a big night, and that was even before I got in group with these guys..

1) COS - timed attempt - failed.
Despite not getting the timed event done and me getting a chance to loose another roll on the epic drake.. sigh. It was pretty good though. My dps was consistent, and I pushed the tempo on a lot of fights (which is what I like). I either led in dps or I was narrowly defeated. Either way the COS event went well and if we had another 2 minutes we'd have gotten a chance to let me fail at that dragon roll.. ROFL.

2) Utguarde Keep (2nd group)
We stormed through here very fast, we did well with 2 dk's and a pally healer me and a hunter doing dps. I was pwned a bit here, but not by very much. We ran through crazy crazy fast. I finally got a shoulder upgrade.. FINALLY.

At the end everyone was still kinda pumped up.. so we decided to do a UP run since we were all here. The hunter crapped out on us, but we ended up getting another DK (very well geared) to help out.

3) Utguarde Pinnacle (same group except the new DK)
The new DK pwned me in dps most of the time.. I managed to end the instance with like 400 more total damage (yeah, that close). I think I got an upgrade here but last night was such a whirlwind.. Ah yes.. I got my belt. I have it updated with the buckle and all since I may avoid the guzbah belt now since this seems to be good.

Ok now the group stayed the same right? Nope.. the new DK left to go tank some such nonsense. Good for her. I got my ole buddy wulven in on the instance that came next.. which worked out well for him.

4) Violet hold
We stomped through squidhead boss.. then the birdman boss.. then even cyanigosa. My dps was off the heezy for sheezy this time. I topped all the charts by a long shot and managed to get about 2200dps. Which is where I want to be at the current point.

Wulvy got a new cape and didn't roll on the staff of tricks or whatever cyanigosa drops. I smacked him since nobody would use it.. but he's new to this heroic stuff. His dps was where mine was when I started he was nailing down 1300dps.

Then I dropped a buttload of gold to upgrade all my new stuff (gems and whatnot, buckles..). Check me out on armory now and you'll see a even more improved Mcgoo.

Later and hopefully updates will come more frequently.

Put me in coach!

Well getting geared up for naxx and doing the more complicated things that are done in heroics (timed runs, etc..), as well as OS.. Well its been rough for me. I've made decent progress through the gear, and even managed to get some rep going with kirin tor.

So I log on, on Sunday..

I look at my spreadsheet of gear/location/time and see where I should go LFG for.. I make my normal comments about how all the cool kids are in Naxx.. (I think they are funny, but I'm probably alone on that). My guild leader throws me a bone..

GL: "wanna come?"
Me: "obviously, but I'm not much help.. gear is bad.. dps is about 1500 atm"
GL: "don't worry about it, should be fine"
Me: [giggles, and says outloud.. NO F'n WAY!
GL: [invite]
Me: [faint]... [quick hit accept]

Now my GL is very well geared. Very very well geared. Its sick really, but yeah he's just well geared. 3-4 others from my guild are in the raid.. oh wait.. this isn't naxx10, but heroic? Uh oh.. I wonder how long till I get shown the door for poor dps?

Well it didn't happen. I did what I had intended to do.. I did my best with my DOT's and trinkets and everything else and let the chips fall where they would. My DPS, btw, was stellar.. I pumped out a total (including trash/everything) 1500 dps.. on boss fights I ranged from 1200 (ew).. to 2100 (ROCK OUT). In looking at this I couldn't help to notice I was dead f'n last. by a margin of always about 1500 dps.

Knowing my margin of for dps now you will understand the following statements. I got a TON of gear. I won't bore you with what it all was cuz you can look at armory or wowheroes and see.. I've been to naxx 1x, so everything to date is from there. I didn't just GET everything, there was a ruling on who got what.. and really that was fine with me. When our guid's highest rated DPS'er (a lock) rolled on a trinket against me I immediately thought of passing.. luckily I rolled a 9.. so I got to still LOOK like I was a greedy SOB. I just kinda thought, while that would basically be my single greatest piece of gear.. if it would benefit her, then seriously.. she should have it as all her gear is stellar. Having greens/blues from 77's on you means everything is a upgrade, and getting ANY upgrades was a huge bonus for me.

My initial gear ideas put me reasonably high on the hit cap and still had reasonable damage. With my upgrades I will be better than that now. I still need quite a lot though.. I plan on raiding vaults tonight and pray for a upgrade or 2 to drop (why not? everyone else does..).

Here is my grocery list, at the moment:
Head (H-COS)
Shoulders (H-COS)
Waist (H-HOL, or wormrest honored)
Trinket(40 badges, and VH)
Neck (H-Ahn'Kahet Old kingdom/ 25 badges)
Wrist (H-UP)

Strat is my money pot at the moment.. I could get my 2 big upgrades that I plan on from there.. Head/shoulders (lmao.. you'll get it in a minute). UP is 5 badges and VH is 3. So I plan on trying to hit those 3 places after tonight if I can get vaults raided for the week. I guess I COULD save up badges instead of getting a trinket or a necklace.. I could get some of my T7 stuff.. My problem is impatience. I feel like, if I can get a few upgrades I can get my dps to around 2k.. THEN I can go anywhere. Well anywhere people are pugging, anyway. So if I get into a naxx a week or a OS a week.. or even get in on Malygos (got a quest to get a necklace there.. so that'd be nice) I always win on any upgrade that drops. I'd really like to get the badge belt sash of.. somebody.. Anyway, most every lock I see raiding naxx 25 seems to have that belt. Even if all their other gear is in good shape they keep that belt. I hate buying things, ever.. but if I am buying something I want it to last. Plus with a belt I can add a socket thanks to my good buddy the smith, which means I basically get to add 14-19 spellpower to anything I get there. I'd just go ahead and do that now on my green belt (which would make it pretty competitive.. gearwise).. But its not FREE to do, so I'd like to minimize the harrassment I put my friends through and minimize my gold output.. I mean.. Someday.. I'd like to have an epic flier.

Hopefully tonight will yield me some gold and some upgrades!!