Making Friends

Egads, what a weekend.

Beginning Friday night, we cleared both the Siege and Antechamber, getting our first Orbital Bombardment in the process (Two emblems of conquest! Only ten more weeks, and I'll be able to buy something!). We are now beginning to hone our runs down to a level of efficiency at which we should be able to do a full clear in two nights of raiding, ala Naxx. I am especially proud of our progress in light of the fact that we have something of a rotating cast of raiders, with at least one or two Ulduar-virgins every week.

Saturday night was no less rewarding. We finally repeated our first Hodir kill (ok, so you don't actually kill any of the Keepers...), and even managed an accidental I Have the Coolest Friends. We then moved on to Thorim, who we had only faced once before, and not successfully. But, after a couple of attempts in which we got the hang of taking down the constantly spawning adds in time without pulling aggro off the tank (ahem... >_>), we defeated him quite easily.

Next was Freya, who none of us had actually attempted before. Our plan was basically to get some easy emblems from the three Elders, and then put in some time learning the main encounter. We went about clearing the trash (protip: according to one of our Paladins, the dragon mobs are immune to Repentance) and the Elders without much trouble.

The first couple attempts on Freya herself were indeed learning experiences; Snaplashers killing tanks, Gifts of Eonar not getting cut down in time, etc. But on try number three, everything just clicked, and, well...

(Protip #2: since the Snaplashers won't attack melee who are not on top of their threat list, Hunters can hit them with a distracting shot once their debuff roots them, allowing melee DPS to continue hacking with impunity)

Finally, we moved on to the Spark of Imagination (a.k.a. Mimiron's workshop, a.k.a. coolest trash pulls ever. I'm not going to spoil it for you - it was a neat little surprise for all of us :D). We rode the bullet train (You heard that right. Seriously, Ulduar really does get more awesome the farther in you go.) to Mimiron's inner sanctum, said hi, and were promptly vaporized. It was after midnight at that point, so we called it a night, content in the knowledge that the Old Gods and their minions will soon fall before us.

And, because I know you care, here's the weekend's hunter loot haul: Belt of the Blood Pit, Boots of Unsettled Prey, and Shawl of the Shattered Giant.

Back in the Saddle

In which our hero returns to the villain's lair, and leaves dragging a sack of loot.

Night one of this week's Ulduar was positively overflowing with win. First, it was an official Night of Hunter Loot (TM) - there were three of us, and we each left with at least one upgrade. Myself, I finally replaced the old Nesingwary with this piece of Titan technology, not to mention these imitation tier 8 shoulders!

Even more impressive (as if anything could be more impressive than hunter loot), we scored three deathless boss kills and one o' them cruel and unusual punishments, bringing us that much closer to classy titles and rusty dragons.

Tonight - the Keepers!

I Can't See a Damn Thing in This Tin Can!

So, after tonight's regularly-scheduled lich beating, we decided to give EoE10 a few shots, mainly just to test out our druid's new Key to the Focusing Iris - honestly, you'd think Maly would have changed his locks by now.

We walked, nay, swaggered into his domain - and were repeatedly vaporized. We gave it three good shots, making it to phase three almost flawlessly each time, but we definitely need more practice on the drake riding bit. Also, on the final attempt before our healers had to split, we encountered a bug which ejected us from our mounts, only to re-mount us a few seconds later. Needless to say, that pretty much blew any rhythm we had going (and have I mentioned how much I HATE "vehicle" combat? Unwieldy, buggy, contrived vehicle combat? Occulus, EoE, that storm giant in Zul'Drak, and yes, even Flame Leviathan can all go die in a fire).

I was, however, quite pleased with my DPS and overall performance. I consider this the first meaningful test of my spec and gear post-3.1, and it saw a moderate damage increase, and possibly even better mana efficiency than before (perhaps due to 3/3 rather than 2/4 Hunting Party).

I even managed to pick up two new pieces from Naxx: Heroes' Cryptstalker Headpiece and Claymore of Ancient Power. Very slight upgrades, but upgrades nonetheless.

And shit, they look cool.

Prioritizing

Well, I broke down and shelled out for it. Now I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine! ...in about two weeks, when the Faire comes 'round again, anyway.

So, I'm basically back to square one as far as attaining my Chopper but, well, vanity mounts don't help kill bosses.