2009: The First Full Year in Review

Almost every blogger I know beat me to the punch on the "year in review" entries, but I am happy to find a new priest out there and link their blog after seeing a little movement formed by her "year in review meme" entry. so rather than come up with my own way to commemorate the year that was 2009, I'll do it by joining the meme movement!

Here's the instructions from Bible of Dreams: http://www.furlinedteacup.com/bibleofdreams/2009/11/your-warcraft-year-in-review-meme.html

QUESTIONS
1. What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you'd never done before?
2. What was your favorite new place that you visited?
3. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
4. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
5. What was your biggest failure?
6. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
7. What do you wish you'd done less of?
8. What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?
9. Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.

ANSWERS!
1. What did I do in WoW in 2009 that I'd never done before?
There are so many things I could answer for this question because I started playing at the very end of the TBC era in September 2008. One thing that stands out now is finding a focus for my team, that being healing. If the upcoming changes to healing in Cataclysm make that game more of a strategy battle, I'll probably never DPS again unless I'm doing dailies or leveling. And it's not 100% guaranteed I'll go Shadow to level on Ekat. I got her to 80 as Holy, why not 85? But the one thing I had certainly never done before 2009 was tank, and I have enjoyed my little forays into that world with Navar. I'll always be a healer at heart, but it is good to understand the person I keep alive.

2. What was my favorite new place that I visited?
Ulduar, and it's not even close. The scenery in Northrend in general was very pretty, but I also experienced a lot of it during the November/December 2008 time frame for leveling and chasing loremaster of Northrend. Ulduar was my first foray into an endgame raid that was not old to everyone else like Naxx and Kara. Ulduar had so many different types of boss fights and still interests me to this day. Furthermore, I have screenshots where I just look around old Ulduar because the level of detail around you is astounding. It really looks and feels like a castle of the old gods.

3. What would I like to have in 2010 that I lacked in 2009?
Alts at endgame. I suppose there's only one person to blame for not getting on leveling more, but I just cannot shake my love for the priest class. I will be very happy to get Navar to 80 so I can pass the heirlooms over to Biancae and get my Horde-side team going properly. So that's the main 2010 goal, get to where I have the main healer and the alt healer on each side of the Alliance-Horde altar. Right now I'm leaning towards moving Arielae to Horde instead of Clarrissae, but it's totally not determined.

4. What was my biggest achievement of the year?
Finishing off the What a Long Strange Trip It's Been achievement in Hallow's End. It was a year of hard work during holidays, mostly a blast and a couple not so fun. But the 310% flying speed mount is oh so worth it, and will always stand as one of my greatest accomplishments in Azeroth.

5. What was your biggest failure?
Honestly, I don't consider much to be a failure in game. But if I did have to pick something, it would be not really finding a way to play more with my IRL friends or even my guildies. Well at least the ones I like!

6. What did I get really, really, really excited about?
The LFG interface and dual spec. In fact, if it were not for the overwhelming success of LFG and the chance to now do more leveling while healing, it woul dbe the fact that I can easily switch between an efficient DPS spec for dailies and my main spec for healing or tanking depending on the toon. And once my druid and my paladin reach endgame, it will be so nice to be able to queue up as whatever my guild needs for their events. We can always find more DPS, so thanks to dual spec.

7. What do I wish I'd done less of?
Spending time away from dual spec holy/disc. I feel like I was behind the times when I made the switch recently, and Discipline healing is a lot of fun. In my PUG raids the past two weeks I've tank healed instead of raid healed, which is really the first time a group has completely trusted me to take care of a main tank. And with the exception of one error, I have not really stumbled too badly thus far. There's a lot of overlap of course, but the shielding a prevention focus is totally different than the raid topping off and saving of Circle of Healing focused heals. In other words, I wish I'd played less shadow.

8. What was my favorite WoW blog or podcast?
For blogs, Pink Pigtail Inn takes the cake. Early in the year I enjoyed Gevlon a bit more, but PPI has much more solid content and added a second writer as well. Gevlon can grate a bit at times too, despite the fact that he's right 95% of the time. So moving to podcasts, the best on is probably The Instance, but of course I'm biased being a member of alea iacta est. In all reality, I get more joy out of our personal AIE "die has been podcast" than anything else I've tried to listen to in 2009.

9. What was a valuable WoW lesson I learned in 2009?
That some things may never change, like our battlegroup being so favored towards Horde dominance in WSG and Alliance dominance in AV. Too bad I despite AV and love WSG. Go figure! But in all actuality, the biggest WoW lesson I learned is that while this game is a lot of fun solo, there's nothing that addicts me to this game like group play. Hence why I focus on healing, because me healing myself solo is not all that exciting obviously. It's the relationships built that you will cherish after the game is logged out and unsubscribed forever. Just like my previous love Magic the Gathering (where I can still see some of the old guys by going to a tournament now and again), it's the people not the game that makes it special.

So here's to an even better 2010! Thanks for reading and I hope to be on a more regular weekly type of schedule next year. That's my resolution...what's yours?

Taking the Plunge: An Unexpected Side Effect of LFG

So lots of people have been blogging about Patch 3.3 perhaps being the greatest patch of all time for World of Warcraft. The combination of the long-awaited end of the Arthas Lich King storyline and one of the absolute most revolutionary gameplay mechanics changes have combined to make quite a patch. In fact, I believe only 3.1 stands even remotely close, with Ulduar being a very well-designed raid and dual spec being added. But the new LFG trumps dual spec by a nose because it has reinvigorated the game for so many people, whether they are trying to keep up on their mains or level alts. You can now find low-level instances almsot as easily as farming badges, which is now ridiculously easy. Plus we're given a reason to play in the heroics again, most of which are good fun. No offense to the great quests Blizzard comes up with, but WoW is all about instances and they design them very well overall.

Basically I've played a little each day almost since the patch hit, which was unheard of in ym busy schedule before the patch. I can fit in 30 minutes to run a quick LFG on Ekat and get Frost emblems as well as Tier 9 level gear. I actually haven't had time to run a single low-level instance on the three leveling healers because I've been so busy with Ekat and Navar. Nevertheless, I have heard good things from other leveling players and Navar can find a group instantly for his level-appropriate normal WOTLK dungeons. It is so much faster to level doing one quick instance a day for 20% of a level than it is to grind quests. I suspect Navarionae will be 80 before any of the rest of the AE Team gets much more attention.

Oh and before I forget, a blurb on the new Northrend Kaluak fishing contest. I know this gives a nice heirloom 5% ring, but I'm stunned at the sheer number of players interested in a fishing contest again. Very nifty and subtle add for those of us who make some money and have some fun with the minigame that is fishing.

So back to the point: there was a very unexpected side effect of the new LFG. See if you can tell what it is...



Yes indeed, Ekat is now proudly Holy and Discipline dual spec. Remember that I leveled her all the way to 80 as Holy, so I'm not feeling all that gimped by not being shadow. I basically came to the realization that I do not want to waste time gearing for an offspec. I don't particularly like DPS'ing in raids and instances, but I would do it to get a spot. Now that healers can click their fingers and have a group, there is absolutely no motivation to stay shadow. I'll miss Shadowform looking cool and I'll be a hair slower on the few dailies I do now and again, but these are minor points compared to the fun and versatility of finally seeing Penance.

In my first few days as a Discipline priest, I definitely have to adjust to not having Circle of Healing. However, Penance is such an overpowering spell and not having any CD on Power Word Shield is a boon for 5-man healing. In the raids I have run since going Disc, it has been a blast to feel actually effective at tank healing. Holy can tank heal for sure, but not to the same extent as Discipline thanks to Penance (even knowing you have Guardian Spirit every 1 minute). About the only thing Holy has that Discipline does not is the Spirit of Redemption. That's actually a big deal sometimes, but then again...I can flip between Holy and Disc at will so I haven't really lost it. The captain of the AE Team is definitely living her dream, being the most versatile healer she can be and playing the best healing class in the game. After all, that's why Blizzard gave us TWO healing specs, right?

In the end, this really should not surprise me. I have always felt out of place as a DPS in a group. I hate the feeling of being totally replaceable, and love the pressure of being a backbone of the group. I fail, we fail. I want a challenge, and tanking and healing is that challenge. So while I'll gladly level a toon with a DPS spec when I'm questing, that will not be as important now that you can level primarily in instances and battlegrounds. This allows players like me to reach our full potential I believe, and helps us do what we want to do in the limited time frames we have to play. So thanks Blizzard, for finally giving me the push to go Holy/Disc.

Achievement Hunting Vol. 4: Merrymaker

It's the most wonderful time...of the year. There are gnome costumes battling and snowballs for throwing and lots of good cheer. It's the most wonderful time...it's the most wonderful time...it's the most wonderful time of the year!

Yes that's right, we're back for another installment of how to get a Violet Proto Drake, also known as holiday achievement hunting. The in-game Christmas holiday Winter's Veil is a good opportunity to have some fun, see some parts of the world you normally do not visit, and of course, OPEN PRESENTS! This year it appears our gift will be a BB gun of some sort, as that's a Christmas classic (see The Christmas Story movie if you do not understand) and already has an achievement attached. It looks like we achievement hunters will be shooting some opposite-faction leaders for fun and profit.

But since we cannot do that until we have said BB Gun, let's get the rest of the holiday done in the meantime, shall we? While Ekaterinae has her holiday done and looks snazzy in all that Christmas ho-ho-ho gear as I call it, this holiday marks the beginning of the journey for Navarionae towards his proto drake. So I'll be right there with everyone else again this year. Here's the eleven achievements you need to track, in order from easiest to toughest, from a priest perspective of course.

1. Scrooge - All you need to do is toss a snowball at the faction leader where all the holiday fun is going on (Ironforge or Orgrimmar). Snowballs are easy to get, so this is no problem.

2. He Knows If You've Been Naughty - All you need to do is be patient on this one. On December 25, gather around the big tree and open the presents you find underneath. There will certainly be a BB Gun by all indications in 2009, but other little gifts will be there for you too. Open one and this one is done.

3. Bros. Before Ho Ho Ho's - Basically one of the things you must do during the holiday is kiss winter revelers in every major city. You can do this once per hour and you will get snowflakes and mistletoe and possibly holly which changes your mount into a reindeer. So do that for a few times until you get some mistletoe, then all you need to do is travel around to a bunch of "brother" NPC's. Most of them are in major cities.

4. Simply Abominable - This is one of the questlines of the holiday, and it starts with a quest called Stolen Winter Veil Treats. Basically this will only require a trip to Alterac Mountains and a probable wait for the Greench to respawn. Once you have the treats, return them to IF/ORG and you'll get the achievement and a disguise kit.

5. A Frosty Shake - This only ranks up this high because you need the disguise kit from Simply Abominable to become a snowman in Dalaran. Obviously it helps if your character is in Northrend, but your lower level toons can get a portal there and do the snowman dance with someone else doing the same thing.

6. On Metzen! - Another short and fun questline here. You essentially save Metzen the reindeer from a terrible fate, either in Tanaris or Searing Gorge. Obviously these zones are a little rough on low levels, so this is probably a limiting factor for those characters in completing the holiday. Nevertheless, other than a quick trip, this is simple.

7. The Winter Veil Gourmet - Well all you need to do is cook up some holiday fare to get this one. The hardest two parts are getting some Small Eggs, which are easily farmed in low level zones, and then have enough cooking skill for the recipes. If you leveled cooking in getting Pilgrim, this is not an issue. If not, then get cooking as you need 325 skill.

8. Let It Snow - Many of the holidays have something you need to do to 10 unique race/class combinations. This is Winter's Veil version. The snow flakes you need come from the winter revelers, so that part is easy. Although most of the listed combinations are fairly common, you may need some help with Blood Elf Warlock and Troll Hunter. But still, much better than hunting dwarf rogues.

9. Fa-la-la-la-Ogri'la - In the back side of Blade's Edge Mountains, you will find the Ogri'la and some nasty forge camps. In the past you needed to do a couple day's worth of dailies with the Ogri'la to open up the daily you need, which is Bomb Them Again. However, now you can just run right up and do the daily. You need a flying mount and other than that, it's just a matter of learning how to bomb the forge camps without being killed. It's really not too hard, but if you have epic flight, this will be a joke.

10. With A Little Helper From My Friends - in every city there is a machine that will turn you into a sexy gnome in hohoho costume. You need to acquire 50 honorable kills in this getup, but the hitch is that you have to leave a BG to get a new costume as it drops off when you die. Thus, you will want to target places like Wintergrasp and AB rather than WSG and AV to rack up the most kills per BG. From a priest's perspective, just follow a group and heal like crazy. Hopefully people will rack up kills for you, as you are not a great PvP solo class even on shadow.

11. Tis the Season - This achievement is simple on its face. Put on some clothes and eat a fruitcake which comes from one of the quests you did earlier. The clothes come from tailors, the boots from leatherworkers. As for the hats, well you will need to kill one of three bosses in northrend dungeons who carry the hat. Assuming all you want is the hat, Grand Magus Telestra in Nexus is your easiest bet by far. She may even be soloable on normal for many classes, but not for most priests. So just find a group and grind her on normal mode until everyone looks snazzy.

Then you will have the Merrymaker title and another link in the chain to the Long Strange Journey. Nobody will be able to open a present until December 25, so there's no rush. However, you might as well knock out the harder achievements early while you've got time, as the holidays make the last 1.5 weeks of this holiday fly by for most players. We'll see you next time, which will probably be for Lunar Festival!

The PPI "Best of 2009"

Well Larisa over there at Pink Pigtail Inn has yet again inspired a post! Like last year, Larisa is putting together a "best of" list of things in WoW for the year 2009, and this year she's taking nominations and suggestions. I'll be interested to see what she comes up with as she has far more input from a ton of readers. Nevertheless, it's a good idea and I'll put my answers up with explanation for all my readers. Feel free to share your own answers and let me know where I've gone terribly wrong /smile

1. Best raid instance - Ulduar by a mile. Ulduar was visually stunning (have you ever been caught getting background screenshots while your guild was moving onto the next mob? I have in Ulduar), challenging, long, and had a great storyline for some bosses. The bosses are memorable too, as Kologarn with his big arms and Mimiron with the 4 phases of hell, and the vehicle combat that was actually well done. When placed against Naxxramas and Trial of the Champion, this is a no brainer, but Ulduar was almost as good as Karazhan.

2. Least successful raid instance - Trial of the Champion. I'm going against Naxx as a player who never saw the level 60 version, so it was new to me. Trial of the Champion is a nice way to gear up, but it does not feel very epic like a raid should. It's more like a 5-man heroic with more people. Kudos to Blizzard on the faction champions fight though, as that was an amazing change of pace I'd like to see in PvE more often. But that one fight cannot save a mediocre raid.

3. Silliest gold sink - Although it's been out there before 2009, is there a sillier gold sink now than Haris Pilton's Gigantique bag? For 1200 gold, I can get a 22 slot bag. Oh wait, I can buy glacial bags (22-slots) off the auction house from tailors for 400-500 gold. Special mention to the mechanohog drivers out there who pony up like 15,000 gold for a mount that doesn't really fit in with the fantasy world. But at least that looks cool, as nobody will ever see your Gigantique bag.

4. Most longed for instance - No doubt about it, Icecrown Citadel. One of the absolute primary storylines in the Warcraft universe is the rise and fall of Arthas, and this will be the presumable end of that epic storyline that spawned the entire expansion. People wanted Ulduar badly, but not like they've looked forward to this, especially after ToC was such a disappointment.

5. Most juicy guild drama - I don't really know much world-scale drama other than what we see on Guildwatch every week, and that's most loot ninjas. My own Horde guild AIE ran into some problems with their vent server as some alliance member got the vent info and spammed it in trade on our server, thereby leading a bunch of people to cram into AIE's vent and shut it down. Lots of drama ensued.

6. Biggest addition to the game - This is a tough choice between the new LFG interface and dual spec. I'm going to say the new LFG interface because no longer will you have to wait very long to run a random instance, and that's how this system should work. The interface is smooth, has great rewards, and works just like battlegrounds, the most successful PvP aspect of the game. LFG affects every level too, while dual spec is not really useful until Outland level. So LFG gets it by a hair over dual spec.

7. Best quest - Since not many quests were added this year, I will say the jousting quest to defeat the Black Knight. Although many hated jousting, I thought it was an interesting sidebar for the ToC stuff and downing the Black Knight was very satisfying after hearing all about him through all the Valiant quests.

8. Ugliest tabard - Wrymrest on females looks so stupid. Try it.

9. Favorite non combat pet - The demon penguin. Not only is he cool, he represents the Kaluak, which are the coolest walrus Wilford Brimleys you've ever seen. If I had Grunty I might say that as I loved Halo back in the day but for me, it's the demon penguin.

10. Most charming Blizzard employee - Ghostcrawler for eternity. Is there anyone else even in the same ballpark?

11. Best podcast - Might be a little homecooking, but the only podcasts I repeatedly go back to are those run by my Horde guild. The Instance is the best podcast in all the podcasting world right now, and the more private AIE die has been podcast for our guildies is actually decent for outsiders as well. The Instance, all the way.

12. Biggest blog facelift - Righteous Orbs, the joining of Inmysissyrobe and Ideathtard. While Tamarind is more acitve than chastity, both are high quality and their new blog looks much better than their old ones.

13. Most memorable blog post - "I'm coming out" by Arkslaw. I have never seen such a mixture of true confessions meets wow insight. It doesn't hurt that I got cited in that blog entry alongside real bloggers like Larisa, but nevertheless, this is the best piece I read all year.

14. Most noticed blogger breakthrough - Gevlon at Greedy Goblin. He might turn your screws a bit, but he does keep bringing in readers for the politics, the challenges, and the gold making skills. He is the breakthrough of 2009.

15. Most solid content provider - Honestly this would go to Worl dof Matticus, but that site has had some breaks and such which is understandable considering Matt's other responsibilities. So I think it has to go to Pink Pigtail Inn in a close battle with Greedy Goblin. Both provide very regular entries, but PPI is always substantive and always beat me and others to the blogging punch about cool issues.

16. Most hugged blogger - Well it's certainly not Gevlon. I'm going to go with Phaelia over at Resto4Life. While she stepped out of blogging near the beginning of 2009, she went out on a high note and had lots of virtual hugs on her way to becoming a mom. She also got a hug from blizzard in naming a piece of gear after her.

So that's the list. A good year I'd say, and much to look forward to in 2010 with Cataclysm dropping and the end 3 parts of Icecrown Citadel.

Achievement Hunting Vol. 3 - Pilgrim

New in 2009, a Thanksgiving themed holiday was added to the seasonal holiday festivals in Azeroth. While earning the title Pilgrim and that snazzy plump turkey shown above are not currently required for the Long Strange Journey achievement, it likely will be added in the next couple of years. As is the custom, we list the nine achievements you need to get the title and run them down from easiest to hardest. My apologies on the timing here, as this will not help you until 2010. Thankfully, this one is pretty simple overall as the holiday only lasts 7 days.

1. FOOD FIGHT - Basically half of this holiday centers around a bunch of Thanksgiving feasting tables outside every major city. So what you do is sit down at one of five seats and hopefully you'll have some other people at the table with you. You can pass the dish in front of you by clicking on the appropriate icon in your action bar, and if you target the person you get this achievement.

2. Sharing is Caring - After throwing food at your mates, switch seats and pass every dish around the table. It's the spirit of caring! Very easy.

3. Pilgrim's Paunch - To get the Spirit of Sharing, you must eat five servings of each of the five dishes at a table. You can get the dishes passed to you by others or you can get up and move around the table if nobody is around. The hardest part of this challenge is doing this in every city, which involves travel and some creative hearthing. Meanwhile...

4. Now We're Cooking - There are 5 dishes you learn how to cook as part of this season. As a sidenote, you can get your cooking up to 350 from 1 on this holiday alone, and you will get cooking up past 300 if you want to do all the holiday. Good time to catch up the skill on alts. Each of your main cities sells one or two types of raw materials and the autumnal seasoning and honey you will need. It's all pretty cheap and the food you cook will be useful for a bunch of regular and daily quests. With two day's worth of dailies, you can get everything you need for the achievements below (A hat, a robe/dress, and 8 turkey shooters).

5. Pilgrim's Progress - As just mentioned, you will need to cook up all the dishes for the various dailies. The hardest part is managing your inventory of goods as you don't want to make multiple trips to each city to get the job done. Stock up ont he raw materials and have what you need when you get there! Again, two day's worth of dailies need to be done, but they are incredibly easy.

6. Pilgrim's Peril - Now we get to the active stuff. In addition to visiting all your own faction's cities over and over, you must pay pilgrimage to the opposing capitals and sit at each table as well. For each side, two will flag you for PVP and will likely get you killed, while two others will not. You will be flagged as Alliance in Thunder Bluff and Undercity. Undercity is the worse of the two as you have to enter the tight passages of the ruins above UC. For Horde, the only problem is Darnassus and it is by far the worst of the lot because you have to deal with the guards in Darkshore and then travel through the center of Darnassus to get to the other side where the tables are. Sorry Hordies, you drew the short end of the stick.

7. Terrorkar Turkey Time - Now we get to the three more difficult achievements. Talon King Ikiss is the final boss of Auchenai Crypts, which is a relatively easy Outland dungeon at level 80. You still probably need 2 people to do this and 3-4 to make it comfortable. You also need to have the Hat along with the Dress, Robe, or Attire on when you kill the King. Not terribly hard but you do need a group in all likelihood.

8. The Turkinator - It's very likely this will irritate you more than most holiday achievements. However, if you know what to do, it's not too bad. Turkeys spawn all over Tirisfal and Elwynn, and you need to kill a string of 40 in a row, killing each in the string within 30 seconds of your last kill. Easier said than done, and pretty much impossible if others are also trying to do the same thing at the same time. Elwynn is much more crowded, so do it around Tirisfal and do it during offpeak hours, maybe even 2-3 days into the festival to avoid others. The other trick is to set up a macro which says /target Wild Turkey. That's all it does, and you run around and click that macro like crazy to find more turkeys during your run. I had the pleasure of losing two streaks in the 30's, but don't lose faith. You'll get it eventually.

9. Turkey Lurkey - And while this is much easier than The Turkinator in reality, it's very much based on finding very low populations of people. You must shoot the 8 types of rogues there are in the game, and Dwarf and Troll rogues are two of the least played 5 race/class combinations in the game. You may need to convince guildies to roll new ones and let you shoot them in the starting areas, as some rogues don't take kindly to this holiday. I stalked a couple kinds of rogues in starting zones and got lucky in Dalaran on the rest. But this could be what stops you from getting the plump turkey and the Pilgrim title.

And that's it! A new title, 100 achievement points, and a cool little pet will be yours. Take your turkey next to a fire and see what happens. Destiny will call. So another holiday in the can and next we turn to Winter's Veil or Christmas. All in all this holiday is pretty well designed and has a lot of upside in the cooking skill ups for alts without hassle. This is one of the better holidays in wow and will be a good addition to Long Strange Journey in the future.

So who is the most hardcore raider?

Last night I logged in on the desktop and fell in love with the game of WoW again. Now it's funny that such a thing as graphics and computer capabilities could make a difference, but I really am not a fan of this game on my laptop due to issues in Dalaran and feeling less useful in groups on the laptop. The game is so much prettier on my desktop and there's no limits on raiding and such. Well Monday nights is a big PUG night on my server and every server, so I logged in with a couple hours to play and immediately got plugged into a ToC 10 man raid PUG. I was the only clothie in the group, which bodes well for gear. Sure enough, I would come away with a huge upgrade to my wand, which is something I have not upgraded since Naxx. Probably should have picked up a second upgrade to pants as well, but I was slow on the rolls and did not want to give up my tier 7 benefits. Probably a mistake in retrospect, but oh well.

The group one-shot every boss in the instance except for faction champions, which we really struggled to get past. Our struggles against faction champions and other things made me question...just who is the hardcore raider now? The Illuminati has switched to 25 man only raiding now and all I've ever done in ToC is 25 man. Now I've also done Naxx and Ulduar on 10 and 25, but not as quickly in succession as my last two ToC runs. It seemed like a done deal that 25 man raiding was harder because you get higher level gear and you have to manage higher health pools and more people. However, now I'm not so sure.

In a 10 man raid, the "bad things" that happen during boss fights to individuals seem to happen a lot more to you because there's less people to bother. I was really struggling to stay in a healing rhythm thanks to all the distractions and such. Furthermore, your margin for error is much more slim when you have 2-3 sets of healer eyes and ranges on one tank rather than 5-6 sets. If I fall out of range, that's one of the major cooldowns we may need at a critical juncture. Even if these are just balance issues in my head, the faction champs absolutely positively has to be harder on 10 man. You see, it's simple statistics. Six bosses versus 10 means there's over a 50% chance you will be harassed constantly by a boss. 10 versus 25 means less than 40% chance of being harassed (discounting healers on the other team to an extent). For me as the token clothie, the Horde rogue was on me all the time because we were low on CC classes ourselves to take care of the mage and the rogue. There's only so much you can do as a priest against a rogue in PVP style combat. So even if my theory is wrong on other boss fights, it seems like 10 man raiding is way more hardcore for sure on the faction champions. Perhaps it is the 10 man raids who should get the higher ilvl gear for that one.

We did get the speed kill Salt and Pepper achievement as well as the achievement for downing ToC 10, so another 20 points in Ekat's irrelevant total. It might be irrelevant but oh it feels so good. The bag business is back again as my friend Mike sent me a bunch of netherweave cloth from his Outland rep grinding and it reinvigorated the business. So we're grinding a bit of gold up again and I'm ready for the next alt after the DK for epic flight and such. No real news on the leveling front otherwise, but more to come later.