Tag Archives: Icecrown Citadel

My Gametime Ran Out

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Now I have your attention! I’m not quitting, just taking 2 or 3 weeks off to do other stuff. I want to try out Aion a little now the population has died down – I never really got bored of it before, just that I had a problem with rubberbanding and Brewfest came out, BREWFEST IS IMPORTANT. Besides, I hear they’ve patched a few things, like more quests to make it a bit less grindy. This time I might try an Elios, to see a few different quests, though I think we all know Asmodians are way cooler. Also have a pile of anime I want to watch, working through Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood now, after finishing Fullmetal Alchemist and the movie. Everybody keeps telling me that Brotherhood is much better and I wanted to see how they ended it in the new series! I’m weak. Was going to watch Clannad.

It seems that yesterday my friend got me a going away present. I sat waiting for this pug group to form for.. probably around 40 minutes, right as I was about to leave they magically filled the last 4 spots. By this point, I couldn’t be arsed. However, I’m too nice and don’t like to piss people off too much so I thought, meh, it’ll get it done. Cleared through the first room, got to the beginning of the last room and about every Skeletal.. whatever they’re called in the place aggroed. Of course, the tanks let the mobs run around the raid while they tried to pick those up and cleaved people, then we wiped. Ran back in, one tank ran off on his own grabbed a Skeletal Giant, cleaved the Warlock, both died and he screamed at the healers, who were nowhere near him. Then everybody left, hallelujah. One guy decided to call that tank a ‘nigger tard’, and I decided to report his ass – don’t you love reporting douches? I decided to log off for a bit, watch something while my flask was on, and my friend popped up on msn asking if I wanted to join his guild’s alt/main ICC 10 raid.

I wasn’t on vent for the entire thing (do need to sort that out), but even so, we got a bunch of hardmodes done ((just missed Saurfang, Putricide, Blood Princes, and the last 3)) and on Gunship, lo and behold, I finally managed to replace the bloody Sundial! *hugs Muradin’s Spyglass* I actually think this may have been one of the happiest moments in WoW, as I have never had good trinket luck in my entire time of playing.

Next, I do my usual squeeling over Stinky (because he is way better than Precious *nod*), then murdering Precious, and woop it’s my loot, and oh, nice one. Precious’s Ribbon.

By this point I’d also worked out why my game kept freezing when we pulled certain bosses, Gunship, Blood Princes, and Dreamwalker, had happened in the last ICC raid I did too. Each one has a health box in the UI, so you can see how much health the gunships are at, how much health the Princes have, how much health Dreamwalker has. Each one of them froze my game on pull. ((have run a WoW repair now, so hopefully that’s fixed for when I come back))

Finally, we killed Sindragosa, which was in fact the first time I’ve seen her dead, and then Lich King tries. Wow, suddenly quite glad I read the tactics and watched the TankSpot video back when I joined Supreme because I have an inkling on what’s going to happen. My friend also explained the way they do it to me in whispers, and to be honest, it doesn’t sound like a hard fight at all. Run to adds with the debuff, go on the ledge, kill adds, move off ledge kill Val’kyr and move out of shit on the floor, move back to ledge, kill adds, finish off adds, kill Lich King, move out of shit on floor. I think we wiped 3 times and then downed it. Honestly, I may have been just a little speechless. I didn’t expect to kill the Lich King before the 4.0 mega nerf patch, maybe even 85, so killing it when I was actually able to take part properly and not feel boosted (25% buff helped, obviously, but you get my point) was absolutely amazing! So now I’m a Kingslayer, and I’m hugely grateful to my friend for getting me the raid spot, I had a really good time and achieved a few things I never expected. I’m still going to use ‘Hand of A’dal’ because that is my favourite title, but it’s nice to know I have it.

You know something? I finally feel a little proud of my character again. She has geared up nicely because I’ve put in a lot of effort, I loves her Brewfest Ram, and Windrider Cub, and she has achieved things that my Hunter hasn’t. Now I’m going to take a break so that I can continue playing without taking things quite so seriously, and I don’t intend to stop blogging. I may even mention a few non-WoW related things, for starters, I’d like to talk a little about my initial thoughts about Aion this time around possibly, but don’t worry, it’ll only be 2 or 3 weeks.

I Applied To A Guild

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I’ve pugged Icecrown 25 for 2 weeks in a row, and have missed out on plenty of 10 mans, because the only ones I could find were pretty much asking for 5.6k gearscore and an almost full achievement (which I can only SAY I have). At this point there’s not really space for me in friend’s groups, and so I’ve had to pug to be able to raid. Trouble is, these pugs have been pretty horrid. Of course I expected it, but there was ninjaing, arguing, whining, wipes, egoing, gearscore *shudder*, and only the first 4 bosses cleared.

If I seriously want to get a little raiding done before Cataclysm hits, I need to join a guild. So I spent a little bit weighing my options, different guilds I could join, most raid too much with too much strictness, and I know a friend’s guild raids 3 nights a week and isn’t too extreme. I can’t really be bothered with “that point’s wrong, it should be there, why are you using that glyph when that other glyph will net you 3 more dps?!” and that kind of thing, I’ve always read up enough to know my class well enough, but I don’t want it to become like a job. I’d like to be able to just relax a bit.

So, on Wednesday afternoon I put in an application. It’s my TBC guild, I was there for a large part of TBC, cleared Black Temple and Mount Hyjal weekly to death and did a little Sunwell with them too. I went to one of their guild meet ups and I know a fair few people there. It’s the same guild my Hunter was in between leaving her raiding guild and transferring. The closest I’ve ever come to home on Vashj I guess. I’m tired of seeing this, and not being able to join in:

I’m not jealous of them, I’m glad they’ve got raids, but I definitely want to raid a little myself, especially considering when your friends list looks like that, well, people don’t speak much when they’re raiding. Pretty sure my application has been accepted at this point, so let’s see how it goes.

Also popped over to Argent Dawn to say hey to the guys in SAN last night for a while. There were only a few online, but it was definitely fun catching up a bit! After a break from the Rogue, that was fun too. Murdering ogres while discussing the finer points of raiding and why female Trolls could never win a beauty pageant. She was 66 when I logged in, fairly close to 67, almost got her to 68 before I was reminded that ZG was going to reset in a few hours and had to head off. I tell you what though, I was expecting the 3 pugs I did to reconfirm my dislike of the Argent Dawn battlegroup and remind me that Vashj’s isn’t all that bad, but they were all lovely! Damnit, Argent Dawn! I’m planning to get Jaedi up to 80 at some point before Cataclysm, I hope, if I can hit Northrend it should go a fair bit faster. Perhaps one day I’ll actually get around to properly trying some RP, and when I do, I won’t be on a Celestial Steed because I can’t be bothered to RPsplain that.

Wish me luck with the raiding – I’m scared! :D

Icecrown Raiding Gear List

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Note: Not updated since the first ICC wing.

After a little thought and some chats with a lovely hunter in my guild, I started thinking about a gear list. Not wanting to take items off another player that I probably won’t use so I gave it a go and I’ve been slowly editing it and will continue to do so. It’s important to remember that the T9 2 set, which grants your Serpent Sting the ability to crit, remains better than the T10 4 set, and even some item drops in Icecrown Citadel with awesome starts (I thank Rilgon for finding this out). Some items are still not in the game, so I may update this post at a later date if I find something new to add.

Assuming you have 3 points in Focused Aim, you’ll need to get about 165 hit rating (5%, though correct me if I’m wrong) from gear. Of course, if you don’t and want to find more hit items, you can check the MMO Champion Icecrown gear list. The set below should put you at about 5.24% hit and 68.7% armor pen, with the Scorpion proc giving 48.44% armor pen.

The armor pen cap is 1400, as as such with the Scorpion, you need about 722 armor pen on your gear. Haste may not be an ideal stat but it’s worth keeping Steady Shot at roughly a 1.5 second cast time (the tooltip is bugged, it’s a 2 second cast time without haste), and remember that 523 haste rating is the soft cap needed to lower Steady Shot down to the 1.5 second cast time. Also remember that there is no crit cap for hunters.

Please remember this is my personal preference on gear, some options may not be optimal for everybody, this is purely my opinion, for my own marksman spec, survival may and probably will be different entirely due to not needing to reach the armor pen cap anywhere near as much as marksman hunters. Though feel free to look through and use it or take ideas from it. That is why I posted it :) It is a post I intend to keep up-to-date over the coming months. Also, some items here you may not recognise as I’ve added the horde versions, if you click the wowhead link I’ve added you can see the alliance versions.

Last updated: 18th December 2009

Zod’s Repeating Longbow

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Kneel before him.

Zod's Repeating Bow

Note: Read the comments for some more information!

So far, it appears to be the best ranged weapon ingame, for the time being at least until hardmodes unlock. I was lucky enough for it to not only drop, but I won it. So I thought I’d throw some numbers and screenshots at you.

quickshot

This I’m assuming is the proc (Your ranged attacks have a 4% chance to cause you to instantly attack with this weapon for 50% weapon damage.) When compared to the other damaging attacks in the list, it’s the only one I didn’t recognise. 24,000 damage is quite nice, in my opinion, the hits and crits are decentish too. They could be a little more impressive but I’m not complaining, and the damage, speed and dps on the weapon itself are well worth it too. That and it looks like Frank.

For those of you who missed the link in yesterday’s post, Zod’s Repeating Longbow.

Anybody have any real numbers on how good this weapon is compared to say Death’s Head Crossbow from TotGC25?

CowPriest

I also had to share this smexy looking moocow with you.

burgerandfries

3.3 ICC Gear

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I’ve compiled myself an Icecrown Citadel gear list, for my hunter. This is by no means final, and some slots have more than 1 item because I haven’t gone over which pieces will be best for hit yet, and I assume the list on MMO Champion isn’t complete yet either but I thought I’d share my list anyway, it’s a nice start point considering 3.3 is so close. Some of the links below link to the MMO DB, which don’t have tooltips like the Wowhead links do so you’ll have to click on them to see the stats.

  • Helm: Tier 10 – 96 Emblem of Frost
  • Neck: Wodin’s Lucky Necklace – From 25 man trash
  • Shoulders: Tier 10 – 60 Emblem of Frost
  • Cloak: Sylvanas’ Cunning / Cloak of Serrated Blades – TotGC Tribute Chest 50 tries remaining (first from 25, second 10)
    Recovered Scarlet Onslaught Cape – 50 Emblem of Frost (one above is better, but if not)
  • Chest: Tier 10 – 95 Emblem of Frost
  • Wrist: Scourge Hunter’s Vambraces – Gunship 25
    Icecrown Rampart Bracers – Gunship 10
  • Hands: Tier 10 – 60 Emblem of Frost
  • Waist: Nerub’ar Stalker’s Cord – Festergut 25
    Linked Scourge Vertebrae – Marrowgar 10
  • Legs: Leggings of Northern Lights – Deathwhisper 25
  • Feet: Greaves of Ruthless Judgement – TotGC, Twin Valkyr 25
    Rock Steady Treads – ICC crafted
  • Rings: Frostbrood Sapphire Ring – Valithria 25
    Band of the Bone Colossus – Marrowgar 25
    Saurfang’s Cold-Forged Band – Saurfang 10
  • Trinkets: Death’s Choice – TotGC, Twin Valkyr 25
    Deathbringer’s Will – Saurfang 25 (think the proc is either 600 or 700 of your highest stat, can’t remember)
  • Ranged: Zod’s Repeating Longbow – Unknown 25.

When it comes down to main hand weapons, nothing has really stood out to me yet, I’m still drooling over Hellion Glaive.

Update 09/12/09: Zod’s Repeating Longbow drops from Lady Deathwhisper, 25.

Trinketses

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Deathbringer’s Will – the trinket you’ve all probably seen but I finally checked earlier and basically we have

Equip: Increases your armor penetration rating by 155.
Equip: Your attacks have a chance to awaken the powers of the races of Northrend, temporarily transforming you and increasing your combat capabilities for 30 seconds.

Of course, that is the normal mode version, the hardmode version obviously has slightly increased stats.

What people are saying this internal cooldown is, is a +600 to your primary stat, so in a hunters’ case, +600 agility, whilst also transforming you.

Icecrown Citadel – The Frozen Halls (5 man)

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Bone GuyAs well as the usual 10 and 25 player raid instances, Blizzard have announced the new 5 player dungeon, The Frozen Halls (source). There will be a normal version which drops 219 iLevel gear and a heroic version which drops 232 iLevel gear, the same as Trial of the Crusader 10 player. They have said players will follow Jaina Proudmoore and Lady Sylvanas through the dungeon to complete an epic quest to infiltrate the Citadel from an alternative entrance, depending on your faction of course.

The dungeon spans across 3 wings, which on heroic will have separate lockouts. The first wing is called The Forge of Souls, you have to complete this to be able to unlock the Pit of Saron, which then unlocks The Hall of Reflections, where you meet Falric and Marwyn, Arthas’s captains in life, and finally.. Arthas himself. Jaina wanting to find some remaining humanity in Arthas, and Sylvanas, well, she wants to bitch slap him for what he did to her. I’m going to have to do this  dungeon both on my Horde and Alliance just to see the awesome lore from both sides!

With Arthas being in the 5 man, I can’t imagine him not being in the raid instance, so the last boss in Icecrown Citadel is either going to be Kael’thas himself “Tempest Keep and Magister’s Terrace were merely a setback!” Except now he’s Arthas’s gimp. Or the more serious, Arthas won’t die in The Frozen Halls. Perhaps we’ll see another shade boss, shade of Ner’zhul. Also, if one of the bosses doesn’t drop a Frostwyrm mount I’m going to be a little disappointed.. ooh, maybe the quest line gives a reward of “Lil KT“!

More interesting Cataclysm updates

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  • The Cataclysm will be released after Icecrown Citadel, not only with the date but also lore-wise.
  • The dances we were told were coming with Wrath are still being worked on…
  • Once faction changes have been sorted, they are planning on implementing race changes, which would mean a Blood Elf Paladin could switch to a Tauren, for example.
  • They may be adding the ability to reorder the characters on the character sheet, thank God I’ve wanted this one for a while xD
  • The guild levelling system being discussed will enable you to create guild heirlooms. You’ll be able to buy profession plans with this and anyone in your guild can wear the item, and it scales with level.
  • In order to ensure enhancement shamans and hunters are able to share the same gear, Blizzard will try to give enhancements similar talents to those given to rets in order for them to use the same gear.
  • In 3.3 they’re talking about pets scaling from all hunter stats and also allowing buffs from raid encounters to affect them (uh oh I smell nerfs inc already…)
  • Also in 3.3, they’re planning to make it so that pets can’t be hit by boss AoEs but others (i.e. PvP) can affect them.

Source: World of Raids.

New Xpac Hunter Relevant Changes

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  • Hunter’s will now use focus, not mana, this will work the same way as energy for a rogue, and capped at 100.
    Steady shot will increase the rate of regaining focus.
    Rogue energy comes back at a 10 / sec rate, Hunter focus comes back at 6/sec (12/sec with steady shot).
  • Aspect of the Viper will be removed or redesigned as there will be no use for its’ current state.
  • Ammo will become an item, rather than a consumable.
  • Armour pen is being removed and replaced with something called ‘Mastery’.
  • Attack power is being removed from items, instead hunters will aim for items high on agility. It will still appear on items such as rings so that they will still be attractive to both hunters and warriors, though these won’t be high on agility/strength.
  • Haste is being changed so that it now increases the rate at which you regain focus.

New Legendary announced for Icecrown Citadel!

Shadowmourne, a legendary 2handed axe which will drop from The Lich King, for Death Knights and Hunters.

I’ve heard a lot of whine about the new expansion changes, but, in my opinion, revamping the old continents so that they’re useable again, new races and class combinations, massive profession changes.. and of course the above information, which btw I for one am quite happy about, all sounds like a good idea. People can complain, but, if they don’t give the game changes like these… won’t it just become mundane, repetitive and boring?