The Trial of Garrosh, idiots.

A trial for Garrosh was bloody stupid. Likewise was any attempt to make the process fair and legitimate. I’m finding it hard to want to read the new Warcraft novel because I think the end of the Mists story and setting was utter balderdash. I like the Warcraft novels and can forgive a lot when it provides more lore to consume – but in all seriousness the axe should have fallen on Garrosh as soon as it could. Too many times inaction has let to disaster in WoW lore.

Has Warcraft become so soft that the heroes can only dispatch a foe if they are corrupted by an old god? It takes pervasive corruption to allow an execution, but the “heroes” can murder hundreds of opponents in daily quests with impunity? C’mon.

I think some players like to rationalise the setting to their own morals and ethics, but I think the setting has lost it’s way when a figure like Garrosh wasn’t killed at the first opportunity. That would make the setting less PG13 than probably desired, but it is needed. This is (was) Warcraft folks, and the idea that one faction or race has more claim to judge Garrosh is missing the point.

Those factions should be arguing about the division of the trophy head, axe and body, not still trying to for a delegate sub-committee to investigate the correct division of voting rights, for the membership to the partisan review group, in order to make a recommendation to the yet to be confirmed leaders…

Garrosh didn’t ask for permission to destroy Theramore with a mana-bomb. I’ll see if somebody I know grabs the book and perhaps I can borrow it for a while in a few months. It makes me wonder if the end of the Iron Horde will see them all placed in work programs to rehabilitate them back into “normal” society.

Grumble.

Achieve – finally killed that huge dinosaur

Booyah, I’ve finally killed Oon, and got the pile of yuck that he drops when killed. It killed me more times that I killed it, but Oon probably stopped getting achievements for player death a long time ago.

Despite all the spite we still see poop jokes in wow. Good on em.

Dark Heart of Pandaria Heroic scenario

I’ve only done a handful of heroic scenarios and the Dark Heart was pretty tough all told. I joined the team and found that it needed all my concentration to keep alive and swinging. Yes, heroic scenarios are actually challenging. That is good. Bring them on.

Kill Alani, Praise the Sun achievement

Like almost everyone I try to kill Alani each week. That dragon is probably so sick of being tagged that it might just stop hanging in the air too close to the Storm King. It is a great sounding achievement.

Heroic Guardians in MSV defeated

The raid team are not resting after finally killing the Sha of Fear (getting the Guild to 16/16 Normal), and last night we were successful in killing the Stone Guardians of Mogu’shan Vaults on Heroic.

It is a tough fight for the healers, especially if the team are not coordinated. That said, a few of the raiders really knew what they were doing, as it looked to be a wipe, but the living players continued to fight, killing the dogs just as it enraged. If one of the 4 dead folks had lived a little longer (myself included) then we’d have probably not even hit the enrage. Any kill is a good kill when its the first.

The shorthand description of T14 H1/16 never looked so good. Screenies will go up later.

Old-ish screenie – Ambershaper kill

A quick screenie of my first Amber-Shaper Un’sok kill. I hate that fight, not because it is complex with many phases and jobs, but because the end is a zerg where discretion and strategy seem to go out the window. So much planning just to go Zeeeeeeeeerg.

Patch 4.3 is here, geez.

I’m not sure how I feel about patch 4.3 being here so much sooner than I expected. It certainly has not been quick for some players, but I expected it to drop next week.

Knife and fork is all that is needed now. Yummy.

Overall its not the end of the world that it is a week earlier than I planned, except I have dinner plans for Wednesday night – which means I can’t raid. Phooey.

I am looking forward to the change of pace, and while I didn’t get enough exposure to Firelands due to my (non) raid schedule, it is an exciting time in terms of Cataclysm for all raiders. This is it, lets make the big black mongrel pay for roasting half the world.

In character I’m tempted to go back and get a few of the odds and sods from the Twilight instances, and beat Deathwing to death with them.

Insidious has defeated Ragnaros

At last, after fighting him tooth and nail, the Insidious raid team have defeated Ragnaros – giving them 7 of 7 and completing the normal mode fights in Firelands. Well done guys, you earnt that victory.

Typically it was the last attempt for the night, just after the raid was supposed to end. Perhaps you guys should raid from 11pm to 11:15pm?

Congratulations.

ps – we’re looking for a few good players too. If you’re a good player, mature, and love playing in the Ausssie time zone then look us up. Insidious on Nagrand-US Alliance‘s website. Currently recruiting healers.

Nefarian is dead

I am very pleased to brag that the fine folks of Insidious have finally killed Nefarian. It took over 60 attempts to kill him, over many nights of switching, burning, and altogether just flying back in to the instance for one more attempt.

Easiest part of the fight: the jump in at the start is great, just don’t miss that first platform. Actually maybe the lift on the way back in, that killed a few folks.

Hardest part of the fight: the interrupts in the dragonite spawns have to be done within 1.5 seconds, which makes Australian latency somewhat a limiting factor. Sometimes I’d be fine, others it would wipe the raid to miss one. This is bloody frustrating, and changing that cast time to 2 seconds would make a world of difference.

Getting into the Pillars, whilst also interrupting the dragonite thing – sheesh. Honestly the “pillar” boss was the thing that I screwed up overand over. Remembering to kite the adds in a small area which is also not on Ony’s flank is tricksy too.

Finally the Lich King falls

Finally last night I got the Lich King kill on a guild in ICC10 last night. Very happy to have done it, and very pleased that it was on my Death Knight.

I’d happily be next LK

We went through a slow steady change in strategy, which tweaked the raid composition for the successful attempt to include a Death Knight and Warrior tank, instead of Paladin and Warrior combination. We also had some folks who were newer to the fight that others, and while I didn’t rate myself as having no knowledge of how to execute the kill; there is nothing like success to solidify the feeling that we were getting it right.

A big thanks to the guild Insidious, the raid team members who fought tooth and nail to get it done first, and particular thanks to our gm for having so many darn useful toons that made switching roles easy.

Also to our resident shadow priest for doing such a great job on the spirits in phase 3. Ram and Nesty – first round is on me; in fact I’d happily buy a drink for the entire guild.

This marks the completion for me on all the normal 10 man content in the game; and as such it feels exactly as I expected. There is a feeling of a hard victory won, a sense of completion, and also a sense that there needs to be some follow-up achievements to reinforce that it was no fluke. The pull to do it again is very strong, so strong if fact that I would consider working very hard to have this achievement on a few characters, or at least get some good items from the LK on any character. The two handed mace that drops is very healthy for either my DK’s roles, the either staff is a very nice feral or caster option, and if I get lucky and can bring my boomkin into a successful run, then that would be excellent too.

Like our raid leader and a few other players, I have more than one character that I play regularly, and have no fear of switching them around to suit the composition of the raid. Often that meant I was playing as a Druid-boomkin recently, although for some reason (probably due to subtle pressure from me) I was able to keep my Death Knight in the group in last night’s run. I think I play the DK better overall, but am getting ok at the boomkin now too. The difference in dps output is related more to gear and the suitability of the class mechanics to the fight. Boomers are darn solid when aoe is needed, but lack flexibility for fights with single target dps that needs to switch often. I found a similar problem when playing an affliction warlock in TBC years ago. The ghost/spirits in phase 3 of the lich king fight would be very easy for a boomkin to kill, particularly due to Starfall, and the fact I always keep the knockback on Typhoon.

Enough joyous rambling for now – happy killing everyone. Ahem…woot.

Onyxia Dead (again)

Due to some nudging and lucky timing, and odd outcomes from rolls – I was able to complete the Onyxia head quest, and gain not only that quest, but a handy upgrade in gear.

The Onyxia lore is something that I have a deep respect for, and can not wait for a revival when the next expansion hits. It would make sense if she was undead though, as she’s been killed twice now.

Onyxia never looked better, deep breath be damned.

What happens when Mortigen meats a kitten?

I could not help it. A cat in Naxx is far more tempting than a rat in another instance. And its called Mr Bigglesworth. It had to die, death is what I do.

If only to get the special emote from KT, and make the Hunter jealous that I got it first this time. Silly stuff like this is why I like this game. If only I was an Undead, I could eat it too.

Will Erosion kill Topper McNabb?

After offering a bounty on Topper, I thought it only normal to see if I could do the kill myself. After all, I can save paying 25g/100g.

Topper McNabb - Looking all safe and smug in Stormwind

Topper is only a level 1 human, so he should be a quick kill, but being in a major city means he is very well protected. The Gnomish Poultryizer and other various fun toys are not usable on “green” NPCs, so all my ideas for same faction killing seemed closed.

I’m sure Blizzard have ended the exploit of blood poisoning, and even the kills you can make with Mushrooms. So I need a Plan B.

Plan B: So I was left to consider a Horde toon. All those guards with massive aggro radius, and 17k health means that any Horde faction toon I create was going to get put down very quickly.

Thus I created a Horde Rogue called Erosion, and hoped that repeat corpse runs would get me next to Topper.

100g Bounty on Topper McNabb

I want everyone to kill Topper McNabb.

If you kill Topper McNabb on the Nagrand server, and can provide absolute proof you did it, I’ll give the first person 25 gold. I mean Screenshots and proof you are on Nagrand server.

If you can arrange with me to be online at the time you do it; and watching; its 100 gold.

I want to see that bastard suffer. Kills from before my offer do not count, and it has to be on Nagrand server.

Lets murder Topper McNabb

As a frequent AH farmer, I spent a lot of time in the Stormwind auction house. While there I get to experience the broad and often meaningless banter of the WoW community. You get that with an MMO, its generally OK.

There is one asshat that just won’t shut up, and can’t be put on ignore, killed, or even asked to shut up. Topper McNabb, or as I like to call him – that hamburger idiot.

My feature request to Blizzard is to be able to give Topper 1sp and he would actually shut up for 10 minutes. I’d be happy to pay this for the 30 or so minutes that I spend in the AH, just so that I can use the chat frame for CHAT. Not watching/listening to Topper McNabb’s verbal sewage.

Even better can I hire the Defias guys to “sort him out”. Getting him murdered would be good, actually seeing the hit would be pure gold. I think you could sell tickets to the event, so that the NPCs of WoW will kill him. And while they’re running around on a killing spree they can stop the kids too. Little mongrels should be locked up.

Heck if I could get a Horde on the Nagrand server to kill him I’d almost pay for that too. Is there a useless peon in Ogrimar or Undercity that whines like a bitch near tha AH too?