Not aged

Friday's Yolk - Week 2


This week my Mysterious Egg didn't turn into a aged yolk, it turned into a........Cobra Hatchling.
Better than an aged yolk but still not a Green Proto-Drake, lets see what happens next week!


Week 1: Aged yolk
Week 2: Cobra Hatchling

Easy Achievement
Achievement: Critter Gitter

While waiting around Naxx I noticed that just inside, before you get to any mobs, a lot of critters (maggots, rats and spiders) are around the place, so I decided to bring 10x Critter Bites next time I went. On Day 2 of the AMOV Naxx run I gave it a try and it was easy, I doubt I was anywhere near the 3 min time. As you don't need to clear any mobs to do this, anyone can get this here, you just need to be in a raid group and level 80.


Improving Succi

As you might have seen me mention in the previous Naxx postings, our Feral Druid, Succi, gets a lot of connectivity issues. I had a cunning plan to get around it but from the picture below you can see that it wouldn't work!

Tame Beast

And finally.....

Rumors of me looking for a different guild are completely untrue.

Final Pre-Naxx post

Only 1 day to go until AMOV take on the evil forces in Naxxramas! I have a quick few updates and also something that could become a new Friday feature.....

Friday's Yolk - Week 1



My Mysterious Egg turned into a Cracked Egg on Friday....and what did I get? Aged Yolk :( I bought another mysterious egg which will again hatch on Friday so stay tuned for the next installment of the exciting adventures of the mysterious egg!



Eat my [Epic] shorts



Heloko and I joined a Naxx25 PuG 2 night ago and cleared out the arachnid and plague quarters but failed on patchwerk. Heloko got a couple of drops and I got one, the pretty much best-in-slot Leggings of Colossal Strides. Just need Kynnx to make me one of those Icescale Leg Armor kits for my new legs and they'll be ready to rock Naxx10!

We failed 3 times on Patchwerk - twice because the melee DPS/healers messed up and once because we didn't have enough DPS, which without that we weren't going to progress. That also ended the run. Here's a s/shot from recount on our DPS, I'm pretty sure at just over 3k DPS I shouldn't be top!


At one point in Naxx, at the beginning of the Arachnid quarter Heloko whispered to me:
"I think my recount is broken, you're doing over 8k DPS"
"Ah, that'll be Volley :) You should have seen it pre-30% nerf!"

And that's why looking at DPS on Trash isn't important, just check the boss damage - Anyone with AoE damage has a big advantage, especially if they invest 6 talent points into it :p



You are not prepared!



Before going on a raid it's best to know what drops you need/don't need to save time and confusion on rolls! With this in mind I got working on Naxx10 drops, lets see what I get! (Percentages are the odd's of the item dropping)

Arachnid Quarter

Anub'Rekhan - Collar of Dissolution 18% - Nice bit of hit on these but with the +expertise I'll pass on for any melee DPS.

Grand Widow Faerlina - Rusted-Link Spiked Gauntlets 10% - These are BoE but with their +hit they can give me a bit more flexibility should I need to swap any gear around.

Maexxna - Nothing! (I already have the Wraith Spear)

Plague Quarter

Noth the Plaguebringer - Spaulders of Resumed Battle 19% - Nice shoulder with +hit, again giving me more flexibilty but as it's leather I'll let other class' need before me.

Heigan the Unclean - Nothing!

Loatheb - Spaulders of the Lost Protector 29% - Trade that in for Tier 7 Hunter Shoulders (Heroes' Cryptstalker Spaulders). Loatheb's Shadow 10% is nice but more of a side grade for me so I'll let someone else need before me.

Construct Quarter

Patchwerk - Hatestrike 24% - Obviously I'll let any rogue need before me but it has some very hunter-friendly stats. I'm kinda hoping it doesn't drop or if it does there is a rogue there as I hate the 2H vs. Dual-Wield argument in my head! Things would be much simpler if hunters just used 2H...

Grobbulus - Sealing Ring of Grobbulus 10% - Probably the item I need most from Naxx10 - a big upgrade from my current Bjarngrim Family Signet! The Blistered Belt of Decay 9% is also nice but again it's a bit of a side grade so I'll let others need above me.

Gluth - Leggings of the lost protector 10% - Tier 7 Hunter legs (Heroes' Cryptstalker Legguards) nice to get set bonus but possibly a downgrade so I'll probably pass. Spaulders of the lost protector 9% - can drop here as well as from Loatheb earlier.

Thaddius - Leggings of the lost protector 26% - These could drop again but they are still a possible downgrade and there's nothing else of interest!

Military Quarter

Instructor Razuvious - Cloak of Darkening 10% - Great cloak, just a shame about the lack of hit. Still a nice upgrade for me though.

Gothik the Harvester - Spectral Rider's Girdle 10% - Nice belt but lacking hit bit of a side-grade for some more hit balancing options.

Four Horsemen - Nothing! (I already have the Pauldrons of Havoc)

Frostwyrm Lair

Sapphiron - Key to the focusing Iris 89% - not really gear, just a key to open the EoE raid encounter so it's not too important who gets it really. Cloak of Mastery 17% - Another cloak upgrade, this time with hit! The Helm of Vast Legions 16% is a bit of a +hit sidegrade to my current helm. Being leather though, I'll leather wearers have priority.

Kel'Thuzad

First of all, I just want to say I want to kill this punk bad! Just need to kill him and Malygos and I've killed everyone pre-Uludar.

There's loads of 1H weapons here I could need on - too many to link - but I'll see who else needs what first. The Gem of Imprisoned Vassals 19% is a nice neck upgrade for me. The Helm of the Lost Protector 27% is the Tier 7 hunter helm which is a nice upgrade and could get me the next set bonus, which is good for long boss fights where I have to switch to Aspect of the Viper. Finally the Nerubian Conquerer 19% drops here which has more AP, Critand Agility than my Final Voyage but less Haste. A side-grade but worth needing on though in case I hit the haste cap or need to swap things around.

Naxx Conclusion

Some straight forward upgrades available for my cloak, ring and helm here and a few side-grades should anyone else not need them. I'll be pleasantly suprised if we can do more than the Arachnid and Plague quarters on our first run, so with those 2 in mind there's nothing other than side grades available for me :( Oh well, should be fun and for the better of the guild!

Update

Nothing too exciting to report but here's an update:
(You can click on any picture for a full size version)

Malygos doesn't like my cooking

Very, very, very late one night I joined a 10 man PuG for EoE. Hardly anyone in the group had fought Malygos before and after 4 wipes we called it a night.

Good experience though, along with KT these are on my "hit list"! (Also title: Champion of the frozen wastes)

New Hat

Don't you think my new hat looks much better? It's from Naxx (see earlier blog posting) and it's called the Arc-Scorched Helmet.

Also, how happy does Sartharion look?

Val-rus

Found and drank an Underbelly Elixir in the Dalaran sewer and went through a temporary transformation. Some people might even say it's an improvement!

Last time I drank the stuff I had an epic duel with DK Asaron - literally bugged and went on for over 10 mins!

iSlow

With iTunes playing a video podcast back, I ran through Dalaran and into a bank to be greeted by the lowest frame rate I've seen on my iMac!

Ouch!

My iMac isn't brand new - it's the first of the new design iMacs but still, 3 FPS? Not right! Still faster than banking at the Halifax though.

Kinder Surprise

I finally made Exhalted with the Oracles which I had been grinding for a couple of weeks for so I can now finally buy the Talisman of Ablution and the Mysterious Egg.

The talisman is OK, it's good for farming as you get mana back from each kill (for me about 560) but it's not that much really considering a Chimera/Volley shot from me costs 807/857.


The egg however hatches in 7 days (which will be Friday) and I have a 2% chance of the reins of the green proto-drake dropping! Sweet. Not getting my hopes up though, 2% is very low but could be cool. Obviously if I fail i'll just buy another egg on Friday, they cost just under 3 gold. I'll keep you posted on the drop on Friday, fingers crossed!

...and finally












My first title - "World Explorer"

I put this on last as it's not something to be proud of, it just takes some time, a flying mount and being able to alt + tab (Or expose) to wowwiki...

Definitely not a waste of my time (tries to convince himself)

Drakes

Ever strolled out onto the Landing in Dalaran and wondered why some of the Dragon mounts look better than the others? That's because they are Proto-Drakes!

I'm Exhalted with the Wyrmcrest Accord so I could easily go any buy a normal drake but why waste the money when I'll only want a Proto-Drake? There's 5 Proto-Drakes available at the moment with another 2 possibly coming in Uludar (3.1 patch) - an Ironbound and Rusted Proto-Drake.

So, how do I get my hands on one of these Proto-Drakes? Good question and here's how I plan on doing it:

Blue Proto-Drake
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44151

This is a 1% drop from Skadi the Ruthless, 3rd boss in Utgarde Peak Heroic. Now 1% chance and assuming you're in a group of 5 with all rolling need gives you a 0.2% chance and if the heroic is run once a day that could take 100/0.2 = 500 Days!

Green Proto-Drake
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44707

At Exalted with the Oracles you can buy cracked egg which has a 7 day cool down and you have a 2% chance of getting it from this. 100/2 * 7 = 350 Days!

Plagued Proto-Drake
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44175

Completing the raid achievements (normal) will get you this Proto-Drake. Assuming you're in a good 10 man team, it's quite achievable, no relying on luck!

Red Proto-Drake
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44160

This is the reward for completing all the 5-Man Heroic achievements. Having a solid team of 5 is more likely than a team of 10 above and with better gear this will get easier and easier. Again, not relying on a lucky drop.

Time-Lost Proto-Drake
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44168

This is a guaranteed drop from the Rare-Spawning Time-Lost Proto-Drake in the Storm Peaks. Who knows how long it could take to spot this?

Valilor's Conclusion

I don't like relying on luck and if you see my rolls you'll probably know why! I'm going to aim for the Red Proto-Drake as I think it will be the easiest to get and then the Plagued one. Saying that, I won't go out of my way for the other 3 but it would be a bonus to fluke them! When I get to exalted with the oracles I could just buy the egg every 7 days, not much bother..

Gotta be in it to win it! Which one do you prefer?

*UPDATE 03.03.2009*

I missed out a drake:

The Black Proto-Drake
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=59976

This comes from completing all the heroic raid achievements, which includes the hardest thing in WoW to do (apparently) - killing Saph with all 3 drakes for the Twilight Zone achievement.

Another thing I forgot to add was that all these proto-drakes have a 100% land speed and 280% air speed, apart from the Plagued/Black proto-drakes which are 310%!

The bad news is that they are going to be removed shortly, probably in line with the 3.1 patch, as they will be too easy to get with T8 gear from Uludar - and they could be replaced with the Ironbound/Rusted Proto-Drakes I mentioned above!

Better get them quick!