Drak'Tharon Keep

Added another heroic to the list of what the Grins have cleared: Drak'Tharon Keep. I did try it ages ago, but couldn't get passed Novos, now with some better gear all around I just went in and one-shotted the whole place.

The fun part about this new random heroic quest is that I do get the motivation to try some new heroics, and I have been much more successful than I thought I would be. I've still to do any of the real hard ones, but also, I haven't spent any triumph badges either yet.

Back!

Well, not 100% sure of that yet ;)

A few months back I started focusing more on raiding on my main, and didn't box much - And the ToC content stunk from a raiding perspective, so coupled with a high workload that turned in to a all time low in playing WoW - Canceled the 4 extra accounts and fired up 2 accounts in EVE instead (since it is much more friendly to low play time play).

However, with the release of 3.3 I found my WoW interest revitalized!

Raids are fun, new instance is great - And the LFG tool is amazing. I renewed the 5 accounts to farm a Battered Hilt from the trash in the new heroics (can't yet box the bosses). So far I scored one, realzied it wasn't much of a DPS upgrade for Perrigrin and proceeded to sell it just before they upped the drop-rate, making a nice profit.

Badge farming is now easier than ever, I boxed a few daily random heroics and added Violet Hold and The Nexus to the list of cleared instances with the Grins.

I think I'll be pushing to get the mixed team to 80 (they are now sitting at 70) over the holidays, given how much easier it is to gear now it definitely rekindled my interest.

In other news I completed What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been on my main for the Violet Proto-Drake!

The Grins' are Back!

Well, starting to move my 60 team over to the main accounts now - Slight hickup with Blizzards billing department, so not quite done yet ;)

But, while waiting on that I took the Grin's back to Gundrak heroic and cleared it - One wipe due to me muting keyclone, but other than that just a few odd shaman deaths - So fairly happy with how it went.

Will be farming retribution gear for the pally and gear for the shamans while leveling the other team. Having the shammies at better gear level will help if I need to gear out tank 2 a bit + Next patch will have some great improvements in loot potential for 5 man stuff, so I need to be ready to exploit that for the paladin.

Heroic: The Culling of Stratholme Cleared!

Well, figured it should be easy, so headed over to CoS to check it out....

Boy, I was wrong - The mobs by themselves really were not that hard, but the gauntlet type of event, coupled with my lack of coordination and lack of knowledge of the zone turned the whole adventure into a wipe fest.

I eventually finished the whole thing, after 5 or 6 wipes and an additional 2-3 deaths - I think that if I watch a few boxing movies about it, my gear is good enough to get the 30 minute event done, but I just can't help myself from silly wipes on thrash. Don't think I will add this to my Gundrak + Utgrade Keep badge farm rotation just yet.
One key factor seem to be to not loot to be able to keep moving in the right pace. Might have to try it out with master loot mode on or something.

The good news is though that it gave me enough badges so that now all the shammies have Protective Barricade of the Light. And thanks to some generous guild mates of Hordeland Security, I now have Revenants gear on most of my shammies.

I had to spend a few minutes leveling Babegrins enchanting today to, so that see can shard the Epic drops that I wont use from heroics.

Heroic: Utgarde Keep Cleared!

Well, once I figured the Prince Keleseth out - It turned out to be quite a easy place ;) Took me 4 wipes before I grabbed this video to figure it out.
Been farming Gundrak enough to get Babegrin the badge shield (Protective Barricade of the Light), and Tuffgrin is not so far off.
Some drops of interest, Battlemap Hide Helm, Dalronn's Jerkin and Annhylde's Ring as well as Design: Fierce Monarch Topaz for Perrigrin.

Heroic: Gundrak Cleared!

Well, been way overdue to try a heroic with the Grins'. General opinion seem to be that Gundrak is the easy option for a shammy heavy team - And today it was the daily, so I went there.

Didn't give me to much trouble, think I had 3 deaths and 1 near wipe (but no full wipe) on the whole clear - Of course I forgot to share the daily, so will have to go back tomorrow :P

One drop that was interesting: Sash of Blood Removal of Gal'darah. Had some melee drops that I stashed on Tuffgrin as she is my "main" dps shammy. Debating leveling my mage to replace one of the shammies, and swap in a Moonkin druid and Holy priest as a longer term project.

Heroic The Uderbog Cleared!

Well, not a big achievement, but wife's hunter needed 2 quests in there and decided to do it on heroic instead - At almost level 80 that was quite easy :P