Waldonnis

Speed of deployment from Flamecrest -> Westfall seems like it would be an issue. It's *very* difficult to hide in Alliance territory for long (easier as an individual, but any numbers greater than a pair are easily spotted), so it's likely that those arriving in Darkshire would be spotted quickly and word of mouth would begin to spread... My suggestion, and it's barely one at that, is for the Westfall raiders leave from Grom'gol and swim to Westfall. Darkshore is pretty much the same time/distance from Grom'gol or the gates of the Steppes, so either would work for that. The concern would be that Lakeshire gets hit first and is unable to hold that FP, allowing the same group of Alliance to successfully defend all three points (since the other groups may be spotted along the way as well). It's very easy to sneak into Darkshire unnoticed, and hardly anyone stays on the Westfall coast for long, but the fields south of Goldshire are littered with low-level Alliance alts just itching to raise the alarm....may make a simultaneous sneak attack on three points a bit easier if the forces arrive around the same time rather than having to hide until all are in position. In all, sounds like fun and a good plan. I'd be happy to bring Tobalaya out for such an event. Even if things go wrong and we get stomped quickly, any message is better than no message One other thing...hitting Darnassus would be easy...very easy...but nobody would care. SW and IF are "the heart" of the Alliance, with Darnassus being almost considered a thorn in their side due to the pain of getting to and from there and the sparse population of people at any given hour. There is a very easy way to get there nearly undetected, though, that I'd be happy to share if interested...and TONS of places to hide without irritating guards or alarms (I've been to the NE starting area several times with Verissi). And if Kelani can get into Teldrassil to get an owl as a pet at level 11, we could certainly pull it off

I've also got diamonds floating around in my mailboxes somewhere that are up for grabs. Verissi has plenty of FR for the time being (207 self-buffed with full FR gear on, but usually sit around 160 FR to maintain >200 +dmg), so I certainly don't need to be considered until melee and healers are settled.

In the end, gear and loot....it's all a treadmill and never ends. What looks like perfection today is vendor trash tomorrow, and definitely not worth arguing or fussing over. For those that think we will "move on" to BWL, I've got news for you -- you NEVER leave Molten Core, much like you never leave Scholo/Strat/etc. There are always guildies to help and gear up, Hydraxian quests and rep to get, and even sets to complete (tier 2 pants from Rags, specifically, which can take virtually forever sometimes). What this means is that you will see the same tier one pieces, weapons, trinkets, and cloaks over and over and over again. So, with that said, if you don't get an item that you really want now, meh, be happy for the person who did and just be patient...you'll get it eventually. My personal motivation in our raids is figuring out and beating encounters...loot's nice, but if I weren't master looter, I'd probably be staring down our next foe before loot distribution is done (anyone who watches me in AQ20 or ZG knows that...I just start moving along to the next target before the first looted item link is posted). Most importantly, though, remember to HAVE FUN first and foremost....it's what we Crushers do best

You didn't want the bugs? But it said "add some bugs to give it that 'living feel'" in your order...

Kelani needs to do a bar run very soon to pick up the Thorium Brotherhood elemental leatherworking patterns up to honored and start turning in for revered, so save room for a hunter Since she won't be in MC or Ony for quite some time, I'll happily pass on any FR gear that others need/want if it drops.

Just remember kids, 640k RAM is all that anyone will ever need as well....at least according to Bill Gates

That UI compilation has been in development for A Very Long Time, so I'm not holding my breath...but does it ever look nice (even removes much of the UI from view when not in combat). The author is really putting some serious work into it, complete with an installer and customising "wizard" that runs in-game when you install it. The feedback from testing so far has been very good, though, and I think it's worth waiting for given what I've seen so far and the attention to detail from the author. I'll keep everyone posted and also will keep my eyes open for something else interesting that may come up in the meantime ...and yes, the author of the compilation plays on AD (Mazzlefizz...gnome mage that you may see running around Silithus in fantastic gear).

A couple concerns with the above: The guide was written when it was possible to stay out of combat by staying out of range or line of sight (several of their guides reference paladins staying out of combat for rez options). Given the changes to instance combat with bosses, I'm not sure this is possible anymore...and since hunters need to be out of combat to drop a trap, I'm not sure this will work. Hunters care to comment? Frost nova is *very* dangerous for mages as it does do damage and draws immediate aggro to us (contrary to popular belief, ice block is NOT an aggro wipe like feign death is for hunters). Last time, I tried running in, dropping a nova, and blinking out, but then had at least two sons chasing me for the remainder of the attempt last time. Since I blinked back towards the casters, this was a really bad thing. If we do nova them in place, we may need someone with an area taunt to blow it, which could also cause some problems if they get overwhelmed. If we can have a warrior or druid on each son, I don't mind tossing the nova out there, but it doesn't last very long and will end up mana burning our entire caster group if even one gets loose. Since we have a few Tauren warriors, might I suggest a warstomp rotation to stun them for a few extra seconds instead to allow everyone time to pick up their targets? One more thing...frost nova puts a mage within the range of mana burn. I blew an unreal amount of mana last time on Rags (messed up my gem timer rotation too early) and didn't have much left for the sons, so the mana burn pretty much removed me from the rest of the fight and I ran around smacking things with my sword and whopping 38ish AP....if we can avoid getting casters within range of them at all, it would probably be best until we're all better equipped FR-wise.

Not bad...pretty neatly arranged and has a spooky feel to it, but the smiley faces in the unit frames kinda ruin it for me Still looking for a UI arrangement that suits me (tried about 7 so far...hated every one of them, mostly because they take up too much screen area). Kinda still waiting for this one to come out...you may recognise the characters from AD Alliance-side

I'm pretty sure I have a few stacks of fadeleaf bouncing around in mail (more than I'll use for awhile, at least). Swiftthistle is a little harder to come by (and I'm low also), but I'll see what I can do. I'm assuming you want them for thistle tea and blinding powder, so I'll send those to you rather than the herbs if you'd like.

My wishlist consists of non-set items (mostly weapons and trinkets), so getting more Arcanist is something I'm waiting until later to do, personally. If they're available and you want them, bid for them. I'd say this is more of a "first come, first served" thing anyway... While I'm not upset, I did take it on the chin a bit with the adjustment (went from being top caster to sixth). I plan my DKP spending to better my chances at getting exactly what I want when it drops. Sometimes it doesn't work out (my SoD purchase buried me for ToEP when it dropped), but it will all drop again in time so I'm not too worried about any of it. Overall, it's not that all of us were passing on higher-priced items on purpose...some of us just didn't want them or had other priorities (Arcanist bindings are barely an upgrade for me, for example, and the robe is only better because of the set bonus I got when I picked it up). As such, we got hit by the adjustment a bit hard, but whatever...not like we're going to stop seeing MC or loot drop any time soon, so I'm more or less indifferent to the adjustment. Besides, I go for the fun...the loot's just a bonus

I actually had the Living Breastplate pattern drop awhile ago, but sent it to Depaa (before I started to work on Kelani more seriously). I'm planning on going back in the cave over the coming weekend, though, to see if I can get another one to drop...very easy for a mage to farm that place, but it's even more tedious than farming for essences.

Hmm...interesting build, but I'm curious as to why you picked talents like feline swiftness and blood frenzy that would only benefit cat form (not travel...and only outdoors in the case of swiftness). I had improved mark on my first druid (still do, actually) and honestly, I don't miss having it at all on Hoofie....it's enough of a boost to be noticed, but not enough to warrant 5 points to me. I'd say the only builds that really benefit from having improved mark are resto and resto/feral hybrids anyway (since they often lack some key feral talents and need the extra bit from improved mark). On the plus side...primal fury rocks and is a great choice, as is going at least to Heart of the Wild (LotP is still "meh" for the most part for the point investment). Furor is one talent that I can't preach about enough...it's VERY helpful to be able to shift to bear and immediately feral charge. The cooldown from enrage feels so long sometimes, so it's nice to just shift out/back and have some rage generated automatically...I consider it a must for raiding as a bear tank. One thing that you might consider is shuffling talents a tad to pick up Omen of Clarity. It actually procs often enough to be incredibly useful, especially when you're spamming swipe (which can drain a full rage bar in no time). The downside to OoC is the point investment, but you do get some positives in Natural Weapons (increased damage in feral forms) and Nature's Grasp, which is super-nice in PvP situations for getting some distance to heal. Also worth considering is Brutal Impact. If you plan on soloing instance bosses sometimes, you will need the longer bash time to get a solid heal in (bash->heal->shift back). There isn't much in the feral tree that's bad, though, and you'll probably end up tweaking your talents a few times while you're figuring out what exact playstyle you want to settle on. I actually started out wanting to go more towards cat form (since it was familiar...my first druid was primarily cat), but found myself more drawn to bear over time. I'm still planning on another respec for Hoofie to pick up a few talents and drop what's left of my cat-form stuff, which kinda proves that after two druids, I still can't settle on an exact spec

Nope, no keying required for AQ20, so sign up!

I'm not sure I know what you mean by putting warriors into melee groups and how it would ensure more even damage. Given gear differences and damage potential (depending on certain specs...CB/Prep rogues vs Combat sword rogues, for example), we'd probably still see some pronounced differences in damage done per-hound. Also, our casters tend to do some pretty heavy relative damage, so unless we're all AoE'ing the packs the whole time, magical damage won't be distributed evenly either (my mana pool couldn't handle constant AoE anyway...just not built for it...not to mention a quirk of mage AoE where some mobs within the AoE take less damage than the others at times). Worth thinking about, though. We like to hear Maube barking out orders anyway during those encounters...it's just too funny I've been thinking about FA potions as well, but had no clue if they would actually work or help with initial hate generation (since half of my CC as a mage is useless in MC and other instances, I never assume anything will work..hehehe). Worth a shot and I think I may have some laying around that I can pass out to the tanks on Wednesday. Since I'm secondary decurser, I don't really see or pay attention to what's going on with the guards...but if initial aggro is a problem, those potions are easy enough to make and try Having the entire hall to work with...it's fantastic. We tried every tactic out there and this just flat-out worked the best from all angles. Mana use from decursing is reduced, rain of fire proximity problems avoided, random shadowbolts aren't too rough to deal with, etc...it's all so much easier this way than the other strategies and worth the extra set-up time. We could do it like others do and still get by, but I think we all enjoy having the extra room to play with (and I love having the pillar there so I can avoid that first shadowbolt). Maube's reply is accurate on both counts. Also, having brought Wald in for Garr a few times, I know blue goes down FAST against those things unless you have some demonology in your spec (and even then...torment resists suck too). I had to resummon mine a few times the last time I did it, which was very taxing on my mana pool and timing. Having the additional pet is incredibly useful for adding another damage sponge between the warlock and Garr's minion. If we have an unassigned warlock, I can see not tying up the hunters as much, but meh...works either way. Proximity bites us here. Every time someone gets hit by that AE, they're added to or bumped up on the hate list, making it harder to deal with for the tank. At the beginning of the fight, everyone is spread out fairly well, but I've noticed that the semi-circle falls apart after the first blink and clumps of people start forming (no doubt trying to get in-range). When Shaz blinks into one of these clumps, much panic usually ensues, the hate table is populated with more targets, and poor Green has to run all over trying to catch up with Shaz and work harder to get her back. If there's one thing that we can definitely improve on, it's ending the "backing up in panic" thing. I can't stress this enough: you're better off standing still if you're not going to run towards Green because you cannot outrun Shaz or that AoE if she's focused on you. As for the detect magic...mea culpa on that one. We shifted roles a bit amongst the mages this past week (I'm usually the DM monkey) and I forgot to ask someone else to pick up the duty explicitely. For some reason, I've also been seeing more DM and counterspells resisted since 1.11 (took four casts to land one on Shaz during the first attempt on Wednesday...usually hits on the first cast). Not an excuse, but something to consider.

Yeah, but rabbits are mean and nasty! Anyone that's seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail knows that. Onyxia is more like a bear....cute and cuddly...at least until they gnaw your arm off.

Deep breaths, all....nobody is demanding anything here and no ultimatums have been expressed. It's simply a request from Maube (and myself). Let me speak to a few points made above and my perspective... Regarding system resources and CT_RaidAssist making the game lag out..believe me, I can understand it and it is far more pronounced for some classes than others (particularly decursing classes). The basics of CTRA's coordination are done through a chat channel and produces A TON of chat traffic in certain situations (Shaz fight, Lucifron, and Gehennas particularly, within MC). For classes that use only the bare minimum features, such as warriors and rogues, this isn't usually a problem since the add-on will just ignore messages that don't concern those classes. For others, such as priests, druids, mages, and other decursing/demagic/buffing classes, it receives every single debuff notice, buff timer synchs, and much more, making it a bigger hog for them compared to a warrior. There are ways to configure it to maintain the basics for raid coordination but minimising the lag...if you need help with that, I'd be happy to work on it with anyone and do some experimentation with Waldy (for curse testing, etc). Honestly, my CTRA setup has pretty much everything enabled and it even lags a very good SLI rig, so there is some merit to the claim, for the naysayers. As for my perspective...what many may not know is how much I monitor the raid continuously during our runs and provide feedback to Maube based on what I see (such as "we need to drop a repair bot really soon...<insert name here> has two broken items and 4 other people are under 20%"). Reagents are just the tip of the iceberg and, honestly, I only do a reagent check every 30mins or so after that at most, so don't think that is all we're using it for. When you hear me saying we need to rebuff in TS, it's because I monitor every buff possible and know that several groups' buffs are dropping. Other things happen because of what CTRA allows folks like Maube and myself to see without asking 40 people "what's your durability?" or "how many soulshards do you have?". We could easily spend an extra 20-30 mins just doing "housekeeping chores" or setting requirements every time instead... Nobody, and I mean NOBODY is saying that doing this entire raid without CTRA isn't possible, so no need to get into "I raided for 9 million years without it and did just fine" stories...I'm just here to say that it's a HUGE time and effort-saver for THIS raid and those who work very hard to put it together and keep it going. If over half of the raid doesn't have CTRA, I'll personally give up doing what Maube has asked me to do for her during the raid...it'll just be too much work to be any fun for me. No blame here, no ultimatums, no requirements, no indifference...just asking to give it a try and offering my time to help with any configuration questions/testing to minimise lag issues involved.

I'm of the "if it can and will be used...and you have the DKP for it" mindset over even the "who does it benefit more" thing. If the CHT would be used by Green and he has the DKP for it, I'm fine with him getting it even before a rogue or enhancement shaman. I think the bigger question is, though...is that the weapon he's looking for to begin with? I suspect it's not, actually, and would hate to see him blow DKP on something only to find that it's not that great for him. One thing I've noticed with Hoofie is how much hate is generated by crits (even though they are low-damage, they seem to really help). Not knowing the agility:crit chance formula for warriors, I'm wondering if a reasonable speed (2.x speed) weapon that increases to-hit and/or crit chance via stats would be more beneficial than a weapon that's only faster. Also, the threat enchant may be something to consider if you're finding it harder to keep the mobs focused on you now that the rest of us have gear that has increased our damage potential (nasty mats, but it does look interesting).

Actually, I think it was funnier to watch you heal things I couldn't see. I did see the waves as they appeared for a split second (yay server synch), but they vanished immediately. Next time, I'm bringing my pendant to see the ghosties

I don't think we have many dagger rogues attending MC, so you might not have much competition for a Gutgore Ripper (drops from Garr...1.8 speed dagger, but lacks stats). The only weapons I grumble about when a rogue loses them are Fang of the Faceless, Felstriker, and Perdition's Blade, but that's just me wishing I had them for Toba I haven't checked the lists from ZG, but I think I saw something that looked nice in there for warriors seeking a faster main-hand blade....wish I could remember what it was. I'll check when I'm in-game, though, and let you know. There's also a nice sword in AQ20 (again, bad memory) and the Thunderwood Poker dagger reward from the Perfect Poison quest is actually not bad either (although not epic). Being a dagger rogue, I don't know much about swords, but I do know fast weapons Grawuulf has Alcor's Sunrazor...may want to ask him how that dagger's been for him if you're considering it...very tough to get to drop, though.

...or longer, depending on how much you've had to drink I'm still laughing after watching you tank Rattlegore....a truly classic moment (and well done!) Best quote from that: "I can tank him...just watch...don't help"

Good luck with the move, Betel! Hopefully, you'll get settled in and be back sooner than you expect

Count me in for both! If we have a tank for the dragons, I'll drag Verissi around for portals and raw damage for those....or Hoofie if no tank is available (I love tanking those big nasty dragons). Debating between Toba and Hoofie for UBRS...Toba would love some new weapons from Rend, but Hoofie's still hoping for Finkle's and Drakk's blood. If at all possible, I wouldn't mind running to Rend with Toba and swap to Hoofie for the Beast and Drakk (Green and I did a great tank swap on Drakk before that made it VERY easy to handle conflags of a tank)....but I'm flexible, as always Who else is in need of Onyxia keying? I'm in no rush to do it with Toba or Waldy, but would happily help with the LBRS/eyes/Rend runs that they'll need.

Two hours later and I'm still 0% closer to having the patch downloaded...remind me why I pay for this again?

Blizzard's downloader tracker seems to be down now...and the one mirror that I've found that isn't overloaded is in Australia....think I'll go back to sleep