Mal'Ganis

He looks pretty awesome. Can't wait til he's a playable character.

Gearing Up

I've recently been gearing up my two 80s, with a primary focus on my Paladin- Alenena. Before 3.3 I was gearing Vitos, my Warlock because it was just as easy to get into a group with him and he did much more dps. This makes sense considering he is a pure class, not a hybrid.

Anyways, with 3.3 Al can now offer to tank or dps and can consequently get a group in under a minute easily. Vitos has to wait fifteen+ minutes in general, and if he screws up, many people are very willing to boot a dps who does not perform to their exalted expectations.

In any case, 3.3 hit just as my winter break started so I could really sit down and gear up. Within a week I had 4 pieces of T9. In the month or so since then I've gotten another 3 pieces of tier (one more for tanking and two for dps). Additionally, I've gotten excellent loot from the new 5-mans, finally replacing a year old Demise.

I also got a Triumph ring and trinket as well as a Conqueror's Libram. My average iLv rocketed from 205 (tank gear) to 229 (tank gear). However, there were two pieces that evaded my grasp. Bracers and Back. I did buy one of the 30 emblem Valorous capes, but that left if at 213, which, compared to the rest of my gear, was pretty low. Even worse were my bracers. I had gotten them in my first H-CoS run. They were the blue iLv 200 bracers that dropped off Salramm. Now, they aren't bad, they did in fact serve me well through Naxx, Ulduar, some ToC, and Onyxia. Hell, they were with me when I went to ICC for the first time.

I spent a long time researching where to upgrade them. First there was a iLv 200 Epic drop in Heroic AN. A small upgrade, but one nonetheless- so far, it has not dropped for me. Then there are some other guys who drop much better bracers. Instructor Rasuvious- One of the first bosses in Naxx drops iLv 200 and 213 bracers- depending on 10 or 25 man. The Flame Leviathan, first boss in Ulduar 10, drops 219 bracers. Northern Beasts, first boss in ToC 10, drops 232 bracers. Lord Marrowgar, first boss in ICC 10, drops 251 bracers.

The problem with all those is that I rarely raid, and when I do, they don't drop for me. That makes me sad. In any case, there are two epic level BoE bracers. The 60 Emblem of Valor ones, which cost 900g minimum if you want to buy them because whoever it is could buy 6 epic gems instead, so that hardly makes sense for an iLv 213 at this point in the game. The other BoE bracer is Saronite Swordbreakers. They're a crafted piece and the recipe drops in ToC 10-H or 25 (I think). They require 8 titansteel bars, 4 crusader orbs and 20 saronite bars. There were two of them on the AH when I checked each going for about 3000g. I then chose to look at the actual prices of the materials and determined that, if I got them, I could get the bracers for about half price. I proceeded to do so spending- 1350 in total including a 50g tip for the crafter I found and got me my new bracers. Now I'm very much over def cap (by about 10 points) so I'm going to be regemming and reenchanting some of my gear.

The Culling of Time

Yeah. Its my view of that god forsaken instance, Caverns of Time: Culling of Stratholme. The actual fights are fine, but the 13 minute (read that THIRTEEN MINUTE) introduction sequence can be a little bit off putting considering that it is in fact one of the longer instances in WotLK. So without further ado:

Caverns of Time: Culling of Stratholme

1. Meathook: After beating four random waves you get Meathook. It is an Abom. You killz it. (Hint it's a tank n' spank).
2. Salramm the Fleshcrafter: This guy is another tank 'n' spank. Unless you are going for Zombiefest! (which I got today). At that point, you want to LoS/range pull him back to the Town Hall (TH). It will be a pain if he's at the Market Gate because, well its damn far. However, once you get him to the TH kill the zombies around him. Then let him hit on the tank until the zombies have fully respawned. Then you can kill him. Loot, then let Arthas saunter over to you. Clear the inn and go down the secret passage way and leave most of the party there. Then take the tank back up and run all the way from the TH to MG without hitting any zombies, just aggroing em all. Turn of Ret Aura, Thorns and the like before doing this run. Once you have them all gathered up, use some AoE to shoot em down. This works best for pallies because they can use detect undead to find any hiding zombies and then can use Holy Wrath to one shot em all. When the tank kills them, the rest of the party should open up with everything they got on the zombies along the gauntlet until another twenty or so are killed.
3. Chrono-Lord Epoch: Tank 'n' spank. Keep threat off Arthas. Sometimes he'll freeze time and go berserk on you, but there isn't much you can do. If you are doing zombiefest, you'll want to kill him before gathering the zombies.
4. Infinite Corrupter: This guy is a very easy tank 'n' spank (see a pattern yet). However, you have to get to him within twenty five minutes of the first wave. If you do, he will drop a Bronze Drake, an Epic Speed mount. If you do zombiefest, you are unlikely to get this.
5. Mal'Ganis: A fight between Arthas and Mal'Ganis. Mano a Demano. And a party of five brave adventurers. Following the pattern of the other ones, Mal'Ganis will occasionally cast sleep, which can be a bother. It is a curse, so it is dispellable. Drop him and you just saved the world from potential destruction. Now Arthas will survive and turn into the Lich King. Somehow, the powers that be believe this to be a 'good idea'.

EEVILLE!

A paladin gone bad.... Corrupted by the arch demon Mal'Ganis. This warrior will kill all who stand in her way... for the next ten seconds- then the debuff wears off.