Ding! Level 80

Purah is level 80!

I've been hard at work getting him better gear and enjoying having a third 80 (although his server isn't my favorite... I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that, though). I've run some dungeons at 80 and have managed to get a couple of lucky drops and some quick upgrades via the Auction House and faction vendors.

First and formost, I was most excited to join a random group into the Coliseum at the Argent Tourney grounds. As the only Plate-wearing-DPS on the run, when the Helm of the Violent Fray dropped, I had no competition. Bingo, one meta-socket helm for Purah. This spurred me on to get a few more upgrades, namely so I could buy, socket, and activate a Chaotic Skyflare Diamond into that pretty, winged helmet. I visited the Auction house to buy some strength + hit gems (I'm still woefully under the hit cap, unfortunately...) and a belt buckle, and then traveled around to some vendors that had shiny things to buy.

First stop: The Argent Tourney, and the Silvermoon vendor. As much as I really, REALLY want the Silvermoon two-hander for 25 seals, I can wait a little longer, and instead used up half of my Champion's Seals to buy the Clinch of Savage Fury. I considered buying the necklace that's available there, too, but I think I'll wait just a little longer. I mean, I REALLY want that sword, and it'll take a few more days to get it, the way I get seals (i.e. slowly).

Second stop (after a few more quests): The Shadow Vault. As a Death Knight, I had a slight head start to my reputation, and finishing up the quest lines for Darkrider Arly at the Fleshworks, along with a couple for the Bone Witch, and I was Revered with Purah's true faction. I immediately visited in order to get a Runeblade of Demonstrable Power (to tide me over till I get the Argent Tourney sword of awesome) and the Arcanum of Torment to put on my helm.

It's a start. I still need more hit. A lot more hit, and I'm really sad that I can't put a Titanium Weapon Chain on my sword along with my runeforging. I love the weapon chain. *Pouts* I got a couple other items while I was running errands for the Ebon Blade, and it's possible I can pop a few more +Hit gems onto my gear. I keep thinking that I just need to run some more of the Level 80 dungeons, though. I don't want to even try Heroics until I'm at hit cap. I don't feel it's fair to other players to come under-geared and expect to be carried through the content (plus expect to be allowed to loot), much less have some healer blow mana on trying to keep me alive in content I'm not technically ready for (and yes, I know that Blizzard has a gear check for Heroics, but, seriously, I'm nicer to other players than that).

Oh, and by some luck of the draw, Je'Tze's Bell dropped for me as well during my questing for the EB. I'll pop it up on the Auction House soon enough and see if I can't get some gold to cover all my upgrade expenses.

Long Time, No See 3

So, almost seven months have passed since my last post. That's a long time. Thankfully I'm still happily employed, living a pretty sweet life, and overall having a good time.

World of Warcraft definitely took a back seat for about two months during that time, where I essentially didn't play at all. Some characters got deleted, for example, though none that I've mentioned on the blog, I don't think, and I've moved my focus away from Seona for awhile.

In fact, since I had a Warrior at 80, and a Paladin at 80, I thought to myself, why not just round out the set and get one of your Death Knights to 80 as well? That way, we'd have one of each of the Plate-wearing classes, and you'll really be able to say that you're a fan of the heavy-armor-wearers. So I did.

Well, almost. Purah, my Blood Elf Death Knight, is level 79.5 and getting closer and closer to 80. The Brewfest holiday helped a little, and the Argent Crusade's tournament, along with the ever-wonderful random instance tool. While questing is great and all, I've done most of the Icecrown quests twice now and am getting tired of doing them again. So Purah is getting his Blood-DPS out of his system while he still can.

I'm not 100% sure what I'll do in Cataclysm. In those many months since I last posted, more information had come out about the next expansion, including the change for Death Knights to have defined trees like all the other classes. It means that if Purah is going to stay a Blood Death Knight, he'll need to be a tank. I'm not sure how I feel about that, honestly. He's been Blood DPS since I created his first incarnation in the Wrath Beta testing, and I've never tanked on a Death Knight before.

The main reason I stopped tanking with Yrovi is because it wasn't fun. It was stressful, because I wasn't terribly good at it, and you're expected to run the group as the tank. You're expected to know the fights, and the route to take in the dungeon, and to set the pace. It's a lot of responsibility. On top of all that, I don't consider myself to be the best tank ever, which just makes me nervous.

However, that said, I think that Blizzard has made it easier than ever to allow someone to learn to tank. The anonymity of the random group generation makes it so that if I screw up on one run, it isn't the end of the world. So maybe, just maybe, I'll tank again in Cataclysm... and this time on both Yrovi and Purah. I'll miss Blood DPS, though, that's for sure. I mean, how can you not love a DPS machine that ends every single fight at over 85% health, no problem?

But after such a long hiatus, I think I'm ready to get back in the game. I'll see you in the world... of Warcraft.

Footnote: I've never really had just -great- luck in-game, but today as a total exception, I think. Not only did I get Purah to level 79 with a 5-man group that was just freaking awesome (thank you so much Bléaksoul of Kirin Tor and Jovencita of Dethecus, in particular!!), but Purah went ahead and did a quick random group-up for Coren Direbrew, the Brewfest holiday boss, and got the Brewfest Ram AND the Remote! The first time I've done the fight on this character, and he gets one of the rare, epic mounts. Couldn't believe my eyes. After learning it, I felt really obligated to get the achievement and the title as well, since it was silly for him to get the mount in the first place (unlike Yrovi and Seona, who have small collections, I've kept Purah pretty sparse in terms of extra little goodies, not even teaching him the Celestial Mount that I bought). So I managed to earn enough tokens to get the Brew of the Month club and now Brewmaster Purah can run around on his ram whenever he likes.