Hard Modes, Morale, and Raiding

There's a lot of talk at various blog sites and WoWInsider about Hard Modes, specifically in relation to Ulduar and the next patch changes with 3.2 and the new raid instances. Discussion has ranged from a variety of, you should even consider a HM until you have cleared Ulduar to people trying to achieve HM when they are far below the capability- and how devastating that can be for the raid roster. I know just within our guild there was some discussion- but I firmly feel we arrived at the best solution for us- simply put, we will attempt a HM, and give it 3 solid attempts- and based on those attempts, call it and do the boss normally, or try again. There is no reason to ever burn someone out wiping.

We've gradually been building our experience up on the towers. Perhaps we'll try 3 towers up on FL this time and see how the attempt goes- but it is nice to know up front what limitations we have in place already. As far as DPS race HMs, there is really no reason not to try for these every time- because they cost nothing. We can increasingly push ourselves harder/further. Since our focus is currently Yogg and Iron Council Medium Mode, we've been pushing through content quickly to have time to focus on these fights; it's paid off too, because we are mastering Yogg's phases, and IC would have been cleared if we would have had a second hunter Sunday night.

Recruiting has really paid off, and we've also very quickly filled our immediate needs, and hit "critical mass" as far as our roster is concerned. With our latest additions, I really feel it will definitely make our first HM- IC – Med, very possible, which will then unlock the way for us to begin working on other HMs. Guild Bank Repairs on Sunday also helped as we were working through Yogg, and we did a 180 on improving our number of attempts for the time we had available. On the whole, aside from some miscommunication on 10 man raiding (I swear bliz loves to put these things out there just to test guild mettle), our core is stronger than it has ever been, with a great group of core people. The choice is always that YOU choose who YOU raid with. I love my decision!

A New Reason to do the Fishing Daily

When 3.2 hits the live realms, players will have a new reason to do the fishing daily. Aside from the possible pet, the extra gold from vendor greys, and the possible storm jewel gems, the next patch will offer the chance for the Bag of Fishing Treasures to contain a Waterlogged Recipe. The quest available from the Waterlogged Recipe requires 350 currently to accept.

Cooks, don't get too excited. This operates in a similar fashion as the Sealed Vial of Poison. The only difference is that the Waterlogged Recipe can currently be traded. Once you start the quest, you have to deliver the recipe to Christi Stockton, a Wine Vendor located in Dalaran's premier shop- One More Glass. Frequent cooks haunt this location in search of wine and cheese for cooking dailies. Basically you talk to Christi, and she offers to buy the recipe from you. You receive 5 cooking badges, 250 Kirin Tor reputation, and of course, gold. For now, on the PTR, these waterlogged recipes are tradeable- making it possible to sell them on the auction house. This could provide a way for some chefs to get their chef hats. I personally thought it would have be neat to offer a new recipe drop this way but obviously this is not what the developers had in mind.

Northrend Children's Week – PTR First Look

One thing I did notice on the PTR last night was that they are testing the Northrend Quests for Children's Week. It starts in Dalaran. The Orphan Matron is located close the fountain in Dalaran- she offers you a choice of orphans- either a Frenzyheart or a Oracle orphan to keep for the week.

On Onyxtotemz, I picked up the Oracle orphan. To complete the opening quest and unlock the quest chains, you first have to talk to the matron about both orphan types; note, you can only pick one faction. Once you have done that, with your orphan out, you complete the opening quest.

The first three quests are The Biggest Tree Ever, Playmates, and the Bronze Dragonshire. These quests are very straight forward.

The Biggest Tree Ever has you taking the orphan into Grizzly Hills to see Grizzlemaw. Grizzlemaw is the giant tree that has hostile furblog type creatures in it. To get credit for the quest I landed inside of Grizzlemaw, summoned the orphan, and moved slightly- quest complete.

Playmates takes you to Borean Tundra to visit the Winterfin Retreat camp. Here your lil' oracle orphan will meet with the kid murlocs and you get to see some really nice dancing.

The Bronze Dragonshire takes you to Dragonblight, just northeast of the Wintergarde Keep. Once you get here and summon your orphan. At this point you realize that your orphan is going to grow up to become the leader of his tribe. He chats with an elder here for a minute, and of course, you end up with more quests.

The Dragon Queen is also in Dragonblight. You just need to take your orphan to the top on Wyrmcrest Tower, and chat with the Queen for just a bit.

Meeting a Great One is the last quest outside of Dalaran. You get to take the orphan thru the waypoint in southern Sholazar Basin. Once you enter, summon your orphan, go up to the large guy on the left of the ramp.

Then it's back to Dalaran. A Trip to the Wonderworks quest has you purchasing a paper plane. You "play" with your orphan, throwing the plane back and forth. Once this one is complete, you turn him back into the Matron.

In the mail, you receive a letter from your orphan, and a mini orphan as a pet. Neat idea, but kinda freaky if you think that this is supposed to grow up to be a leader of a tribe; all in all, the quests are very straightforward.

PTR Trial of the Champion (5-Man) – First Looks

We managed to get two groups and attempt this new 5 man as it came up during our organization process. BTW, we need DPS on the PTR.

First Phase – You know all those Argent Tourney dailies.. well I hope you are good at them, and if you aren't, you need to start practicing your jousting now. The first phase is mounted, and you are jousting 3 Horde factions; these 3 groups can vary, judging by the groups we had spawn between the our two 5 mans.

If you thought Rag had a long speech, prepare to be bored- because the opening is very long. Also note: if you wipe, you get to go through it again; Let's hope Bliz changes that. You enter the room , and there's a ring with horses along the edge; Equip your lance, mount up up, and start that long intro. Each of three random factions will move in, with their respective boss. The object is to defeat each of the factions, and then each boss, on horse. The PTR was really buggy (go figure, eh?) and if you died, the client crashed, if you dismounted, the client crashed. Once this phase was over, you had to fight the 3 heads of the factions again, on foot. After that, we have no idea; it seemed to bug out repeatedly for both groups.

Here's the video- note you will not see loot etc. The video stops where I crashed from dying =) -edited, unfortunately YouTube would not allow the Kid Rock audio of Cowboy- Boo on YouTube so here's our version hosted by Blogger =)

Lootwise this instance drops epics- 200 and 213 iLevels; the list of loot is available here: MMO Champion