Progressive Boink

[Justin]

I'm FINALLY ready for Kara this Tuesday. I was supposed to go like over a month ago, but I'm pretty lazy about getting attuned. Anyway, I've got my mage's +dmg up to 650, so I should do okay.

[Neil]

First time ever, J-Man?

My guild is starting to get Kara on farm. We're getting faster--Wednesday we made it all the way through Curator. Shade is a bit of a challenge still, but nowhere near as much as it was. I still usually go in all my prot-ness, which doesn't help our DPS. All the other fights are usually simple, but we haven't yet killed Nightbane. Our summoner left for another guild (what a dick) and nobody else has bothered to finish the quest yet. Fuck Shattered Halls heroic. We tried Netherspite last week for the first time after avoiding it, and it was such an easy fight. Green beam executes are pretty fun. Maybe I'll get to try one in the blue beam this week?? Only time will tell. We've also tried Ilhoof twice now, and wiped only on the first time (he enraged; his shadow bolt hit me for over 20k).

And a few weeks ago we had an embarrassing run-in with Moroes, where we wiped over and over. The same Moroes that we've never had a single issue with until then. It turns out the adds aren't always the same! So we all felt pretty fucking stupid when we learned that, and were finally able to beat him.

And my gear is now pretty damn amazing. I got a Gyro-Balanced Khorium Destroyer crafted, Maiden finally dropped the gaunts, Eternium Greathelm...Armory

A few more badges and I'm getting a new cloak, hopefully I can get a new chestpiece and shoulders. Maybe if I'm really lucky Shade will drop the ring I need from him. And I need some +12 stam gems, but they're damn expensive, and I don't have the money

What I'm saying is, I think we're getting close to being ready for some ZA. Hopefully. The bear hits hard

[White Panther]

Grats Neil! You are at the very exciting part. After Kara things really open up. Many of the BT guilds on our server are still in about half Kara gear. That place is a gold mine.

Today I ran with 9 other pandas, and we one-shot every boss in Kara, clearing the whole thing. It took about 5 hours, but we were having a blast the whole time. I got to tank the Illhoof imps without nether-protection, which is insane, but we had no problems. I pulled down 22 heroic badges and finally got the bracers I've been wanting off Maiden. I bought the heroic badge wand today, and now I'm saving for the belt.

I have +1100 shadow damage now. This blows my mind.

[Neil]

Yeah, it's crazy how many badges you can get just from Kara. Throw ZA in there and you might not have to run a Heroic ever again. Though if it's an easy Heroic, and particularly if it's the daily quest, it might still be worth it. The list of heroics I would run is pretty small though, Ramparts, Slave Pens, Mech...maybe a few others, but they're just not fun to tank. Probably easier as a DPS class. It makes me very angry that they don't upgrade the loot for high end dungeons on heroic...why do I want to run Heroic Shadow Labs when the only possible bonus are a few badges and a shot at one epic at the end? Plus gems, but most of the gems suck and are unique-equipped anyway. They should at least make it so all the bosses drop an epic. I guess what I'm saying is that heroics are not fun and I do not like them.

But some of the badge rewards are really goddamn awesome. This is one of the best tanking cloaks in the entire game (until BT/Hyjal trash drops this one at least). It's the next purchase I'm going to make. I already bought this badass neck piece. Expertise is such a great, great stat, particularly for tanking. It's probably too great at this point. I'm expecting them to lower the effectiveness of Expertise a bit, or increase the amount of rating required to get a point. With the Warrior talent Defiance and that neck piece being the only place I get Expertise from currently, I have 11 (while in Defensive stance until the next patch when they make it work in all stances--I'm usually in Defensive stance anyway). That translates into enemies having 2.75% less chance to parry AND 2.75% less chance to dodge my attacks. Not to mention the +hit on that neck. Parries are both bad for threat generation and potentially life-threatening.

Then there is this 75-badge bad boy. It's got Pally stats (ok, just one pally stat, the 35 spell damage) but it's better than warrior tier 4, at least if you don't include the set bonuses. And if you have the 4 other pieces anyway, it wouldn't matter. Three +12 stam gems make that have 96 stamina on it, which is just absurd.

[White Panther]

I know I have a problem when I've never even played as a warrior and I know EXACTLY what you're talking about. Our warriors are going nuts trying to collect badges for all the good badge gear. There isn't a lot I'm interested in, but what they do have is really amazing. This cloak is better than the pvp cloak. And right now I wear a blue belt during raids just for the +hit making this belt a fairly significant upgrade (same +hit, but much better stats.)

I feel ya on heroics. It's all for badge collecting, and all the loot gets DE'd.

[Justin]

Matt and I are now a two-man destruction crew known as "The NAACP IMage Awards"

[Matt W]

fuckkkkkkkk why didnt we name ourselves cryme tyme

[Justin]

that'll be our 3v3 team name with my buddy shane (bergman)

[Matt W]

Huh? What's that? Oh nothin', after 16 Warsong Gulch's to get 18 fucking marks, (nothing like the Alliance strategy of sending one guy at a time) just m'first level 70 epic. http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25858#sold-by Heh, no big deal though. I plan to have a matching headpiece for it by this weekend.