Ok, so just a general update as far as what I’ve done in PVE content since coming back to Horde and before 3.1 popped.

I can’t remember whether I already mentioned Nax or not, but I’ve cleared it with our little group a few times now. Not an achievement as such, or anything particularly exciting, but I’ve managed to survive every fight at least once without watching it from the floor now, so I’m happy. As far as I’m concerned that’s Nax ticked off my list as done.

The last two fights were of particular interest to me, I liked the mechanics involved. The first Sapphiron fight we did I survived no problem. I died during the second one, even though I was definitely standing behind the ice block thingy on my screen. I was told this happens sometimes though, so no big deal I guess. Kel’Thuzad I died early on in the fight the first time. This was due basically to me being unaware of everything that was going on in the fight. I died to one of the red void zone thingies, or whatever they’re called. Second run I managed to survive the fight, just. My DPS was a bit weak though, as I was focusing on trying to stay alive most of the time. I find the “keep 10 yards away” thing a touch tedious in quite a small space, but whatever, it wasn’t that bad.

The next boss in my attempt to get as much done as possible pre-3.1 as Satharion. I’d seen a few videos of this guy, so I knew roughly what was to be expected. We took the easy option (of course) and killed the three drake dudes first (I’m pretty sure they’re called drake dudes…) and then engaged the big boss by himself. I did get caught in one of the flame wall things, but I survived so it was all good. The fight was fairly unremarkable aside from that, and I didn’t get any loot.

My intention was to try and do Malygos too, and we were planning on doing so the night before 3.1 was released. However we were a bit low on numbers, so I still haven’t done that encounter yet. Hopefully I’ll get around to that at some point soon. The fight sounds quite fun and involved.

Lastly, although technically I did this after 3.1 came out, I’m going to include it in here anyway. We did Culling of Stratholme a few times, and I got my Reins of the Bronze Drake. One of my friends had a tiny emo strop because he’d decided he wanted it first and that I shouldn’t have rolled, but he got his the next day so no harm done I suppose.

Much prettier than the turkey skeleton I’m used to flying…

I’ve been a bit slack at updating this blog as of late, predictably mainly due to laziness, but also general business. I’ve still been playing my DK regularly, in fact I’m pretty surprised I haven’t flaked off onto something else completely yet. I have started another class (more info on that in a post coming shortly) but I’ve managed to maintain regular activity on my DK, which pleases me.

In the last few weeks I’ve managed to tick off most of the pre-Uldar content, which is something I wanted to do just so that I’ve seen it all. I’m not at the “bleeding edge” of raid content, whatever that is, it sounds painful, and I have no desire to be… I do want to stop missing out on even seeing content though. My not-so-friendly little posse seems to have found another similar group of people, meaning that between us we usually have enough bodies around to do some 10 man content. It’s all very relaxed, and we seem to have gone a week without doing anything as a group, and no one seems bothered by it. At least not on our end. This pleases me greatly, I’m completely up for doing stuff once or twice per week, but it’s nice to know I’m not going to be under any substantial pressure to do so.

The number of gear changes in the last few weeks are pretty minimal, but a few small steps in the right direction are always a good thing. The number of blue items on my character are slowly reducing, being replaced by shiny purple ones. A few more weeks and Nax clears and I should be good to start thinking a little more about 10 man Uldar.

Recent acquisitions:

Heroes’ Scourgeborne Battleplate – picked up from some boss in Nax, rather than bought with badges. Does that make me slightly more imba? I assume it does. It allowed me to spend my badges on Tattered Dreadmist Mantle for my new alt instead. Oooooh, bit of a clue there for you as to what I’m leveling, exciting huh?

Glyph of Dark Death – Picked up from the AH just this morning, I’m pretty sure this was a recent addition with the 3.1 patch. Either that or I’m an idiot and just completely missed it before. It replaced my crappy  Icy Touch glyph anyway.

Purple Trophy Tabard of the Illidari - “That’s not an upgrade!” I hear you cry… well you’re wrong, so how about you shut up? It’s an upgrade to my looks, which anyone who’s played a number of MMOs for a good amount of years knows is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT PART of your character. This is one of the cooler looking tabards, so I decided to quickly do the quest one afternoon. There are some other cooler looking ones out there, but you don’t see quite so many people wearing this one since WotLK.

Current targets:

There’s a couple of things I have my eye on as far as my next upgrades go…

Greatsword of the Sin’dorei – From the new Argent Tournament, or whatever it’s called. Getting this I think (though I haven’t fully investigated yet) is just a case of doing the dailies and what not every day until I have enough tokens to buy it. I’m not too sure whether technically this is an upgrade over my current weapon. I’d be dropping 23 Strength but gaining 45 Haste and a little more hit rating. Having a quick read round, it seems Haste has been improved slightly for melee classes come 3.1, so I’m assuming this weapon might actually be a pretty decent investment. Also it puts me even further over the special hit cap. I think I’ll then be in a position where I could drop my Sphere of Red Dragon’s Blood without dropping below the cap. What I’d replace it with right now I’m not 100% sure, maybe the Oracle trinket, unless I can find something better. I’d need to work on Oracle rep for that though, meh.

Heroes’ Scourgeborne Gauntlets – I’m planning on buying these with badges, as I don’t imagine I’ll be getting lucky with a drop of them (or anything better) anytime soon. I currently have about 25/40 of the badges required I think, so another week or two (depending on how many heroics I can be bothered to do) should net me some new gloves. The 2 piece set bonus will be nice too… hmm, maybe I’ll work a bit harder on getting those.

Just a few more gear updates on the DK so far, both form badges/heroics and from Nax itself…

Flame-Bathed Steel Girdle – From heroic Nexus. Got lucky (presumably) on the drop and got this the first time I ran it. Very nice waist.

Mirror of Truth – From badges. Pretty good trinket from what I can tell, and a nice proc. I haven’t actually paid attention to how often it procs as of yet.

Shoulderplates of Bloodshed – From Nax itself, Heigan I think. First piece of really decent loot I got there, I was well happy. Love the DK armour models too, so I’m most pleased with these.

As far as Nax itself goes, last week was my first full run. The last time I’d done it some of the bosses had already been killed, and we stopped before we got to the end. I think I’d ended up completing two quarters. Last week we did an entire run in one go, from start to finish, and it went really well. The final boss was the only one I got myself killed on where we weren’t wiping anyway. This was mainly due to the fact I wasn’t really sure on the strategy. I didn’t know I was going to be going to Nax though, in my defense. I am also very lazy.

My DPS was respectable and I picked up on all the strategies quickly enough anyway, so I was pleased. Plus its always fun to bug Dan by making him give me details on how to do things when he’s trying to concentrate on other things.

I think I’m pretty much as well equipped as I can be right now anyway, give or take one or two lucky drops and a few more badges to chuck around. So now would be the right time to start another alt, I mean why not!? More on that next time…