Dkati Takes Down Two Locks...

This week went a lot better in the arena for Hroda and me.  We had some decent matchups, but we also faced some strong teams.  As usual, the warrior/druid teams beat us up pretty bad (we went 50/50 against them), but we took down some better ranked teams to peak at about 1650 before we hit some skids.  [Note: when doing arena from a laptop, remember to plug it in, or you may find yourself kaput mid-fight!]

[A quick bitch. What's up with YouTube taking my beautiful 1080p encoded video and making it so ugly. I think I'll need to look into warcraftmovies.com.]

One of our fights was a career highlight for me!  We entered the arena to see two warlocks with their fel-puppies out. They were playing aggressively and came running.  They spotted Hroda early, who let out a fear immediately, but not before she was loaded up with dots and gets blasted.

Meanwhile, I was scooting my stealthed butt (at stealthed speed) after one of the 'locks.  Hroda dies, and I finally nabbed my target warlock behind a pillar and made really quick work of him.  His buddy figures out where I'm at, and he begins curse of exhaustion kiting into a fear.  I'm pretty sure he can finish me at this point but instead of staying aggressive, he runs away from me. 

I take the time to dive behind a pillar, hoping to outwait the dots for a quick bandage + stealth.  This doesn't work as we realizes I'm going to try that.  With combo points in hand, I pillar hump until I can put a snare on him.  At that point, it's game over as my damage will out do his slow dots.

I even had another Cloak of Shadows waiting which I didn't use (a mistake, on my part).

It was good fun, and to get 22 points on it, I was thrilled. I'm sure those warlocks were pissed.  Luck? Probably. Fun? Oh yeah.

Dkati and the Pains of Arena...

Since season 3 had started, our 2v2 has really struggled to stay above 1500.  It seems we're up against very prime comp teams, and a whole lot of them are running around with "rival", "challenger" or even "gladiator" titles!

What is more painful, is our new 3v3.  2xrouge + disc priest.  I would think we should be able to at least hold our own through the scrub brackets.  But, even at a 1350 ranking! (youch, I know!) we're seeing challenger teams.

Are these teams hiring help to get their scores up? Or, is the beginning of the season really just THAT brutal??

I don't have any answers.  I know that my 2v2 was doing better last season though.  Scrubs? Yes, we really are. But, I didn't expect this type of pain this season.

I'll just have to wait for the end of the season when we get an influx of people srubbier than us. Maybe, just maybe, we'll have a chance... maybe??

Dkati Actually beats a Paladin...

In our 2v2 [Fast and Danger!], Hroda and I had a really off night.

However, we finished the night off with a pretty good outlast match where we faced a paladin/rogue team.

Luckily, I had my capture program running for this one, so here it is!

Yes, I still click a few of my buttons.. me nub!

Dkati and Hroda face a Shaman/Warlock Combo

And, it had to be some of the funniest matches we'd seen.

The first round, I totally botched the whole thing and they won fairly easily.  The second match, I killed the lock rather quickly, but the shammy (elemental) also focused on me, so I died shortly after the takedown.

For the next 20 minutes, the shaman and Hroda played pillar-hump.  Horda had managed to mana burn him into oblivion, but the humping (helped with the snare totem) allowed him to keep running until he could heal.  Eventually, with both at full mana, Hroda baited him out with an attempt to resurrect me.  This ended with the shaman's massive burst DPS taking down Hroda who couldn't find a nearby pillar.

In the final match, I opened in the same manner, killed the warlock faster but couldn't get to my healer, or around a pillar, before some lightning roasted my ass.

Pillar humping started again.  However, we could tell the shaman was looking to rez his lock buddy.

Hroda and I made the call for him to come and rez me at the same time.  Hroda popped an immediate heal on me, I stealthed and sprinted right to the lock, who went down in 2 hits, since they hadn't been healed.  Game was over at this point when I had full health and simply stunned and slapped that shaman down.

I've never seen a resurrection in arena -- but both teams did it simultaneously.

Hilarious!

Dkati is Queen of the Ogres...

After not doing the Ogri'la quests forever, I finally managed to tag along with some friends.  Low and behold, at the end of the quest, you become king (or in my case queen) of the Ogres! Bow you stinky dogs! Bow to your evil queen! Bwahahahahahahaha!

Dkati gets a Big Upgrade...

And, while the new armor is a HUGE upgrade, most of the rest of the PVP'ing world did the same thing.  If nothing else, my survivability has gone up as I've gained a whole lot of HP and jump almost 200 resilience.

Of course, I'm dead evil looking now.  Here's a list of all the fun toys I received:

• Vengeful Gladiator's Leather Helm
• Merciless Gladiator's Leather Spaulders
• Gladiator's Leather Tunic
• Gladiator's Leather Gloves
• Gladiator's Leather Legguards
• Vindicator's Band of Triumph
• Bold Ornate Ruby
• Inscribed Ornate Topaz

All in all, a very large chunk of stuff.  That's what 75k honor, and about 3200 arena points will net you if you spend them all in one day!

Dkati Increases her 2v2 ranking, again...

Hroda and I have been slowly gaining in the arena.  We would have made it to 1650-1700, but we lost to a horribly ranked hunter/warlock combo.

We really shouldn't have lost, but the new hunter abilities to "mortal strike" and rip off buffs seemed to really hurt.  We have always had some issues with trying to keep beast master hunters off of her.

The hunter was actually a very capable kiter and gave me some issues.

The good news is, I seriously believe that the 31/30 (AR/Prep) build won us at least one game.  However, it plays a whole heck of a lot like a deep combat build.  This helped as I've got the combos down in that build, and this one actually makes it a little easier.

It'll be hard choosing which set of weapons I'll get with Season 3 (whether it be S3 weapons or S2 weapons, depending on if we get the ranking or not!).

Dkati and her Druidic Friend Kyi...

My druid Kyi (pronounced: KEEEEEEEEEEEEEY) turned the big 40.  And, in doing so, she successfully became a BOOOOOOOOOMKIN!  The dance is so silly, that I grabbed a picture of the hip thrusting maneuver.  Hilarious stuff!

Technorati Tags: Dkati Druid World of Warcraft

Dkati has a good PvP week...

Our 2v2 team, Fast and Danger had a good week. We lost 3 times, and won 7.

However, those 3 losses came to teams that had a holy paladin with 14k armor and +1600 to healing. We simply aren't geared enough to blast through that kind of healing (plus bubbles). This is even with their partner being a scrub in mostly greens.

I hate that people can "sell" their services to bring on crappy people that don't want to win on even terms. It's crap to go up against a 1500 team that's manned with fully geared and talented people. Hopefully some of that will subside next season, but it's bound to continue.

Dkati finally posts for Halloween...

And, I do so because we downed the Headless Horseman. Some fun treats, and a neat ring.

Here's a pic of me with a pumpkin head! Woot!

And, here is the fun ring he dropped for me. An upgrade for my PvP armor, at least!

Dkati and Oz...

In my first ever run at the Opera Event, we got Oz.

I was a little intimidated, however, thanks to Rekindled, the whole thing was a breeze. I was actually surprised at how easy it was to take the encounter down!

As usual, nothing rogue-like dropped, but our hunter got a really nice axe, and our warrior got a spiffy helm.

Dkati gets a Big Girl Sword...

Many weeks of sub-par performance finally paid off in a big way. I received my Merciless Gladiator Slicer!

It was a tough decision, but this sword should give me the non-positional damage I seek, in both PVP and PVE.

They're so large, that they drag on the ground when I place them back on my hip! Wowsa!

Dkati and "Kill Dkati First"...

Serenity created a 5v5 arena team. We're doing it purely to gain arena points. We know we suck, most of the team hasn't ever even killed a horde!

But, we decided on our last match, to go nude, and dance as we got killed. The team who had the honor of seeing such a spectacle was "Balls on your Face".

Very funny stuff. Screenshots, of course, are included!

Dkati and Black Morass...

The Fabulous Five (yes, I just made this name up!) took a run through Black Morass, for poops and giggles.

The combat log can be found here:

Black Morass Combat Log

Luckily, Aeonus was kind enough to drop Latro's Shifting Sword for me! I'm almost convinced I will be going combat swords in a couple weeks.

Why in a couple of weeks? Merciless Gladiator's Slicer will be MINE! Bwahahahhaha!

Dkati and Mutilate versus Shadow Step

This log shows two comparable rogues, me using mutilate, and one using shadowstep. The evidence, imho, proves that ShS is horrible sustained damage. But, it's awfully fun in battlegrounds!

Dkati loves her some epics...

And, in Kara we managed to not down a single boss.

But, instead, three purples dropped of random trash. Luck, luck, luck!

I am now utilizing one sexy pair of gloves (better than what even Attumen drops!).

Grips of Deftness! Nice! According to Shadowpanter, they're barely behind the T4 rogue gloves. Wowsa! With a lucky 91/100 roll against our other rogue, Mcarros, I won!

Eresbette was nice enough to enchant them with Assault (I can't afford the crazy +15 agility enchant).

I'm to sexy for my... gloves! My first ever, non-PvP bought piece of armor.

Dkati and Karazahn...

Glory Bound took a group into Karazahn, and we did quite well for our first time as a group. We downed Attumen with no wipes, on the first try. Very, very nice work.

We saw the following drops:

Spectral Band of Innervation went to Foxglovefey
Whirlwind Bracers went to Anishkaa
Schematic: Stabilized Eternium Scope is being reimbursed to Anishkaa by a GM due to a loot bug.

We then went on to Moroes, tried him 6 times. We didn't down him, but got him to 50%. It was my first time fighting him, and most of the raid. So, I think we did great!

Unfortunately, I only got the Moroes run logged, as I forgot to start logging on Attumen! Oops!

See the Glory Bound forums for a link to the WoW Web Stats report!

Dkati is ready for Karazahn...

If you consider the following guidelines for being ready for Karazahn:

7,000 health
1,100 attack power
8% +hit
24% +crit
Pair of 71 DPS weapons

I am now ready to rock! Of course, it took respec'ing to combat daggers, but my stats are much more impressive:

7634 heatlh
1190 attack power
8.12% to hit
28.38% crit <-- unbuffed. Sooo happy about this.
two 71 DPS daggers

The downfall, was that it seemed I was so positionally bound in PvP that I was having a hard time. However, if the poor enemy was dumb enough to run slowly away from me....

... Well, I managed to make it into the top 3 damage dealers in alliance -- which I normally didn't do with mutilate spec. However, I attribute this to the fact that I spent a lot more time stun locking than I did with this build.

This build is doomed for failure in arena though! Luckily, BGs really take no skill when you're just pugging it!

Dkati's short SV rep run...

Nothing to mention, just ignore the four wipes on the first boss! :P

http://www.lossendil.com/wws/?report=2hes4ladsgq25

Dkati and Botanica...

Some obvious things to glean from this run: a combat rogue with better PVE equipment, weapons, and most of his enchants is more lethal than a more PVP, non-enchanted little old me!

Can't wait for some arena season 2 weapons! Now, to simply decide which type of weapon to use!

You can see the results here:
http://www.lossendil.com/wws/?report=cit6uad3neny5

Dkati and Coilfang...

In an attempt to better my rogue skills and gear, I have started logging combat data. While the data is certain to not be 100% perfect, and isn't intended to generate min/maxing and DPS counting, I will use it as a reference to gauge my own performance.

http://www.lossendil.com/wws/?report=2n31ufsqbm2ru

Dkati is looking more like a rogue...

After a few lucky runs in dungeons, I've come out looking a lot more rogue-like! Woot!

Dkati and Karazhan...

While our guild made decent progress toward working as a group -- we failed on Attumen many times. It got me thinking about whether I was really geared correctly for Karazhan.

I ran across the following information, though I have no idea who the original author is. It was very well written, and so I repost it here, in its entirety.

End game raiding is in a lot of ways very different from the pre-BC era. Raid encounters are no longer very forgiving, meaning you can't show up unprepared and expect the group you are in to pick up the slack and still have success. Since the raid sizes have been greatly reduced, so has the margin for error. With MC and BWL raids, you could bring along 5 to 10 under geared and inexperienced people and still have success by leveraging the gear and experience from the other 25-30 raiders in the party. Those under geared and inexperienced players could then gain both of these things by attending the 40 man raids on a regular basis with little to no negative impact to the success of it. In BC, you now have to be both geared and experienced BEFORE you start raiding.

1. Look at all the loot that drops in both the 5 man normal and heroic modes and make a wish list of the items you need in order to upgrade your gear. Then start hitting the instances you need in order for you to get the gear. Granted it may take several attempts, however this is not a bad thing since you will be getting reputation so you can get keyed for the heroic instances. A good idea is to check with other guildies, they may need to hit the same instances you do in order for them to gear up as well.

2. Build up all your instance factions to revered. This will allow you to purchase the Heroic instance key from each of the faction's quartermasters. Heroic instances are very much like raids in difficulty and are a good way to get raiding type experience and gear. The last boss in each heroic instance will drop an epic item (as of 2.1 patch).

How do you know when you do have enough gear and experience? Experience and gear go hand in hand in BC. As you are building up gear, you will gain experience. There is no set gauge on this but if you really needed to put a benchmark on it, ask yourself these questions:

- How many parts of the dungeon three set do you currently have?
If the answer is less than one, chances are you are not ready to raid. If you don't even know what that dungeon three set is, then you are not ready to raid.

- Have you completed all the 5 man instances in normal mode at least twice?
If you have not then it would be a good idea to do so to help you along in your quest for gear and experience.

- How many heroic keys do you have?
If the answer is less than two, then it would be a good idea to get at least one or two more so you can start running more heroic instances. However, you really should get all the keys so you can hop right into any heroic run no matter where it might be. Keep in mind, even if a heroic may not have the gear you are looking for, you are still getting experience and reputation. Reputation in heroic is more than if you ran in normal mode. Higher reputation will make nicer gear upgrades become available for purchase from the quartermasters.

3. Learn all you can about your class. You can expand the knowledge of your class in several ways. First, find out all about the different specs of your class. Learn about all the advantages and draw backs of each type. Understand in what situations a spec is most helpful. There are many ways to do this. First you can talk to your class leader. Another way is to post on the class forums on this website. There are many other resources on the web like http://www.WoWWiki.com that can offer up a lot of information on combat mechanics to help you better understand how the game works under the covers.

- What questions should I be asking my class leader?
When talking to your class leader, here is an example of some general questions you may want to ask in order to help you figure out what you need in order to be raid ready:

- How many Hit Points should I have unbuffed?
- How much Mana should I have unbuffed?
- How much Defense should I have?
- How much Dodge, Block and Parry should I have?
- How much AC should I have?
- How much Attack Power should I have?
- How much Plus Crit should I have?
- How much Plus Healing should I have?
- How much Plus Damage should I have?
- What class abilities would help the most during raids?

Dkati and Glory Bound get some new scrubs...

Glory Bound managed to pull together a quick group, of which three of us needed to kill this dragon.



After Cherryann took a few nose dives off of a cliff, and Mordrace figured out that his goggle weren't quite working, we managed to take this dragon down no problem.

This was quite possibly the most insane thing I've seen in the Outlands to date.

It's all worth it, however, to finally look like a true rogue! As I model my new scrubs, here:



Thanks to Cherryann, Hroda, Mordrace, and Mortilent! One day we'll get Hroda her new hat too!

Dkati gets her wings... AAARRGH!

A pretty little Ebon Gryphon is now my new mount. It set me back all my gold, but it's so pretty! Note, I'm also wearing a pirate's eye patch! AAAARRRGH!

Dkati wades in the cess pool of General Discussion...

Generally speaking, the World of Warcraft general chat is a worthless pile of malcontents, teenager arguments, and general drivel. However, I continue to puruse it, on occasion, much like one might be drawn to tabloid. The entertainment value can be quite high!

Case in point, I ran across the following post. While I don't agree with point #5, for obvious reasons, it is an overall good laugh. Without further ado, from the original post by Balan, of the Infinity Guild, of the server Lethon:

Dear Devs:

Since we, the mages, are the prime provider of food and beverages on Azerroth, we demand to be given the ability to conjure substances other than BREAD AND WATER. It is clearly unhealthy for the general public to subsist on such a diet(and for pete sake, when was the last time you see a person down a non-bread/water in public?), and unless something is done, there shall be an immediate health crisis among all living beings.

Therefore, as a representative of EBWN (End Bread & Water Now) group, I demand the following:

1) The ability to conjure peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches as our next level of food for the alliance aligned mages.

2) The ability to conjure warm milk for the alliance aligned mages.

1.B in the event above mentioned meal cause health hazards, cheap Panderan take out shall be conjured instead.

3) The ability to conjure raw steak for member of horde aligned mages.

4) The ability to conjure Ale for booze/malt/industrial grade wash fluid for horde aligned mages.

4.1) A epic mage spell, "birthday bash" will conjure 20 cakes on all particpant's inventory, 20 bottle of soda, and a potion of random effects.

4.2) A second epic spell, "21 +" shall conjure steaks, cheeses, lobsters and bottle of malt together in a feast on the ground everyone can pickup.

5) Nerf Rogues.

6) At popular demand, nerf some warlock too.

That is all,

A concerned mage for better Azeroth.
EBWN.

Dkati gets Glory Bound in the Underbog...

Well, after my last guild kind of... disappeared... I was recruited into Glory Bound by my good friend Hroda!

Tonight, they were nice enough to venture into the Underbog. I had a few quests to finish up. Overall, it went really smooth, with only a couple of deaths. No new implements of death to speak of, but the last boss dropped a robe. Without any 'clothie' casters in the group, we all rolled, and I smacked a fat 100 on the roll. (It made up for the lack of anything up till that point!) Of course, I had to to try it on! As you can see in the following group picture, it fit me well.

Too bad it's, of course, rubbish for a rogue.

Dkati finds... disturbing art...

I ventured into the Shadowmoon Valley in my quest for level 70. My first stop, as always in a new zone, is to find the inn. Imagine my surprise when there was smut on the wall! These dwarves call this art!

If it had been a gnome -- that would be art. This is just disgusting.

In contrast, the bear rug was awfully sexy!

Dkati gets some upgrades...

The last few days have been good ones in the Outlands. First, I discovered that I had enough money to purchase my epic mount!

Then, on my first trip through the Mana Tombs with the Kin of the Golden Dragon guild, Donbishop gave me a really sweet, glowing offhand dagger. It's fast as snot! Great poison applicator!

Dkati gets a new implement of death!!!

In my first visit to the Slave Pens of Coilfang Reserve, I found myself grouped up with two priests, a warlock, a paladin, and myself.

It actually went pretty smoothly. We wiped once on the second boss. However, we downed the first boss with no problems. And, to my pants-wetting surprise, he dropped a dagger!

More importantly, it's a SHIV! That's right -- FEAR THE GNOME! I'll shiv you! A nice red and shiny Wastewalker Shiv.

Dkati kills her Arch-Nemesis...

That's right! After only one more try (boy it's hard to find a group!) we downed that dirty dragon. Nothing exciting came from it -- other than a little killed-my-arch-nemesis-dance.

Dkati Finds a New Arch-nemesis...

After spending a little time on the Hellfire Peninsula, I decided to take my little self, along with a group of four others, into the Hellfire Citadel!

Here's a picture of me waiting outside the entrance. It took a good while to find a healer to come along, but we finally did.



We downed the first boss with impunity, and no issue at all. We attempted the second boss, only to get whomped multiple times, so we bypassed him to take down the third boss, whom was considerably easier.



Then, we returned to the second boss. Basically, it went like this: kill the guards (easy), then the dragon descends at drops off his rider. He hits a little hard, but is easy to down. However, right as he is about to die, the dragon lands and proceed to fire breath the tank (if we were lucky) to death. Combined with a 2-shot claw damage, the dragon made quick work of us all. In fact, after about eleven tries (including time to go repair!) we called off the attempt for another day.



Boy, I hate this guy. So much, in fact, that he is now my new Arch-Nemesis (cue cheesy villain music!)

Dkati Goes Through the Dark Portal...

First coming upon the dark portal, I thought, "Damn, this thing is huge!"



But, as I walked closer, I thought, "Damn! This thing is REALLY huge!"



I should have known I was in for a surprise! But, once I stepped through, I saw a battle unlike any I'd ever witnessed!



But, I was quickly distracted with how beautful the sky was. Too bad it basically ended there, because the concentration of people was so high, that the world was slowed to a crawl. (Read: LAG FEST!)

Dkati leads Hroda through Deadmines...

Hroda is a good friend. Since she is new to the lands of Azeroth, and I am a super-uber gnome, i decided to lead her through the Deadmines to thwart the evil VanCleef!

Unfortunately, she drew a bit much aggro from a patrol. This, of course, led to an untimely, but very swift death.

Due to her inconsiderate departure, I was left to stab everything to death.

As she lay there, dying, she muttered, "Pretty sparkles." I only assume she was referring to the sparkly loot from the many dead bodies that laid beside her.



Luckily, in the end, we killed VanCleef. I managed to snag a picture of that as well!

Dkati witnesses drunken debauchery...

Well, the New Year's Eve festivities were in full swing -- and the city of Stormwind was graced with many kegs of alcohol.

And, as it usually does, the alcohol lead to debauchery of the half-naked kind! I've posted a picture I snapped of the action. Of particular note are the two dancing bears.

WoooooooO! Happy New Year!