And then there were 7...

So, i'm starting to think "once a week" is going to become my sort of posting schedule for my blog. I might post more often, but if I haven't posted once a week, I start to feel like i'm neglecting my readers, so here I am. Don't get me wrong though, it's not like i'm posting out of guilt, I actually probably will have a lot to say once I start going.


My druid hit 80 a three or four days ago. That's both good and bad as far as i'm concerned. Good because, yay I finally have an 80 that's worth tanking with (because gearing another tank class around the defense cap is painful at the least). Bad because, omfg, I have yet ANOTHER 80.. That makes 7 folks. Mage, 2 pallies, DK, hunter, warlock, and now druid. In all fairness, only a couple of them are raid-worthy, the mage and the hunter. I quit raiding on my mage back in ulduar, and my hunter has been my main raider since I picked it back up a couple months ago. I am working on gearing my druid up because I like the idea of tanking, but like I said last week, tanking on him is kind of a pain in the arse. It's getting better with the more gear I get, but seriously, pugging into random heroics and seeing "... of the Ashen Verdict" and "... the Kingslayer" just tells me right offhand that i'm going to have trouble with aggro at some points. If any of you want to keep track, I have a wow-heroes gearscore of 2050. It would be a little higher but i've been skimping on gems until I get better gear for a lot of slots. I DID, however, just last night pick up a ilvl245 crafted chestpiece. Gathering the mats for that was kind of a pain in the ass because it's a lot of heavy borean leathers, and a lot of arctic fur (which are best recieved via... more heavy borean letters). The "Knightbane Carapace". I'm still using a crappy ring, two crappy trinkets, crappy boots and a modest headpiece. The rest is at least ilvl 200 epics. I think the trinkets are going to be the hardest to upgrade because one is a low drop rate from normal-mode ToC5 man and the other is a 60 frost emblem purchase. I may have to settle with a battlemaster's trinket or something instead. Actually, Ick and Krick in heroic Pit of Saron drop a better, pve oriented version of a battlemaster's trinket that I could probably try to farm, but GOD I hate tanking that place. The ring should be a pretty easy upgrade, just 35 triumph emblems. My other ring is the relentless gladiator's ring. Lots of stam, and a good amount of hit as well... Good times. I don't normally advocate pvp gear in a pve setting, but for bear druids the rules are far more flexible in that respect. Resilience doesn't hurt us in any way, and a couple of the items actually offer hit rating, and they always have lots of stam (like my ring), and those are kind of the bread and butter of bear tanking. Expertise is also insidiously helpful, but that comes in droves on gear anyway... Hell, i'm already over the soft cap by a modest amount.

Wow, got off on quite a tangent there. Anyway, if any up-and-coming tanky bears are looking for a good list of items to gear up with, there's a great one here with a lot of pretty easily obtainable gear to get you on your way... It's what i'm using.

In non-druidic wow-related news, my hunter's ICC 25 group hit the bricks again on sunday, bringing down 7 bosses, with number 7 being the Blood Prince Council. Man, I feel like I should research that fight some more, cause I just feel so lost in there. I mean we one-shot them, and I didn't die, so I must not have been doing that badly, but holy crap it was just an ugly fight. After downing the San'layn, we went to take a turn at reviving Valithria Dreamwalker. We weren't quite successful with her, and after our one attempt we had people who had to leave (which they had informed us of ahead of time, so it's not like they bailed at the first sign of trouble.). After a pretty satisfying night of raiding, that was all the action my hunter saw aside from a few dailies to get some more money. I tend to underestimate how much money I might spend, and that's probably to my detriment... i'm pretty much always broke on my characters, but I always have enough money to repair and get my flasks and what not, so I suppose i'm not doing that badly.

Anyway... I'm considering taking my druid to another guild because my current guild, as much as I love them, has no room for tanks. I haven't decided for certain yet, but it's something shambling in the back of my head. Horde or alliance, i'm willing to switch up... we'll just have to see at this point. It depends on a LOT of factors though, before I sink real money into a faction/server change though.. I'd want to get to know the group i'd be running with and so forth... PLUS, i've never raid tanked, so they'd have to be a little patient with me while I learn the ropes, because raid tanking is different than 5-man tanking. SO.. All that having been said, if your guild might be looking for something of that nature, feel free to drop me a line on twitter or email me at Achloryn@hordereview.com. Until next week guys..