Things are Shiny

I had to wait a couple of days to start Cataclysm, so this marks MY FIRST WEEK in the new expansion. Of course, I'm having an absolute blast. With this also being the end of the semester - also the end of school, period, for awhile - I can drag the fiance back into Azeroth with me. He's not quite as excited as I am, but that doesn't mean we haven't had tons of fun.

This post is broken up into sections, mostly for my own wandering train of thought.

-Mara and Sen are Coming Down the Mountain
-Aioka is Sinking into Vashj'ir
-Under Construction
-Blog Woes
-A. D. Temple's Azeroth

-Mara and Sen are Coming Down the Mountain

My fiance plays an Arcane Mage, Senach. I like to say its proof that Mages and Warlocks can get along... sometimes. Leveling as two casters might sound like a goofy, inefficient idea but we've had 80 (now 82) levels of practice.

I level almost exclusively as Demonology. So we have Flaag, my mighty felguard, to do some tanking if we run into trouble. Sen cranks out the big numbers so things die quickly. I supply the slow damage for adds or extra mobs and the healing for the tank.

Occasionally, if we come up against a "Kill X number of mobs", we'll split up and each tackle half the group separately. Usually, though, we prefer to kill things and experience the quests together.

However, that didn't stop Sen from continuing on while Mara played with some new friends:

Sooooo Cute!

What have they been feeding you?

He does tricks!

I am NOT rubbing that belly!

We did catch up shortly after that to check this place out:



-Aioka is Sinking into Vashj'ir

Meanwhile, Aioka was leveling through the aquarium underwater world of Vashj'ir. In some ways, its a complete nightmare. Full 3D environments and I don't always mix well. Occasionally, when something is attacking me from afar I just have to sit and eat the first bolts of damage just to see where they are coming from.

On the other hand, I think the storyline in Vashj'ir is better than Mount Hyjal. It has great continuity through each of the three sections of Vashj'ir, its deeply engaging, and it actually creates a world where you care about the NPCs around you.

The most common complaint about Vashj'ir that I've heard is that there are too many gathering quests. I can understand the frustration. Having Aioka out on her own means I don't have to share gathering quests with anyone else. And the only one that I found was truly terrible was Fish Lure.

My biggest complaint about Vashj'ir is that, if you're strictly following the storyline, you won't hit the Throne of Tides until the very end. It's extremely impactful that way, but a little less on exposure to the new dungeons.

My first group in the Throne of Tides was worth the wait. Our tank was level 80 and extremely squishy, but the druid healer was on the ball. Most of the time. I went in as a DPS and I am actually more scared now to try healing that I was before. I ran out of mana faster than the healer did. Very frightening. But my Hymn of Hope saw some use. I used my bubble when I thought it might be useful. And I used bandages and health potions on myself to ease the healer's mind.

Didn't stop the squishy tank from dying a lot. But between me, a hunter, and a shaman we were able to bounce aggro around enough to keep all of from eating big damage and the healer kept us alive long enough to kill things.

On trash, its kind of insignificant.

On a boss, its a trip and a half. On one boss, the tank went down at 70%. We dps bounced it around until 4%. Our totally awesome druid healer took it down the rest of the way. It was amazing. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite like it.

-Under Construction

Some of you might have noticed that this is OP's second major make-over this year. Memento's guild site is under similar construction. We've been trying to get things shaped up for the new expansion. Not that we're anywhere near raiding, yet, but I've think we've got several things to decide on and hammer out before we're ready to tackle anything.

Memento essentially floundered its way through Wrath. Never having a complete 10-man group it was difficult (at best) to accomplish things. For some reason or another, none of our recruits really hung around very long and I think this is something the guild needs to discuss. Being as small as we are, I think we can arrange an all-guild meeting to discuss where we want to go and what we want to be doing.

Additionally, with most of our members in college, it's difficult to determine a night and time where everyone is available. I'm trying to find out at the moment how many nights a week everyone is interested in raiding. It seems obvious to be that our once-a-week attempts at ICC were fairly ineffective. Now, however, several of members have graduated and have their evenings free. Hopefully, we can find more than one night that fits into everyone's schedule.

Memento's distribution of responsibilities is almost nonexistent. Our GM is mostly hands off and everything goes through the Council. As a single body, the Council is expected to accomplish or delegate anything that needs to be done. However, Council members are pretty lax in both identifying things that need to be accomplished and... accomplishing them.

I took it upon myself (maybe rightly, maybe wrongly) to make changes to the Guild Website. Frankly, I think it looked terrible and the forum system is a bit unwieldy (my fault, since I designed it the first time) and Ann and I were just generally dissatisfied with it.

As far as that goes, Ann and I weren't totally sure we'd be sticking with wowstead. If you have a suggestion for a new/different/better guild website provider I would be delighted to hear it.

-Blog Woes

Closer to home, we have the updates here. I think that my dissatisfaction with how my blog looks has a lot to do with my... not knowing what I want to do with it. OP started with a specific purpose - to talk about how I, being level capped for the first time, was handling the multi-faceted beast that is raiding. That was almost a year ago.

Now, I can talk about being level capped for the second time. I could talk about my happy-meal-sized guild and how it handles the transition from Wrath raiding to Cataclysm raiding. I can talk about having a priest as my primary raider. I can talk about Marariel and her adventures in solo'ing/duo'ing content.

I could branch out some with some projects. I could level some tanks and/or some more healers and see where that takes me. I could include some story/fanfiction elements.

My demonology guide was well received. I could scour the internet resources and put together a few more.

What would you like to see?

-A. D. Temple's Azeroth

My first project that I would like to introduce is called A. D. Temple's Azeroth. A. D. Temple is a renown historian from the story I occasionally get to work on. He travels the world investigating historical sites, writes books about the ancient gods and goddesses, and provides assistance to a particular team of cartographers, mostly just for fun.

What I'd like to do is a profile of each zone in Azeroth. I plan to talk about its history, its recent changes (omg, cataclysm), its settlements and people. I have no idea if other people will find this interesting or not. At the least it will be interesting for me and I hope to learn a lot about the world we all (virtually) live in.

At the End of an Era

If I were starting a wow account for the first time, with all the information I know now, I wonder if I would have picked the same class/race combination to start with.

This thought strikes me from time to time. On the whole, I think the answer is no. As much as I enjoy playing my warlock, it's not what I would now recommend for my younger self if I could step back in time and advise myself on what my first character should be. I would have told my younger self, "Listen. You're going to have a lot of alts. A lot, a lot of alts. And what you will learn to call altoholism, is really just another way for you to say 'sometimes I get bored'. Save yourself some grief and start with a hybrid class." Regardless of the fact that my younger self would not have understood much of that.

This is not to say that there is no value in altoholism. My discovery of hybrid classes has not made me any less likely to create new characters (of both the hybrid and the pure variety). I would like to acknowledge that my use of the word 'altoholism' - sometimes I get bored - may not be the same as another usage or even the generally accepted use of the term. Perhaps it is simply that my use of the term 'altoholism' is lacking in definition.

It would also have been nice for someone to discuss with younger-me the Tank-Healer-DPS triangle. I doubt very much that I would have found the idea of a tank very appealing. But I might have thought that picking a class that could dps and heal would be beneficial. Having the option to switch later if I didn't enjoy my current role should have been a powerful motivator in picking a class.

Why wasn't it?

As much as these thoughts occasionally plague me, I would not actually trade my warlock or my first leveling experience for anything else. If I were given the option to do it all over again (three years ago, of course) I wouldn't take it. I learned and leveled at the pace that I learned and leveled at and that's all it is.

It does, however, generate some other interesting questions.

Does caster dps feel natural to me because my first character was a caster? Or was my first character a caster because caster dps feels natural to me?

I've always favored the mage stereotype in video games. Disciples, Lords of Magic, Final Fantasy... whatever it was, if I played it I played a caster. It wasn't uncommon for me to dabble in the dark side even then. My first character that I ever played in a tabletop RPG was a "Dark Cleric". I'm not sure such a thing even existed at the time, but my DM assisted me in putting a "dark" twist on each of my spells. Grant Life became Steal Life, Cure Poison became Poison, you get the idea.

So, perhaps a warlock was not such an impetuous choice for a first character after all.

Which makes my decisions for Cataclysm that much more difficult.

I'm extremely proud of what I've accomplished with my warlock this expansion. Marariel killed the Lich King. The dungeons I wasn't able to see while leveling - namely everything but Scholomance, Hellfire Ramparts, and the Northrend Dungeons - Marariel solo'ed. It may have been out of order timewise, but after hitting 80 Marariel visisted Karazhan, the Black Temple, and Magtheridon's Lair. Marariel befriended the Netherwing dragonflight. Marariel became an Ambassador of the Alliance.

In many ways, Marariel will always be my main.

But in a week's time, it won't be Marariel powering through the levels to 85. It won't be Marariel racing through the dungeons and quests to start the next gearing race. It won't be Marariel farming loot, experience, and reputation to get ready for raiding all over again.

Marariel will be taking it slow. Exploring a shattered world takes time. The fact that Marariel leveled and learned slowly in the beginning is not something to look back on with regret, but rather a learning experience for the future. Everything I learned about warlocks in that way I learned by doing. Not by reading the forums, Elitist Jerks, or any other guide. I'm looking forward to getting that experience back.

As for rushing towards the level cap, the heroic dungeons, and the shiny new raids - there's an alt for that. Aioka will be running the race - questing as shadow and queueing as discipline - to, hopefully, be in place as a healer whenever Memento is ready to start raiding again.

I know a lot of people are switching their mains for Cataclysm. I am... reluctant to call it that. Warlockery is near and dear to my heart and being a Shadow Priest is not always comparable. However, as I evaluate my experiences I am starting to recognize that flexibility in raiding is important to me. I want that.

Cataclysm is here. Whatever it is that you want, pursue it with everything you have.

Good luck.

I'll see you on the other side.

Azeroth, Burning

The cinematic for Cataclysm is really very good. It leaves no doubt in your mind that the Earthwarder is extremely angry and that all of Azeroth will feel his wrath. It's also easy to tell that he's probably insane. He not only allows, but requires that goblins force huge plates of Adamantite deep into his skin - they are practically molten when the anchoring spikes are driven in.

Deathwing screams his agony and all of the earth screams with him.

It shudders and quakes - sinking here and rising there - throwing waves as high as mountains about like toys. The great constructs of the mortal races - dams, docks, statues, cities are casually tossed aside.

It made for another day when I wasn't quite sure I wanted to log in. The story, of course, is as deep and intriguing as ever. And of course I want to be a part of it. But I wasn't quite done with the last part of it. I didn't get a chance to finish the quests in the elemental invasion. Frankly, I don't have time to play wow at the moment (expect sporadic updates between here and the new year). So, of course, it is this moment that carries all the change and transition, fascination and wonder, of the new world.

I hate feeling like I am missing something.

I am probably more connected to Azeroth than my characters are.

Azeroth has been my home for several years now. And while I would have cringed at the thought of questing through Darkshore for a third time, I'm not sure I wanted it to change. Azeroth is my escape. If reading is your escape, I would liken it to arriving home one evening to find a new book of your favourite series sitting next to your armchair, but the one you were currently in the middle of is nowhere to be found. You're quite sure that the new will be just as good as - if not better - than the last, but it doesn't change the fact that you weren't done with the last one.

Of course, if I apply that analogy to Icecrown Citadel then I cheerfully skipped ahead and read chapter 12 - the last chapter - while neglecting chapters 9, 10, and 11 simply because I didn't have time.

The epilogue was worth it.

The cinematic that plays after you defeat Arthas is everything I dreamed it could be and more. You see, I had never watched it before. I didn't seek it out online and I avoided that fountain in the center of Dalaran like the plague. It was the center of all evil and my life would surely be shattered if I accidentally clicked on it.

But I wanted to see it.

So, two weeks ago there were a whopping four raiders online for our regularly slotted raid night. Raider attendance has been slipping for awhile now. With the imminent approach of Deathwing (now arrived) people are... less interested in ICC than ever.

When Mord pointed out that there was group in Dalaran pugging for LK only raid, I told him hop on that. Of the four of us: Takk, Mord, Ann, and myself none of us were Kingslayers. Only one of us had experienced the fight before. My sum experience with the Lich King fight was Kae's Strategy comic: here.

The organizing guild, Crucible, had no problems with that. They have three dedicated raiders in their guild and they'd been pugging the LK fight for weeks. I am in awe of their tenacity. Pugging is frequently an agonizing, soul-sucking adventure. I can't imagine doing it against the LK with any group other than the one we put together.

I don't know how they did it, but Crucible found other dedicated non-kingslayers who were patient enough to wipe to the Lich King for hours and intelligent enough to regroup and improve over almost every attempt.

I was explicit in telling the Raid Leader that I had never experienced this fight before and he didn't care. I tell you, my awe knows no bounds. He explained it patiently before we got started. I took notes, dammit. (I might even still have them, though they pretty much amount to: 'Stack for Val'kyrs, spread for defiles' and 'Val'kyrs > Raging Spirits > Vile Spirits > LK'.)

I started this adventure in my destruction spec and kept it the entire time. I picked up Aftermath, Glyph of Demonic Circle, and three stacks of Frostweave Nets for the Val'kyrs. I was going to do the best damn job my little warlock could do.

On many of the attempts I was top damage. *squee*

It's no secret that raid awareness is key for this fight. Awareness and a healthy dollop of luck. We picked up phase one fairly easily. The tanks didn't seem to have any trouble and we moved Necrotic Plague like pros. The raid leader was a priest who also took over plague duty and called out names every time someone needed to move to the adds. It was... new, different, and singularly awesome. I'm accustomed, as I think most are now, to the raid leader also being the tank. I think it's a good thing when that doesn't always have to be the case.

It's not the phases that are the interesting parts of this fight, in my opinion. It's the transitions. I learned so much about my class and my spec during the transitions that I don't think I can even put into words. Certainly, you can go and read about warlock abilities, tricks, and tips. That doesn't - can't - give you the intuition for: Well, we're running into the center now and there is one Raging Spirit still alive. I got all the orbs down, so we're clear on that front. I should Shadowflame this Raging Spirit while we're moving. Definitely some Soulburn+Soulfire if it's still alive. If we're still moving, I can Death Coil, refresh DoTs(Corruption first, then Bane of Doom), or Life Tap. Cool, it's dead, lets play with the Lich King now. Alright stay together for the Val'kyr. Defile is coming; spread, spread, spread! Silly paladin, stop running the same direction as me! We're supposed to be spreading!

And this is intuition that I was certainly not in possession of the first few hours of wiping to the Lich King. It was painstakingly developed over a sum of ten hours of straight wiping to the Lich King. According to Ann's Fish Feast supply, we made a total of 40 attempts.

I'm a little flummoxed here. Having lived through it, I can tell you that 40 attempts in ten hours is a long, miserable adventure and its easy to get discouraged. On the other hand, Crucible had been trying for weeks with upwards of 200 attempts for this seemingly impossible kill. Guilds who downed the Lich King while the content was fresh made more attempts than we did as well.

We did it over three nights in one week. Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday. We changed out some tanks and dps along the way. Militia joined us. Mord skipped a night. Takk tanked the Lick King. I tanked the Lick King - accidentally. Crucible was simply awesome and I think those of us at Memento are practically salivating at the chance to build a cooperative raid team out of our two guilds.

I would like to say that I remember each attempt with perfect clarity, but it would be a lie. I remember that in the first few attempts I was petrified of being the One Who Screwed Up and wiped the attempt for everyone else. I eventually took over Orbs duty during transitions 1.5 and 2.5. In the midst of all the chaos and adds and nonsense I found it... soothing.

Of course, the attempts in which Orbs blew half the raid off the side of the platform it really was my fault and I was the One Who Screwed Up and wiped the attempt for everyone else. But no one seemed to mind too much. I made my (very embarrassed) apologies and we went on with the next attempt.

I do remember the last attempt with perfect clarity. Or rather, as much clarity as a confusing mess of not being able to tell who is still alive and how much health does the LK have left and OMG SOOOOOOO CLOSE affords. I remember everything seemed to flow perfectly. DPS was blistering high. We didn't carry any Raging Spirits through the transitions. Cooldowns were blown at appropriate times. Val'kyrs went down like nobody's business. Defiles were well placed. Vile Spirits - the hardest part of the fight for us to learn, as we spent the least amount of time with them - were not permitted to explode on anyone. And no healers were summoned into Frostmourne.

HOWEVER, a tank bit the dust at about 13%. I know that Ann and I had the same reaction: SPAM EVERYTHING. It doesn't matter what spell it is as long as it does damage and lots of it. As if we could single-handedly push the Lich King through his last 3%.

And I remember thinking, when I finally died, 'Damn that was a close attempt! We were ALMOST there.' And then the cheers started up on vent. We weren't almost there, we were there.

Terenas Menethil would like to Resurrect you.

Hell yeah, Terenas can resurrect me.

The last fight with the Lich King was leisurely after that. I took my time casting my spells. I think I might have been in shock. And I waited for the King to fall.

As I said, the final cinematic is beautiful... I knew who the Burning Man was. That much had been leaked to me, despite my desire to not know. I knew of the Immolated Champion. I knew his sacrifices.

I didn't know his sacrifices weren't quite over.

And so, it seems, all new eras are begun in fire and flame.

Commentary

I'm sure these posts are a dime a dozen; but, of course, I can't resist. Blizzard's Cataclysm Class Previews went live a week ago. I confess, I've only read a couple of them so far.

These are my comments and initial reactions to the Warlock Preview. I've had a few days to try and process these out and determine how I really feel about them. I'll post my initial reactions, no matter how silly, along with the better thought out responses now that the information has had time to stew.

There's a lot of information in the Class Previews, which makes this post a bit ridiculously long. If you're only interested in certain sections, here are your wall breakers:

1. New Spells
2. Soul Shard Overhaul
3. Mechanics
4. Talents
5. Really Lame Mastery Bonuses

1. New Spells

Fel Flame (level 81): Quick-hitting spell dealing Shadowfire damage. This is similar to the mage ability Frostfire Bolt, in that the lower of the two resistances (in this case shadow and fire) on your target will be used for calculating its damage. Additionally, Fel Flame refreshes the duration of Immolate and Unstable Affliction. Our goal for Fel Flame is to provide a spell that's good for mobility and for use by Destruction and Demonology specs. Also, did we mention it uses green fire? Yep. Instant cast.

First reaction: If its similar to anything a mage has, then I don't want it!

Response: Completely contradictory to my first reaction, I'm pretty excited about this. Anything that lets me avoid recasting Imm or UA has to be a good plan. That's a full 1.5 seconds I can spend casting a nuke without losing any benefits of the dots. I can see it's fully useful for both Affliction and Demonology, which makes me happy. It seems as though it would fit quite easily into the Demo's execution phase, but considerably less seamlessly into Affl. Although, that assumes the execution phases don't change too much between now and Cataclysm.

Dark Intent (level 83): Increases the target's chance for a critical effect with periodic damage or healing spells by 3%. When the target lands a crit, you get a buff to your damage for 10 seconds. This effect stacks up to three times.

First Reaction: More freaking mage nonsense. See Focus Magic.

Response: I'm still pretty unsure about this one. It's not at all interesting to me. I'm sure it will be quite excellent in practice. And I am happy that its better (in a biased, subjective sort of way) than the mage one. And it doesn't say (yet) that I can't cast it on myself. But I just can't get excited about it.

Demon Soul (level 85): Fuses the warlock's soul with his or her demon. This provides warlocks with a self-burst cooldown to use. The specific effects granted by Demon Soul depend on the demon chosen. Demon Soul lasts for a certain number of charges or until it expires (around 20 seconds), depending on the demon used. 2-minute cooldown.

First Reaction: Om nom demons? o.O

Response: I don't I have enough information about this to really get excited. The cooldowns that become available will really make or break this spell. It has high potential and I'm looking forward to seeing what Blizzard is going to do with it.

2. Soul Shard Overhaul

Soul Shards will no longer be inventory items, but instead a new UI resource mechanic. Warlocks will have 3 Soul Shards that can be used during a fight and will not be able to gain additional shards during combat. Soul Burn will consume a Soul Shard resource, thereby allowing you to use the secondary effects of some spells.

This will complicate my life for awhile while I get used to a new system. And I think Soul Burn is likely to seriously overcomplicate my already messy action bars. I keep a lot of things handy for situational purposes, like Death Coil, Drain Life, and Health Funnel. Now I'll need to create more buttons for situational uses of Soul Burn + Some other spell.

I'm concerned, as are a lot of other warlocks, I think, about the inability to regenerate Soul Shards in Combat. I understand the concept "using a Soul Shard should be a big deal", but I think there's going be a lengthy period of time where people try to figure out when to use them without gimping their dps. In a big fight, too many things can go wrong. I'm not saying what they have here is a bad idea. I'm just concerned about how it's really going to pan out in game.

And, honestly, where did I get these Soul Shards in the first place if not in combat? I had to Drain the Soul of someone/something while also actively managing to kill them. If I managed to do this outside of combat, then my stealth abilities put rogues to shame. I had no idea Blizzard was planning on adding a warlock stealth. Cataclysm really is making dreams come true.

3. Mechanics

When reapplying a DoT, you can no longer "clip" the final tick. Instead, this will just add duration to the spell.

Heck freaking yes. Clipping my DoTs is something I still manage to do way more often than I should. What is this likely to do to a spell like Curse of Agony? Does the damage just keep increasing? Because that could make my life a whole lot better.

Curse of Agony and Curse of Doom will be converted into Bane of Agony and Bane of Doom. Bane spells are considered magic instead of curses. This means you will be able to cast one Bane (e.g. Bane of Agony) and one Curse (e.g. Curse of Elements) on a single target.

More Dots, More Dots!

This will complicate things a bit, in that there will be more stuff to monitor. But with other spells automatically refreshing the duration on Imm and UA, then things should even out in the end.

It will certainly make things interesting for our particular Raid Setup. With an unholy DK to apply Ebon Plague (assuming they don't change this) we don't need Curse of the Elements. Which means I can play with things like Curse of Weakness, Curse of Exhaustion, and Curse of Tongues. Fun times.

Hellfire will no longer deal damage to the warlock.

Imps will lose Fire Shield, but will gain a new ability, Burning Ember, which is a stacking DoT.

The succubus melee range will be increased. The succubus will no longer have Soothing Kiss, but will instead have Whiplash, which knocks back all enemies within 8 yards.

Voidwalker Torment will do increased damage and generate a lot of area-of-effect (AoE) threat. Suffering will become a single-target taunt.

Some other stuff that I find less interesting. I used Hellfire to kill myself once. So, while it was useful in that one instance I don't think I'll miss that mechanic much.

Succubus becomes a PVP contender with the Felhunter. Voidwalker attempts to become a real tank. There are no new demons being introduced at this time. This makes a lot of warlocks really sad. Personally, I don't care too much. It would be interesting to have a new demon, sure, but what role would they play?

4. Talents

Demonology will gain a new direct-damage spell, Demon Bolt. Demon Bolt will add a debuff that improves the damage done by the demon to the target.

Metamorphosis will no longer be subject to demonic crowd control. Furthermore, abilities available only while under the effects of Metamorphosis will be altered to put more emphasis on the warlock's own spells.

A largely uninteresting section in which Chaos Bolt makes a trip into the demonic realm and Metamorphosis attempts to provide unique demon spells that don't suck.

Although, I will be disappointed if they change Demonic Charge and Immolation Aura. Because that combination is very entertaining.

5. Really Lame Mastery Bonuses

Affliction
Spell Damage
Spell Crit
Shadow DoTs

Demonology
Spell Damage
Spell Haste
Demon Damage

Destruction
Spell Damage
Spell Critical Damage
Fire Direct Damage

There's not too much to say about these. Except: Why are none of these about Shadow Damage? Ok, shadow damage over time made the list. But direct fire damage managed to beat out direct shadow damage. Demonic Damage - damage that doesn't even come from the player - beat out direct shadow damage. I am confused by this.

Read the Official Preview here.

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Patch Comments

Warlocks
Immolate: The damage-over-time component of this spell can now produce critical strikes.

Life Tap: This spell no longer scales with spirit, and instead scales with spell power.

Talents - Affliction
Dark Pact: This ability no longer requires line-of-sight with the summoned demon, and the range has been increased from 30 yards to 100 yards.

Talents - Demonology
Demonic Pact: This effect now has a 45-second duration, up from 12 seconds, and a 20-second internal cooldown.

There's some interesting stuff happening in the most recent patch. The important thing for warlocks (and perhaps casters in general) to note is that Life Tap no longer scales with spirit.

This is good news in that the warlock T10 set is completely devoid of spirit. This is ... iffy news in that all the spirit on my gear now solely exists for Fel Armor and Glyph of Life Tap.

It's implications reach farther than that, however. It seems to me that this is a significant step towards "no more spirit for non-healers". I'm starting get very excited about the ways in which Cataclysm will affect game play. Not needing spirit will probably only be a drop in the bucket.

Although I find it interesting, I'm also a bit annoyed. Sure, it may not have changed yet. But what will be our new go-to gem for filling those obnoxious blue sockets? If not Purified Dreadstones, then what? I think the Glowing Dreadstone may be a good bet (for warlocks, at least). But the Timeless Eye of Zul, Forceful Eye of Zul, and Vivid Eye of Zul provide some food for thought. I know. Its a topsy-turvy world when green gems start to look interesting.

Over at Memento, our recruitment posts won us another member. Dumm brings us a warrior tank. With Batra on hiatus, it's definitely nice to know that our tank slots won't suffer. We're tackling Ulduar again tomorrow night. With Dumm in our ranks we will either pug a dps or 9-man it.

Also, a priest has shown some interest in our small guild. We may be able to call our 10-man roster complete soon. Excited? You bet I am. However, I'm starting to think I use that word too often. I am... eager? That could work.

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