Level 75

2 more until I get the flying mount back. I did most of Dragonblight last night. The area was ok but not as cohesive as Howling Fjord in my opinion. I am looking forward to the Grizzly Hills tonight. There are a smattering of quest that I have not finished yet but with doing the instances like I am and questing; I find myself still facing level 70-71 mobs at 75. I know it is supposed to be the faster way to level but it’s kind of boring.

I soloed every group quest in Dragonblight except the bird by Ysera. Speaking of! I’ve Malygos and Ysera so far. I know Alexstraza (Spelling) is in the expansion as well. Have we heard anything from Norzdormu? Also, other than the 72 leet dragon at Netherwing, we have not heard any rumblings from Deathwing. Anyone think he will be in this expansion? I hope not but since we are seeing most of the aspects you never know.

Herk made his other 2 pieces of tank gear for 75 and got the tanking ring from Azjol’ Nerub for a grand total of 18.5k health unbuffed which is higher than I have ever been. I am still pouring over WoWwiki and Tankspot for the tanking gear upgrades. There are several warriors who are 80 on Lightninghoof and I have been checking their gear on armory. There is a chestpiece and 2 tanking rings that are good enough to tank Heroics in and I’ll be going for those. There are 3 pieces of craftable for Heroic level tanking. Boots, Helm and Shield I believe they are.

All in all, I am looking forward to tanking again and am very excited about putting the gear together to hit all the caps. I promise a post of how/where I got the gear and how gemmed it and how to reach the caps. I will be doing it this weekend since I am closing in on 80. Anyone know where the quest line to kill Varimathras starts off the top of their head? I’d like to do that this weekend. The Wrathgate line maybe?

Happy BoE Tanking items, Drak’tharon Keep and BBBs facepalm moment

So anyone who’s been reading the blog lately knows I went Prot for Wrath. Grinding, questing and instancing are super fun. The wife is happy she gets to hit on the mobs some if we are questing together too.

My gear for tanking was some nice blues and half t4 with some crafted pieces when I started Wrath. However, I usually tanked in my arena/pvp gear for Utgarde when I went from 70-71. I was really hoping for upgrades to my tanking gear from the instances. Guess what!? There isn’t much from 70-75 in the instances. Every time I search for something off of the boss loot in wowwiki, I’d be kinda bummed at how little tanking gear there was.

Then I started leveling blacksmithing. Lo and behold, all the tanking gear is there! Did I drop BS off the dwarf to do double gathering?! I did! /facepalm! It’s ok tho! The items are BoE even the blue ones! Also, the blue ones you can make are THE tanking gear. I noticed this last night when I did Draktharon Keep. They have a pair of tanking pants in there that are not anywhere near as happy as my crafted tanking pants. I think, going off memory here, that there is at least a 22 stamina difference.

Also, with the blacksmithing, I can add gem slots to my gloves and bracers when I got the BS over 400. Slapped on some +12 sta gems… WHAT?! I was not an endgame raider last xpac. I don’t have gobs of the 15 ones chilling in the bank. Anyways, Herk is up to just under 18k for HP unbuffed. Replaced my Blazefury with the new 1h Blue Crafted tanking sword. (You really will have to excuse the lack of names as I am at work and have NO access to the item names.)

Overall I am very pleased with how accessible the tanking gear is. Tanks are still in demand since every single Deathknight I know is DPS. About 2/3 of the warriors I group with are Fury. Druids are, swear to all that is, all Balance and Pallys are all Ret. I did see a holy pally the other day though!

Drak’ Tharon keep was fun! Man am I loving all the new instances. Here’s a little trick for all you pugging tanks out there. There is a caster that looks like Kel’ Thuzad that shields himself when aggroed. His name escapes me. Surprised? Well, he summons mobs and you have to kill 4 crystal handlers before his shield goes down. This is an endurance fight. The problem comes in when you notice most of the mobs summoned are not elite. Not elite gives your party the impression that they can solo like they are questing. Don’t do it!

They absolute best place to tank the adds, since they come from both sides, is in the corner to you front left when you walk into the room. Plant your party there with your healer and you stand out front. All adds have to go through you before getting to them no matter if they come from the left or the right. It seemed really simply to me the next time I saw the layout and after some “gentle” rearrangement of pissing order for the group, they went and stood where I asked. It worked like a dream! We destroyed that boss.

BBB’s facepalm moment

I am running Utgarde with the same priest for the 3rd time and he is looking for a blue dagger off the first guy. We have a shammy running with us who is healing. The priest is Shadow. Now the priest and I had a good thing going until the dagger dropped and the Shammy rolled and won it. The priest lost his mind. Screaming it wasn’t a Shammy dagger. Then he kept /w me. /w Herk That stupid shammy. He is in outland greens! I could have used that so much more. My gear is from Kara and ZA and that would have boosted me over 1200 spellpower. I hate that guy. Sidegrade for spirit Vs True Upgrade for the healer? /facepalm