I ain’t normally in the habit of posting “Yay my loot dropped!” notices, but when I was thinking about it this morning, I realized I’m not entirely sure why.
On the one hand, it feels like I’d be saying “Neener, neener, neener, look at the neat stuff I got for my birthday, nyah nyah.”
On the other hand, I really enjoy reading posts other people make about what eagerly anticipated or hard earned loot THEY got. When BRK finally got his Legacy, I didn’t think “Well fine for you, you bastard, but what about ME?” Instead, I was genuinely glad to hear that something that clearly had come to mean so much to him, finally made it’s appearance, and brought him joy. At least until his next gear obsession :).
The other thing that I enjoy when I read about people getting loot, is seeing what it was that they were SOOOO looking forward to, and why, because sometimes I get pointers on something I should be looking for but hadn’t heard of yet. So, what the heck. Plus, I have tons of work on Professions posts I am trying to avoid doing.
As long time readers might remember, I have had a constant obsession over getting the Iron Band of the Unbreakable, a mighty tasty ring with armor and stats that drops from Lieutenant Drake during the Durnholdt/Old Hillsbrad run in the Caverns of Time. The Iron Band of the Unbreakable is a DAMN GOOD feral bear tank ring. The armor and stats, while beneficial to a warrior, are wonderful for a bear thanks to our armor multiplier in Dire Bear form.
For months now, I have dipped in to the Caverns of Time in the occasional PUG, all in the hopes that the ring will drop. I don’t even really need it anymore, since I have the Violet Signet from Karazhan reputation and the Delicate Eternium Ring, which is very nice for it’s Agility and +Dodge. The Delicate Eternium Ring is NOT as good as the Iron Band, but it is still very nice. I have certainly had no complaints about my survivability so far.
But the ludicrous way the Iron Band has had of eluding me has become the stuff of farce and laughter amongst my friends, spurring long rambling conspiracy theories over Teamspeak. Just two days ago, the theory was advanced {EDIT: by Clana, the Shadow Priest I have mentioned before from my guild… satisfied now you glory hound?} that Blizzard monitored all text chat channels to see who advertises that there is gear they dearly want, and that some devious little bugger in blizz command central then modifies the boss loot lists on the fly to recognize when that player is in an instance, just to make sure he doesn’t get it, to keep him playing that much longer.
And after my recent experiences with the Khorium Scope recipe, I could tend to believe it…. if I were the sort to wear aluminum foil on my head, anyway. Fortunately, my skull is too thick for the particular wavelength the evil aiens use to get through.
No, I don’t particularly NEED the Iron Band of the Unbreakable. But by Elune, I WANT it! I want it, and the vindication of the time I have spent in that instance trying to get it that possession would represent. It has become one of those items that signifies more than just ‘loot’, but instead has become a talisman, a holy relic eagerly sought after and quested for, and once possessed, would never be sold to a vendor, but instead would be kept safely in the bank, a legacy to show to future generations of bears.
“That’s right, cub, that there is the Iron band of the Unbreakable, the ring your great-grandpappy pulled off of the cold, dead fingers of Lieutenant Drake himself. You know, he had to go back into the past and kill that damn human hundreds of times before he finally thought to look for the ring on his finger. Just hold the Ring in your paw, cub, and remember the last understandable words your great-grandpaw spoke, just before he finally snapped. “What, Uther’s Ceremonial Warboots AGAIN???”
Of course, the Iron Band of the Unbreakable still hasn’t dropped for me. I’ve been using that as an example of loot that you can get hung up on acquiring. This post is really about that OTHER highly desired drop from a Caverns of Time instance, the Hourglass of the Unraveller. Psych!
And here you were all set to congratulate me. Hah! What part of “That damn ring won’t drop if I’m in the group!” didn’t you understand?
Actually, honesty does compel me to admit that the Iron Band did drop once for a group I was in. Unfortunately, it was a pug, and for once I had not mentioned, repeatedly, how dearly I wanted the ring. After all, I was the tank, and the warrior in the group was Fury specced. Can you guess what happened? He insisted on rolling for it because, and I quote, “I might want to tank some day”. And of course he won the roll, looted it, and said not a peep. Such is life. Not that I’m bitter at a fury specced warrior rolling on loot ideal for feral bear tanks. Nope. Not me. Not a bit. That prick.
Anyway. Where the heck was I? Ring, ring, obsessions, prick looted it, chainsaws artillary and hand grenades, holy hand grenade of antioch, holy quests for relics, quest for the grail, Monty Python’s Holy Grail, turning back the clock to ancient times and getting medieval on his ass, turn over time, Oh yeah! The Hourglass! Right!
Sorry, I wander a bit off the tracks at times. My thoughts are, appropriately enough, just like baggage… and sometimes my train of thought drops them off at the wrong station.
Okay, the Hourglass of the Unraveller. Much like the Iron Band of the Unbreakable, this wonderful little trinket drops from a boss in a Caverns of Time instance. In this case, however, it’s not Durnholdt/Old Hillsbrad that it drops in, but Black Morass. And I haven’t been nearly as obsessed over it, because it is aimed at feral cat DPS rather than bear tanking. I don’t raid as a cat, I raid as a bear. If I mess up as a cat, I have only hurt myself. If I mess up as a bear, I’ve let everybody in the raid down. So I tend to obsess over gear that would help me improve my raiding, and lust a lot less selfishly over the cat gear just for fun, even though I solo a heck of a lot more than I raid.
I’ve seen the Hourglass of the Unraveller drop many times, it drops from the second boss of the Black Morass run, Temporus, what is commonly thought of as the ‘difficult’ boss, but as the trinket is so wonderfully useful to all melee and physical ranged DPS, I have never rolled for it before. If I raided in cat form it would be different, but I try and pass up any gear that drops that would benefit a player in an actual raid. So if a hunter or rogue or fury warrior is in the run, and the Hourglass drops, I pass in their favor. After all, I reason, time is on my side… and sooner or later, everyone else will have the bloody thing, and it’ll drop just for me. 
The time was last night. The place was Black Morass, to get the Holy Paladin attuned for Karazhan. Yes, that same Holy Paladin from the Black Morass run the night before. Apparently, he was so mortified at his ‘Ooops’ moment that he went and blasted through the other instances he needed to make up for it, and a scant 15 hours later we were back in Black Morass, with me tanking it again. And this time, 100% guildies.
We had two Hunters with cat pets, the awesome Shadow Priest powerhouse from the night before, the Holy Paladin, and myself.
As happens on every other Black Morass run, I ask if either of the two hunters have the Hourglass yet. One hunter says he does have it, but the other one needs it. I say, “Oh okay, no problem” and the other hunter chuckles and says he’s just joking, both of them have it, if it drops it’s all mine.
Well, you know loot law. If you have every class but a shaman, then the only gear that drops is shammy loot :). If you are the only one that can use a thing, then it will not drop. So no worries.
Well, the run went as smooth as before, we steamrolled them down into nothing, and on the second boss fight the other players were actually cheering me on with whispers of “Here we go, good luck on the drop” and such warming thoughts. And I’ll be damned if that sucker didn’t finally come on out and say ‘hi’! The glorious Hourglass of the Unraveller, making it’s home in my saddlebags. Really? No kidding? Wow!
We finished the run with zero problems. We could have finished it with 100% shield intact, but on the third boss we decided to let him whack away at it unopposed while everyone mana’d up and got rested and rebuffed, cause why the heck not?
So after the run, I switched to cat gear, and looked at my existing Trinkets. For a while now I’ve been running with Skyguard Silver Cross and Bladefist’s Breath. I think that every Rogue and feral Druid in the game runs with Bladefist’s Breath for ages, because it’s a quest reward that comes early, yet it’s so good that it’s pretty hard to find something better until well into progression. So it was with a sense of nostalgia and a fond farewell that I said ‘Sayonara, sucka’ to Bladefist and tenderly placed that Hourglass of the Unraveller in the slot. Now in Kitty form I no longer have any ‘on use’ Trinkets, so I can’t wait to see what the proc rate for the two effects combined might be. From what I’ve seen on others’ use, however, the Hourglass procs quite often… and that excites me quite a bit. A small drop in total Attack Power, but an increase in critical strike rating, and a hands free proc based effect that doesn’t have as long of a cooldown as Bladefist. (As a note, although the item doesn’t say it in the info box, there is a cooldown of 45 seconds before it can proc off a crit again. Coupling this with the ‘can proc every 10 seconds, lasts 30 seconds’ buff of the Skyguard Silver Cross, this should be lots of active buffage. Yay!)((Double secondary note, the Hourglass is great for raiding kitties, but the Skyguard Silver Cross only procs from a Killing Blow. You rarely get Killing Blows as a DPS cat on a raid, so IF, somehow, you still have your Bladefist’s Breath and are raiding, you might want to keep it over Skyguard Silver Cross until you see better.)) The Hourglass procs off crits, well, let’s be serious, kitties crit a LOT, so this should be tons o’ fun.
And now, I say to you all, so long for now, and have a good day, as I go back to work. And when I can find time, I’ll continue working on the Profession lists. I can’t wait for that project to be over!
Take care everyone!
EDIT: I was asked in the comments why I don’t simply ignore the Iron Band of the Unbreakable, and move on to the Ring of Unyielding Force, a godlike bear tanking ring purchasable from the Shattrath vendor for a measly 25 Badges of Justice.
That is an EXCELLENT question!
The answer is in two parts.
The first part, is that while I ABSOLUTELY have my sights set on getting the Ring of Unyielding Force, and I am in fact running Heroics and saving my Badges of Justice expressly to purchase that Ring, realistically I know as a casual gamer that it will take me several weeks to get in enough Heroics to do it, what with the draw on my gaming time Karazhan also represents.
The second part of the answer is, I have damn well spent enough time trying to get that Iron Band, that any attempt on my part to shrug, say “Oh well”, and move on would be a sign of surrender. Of giving up. Of giving in and letting Blizz win.
Screw that!
I don’t care if the next expansion comes first, I’m going to run Durnholdt until I get that ring.
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