BBB will once again be on the WOW Insider show today at 2:30 CST/3:30 EST.  It should be a busy show as they talk about all the new class changes that were announced at the WWI ‘08 WoW Dev panel (see here for some overall details about the fantastic changes coming).

You can go here at the time of the show to listen to it live.  We’ll also post the link Tuesday or Wednesday when it’s available for download if you can’t make it today.

Thanks!

Cassieann

The final part of this resto druid gear series went up this morning on WoW Insider.

You can check it out here.

BBB’s latest Wow Insider article is now up here.  

It focuses on gearing up a resto druid for Karazhan.  This is part one of a two part series and was written with assistance from Bellweather (as well as research from other great resto druid blogs), so go check it out if you have a minute.

As Bear says in his post below, it was a crazy night.   We had tried to do a guild Kara run this weekend, but with Father’s Day and people being gone, it ended up getting canceled due to lack of sign-ups.  We talked about what we wanted to do and decided we should either try to PUG Kara or Mgt (we both still need it on normal and want pretty drops from there) as a goal this weekend.

So as Bear says, I logged in, saw someone advertising LFM Kara.  I started talking to the guy and he said it was a group of friends that try to do it occasionally and they were just starting to put the group together. Seemed ok, so I said Windburn and I would be happy to go.  This was at about 7:15.  We finally get the start of a decent size group and make our way to Karazhan.  A friend of the RL logs on and starts chatting in vent.  He reminds me of a former guildie who eventually left the guild (and everyone was pleased because he just was obnoxious in vent).  I’m wondering what I’ve gotten Bear and me into.  But then he announces he can’t stay, he’s just waiting for the RL to log back in (he’d had computer issues and was on the way to an internet cafe to play).  Again, what have we done?  Should we run now?  We decide to wait a bit longer, finally get a full and fairly nice mix of a group and in we go.

By the time the run actually got started it was 8:30.  Now I’ve heard the horror stories about PUGs, but because of Bear’s guildies in the past and now our current guild, I’ve um…never had to PUG anything along the way (ok, except two of the ogri’la prereqs that Bear and I pugged with a couple others).  But I’ve either got one of Bear’s 70s or his (and then our) guildies to help.  So this was a new experience for me (and after Dax’s wonderful Pugging Kara song, I was a bit fearful, not to mention the vent stuff a bit earlier).

However, overall, everyone was pretty good. Most had done it before (except the dragons) and knew pretty much what to do.  We had our wipes, but nothing too bad at all.  It was a really long marathon run and I can’t believe I stayed up til 3am on the computer (I’m way too old for that anymore).

It started out slow (Moroes refused to drop the edgewalker boots I’ve been wanting forever).  There was nothing else I could use until Curator (we got Big Bad Wolf for Opera - I only need one thing from R&J).  We down Curator and I see my tier 4 gloves sitting on him.  Yummy!  I’ve seen them drop 3 times before - twice they went to pallies and once to another rogue (who’s a good friend, but I was still jealous).  The RL asks people to roll.  I fearfully roll since whenever it’s important, I’ll roll like a 15.  But instead, I see a 95 come up.  Yes, they are mine.  Yipee!  At that point, I’m content with the run and figure I’ve gotten more than I could hope for from any Kara run (pug or not).

But we push onward.  We do Shade on the 2nd try and I see the Drape of the Dark Reavers. I’ve only seen this drop once before and it went to a rogue guildie who was the class lead and had been waiting like a year for it to drop.  This time, it’s mine with another great 90-something roll (although I don’t think anyone else actually rolled for it).  At this point, I’m ecstatic.  Now I can stop worrying about trying to gather badges to buy Dory’s Embrace someday, and it’s a massive upgrade from my Cloak of the Craft, which an old guildie had bought as a present when I hit 60 and he put the +12 agility enchant on for me and it’s been equipped ever since the moment I hit 66). I now have Tier 4 gloves (to go with the Tier 4 chestpiece I’d got from Mags with our old guild), and now the 4th best cloak in the game for rogues (according to shadowpanther).

So now, I’m thinking this is so cool.  It can’t get any better and I don’t even care (ok, hardly) that it’s like 1:30am or somewhere around there and that Alex usually gets up around 7am. 

We decide to go on to Prince and again, people are leaving, so we’re waiting for others to bring friends in or swap characters so we have a better mix.  We try Prince once and thanks to those bad infernal drops, we die when the tank ends up out of range (I was already dead at that point).  But on the second time, we do it.  I whisper Bear saying, “he’ll never drop my helm, but wouldn’t that be cool” (as I realize I’m the only rogue/pally/shaman left after our two shamans had left a few hours ago).  Grab my badges and there it is. My pretty helm!  After the RL too realizes I’m the only one says, “I’m guessing you’d like to have that” - I say my first words of the 6 hours on vent - “Yes I do” (very loudly) and after he drops it in my bags, I think I said “woot!” or maybe “yippee.” It’s a bit foggy to remember at this point.

We’re so exhausted at this point, but someone says let’s try Netherspite (we’ve given up on Nightbane after the one attempt and just not a strong enough group).  So we run off to Netherspite.  We wipe the first time due to beam issues, but the second time, we’ve got it.   More badges for all.

We’re really exhausted at this point. But someone says what about Illhoof?  We had tried earlier and weren’t quick enough on the demon chains and too many people died.  I can barely make my fingers work at this point and I swear the screen is swaying when I’m running, but we keep going.  We get to Illhoof and take him down the first time with absolutely no issues.  We grab our last badges of the evening. 

I had been closely watching my rep all night since when we started I needed about 6000 rep to hit exalted with The Violet Eye and get my massive ring upgrade.  I kept checking all night, telling Bear how much closer I was and thinking next time we do a guild run, even just the first couple bosses, I’ll hit exalted.  I check after Illhoof and I’m literally at 20,998 of 21,000 rep.  What the hell, 2 stinkin’ rep away?  I can’t take this!  I cautiously post in raid chat to ask if there’s a single mob somewhere that we skipped that we could kill without a lot of trouble so that I can ding.  I post my rep amount and there’s laughs on vent about how wrong it is to be that close.

Most of the raid leaves the group and hearths out. We look around and there’s Wind, me, and 2 others.  We’ve got 3 DPS (warrior tank/RL from the 2nd half of the evening, a warlock, me) and a shadow priest (Windburn) to heal.  We run back to the huge room that is filled with Arcane Protectors and Mana Worms right after Curator.  We find a group of 3 worms that we had bypassed and the warrior pulls them).  We easily take down the first one and I yell “yes” into vent as I ding.  We finish off the other two worms, heartily thank the other two for sticking around, and then the tank and I run out to get our rings (he had hit revered during the evening).  I grab my ring, hearth to shat and turn in my gloves and helm tokens, make a list of gems and enchants I need on the new items, and finally sign off in utter (but elated) exhaustion.

I KNOW this was not a typical PUG situation and that Bear and I lucked out and that the reality is usually closer to Dax’s song, but this time, the WoW gods were smiling down upon us and I’ll take it while saying a hearty thank you and looking at all my pretty (and powerful) new gear.

Yes, BBB now has three level 70 characters as Windburn the shadow priest dinged for the final time last night!  Yay! 

She is now wearing all of her epic pieces that have been sitting in the bank for eight or more levels, which include the complete Frozen Shadoweave set of shoulders, boots, and robe, the Belt of Blasting, and the Eternium Runed Blade.  Windburn also acquired a flying mount!

Pics of Windburn in all her new glory will be added when BBB gets home from his final day of Kaizan hell today.

Cassieann